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1955 Union Pacific EMD E9 – The Last of the Classic Diesel Streamliners (2012)
- PLenz 4y agoThe Fl9 came just a little bit later and ran in regular commuter service into the 2000s
- _hao 4y agoBeautiful machines! Perfect blend of art/design and engineering!
- bombcar 4y agoIt's kind of amazing to think of the people who saw these changes - from steam to diesel, from props to jets, all this in a relatively short period of time (first flight to landing on the moon was about 60 years!). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYXEBcZpNQQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYXEBcZpNQQ I've seen quite a few lasts (the last shuttle flight, the last 747 rolling off the line, etc) but we do have smart phones and rocket stages that land themselves so there's that.
- csours 4y agoIn science fiction they were talking about nuclear powered trains. Its kind of a shame that never happened. Alas, the real world is more complicated than our beautiful stories. Also, in a way, there are nuclear powered trains, just the power is delivered via electrical lines.
- bombcar 4y agoIf you read the Donald Duck/Uncle Scrooge comics from the early 50s everything is "atomic" or "uranium" - clearly it was a very forward-looking time, and not unreasonably so.
- nradov 4y agoIn a similar way we will eventually have nuclear powered aircraft and cargo ships. Power and heat from nuclear plants on land will be used to manufacture synthetic liquid fuels.
- bryanlarsen 4y agoSynthetic fuels need an energy price of about $1/MWh to be competitive. Intermittent solar will be that price in a few years, I doubt that nuclear will ever hit that price.
- BenjiWiebe 4y agoI'm probably missing something, but why $1/MWhr? That's far cheaper than gasoline or residential electricity.
- bombcar 4y agoBecause it takes a lot of energy to make synthetic jet fuel from nothing.
- dsfyu404ed 4y agoWhy does that matter? Anyone with a brain would design a process to start with something better than nothing energy content, perhaps biomass or plastic.
- bombcar 4y agoWe know how to make synthetic fuel, and right now you either need "real" fuel to go way up in price, or you need $1/mw energy. It's not literally "made from nothing" but it's not made from petroleum products.
- bryanlarsen 4y agoIf you want to sell synthetic gasoline at $4/gallon and make a profit, $1/MWh or so electricity enables that.
- jabl 4y agoThere were actually plans for nuclear powered locomotives in the 1950'ies. E.g. the X-12 by Lyle Borst. See e.g. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bVMEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA78&ots=oNcGmhCvuD&dq=x-12+locomotive&pg=PA78&redir_esc=y&hl=en#v=onepage&q=x-12%20locomotive&f=false https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bVMEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA78&ot...
- lettergram 4y agoMost of the country didn’t have cars in 1910. People born in 1900 saw the world go from horse driven to space travel by their 70s. With antibiotics saving countless lives, clean water, running toilets, air conditioning, heat, …
- floren 4y agoThere were also parts of the country that saw "the last electric train"... transitioned to diesel! By 1920, the Milwaukee Road was running 645 miles of electrified railroad between Montana and Tacoma, WA (there was a 216 mile stretch they operated on with steam locomotives). They ran it up until the 1970s! https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Milw3_-_Flickr_-_drewj1946.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Milw3_-_... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_Road https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_Road
- walrus01 4y agoThe Milwaukee Road is also a good business school case study on what happens when a company experiences: a) overburden with debt b) deferred maintenance spending on physical plant that's pushed further out all the time until it becomes catastrophically bad
- Aloha 4y agoThey also screwed up the accounting on the pacific extension, and double entered expenses for it - the only profitable part of the road for years was the pacific extension.
- xattt 4y agoYou could reframe the “lasts” as being the “first” moves toward a greener economy.
- bombcar 4y agoYeah, there's been tremendous advances, but many of them aren't as "in your face" as older ones would have been. The A380 would be up there, but that's even on its way out already.
- tmm 4y agoHa, I came here to post a link to that song. Anyway, here's the Guy Clark version! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxsTZyIS1ck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxsTZyIS1ck Many years ago, the Amtrak station near my house had a pedestrian bridge across the tracks, and in those days it wasn't enclosed like it is now. My mother worked and so I spent most days with my grandfather and we would often go fishing in the park nearby. On the way home we'd stop at the station, walk out on that bridge and wait for one of the trains to come through. I had not yet heard "Texas, 1947" then, but when I do now I'm six years old again, watching the express come screaming up from DC on its way to New York. I never did get to lay a nickel on the track.
