ChrisH-UK
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Posts posted by ChrisH-UK
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On 01/02/2023 at 14:44, USRailFan said:
Video from Watford Junction in summer 1991 seems to show two (presumably northbound) night trains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXC7aF-zm8Y&t=602s
The first one is at around 4:15, hauled by a Class 87 and has a pretty weird formation of 2 Motorail GUVs, 3 SLE/SLEP, 1 TSO, 2 BSO with the van areas facing each other, 2 TSO. Strangely large amount of seating cars for a night train of that era, possibly a transfer of extra stock (with the 1 TSO and BSO being the "standard" seating?). Possibly the Fort Bill train? Or possibly some charter service (but would they have had Motorail)?
The second one is at around 10:25, hauled by a Class 90 with a formation that looks like 4 Motorail GUVs, 6 SLE/SLEP, 1 RLO, 3 SLE/SLEP, TSO, BSO. Probably the Euston - Glasgow or possibly Euston - Edinburgh sleeper?Yep it's the Fort William which also conveyed seated accommodation to Edinburgh (because who wouldn't want to be kicked off a train in Edinburgh at 4:15) The train to Edinburgh was sleeping accommodation only at that time.
The next sleeper in the timetable was the Inverness which conveyed motorail and seated accomm that was usually a BSO and TSO, at that time the Glasgow train was not a Motorail service and seated coaches on the Aberdeen train were usually 2 x 62xx TSOs and a BG
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I have used the NEC station a few times back when it just added $4 or 5 to the train ticket cost, one time I caught the late Virgin flight which left Heathrow at 20:30 and got to Newark around 11, dossed down in the airport for 3 hours then headed to the station to catch a train to Trenton that connected to the first SEPTA service of the day to Philadelphia before ending up in another Newark (Delaware). No way would I use it purely to get between the airport and downtown Newark.
As much as my heart says linking Elizabeth to the airport would be a handy thing my head says it's unlikely to happen.
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7 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said:
I missed the worst of Sandy as I was in Maryland at that time, but my plans were still disrupted by it (see umpteen pages back in this topic...)
I was in Vineland, NJ. The Eye went right over the top of us but somehow didn't do any significant damage to the city, surprising considering the mess it made across a large swath of New Jersey.
QuoteThere were plans for that to be the terminus of a light rail line to EWR Airport in recent years, but it now seems to be going to be a busway of some sort instead.
Do you have any more info on that, I'm a frequent user of Newark which is undergoing a redevelopment, yet I'd heard nothing about this.
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A fair chunk of the damage to the ferry slips was done by hurricane Sandy in 2012, I believe those were the slips the Ellis/Liberty Island ferries used the first time I went there in 2001, when I went back in 2015 it was from new slips but I'm not sure I realised the big cause until researching car float operations three years ago because of the toll the storm-surge took on their slips - iirc the few that are still in operation were the best survivors of Sandy
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I use an Elegoo Mars 2 Pro and was pleasantly surprised how well it worked out of the box. I've attempted to answer each og your points below based solely on my own experience.
1. I check my build plate regularly but not every time I print and so far (3 months) I've only had to adjust it twice.
2. My fep has a few marks but still works ok, for best results I should replace it but I'm still happy with what I'm producing at this stage
3. I've mostly used the default settings for the printer and the resin. Obviously the manufacturer's recommended settings are very conservative and trusted Youtubers can suggest how to improve on them and YMMV.
4. Supports certainly is a black art. I've printed some things directly on the build plate, those with a small support footprints snap off cleanly, larger pieces do not. I'm still learning what makes the best supports including building my own into the design. I plan to invest in a magnetic build plate.
To troubleshoot further you would need to show more of the item being printed, personally I wouldn't trust a single horizontal line as the first layer of actual part, regardless of the supports around it.
5. I've only paused under exceptional circumstances for fear of sabotaging the print.
6. Have always printed at normal household temps, I know others have had issues with cold temps and draughts.
7. I only filter the resin at the end of a session when I empty the vat or if I can tell there is debris in the vat
8. I have printed multiple things but try hard not to cram the build plate full.
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18 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said:
It wasn't until I stayed in Niagara Falls that I realised just how "tacky" the place is once you get away from the falls area - like a UK seaside resort at its worst!
It surprised me that the Canadian side was so very tacky especially compared to the US side, it's like someone on the Canadian side said "the Americans are known for being tacky" and someone replied "hold my Labatts" and the US saw what was going on and said "whoa, that's too far, we're not even going to try to compete with that.
