[HN Gopher] 1955 Union Pacific EMD E9 - The Last of the Classic ...
___________________________________________________________________
1955 Union Pacific EMD E9 - The Last of the Classic Diesel
Streamliners (2012)
Author : Lammy
Score : 40 points
Date : 2022-12-12 19:02 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.curbsideclassic.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.curbsideclassic.com)
| euroderf wrote:
| In the days before personal motor cars became common, it must
| have been wonderful to ride interurbans from place to place.
| Fast!
| WeylandYutani wrote:
| The Dutch railway was completely electrified in the 50s back when
| it was still cheap. The railways had suffered major damage in WW2
| so it needed investment anyway.
|
| War leads to major infrastructure overhaul. Rebuild it better.
| PLenz wrote:
| The Fl9 came just a little bit later and ran in regular commuter
| service into the 2000s
| kvetching wrote:
| Most don't know this but the US still has passenger trains and it
| appears it could be the cheapest way to travel across the US in
| 2022.
|
| https://www.amtrak.com/tickets/departure.html
| SoftTalker wrote:
| Nobody who wants to get across the country in a reasonable
| amount of time and on schedule should contemplate Amtrak.
|
| If you want a sightseeing tour, that's another matter, it's
| great for that.
| 0xffff2 wrote:
| It was indeed great for seeing the country when I was a
| teenager. These days, the idea of living out of something
| similar to a first class airline seat does not appeal and
| sleepers are outrageously expensive.
| HeXetic wrote:
| > it could be the cheapest way to travel
|
| Inter-city buses are the cheapest way to travel if you don't
| own a car. For example a train ticket NYC->Washington DC is
| over $100. A bus ticket for the same trip is $30.
|
| The train will be more comfortable and possibly faster, though.
| pengaru wrote:
| I traveled coach from CHI(IL) to SAC(CA) with a mountain bike
| in tow on the Zephyr for $120 at the end of October.
|
| Not aware of anything comparable cost-wise, especially
| bringing a fully assembled ready to ride mtb along.
|
| Annoyingly however, even a Greyhound bus does the trip faster
| than the Zephyr. Such is the sad state of passenger rail in
| the US.
| woodruffw wrote:
| For what it's worth, it's possible to get a NY -> DC ticket
| (or vice versa) on the NE regional for about $30. You just
| need to book sufficiently far in advance (IME, around two
| months). Usually not a weird time either -- I paid $64 for
| a round-trip weekend ticket during normal hours (early
| afternoon both ways).
|
| Source: I've taken that train at least 150 times at this
| point.
| AnotherGoodName wrote:
| Diesel locomotives are one of those things where the engine can
| be well over 50 years old and no one bats an eye since it's just
| not that unusual nor has the styling changed that much to make it
| obvious.
|
| These EMD E9's are now used for tourist trains but there's plenty
| of other diesels pre-dating these that are still just doing their
| run today. eg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa-
| Sapulpa_Union_Railway is running on diesels from the 1950's, not
| as a museum piece but just as their expected day to day
| operations.
|
| It's one of those fun things when you know enough to spot a 70
| year old locomotive yet the general sentiment from non-buffs is
| just that that's perfectly in-line with expectations and not
| interesting.
| dieselgate wrote:
| Steel is real! Size of the engine and "fleet" maintenance
| certainly helps with longevity too - my diesel truck is older
| than I am
| Lammy wrote:
| > not as a museum piece but just as their expected day to day
| operations
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escanaba_and_Lake_Superior_Rai...
| run a 1951 FP7A as well. Gorgeous power even when it's pulling
| freight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMybdRb1EtA
| pengaru wrote:
| This speaks more to the lack of technological progress in US
| rail than anything else.
|
| Foreigners from nations where state of the art HSR is
| commonplace probably _do_ bat an eye upon seeing such things,
| in the supposedly modern and progressive USA of all places.
| lazide wrote:
| HSR has nothing to do with efficient pulling of freight?
|
| Similar locomotives are the common the world over.
| pengaru wrote:
| That's fair, I mistakenly apple-and-oranged this one.
| SoftTalker wrote:
| Chicago Metra was running EMD E9 units in daily service into
| the 1990s.
| caf wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Shorthaul_Railroad runs
| early 1950s diesels based on the EMD F-class in mainline
| service.
| ChuckMcM wrote:
| There was a joke that went "The only thing that holds its
| resale value better than electronics test equipment is a diesel
| electric locomotive." I'm not sure how true that is but the
| commonality is that they can be maintained to do the same job
| they were designed to do, as well as they did it when they were
| sold. The only reason they go down in value is because the jobs
| aren't there for them any more.
|
| Interestingly the evolution of chips has been much harder on
| "old" test equipment as equivalents can be made one, two, and
| sometimes three orders of magnitude more cheaply. As a result a
| "new" thing which has the same capability but usually takes up
| much less space and power, can do the job of the "old" thing
| just as well, and then the old thing loses its value.
| _hao wrote:
| Beautiful machines! Perfect blend of art/design and engineering!
| Kon-Peki wrote:
| There must have been some logical reason they didn't win out, but
| those Burlington Zephyrs were the best looking diesel
| streamliners. Those Union Pacific streamlines aren't in the same
| league.
| brudgers wrote:
| The Burlington Zephyr was a passenger trainset.
|
| Everything was lightweight. Everything was bespoke.
|
| It wasn't a general purpose locomotive and the styling was in
| part for the marketing potential of aesthetic design.
|
| It was not intended for long haul freight service across
| deserts filled with mountains.
| sitkack wrote:
| What magic did it take to get these things moving from a dead
| stop? I assume the clutches were hydraulic or used a
| retroencabulator. Diesel electric works so well because it
| removes the clutch, and the electric motor has maximum torque at
| zero rpm
| SoftTalker wrote:
| These locotomotives are diesel-electic. Before that it was
| steam, which can also apply force/torque at zero RPM.
