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Why are the rails of American Railroads 4 foot, 8-1/2 inches apart?They are that way in the U.S. because they were that way in England where railroads got started and it just carried over. So the reason is: foreign imports. from the Wilmington Chapter NRHS, February, 1997 Issue of the Transfer Table. |
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The Wll Street Journal - April 1 Major Changes at Union Pacific Railroad In a major shift in rail transportation in North America, the Union Pacific Railroad announced today that it will be changing its rail gauge, wheel standards, and even couplers used. The rail gauge will be changed from four feet eight and one half inches to five feet. The wheel standards will be changed to widen the wheels from their current width of five and one half inches to seven inches. The couplers will be modified from manually operated couplers to larger couplers with curved steel bars protruding from their bottom. Since all railroad companies in North America interchange cars with each other, as, for example, a load of orange juice from Florida makes it way to British Columbia, all North American railroads will be affected by this change. UP says it has discussed the changes with all other railroad companies, who will follow UP's lead. UP gave the following reasons for deciding to pursue the change, which will cost UP alone about 1.5 billion dollars. The wider track gauge provides more stability for its cars, allowing higher train speeds. The wider wheels will provide better wear, and train operation that is more resistant to derailments. In an unusual life-imitates-art situation, the UP said it had observed model railroads where a track gauge of five scale feet and wider wheels led to fewer derailments than on model railroads that used exact scale reproductions of rail gauge and wheels. The UP emphasized that the model railroads whose example they are following are built to a scale of 1/4 inch equals one foot, commonly called "O" Scale. Other scales more popular than O scale, in addition to the Lionel trains many enjoyed as a child, were briefly considered and rejected. The UP felt that O scale with its high level of realism and good balance between model size and full size provided the best baseline for enlargement to full scale. The change in couplers will allow labor saving in that the manual uncoupling of cars can now be eliminated in many high-frequency-of- service areas by the introduction of large permanent magnets between the rails that will deflect the downhanging rods on the couplers, causing the cars to uncouple. This will occur only if there is slack (no pulling force) on the couplers, so that false uncouplings will not occur. Again, in this unusual move, the UP has borrowed an old, patent rights expired, product from the model railroading hobby. A date for the changeover was not given. The UP cited the need to obtain vast numbers of concrete ties for the new track gauge, along with wheelsets and the new types of couplers. President Bush is said to be considering relaxing the new high tariffs on steel imports because the domestic steel producers do not have the capacity to provide wheelsets and couplers in a timely manner without impacting the rest of the economy. The UP says that value of the model railroading hobby to the railroads cannot be under-valued. "The number of clever, creative people working hard to run model trains reliably under track conditions much worse than our real-life situations provides a level of research and development well beyond what all the railroads together can achieve" said the spokeswoman. Harking back to Civil War days, when all railroads in the South were converted from one gauge to another in one day, the UP will organize a similar program among all North American railroads so that, except for some remote lines in the West, the conversion will be completed overnight. Many shippers on seldom-used lines are concerned that the railroads will not re-gauge those tracks, effectively abandoning them to the trucking industry. Lawsuits have been threatened by many industries and towns served on those lines. However, the mostly steam locomotive-oriented tourist lines and preserved equipment operations will certainly welcome the opportunity to purchase a seldom-used line so that their equipment can be run without the restrictions imposed by the major railroads. In a turn of roles, manufacturers of model railroad products are said to be evaluating licensing certain products to the full-size railroads. Previously, some full-size railroads would not allow modelers to use their identifying marks on models of the full-size locomotives and rolling stock. This change will introduce new product opportunities for the manufacturers who provide models of contemporary equipment, as those models will now have to be upgraded and new track provided to match the changed life-size equipment. Reactions in the modeling community were varied. A number of O scale modelers were interviewed privately at a large O scale show in Chicago last month. One segment of O scale modelers, who call themselves Proto:48ers, uses exact scale models of (yesterday's) track gauge and wheels instead of the common O scale track gauge of five feet. One modeler in that segment sniffed that the change won't affect them because most of them model