Tuesday, April 30, 2024

DSB poster 1930s

Showing recent Copenhagen S-Bahn electric trains and a tram. See earlier posts.

1950s A1A-A1A diesel locomotive of Sierra Leone



Cape gauge, rated at 1,000 hp. If it looks a bit like the Australian Commonwealth Railways' NSU class (see earlier posts) it's because it was built by the same people: the Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Company of England.

Sunday, April 28, 2024

1953 Renault Frégate


This model was made between 1951 and 1960.

A NZR J class 4-8-2 trundles along the main street of Kawakawa, 1940s

Still with the bullet nose streamlining which was removed in the late 1940s.  The train will be an Opua Express. See earlier posts, and of course, our books for much more.

Western Maryland 2-8-0

 

One of Western Maryland's trusty H Class 2-8-0's -- the road number is not legible -- has a short coal train on the Connellsville Extension near Deal, Pennsylvania in the 1950s. Bill Price photo via American-Rails.com.

Info on the Connellsville Extension is here

Info on all the variants of the H class is here

Queensland Railways PB15 cape gauge ten wheeler


One of the 233 produced between 1899-1926 and now one of 5 preserved examples.

Chemins de fer de l'Est (France) to the Lötschberg (Switzerland) route poster, circa 1913

One assumes that is a railway tunnel on the Lotschbergbahn, although the track isn't obvious.  See earlier posts on the Lotschberg.

Jugoslavia electric locomotive stamp, 1995

What looks like a JŽ series 461. At this point the former Yugoslavia was disintegrating with violent conflict between the constituent states.


Westinghouse electric locomotive demonstration train, 1905


The Westinghouse Company's exhibits at the International Railway Congress, Washington, 1905. with a fifty-car train, and the track exhibition included also train collisions at comparatively high speeds arranged to demonstrate the great capacity of the Westinghouse friction draft gear in absorbing and dissipating the shocks of impact and reaction. 

The electric locomotive exhibited was at that stage the most powerful ever constructed to take current from an overhead wire, and the first alternating current locomotive built for use in America. It was divided into halves, designed for separate operation separately if desired, each half equipped with three 225 hp motors. With the motors at nominal full load, the drawbar pull at ten miles per hour [16 km/h] was 50,000 pounds [23 tonnes], but dynamometer tests in hauling the fifty-car train, weighing unladen  2,250,000 pounds, developed on several occasions a steady drawbar pull of from 60,000 to 65,000 pounds, and momentary efforts as high as 100,000 pounds without slipping wheels. It was operated from a trolley circuit of 6600 volts, the reduced motor voltage being variable. 

Hafeet Rail lets contracts to build Oman – UAE railway

 from Railway Gazette International


Three agreements have been signed paving the way for construction of a 303 km mixed-traffic railway linking the port of Sohar in Oman with Abu Dhabi in the UAE.

The contracts for the project, which is expected to have a total budget of around US$3 billion, were announced on April 23 during the joint UAE-Omani Business Forum in Abu Dhabi.

At the same event, the Oman – Etihad Rail joint venture of national railway project promoters Oman Rail and Etihad Rail, which was formed in September 2022, announced that it is to rebrand as Hafeet Rail. Hafeet Rail will also maintain the railway line between Sohar and the existing UAE national rail network.

Friday, April 26, 2024

Pickfords Scammell truck, 1950s


"Under the watchful eye of a policeman, and the driver's mate, a huge pressure vessel is being delivered to Woolwich Docks. Such boilers might have to travel many miles on muds narrower roads than today's, causing major traffic congestion. Drivers also had to be very skilled to handle such huge loads.

"Scammell Lorries Ltd was founded in 1922 after an old-established firm of coachbuilders, G. Scammell and Nephew Ltd had experimented with a prototype four-wheel tractor and two-wheel semi-trailer. In the 1920s and 30s Scammell built ever larger and more powerful four- and six-wheel tractors, powered mainly by Gardiner diesel engines, and capable of hauling enormous loads on purpose-built trailers like the forty-eight-wheel example shown. Also caught up in the event are three cars. The Ford Prefect on the right is the 1939 Model 93A, rated at 10hp. On the left is an SS Jaguar 1.5-litre side-valve 4, and behind it may be lurking a Riley 12 Model 29S saloon.

"An unusual feature of this area was the triple tramlines, with power supplied to the vehicles via a centre rail, while the wheels ran on the two outside rails which also conducted power. The centre rail consisted of a conduit open at the top, with a sunken centre rail, and the tram had a trailing shoe that made contact to pick up power Only a very persistently kamikaze pedestrian would have managed self-electrocution, but one feels water and debris must have been a problem at times."

Mike Jefferies painting(?)

US southwest steam railway art

Seen in the Tuscon, Arizona, passenger station. No details.

Saturday, April 20, 2024

old Wellington tram in the countryside

There were never any Wellington lines that did run though countryside, but this shows an ex-Wellington tram on the Paekakariki Tram Museum line on the Kapiti Coast; a nice drone shot by Waikanae based artist and photographer, Tokerau Jim on his Facebook page. See earlier posts on the Tramway Museum.

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

2-6-6-2 'Mallet Mogul'

Built by Baldwin in 1929, and used by the Southwest Forest Lumber Mills, it is now displayed near the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. (Geoff Churchman pic)

from SteamLocomotive.com:

The first Mallet was an 0-6-6-0. Around 1905 the Great Northern Railroad was interested in one but wanted a locomotive that was better suited to main line operation. Baldwin built five "0-6-6-0"s with leading and trailing two-wheel trucks. This configuration suited the GN's curving main line of the Cascades.

It wasn't until 1910 that 2-6-6-2s were built with their firebox behind the drivers and supported by the trailing truck which is normally why one would have a trailing truck. Subsequent 2-6-6-2s were built following this design.

The 2-6-6-2 was primarily a low-speed locomotive. This wheel arrangement was also commonly used on the logging railroads in the Western USA. However, the C&O (Chesapeake & Ohio) continued developing the 2-6-6-2. Their versions evolved into very large road locomotives. With their smokebox-mounted air pumps, they looked quite impressive. Fortunately, two of these class H-6 C&O locomotives survive today.

This wheel arrangement was also used by the Southern Pacific in their development of the Cab Forward locomotive. On the SP this wheel arrangement was called a "Mallet Mogul".

1959 Cadillac and a trailer

What in British Commonwealth countries is called a caravan. Probably the car was new when the pic was taken.