Grassroots Railroad Sports?

Jim Pettengill said:

Those photos of tunnels triggered a memory that nicely links this topic with race cars.  About 5 years ago Racecar Engineering magazine did an article on the Laurel Hill tunnel that was being used by Ganassi Racing to test their Indy car aerodynamics.  I just checked, it's online, just google Ganassi railroad tunnel.  Check it out, it's an interesting story.

I remember reading about that. Did not realize that it was a tunnel built for a railroad that was never completed, and then PA just decided to run the old turnpike through it before abandoning it. Pretty clever to use it for aerodynamic testing.

Xceler8x said:

 

Thanks to you guys I'm checking out rail excursions too. That sounds like a great spring trip for the family. Please keep those suggestions coming. Close to Virginia would be nice. 

The weird thing is that as important as Virginia was to railroading, there are very few tourist railroads offering public excursions, other than really Buckingham Branch. Three and a half hours away though is Cass Scenic Railroad in West Virginia, which has been repeatedly mentioned. I'd like to go there myself. They run a veritable fleet of steam gear-drive logging locomotives, which are really cool and unique. Virginia Museum Of Transportation (who owns Norfolk & Western 611) and the O. Winston Link Museum (amazing photographer who shot the N&W at night in black & white) are 3 hours away. Three hours and 45 minutes away is the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. Their operating steam locomotive, WM #734 was unfortunately parked in 2015 for it's 1472-day inspection, with no timeframe on its return, but they are working on getting Chesapeake & Ohio #1309, a huge 2-6-6-2 articulated, up and running and it sounds like they are getting close. In the meantime, they do have two pretty schnazzy GP30s in operation.

A Conrail train with an ex-Lehigh Valley and an ex-Erie Lackawanna GE U-series locomotives rolls down Schuyler St, in Utica, NY. These tracks are still there and (barely) active and I've driven across them countless times headed to my sister. Conrail and Amtrak consists in their beginning are funky, because it's all sorts of mix-matched equipment from their component railroads, some wearing original liveries with the new company logos slapped on, like 2781 in the lead.

In reply to NickD :

It definitely was an ordeal. You can still enter the tunnel at both ends. The tunnel is capped about 50 yds in though. A few years back The Discovery Channel was talking about filming an unearthing of that train. They started to pump the water from the tunnel but were stopped as no one knew what would happen to the hill itself if all the water was pumped out. A local journo and some friends actually entered the tunnel and tried to get to the train. They were stopped by standing water and the landfill used to fill holes in the hill from when the tunnel started to collapse under the houses built on top of it. The houses were razed, the sinkhole was filled, and those lots are now a park. The park is across the street from the church in which Patrick Henry gave his "Give me liberty or give me death!" speech. 

NickD said:

Xceler8x said:

 

Thanks to you guys I'm checking out rail excursions too. That sounds like a great spring trip for the family. Please keep those suggestions coming. Close to Virginia would be nice. 

The weird thing is that as important as Virginia was to railroading, there are very few tourist railroads offering public excursions, other than really Buckingham Branch. Three and a half hours away though is Cass Scenic Railroad in West Virginia, which has been repeatedly mentioned. I'd like to go there myself. They run a veritable fleet of steam gear-drive logging locomotives, which are really cool and unique. Virginia Museum Of Transportation (who owns Norfolk & Western 611) and the O. Winston Link Museum (amazing photographer who shot the N&W at night in black & white) are 3 hours away. Three hours and 45 minutes away is the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. Their operating steam locomotive, WM #734 was unfortunately parked in 2015 for it's 1472-day inspection, with no timeframe on its return, but they are working on getting Chesapeake & Ohio #1309, a huge 2-6-6-2 articulated, up and running and it sounds like they are getting close. In the meantime, they do have two pretty schnazzy GP30s in operation.

Thanks for the list! I'll check it out. 

If you're ever "down under" this is a cool thing to do. The Kuranda Scenic-Rail.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuranda_Scenic_Railway

It has beautiful views for a 2hr ride up the mountain. From the article link "15 hand-made tunnels and 37 bridges were built to climb from sea level to 328 metres up the Macalister Range"

My, at the time, future wife and I did this. It's something to climb this route through a rain forest. The carriages were gorgeous. 

