Test your Prototype Knowledge.

[magickmaker]

This is something of a game. No prizes, but fun just the same. Ok, here's the deal, I'm going to list several actual prototype firsts, or feats, or just interesting facts. It's up to you to try to answer the questions. HOWEVER, please only answer ONE of the questions. Once this list is finished, I'll post another. Be warned, some of these will NOT be easy.

1.) ANSWERED Madison Railroad, Indiana
2.) What gauge were most streetcars set for?
3.) When was the first tunnel built in the United States?
4.) What is the world's longest railroad bridge?
5.) ANSWERED A hole to allow coupling to Link and Pin couplers.
6.) ANSWERED A Bell, Cowcatcher, Headlight, and US coupling.
7.) ANSWERED The cab breaks away in a collision.
8.) ANSWERED An enlarged GP7
9.) ANSWERED The middle axle is unpowered
10.) ANSWERED Mated Box Cab Pairs called Amos and Andy
11.) ANSWERED The narrow gauge locomotives from Newfoundland.
12.) What made the Canadian Pacific's special switches, so special?
13.) Before the advent of better radio controls, how did the SP control their distributed power?
14.) What is an Air Repeater car and why is it used?
15.) What is the Cugach Explorer, and what makes it so special and or interesting?
16.) ANSWERED Just under 100 feet.

 

[jadebullet]

1) Until the diesel engines allowed for the running of trains up the back track effectively and economically, that honor would go to the Ashley Plane of the Central Railroad of New Jersey. Unlike most other planes, which were just for getting a certain commodity up and down a mountain, the Ashley Planes were part of the mainline. Going up the mountain, the train would be pushed up by the plane, while the steamer went around. Going down, the train went down the back track.

 

[magickmaker]

Close but wrong. I'm looking for a currently operating line. Come to think of it, the one I have in mind is STEEPER than the Ashley Planes were. However I'll give you a hint. It's the only adhesion (meaning no cog, nor cable) incline of its type in the US and possibly in the world. In fact, special locomotives were built just for this section of line.

 

[backyard]

My 2¢

1.) The Asheville & Spartanburg Railroad, through Saluda, NC at 4.7%-5.8%

6.) Janey knuckle-couplers

7.) The wrap-around anti-climber

8.) Six axle GP7

9.) A non-powered axle between two powered axles, on each truck; reduced tractive effort for heavy trains; being upstaged by the F7 on the Santa Fe Super Chief

10.) It was pulled by a motorcar

11.) MLW C-630

12.) Manned Helpers

Thanks for the thoroughly interesting pics Jadebullet!

Everybody can learn something new, everyday!

 

[magickmaker]

That first one is probably bugging everyone. I'll be nice and let you off the hook on it. I was looking for was the Madison Railroad Incline.

The Madison Incline is the steepest 'mainline' grade in the US, at just under 6%, it's steeper than Saluda and Raton pass. The grade was at the end of the line, on a section of track that led down to the river where trains switched the dock and ferry slip. It was ran on by 'regular adhesion' engines. That is, no cog, no shays, only specialized SD-7s that were a bit heavier than normal, and had rail cleaning equipment on them.

Beyond that, Backyard has answered correctly the following questions:

8.) The SD7 was actually nothing more than a larger version of the GP7. By all accounts, all the design did was lengthen it and add six axle bogeys and more weight. It's not until later that integrally the design starts changing into something heavier.

9.) The A1A is a designation of a six axle truck which has an "idler" wheel in the middle of it. That idler isn't powered, but instead just there to distribute weight.

11.) The locomotives he's referring to are special narrow gauge locomotives built and originally used in Newfoundland. After traffic there was abandoned, all of the locomotives excluding one were sent to Chile, where they work to this day pulling heavy ore trains in the high desert.

Also, he got SO close on number 10, but JUST missed it. There's a very specific detail about the power cars that I was looking for.

Note: On question 6, I'm looking for something specific to the knuckle coupler itself, not so much the whole coupler. It's a design feature still used today, even though it actually has no real use.

 

[westrain]

6.) A bell was added it was required for running in the US.

 

[Pencil42]

5) They used to have a slot in the coupler face to receive a link (see http://www.mcconway.com/images/Janney.jpg), but that's no longer on modern couplers. It looks like some couplers still have the vertical hole that accepted the pin, however.

 

[whitepass]

Number 11 could also be the WP&Y GE diesels that ran in US and Canada and where also sold to South America and then came back to the WP&Y.

 

[evan123]

Well let me ask you folks some actual questions that we use "prototypically", things that you need to know and use on a daily basis.

1) When leaving a block of cars off air for longer then 4 hours, what air test must you do before accepting the cars?

2) When you are clearing a track warrant on a siding, with a switch lined against your movement back onto main track, when are you allowed to re-line the switch into reverse to allow your movement back onto main track?