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29 minutes ago, Johann Marsbar said:
I've had a few holidays like that.......!!
Worst one was the 3674 mile solo drive round the Mid-West in a period of 23 days - but that one is still a way off in the story as yet.....
Luckily I've not done that kind of thing for that many days, but one "why did you do that?" sticks in my mind - Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon to Monument Valley to Four Corners to Gallup in the same day, I was glad to get to my bed that night so I could sleep there, rather than while driving to Gallup.
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1 hour ago, Johann Marsbar said:
Not a lot of other rail interest around on this visit, but I did find this rather lost ex Thames Valley Bristol K...
The bus just wanted to stop and smell the flowers. With the speed the world was moving at pre-pandemic it's something we should remember to do ourselves.
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I agree with Neil, Jamie, pH and Wendell (quoted below to preserve context) and like DaveF I'm inspired to visit some of the places featured (fingers crossed for Feb 16th)
I can't believe this thread's been going 8 months. I'm going to have to find something constructive to do now
On 13/01/2022 at 16:57, New Haven Neil said:I'm gutted it's finished!
Thanks for posting these Jamie, it's been amazing. Whilst I have seen US trains, it was only ever from the edges of the country - being in the Merch at the time. The interior of the USA is a mystery to me.
On 13/01/2022 at 17:10, jamie92208 said:I think it's a mystery to many Americans.
On 13/01/2022 at 17:15, pH said:Some flat bits, some bumpy bits, a few wet bits, lots of space.
On 13/01/2022 at 17:39, Wendell1976 said:Thank you for sharing all the beautiful pictures, Jamie. The United States is one big, beautiful country. I have been to 43 out of the 50 states. There are many parts of America I haven't seen yet.
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9 hours ago, roundhouse said:
We take our own sat nav which has up to date US maps on it. We also do not do upgrades at the desk as they tend to work out a lot dearer once all the taxes are added.
The last time we rented a car, we returned it to a different location in the same state so no surcharge. It was a downtown location at a hotel. The woman at that location was busy washing a vehicle in her heels when we got to the desk as she was the only one there to deal with everything.
Occasionally upgrades at the desk work out, one time in the last 5 years I got my insurance separately to save money but as I went to grab the paperwork they offered me insurance included in the price I had already paid - that's very much an exception though.
There are other ways of avoiding drop-charges/surcharges for one-way rentals. Also 5 years ago I rented with Hertz in West Virginia and dropped at Pittsburgh Airport in PA, so possibly locations in those states are somehow connected. Back in 2010 I rented again from Hertz but in Bartlesville, Oklahoma and drove through that state, Arkansas, Louisiana and along the Gulf Coast to Pensacola - no extra charge. I believe that anywhere from NYC and New England is considered the same area by some/most rental companies as I've rented from Logan, done a circular tour then dropped at JFK. One-way rentals involving Florida also seem to be better priced.
Just to be clear in all these cases, they didn't just build the charges into the cost of the rental another way, the total taxable cost was $200-300 lower
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8 hours ago, jamie92208 said:
Then it was onto a flight to JFK where I saw the last rail borne transport of the trip. And the tail of, I think a 767.
fwiw (not much on a railway site) it's a 777 because the rear fuselage tapers to a flat shape like a chisel rather than to a round point like a biro seen on most airliners
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On 20/12/2021 at 13:16, Johann Marsbar said:
You need to watch this then.......
I don't know whether the line has ever been covered by a book on its history, but I was amazed to find this on You Tube - particularly given it's in colour and the line shut in 1947 - and its what started me off looking at Google Earth and retrace its course. I did find another website that gave details of a couple of local lines that operated totally within Independence for a few years as well.
I find it incredible that such a system existed in that very rural corner of SE Kansas. I just took it for granted that Independence and Coffeyville had some other advantage that lead them to be that much more developed than the rest of the area (I only passed through Cherryvale once so can't comment either way on that place). So I guess part of the reason my friends moved there was a legacy of the railroads that you can still see and the interurban that is long gone.
Btw the only parts of the video that I actually recognised for certain were the rail bridges in Coffeyville and Independence.
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I never even knew about the Interurban line, although I do have a vague recollection of seeing the brick/concrete striping on 19th St from the bridge. I don't think it's me being revisionist but I'm not ruling it out. Gonna have to do some research, and probably add it back to my list of places to revisit, lol.
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I've been trying to place where that last photo was taken.