railroads as they were in the 1950's, and that all the rest of the O scalers (non-Proto:48ers) who model anything prior to the change over date will still be inaccurate. The modeler also said that operational reliability is a moot point because no modeler actually runs their trains. When asked how the UP was able to observe operating O scale model railroads during its research, the modeler became greatly agitated and had to be sedated. Other modelers interviewed were equally divided over whether the changeover will cause the prices of models imported from Korea and China increase or decrease. One modeler began screaming epithets about "the price gougers" until someone gave him a $1 bill, after which he happily left the interview room. Other modelers commented that perhaps sales prices on E-Bay (the popular on-line auction site) will increase beyond their moribund levels. They thought that people who will buy anything that is thought to be going out of style will snap up models of trains made before today, regardless of their accuracy. One modeler was difficult to interview because he was busy punching keys on his calculator, which stopped working after some liquid, apparently saliva, dripped onto the keypad, causing an internal malfunction. One modeler gleefully commented several times to a companion that "At last, air hoses next to Kadee glad hands [sic] will be accurate!" Another modeler was completely nonchalant about the change. "As long as I get my 48 to the Foot [sic] on time, who cares?" he said. A final note. Your author is not familiar with the model railroading hobby. To ensure accuracy and fairness a copy of the article was mailed to several model railroading magazines for comment. No responses were received as of the article's deadline. An unusual amount of short selling of Dow-Jones stock shortly after the article was mailed is thought to be unrelated. Happy April 1st, from Rod Miller (sent to OSN 4-1-2002, 12:14 am) |
| After Rod Miller sent OSN the above ditty (and submitted it to a related forum)… other modelers chimed in with the following news "updates" taking the subject in the light it was offered: |
| …And once that conversion is complete, Union Pacific will build an extension along the Aleutian Islands chain, with an extension called Soyuz Okhotski, to connect to the Baikal-Amur mainline. The intermodal facility Global Pyaht will be built in the eastern suburbs of Moscow. Then the preserved No. 90000 will be sent on a goodwill tour the length of the system. |
| …In a
related story, sources close to Amtrak, CSX, and Norfolk-Southern were quoted as saying that major changes in the
electrified routes were to be made. Citing several instances where catenary was damaged due to cold weather, accidents
and vandalism, the overhead wire system is to be removed and replaced with an electrified third rail down the track
center. The laying of this center rail would coincide with the process of re-gauging track to match the new UP
Standard. Sources at the three railroads were quoted as saying "UP's move is bold and will cost millions, but it is long overdue and will save over the long haul. Our plan to convert our electrical to a center third rail represents movement to a tried and true method of providing electrical power with reduced maintenance and a sure-fire way to deal with those vandals once and for all." They went on to deny reports that included plans of implementing sharper curves, modifying locomotives with floating pilots and truck-mounting couplers. |
| ATTENTION! DO NOT BELIEVE THIS STORY!!! I recently saw Union Pacific secretly testing the 5' track out here in a remote area of Oregon. For some reason they couldn't figure out an effective way of connecting the 4'8" track to the 5' track. After the first 9 locomotives went flying off of the narrower track into a heap (it was quite a mess!) while trying to get on to the wider track, I overheard the head UP design engineer remark "There must be a problem somewhere," and the last I heard they had scrapped the whole idea! Otrains 4-1-2002 |
| Q: What kind of train can sneeze? A: A choo-choo train. |
| Q: How can you tell if a train is eating? A: Listen to it go choo-choo. |
| Q: What kind of transportation makes politicians sick? A: A choo-choo train. |
Q. How do you know so much about model railroads? |
| Up in the Ozarks, there
was a mountaineer that was reputed to have the best hunting dog ever by the name of Conductor.
Three city folks went up in the mountains and wanted to rent him. "Good hunting dog, gonna cost ya $50.00 a day." They agreed, and three days later came back with the limit. The next year they came back. "Conductor got better, gonna cost ya $75.00 a day," said the mountaineer. Again they agreed, and two days later came back with the limit. The third year they came back and told the mountaineer they had to have Conductor, even it cost $100.00 a day. "You can have the worthless mutt for $5.00 a day, and I'm overcharging you $4.00." "But we don't understand, what happened to him?" asked the group. "Well, a crew from that there Dallas come up and rented him. One of those idiots called him Engineer, and since then he's just been sittin' on his rear end barkin' ever since!!!" |
| There were two Indians and a blond guy walking along together
in the desert, when, all of a sudden, one of the Indians took off and ran up this hill to the mouth of a cave.
