Wigle.net setups group stats. - Page 156

nashr · 10-07-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by beakmyn

Streak be sure to email me them when you get them up. Oh and gas is 165 here. That's 165 yen per liter. That's about $5.60 /gallon I believe.

How's everything going over there in the "far east"? I haven't seen Japan since the mid '80s and I need to go back some day.

Starting a new job Thursday and Friday, then headed south next week - down to Cancun!!! I'll have to post some pics when I get back.

Starpoint · 10-07-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thorn

Neat. A railroad lab rat.

Trains are a great technology. When I was a kid I wanted to be an engineer. If there were more trains around here, I'd probably be a foamer.

Hey, maybe you could answer something for me: Riding the occasional passenger train here, when passing through the local train yard, I can see signs saying "Caution. Remote controlled engines." Now, this brings to mind some guy running what amounts to with a huge version of a Lionel train set, running the trains on RC.

That can't quite be right, but I'm curious as to what exactly it does mean.

Thorn, my father worked for Southern Pacific for 45 years and they have remote control switch engines. Like an RC car but bigger. The engine is speed limited to 3 miles an hour and the remote has sensors that would indicate if it was tipped/dropped etc.. Basically if the guy with the remote fell down the engine stops.

The savings for all this is no CAB and less people to assemble or dis-assemble a train.

Thorn · 10-07-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starpoint

Thorn, my father worked for Southern Pacific for 45 years and they have remote control switch engines. Like an RC car but bigger. The engine is speed limited to 3 miles an hour and the remote has sensors that would indicate if it was tipped/dropped etc.. Basically if the guy with the remote fell down the engine stops.

The savings for all this is no CAB and less people to assemble or dis-assemble a train.

Neat. That's a lot closer to what I imagined than I thought it would actually be. Is that confined to the little switchyard engines, or the big ones, too?

Barry · 10-07-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starpoint

Thorn, my father worked for Southern Pacific for 45 years and they have remote control switch engines. Like an RC car but bigger. The engine is speed limited to 3 miles an hour and the remote has sensors that would indicate if it was tipped/dropped etc.. Basically if the guy with the remote fell down the engine stops.

The savings for all this is no CAB and less people to assemble or dis-assemble a train.

So basically they are like those cart pushers we see the dweebs at Sam's club using to wrangle the shopping carts?

Starpoint · 10-07-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thorn

Neat. That's a lot closer to what I imagined than I thought it would actually be. Is that confined to the little switchyard engines, or the big ones, too?

No... some trains run a remote unit out on the road where its controlled from the head end and the remote unit is in the middle of the train or tail end.

Also a "consist" is a string of locomotives where they act as 1, all under the control from the lead unit using what is called an M-U cable to control them. The engineer can throttle down tailing loco's to save fuel when out on the road... think of it like a form of cruise control.

streaker69 · 10-07-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starpoint

No... some trains run a remote unit out on the road where its controlled from the head end and the remote unit is in the middle of the train or tail end.

Also a "consist" is a string of locomotives where they act as 1, all under the control from the lead unit using what is called an M-U cable to control them. The engineer can throttle down tailing loco's to save fuel when out on the road... think of it like a form of cruise control.

I heard you can derail an entire train just by putting a penny on the tracks, much like derailing any thread on the NS forums.

G8tK33per · 10-07-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by streaker69

I heard you can derail an entire train just by putting a penny on the tracks, much like derailing any thread on the NS forums.

ALBATROSS!!

Starpoint · 10-07-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by streaker69

I heard you can derail an entire train just by putting a penny on the tracks, much like derailing any thread on the NS forums.

NooOOoOoo... derailing a thread in the NS forums does not require THAT much substance....

Barry · 10-07-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by streaker69

I heard you can derail an entire train just by putting a penny on the tracks, much like derailing any thread on the NS forums.

I used to have a penny and a nickel that were fused together after being run over by a train.

Airstreamer · 10-07-2008

Diesel is $4.03 here. Regular about $3.58 or so...

Trains, huh? At my previous job, we had to install a dissolved gas monitor off of an abandoned train bridge spanning the Columbia river. Back in the early 1960s' the wind kicked up just about the time a freight train was crossing the bridge. You can still look down in the river and see the wheels in the river from the boxcars that were blown off the bridge...

brwrdrvr · 10-07-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Airstreamer

Diesel is $4.03 here. Regular about $3.58 or so...

Trains, huh? At my previous job, we had to install a dissolved gas monitor off of an abandoned train bridge spanning the Columbia river. Back in the early 1960s' the wind kicked up just about the time a freight train was crossing the bridge. You can still look down in the river and see the wheels in the river from the boxcars that were thrown off the bridge after running over the pennies that the crew put down on the tracks.

Fixed.

labrat78 · 10-07-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thorn

Neat. A railroad lab rat.

Trains are a great technology. When I was a kid I wanted to be an engineer. If there were more trains around here, I'd probably be a foamer.

Hey, maybe you could answer something for me: Riding the occasional passenger train here, when passing through the local train yard, I can see signs saying "Caution. Remote controlled engines." Now, this brings to mind some guy running what amounts to with a huge version of a Lionel train set, running the trains on RC.

That can't quite be right, but I'm curious as to what exactly it does mean.

Its a dirty little secret that most professional railroaders are closet foamers. I guess I am proof since I photograph the things on my days off. Yes, railroads have been at the forefront of technology, especially when it comes to communications. We ditched out line wire and telegraph in the early sixties and replaced them all with microwave towers, up and down the line. Since then we have upgraded those installations to digital, along with using fiber optic for a backup and recently finished installing WLAN for all the signal control points. The stuff is pretty much like a home or business router on steroids and acid at the same time. Most of it runs in the 900MHz band though for greater distance.

In 29 years I have seen it go from analog microwave to this and I wonder what it will be like when I retire in about a dozen years or so. Even the remote locomotives for the yard and the road, what we call distributed power, all runs the same way as a LAN over UHF radio. It wasn't this way thirty years ago.

bobfunland · 10-07-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barry

I used to have a penny and a nickel that were fused together after being run over by a train.

Thank you sir for piquing my curiosity. I just hope that the Union Pacific is understanding and willing to drop the charges when I derail their coal train in the name of science.

streaker69 · 10-07-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobfunland

Thank you sir for piquing my curiosity. I just hope that the Union Pacific is understanding and willing to drop the charges when I derail their coal train in the name of science.

If you were really brave you'd put an alternating roll of nickels and pennies on the track.

bobfunland · 10-07-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by streaker69

If you were really brave you'd put an alternating roll of nickels and pennies on the track.

Yes, but how to attach them to the rail without them falling off? I've found that attaching little bit of chewing gum helps, but it seems that most of them fly off and disappear anyway.

10-07-2008	#2335 (permalink)
Airstreamer Sniffin' the aether Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: A little North of Reason Posts: 2,821	Diesel is $4.03 here. Regular about $3.58 or so... Trains, huh? At my previous job, we had to install a dissolved gas monitor off of an abandoned train bridge spanning the Columbia river. Back in the early 1960s' the wind kicked up just about the time a freight train was crossing the bridge. You can still look down in the river and see the wheels in the river from the boxcars that were blown off the bridge... __________________ "America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.." - Claire Wolfe, 101 Things to Do 'Til the Revolution

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