- bombcar 4y agoYeah, most people have experienced a train coming to a stop at a station; it's way WAY more impressive when it barrels through without even slowing down. Someday I want to see live steam like that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eggYBVAYiI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eggYBVAYiI
- guenthert 4y agoI was somewhat set back when a train barreled through the station just feets away at 50mph. Sure the p/a warned about that (moments earlier), but still, I didn't expect that from a "nanny" state like Germany.
- nottorp 4y ago> I never did get to lay a nickel on the track. We did it with trams in the city. Somewhat safer ;)
- kjs3 4y agoMy grandfather went from seeing an early biplane fly over the family's farm in Florida to ending his career working on Navy aircraft and saw us go to the outer planets before he passed. Literally from a couple of years after the Wright brothers to Neptune in one lifetime. We would talk about it; he thought it was pretty cool.
- AnotherGoodName 4y agoDiesel locomotives are one of those things where the engine can be well over 50 years old and no one bats an eye since it's just not that unusual nor has the styling changed that much to make it obvious. These EMD E9's are now used for tourist trains but there's plenty of other diesels pre-dating these that are still just doing their run today. eg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa-Sapulpa_Union_Railway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa-Sapulpa_Union_Railway is running on diesels from the 1950's, not as a museum piece but just as their expected day to day operations. It's one of those fun things when you know enough to spot a 70 year old locomotive yet the general sentiment from non-buffs is just that that's perfectly in-line with expectations and not interesting.
- Lammy 4y ago> not as a museum piece but just as their expected day to day operations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escanaba_and_Lake_Superior_Railroad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escanaba_and_Lake_Superior_Rai... run a 1951 FP7A as well. Gorgeous power even when it's pulling freight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMybdRb1EtA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMybdRb1EtA
- SoftTalker 4y agoChicago Metra was running EMD E9 units in daily service into the 1990s.
- ChuckMcM 4y agoThere was a joke that went "The only thing that holds its resale value better than electronics test equipment is a diesel electric locomotive." I'm not sure how true that is but the commonality is that they can be maintained to do the same job they were designed to do, as well as they did it when they were sold. The only reason they go down in value is because the jobs aren't there for them any more. Interestingly the evolution of chips has been much harder on "old" test equipment as equivalents can be made one, two, and sometimes three orders of magnitude more cheaply. As a result a "new" thing which has the same capability but usually takes up much less space and power, can do the job of the "old" thing just as well, and then the old thing loses its value.
- WeylandYutani 4y agoThe Dutch railway was completely electrified in the 50s back when it was still cheap. The railways had suffered major damage in WW2 so it needed investment anyway. War leads to major infrastructure overhaul. Rebuild it better.
- sitkack 4y agoWhat magic did it take to get these things moving from a dead stop? I assume the clutches were hydraulic or used a retroencabulator. Diesel electric works so well because it removes the clutch, and the electric motor has maximum torque at zero rpm
- LarryMullins 4y agoI believe they used fluid coupling between the engine and the gearbox.
- SoftTalker 4y agoThese locotomotives are diesel-electic. Before that it was steam, which can also apply force/torque at zero RPM.
- sitkack 4y agoI believe these locomotives were pure diesel, no electric.
- scrumper 4y agoThese are diesel electric, with 4 traction motors: https://www.up.com/heritage/fleet/streamliners/index.htm https://www.up.com/heritage/fleet/streamliners/index.htm Edit: what do you mean by "retroencabulator"? That's a fake/joke thing. Which (as you'll know) is a quasi-electrical device anyway so it's not even the right joke. I'm ashamed of this comment, truly. I'm sorry, I guess? But it doesn't change the fact that the locomotive in the article is a diesel-electric.
- sitkack 4y agoWho knew mentioning the retroencabulator would bring such shame. But thanks for the clarification. They are indeed diesel-electric, so no massive clutch-like mechanism. The traction motors are quite small! https://www.google.com/search?q=EMD+D78&hl=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X https://www.google.com/search?q=EMD+D78&hl=en&source=lnms&tb...