I had friends who lived in Independence, KS from 2006 until 2016 although I only visited up to 2010. They lived about a block away from Independence High School and were a short walk from the line that runs in to town from the east, many times I heard trains, some I tried to see them but only once did I actually see something - a SKOL train (no, not a lager train)
I thought that pic might have been taken from the bridge that carries Main Street over the line, but some of the landmarks have changed, and I'm a little bit lost now!
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Wow, seems like your trip went into express mode once you met up with the rest of your party. Glad you stopped in Michigan City though, I was introduced to it by friends so good that they became family, one of whom grew up right there, and I needed a reminder to get back there and ride the line.
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1 hour ago, Mike_Walker said:
The biggest "industrial switcher" I've come across is Delta Bulk Terminal 1001 in the port at Stockton, CA. It's the former Conrail, nee-PC 6792, an ALCo Century C636 (3499-13 4/68) possibly the last active survivor of its type which was never very common. Hard to find and photograph - Jim Boyd and I "bashed" the port in 1991 expressly to target it (and got thrown out!) so I don't know if it's still there. If not hopefully it has been preserved. Anyone know?
Just did a bit of research and apparently it is used by the Delaware Lackawanna railroad in NE Pennsylvania, details here
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Took one look at the fec loco and its number and thought "that looks like an ex-Conrail unit" sure enough it was, it was one of their GP10 conversions. Originally I assumed it had been used by the more famous fec - Florida East Coast before moving west and was in their darker blue, but no, it's Farmers Elevator Co-operative (fecx) and is faded Conrail blue. The other one is also ex-Conrail and another former GP10 conversion, can't tell if its paint is super-faded and oxidised or if someone took pity on it and painted it grey then applied the lined red stripe.
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14 hours ago, pH said:
I presume you were in a rental car. Did the rental agreement say anything about driving on non-metalled roads? Like “don’t”?
I’ve had that clause specifically pointed out to me at the rental counter when renting in the southwest of the USA, with the warning that to do so voids the insurance during or afterwards!
I've not had it pointed out to me, but I spotted it for myself in rental agreements in the Northeast US in 2018 and 2019. I've wondered when this first appeared routinely because I'd not noticed it until then, but maybe I wasn't looking closely enough. Also wondered how rigourously this is pursued in states where unmade roads are given designations by the state or the county.
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You originally mentioned 1988, are you after the original version fitted at that time that completely enclosed the RCH connector or the revised version that was just a bracket to retain the RCH connector against the cab front which became the standard due to the issues they experienced with the original?
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I just used a small flat-bladed screwdriver to pry under the edge and ease the clip up the shaft, it doesn't take much force and the clips should still be usable after
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14 hours ago, jamie92208 said:
We stopped several times whenever the crew saw something interesting. Here a couple of Sloths up in the trees.
Jamie
Those don't look like sloths to me, sloths can be the right way up but given a tree and the choice would prefer to hang beneath it. They look more like howler monkeys (I googled "costa rica primates" then did an ID parade)
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On 01/09/2021 at 16:20, roundhouse said:
What I didn't realise is that the front bumper on the pickup is missing.
However the normal viewpoint most won't see that.
A friend has an f150 pickup that they had to replace the front bumper, they drove around without one for a few days so it's 100% prototypical
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19 hours ago, montyburns56 said:
I've always been fascinated with Auchmuty branch from Markinch station and I noticed how the trains to the Tullis Russell paper mill used an odd type of hopper wagon that I'd not seen before. But when I was trying to find out info about it I was amazed that Farish actually made a model of the wagon! I think that only 8 of the real thing were ever made just to serve a single location which makes Farish's decision to model it even more bizarre.
It's bright blue and its route took it from Cornwall to Central Scotland on an almost daily basis, so covering three regions and being easily recognisable as it passed so many locations probably downgrades it from bizarre to unusual.
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Cigs, cars and booze definitely represent the most common billboards, but looking at those reminded me of a few others I remember, foxes glacier mints - the pack logo of the bear standing on the mint from the late 70s/early 80s (I've looked for it but not found the right version), Tunes & Lockets - packshot, Walls ice cream - can't remember which product. Alliance & Leicester Building Society, I remember Halifax having billboards before Howard and also Lloyds Bank. Rowenta irons, Zanussi - something like this, oh and famous Grouse whisky.
How valid were the criticisms that the 1984 Old Dalby nuclear flask test was too staged?
in UK Prototype Questions
Posted
Which iirc most 'footage' of the 31 was actually two shunters and some plywood. (The loco "bogies" had connecting rods and there was roll between the two body halves)