JAMIE'S RANDOM AMERICAN RAILWAY PHOTOS.

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a warm Charente.   The Tardis is still in the Panama Canal Zone on the 2nd January 2007. We got through to the Atlantic terminus at Colon  in good time.  By a quirk of geography the Atlantic terminus is actually further west than the entrance in the Pacific.   Anyway, one of the local inhabitants was  taking some sun. Not much chance of a train crushing him.

Heading back this was the sort of views we got a lot of the way.  The line wasn't electrified, they just used the right of way as a path for the electrical distribution system.

More workshops and 5' gauge rolling stock.

This is the bridge over the Chagres river.  The river could apparently rise 40' in an hour and controlling it was a major task during the canal's construction. Ahead are the Culebra hills that form the continental divide.

The canal even looks peaceful as we cross the bridge.

Soon we were back at Balboa and I got a shot of our loco at the end of the track.  IIRC the loco numbers start at 1855 in honour of the date of the railway's construction.

Anyway, time to head for the supermarket then an afternoon/evening trainspotting at Tours.

 

Jamie 

Edited April 15, 2022 by jamie92208

[Michael Edge]

That really is at the end of the track - must take some very careful braking.

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, Michael Edge said:

That really is at the end of the track - must take some very careful braking.

It cerainly is. They probably use the start of that bit of painted rail as a marker.

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

Good moaning again from a rather, warm muggy and sometimes damp Charente.  The tardis is still in Panama

on the 2nd January 2007   On the bus back from the station to the ship I got another photo of the container loading yard.

Then a photo of the former breakdown crane that has not been regauged.

The next morning we were off for our trip through the canal.   This started at dawn.  By sheer bad luck we got behind a very dirty container vessel, the Maersk Damascus, that emitted loads of black clag. There was a commentary throughout the day and it was absolutely fascinating. Here we are going into the first set of locks which I think are the San Miguel ones.

Waiting for us were 8 mules that would keep s in position through the locks.  5' gauge and powered by electricity via conduit supply like London trams used to use.  The conduit and plough are always on the landward side, not the locksideThere were usually bridges to get he mules across to the repair shops form the far side and the central island.  I'm not sure if these are still in use.  they may well crane and barge them over now. This bridge and it's connecting tracks didn't look well used. Here are the four mules for our port side waiting to pick up the ropes.

 

And a close up of two of them.   These are the 3rd generation of mules. They are rack equipped for the ascents and descents.

 

More tomorrow, all being well.

 

Jamie

Edited April 15, 2022 by jamie92208

[PaulRhB]

On 07/09/2021 at 07:28, jamie92208 said:

Soon we were back at Balboa and I got a shot of our loco at the end of the track.  IIRC the loco numbers start at 1855 in honour of the date of the railway's construction.

I remember one of the FR drivers saying they’d laid rails in the sand drag to make recovering a loco easier after digging one out. The next one ran off the end of those too!  

[PaulRhB]

8 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

This bridge and it's connecting tracks didn't look well used. Here are the four mules for our port side waiting to pick up the ropes.

And a close up of two of them

The rails can look pretty rusty after a few weeks here, probably faster in a humid areas like that so I guess they only get used every few months for heavy service? 

[jamie92208]

Good morning.  It's still 3rd January 2007 in Tardis land. This view looks along the landward connection to the swing bridge.  The tracks further on looked out of use.

The gradient is pretty steep, here a mule is getting to the top and IIRC Miraflores.  It was interesting to see how the mules exchanged the load when they got to the gradients.  They operated in pairs at the bow and stern. The first of each pair would slacken the rope then go up the gradient and take the strain again whilst the 2nd one slackened off and came up the slope. It looks as if they are preparing to refurbish the loop track on the left.

.A close up of the rack rail.

Double lock gates on the exit onto the summit level.  This was apparently in case of accidents to stop the whole canal and summit lake draining out. IIRC the locks were originally going to be built as a staircase of three but there were geological problems so they had to build a two and 1 arrangement with a short stretch of canal between.  The new larger set of locks are in fact a staircase. set on the northern side of the originals.

It's nice to see that they have a substantial set of buffers at the end of the tracks.

And here is the best shot I could get of a pick up plough running in it's conduit slot.

Jamie

 

 

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a damp Charente.   It's still the 3rd January 2007 in Tardis land. I wondered how they got the mules turned and here was the answer.  conduit tracks but some interesting geometry to work out.

Another shot of the dirty Maersk container ship alongside us with all the mules lines up and a different type of turntable.

The best that I could get of where the rack mechanism is.

And the abandoned connection to the main line from the canal side rather than the train.

All osrts of traffic comes through with graduated tolls depending on size and whether you want a booked slot. I believe that the fee for our ship was over $200,000. A swimmer is charged $10.

