Weekly Photo Fun Dec 3 to Dec 9

[Puddlejumper]

Tom,
Love all that CR power you've been posting. It was your Operation Lifesaver unit that inspired me to buy the decals, I want to do 2 units, #7889 with upside down crossbucks, and one other. Your SD40-2 reminded me of something that always irked me about the CR Quality scheme, and that is why did the RR put the logo on backwards on so many units? Even the new units from the factory had backwards logos on them (on the engineer's side only) but units painted at Altoona were so random the logo could be backward on either side, or BOTH sides, in some cases the explanation so is as simple as the shop put the left logo on the right side, and the right logo on the left side.

Don't know why it irritated me so much, I always felt the "Q" should be to the rear, like the old logo was always toward the rear. Keep posting more, I'm thinking I might start a CR model thread.

Dave

[P5se Camelback]

... The PRR had A5s (Belpaire boilered, non camelback) as well, specifically for Philly (Delaware Ave and Front St.) and Baltimore. Those Atlas #4s must have been a bear!

Yeah, I forgot about the little Pennsy Class A Four-Coupled switchers (and I also forgot about Great Uncle "Yank," who had been an engineer on the Pennsy and "drove" an A5b on Dock Street in the '40's and early '50's -- I do remember the sloped-back "high visibility" tender.) And yes, the Pennsy's Class A switchers also did their share of street running down on Dock St. along the Delaware River waterfront in Philadelphia.

Those turnouts were at least #4's, if not less ... the clearances were very tight and curves were very sharp ... lots of flange squealing was involved! As far as I can recall, all of the history of the shipping industry and tracks in the streets and dodging switching moves as you made your way along Dock Street are gone, replaced with the "Beautiful paver brick walkways and lovely raised planters and playful fountains of Urban Renewal." (Read that as the systematic removal of every trace the shipping and receiving functions as well as the "ugly" riverfront piers and other structures that were once one of the most important seaports on the east coast, and replacing it all with the common-every-day, by-the-numbers, textbook, "clichéd colonial" architectural sterilization of a city that was once a leader in American Industry!)

I'm sorry. Yes, the new parks are pretty, and the city had to employ (and raise taxes to pay them) many more Parks Service Workers to maintain the new vast expanse of City Park areas along the Delaware River. But it irks me that every vestige of what was formerly a busy, important industrial area has been removed (think "cleansed") and the entire area for several blocks west of the river has been sterilized in favor of "chic" shopping plazas and "prestigious address" mid-rise condominiums.

Just as our amazing history as a nation is being rewritten, and Important portions deleted from the textbooks that our children are being taught from thereby denying them the knowlege of how courageous and exceptional our Founding Fathers were, our physical history as the once most important industrial nation in the world is being bulldozed over and replaced with "Green Areas," the only apparent use of which is to look beautiful for those few people who can afford to live in the exorbitantly priced condos (that relaced the warehouses on the riverfront piers,) to stroll along for an hour or two on a sunny Sunday afternoon, pausing to "people watch" while sitting in an open-air bistro, sipping a $8.00 glass of Perrier..

I'll apologize now for climbing up on a couple of soapboxes, but this "cleansing" of our written and physical history makes me madder than a hive of angry hornets

[RailCop]

Working on my engine service facility:

[Lester Perry]

Oh no a patched blue

I know I have posted this before, but I just couldn't resist.

[Running Bear]

I did some decal work on two locos today. First the GP38-2 then one of the GP30's.

[Gary S]

[e-paw]

Hey Bil...The CNJ had this one off Baldwin for working similar track age at the Bronx terminal.

She was latter replaced by this.


The 0-4-0 became the shop switcher at Communipaw "C-Paw" until around 41 when she was replaced by this.

[csiguy68]

nice pic Gary. that was the first time i have ever saw one of those locomotives.

Todd

[Gary S]

Thanks Todd. This loco and three others like it that roam the yard and industrial parks on the south side of houston actually make me sad. It wasn't that long ago that I got to see all manner of BN and SF Geeps on switching duty. Mostly GP38s in the various BN green schemes, green and white, green and black, some of the orange ones, and also SF freightbonnets - even a Santa Fe GP30 hung around for 6 months - this was maybe 4 years ago. Now, nothing but the locos in the photo. Of course, they all had the BNSF road name painted on, but they still were in the old paint schemes.

As for the "through" trains, used to see all manner of SDs, in all the BN schemes and the SF yellow and blue. Now nothing but the modern humongous power that just doesn't have the character that the Geeps and SDs had. Unfortunately, I did not take near as many photos as I should have, and when I had a flash drive scramble its brains awhile back, I lost most of those.

Little did I know I was seeing history dissappear before my eyes.

[Steamtrains]

SF F3's pulling a lowly freight....

[Gary S]

Oh Gus! I usually don't go for locos like the F3, but that view and that Warbonnet paint scheme, I gotta like it! Woohoo!

[X 3829]

SF F3's pulling a lowly freight....

Hi Gus,
nice pic, what ground cover did you use?

[faraway]

Thanks Todd. This loco and three others like it that roam the yard and industrial parks on the south side of houston actually make me sad....

Gary, what did I miss from my German point of view? The focus of environmental protection in California is very well known here in Europe. But how come Texas gets all the Genset from BNSF? I am not under the impression Texas lawmakers would deeply cooperate with California law makers in that area. Is that a local Houston initiative driven by the city of Houston and possible Harris county?

[Gary S]

Reinhard, I don't know whether Houston has any regulations on the trains or not. I'll have to see what I can find on that.

[Green_Elite_Cab]

A shot from the last run what you bring op session.

A pair of NS GP 15-1's working the paper track at Pier 32

Bruce

Wow, you're amazing. First Agway, then the piers in philadelphia. I think you got the whole region down pat. You have any other local areas modeled?