Question about the Diesel lines

Gentlemen, lets just talk about the topic and move on in the conversation. Does it really matter that wilson is talking about something that happened years ago? Nobody will get hurt and nothing will happen to anyones career.

Did we speed to make up time? Yes. In ASC territory, did we keep hitting the acknowedging pedal to keep the timing air up and overcome the "overspeed" penalty, yes. Today, the Engineers are far more rules and safety conscience then we were. They are under more regulation and oversight then we ever were. I doubt anyone would ever do the things we did years ago to move a train, legally or illegally.

Who cares, its all in the past. Move on and enjoy the talk.

Liquidcamphor.

Thank You.
I was not trying to hijack a thread I was adding to the discussion about diesels and the speed limits, and the reality of how things were done.
If you noticed I was very careful in how I worded it, because I was implicating myself too, because I was there when some of the things alledgedly went on.
Was just saying how things used to be years ago before GPS and event recordings.
It did not even cross my mind that I was doing anything against any craft, was Just telling RR stories.
Sorry if I came off the wrong way, I thought the stories were interesting insight to the way the RR was.
Today, if one does not give a proper brake test ( Im talking about the Brakeman ok?) its all recorded, just saying things have changed.
For Example.. any LIRR er in here would laugh at "Last Train Rules" back in the day thats how we did things, not a knock on anyone, just the way things were done by everyone, Both Conductors and Engineers.
I was notorious for having fare disputes with passengers and calling the cops..
The RR even restricted me to the Yards and Roustabout for about 2 years because of my reputation with the passengers.
One Engineer called me "The Warden" because of the way I interacted with passengers.
When I showd up on his job off the list he would joke... "oh no I have the Warden tonight."
Another Engineer said to me one night, "Guap, do me a favor, I want to make the eastbound out of Penn, Please no fare disputes tonight".
Just sharing stories not trying to hurt anyone its all in fun. ( and it was fun most of the time)
I remember when I had to go for instruction on the M-7's, One of the first things the instructor said to us was, Gentlemen, this will effectively end "Last Train Rules" since everything that goes on will be recorded, and even can be transmitted to 204.
Of course the instructor knew about it, he came up through the ranks.
Again sorry, Im not trying to hurt anyone, God knows I was not perfect either.

ch00ch00 wrote:I never worked a GM engine, I thought the 1600 Fairbanks was the best accelerating. The Fairbanks used Super Chargers and the Alcos used Turbo Chargers. The Alcos didn't get the boost until the engine was running really fast. The Fairbanks had the boost, from the minute you opened the throttle.
I've always liked GM diesels, but don't know a thing about them.

Ed

F-M diesels didn't have superchargers unless you mean Roots blowers. Like nonturbocharged EMD engines, which were also 2-stroke cycle, F-M's OP engine was Roots-blown. F-M toyed with the idea of turbocharging its engine but went out of the locomotive business before that could be brought to fruition.

The Beloit Wisconsin Plant for fairbanks Morse is not too far from where I live now, just saw it the other day.

http://www.fairbanksmorse.com/file_syst ... ochure.pdf


One other thing was, in the old days, one could break the speed control seal if they wanted too, and reseal them later. Not saying that was ever done, but it could have been, since there were no recorders.

LongIslandTool wrote:Track conditions, fuel and equipment maintenance costs.

If the diesels run at 80 mph on the electric portions of the railroad, would it really increase these costs if these speeds were achieved on the rest of the railroad? Obviously there's not much you can do to increase the speeds on the Port Jeff branch because of all the hills and numerous curves. Same can be said for Oyster Bay. But the mainline east of KO is pretty straight and flat, and aside from the MAS exceptions east of Babylon, the Montauk branch is fairly flat and straight too.

When I retired the rail east of KO would not handle 80 very well. I could see the need for reduced speeds there.
Dont know if they improved it enough since then.

keyboardkat wrote:

ch00ch00 wrote:I never worked a GM engine, I thought the 1600 Fairbanks was the best accelerating. The Fairbanks used Super Chargers and the Alcos used Turbo Chargers. The Alcos didn't get the boost until the engine was running really fast. The Fairbanks had the boost, from the minute you opened the throttle.
I've always liked GM diesels, but don't know a thing about them.

Ed

F-M diesels didn't have superchargers unless you mean Roots blowers. Like nonturbocharged EMD engines, which were also 2-stroke cycle, F-M's OP engine was Roots-blown. F-M toyed with the idea of turbocharging its engine but went out of the locomotive business before that could be brought to fruition.

I'm sorry, what is a "Roots" Blower, if not a Super Charger? They look the same and they function the same.
GM blowers were used in the days of Hot Rodding. The "Roots"blower was a Super Charger.

Ed

Hello all,

Re: Pushing the speed limits on the diesel lines, as others mentioned, it was likely more prevalent prior to ASC and event recorders.

Since I lived in electrified territory, seeing diesel trains at all was noteworthy for me, but seeing and hearing the GP38-2s blast through in Run 8 was always a remarkable event.

I'll lead off by saying that I've never seen diesel trains reach any great speed on the Oyster Bay Branch, although I'm guessing they could open up on the stretch through Albertson, especially if they were deadheading. I'm guessing that curves, grades, and closer station spacing preclude high speed anywhere else on the branch.

I recall watching with great delight as westbound GP38-2 powered trains flew through the grade crossings at New Highway or Wellwood Ave. on the Main Line (between Republic and Pinelawn) at very high speed -- I'm guessing it was a fair bit over 70 mph.

