Railway Pics - Locos, Rolling Stock, Buildings, Etc!

[whulsey]

Kevin, wish they were on my doorstep. Those were in Woodland, CA which is about a 16 hour drive. The ones I posted earlier from the Barstow, CA museum is about a 7 hour drive. Phoenix area basically sits in a sinkhole towards the north side of the Sonoran Desert. So once you get pass out local shows (which are primarily between January and April) and museums anything else is a minimum 3 hour drive and most at least 5-6 hours.

[Kevin WS]

Pity- I had visions of ten minute drives.

[Kevin WS]

Four Class 44 locos pulling a full platinum consist.

These locos are still being delivered (delivery started in 2015) and are pretty sophisticated. The drivers use a laptop and operation is more or less automated. The system used is interesting.

This is South Africa's largest single order of any loco ever.

But the manufacture and delivery arrangements are just plain weird!

The locos are actually General Electric and the first 6 came from the USA.

The remaining locos are being manufactured as follows:

227 - General Electric - South Africa.
359 - CSR - China
232 - CNR - China again.
240 - Bombardier - South Africa.

So although General Electric has the capacity here, the lions share is being manufactured by Chinese companies, with the French also getting a chunk.

Hmmmmmm.................

[Kevin WS]

Here is a nice colourful lineup.

Duty engines at one of the Pretoria Yards waiting for jobs.

35-251 is a South African Class 35 loco - an EMD GT18C manufactured in South Africa by GM under licence. Next to it is a Class 18E (converted from the 6E1 Class) locomotive in the newer Transnet Freight Rail colours.

[Kevin WS]

And here is one for steam fans - a steam loco on revenue service storming a steep hill in the country north of Johannesburg................

[whulsey]

Great shots, love seeing working steam.

[Don Boose]

A very nice series of images of good-looking locomotives. Thanks for the info on the purchasing and manufacturing arrangements for the Class 44 locomotives.

Commerce is funny. In his book Uncommon Carriers, James McPhees tells of two long barge tows on the Mississippi River, one traveling north and one traveling south with identical cargoes. I periodically check via marinetraffic.com on the shipping in the Delaware River estuary and am frequently bemused to discover bulk carriers bringing coal from Indonesia or the Philippines to Delaware River power plants passing bulk carriers shipping good old Maryland coal outbound from Delaware River ports.

Don

[Kevin WS]

Doug - I'll post a few more steam when I get a gap.

Don - commerce is strange. The coal imports may kill the USA coal industry eventually - it did in the UK. They closed their last mine a couple of years back - while outside trains packed with coal from China rumbled by...

[Wad Cutter]

Love trains too but steam really turns me on. I saw the Freedom train come into San Francisco years ago. That was a real rip. I tried to stay with one city streets for as long as I could. beautiful. Shame that time has moved on. wc

[consistseeker]

I love steam also. They seem to be alive and have their own personalities. Actually had a cab ride in a small when I visited Auckland many years ago. Mind you when I was hostling the diesels seemed to have there own personalities and idiosyncrasies when it came to getting them to work together