He stopped and hollered into the cave..."Woooooo!
Woooooo! Woooooo!" and then
listened very closely until he heard the answer... "Woooooo! Woooooo! Woooooo!"
He then tore off his clothes and ran in to the cave. The white fellow was puzzled and asked the other Indian what that was all about, was that Indian goofy or something. "No," said the other Indian. "It is mating time for us Indians and when you see a cave and holler, "Woooooo! Woooooo! Woooooo!" and get an answer back, that means that your dream woman is in there waiting for you. Well, just about that time, the other Indian saw another cave. He took off and ran up to the cave, then stopped and hollered, "Woooooo! Woooooo! Woooooo!" When he heard the return, "Woooooo! Woooooo! Woooooo!" off came the clothes and into the cave he goes. The a blond guy started running around the desert looking for a cave to find more of these beautiful dream women that the Indians had talked about. All of a sudden, he looked up and saw this great big cave. As he looked in amazement, he was thinking, "Man! Look at the size of that cave! It's bigger then the ones that those Indians found. There must really be something really great in this cave!" Well, he took-off up the hill at a super fast speed with his hopes of ecstasy and grandeur. He got in front of the cave and hollered, "Woooooo! Woooooo! Woooooo!" He was just tickled all over when he heard the answering call of, "WOOOOOOO! WOOOOOOO!! WOOOOOOO!!!" Off came his clothes and, with a big smile on his face, he raced into the cave. The next day, in the newspaper, the headlines read, "NAKED MAN HIT BY FREIGHT TRAIN!" |
| A Texan was bragging to an Englishman about how big Texas is. "Why you could get on a train in east Texas on Monday morning, head due west all day Monday, continue overnight, and still be in Texas at sunset Tuesday," she said. The Englishman replied that you could do the same in England. The trains were just as slow there. |
Farmer Joe
decided his injuries from an accident were serious enough to take the railroad (responsible for the accident) to
court. |
| Harry said, "Did you know that the bread is mother of the Steam Engine?" "No," his friend Sam said, "Are you sure?" "Yes," Harry said, "You see the Steam Engine is an invention, and Bread is a necessity, right? Now since necessity is the Mother of Invention, therefore Bread must be the Mother of the Steam Engine. |
| A guy was asked whether he was involved in any rail
accident. 'Yes' he replied very light heartedly. 'Once when I was on train and went through a tunnel I kissed the father instead of he daughter. |
| Q: How many railfans does it take to change a lightbulb
? A: Three. One to change it, one to write its serial number down, and one to take pictures. |
| A blonde saw a freight train coming and speeds up to beat it across the tracks. The investigator at the scene of the accident later wrote in his report, "Some idiot, racing to beat the train, died when he drove his car into the caboose at high speed." |
| Sitting in
a compartment on a train were the tooth fairy, an expensive accountant, and a cheap accountant. On a table between
them was placed a briefcase full of money. Suddenly the train entered a tunnel and everything went dark. When the train exited the tunnel and the light returned, the briefcase was gone. Who took the briefcase?... Well, it's obvious really. It had to be the expensive accountant as there's no such thing as the tooth fairy or a cheap accountant! |
| A tinplate collector,
a rail historian and a model railroader had a drink at a convention and began discussing whether it was better
to spend time with the wife or a mistress. The historian said he enjoyed time with his wife, building a solid foundation for an enduring relationship. The collector said he enjoyed time away with his mistress, because of her passion and mystery. The modeler said, "I like both." "Both?" Modeler: "Yeah. If you have a wife and a mistress, they will each assume you are spending time with the other woman, and you can go down to the club and have some real fun." |
| Q: Why did pioneers cross the country
in covered wagons ? A: Because they didn't want to wait 40 years for a train ! |
| Three surgeons
were discussing which one was the most skilled. The first surgeon said that a man had fallen across the railroad
tracks, and a train had severed both legs just above the knees. After surgery and physical therapy, that man won