And here the Chagres river that supplies he canal enters under the railway bridge.

Jamie

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by jamie92208

[PaulRhB]

57 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

conduit tracks but some interesting geometry to work out.

Another shot of the dirty Maersk container ship alongside us with all the mules lines up and a different type of turntable.

The

They certainly had flexibility and redundancy in mind when the designed that didn’t they, very impressive. 

Edited September 10, 2021 by PaulRhB

[jamie92208]

Good afternoon, Tardis location, still the Panama Canal, date still 3rd January 2007. We carried on towards Gatun Lake and passed the big maintenance yard near the Chagres river.  There are two large floating cranes, used for dealing with lock gates.  The black left hand one has an interesting history. It was a German navy one during WW1. The US got it as war reparation and it was towed across the Atlantic.  When the US Navy didn't want it it headed down to Panama and is still in use.

Then across the lake ard we arrived at Gatun Locks where a flight of three lowered us towards the Caribbean.  Here the mues are bing shuffled round to receive us.

Also most of the 2nd generation mules parked up but not scrapped.  

Interestingly on the lSouth Amerian side the mule return track was being rebuilt.  I never thought that I would see conduit track being laid in my lifetime.  The last that I am aware of was in London for the Festival of Britain in 1951.

More work ongoing, digging out the old rails.1

And a section of rack equipped track redy for concreteing.

 

Jamie

 

 

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Good afternoon from a sunny and warm Charente.   It's still 3rd January in Tardis land though and we are at Gatun locks at the western or Caribbean end of the Panama canal. Here we are about to descend the 2nd lock you can see the slightly slack ropes from the lead mule.

Some of the more mature readers may remember pictures of the original mules from boys encyclopaedias. These were black and double cabbed and one has been preserved. It's cab roof can just be seen behind the building in the foreground.

That's the end of the rack.

And more scrap 2nd generation mules. The people on the road have just crossed a bridge that crosses the entrance to the lock with tunnels either side.

I mentioned some days ago that the swimming toll was $10.  Obviously low but these are the local wildlife. Big they were and we did see at least one more earlier on.

As an aside on the south American side there were three very large lakes parallel to the locks.  Apparently the Americans dug them during WW2 as they were going to build a bigger set of locks to get their Iowa class battleships and big carriers through the canal. I believe that they have now been used for the three new post panamax locks on this side.  Anyway after this very interesting day we were invited to a freind's suite for drinks before dinner and their cabin was at the stern which gave us a great view of the locks as we sailed out to sea.

The whole day was fantastic and it really is an engineering marvel.  The cruise liner is one that had just gone up to Gatun lake for the day and was coming back down.

 

Jamie

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by jamie92208

[Johann Marsbar]

3 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

 

Some of the more mature readers may remember pictures of the original mules from boys encyclopaedias. These were black and double cabbed and one has been preserved. It's cab roof can just be seen behind the building in the foreground.

 

 

 

There is a 1914 built one (from the Pacific end locks) preserved at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke.....

 

 

 

 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Jamie and others, thought we might find this interesting. 

 

I have a book shown below that I found in an antique bookstore in Spokane, I believe it was only purchasable at the opening ceremony of the canal. It is a wealth of information on the canal and it construction, and I think it contains many photos that have not been published elsewhere, except the Library of Congress.

 

Here are some highlights:

 

 

A chamber crane at Miraflores, I built a 3 foot tall working model do own of these out of Meccano, I’ll try and get some photos of it. 
 

 

The internals of the lock gate at I think Miraflores.

 

 

A contemporary hand colored illustration of some chamber cranes and a Berm crane.

 

 

Gatun Lock.

 

 

The book in question.

 

 

Spanish ruins probably discovered by the French but documented by the Americans.

 

Original 300 year old cannonballs.

 

 

A great shot of Panama Bay, I think the twin funneled steamer is a P&O ship, the other is probably a United Fruit Line banana boat.

 

There's loads more photos if anybody wants to specify an area of the canal they want to see construction of.

 

Douglas

[J. S. Bach]

On 07/09/2021 at 02:28, jamie92208 said:

 ...snip... Soon we were back at Balboa and I got a shot of our loco at the end of the track.  IIRC the loco numbers start at 1855 in honour of the date of the railway's construction.

Jamie 

Yes, I would definitely say that is the end-of-track!

[J. S. Bach]

5 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Jamie and others, thought we might find this interesting.

I have a book shown below that I found in an antique bookstore in Spokane, I believe it was only purchasable at the opening ceremony of the canal. It is a wealth of information on the canal and it construction, and I think it contains many photos that have not been published elsewhere, except the Library of Congress. ...snip...

