Western Railroad Discussion > A Good Talgo chase out of KC

Well, following up on Mr. Seely's post directly below this, I was able to go out today and shoot the Amtrak Talgo special through Kansas today, beginning in Kansas City, and shooting down to Ottawa.

Thanks for looking,
Jeff Carlson

Photo 1-3: Pulling into the Argentine fuel pad, just west of downtown KC.

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Photo 4: Pulling through Holliday, after making a surprise trip onto the Ottawa cutoff, instead of the Topeka Sub as was "scheduled." Profanity ensued.

Photo 5: A shot of the fugly new cab car. Fugly.

Photo 6: Rolling around the curve on the south side of Olathe with one of Topeka's distinctive "Primerbonnets."

- Jeff Carlson

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Here's the final three shots of an entertaining day, on the Transcon. I won't share them here, but we caught three wb's headed up by ex-BN EMD widecabs, a pair of SF GP50's, some NS roadrailers and more, in addition to the Talgo special.

Photo 7: One more of the set rolling through Olathe.

Photo 8: Well, UPTRAIN and sp8192 called it off after Olathe, but down in Ottawa I was able to catch up with santafe199 and MILW_E70. Here she is pulling past the west side of town.

Photo 9: And my last view of her for a long time, unless my summer road-trip plans to a Portland Timbers game come to fruition. Thanks to our lovely Governor, we're not going to see anything of these sorts in Kansas anytime soon.

Hope you all enjoyed, I know I did. This was quite a cool set to chase.

- Jeff Carlson

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Well...I took video, but did take a pic of one of the greenstein painted BNSF SD70MAC's that we saw today....here is the BNSF 9686 at College Blvd near Olathe.

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bnsfsd70 Wrote:
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> Photo 4: Pulling through Holliday, after making a
> surprise trip onto the Ottawa cutoff, instead of
> the Topeka Sub as was "scheduled." Profanity

Profanity? Naa...not our group...

Pump

So what kind of protection will that cab car offer a crew if a loaded dump truck (or any truck for that matter) tries to beat them across the tracks and loses?

Brian Ambrose
Renton, WA

BrianA Wrote:
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> So what kind of protection will that cab car offer
> a crew if a loaded dump truck (or any truck for
> that matter) tries to beat them across the tracks
> and loses?
>
> Brian Ambrose
> Renton, WA


It has big collision posts, but I have a hard time figuring out what's going to keep debris from shoving up under that snout and lifting it off the rail, and don't get my started on stuff going OVER that short nose and through the windshield. I can see a cab filling up with gravel and causing some serious problems for the engine crew.

Pump

You don't suppose there's any chance this monstrosity is part of a stealth plot to discourage passenger train service?

(Written only half in jest...)

RE: The Fugly cab -- Where oh where is Raymond Loewy when you really need him?

BrianA Wrote:
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> So what kind of protection will that cab car offer
> a crew if a loaded dump truck (or any truck for
> that matter) tries to beat them across the tracks
> and loses?
>
> Brian Ambrose
> Renton, WA


The current issue of Trains Magazine has a big article about this train. It discusses the development of the cab car.

I agree, it's ugly!

Nomosantafe
Fort Worth, Texas
"Where the West Begins"

Wow, that cab car is extremely fugly. Nice shots.

Posted from iPhone

JMorhaus Wrote:
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> Wow, that cab car is extremely fugly. Nice shots.
>
> Posted from iPhone


Its to bad the people who designed this Talgo, didn't check the designs of the original one built in the 1950's as it much better looking.

BCutter Wrote:

> Where oh where is Raymond Loewy when you really need him?

I'd wager if Loewy's original, rectangular windshield FM Erie Built design, or the Baldwin sharks based on his Pennsy T1 (or the T1, for that matter) were trotted out today as new designs, folks would be crying "ugly" and gouging their eyes out, too.

Erie: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2194931
Shark: http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/tr_prr5771.jpg
T1: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,1587638

mopacrr wrote:

> Its to bad the people who designed this Talgo, didn't check the designs of the
> original one built in the 1950's as it much better looking.

The ACF locomotives were:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:American_Car_Foundry_Talgo_locomotive_1948.jpg

but the original Spanish Talgo locomotives built a few years earlier looked like this:

http://www.talgoamerica.com/images/heritage_train.gif
http://www.eng.hsrail.ru/i/photo/img017.jpg

I'd take the Oregon design over that.

All they need to do is paint the cab like a bulldog :)

David Locher
Fresno, CA
http://www.youtube.com/learnwithgern

Rough ride..Newton to La Junta???...

That thing is so ugly, that it is yugly. upkpfan

IT adds a new meaning to the word ....UGLY....
YUCK

I bet they were forced to go with this design to meet FRA crash safety standards.

> mopacrr wrote:
>
> > Its to bad the people who designed this Talgo,
> didn't check the designs of the
> > original one built in the 1950's as it much
> better looking.

> but the original Spanish Talgo locomotives built a
> few years earlier looked like this:
>
> http://www.talgoamerica.com/images/heritage_train.
> gif
> http://www.eng.hsrail.ru/i/photo/img017.jpg
>
> I'd take the Oregon design over that.

Ooh, that's crazy looking! It looks like a toy train.

What I was thinking is that it looks a fair amount like the obs car for the old (Talgo/GM built) Aerotrain.

http://tinyurl.com/dxn77bx

- Jeff Carlson

First, SD70ACe's, then that Hyundai monstrosity on Metrolink, now this. I keep thinking loco designers can't devolve anymore than they have, but they continually surprise me.