"Extreme Trains"

RE: "Extreme Trains"

He has calmed down.
I guess it takes a while for Valium to take full effect, eh?
It was surprising to see them whack up all the axle sets on the scrap line.
One would think they would re-bearing and turn them, save some money on "new", but maybe there is a Federal mandate on age of axle sets.

Wish they'd have shown more of the passage through the Blues.
I've driven past a lot of that (if you know where the old Hwy 30 is, there is a lot of it that follows the rail).

I think the most interesting bits are the abandoned tunnel portal (one side) near the concrete plant, and the place called "Lime", with the abandoned approach bridges to the plant.

RE: "Extreme Trains"

A few quick technical clarifications...

The transition from analog cable to digital cable started almost 10 years ago. In most places, you can no longer just plug your TV into your cable outlet in each room, and have cable. At most, you'll have the very, very basic tier, but the cable lines now carry phone, cable, and internet, so the old analog signals are long gone. You need a cable box in most places. That's why many cable companies now bundle their services with TiVO or some kind of digital video recorder--the boxes then serve two purposes--decipher the digital signal, and allow you to record it. That transition is a completely different thing than the DTV transition going on right now.

As for signal strength, call your local TV station's engineering department and talk to them about reception issues you're having. There's still a lot of fine-tuning of the signal going on right now, and the engineering departments are actually looking for feedback about reception problems that viewers may be having. I know our engineering department is looking for folks with DTV sets to check the off-the-air signal around town.

By and large, the DTV signals are cleaner and better than the analog signals, but on the fringes, you do get the issues that Charles mentions. That's because of the difference between how analog and digital work. In an analog signal, if it's weak, you get some snow and ghosting, but the picture is still passable. With a digital signal, you get a series of ones and zeros. If some of those ones and zeros don't arrive where they're supposed to, the processor stops and waits for the signal to pick back up, using the information that had been there in the previous frame until new info arrives. That's why you get the digital pixelation and the like.

As for who's responsible for setting this all in motion, thank your good friends at the FCC. Yes, they're from the government, and they're here to help.

Later,

K

Aw jeez, I wuz almost kidding, there...
Now I GOTTA see this...
If only to scare myself with my telepathetic ability to foretell the existing.
If in fact it is the Shan-WOW guy.
Is the guy's name Howie, or Stu, or something like that??
Oh, jeez...

Just did a quick google.
The host of Extreme Trains is not the Sham-WOW guy...

This is the guy I was talking about. Name is "Vince", which to me = "Vinnie"...



I feel so much better...

See what I mean??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwRISkyV_B8

Modern Railroads are scared stiff that the antique rickety ol' steamer will break down and foul the tracks while someone has to go out in the boonies to cut it up with a torch to get it out of the way, so they insist that a modern, unfalible Diseasel accompany the train.

Silly thing is, on many occasions the Diseasel has actually DIED and the steamer saves the day by towing it dead to the next yard where a new one is put on the train. Milwaukee Road 261 has done it at least twice, and U.P.'s 844 has shoved a dead freight train from the rear when the head end units both died (the Engineer on the head end didn't know "what" had come to his aid until they blew the whistle to tell him they were ready to move!)

Well, yes, it sometimes is used to power the passenger cars and sometimes the train is quite overloaded for what any single locomotive can handle, especially on some short sections of excessive grade, so "double-heading" is appropriate to maintain schedule. Several Steam Locomotives today have the MU stand installed so the Steam Locomotive Engineer has control of the Deadweasel.

A lot of the passenger cars are being converted to carry their own Diesel generator for lighting and air-conditioning and so they don't need the Head-End-Power but the RR's still want that "Protection".