Douglas

I am not sure about that, I have seen stereopticon views of the canal under construction; a whole series of them, maybe over a hundred. I did not buy any as I had no interest in them at the time. An example of a stereopticon view, although not of the canal:

 

Czech out that crazy trolley trackage beneath the el!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 12, 2021 by J. S. Bach
To correct a spelling error. And remove a double photo insertion.

[J. S. Bach]

Note that when a stereopticon card is inserted in the viewer, the image is seen as 3-D. Remember the View Master?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View-Master

[jamie92208]

11 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

Note that when a stereopticon card is inserted in the viewer, the image is seen as 3-D. Remember the View Master?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View-Master

I think my aunt had a hand held stereopticon with some large slides.  Yes things did look like 3D.   

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from the Charente where it's still sunny but that may not last.  The Tardis has travelled overnight to land at Limon Costa Rica on the 4th January.   I had spotted that there was a train ride to a banana plantation  so we went on it.   We walked from the ship to a train made up of a decrepit looking loco together with two equally decrepit coaches and a caboose. After getting out of town we turned back towards the sea and passed a commercial port  where there was evidence of railway activity.

Including a large pile of freight car running gear.

Then surprise surprise a loco amongst stacks of banana containers.

We stopped after a short time only a few yards from the sea.  The track looked in rather decrepit condition. 3' 6" gauge.

here is our loco.  IIRC it's a GE U6B.

We stopped several times whenever the crew saw something interesting.   Here a couple of Sloths up in the trees.

Jamie

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by jamie92208

[Mike_Walker]

Hi Jamie,  I think you'll find 50 is a General Electric U6B dating from 1959 and the track gauge is 3' 6".  34 in one of the above photos appears to be an earlier GE possibly a 70 Ton.

[jamie92208]

42 minutes ago, Mike_Walker said:

Hi Jamie,  I think you'll find 50 is a General Electric U6B dating from 1959 and the track gauge is 3' 6".  34 in one of the above photos appears to be an earlier GE possibly a 70 Ton.

Thanks Mike, corrected.

 

Jamie

[Wendell1976]

7 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Then surprise surprise a loco amongst stacks of banana containers.

 

Dole has some delicious fruit including bananas.

 

Wendell

Idaho, USA 

[ChrisH-UK]

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)

[jamie92208]

On 14/09/2021 at 02:52, ChrisH-UK said:

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)

All I can say is that the crew told us they were Sloths.   Anyway we continued on our way towards the Banana plantation. The coaches were of course fully air conditioned at ambient temperature and humidity.

In the plantation this monorail type system was in use to move the large bunches of bananas around.  I didn't get chance to take a photograph of it but the driver sat on a little seat with a motor above him and towed many bunches of fruit behind him.

Back at the train this was the caboose.

And another shot of our loco.

There was a well maintained sign guarding the level crossing that our train was parked across.

We got back to the ship in time for lunch then Beth hit a snag.  It was a formal night that night and the sole was coming off one of her only pair of sandals.   Obviously as a gentleman I offered to go into town and try and buy some evostick.   I had also seen something that looked suspiciously like a railway workshop on a map.  Ah ha, combine the two jobs.  I set off into town, was about to photograph a colourful procession then realised it was a funeral, so deftly put my camera away.   Then carried on towards where I wanted to go.  I cam to some gates and this is what I saw.

More about my errand of mercy tomorrow.

 

Jamie

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from the Charente.  The Tardis is still in Limon, Costa Rica on the 4th January 2007.

From my previous viewpoint this was the main track into town.

I then walked won the west side of the complex and after passing a small church that was in full voice got this photo of the workshops.

I think this gives a whole new meaning to 'a source of spares'

Walking back the loco that had hauled us that morning was being serviced.

Good well ventilated access. 

I took the above photo through the wire mesh of the gage and suddenly found myself being question is Spanish by an armed security guard with a shotgun.  My Spanish is very limited but he relaxed when I said that I was English but beckoned for me to come inside.  I obeyed of course and was taken to the managers office.  Fortunately he spoke good English and was very pleasant.  I explained who I was and that all I wanted to do was take some photos.  He then said, go wherever you want and have a good look round.  This tiled map was on his wall.  Limon is marked and the commercial banana port is on the north side of the headland.

He told me some of the history of the lines.  Apparently two different companies met at LImon. One that served the south and the other that went north and west towards the capital. They were all nationalised but some years ago an earthquake severed the line to the capital and they have had to keep the freight service for the banana trade running on what they had in their area when the earthquake struck.  They get about 9 metres of rain per year but have survived and were trying to make money by running trains for the cruise lines.  I then set off to make my way round the workshops.

 

Jamie

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by jamie92208

[New Haven Neil]

Great shots of Panama, Jamie.  It occurs to me that despite having made several transits in both directions, you have seen a lot more of it that I did - you can't see much from the engineroom of a ship ( ), and watches are double-manned going through so it's work or sleep....pah!