Friday, August 18, 2006

The Pittsburgh Rail Fan Net for August 17 2006

Another good session on the rail fan net this Thursday evening. The net concluded about 10:00 PM and then promptly restarted when a few of the participants got together and started chatting. It is 10:30 as I am writing this and the discussion is still going on. I think Dennis blew the whistle just a little early this week! I got side tracked (pun intended) and am finishing this blog entry Friday afternoon. The conversation last night after the net concluded was even more interesting than the net itself. Sometimes things work that way.

And speaking of working that way, boy did I screw up! I just noticed that last week I posted the answers to the trivia questions from the previous week but neglected to post the new question from last week. Some peoples kids!


Since I didn't give you last weeks question I won't give you the answer now. Instead we will have three trivia questions on this weeks entry two from last night and one from the previous week. So here they are.


1 What is a “hoesttler” on the railroad?

2 What does it mean when the train crew is going “out law”?

3 What is a “green eye”?


Check back next week for the answers to these questions and a little “trivia” on the trivia questions.

Join us next week for the Pittsburgh Rail Fan Net on the 146.880 repeater.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Pittsburgh Rail Fan Net trivia for August 10 2006

We had a great session Thursday evening on the 146.88 repeater discussing our favorite topic that being just about anything related to moving steel wheels on steel rails. I need to look into a way to pod cast the net to preserve all of this good conversation.


First the answer to last weeks questions of which we had two.

From Craig, KB3KBH, we had this interesting question.

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

Answer:

Here are at least seven steps required to move the engine the are not all inclusive.

1 Move the reversing leaver to forward

2 Release the brakes

3 Turn on the crossing bell

4 Light the head lamp

5 Sound two short blasts on the whistle

6 Depress the dead man peddle

7 Move the throttle to notch one

Our second question this week came from Art, WA3BKD, and was also interesting and news to me.

During the 1960s and 1970s there were special box cars designed. They had four trucks two on each end and were kept moving all over the country on a continuous basis. While a large number of them were envisioned in the original plan only two of the were ever built. What were they for?

Answer:

These boxcars carried ballistic missiles and were part of the Department of Defense plan in case of a nuclear attack from the now defunct USSR. You just have to wonder if they go the idea from Lionel!

That is all for this week from the rail fan net. I hope to hear all of you again next Thursday evening on the North Hills Amateur Radio Club's 146.880 mHz repeater at 09:30 PM local time. Remember if you can't check in or if you are listening on a scanner and would like to participate you can send question or comments to railfannet@hotmail.com.

Friday, August 04, 2006

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.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Nice photo gallery

Thanks to Bob, KB3MOJ, for this link to excellent photo gallery. While not local it does have some outstanding train photos. When you are done looking at the train pictures go back to the gallery's home page and check out some of the other topics they cover. Click on the link below to view the pictures.


Various Railroad pictures along the Union Pacific Valley Line in Northern California.