Dr Gerbil-Fritters

and deservedly became quite the celebrities, 3100 was the last DRGW GP40-2 in original paint, getting patched to UP 1350 in January 2006. 3129 got patched to UP1445 in October 2005. Here's 3117 which I was pleased to stumble across by accident at 9th Street, Colton, sitting on the east leg of the Riverside Branch wye, 22nd September 2005. It got patched to 1368 on October 27th 2005... how lucky was I? By the time of my next trip in March 2006, patches were in place. This should be DRGW 3116... just north of San Jose I think. What this picture really means is - I got all my US railfanning pics recovered from the failed hard drive! BTW, the track's not really wonky - I grabbed this from the top deck of a San Jose bound Cal-Train commute coach.

The entire class dumped into the sea at Dawlish to form a new seawall to protect the GWR I claim my medal!

Oh, I don't know. Bill Gates paid $30million and change for some tatty old notebook from some bloke called Da Vinci, so anything is possible. The sketchbook is definitely not dcc.

That Canadian built 4-8-2 is a bobby dazzler alright. Montreal Locomotive Works number 76126 built in 1948, so she's a classic late-steam era North American design.

Well, at least he won't be announcing a model of it, which wouldn't arrive anyway.

The UP inherited the CNW heritage F7s... three A units. Sadly left to rot, although 2 are now on some tourist pike somewhere. The F7B is DRGW. I don't know why it ended up at Cheyenne. Perhaps at one time they were planning on a heritage F7A-F7B-F7A. The Es are nice but a trio of late model Fs would be even nicer.

it doesn't have to be! WSR is possibly the only preserved line that actually could run all its steamers right way round for every trip...

Aha, they must have been listening! 5199 has been for a spin

You've not been on the many many track/gauge threads....

Inspired by this wonderful thread, I have sent off my defunct hard drive to see if the decades-worth of US railroad photos can be recovered. If they can, look out for my equivalent series 'Dr G-Fs railroad travels'. Pretty much covers several trips to Tehachapi, Cajon, San Jose and Bay Area, and the northern and southern transcon in Arizona, Arizona mining railroads, and one excursion to the Pacific north-west. fingers crossed

I'm curious as to why the WSR - with a turntable at Minehead and a triangle at Norton - doesn't turn engines so they are facing forwards. Reverse working - especially tender engines - just looks so wrong.

Careful choice of routes and airlines!

I flew in a Delta MD80 just once, from Phoenix Skyharbor to Chicago. I was at the back near the engines and when I got off I was stone deaf in my right ear and had one of the worst migraines I've ever had. Passed out in the lav at O' Hare for an hour. Just about made it on to my flight to Heathrow feeling like I was going to die. As we were about to depart the gate, a Delta employee brought me my laptop which I'd completely forgotten in the departure lounge in my fugue state. Nice customer service from Delta. I've avoided MD80s and planes with engines nailed to the fuselage ever since!

DB* didn't really do much to their Einheitsloks other than design them properly in the first place and then build lots of them. Only China took an even more extreme view on standardisation, finishing the steam age with two types of 2-8-2 and one type of 2-10-2. *designed by the DRG

It is fantastic isn't it? It's been digitally scanned frame by frame and then stabilised, probably also colour and contrast adjustments. It really brings the past to life seeing it in near contemporary quality. Here's a little video outlining the process - check out the home-made scanner! Looks like the early days of the space race! and here's the results compared to the original... Sorry about the thread drift, I really should park this somewhere it would get a wider audience.

That's nice of you Clive, you've just increased my readership by 50%

The History of the English Art School System. Although that's not actually the title, I don't know why I capped it as such... Anyway, much more interesting - my Main Motive Power turned up. Super speedy service from Germany. The board extension is almost finished, just a bit of paint and such. Also had a jolly good tidy up in the shed, so it's not so depressing to walk into/spend time in.

Oh Wendell, if only that were true. My first SP was an SD45 in speed lettering in a helper set at Mojave. And then look at my avatar on here... I've tried to like UP and BNSF but they killed off my two favourite roads

Tidying up, ready for the next bout of track laying. I've given up with UK suppliers and found one in Germany who had what I wanted in stock. I also bought an airbrush for weathering and such. Tried it out on some track, plus fiddling about with ballast. Hateful job but probably worth it. And finally, phwoar... look at the detail on that It won't see any use until I can persuade someone to hardwire a decoder into it. I have a much more suitable tanker arriving shortly anyway. DCC ready too. Progress is slow as I only seem to be able to focus for short periods of time. I blame the doctoral thesis. I have until next April to complete a full draft and I am already five weeks behind with the methodology chapter.

These days it wouldn't like the summers either...

Ah, Tristar... another RAF tanker from my youth! What a sound on take off... like a buzz saw at full whack

The UP locomotive is a GP38-2 (four axles) rather than the more exotic SD38-2. Interestingly, there have been several UP 2026s since that one - firstly it was an ex-SP GP60 (now numbered 1138 I think) and now 2026 is an SD40N. The original 2026 doesn't seem to be on the roster now, but 2027 is, now running as 527. Not bad since it was built in 1974... The BN F45 / SD45 combo is a beaut, no wonder the Mrs was impressed by the noise. We'll pass over the GE piece of cr4p in the middle... Sorry to butt in again, I am such a bore when it comes to identifying US loks. I did have a couple of threads about it on an earlier iteration of RMWeb, sadly now lost and so are the pictures that went with it. I dropped a hard drive and it took out a decade's worth of my US railroad photos.

The steering wheel is in the way.

Oh the alternate history timelines that spring to mind with that scenario...

looks like a boring movie compared with