3) When moving backward, shoving or doubling over movement, the tractive effort value should not exceed _____ when using 2 AC locomotives?

4) Can a field ops employee be attached to more than one crew at a time?

5) There are nine numeric hazmat classes and two worded classes, what are the two worded classes?

6) When giving/repeating track warrants, what must be spelled out?

7) Who do you talk to at a manual interlocking?

8) What are the two transportation unions in the United States?

Go.

 

[jadebullet]

1) According to Norac rules, you have to charge them for 1 hour before moving them.

 

[evan123]

1) According to Norac rules, you have to charge them for 1 hour before moving them.

Norac also covers air tests? **** GCOR needs to step it's game up. If you charge a cut of cars for one hour, how many cars is in the cut?

 

[sawyer811]

Magickmaker's #10:
The Superchief was pulled by "Amos 'n Andy" A A-B set that was a modified motorcar with a boxcab as a B-unit. They had an A1A-A1A wheel arrangement.

#11:
Those would be the NF210's from Newfoundland Railways, called "baby geeps." essentially end-cab GP-7s on 42" trucks that dieselized the Newfoundland Railway. At the end of service on newfoundland, all but one were sent to Chile and the Atacama desert to haul ore out of the mountains. it is interesting to note that the same line they run on uses 80+ year old GE boxcab electrics on the mountain grades.

(PS, i'm not entirely sure that the GE boxcabs are the same line, but TRAINS suggested that they are)

#5:
the couplers are still held in their pockets by big pins, just like a link-and-pin from olden days.

#16:
About 100 feet, just enough to get off the dock for the car float and on to land.

 

[nexusdj]

An hour to charge up a cut of cars , are we talking over a hundred or are you charging it up with a bicycle pump ?

Not sure what they call it in the US but I'd say a brake test after standing for 4 hours as the air would of drained from the reservoir cylinders.

 

[JIb228]

6.) What had to be added when the Flying Scotsman came to the US? A bell. By US standards all locomotives must have a whistle or horn and a bell. But in the UK a bell is not required and thus never installed. In fact, if I remember right, it wasn't until they had the Schotsman off the ship and hanging from the cranes that they realized it needed a bell. And before they could set it down they needed to bolt it on, or get a fine by the US gov.

 

[JIb228]

To add to my answer, I believe they also added a US style coupler for the time. Cant remember what style or if they even did. I just remember watching some thing on when the Scotsman came to the US when I was younger.

 

[evan123]

An hour to charge up a cut of cars , are we talking over a hundred or are you charging it up with a bicycle pump ?

Not sure what they call it in the US but I'd say a brake test after standing for 4 hours as the air would of drained from the reservoir cylinders.

Bicycle pump? Jesus..

 

[nexusdj]

http://www.monon.monon.org/railpixs2/flyingscotA.jpg

Had a cow catcher fitted as well

Bicycle pump? Jesus..

Even our little engines in the UK can charge up a raft of wagons quicker than an hour !

 

[evan123]

Well your "wagons" are much smaller then ours probably. If you tried to use a bicycle pump to charge brakes you might as well jump off a cliff.

 

[magickmaker]

Look like this may be a popular thread eventually. So let me clear up the answered questions right quick:

5.) Pencil42 is spot on. Early couplers had a slot in their face. After Link and Pin was obsoleted, it didn't vanish right away. In fact well into the 1910's, you could still find Link and Pin on older cars. To ease transition, there was a slot in the face of the coupler, and a vertical hole through it. This allowed a "pin" to be dropped in the hole, holding the link in the slot. To this day, the hole remains, though the slot has long since vanished. The hole has no actual use though, and its remaining in the coupler is somewhat of a mystery.

6.) I was looking for the bell. Due to Amercian railroad regulations, a Bell was added to the front of the locomotive. I think it actually still has this feature, or it's in a museum. There was also a coupler and cow catcher added for a time, but it didn't always have that.

10.) Sawyer gets 10 close enough to let you off the hook. The original locomotive of the superchief was a curious A-B set that was called "Amos and Andy." In later years it was as he says, an A1A set of locomotives, but that's not how it started out. Originally they were built to run on two Bo type trucks, before being upgraded to the Three axle. Curiously near the end of their life, the locomotives were once more rebuilt, with the lead truck becoming a 1AA (three axle, lead unpowered) and the rear one being a simple Bo (2 axle) bogey. Lastly, they didn't carry the "Super Chief" colors as delivered. Instead, Olive Green with Cobalt Blue and Sarasota Blue stripes separated by pinstripes of Crimson and Tuscan Red.

16: Sawyer gets this spot on. There's actually a bit more than 100 feet there, enough to allow the trains to access the ferry slip and to pull cars into the dockyard. Interestingly enough, though the AAR has the tracks, they don't have a single locomotive in the lower 48. Union Pacific donates time and a locomotive to do the switching for the Alaska Railroad.

 

[captainkman]

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