Train porn

Ronnie Binge wrote: »

Anyone got photos of the pre-1984 interiors of the push pulls? That was a distinctive fit out all right. :rolleyes: I used to wonder was it a deliberate policy of CIÉ's to have the worst rolling stock interior in the western world?

Below - AEC railcars in their early years with CIE must have been a thing of beauty after all the 'hand me downs' received from the GSR.



However, it's for the wrong reasons that most of us old enough to experience the Dublin suburban railway pre-DART remember them. The aroma of pre-war plumbing, people using umbrellas inside them. The rush to get a seat that didn't have a pool of condensed steam (water) on it. The external doors, some missing handles, that used to swell in damp weather and render them unopenable....and you tell young people today.




Some more pics and info here: http://irishrailways.blogspot.com/2009/08/greystones-shuttle-25.html

Karsini wrote: »

The seats in that photo of the push-pull interior remind me of the seats used in primary schools!

They were standard school type seats mounted on a heavy frame. Cold, wet and frequently filthy.

Crazy carry on....

A cousin of the 121 class

Newsreel from 1935 about the New York Central System's 20th Century Limited train (Chicago to New York/Boston). Shows the engine change at Croton-Harmon, some 32 miles away from Manhattan; for most of the journey, the power is a J1a 4-6-4 (with mechanical stokers, so the fireman can sit down and watch the track ahead instead of manually feeding coal; no unnecessary standing for drivers and firemen in US steamers). Back then, the average speed (17-hour journey one way) was 56.5 mph (about 91 km/h) with about six intermediate stops over a 1,547-km route. (Average speed improved to 96.5 km/h by the late 30s.)

Amtrak runs almost the same routing on the Lake Shore Limited (exceptions being New York Penn instead of Grand Central, Rensselaer instead of the now-defunct Albany Union Station, and Depew instead of Buffalo Central Terminal—a station Amtrak closed in 1979), but with 16 intermediate stops and an average speed of 64 km/h if there are no delays (thanks a lot for overregulation out of Washington DC). :rolleyes: Also no all-electric power; it's all diesel power, using dual-mode diesels between New York and Rensselaer.