Erected in 1928 in the Pyrenees, Canfranc was the second largest station in Europe. But no train has been on it since 1970. Fortunately, volunteers want to give it new life.

It was to be the Eurotunnel of the Pyrenees. A railroad track connecting the province of Aragon to France, the Franco-Spanish hyphen that it took four years to build. Time took it's toll, and so did wars, a derailment, and the destruction of a bridge.

Isolated and unused for 50 years, the tourist attraction will be quite the destination for those who've been everywhere and seen everything.

I have nothing to add other than to say this is all fascinating. I remember watching Steam train VHS documentaries (I use that term as loosely as possible) with my dad when I was maybe 6 or 7. No idea where those VHS's ended up but I've always thought Steam engines were cool.

Just saw this.

CSX train derailed in Harpers Ferry, WV, plunging cars into the Potomac and destroying the bridge.  

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

Seems like a strange place for a derailment.  I always thought bridge approaches were pretty straight and had lower speed limits.  

The more I see of these Grand Trunk Western U-1-c class 4-8-2s, the more I like them

GTW U-1-c #6040 refueling at Detroit. Interesting to note that the 2nd and 3rd axles have had disc-type drive wheels installed, while the 1st and 4th are still the old spoke-type

GTW #6039 is the only one left, and has been with Steamtown since their original location. Unfortunately, the National Park Service brief on the engine says that it has "bad cylinders" and that it is not recommended for restoration due to the cost of repair.

Anybody familiar with the Grand FUNK Railroad?

1988RedT2 said:

Anybody familiar with the Grand FUNK Railroad?

https://www.youtube.com/embed/lsDMxWgPQcg?rel=0

 

A friend’s mother used to date their guitarist, Mark Farner. In junior high...

Footstompin’ Music is a killer jam. 

My brother is a big railroad fan.  Tonight he was telling me about The Cedar Rapids, an observation car that was designed by Brooks Stevens and built by the Milwaukee Road in 1948 for service on the Twin City Hiawatha train.  They only built four of this type car, and this is the only one left in operation.  It's owned today by a nonprofit group in Minnesota, and is available for private charters.

In reply to stuart in mn :

I believe these were referred to as "Beaver tail" observation cars due to their shape, and, yeah, they are insane. Milwaukee Road had big style back in that era. That's what I like about classic railroading. Modern railroads are too conservative and clinical for me.

Yup, they were called beaver tails.  It would be cool if present day trains had a little more style in them.

stuart in mn said:

It would be cool if present day trains had a little more style in them.

I mean, I understand the lack of flash. Railroads are a business, they need to make money. Style costs money. The old stylish passenger trains distinctly did not make money. That's why almost all the old Class 1s wanted to abandon passenger service and Amtrak had to be formed.

I wouldn't mind some semblance of style though. And don't get me started on the introduction of the "safety cab"

stuart in mn said:

My brother is a big railroad fan.  Tonight he was telling me about The Cedar Rapids, an observation car that was designed by Brooks Stevens and built by the Milwaukee Road in 1948 for service on the Twin City Hiawatha train.  They only built four of this type car, and this is the only one left in operation.  It's owned today by a nonprofit group in Minnesota, and is available for private charters.

Have you taken the steam boat Hiawatha on lake Minnetonka?  Did you know it spent 50 years at the bottom of the lake?  

Canadian Pacific just had one of their trains derailed by an avalanche. Tough weekend to be a railroader.

frenchyd said:

Have you taken the steam boat Hiawatha on lake Minnetonka?  Did you know it spent 50 years at the bottom of the lake?  

I haven't been on the Hiawatha, but want to ride it one of these days.  My brother volunteers for the streetcar museum (that operates the boat, along with the streetcars at Lake Minnetonka and Lake Harriet) and I've helped out there myself peripherally a few times.  So, I'm familiar with the story about the Hiawatha.  The museum's monthly newsletter/magazine has had a lot of good articles about it's recovery and restoration.

Adirondack Railroad's ex-NYC Alco RS3 #8223 sits at Thendara, along with F7 #1508 and NW-2 #705, looking like a scene from yesteryear. The Adirondack operates exclusively over the New York Central's old Adirondack Division, so they have painted a lot of their equipment up in NYC livery.