Jan 28, 2022
We’re out of Russian Caravan tea blend, so it’s time to make up some more. Dust Mite the tea wizard is willing to help!
—orc Fri Jan 28 23:43:38 2022
Jan 27, 2022
It almost escaped the baleful eye of the teeny little lens on the phone!
—orc Thu Jan 27 22:20:10 2022
Jan 23, 2022
Based on profiles drawn by Joshua Moldover, via The Railroad Paint Shop and yours truly @ my dining room table
PV&T class A #201 (the first motor of the PV&T’s electrification) with a special paint job to commemorate its (and the electrification’s) 100th anniversary.
—orc Sun Jan 23 15:10:55 2022
Jan 21, 2022
Jan 18, 2022
Based on profiles drawn by Joshua Moldover, via The Railroad Paint Shop and yours truly @ my dining room table
The result of stripping a 93 year old class B locomotive down to the carbody and rebuilding it as a modern locomotive. (originally 3600HP 3kvdc, now 8000 HP multisystem (3kvdc, 25kvac, 12.5kvac, 12kvac) for operations on the PV&T’s DC and Amtrak’s AC NE Corridor.
—orc Tue Jan 18 00:17:48 2022
Jan 14, 2022
It’s friday night and time for Dust Mite to sneak onto the bed and lie in wait.
—orc Fri Jan 14 23:53:59 2022
Jan 11, 2022
Taking advantage of a sunny(ish) day
—orc Tue Jan 11 20:10:48 2022
Based on profiles drawn by Joshua Moldover, via The Railroad Paint Shop and yours truly @ my dining room table
Third rail shoes for running into Penn Station (the Empire Connection was re-electrified when Amtrak shifted from GCT), diesel for the gap between Harmon & Albany, and a pan for the overhead wire between Albany & Montréal.
—orc Tue Jan 11 19:33:17 2022
Jan 10, 2022
Based on profiles drawn by Joshua Moldover, via The Railroad Paint Shop and yours truly @ my dining room table
In ex-works state, equipped with a PV&T-style horn for testing on the MTRR & LT&L before being handed over to the AMT.
—orc Mon Jan 10 23:51:39 2022
Jan 08, 2022
Based on profiles drawn by Joshua Moldover, via The Railroad Paint Shop and yours truly @ my dining room table
A multi-system locomotive (the 3 NE corridor voltages, 3kvdc for the PV&T, 750vdc for Grand Central Station (and the east & north river tunnels if the overhead is shut off) producing 7800(AC)/7200(3k), 6500(750) HP in a package slightly shorter than an E9. And geared for 150 mph, though it’s only cleared for 120mph on the NEC and only reaches 150mph occasionally on the north end of the D&H line to Montréal.
—orc Sat Jan 8 21:23:38 2022
Jan 07, 2022
Making plans to reengine a rf-16!
—orc Fri Jan 7 23:46:48 2022
Based on profiles drawn by Joshua Moldover, via The Railroad Paint Shop and yours truly @ my dining room table
Amtrak #954, one of two class K2 engines built for Amtrak’s rebirth of the old B&M/CPR day train from Boston to Montréal. Amtrak ran Twinkies for about 6 years after the train was introduced in 1985, but the host railroad – the PV&T, in case you were wondering – provided these units so that it wouldn’t have to maintain diesel infrastructure on the electrified line the trains run on.
The K2 is an officially single-ended engine – the rear cab has been replaced with a HEP unit, the carbody is extended to the full length of the unit, and it’s geared for 120mph – but has the same horsepower as the regular freight class K units.
Plus it’s got a very F-unit-looking snoot, which makes the railfans happy.
—orc Fri Jan 7 22:17:11 2022
Jan 02, 2022
Based on profiles drawn by Joshua Moldover, via The Railroad Paint Shop and yours truly @ my dining room table
… Tier 4F superpower, even; this machine (operating on the BAR’s ex-CP/CAR line through northern Maine) has a maximally horsepowered QSK95 stuffed under the hood, plus a whole raft of emissions control gear to keep the exhaust from being overly disgusting.
—orc Sun Jan 2 19:43:43 2022
Jan 01, 2022
Based on profiles drawn by Joshua Moldover, via The Railroad Paint Shop and yours truly @ my dining room table
VIA Rail #1800, an ILW RSC51-E637F, which was built from the carcass of E8 #1898 (ex CP #1800) when VIA wanted to see if the big 251s in the LRCs would work well in a conventional heavyweight passenger motor. THe E637Fs were built with sculpted (at least according to ILW, which was very fond of prismatic cabs) cabs inspired by the GE UM20B demonstrators from the 1950s, and Draper Taper cutouts behind the cab for better visibility when going backwards. Like the LRCs, these locomotives used 251F/16s to get 3700 HP (and, unlike the LRCs, an automobile-sized high speed Cummins diesel to provide 400HP of HEP for station stops.)
#1800, and comrade #1802 (ex 1899) were successful enough so that VIA ordered 4 more E637Fs (actually E637F-2s, because 1800 & 1802 were the only E unit carcasses available at order time, so the new units came with Iberville-built frames & 3-axle Flexicoil trucks) and the six of them served in Atlantic Canada close to the ILW plant & freight railroads that had a passing familiarity with 251s.
They served until the Covid-19 plague — they were retired in 2020 (and sold to the BAR as freight engines) when passenger numbers plummeted (& VIA purchased Siemens Chargers for high speed rail, which pushed a bunch of GE Twinkies onto long-haul passenger routes.)
—orc Sat Jan 1 01:45:43 2022
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