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Gadfly,

That little Mexican was named "Herbie". I read an article in Trains Magazine that said his image originated in St. Louis.

He was easy to draw, so I suppose he was drawn in many locations.

Another, different but common face, was "Bozo Texino".

Les

Maybe a solution to dining car losses can be found in another travel mode. I enjoy taking riverboat excursions. Typically, river boats do not have the food preparation facilities needed to prepare more than simple sandwiches. If you want to eat a full meal onboard, generally the passengers make thei...

An unusual result of the sharknose Baldwins was the NYC buying locomotives styled after a Pennsy design! My favorite rebuild was the Milwaukee Road's RSC-2s rebuilt with Century cabs and short hoods. As a result, the "front" of the locomotive was switched from the long hood end to the shor...

The purpose of all the steam locomotives you list, the ones you like as well as the ones you don't, was to earn their owners money. Railroaders felt (and still feel) some attachment to their locomotives, but that is secondary to their real purpose. To use my local railroad (UP) as an example, I'm su...

Apparently, Baldwin didn't think the "Babyface" style looked so good. They made a running production change from the "Babyface" styling to the "Sharknose" style carbody. To someone used to seeing EMD and ALCO cab units, the "Babyface" looked very distorted in ...

My car insurance went up after a grade-crossing accident. When I asked why, I was told "Because you got into a grade crossing accident." My reply was, "I know. I was driving the train."

My rate was adjusted back down.

Les

After having operated just about every Diesel model still in service, this RSP38-2 still blew me away! This is just incredible! UP has built at least one rotary that carried its own power source, but I don't think it was self-propelled. I've inspected a Milw. Road rotary that was converted from over...

Yes. Maybe a Happy Hour would help. I think part of the problem is that the traveling public expects service and food in dining cars to be at least reminiscent of the days of classic train travel. They expect table cloths, cloth napkins, flowers on the table, etc. AMTRAK has done a good job of provi...

If AMTRAK actually loses money on each meal it serves, the more meals it serves, the more money it loses. Irregardless of fixed costs. AMTRAK needs to determine what it will take to make the diners profitable, or at least break even, and control their costs or increase their prices accordingly. Trad...

If AMTRAK actually loses money on each meal it sells, why would they want to get more coach passengers to use the diner? And since meals are included with first-class tickets, why do they lose money on those meals? Why not build the cost of the meals into the ticket price? For that matter, why not i...

How about a BL2? It has the non-turbo 567 you like. The long hood end looks like a GG1. The short hood end looks like a Basset Hound. That's about as cute as you are going to get, unless you count "critters".

I really don't think "cuteness" is a design factor.

Les

If you want to stretch an articulated steam locomotive, why not build a Garrett?

Les

Some of the problem might involve union rules. When I worked on the Connecticut Southern, we would haul private cars behind our units from Hartford to Springfield to be added to AMTRAK trains. The reason they were not added at Hartford was because AMTRAK did not have an electrician on duty there. Ap...

Railroads I have worked for had rules forbidding Operating Department employees from climbing on top of equipment. This rule did not apply to Mechanical or Clerical employees. Some cars are still produced with "roofwalks". Consider covered hoppers or boxcars equipped with roof hatches. Shi...

Backshop, So the 00 address will operate a DC loco on DCC, except that the lights are on all the time, the motor hums and runs warm? What is the advantage to that? Why produce a DCC trainset that runs on channel 00 all the time? Don't those train sets come with DCC-equipped locomotives? If the locom...