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TRAINS, watching, recording and discussing.


Dave A

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My son loved trains, he has a great collection. We live about 120 yrds from the Arcola trail high bridge its worth looking up. the worst was Dad i hear the train at 5am hop in the car, and go see the engines....... Its so unassuming on my little dirt road but when you see the expanse that crosses the St. Croix river its special

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Since there is interest in trains and train lore, I thought I’d share a bit of history about a special place for us.

 

Augusta is a small town situated between the high prairie and the Rocky Mountain Front leading into the Bob Marshall Wilderness in NW Montana.

From a historical marker north of town

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A bit more history of Augusta and Gilman.
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The Great Northern Depot still under construction as the first train arrives in Gilman.  Guess which way the wind blowing.

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Train arrival for the short-lived September Fair and Gilman Stampede Rodeo.  Looks like car parking was a novel concept back then.

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Depot being moved from Gilman to Augusta.

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Depot arriving in Augusta and preparing to be set in place. Augusta was added to the GNRR track map.

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By the 1970’s the Depot was pretty much abandoned.  

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In the mid 1990’s, the Depot was purchased by a Western artist and moved, once again, to be placed on a 40-acre parcel west of town and used as a studio and horse property.  It was later purchased by NYC caterer (who was originally from this area) and restored and remodeled somewhat for a residence/get-away.  We purchased the Depot about ten years ago and get up there as much as we can year round.

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There a few more lights appearing on the horizon but it’s still a good place to star gaze.

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Views of the Rocky Mountain Front from the porch.

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Had fun finding GNRR things to decorate.

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Note bullet holes in crossing sign.

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I love old photographs of train wrecks and old steam.

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Found a place for some Fortes in what used to be the station master’s office.

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You posted a pic of your dog on the prairie a long time ago. That one and the one in HK harber are a couple of my favorites.

 

How long a drive to get groceries? I liked being out in the country, but it can be harder to plan your trips.

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On 8/22/2022 at 11:30 AM, Schu said:

I want to do this one in Peru...

 

 

 

I took the train from Cuzco to Macchu Picchu.  I forget how long it took but it went over some harrowing terrain.  Specifically, I'm thinking of some bridges and next to the river.    (that's my father framed by the foliage)

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1 hour ago, Marvel said:

You posted a pic of your dog on the prairie a long time ago. That one and the one in HK harber are a couple of my favorites.

 

How long a drive to get groceries? I liked being out in the country, but it can be harder to plan your trips.

 

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It is in big country but only about 4 miles from town and there is a nice general store for anything that we forgot to bring from home.

 

In the mid 1800s, there was an expedition across the northern plains to scout a route for what eventually became the Northern Pacific Rail Road. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Railroad_Surveys

 

I was able find a plate from the published log of the survey that shows the section of the Front, seen above, in right part of the drawing.  Though some of the features are mis-labled, the landscape is pretty much the same.

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23 minutes ago, Coytee said:

I took the train from Cuzco to Macchu Picchu.  I forget how long it took but it went over some harrowing terrain.

One of my nephews and his wife hiked to Macchu Picchu. They did lots of hikes in the Rockies to prepare for the altitude.

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21 hours ago, Zen Traveler said:

Here is Part 1 of the Rail System started in the late 1800s and continually being renovated in one of the most Awesome places on Earth, The Berner Oberland in the Swiss Alps! 

 

 

I like the Swiss Cog railways which get way up into the mountains and don't have to stay in the valleys.

 

 I also like the smaller industrial railways such as 

 

 

and then also in Burma are some interesting lines. You see how real life is in various places because the rail videos show the unvarnished view.

 

  And sometimes the views are quite sad. Link only since Youtube for some reason does not allow otherwise.

 

https://youtu.be/t2S7aqZgn2E

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On 9/4/2022 at 1:35 PM, MicroMara said:

 

 

I got two things from that video.  First, Morocco has a high speed train, while there are none in North America, and second, Bombardier, the Canadian company, is involved with the technology and manufacturing of high speed trains around the world, but Canada's fastest passenger trains, on the busy Toronto-Montreal line, only go 160 km/hr (100 mph).

 

What the hell is the problem over here?

 

One other thing:  there was no mention of the Shanghai maglev train, which reaches 431 km/hr (268 mph) in daily service.  It just runs between the city and the international airport, but it does it very quickly!

 

 

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After that very high speed train, here's one of the slowest, the cog railway up Mount Washington in New Hampshire.  The interviewer is a bit goofy, but the clip is informative.

 

I was in New Hampshire in 1983 in July, during a race weekend at Loudon/Bryar Motorsport Park, not far away, so I drove over there in my old Chevy station wagon/tow vehicle and drove up the mountain.  It was around 80F at the foot of the mountain, so the gf and I were wearing shorts and T-shirts.  When we got to the top, less than 20 minutes later, it was around 50F/10C, so before exiting the car, we changed into jeans and added sweaters and jackets (Tip:  when you go some distance from home, bring clothes for a variety of weather conditions, because you never know what you'll meet).

 

The view was amazing in all directions, and the cog locomotive was odd-looking, with its boiler tilted up sharply at the back, so that it would be level when climbing up the steep mountain.  Not all the units look like that, though, so watch closely at the very end of the clip to see the locomotive that I was referring to.  You only see it for a second or two.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Racer X said:

 

Perhaps an allocation of resources towards very large firecrackers pointed towards the moon ?

 

That's less of an issue in Canada, plus the European Space Agency (ESA) sends up stuff pretty regularly; it's just not all over North American news like the NASA stuff.  And Morocco?  They aren't rolling in dough, are they?

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As far as the most harshest conditions for trains   , Bombardier built the train  for the Tibet -Chinese Railway , and these trains have more  in common with planes   due to the higher altitudes of  5000 meters or 16400 feet along the highest portion  of the trip 

 

a regular train car would see it's occupants become  seriously affected   from high altitude sickness  , while the Bombardier Tibet train does not have any  high altitude acclimatization requirement  .

 

https://bombardier.com/en/media/news/bombardier-awarded-contract-high-altitude-passenger-rail-cars-tibet

 

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It's hard to resist making a political comment about Tibet, other than pointing out that it's no longer on the map.  The former country of Tibet now appears as Xizang (pronounced "She-zang"), a Special Autonomous Region of the PRC.  In other words, it's now a Chinese province, and has been for years.  When I asked a Chinese friend about that place on the map, it was just Xizang to her.  She had no idea it was a country.

 

I could say much more, but I'll stop there.

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One of the things I miss about SD-40 engines is that growl they had when working up grade. You could hear them in notch 8 from a long way away. Today these new engines are just not the same and lack the ground pounding noise of effort being exerted. Now mind you I still like watching engines work up grade and here are two spots I wish I could see. 

 

 One that I do plan on seeing this fall is

 

 

Another one I wish I could have seen is Saluda Grade which was the steepest US main line grade in it's day.  Delay in block has good quality videos in general by the way.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

WoW. A lot of train buffs coming out of the closet, lol.

 

But seriously, I guess I've been a train since I was 2 when I got a Lionel train set on a 4'x8' layout for Christmas. Switched over to HO late teens. My current layout is 8'x20' 2-track mainline, about 100' each track.

 

As far as train recordings go, one of the best I have was made by Tom Danley - Full Coal Train with Helper.

He has some other recordings of "sounds" too.

https://www.danleysoundlabs.com/tom-danleys-mic-recordings/

 

 

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