Modern Marvels-Locomotives

[Redtail67]

One hour Documentary tonight on the History Channel. It might be of interest to some of you.

Redtail67

[trains]

One hour Documentary tonight on the History Channel. It might be of interest to some of you.

Redtail67

what time?

[Guilford Guy]

8pm Eastern Time
8pm Pacific Time
7pm Central
6pm Mountain Time

[Yampa Bob]

On Directv, mountain time for the program is 6:00 and again at 10:00.  It took a bit of negotiation, as my wife had to decide which of her favorite shows to miss, O'Reilly at 6 or Murder She Wrote at 10.  Jessica won. 

I really want to watch it twice, but that is no stretch, and our recorder is on the fritz.

Bob

[Yampa Bob]

Red
Thanks for informing us about the program.  I missed it the last time, about 10 more minutes and I will be glued to the TV.  I'm sure we will have some interesting questions and comments after the show.

Bob

[Yampa Bob]

Impressive!  Now you "proto" guys have a new challenge. 

Imagine if they could double the speed and break the sound barrier.  BOOM.  

[Jake]

^Umm, Bob, first off, 6 feet per second is just under 4.1 mph. And second, what are you talking about?

[Yampa Bob]

Apparently you didn't watch the documentary, which is the topic of this thread.

According to the TV program, a French train set a record of 354mph.

I deleted any further numbers from my post, everyone can do their own math.

Bob

[Redtail67]

The USA is way behind the other countries in Passenger Rail Service. They put all their eggs in the Airlines basket. They showed the short sighted view held by the various Administrations of the importance of Rail Service both freight and passenger.

They let the officers of the great fallen flags run their roads into the ground and rob the money for golden parachutes and outrageous pay. They permitted abandonments and neglected maintainence of extremly important routes.

These outright stupid decisions by rail management and a turned head of the U.S. government have led us to be the last on passenger transportation. The friegt service is nothing short of a joke as the many years of neglect and investment are coming home to roost.

A very aggressive rail passenger service improvement program should have been started 20 years ago. The delay will cost billions of dollars more than if they had pursued it years ago as warned by the transportation experts of the time.

Look at the abandonment of the double track at Colorado Springs now its to late it will nerver come back and the delays in the freight operation because of that one stupid idea had already cost millions. It is also one of the main reasons of opposition to passenger along the front range than is needed now and will be one heck of a proplem in 10-15 years.

One has to marvel at the high speed service all over Europe as well as Japan. We on the other hand can not average 40 mph Chicago to LA. on a daily basis.

It will be the resurgence of passenger service on dedicated track that will go a long long way on relieving congestion on the highways and cut a big dent in the importation and reliance on oil in the future.

Redtail67

[Jhanecker2]

Nobody ever claimed that either politicians or upper level management ever were blessed with foresight  or for that matter real intelligence . Must be that thin air at the top .  Look how long it take them to figure out the fact that our dependence on Foreign Oil is dangerous .  You'd have thought the mess in the 1970's would have sent a message.

[Yampa Bob]

I was quite impressed with the loco maintenance facilities at CSX. The do take great care and pride in their equipment.

UP has a different philosophy, run it till it pukes then scrap it.  You can't believe the beat up worn out coal cars that move through here.  The locos look like they haven't been cleaned in years.

But here is the irony of it.  I had stock in CSX that was stagnant.  I traded it for UP stock and the value has climbed steadily.   I think that is due to the fact that here in the largest coal producing area of the nation, UP has no competition.  Santa Fe doesn't want the coal line, they have enough problems keeping up with the contracts they have.

I think the Marvels' statement regarding fuel consumption comparsion between rail and trucks was inaccurate.  I don't recall the numbers but they didn't seem logical.

Bob

[Redtail67]

It was the attitude of more profit(less maintenence) that does pay off for the share holder but at some point the expenses will be triple to replace and restore and operational fleet of cars or locomotives. That time that same stock will fall to the floor and the road will face bankrupcy and the government (the taxpayer, us) will be forced to bail them out. It is a scam that been run on the taxpayers for 30 years over and over. The fat cats running the railroad retire mega millionaires and could give s*5& about the cost to us to pay for their style of management.

Many cloaim they were stupid and inept managers while its just the opposite. They figured out the game a long time ago. Just how to retire rich beyond belief and have the government pay for all the money they robbed from the compaines they were in charge of.

In todays world where all the roads have merged into 4 main carriers of the nations freight the problem will surface with staggering cost to us.

Some roads are in fact better than others on upkeep and investment into the future others totaly ignore it.

There is no mode of transportation that can move freight as cheaply as rail none i repeat none.

Study after study has been done to justify the subsidy to airlines and to trucks and all clearly show that rail is the cheapest way to move freight any distance.

I was a party to many studies as to the cost to move the coal on BNSF fron Wyoming to Texas the cost to move 1 ton of coal and the amount fuel used by modern locomotives to move that coal was unbelieveable. Why? UNIT TRAINS.

The amount of trucks and the time as well as amout of fuel for them to move that same coal that same distance was staggering. Not to mention the logistics and the fact that the highway system could not possibly handle it.

The cost per ton mile of the fuel and the amount of fuel per ton mile is indeed unbelievably low for modern trains. Those figures were more than likely right.

Redtail67

[Yampa Bob]

It was the ton per miles per gallon for the trucks that didn't seem right, the estimate seemed too high.

Bob

[r.cprmier]

Nobody ever claimed that either politicians or upper level management ever were blessed with foresight  or for that matter real intelligence.

Let's get one thing straight here:  Intelligence is the possession of knowledge/information and not neccessarily the ability to utilize it constructively.  Stupidity is the wilful abandonment of logic and action based upon moral/wisdomly conviction; even though one knows the consequences; but to tailor the results to feather their own nests with ill-gotten gains.  Morality?  Where?!

Now, with that said;  we are dealing with a bunch of selfish inconsiderate, immoral condescending SOBs who don't give a randy rat's rear about you or I.  All they care about is themselves, their damned dirty money, and thier wealth.  Nice!  What was that about the "superior animal"?  My personal feelings are that most if not all politicians fall into that category, as well as most "lawmakers" and attorneys.  What are we to them?  No more than a voting constituency-padding to ensure their tenure, and all they have to do is toss in a little BS; most people out there, although very nice, seem to just lap it up.  Take a look at our present run at the presidency, then come back and we'll talk.  Ask na outsider, like Tim, Roger, et al, who get to view the States as just another country.  You might just be shocked at what you hear!

For the public good...Bull****!!!  Rome is burning, my friends.

Rich

(the old reprobate)

[thirdrail]

As a retired railroad department head, funny, I never ran onto any filthy rich vice presidents on other railroads and on my railroad the union train crews made more than the Vice President. My department was responsible for marketing, sales, pricing, interline divisions (splitting the freight charges between railroads), and freight claims. I therefore was also responsible for figuring out what it cost to provide the service. Well managed railroads do provide a good return for their shareholders, but these are not the managers and executives, they are you and your neighbors if you or they have any kind for government or education pension plan.

So, those of you who really want to "screw the shareholders" are screwing government employees and other folks with pension plans far more than "fat cats on Wall Street", as these pension plans are by far the largest owners of stocks in America today.