this year's Boston Marathon. The second surgeon said that was nothing. A woman had been thrown head first through the windshield of a car and her face was sliced to ribbons. After surgery she won the Miss America contest. The third surgeon said that was nothing. A man had been sucked into the air intake of a jet engine. The only thing that was recovered was a tiny piece of brain matter no larger than a pea. From that piece the surgeon reconstructed the entire man, and now he is president of the United States. |
A wife called a carpenter. She explains to him the problem: Each time a streetcar goes by on the street the closet-door opens by itself.OK, said the carpenter let me get inside the closet and see what happens when the streetcar comes. So he gets inside and while he is waiting, the woman's husband comes home and opens the closet.What the heck are you doing here!? he asks the carpenter in astonishment.Believe it or not, Sir, the carpenter says, I am waiting for the streetcar. |
| When a cat is dropped, it always lands on its feet, and when toast is dropped, it always lands buttered side down. It was proposed to strap giant slabs of hot buttered toast to the back of a hundred tethered cats; the two opposing forces will cause the cats to hover, spinning inches above the ground. Using the giant buttered toast/cat array, a high-speed monorail could easily link New York with Chicago for a minimal cost. |
Two small-town men were visiting
New York City for the first time to attend a conference for work. |
On the way from Ft. Worth to Cleburne, a fat lady was sitting beside a thin one on the train. The skinny lady said: “Conductor, I think you ought to charge people according to their weight.” He said, “Lady, if we did that, we sure wouldn’t have stopped for you.” |
Many years ago there
was a wealthy gentlemen who had a large house in the country. He had a caretaker who would take him to town in
the horse and buggy to run his errands. When he traveled, as he often did, his caretaker would watch over the house.
The caretaker was a man of few words. |
A fellow, who had spent his whole
life in the desert, comes the Midwest to visit a friend who lives near a commuter line. He'd never seen a train
or the tracks they run on and he became fascinated by the engineering. |
A
brunette was jumping across a railroad track saying "21...21...21 " a blonde sees her and says, "that
looks like fun!" So she decides to join in, she starts jumping back and forth singing "21..21..21 " |
Q. On the S.P., how do you tell when you've had a derailment? |
| Two blondes were walking and came across some tracks. Those look like moose tracks, said one. No, those are deer tracks, said the other. They argued for three hours before the train hit them. |
Q. Why kind of ties can't you wear? A. Railroad ties. |
| A pedestrian in Baltimore City asked a Policeman directions to the train station. The cop said, "First, head down North Avenue for five blocks. Then, if ya make it that far..." |
Q. Why did the engineer drive backwards?A. He had a loco motive. |
Q. Did
you hear about the doctor who wrote out a prescription in the usual doctor's fashion? |
|
Lawyer: Did you see the automobile approaching the railroad track? Crossing Watchman: Yes sir and I said to myself," That sure is a nice car — wasn't it?" |
| Q. Why is the track gauge 4' 8-1/2" wide? A. Because it is the distance between the neck and ankles of a damsel in distress. |
Knock, knock. |
| Q: What
is a lawyer's favorite railroad? A: The SOO Line. |
| Q: What's the difference
between a teacher and a railroad conductor? A: One trains the mind, the other minds the train. |
Q. Where does the railroad brakeman hide his whiskey?A. In the Cabooze! |
Q. What is as big as a steam locomotive, but weighs nothing?A. It's shadow. |
| Q. What do you get when you cross an
alligator and a railroad track? A. Three pieces of alligator. |
|
Person
1: "Well, I can see that there must be a train around here somewhere." |
Q. What is the difference between a
teacher and a steam locomotive?
|
| A train driver on a local city line was also a keen musician. He bought himself a small, painted garden ornament to help him keep his music in time. He called it his Metro-Gnome. |
Q. What did the scoffers
say before the Golden Spike was driven? |
| Q.
If an electric train is going east at 60 mph, and the wind is going east at 60 mph, which
way would the smoke blow? A. Electric trains don't have smoke!!! |
| Q. Did you hear about
the boy who had to do a project on trains? A. He had to keep track of everything! |
|
| Q. Why can’t Y6’s swim? A. Can you get a 2-8-8-2 in a bathing suit? |
Q. In what kind of railroad car would you expect to find:
A. Answers
|
Q. Why do you
always know what is behind the tender in a French train? |
