Grassroots Railroad Sports?

I love this VW Bus hi-railer too.

More pictures about halfway down this page: http://sbiii.com/lirr9etc.html

In reply to slowbird :

I like the Lazy Susan style stand for turning it around on the rail.

On the subject of Budd, self-propelled railcard, the LIRR and freak shows, you have the Budd GT-1/GT-2. After the Budd Pioneer III EMU car failed to garner any sizable sales, Budd was stuck with the demonstrator unit. Working with LIRR and Garrett AiResearch in 1967, they built the GT-1. In place of electric motors or a diesel engine, it used a pair of Garrett gas turbines powering the axles via mechanical drive.

After 2 years of testing, it went back to Budd and was rebuilt into the GT-2. Basically they removed the mechanical drive, hooked the turbines to generators and reinstalled traction motors and installed a 3rd-rail electric system. It tested on the LIRR for a few more years, but LIRR, nor anyone else really jumped on the idea until the United Aircraft Turbotrain a few years later. The GT-2 wet back to Budd and was scrapped.

As a side note Budd, that same Budd made these at the end of WWII. As per wiki:

The RB-1 Conestoga was a twin-engine, stainless steel cargo aircraft designed for the United States Navy during World War II by the Budd Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The RB-1/C-93 was radical for its day, introducing many of the features now standard in military transports. The flight deck could accommodate three crew members, pilot and copilot side-by-side, the navigator behind them. Stairs connected the flight deck to the cargo area, which was 25 feet (7.6 m) long with an unobstructed cross-section of 8 × 8 feet (2.4m) throughout its length. Cargo loading and unloading could be accomplished in two ways: through 40 × 60 inch (102 × 152 cm) doors on both sides of the fuselageor by an electrically operated 10 × 8 foot (3.0 × 2.4 m) ramp at the aft end of the cargo area under the upswept tail, a similar development to what had been initially fitted to the Germans' own Ju 90 four-engined transport aircraft as their Trapoklappe ramp in 1939. The RB-1's loading ramp, accessed by manually operated clamshell doors, along with the tricycle landing gear, meant cargo could be loaded/unloaded at truck-bed height. A manually operated two-ton (907 kg) hoist for unloading trucks and a one-ton winch for pulling cargo up the ramp were also provided in the cargo area. 

In reply to Appleseed :

That thing is funky. It looks like something from a children's book.

Budd tried making a follow-up to the RDC in the '70s in hopes of replacing some of the aging RDCs. They called both the SPV-2000, which stood for Self Propelled Vehicle.

In '67 Budd had built the high speed Metroliner EMU bodies for PRR. Then in '73 Budd had taken the Metroliner body and gutted all the electric drive gear out and made it the Amfleet passenger car that Amtrak uses to this day. For the SPV-2000, Budd took an Amfleet body and installed a diesel-mechanical drivetrain to make into a DMU car.

Budd RDCs required a two-man crew due to their 118,000lb weight (FRA requires engineer and fireman on any equipment over 45 tons) so Budd hoped to get the weight under 45 tons to entice more buyers with crew cost savings. To do this, they deleted one engine and drive assembly, so it only powered one axle out of the four. This made the SPV-2000 prone to wheelslip in damp or rainy conditions.

They earned the nickname Seldom Propelled Vehicles once in service. The big issue was that the generator for the onboard electricals used an open cage and was hung underneath the car. So it was prone to kicking wet leaves and rain and snow up into the generator and shorting it out. When that happened, the fuel pump and lights and HVAC all ran off a bank of onboard batteries used for starting the engine. Then it would deplete the batteries and shut off and you would be stranded with no lights, no HVAC and no engine.

Also, due to cramming a diesel drivetrain in a space not designed for one, the SPV-2000 was notoriously difficult to work on and maintain. 

Budd sold 31 cars (including 4 to Morocco) and pretty much every owner was disgusted with them. There were actually another 14 under construction, but due to the bad reputation it earned and the lack of customers they were never completed. The incomplete cars kicked around well into the 2000s before being scrapped.

The boys at East Broad Top delivering a turkey to the roundhouse to fry. That speeder with the exposed flywheel that the driver has to lean over is not OSHA approved. Also note the "Armstrong" turntable. And lowering the turkey in with the work truck boom is smart.

Westinghouse-Baldwin #4000, also known as the Blue Goose. An experimental B-B-B-B 4000hp gas turbine-electric locomotive built in 1950, it toured multiple railroads over a three year period, including Pennsylvania Railroad, Missouri-Kansas-Texas and Chicago & North Western, as show here. It failed to generate any orders and was scrapped at the end of it's demonstration tour after no one stepped up to buy it.

Raymond Loewy was responsible for the styling, which explains the distinct shark-nosed prow.

NickD said:

Why does this look like some kind of villainous Disney character? Just me? 

DjGreggieP said:

NickD said:

Why does this look like some kind of villainous Disney character? Just me? 

It definitely has the evil dramatic lighting.

In reply to DjGreggieP :

Nope. I agree. Not Mr. Loewy's best work...

I saw this gas turbine locomotive at the Museum of Transport in St Louis.  It was built by Davenport.

A couple of Budd RDC shots from the Danbury museum. When the topic came up I knew I had some, but it took me a while to find them. Better late than never, I suppose.

So I just bought this. You know, just in case I might need to know how to operate a GP40 someday...

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

Haha, I found the GEVO manual online a while ago.  I read about 40 or 50 pages of it just for giggles.  Still hadn't found the start up sequence, though.

In a sort of related note, I MAY, at one time, have read all 500ish pages of the NATOPS manual for the F-4J.  

Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:

So I just bought this. You know, just in case I might need to know how to operate a GP40 someday...

I saw that on Facebook Marketplace too. I almost bought it.

I discovered that Illinois Railroad Museum has their entire used book store on eBay. That was a dangerous find. I already purchased In Search of Steam and Steam on the Anthracite Roads. They have a copy of The Mohawk That Refused To Abdicate, which I already have. That's a rare book and I highly recommend that. Really good read.

In reply to NickD :

Thank you for not posting a link to their store. 

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

https://www.irm.org/usedbookstore

You're welcome.

Marent Gulch Bridge in Montana, 226ft. high, 866ft. long.

Northern Pacific dining cars were famous for serving baked potatoes that were 2-5lbs in weight. These potatoes were near worthless at the time because no one could figure out how to cook them properly. NP's head chef bought a bunch and experimented with them and found that slowly baking them resulted in a delicious giant baked potato that became an NP hallmark. Keep in mind, these were served as a side, so in addition to your 16oz of steak, you got 32-80oz of potato

On the subject of NP and Raymond Loewy, he designed the NP's two-tone green passenger livery.

Some of his more understated work. And more underrated.

Just noticed that someone left the M.U. connector box open. Also, despite looking like its an NP train, this is 4 weeks after the BN merger

In reply to 914Driver :

I've seen similar bridges but that is berking terrifying.