Monday Train Blogging: New England Autumn | 18 comments (18 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Beautiful leaves, obscured by sooty carbon emissions.

It has been a warm fall in New England this year, and the trees changed color much later than they usually do.

Climate change, anyone?

Sorry, I don't like that photo. At all. Call me a stupid environmentalist, but...

by Plutonium Page (page dot vlinders at gmail dot com) on Tue Nov 22nd, 2005 at 03:26:08 AM EST

Climate change this fall? (none / 1)

This fall Connecticut was like Washington DC, back when I was growing up. (Washington is about 300 km to the south.) If the weather keeps up like this, I am going to have to move farther north. :)

Colors weren't that good this year either--also like DC. Good colors want a moderately warm and wet summer, followed by a sharp turn to cold. This year we got drought, which didn't break until the equinox, and then warm and wet weather that has cooled only gradually.

Plutonium--This is the difference between nostalgia and reality: We love those monsters, but there is no way we would want them chugging through our lives right now . . .

The Fates are kind.

by Gaianne on Tue Nov 22nd, 2005 at 05:22:58 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Monsters chugging through our lives (none / 1)

Heh, I wonder if there are any American rightwing blogs that have "SUV and Hummer blogging"?

I understand nostalgia, but the photo bothered me so much that I had my browser block it :-(

by Plutonium Page (page dot vlinders at gmail dot com) on Tue Nov 22nd, 2005 at 06:31:05 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Okay, (4.00 / 4)

here is an enviromentally friendly autumn nostalgic train for you:

(A Swiss SBB Be 6/8 III "crocodile" class loco - most of the Swiss railway electricity comes from hydropower.)

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Tue Nov 22nd, 2005 at 06:45:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Okay, (none / 1)

My absolute favorite! The "Krokodil/Crocodile" was introduced in 1919. Some are still in service.
About electrification, in 1928 55% of the 2900 km of SBB/CFF railway were electrified, 90% in 1946... (no coal in Switzerland). The dam of Ritom above Airolo, was build in 1920 to power the newly electrified Gothard line.

Hydropower is not always as clean as we can imagine. It's partly recycled french nuclear energy: at night, water is pumped up in the dam using cheap electricity and sold back during the day.

by Hansvon on Wed Nov 23rd, 2005 at 05:42:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Okay, (none / 0)

Side note, this method is one possibility to balance the intermittency of wind power. (Even better is to not pump anything but to regulate hydropower output - that benefits the downstream biosphere too -, and this is where the Scandinavian energy system is heading.)

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Thu Nov 24th, 2005 at 06:41:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]

For Whatever It's Worth (4.00 / 3)

This particular photo appears to have been "staged" for maximum soot output. This specific train only ran a couple of excursion routes per year in the late 1990s and is not in regular operation. Below are a couple of other pictures of this same locomotive passing over the same viaduct:

So it's fairly obvious that this locomotive isn't always such a polluter. It's not terribly clean, no doubt, but 614 was built in 1948, just prior to the main switchover from coal to diesel-electric.

by The Maven on Tue Nov 22nd, 2005 at 01:06:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: For Whatever It's Worth (none / 1)

Hah! I hoped someone would step in with such info ;-)

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Tue Nov 22nd, 2005 at 01:37:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: For Whatever It's Worth (none / 1)

BTW, such staging of high soot output is ocassionally done here too - for example, a few years ago at the railway parade for the 150-year celebrations of Hungarian railways, the Romanian guest locomotives did this when passing in front of the tribunes filled with railfans packed full of cameras.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Tue Nov 22nd, 2005 at 01:40:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Monday Train Blogging: New England Autumn | 18 comments (18 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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