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KB2VXA > TRAINS 21.02.11 04:38l 52 Lines 2649 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 64620_VK6ZRT
Read: GUEST
Subj: Re: VE3WBZ > various steam
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Sent: 110221/0218Z @:VK6ZRT.#BUN.#WA.AUS.OC #:64620 [Boyanup] $:64620_VK6ZRT
From: KB2VXA@VK6ZRT.#BUN.#WA.AUS.OC
To : TRAINS@WW
Hi Pete and all,
Just wondering who the "all" is besides Bob who popped out of his wind
farm to comment on the Pichi Richi switchbacks of South Australia. That
was rather nice of him and I hope he's following, it sure took a lot of
tooth pulling to get you to say Puffing Billy was just the name she gave
to a train she rode. (;->) That in itself is interesting because the
train already had a name and so did the engine as the English are fond of
naming things. Funny how a certain A4 Pacific came to be the fastest
steam locomotive in the world... Mallard? I had no idea ducks were fast
but with a couple hundred pounds of steam up the quacker anything can
happen. (;->)
I'm not sure how coal gets from the mine to the colliery even if it
doesn't have to go far, in any case ponies and mules are history. What I
do know is first it goes through the breaker and then graded through
different sized screens, then loaded into hopper cars at the tipple where
trains known as coal drags haul it off to market. That reminds me of the
old days when some things didn't use graded coal but rather everything
from the mines mixed from basketball sized chunks to powder. Steamships
were stoked with the stuff since those huge boilers ate anything
(including radium if you remember Sky City in the old Flasdh Gordon
serials) and I remember seeing the stuff where dredge tailings mixed with
discarded clam shells from the processor on the river were dumped. No
problem figuring out the clam shells but I have no idea where those huge
blocks of old waterlogged coal originally came from.
No problem getting away from WIND, this is another subject now. I know
what you mean, old, abandoned RR RoW everywhere has become everything
from highways to walkways, we call it rails to trails and it's a good
thing. I'd much rather have miles of scenic trails to walk and ride bikes
on than rusty rotted tracks, not all of them were railroads all at the
same time so we really didn't lose as much as one may think and we don't
need it all back either. What I'd like to see however are a few more
tramways powered by wind and hydro rather than stinky Diesel, I'm not a
greenie but common sense tells me non polluting public transport is far
better than having our cities called the big smoke.
Old TV towers with rotating blue plastic barrel halves? Give Red Green a
roll of duct tape and let him at it, he'll be happier than a pig in a
waller!
73 de Warren
Station powered by JCP&L atomic energy, operator powered by natural gas.
Message timed by NIST: 21:10 on 2011-Feb-20 GMT
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