I also remember seeing an eastbound GP38-2 powered train fly through what remained of the Unqua Road grade crossing in Massapequa Park during the grade separation project in the late 70s. The train was still operating on the at-grade track, but evidently the whistle sign hadn't been removed even though the crossing was already closed to road traffic. The crossing lights, bells, and gate mechanisms were still in place and operating, although the gate arms themselves had already been removed. I found the high speed of the train somewhat surprising in what would have been an "active construction zone" at that time.

Cheers,
Al "dlandw"

I know I've said it before, but I always enjoyed watching train 660 blast through Mineola around 5:30PM with a clear shot east and probably doing MAS, with back to back GP38s displaying their continuous wave paint, engines screaming, and the horn blasting from the west end of the platform all the way through the crossings, and watching the engines bounce through the switch for the Oyster Bay Branch.

I also get a thrill watching SD40-2s with their six axles and huge front and rear platforms. I could almost imagine setting up a small bistro set on one of those platforms and eating lunch. Plus hearing the engines roaring with the turbo...Nice!

Two videos that demonstrate what I'm talking about...sort of. 1st one shows two LIRR GP38s, pulling into Islip station and then departing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Poy0wemm0IE

The second one shows Reading and Northern switching with two SD40s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFEumxQoY6w

Nice videos, the first one brought back lots of memories. Hard to believe its 20 years ago.
Second one was interesting, those platforms on the engines were huge, especialy the rear one.
The rear one was probably as big as my patio.. amazing.
Wish I could find a video of 277 blowing for a crossing, 277 had a nice sounding horn when it was a LIRR engine.
Cant find one anywhere.

Pooch I have a lot of video on tape. Havent made headway to converting to digital yet.

I'll keep an eye out. I hope to find one for you.

BTW, since we have all been discussing old faux pas, question:

Was there ever a problem with people jumping onto the engines? It was fairly accessible to just climb up on them and I wonder if crews ever ran into the problem. Its something I never really heard about.

Personally, one time as a college student, I was on a westbound from Stony Brook, trying to get to Babylon. I knew there were only 2 eastbounds from Jamaica that stopped at Hicksville to take passengers to Montauk via the Central. It was a Dec 7 and I was trying to get home to celebrate a birthday.

As I spoke to the engineer of the westbound I was on, he added, "It would be a real tight connection, if at all."

We platformed at Hicksville and I look west and see nothing. I look east and across the platform, (she was already waiting!) a trainman poked his head out out of the east end of the last coach and closed doors. I yelled, "Hold the train!" to no avail. In a split second, realizing I wasnt about to add more hours to this short trip, pure adrenaline coupled with sophomoric judgement of youth propelled me to get on the rear switcher just behind the cab as the train started to move.

As we pulled out of the station, one hand carrying college texts and the other shouldering a bag full of books as well as anchoring myself, I went over the coupler and into the vestibule of the last car.

It must have been a HOT car since it was December but the vestibule's door to the coach was open. I took a lot of passengers off guard as they witnessed this guy climbing off an engine and into the coach. Meanwhile the trainman on the east end of the coach seemed confused. He didnt see a passenger make it onboard but didnt see me climb on either.

That was something you'd probably not try today, right? One slip, and that's it!

Yep occasionaly a passenger would do that, we would see it once in awhile expecially at the high platform stations like Jamaica or hicksville.
I remember one incident years ago In Jamaica on track 8, when a Passenger was cut in half and killed because he tried that.
Late 70's early 80's
One Conductor actually got in trouble for getting into a heated argument with passengers at Ronkonkoma, because they were climing over the old GP-38's on the greenport scoot, to get from one platform to the other to get to their cars.
He probably did not get in trouble for telling them not do do it, that was within his job description. It was probably the language he used..
( What are you a bleeping idiot and so forth).
Also reminds me of a situation years ago on the port wash branch.
A train had derailed in Port Wash Yard, so they told a Train that had passed Great Neck going east, not to proceed past Plandome.
A Trainmaster showed up, Told the Conductor to have the crew change ends, and they were to proceed west to Ny from Plandome. Ok Fair enough.
The Conductor went to the Block phone at Plandome to call harold tower and get his train order to comply with rule 262.
Once the current of traffic has been established, a train cannot proceed in the opposite direction without Proper Interlocking signal indication or train order.
No signal at Plandome.
The trainmaster asked the Conductor what he was doing, and he said getting my train order.
Trainmaster said, Im ordering you to proceed west on my authority.
Conductor said F*** you.
Now no Engineer or Conductor in his right mind would have let that train move west without a train order, but the Conductor was still out of service for insubordination for saying F you to a supervisor.

These days with the full body diesels that pull our passenger trains, it's almost impossible to jump on the engine if you miss the train.

Speaking of folks jumping on trains, when I was working for a short line freight we had an incident where someone tried to jump on one of the tank cars in the train as it was rolling through town. He ended up not getting a good grip, slipped and fell, and his leg ended up in the path of one of the train wheels, cutting his leg off. I wasn't working this particular train so I wasn't there, but it was said that the man was already using crutches to get around. Why he'd try to jump on a train in that condition is beyond me. But, it's pretty stupid to try and jump on a moving train no matter what shape you're in, especially if you don't work for a railroad.

Yeah, I have to say that was one of the nuttiest things I've done in my life. No way to attempt that on anything other than a high platform.

Surprised to hear the stories. I didnt think it was common.



BTW, since we've talking old diesels, fast forward to about 3:37 in this video. One of my favorite bands horns mimic a KL5A nicely In my humble opinion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNcjrrabhb8