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Model Forum / General / Railroads / May 2008Modeling opportunities abound!
A small -probably F0 or F1- tornado touched down just south of me in Perris California this afternoon, crossing both I-215 and the Santa Fe branch line that runs parallel to the freeway for circa 10 miles. It only flipped a single tractor-trailer rig over on the freeway, but it also knocked over a string of around ten empty (?) old boxcars that were sitting parked on a siding right across the road. Interestingly, the boxcars were prevented from falling all the way over by a line of power poles next to the tracks that bent, but did not break, and held the cars up at about a 45 degree angle. Last heard from, both Santa Fe crews and the Edison boys were on the scene, and there may not be anything interesting to see by tomorrow afternoon when I plan to motorcycle down there and take a peek. -Pete P.S. Tornados in southern California? Isn't that supposed to be one of the signs of the apocralypse? On 5/22/2008 8:24 PM P. Roehling spake thus: > P.S. Tornados in southern California? Isn't that supposed to be one of the > signs of the apocralypse? Nope. They happen all the time. You ought to pick up a copy of Mike Davis's /The Ecology of Fear/, describing those and other "apocalpytic" things that happen in SoCal, but concealed by C-of-C booster types.  SignatureThe best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. - Attributed to Winston Churchill >> P.S. Tornados in southern California? Isn't that supposed to be one of >> the signs of the apocralypse? > > Nope. They happen all the time. No. They don't "happen all the time". Even funnel clouds are fairly uncommon here: I've seen only three in all the years I've lived in So Cal., and all of them were up at several thousand feet. Maybe once or twice a year someone will get a picture of a waterspout in the Catalena Channel, but actual tornados; I.E. funnel clouds that *actually reach the ground*, are quite rare. > You ought to pick up a copy of Mike Davis's /The Ecology of Fear/, > describing those and other "apocalpytic" things that happen in SoCal, but > concealed by C-of-C booster types. You ought to get some therapy so you can stop trying to prove that you're the smartest guy on Usenet and -eventually- even give up trying to tell the people who've lived there most of their lives that you know more about their weather than they do. And BTW, "smart guy", you completely missed the joke. On 5/22/2008 11:22 PM P. Roehling spake thus: > And BTW, "smart guy", you completely missed the joke. Well, I guess that makes *you* the smartest guy on Usenet then, eh? SignatureThe best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. - Attributed to Winston Churchill > On 5/22/2008 11:22 PM P. Roehling spake thus: > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > - Attributed to Winston Churchill Geez! These type of threads make me long for Mark Newton! Peteski > On 5/22/2008 8:24 PM P. Roehling spake thus: > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Davis's /The Ecology of Fear/, describing those and other "apocalpytic" > things that happen in SoCal, but concealed by C-of-C booster types. Um, try this one - a friend in Cinci, who's just moving this weekend to se IN, will have to take routes around this.... To what genius did it occur to ship a railroad locomotive on a flatbed trailer? <http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=919a4d3e-9efb-4c86-8c66-8bf 757f12572> mark Hi, > To what genius did it occur to ship a railroad locomotive on a flatbed > trailer? > > <http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=919a4d3e-9efb-4c86-8c66-8bf 757f12572> Funny ;-) Actually that happens all the time... When the Deutsche Bahn built a new track to link the Munich central station to the high-speed-line going north, they removed the track going in and out of Krauss-Maffei (now Siemens) engine factory. As the factory is also doing a lot of "heavy maintenance" they had to ship *all* engines in and out by truck (taking large detours...). I'm not sure if this has been fixed by now... At another point the factory mad a few engines for South Africa (which has metre gauge). They had to be shipped by truck trailer and rail trailer through half of Germany, then by river-boat to the North Sea and on via ocean ferry ;-) Have a nice day... PS: The Munich engine factory built a large series of modern electric loco's based on a design requested by Deutsche Bahn (DB) - which DB didn't take, so they were sold to Austria. By now, DB has rented a large number of them from Austria, because they drive their loco's into disrepair. The joke is - they could have bought them in the first place, but they rather pay more money to rent them, in fact they could save even more money if they'd stick to the maintenance intervals... So instead of saving money they pay much more now - and are probably the only large railroad still trying to move to road transport... I'm quite unhappy with them in general... On 5/26/2008 7:31 AM Bernhard Agthe spake thus: >> To what genius did it occur to ship a railroad locomotive on a flatbed >> trailer? [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > only large railroad still trying to move to road transport... I'm quite > unhappy with them in general... So much for the much-vaunted German obsession with maintenance and precision, eh? Funny, since you mention Krauss-Maffei: there's a connection to my part of the world (California), since the