learning

[yellowlynn]

My curiosity finally got the best of me, and now I'm highly desirous of getting some education. School-housin' and book-larnin' that is. I have heard - read - about things that I knew absolutely nothing about.

1) passenger cars, what makes a heavyweight?

2) what is a bombardier? Train-wise, that is.

3) What is a tunnel motor?

I feel like an English major that never learned to add 1+1.

Lynn

 

[Russ Bellinis]

Heavy weight passenger cars generally have clerestory windows. They are the older cars. The light weight cars are built out of aluminum or stainless steel.

Bombardier makes most of the two level cars used in commuter service around the country.

The tunnel motor was a special version of the Sd40-2 and Sd45-2 that were built to draw the cool air from the floor of a tunnel. The original owners were S.P. and DRGW. Both railroads had a lot of mountain tunnels and would lose power in the tunnels due to all of the exhaust gases hanging in the top of the tunnel.

 

[yellowlynn]

answers

Thanks, Russ. Does that mean that those old timey small cars with clerestory windows were still classified as heavyweights?

You said Bombadier makes those 2 level passenger cars. Is that a make (brand), or a style.

I understand about the tunnel motors now. I truly appreciate it.

Lynn

 

[MasonJar]

The old-timey "shorties" are not classified as heavyweights - they don't weigh enough! It's the really big 85 footers that ran starting in the 1920s that are the real heavyweights.

For more info on Bombardier, click here. It's a Canadian company!

Andrew

 

[60103]

The Heavyweight pasemger cars were the ones that were built of steel -- steel sides with a big girder down the middle of the floor. With loads of rivets holding everything together. I don't think any wood cars qualified.
The early streamliners marked the start of the lightweight era, although heavyweights still rolled into the 60s and 70s.

 

[baldwinjl]

Didn't the "Heaveyweights" have 6 wheel trucks?

Jeff

 

[Russ Bellinis]

Didn't the "Heaveyweights" have 6 wheel trucks?

Jeff

I think most did, but it seems to me there was one style of heavy weight car that was light enough to get by with 4 wheel trucks.

Bombardier is a huge Canadian company that makes rail cars, snowmobiles, commercial aircraft, and I don't know what else. A friend of mine flys for a commuter airline subsidiary of Delta. He was sent to train on Bombardier jets last year.

 

[60103]

Bombardier makes the doubledeck commuter cars with the tapered ends. I think they did the Acela trains, VIA's LRC trains, and a lot of stuff for overseas, as well as the unmentionables mentioned above. I think the have the rights to Alco locomotives that were made by MLW (anyone want an FPA in full size?)