- Lammy 4y agoRelated: - Patent for the earlier slanted-nose locomotive design: https://patents.google.com/patent/USD106918S/en https://patents.google.com/patent/USD106918S/en - Patent for the same but with the protruding headlamp: https://patents.google.com/patent/USD129410S/en https://patents.google.com/patent/USD129410S/en
- hakfoo 4y agoFor more context, the earlier design looks to be the original Balitimore and Ohio "EA" type, he original E-series engine. One remains in a stuffed and mounted state at the B&O museum in Baltimore. A similar design was used for the Santa Fe's E1A units. The protruding headlamp design was in the later design E3A, E4A, and E6A types. (The E4 was unique to the Seaboard Air Line, but the E3 and E6 were produced serially for many operators).
- euroderf 4y agoIn the days before personal motor cars became common, it must have been wonderful to ride interurbans from place to place. Fast!
- kvetching 4y agoMost don't know this but the US still has passenger trains and it appears it could be the cheapest way to travel across the US in 2022. https://www.amtrak.com/tickets/departure.html https://www.amtrak.com/tickets/departure.html
- SoftTalker 4y agoNobody who wants to get across the country in a reasonable amount of time and on schedule should contemplate Amtrak. If you want a sightseeing tour, that's another matter, it's great for that.
- 0xffff2 4y agoIt was indeed great for seeing the country when I was a teenager. These days, the idea of living out of something similar to a first class airline seat does not appeal and sleepers are outrageously expensive.
- nickd2001 4y agoAs a Brit, I'm used to rail journeys taking an extra hour or two due to delays or cancellations. When working and living in the US, I dropped off a friend at Denver station on my way to fly home for Christmas. Upon returning , I didn't know whether to be amused or horrified when he revealed that his train to LA had been delayed by ..... a day and a half !! What?!!! He said he spent a very long happy time, basically a whole day, in the bookstore though, and didn't seem to have any complaints about it, said it wasn't unusual to be that delayed. ;)
- HeXetic 4y ago> it could be the cheapest way to travel Inter-city buses are the cheapest way to travel if you don't own a car. For example a train ticket NYC->Washington DC is over $100. A bus ticket for the same trip is $30. The train will be more comfortable and possibly faster, though.
- pengaru 4y agoI traveled coach from CHI(IL) to SAC(CA) with a mountain bike in tow on the Zephyr for $120 at the end of October. Not aware of anything comparable cost-wise, especially bringing a fully assembled ready to ride mtb along. Annoyingly however, even a Greyhound bus does the trip faster than the Zephyr. Such is the sad state of passenger rail in the US.
- Kon-Peki 4y agoThere must have been some logical reason they didn't win out, but those Burlington Zephyrs were the best looking diesel streamliners. Those Union Pacific streamlines aren't in the same league.
- brudgers 4y agoThe Burlington Zephyr was a passenger trainset. Everything was lightweight. Everything was bespoke. It wasn’t a general purpose locomotive and the styling was in part for the marketing potential of aesthetic design. It was not intended for long haul freight service across deserts filled with mountains.
- User23 4y agoThe death of passenger rail in the USA is actually really pointless and sad. E.B. White discusses it in one of his essays. He writes it far better than I can, but the gist is that it used to be that every freight train that carried mail, which was virtually all of them going most anywhere, had to hook up passenger cars too. The railroads lobbied to get this requirement dropped insisting that it was so expensive it was putting them out of business. Pure lies, of course. I've head there is a bit of a relict though. My understanding is that if you own your own passenger car and pay the switching and storage fees, then you can hook onto a train going wherever for a standard rate.
- bcrl 4y agoThe death of rail is sad, period. Watching all the steel for the old rail lines being ripped out of the ground since the 1980s is so short sighted. Obtaining rights of way to rebuild lines will be virtually impossible in the modern world. Well, not impossible, but orders of magnitude more expensive than maintaining existing RoW. Even the large scale removal of twinned tracks has removed capacity that previously existed which makes it difficult for passenger rail to coexist with freight. <sigh>