The most dedicated railfan ever?

I found this pic whilst looking for reference pics on switching engines. It made me smile to think of this guy's singleminded love of trains.

click on pic

John, I do believe your are on to something here. I was wondering when the landing gear was going to come down? Cheers, Jim CCRR:unsure:

Interesting that NASA has it's own locos though.

Funeeeee! John

Jerry,

ausman2001 wrote:

Interesting that NASA has it's own locos though.

NASA runs quite the little shortline. About 40 miles of track through the Everglades at Cape Canaveral. They have 3 of the SW1500 shown above and 2 SW8s which were acquired from USAF after service in Korea and Vietnam.
Their roster amounts to nearly 70 cars mostly flats. open hoppers and water tanks. It also includes special cars to move segments of used Solid Rocket Boosters off the Shuttle after recovery from the Atlantic.
An interesting feature is the use of a rig to operate the SW8s together to move the launch pad for Titan rockets.
NASAs railroad would make a super layout (when someone gets around to making an RTR switcher) There may even be 1/200 model rockets out there somewhere.

Socalz44 wrote:

John, I do believe your are on to something here. I was wondering when the landing gear was going to come down? Cheers, Jim CCRR:unsure:

Due to the tremendous aerodynamic drag of this thing, landing gear is extended only 200 feet above runway elevation, just a few seconds before touch down.... The slope between roughly 40000' to 1500' above runway elevation is ~ 20° (7 times more than a standard airliner final approach slope), and is flown with a 300 knots indicated airspeed. Then a pre-flare is conducted at 1500', to a mere 2.5° slope, and indicated airspeed reduces from 300 to ~170 knots (speed at touch down). That's why landing gear is extended as lately as reasonable (thus 200 feet).

By the way, it's really fun to see a space shuttle and an EMD switcher on the same shot!

Dom

TailUK wrote:

It also includes special cars to move segments of used Solid Rocket Boosters off the Shuttle after recovery from the Atlantic.

Aren't these cars used to carry SRBs from their Morton Thiokol factory in Utah to final assembly in Cape Canaveral as well?

Dom

dominique wrote:

Aren't these cars used to carry SRBs from their Morton Thiokol factory in Utah to final assembly in Cape Canaveral as well?

Dom

That's right, The NASA railroad interchanges with the Florida East Coast RR and new SRB sections are delivered, spent SRB sections are shipped back to Utah.

click on pic
The SRB cars are 60ft - 8 axle flats similar in appearence to coil cars but bigger and rated at 200,000 lbs plus

Doesn't this go back to the thing that a horse's rear and the Space Shuttle is connected somehow?.. The width of the horse determined the width of a chariot and the chariot made ruts, and all later wagons had a standard width to travel in those ruts .. .ect ect..until the track guage of railroads....ect ect Width of rockets were determined so they could travel on railroads..ect??

Kelley wrote:

Doesn't this go back to the thing that a horse's rear and the Space Shuttle is connected somehow?.. The width of the horse determined the width of a chariot and the chariot made ruts, and all later wagons had a standard width to travel in those ruts .. .ect ect..until the track guage of railroads....ect ect Width of rockets were determined so they could travel on railroads..ect??

Mmhh... I heard of this a few times. In my opinion, there's no link between track gauge, supposing it has been determined by two horses' butts side by side, and train's gauge. For example, when you consider UK trains and american trains, even with the fact they run on the same track gauge, american trains are nearly twice as broad as UK trains...

So for me it's difficult to trust this.

Dom

The Horse's A*s, rut and Stephenson business is a real old chestnut. I heard it first back in the 70s. Historical fact and fiction are well and truly blended together here.

Working it backwards:

SRBs are the size they are because they need to fit the trains.

Track gauge in the USA is the size it is because thats what the English did.

Stephenson made it that size because coal mine tracks (tramways) were that size (actually he added half an inch to allow for casting tolerences in wheel rims).

Tramway were that size because carts were that size.(Here the whole thing gets a little shaky. A lot of single horse carts are about that wide but most heavy industrial carts are a fair bit bigger). Another theory is that tramways were made 4'8" inches wide because it was uneconomical to make mine tunnels any wider, probably safer too.

Carts are the size they are because of ruts in the road, (Here we are putting the cart before the horse, Most ruts are caused by carts not the other way around)
The ruts were caused to be that far apart because Roman "War Chariots" made them. ( This is where it gets to be nonsense).

1) The Roman didn't use chariots for war! They were exclusive used as sporting equipment. So unless Charlton Heston was charging around the UK on some demented horse drawn "Cannonball Run" there were no ruts caused by chariot wheels in Roman roads.

2) Roman roads were "metalled" ("What have the Romans ever done for us, eh?") so weren't prone to ruts. It's established fact that Romans in Britain travelled mostly by horse. If you were poor or in the army you walked. If you were rich you rode or were carried (These new slaves are marvelous, 0 - 4 mph in 33 minutes!). The traders and military used mostly large four wheel carts but not for great distances. Usually only as far as the nearest bit of coast or navigable river. Ruts have been found at Pompeii but they were only 4 feet apart.

3) War chariots were used by the Ancient British but they were over 6 feet across (and didn't have scyth blades on the wheel hubs, either). Given the state of play between them and the Romans they probably stayed off the roads. Add to this, at 6 and a half feet wide, if the whole wheel rut- rail gauge model is applied we'ed be using Brunel's 7 foot gauge tracks ala the Great Western Railway.

So there it is, it's a fun theory but not supported by a shread of provable fact.