Espee bought a bunch of their diesel-hydraulics way back when. Everything I've read says that the reason they were ultimately pulled from service was that SP wasn't willing to invest in proper maintenance at the required intervals. (I've climbed on and in the hulk of the remaining loco parked in the California State Railroad Museum yard, and it's a fascinating piece of machinery, as well as history.) SignatureThe best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. - Attributed to Winston Churchill >P.S. Tornados in southern California? Isn't that supposed to be one of the >signs of the apocralypse? I've always assumed that Southern California itself was one of the signs of the apocalypse :-) Dale >>P.S. Tornados in southern California? Isn't that supposed to be one of the >>signs of the apocralypse? > > I've always assumed that Southern California itself was one of the > signs of the apocalypse :-) Well, parts of it might be. [1] But I was speaking of the "apocralypse"*. -Pete [1] If Ged -or whoever's in charge- doesn't do something about Hollywood Boulevard, then Sodom and Gomorrah have a *serious* apology coming! * Etymology: A compound word formed by combining "apocryphal" and "apocalypse". Originator: (suspected) Terry Pratchett. Definition: An Armageddon of doubtful authenticity. >>>P.S. Tornados in southern California? Isn't that supposed to be one of the >>>signs of the apocralypse? [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > "apocalypse". Originator: (suspected) Terry Pratchett. Definition: An > Armageddon of doubtful authenticity. Armageddon sick and goddam tired or "end times" preachers and pseudo-novelists. Rapture this, christinane a.sholes! SignatureSteve >> But I was speaking of the "apocralypse"*. >> * Etymology: A compound word formed by combining "apocryphal" and >> "apocalypse". Originator: (suspected) Terry Pratchett. Definition: An >> Armageddon of doubtful authenticity. > Armageddon sick and goddam tired of "end times" preachers and > pseudo-novelists. Rapture this, christinane a.sholes! Oh, they're welcome to it. Just so long as they don't try forcing the rest of us to live according to their theological precepts. -Pete > >> But I was speaking of the "apocralypse"*. > >> * Etymology: A compound word formed by combining "apocryphal" and [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > -Pete At a model railroad meet in (appropriately) southern California I was looking at an extensive N-scale modular layout when one module, roofed with fluffy grey storm clouds, started flashing some convincing simulated lightning. Part of the cloud started rotating, showed itself to be a funnel cloud, and began descending in an arc which cut across a nicely-modeled trailer park. The rotating cloud then tucked itself back into the sky and the lightning stopped. We in the audience applauded. > At a model railroad meet in (appropriately) southern California I was looking at an extensive N-scale modular layout when one module, roofed with fluffy grey storm clouds, started flashing some convincing simulated lightning. Part of the cloud started rotating, showed itself to be a funnel cloud, and began descending in an arc which cut across a nicely-modeled trailer park. The rotating cloud then tucked itself back into the sky and the lightning stopped. > We in the audience applauded. I would have too! -Pete P.S. I recall a friend of mine who used to fly radio-controlled -part of the time- sailplanes who'd heard that thermals cause dust devils, and that the biggest thermals cause the biggest dust devils. (That part is true.) So one bright day he spotted a *huge* dust devil working it's way across the flying field and picked up his sailplane, ran down the runway towards the dust devil at top speed, and flung his plane directly into the heart of the funnel.............. You could see the plane intermittently for about the next five seconds as it flashed past each time the funnel rotated, and each time you saw it the plane was in a different attitude. Then it abruptly disappeared and various small parts began to be ejected: half a wing here, an elevator there, Etc. When my friend had finally finished picking up the fragments and walked back to the flight line, I explained to him that the thermal he'd been seeking was located *above* the whirlwind, and that it was the rapid rising of that bubble of warm air which pulled the surrounding air in beneath it from all sides, and that coriolis force then started it spinning. He said "OH!", and went back to flying power planes. >>> But I was speaking of the "apocralypse"*. > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > Oh, they're welcome to it. Just so long as they don't try forcing the rest > of us to live according to their theological precepts. In 1989, my ...late... wife and I lived in the exurbs outside of Austin, TX. There was only one way to the 'subdivision' (mostly immobile homes on a broken up ranch), which was past this obnoxious funnymentalist church. They *always* had some nasty slogan on their signboard. Then they started announcing the Rapture (tm) would occur on 13 Sept. 1989. We were vastly amused by this, since it was her birthday. We were really looking forward to it, since we figured the traffic on the way to work the next day would be *so* much better, with all of them Raptured off the planet. We were very disappointed when they didn't go, and they didn't even have the grace to blush on their signboard..... mark |
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