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EVERYONE LOVES TRAINS,

I liked the trains in Adelaide when I was young. They were all diesel and they were a bit of an experience. They were noisy clattering things and they had their own peculiar smell, a mix of diesel exhaust, cold steel, leather and grease. They often had a baggage carriage too with the big sliding doors on the sides that were always left open, you could sit on the rough wooden floor with the breeze in your face and watch the world slide by.

In the late 80s they switched to diesel electric trains. Quiet, airconditioned, plastic. These days they're installing ugly overhead cables everywhere and going full electric, more ecofriendly and very efficient.

There's no longer anything exciting about them, they're just pieces of plastic furniture. Handy if you live near a station, very cheap and practical, but other than that I just don't even notice them any more.
 
I have taken the Canadian Pacific from Toronto to Vancouver, stopping along the way, and the Canadian National from Windsor to Toronto (starting at the age of 10). Then, for a while I worked from an Engineering office on the 43rd floor above Chicago's Union Station. The train station in Libertyville was only a mile from my house and once I got on the train I didn't even need to go outdoors to get to the office. Last November, traveling in Japan I used the Shinkansen as well as local trains.

But, I enjoy the steam engines and have taken rides on the Cumbres and Toltec and the Durango -Silverton.

America's rail is OK for the 1870s, but in today's world it is a joke.
 
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Outdated said:
I liked the trains in Adelaide when I was young. They were all diesel and they were a bit of an experience. They were noisy clattering things and they had their own peculiar smell, a mix of diesel exhaust, cold steel, leather and grease. They often had a baggage carriage too with the big sliding doors on the sides that were always left open, you could sit on the rough wooden floor with the breeze in your face and watch the world slide by.

In the late 80s they switched to diesel electric trains. Quiet, airconditioned, plastic. These days they're installing ugly overhead cables everywhere and going full electric, more ecofriendly and very efficient.

There's no longer anything exciting about them, they're just pieces of plastic furniture. Handy if you live near a station, very cheap and practical, but other than that I just don't even notice them any more.
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When you mention them being all diesel. There are three types of gearboxes used. Hydraulic, electric and mechanical.
Mechanical gearboxes can only be used on either lightweight railcars or on very slow speed lightweight shunters which didn't go much past around 20mph (Though railcars could hit high speeds as they did not take much weight), as if one tried using a mechanical gearbox to start a heavy train with gearing designed to run at higher speeds one would end up smashing the gearbox cogs. They tried various experiments such as the "Fell" locomotive in the UK which had two engines each with its own gearbox so one engine would be turned off while the other started at a higher speed, but none of the mechanical gearboxed diesel locos worked for long without issues unless they were slow speed shunters or lightweight railbus type affairs,mand this is due to them needing to have a bit of "Give" between the high torque diesel engine and the weight of the train it needed to shift when the train would be "Cogging" when run at speed.
In other words, take a heavy train of wagons or carriages at speed pushing on the gears in the gearbox when the loco driver let's off the acceleration and all the force of the load behind is on the teeth in the gearbox with catastrophic results (Or if lucky, premature gearbox tooth wear).
For a number of years after diesel engines showed promise (Along with earlier experimental petrol engined shunters and railcars were also used though the diesel engine torque was seen to be more promissing), they had been experimenting to find successful ways to use large high torque diesel engines with heavy express trains, and it was the Germans who built one of the first successful gearbox designs with their DB V200 locomotives that solved the issue using a hydraulic gearbox, which the British then used in their Warship class locomotives. These became known as "Diesel hydraulic" locomotives.
Around the same time, others in Britain (And no doubt elsewhere) were experimenting with using their diesel engines to power generators which in turn powered electric motors to drive the wheels, which became known as "Diesel electric" locomotives.
Realizing that both these two different gearbox designs were both a success, a manufacturer in the UK built two identical experimental shunting locomotives to test which gearbox type was the best to use, and the only main difference between these two shunting locomotives was the gearbox itself. Everything else was built as identical as possible for the experimental tests.
Both these locomotives were then set out for use on the British Railways network to see which design of gearbox was preferred.
At the same time, high speed mainline locomotives were compared over the years though they were not so identical in design, but both were made in numerous volumes, and though all early designs had the odd teething issue, where some designs were let down for totally unrelated reasons such as the Warships wheel bearings which was re-designed to make a successful locomotive at great developmental cost right before British Railways decided on a diesel electric policy and scrapped all the diesel hydraulics, some successful classes being less than 10 years old! British Railways was very well known for making stupid decisions which wasted a lot of taxpayers money usually because of the railway unions which caused unofficial policies of some departments not properly communicating with others, leading to one department ordering masses of locomotives, another department responsible for saving money so cut many un-neccessary lines in which the new locomotives were designed to work on (To replace the steam locos which had worked the lines), and other departments making decisions to promote the long term efficiency of which designs they would use in future years so many rather successful locomotives were scrapped having hardly been used, with a few never had been put into use after being built!

