L&A newest....Thing?

[Thai1On]

It's the late 30's and diesels are trying to take over rail duty from the mighty steam giants. Railroads like the L&A are heavy coal haulers and users and don't want theses foul smelling machines on their rails. One answer is the steam turbine! Yes, it has had problems in the past, but here at the L&A in partnership with Rockwell Turbines have developed a new device the will change how the world will see steam turbines!

Ladies and gentlemen I give you the Turbo Entabulator! This has been installed in the L&A's newest locomotive the X-50 or as the shop guys call it "The Thing". Below is a video of the describing how the entabulator works. I sure after watching the video you will completely understand how it works and what an amazing device it truly is. With one being installed in The Thing road tests will begin soon.

The infamous railfan snuck up on a roof near the Levi shops to get this spy shot of The Thing.

This is a personal reskin and for personal use only. More spy pictures to follow.

Dave

 

[BobCass]

Right On Dave..Right on..It is so plain to me now..

 

[Thai1On]

Story of how the Thing came into being is 2 separate events happening. One is the L&A's buyers who are notorious for buying anything if its cheap, that is how they got a PA1. The PA1 had a catastrophic prime mover failure followed by a fire that destroyed the rest of the electoral equipment. So much for dependable internal combustion engines <ptffs> . Next is Rockwell Turbines is a customer of the L&A and they make steam turbines for ships. The ship that was due to be retro fitted with a new turbine was torpedoed and sunk so the ship yard canceled the order and Rockwell was stuck with the turbine. One of the lead locomotive design engineers, Carl "the mad scientist" McCormick heard of both events and designed "TheThing" you see in the pictures below. Coupled with the new entabulator using biometric caged gimble spline work went forward :hehe:.

More spy shots from the Railfan.

Dave

 

[Euphod]

a fire that destroyed the rest of the electoral equipment.

That explains the results of the most recent election; thank you for letting the cat out of the bag Dave!:hehe:

 

[sawyer811]

.....One of the lead locomotive design engineers, Carl "the mad scientist" McCormick heard of both events and designed "TheThing" you see in the pictures below. Coupled with the new entabulator using biometric caged gimble spline work went forward :hehe:.

*Ker-snip*

Dave

I think The Mad Scientist is working for the Williams Bay and North Western now...it would explain why I went into the Carlisle shops last weekend and saw a Van Sweringren boiler being mated to what looked like a turned-round, 4-wheel lead pony-axled AC-12 "Cab Forward" with about 5 extra cylinders crammed in between the frames...

BTW, I assume it's safe to say that this railroad has survived dieselization and merger to reach modern times, under steam? :hehe::hehe::hehe:

 

[Thai1On]

The Thing went out on it's shake down run today. The cab was filled with strange recording instruments buzzing, humming, and ticking away and the fireman recalls the guys in lab coats saying something about "black boxes"? As for the caboose it was standing room only as the guys in lab coats were fighting to see you would go for the first ride :hehe:. As far secrecy on the L&A about the Thing's first road test, forget it. The whole route was crawling with railfans trying to get the early operational pictures of the Thing! Here are a few and you should have seen the look on the peoples faces when the Thing rolled into the Beattyville station.

When the train stopped at Beattyville the caboose emptied out and the L&A design engineers ran to the cab and turbine to check and see what happened. The biggest fear was that the six hydrocoptic marzul vanes would distort due to side fumbling, but news was good and the Thing will continue its test run.

Dave

Picture from the weeds.

The rookie sees the veteran.

The old pro checks out the newest recruit.

Respect!

There was even a railfan on the Hustlen' Hillbilly with camera ready!

 

[felix_g]

So the Thing did meet the lab guys' expectations? :hehe:
If not I would suggest to use USLW's Bobber Caboose instead of the 8-wheeler.

 

[Thai1On]

Those crazy L&A engineers in Levi are at it again. After tweaking the "turbo entabulator" they found that the turbine was capable of running more traction motors. With the cost of diesel fuel many roads are finding that they are losing money in revenue service running diesels. The buyers on the L&A found a NH centipede being scraped so they bought it and sent it to Levi to be reworked. The prime mover and generators were sold the the US military and the locomotive was retrofitted with a coal bunker and two experimental boilers.

Here we have the the second version of "The Thing" coming through Carlisle on a shakedown run. The road crew again was surprised to see some of the engineers riding in the boiler room of the centipede taking readings and monitoring the new boilers, behind the tender we can the the L&A's research bobber caboose full of "black boxes" to take measurements. The road crew is thankful that the mad scientists have their our caboose now.

The tender of the steam turbine being pulled out of the erecting shop.

The Thing v2 coming through Carlisle.

Let's not forget the research caboose.

I would like to thank the members of this forum for their great ideas. This is a fun project:hehe:.

Dave

 

[jacksonbarno]

The L&A has apparently just recently contracted the LE&E's shops to make some rollingstock to try and keep up with increased business. Expect to see some more new cars coming your way soon!