Trivia questions from Thursday evenings Rail Fan Net August 3 2006

Dennis, KB3HPC, was out of town this week so Craig, KB3KBH, was our conductor yesterday evening and we had a great net with thirteen stations checking and who knows how many lurkers out there. Also I'm sure we have a number of rail fans listening on their scanners who are not licensed and we appreciate your input to the net. You can send questions or comments to the following email address. railfannet@hotmail.com

First the answer to last weeks trivia question.

What was a railroader talking about when he spoke of “The six foot”?

Answer :

In the early days of rail six feet was the standard distance between outside rails of adjoining sets of tracks. Over the years this distance has widened as cars have increased in size but many still refer to the space between the tracks as “the six foot”.


This week we had two trivia questions posed to the net. One from Craig and another from Art, WA3BKD, both of which were interesting.

1. There is a light engine sitting in the yard. What seven steps are required to move it forward?

2. In the 1970's and 1980's there was a plan to build a number of special box cars. They would have four trucks two on each end and would be moving constantly around the country. Only two were every actually built. What were they for?


Check back here next week for the answers. Hope to hear you on the next Pittsburgh Rail Fan Net.