But going back to which gearbox design was better, they found that while diesel hydraulic locomotives way out performed diesel electric locomotives, the diesel electric locomotives could be left out longer between servicing as their engines were lower revving which were more suitable for electric applications so for years British Rail had a diesel electric policy and diesel hydraulic locomotives were scrapped.
Yet in the words of a driver who drove both, a little diesel hydraulic locomotive could not only out-pull a much larger diesel electric locomotive, but it could do it keeping to time, while a diesel electric would struggle to keep to time when pulling a heavy train. (He was comparing a smaller class 35 "Hymek" diesel hydraulic which he took a 16 coach express out if London Paddington with a noticably larger diesel electric class 47 locomotive which could only manage 12 coaches and not be able to run to time on the same journey back into South Wales. One could tell how much the drivers missed the hydraulic gearboxed locomotives, and the Hymeks were not the largest hydraulic locomotives as one had the twin engined Western class of diesel hydraulic locomotives which were much more powerful again! (Though one has to say that there is little point in making locomotives more powerful than the needs of what they are needing to pull, as one will just waste fuel. The UK did experiment with making 4000HP diesel electric locomotives but found the need for such a powerful locomotive in the UK was not there at the time. The experimental locomotive was sold to Russia where it was put to good use on their heavy trains over many years.
 
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Can't hear them changing gear as all views were from level crossings where they pass at idling speeds.
One of the many types of diesel mechanical railcars in use in the UK in the past.

 
Captain Caveman said:
Can't hear them changing gear as all views were from level crossings where they pass at idling speeds.
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I know next to nothing about them but maybe this short video will give you a better idea. Every now and then you still see one of these old girls on the tracks, I think they use them to teach younger drivers a bit more about how things really work instead of just trusting automated systems.

 
Tired said:
No thanks, I am so much more into the world of plants and animals :)
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The engineer in my brain loves all manner mechanical things... but there is this related part of my brain that has this insatiable need to understand "how things work". With that, I am fascinated with plants and animals... like you. I've always had a deep connection with all manner of creatures... often more than other humans. I am attracted to them, and they to me... always with this apparent "shared consciousness" of love, unity, and understanding.

My grandfather was a generational Finnish farmer who had a deep understanding of nature, plants, and sustainable, natural agricultural practices, in general... great with his collection of desert and tropical plants, as well. I loved spending time with him... great memories out in his large garden and greenhouse as a child.

Today, I have a collection of plants...rare orchids, tropicals, and rare desert plants from special order, online nurseries around the world. I have taken that deep dive into plant communication, as well. They do make sounds... albeit outside of human hearing abilities. They do communicate with each other via the mycelial network... which, if kept in containers, robs them of that ability. I treat plants as individuals who are "aware" of themselves, their environment, and living creatures around them. Their consciousness might not be the same as mine... but I've accepted they do have a consciousness of their own. I am responsible and accountable for their well-being... and do feel terrible when I fail to meet their needs.

...but I still like trains, especially the steam engines. ;)
 
I like historic trains, but I detest their ongoing influence on design. Passenger trains don't even get to 10% payload. They made sense when the only engines available were steam, and one big one was the economical choice. This,, combined with primitive signalling, ensured that service would be infrequent, and the road usually empty. A modern train would take over driving anything in the express lane of a highway, letting individual trucks, cars, and just motorized freight pallets merge and leave at the interchanges, while going fast with only nominal clearance between units. They could even pick up a charge by using a trolley shoe on the guard rail.
 
I always feel like an outlier when it comes to trains.

Like, everyone everywhere seems to like them. But for me, the darned things make me want to stab something.

We have a lot of train tracks in the region. The house I lived in before this one was in a much more crowded area (aka, lots of idiots on the road, all the roads) and there was a track I had to cross every day that was about a mile from the house. If I went the other way, towards other stuff, aha, that doesnt avoid the tracks, there's just another one over there.

For reasons I still dont understand, a frequent thing that'd happen is to be on the road, the stupid flashy thing starts up, everyone stops to wait for the train, the train comes by... rolling... rolling... rolling... slower... slower... stops. Train now completely stopped and blocking a road that is already troublesome.

I ended up learning alternate routes to go ENTIRELY AROUND stopped trains, which considering how long the trains tended to be would add a good bit of time (and like 5 more stoplights) to the route. And also learning to get the car turned around from that dead stop to get out of the waiting queue and escape so I could go do the around-the-train route.

There was another spot where, like 80% of the time, this train engine was just... there. Just sat there off to the side, would pass it by all the time. Not sure what it was doing there. But at least that one wasnt blocking the road.

Could have been worse though. I know of one house in the area where a track goes literally through what should be their back yard. I cant imagine having that happen that close while trying to sleep or something. Or with dogs in the house. Mine would just lose their freaking minds at that.


These days it's like... yep, glad I dont have to deal with any of those tracks any more.... as often. There are none near this house at least.
 
My dearest cousin marrying an Amtrak engineer certainly gave me a different perspective beyond simply enjoying most any train ride anywhere.

That the most difficult part of the job apart from being immersed in contentious labor negotiations was the ever-present exposure of persons electing to commit suicide on the train tracks. Creating psychological collateral damage for most anyone with forward and backwards views of the tracks.

When knowing of the physics of a moving train leaves an engineer powerless to do anything other than to slow down. A difficult thing to live with and yet love the job. To accept at least as an employee just how dangerous being in close proximity to those rails can actually be on a daily basis.
 
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