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I'd have though elephants, good for shifting stuff and can be used as pumps, would be better for civil engineering, perhaps in conjunction with anteaters to do the digging.  Don't rate giraffes much as cranes, very low SWL.  There is a type of cat of course that does civit engineering.

On 17/06/2020 at 09:14, John Harris said:

For some reason, I'm put in mind of "Albert & The Lion"...

 

'an 'im in 'is Sunday best, too'

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6 hours ago, The Johnster said:

I'd have though elephants, good for shifting stuff and can be used as pumps, would be better for civil engineering, perhaps in conjunction with anteaters to do the digging.  Don't rate giraffes much as cranes, very low SWL.  There is a type of cat of course that does civit engineering.

'an 'im in 'is Sunday best, too'


Elephants were used for shunting & loading / unloading in India with regularity during the British times..

https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/marshalling-of-a-goods-train-by-animal-power-shri-subrata-nath/HQGaSNe7pZ82Qg

 

ive seen Elephants being used In commercial usage in Thailand this century, in the centre of Bangkok !

 

sadly trains and wild elephants dont mix well on the mainlines in the country.

Edited by adb968008
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  • RMweb Gold

They were much involved in the clearing up after the tsunami.  Handy things to have around.  
 

In Canada, according to the story I heard, there was an increase in bull moose deaths in collisions with trains at the time that diesels were first introduced on the Canadian National, but not on CP.  The CP had retained steam type chime whistles, powered by compressed air, and CN used horns, which it turned out were similar in sound to the mating call of the cow moose when she is in season, and the amorous bulls were responding.  
 

Alteration of CN’s horns to a higher pitch resolved the issue.  Story told to me by Ted Beacham, shunter at Penarth North Curve and quarter blood Iriquios ‘first nation’ Canadian born.  Moved to UK with his family during the war; his grandfather had worked on the Kicking Horse Pass and married an Iriquois lady whom he had obtained by mail order as was the frontier way.  Ted was an impressively large gentleman with a convincingly Iriquois profile, and an even more convincing and blood curdling war cry...

 

A genuinely lovely bloke and quite a character.  
 

 

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5 hours ago, The Johnster said:

...........................; his grandfather had worked on the Kicking Horse Pass and married an Iriquois lady whom he had obtained by mail order as was the frontier way. ...........................

 

 

Is that a typo? As I assume you intended to say femail order.

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When I was in Banff last Easter (remember being able to travel....?) one of the roads through the national park was shut due to bear activity. 
 

a freight train carrying thousands of tons of grain had detailed. This was like a free all you can eat buffet for hungry bears emerging out of hibernation! Before they could even think about dealing with the train Parks Canada had to make the area bear safe!

 

Sadly many bears are killed each year on the railways as they go for the split grain. About the only thing that does kill grizzlies!!

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11 hours ago, adb968008 said:


Elephants were used for shunting & loading / unloading in India with regularity during the British times..

https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/marshalling-of-a-goods-train-by-animal-power-shri-subrata-nath/HQGaSNe7pZ82Qg

 

ive seen Elephants being used In commercial usage in Thailand this century, in the centre of Bangkok !

 

sadly trains and wild elephants dont mix well on the mainlines in the country.

 

They've had terrible trouble with elephants on the Nilgiri Hills Railway, because they've figured out how to work the water towers. If an elephant decides it's going to stop for a drink on your railway, there's not much you can do about it. I suppose it would be worse if it was on a trunk route.

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10 hours ago, TomJ said:

When I was in Banff last Easter (remember being able to travel....?) one of the roads through the national park was shut due to bear activity. 
 

a freight train carrying thousands of tons of grain had detailed. This was like a free all you can eat buffet for hungry bears emerging out of hibernation! Before they could even think about dealing with the train Parks Canada had to make the area bear safe!

 

Sadly many bears are killed each year on the railways as they go for the split grain. About the only thing that does kill grizzlies!!

My sister has settled in Canada, and her family has a cabin in Algonquin Park, lake, canoes, lovely in summer, but many years ago she sent me a copy of the park authority's official advice leaflet to cabineers, knowing I'd appreciate the bear advice, something along the lines of; the usual stuff you'd expect about not leaving rubbish or food scraps out and cleaning up barbecues, and closing doors and windows at night, then advice about what to do if confronted by a bear, so 'you may encounter brown, black, or grizzly bears in Algonquin Park.  These bears can smell you 3 miles away, run at up to 30mph, and, despite what you've been told, they can and do climb trees.  It is recommended that you do not venture into the forest alone, and that you take a friend.  Make sure you can run faster and further than your friend...'.

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The best advice was how to spot the difference between black bears (pretty harmless, you make a load of noise to scare them off) and grizzlies (hope they haven’t seen you). Because a big black bear can be as large as a small grizzly!! It all comes down to the markings on the nose. Can’t help thinking you’ve had it if you’re close enough to study the nose

And grizzlies have been known to kill and eat black bears!!

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16 hours ago, The Johnster said:

My sister has settled in Canada, and her family has a cabin in Algonquin Park, lake, canoes, lovely in summer, but many years ago she sent me a copy of the park authority's official advice leaflet to cabineers, knowing I'd appreciate the bear advice, something along the lines of; the usual stuff you'd expect about not leaving rubbish or food scraps out and cleaning up barbecues, and closing doors and windows at night, then advice about what to do if confronted by a bear, so 'you may encounter brown, black, or grizzly bears in Algonquin Park.  These bears can smell you 3 miles away, run at up to 30mph, and, despite what you've been told, they can and do climb trees.  It is recommended that you do not venture into the forest alone, and that you take a friend.  Make sure you can run faster and further than your friend...'.

I think I'd take a rifle as well as a friend!

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1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

I think I'd take a rifle as well as a friend!

Probably better than my plan, which would be to throw a lump of sh*t at it.  There'd definitely be one to hand...

 

Probably best to shoot the friend in the knee and run; the bear will stop to investigate and possibly eat your ex-friend, the friendship probably having effectively ended at this point.

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On 19/06/2020 at 00:39, The Johnster said:

They were much involved in the clearing up after the tsunami.  Handy things to have around.  
 

In Canada, according to the story I heard, there was an increase in bull moose deaths in collisions with trains at the time that diesels were first introduced on the Canadian National, but not on CP.  The CP had retained steam type chime whistles, powered by compressed air, and CN used horns, which it turned out were similar in sound to the mating call of the cow moose when she is in season, and the amorous bulls were responding.  
 

Alteration of CN’s horns to a higher pitch resolved the issue.  Story told to me by Ted Beacham, shunter at Penarth North Curve and quarter blood Iriquios ‘first nation’ Canadian born.  Moved to UK with his family during the war; his grandfather had worked on the Kicking Horse Pass and married an Iriquois lady whom he had obtained by mail order as was the frontier way.  Ted was an impressively large gentleman with a convincingly Iriquois profile, and an even more convincing and blood curdling war cry...

 

A genuinely lovely bloke and quite a character.  
 

 

 

I spent some time in Alaska around the railroad a number of years ago.

Moose just use the railway line as a footpath to get around. They wont move beyond their pace unless theres a predator (wolves and such). They just don't care for locomotives, horns, bells or air compressors, even the drivers shot gun fired off into the air.

 

The drivers cant just run it over, I recall one occasion that a small herd sat down for sometime, it put the driver over his 12 hours, they had to helicopter out a new crew to bring it in to Anchorage.

 

Fantastic memories up there, hope to return for the restored S160.

 

 

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