| sitkack wrote:
| I believe these locomotives were pure diesel, no electric.
| scrumper wrote:
| These are diesel electric, with 4 traction motors:
|
| https://www.up.com/heritage/fleet/streamliners/index.htm
|
| Edit: what do you mean by "retroencabulator"? That's a
| fake/joke thing. Which (as you'll know) is a quasi-
| electrical device anyway so it's not even the right joke.
|
| I'm ashamed of this comment, truly. I'm sorry, I guess? But
| it doesn't change the fact that the locomotive in the
| article is a diesel-electric.
| LarryMullins wrote:
| I believe they used fluid coupling between the engine and the
| gearbox.
| bombcar wrote:
| It's kind of amazing to think of the people who saw these changes
| - from steam to diesel, from props to jets, all this in a
| relatively short period of time (first flight to landing on the
| moon was about 60 years!).
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYXEBcZpNQQ
|
| I've seen quite a few _lasts_ (the last shuttle flight, the last
| 747 rolling off the line, etc) but we do have smart phones and
| rocket stages that land themselves so there 's that.
| csours wrote:
| In science fiction they were talking about nuclear powered
| trains. Its kind of a shame that never happened. Alas, the real
| world is more complicated than our beautiful stories.
|
| Also, in a way, there are nuclear powered trains, just the
| power is delivered via electrical lines.
| jabl wrote:
| There were actually plans for nuclear powered locomotives in
| the 1950'ies. E.g. the X-12 by Lyle Borst. See e.g. https://b
| ooks.google.co.uk/books?id=bVMEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA78&ot...
| nradov wrote:
| In a similar way we will eventually have nuclear powered
| aircraft and cargo ships. Power and heat from nuclear plants
| on land will be used to manufacture synthetic liquid fuels.
| bryanlarsen wrote:
| Synthetic fuels need an energy price of about $1/MWh to be
| competitive. Intermittent solar will be that price in a few
| years, I doubt that nuclear will ever hit that price.
| RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote:
| Along the same line of thinking though, they are nuclear
| powered already. The fossil fuels owe their energy to the
| sun which is nuclear powered.
|
| I think nuclear powered should be used to something that
| has a nuclear reactor on board directly supplying power.
| maria2 wrote:
| Nuclear usually refers to nuclear fission. Fossil fuels
| are not the product of nuclear fission. Even if they
| were, saying that things powered by fossil fuels are
| nuclear powered is just a terrible take.
| bombcar wrote:
| If you read the Donald Duck/Uncle Scrooge comics from the
| early 50s everything is "atomic" or "uranium" - clearly it
| was a very forward-looking time, and not unreasonably so.
| lettergram wrote:
| Most of the country didn't have cars in 1910. People born in
| 1900 saw the world go from horse driven to space travel by
| their 70s. With antibiotics saving countless lives, clean
| water, running toilets, air conditioning, heat, ...
| xattt wrote:
| You could reframe the "lasts" as being the "first" moves toward
| a greener economy.
| bombcar wrote:
| Yeah, there's been tremendous advances, but many of them
| aren't as "in your face" as older ones would have been. The
| A380 would be up there, but that's even on its way out
| already.
| tmm wrote:
| Ha, I came here to post a link to that song. Anyway, here's the
| Guy Clark version!
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxsTZyIS1ck
|
| Many years ago, the Amtrak station near my house had a
| pedestrian bridge across the tracks, and in those days it
| wasn't enclosed like it is now. My mother worked and so I spent
| most days with my grandfather and we would often go fishing in
| the park nearby. On the way home we'd stop at the station, walk
| out on that bridge and wait for one of the trains to come
| through. I had not yet heard "Texas, 1947" then, but when I do
| now I'm six years old again, watching the express come
| screaming up from DC on its way to New York. I never did get to
| lay a nickel on the track.
| bombcar wrote:
| Yeah, most people have experienced a train coming to a stop
| at a station; it's way _WAY_ more impressive when it barrels
| through without even slowing down.
|
| Someday I want to see live steam like that:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eggYBVAYiI
| floren wrote:
| There were also parts of the country that saw "the last
| electric train"... transitioned to diesel! By 1920, the
| Milwaukee Road was running 645 miles of electrified railroad
| between Montana and Tacoma, WA (there was a 216 mile stretch
| they operated on with steam locomotives). They ran it up until
| the 1970s!
|
| https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Milw3_-_...
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_Road
| walrus01 wrote:
| The Milwaukee Road is also a good business school case study
| on what happens when a company experiences:
|
| a) overburden with debt
|
| b) deferred maintenance spending on physical plant that's
| pushed further out all the time until it becomes
| catastrophically bad
| Aloha wrote:
| They also screwed up the accounting on the pacific
| extension, and double entered expenses for it - the only
| profitable part of the road for years was the pacific
| extension.
| Lammy wrote:
| Related:
|
| - Patent for the earlier slanted-nose locomotive design:
| https://patents.google.com/patent/USD106918S/en
|
| - Patent for the same but with the protruding headlamp:
| https://patents.google.com/patent/USD129410S/en
| hakfoo wrote:
| For more context, the earlier design looks to be the original
| Balitimore and Ohio "EA" type, he original E-series engine. One
| remains in a stuffed and mounted state at the B&O museum in
| Baltimore.
|
| A similar design was used for the Santa Fe's E1A units.
|
| The protruding headlamp design was in the later design E3A,
| E4A, and E6A types. (The E4 was unique to the Seaboard Air
| Line, but the E3 and E6 were produced serially for many
| operators).
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2022-12-12 23:00 UTC)