The first locomotive for the Los Angeles Junction Railway (Bedroom Division) has arrived. (As always, click to embiggen)
I’ve confirmed that it runs. When we get back from vacation I’ll add a DCC sound decoder and speaker, and weather it.
(Don’t worry, I’ll get back to posting about archaeology soon.)
Filed under Railroad
It’s being reported by nearly everybody that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il has died. What will happen to his former subjects is unknown, but North Korea under Kim was one of the most brutally oppressive regimes of the modern world, it’s hard to imagine that things could possibly get much worse.
Filed under Politics
I’ve blogged several times about my interest in what I like to call fantastic ethnobiology, a term I use for creatures that exist as cultural knowledge, but which do not physically exist, and which also do not have any particular religious significance. (I make that distinction both to avoid causing unnecessary offense and because I believe the difference really is important in understanding the phenomenon.)
In keeping with this interest, and in view of the season, I was therefore quite happy to find a website that has some first person accounts of sightings that can definitely be described as fantastic.
Filed under Folklore
Regardless of whether you support the Occupy movement or not, this kind of behavior is not acceptable, ever. Her magical “faith in humanity” is meaningless. The humanity of the engineer has damn all to do with how long it takes a train to stop. Good intentions will not change the laws of physics. And since she was at the entrance to a major port, she had no way to know whether the next train to come through would be a switcher with just a couple of cars or a mile long string of loaded hoppers weighing tens of millions of pounds.
Railroads don’t like collisions. I know; I was part of the field crew that did the archaeological compliance for the BNSF Triple Track project in the Cajon Pass. I had to attend the morning safety meeting every single day before starting work. And yet, according to Operation Lifesaver, 260 people were killed by collisions with trains in 2010, with another 810 people injured. Those injuries and deaths didn’t happen because the engineers wanted them to, or because the big faceless railroad corporation didn’t care. In nearly every case, they occurred because somebody was on the track when they should not have been.
(BTW, if you’re alongside the track and close enough that you could conceivably get in front of an oncoming train, you should expect the engineer to sound the horn. It’s considered polite to look at them and wave and let them know that you’re aware of the situation and not about to do anything stupid.)
Filed under Railroad
On October 4th, 2004, the 47th anniversary of the Sputnik launch, a small vehicle named SpaceShipOne accomplished something that had never been done before in human history. It flew into space under its own power for a second time within a period of less than one week. And it did it entirely without government funding.
The product of a collaboration between aerospace engineer Burt Rutan and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, SpaceShipOne was the proof-of-concept vehicle that led directly to the spacecraft that are currently planned to begin commercial flights very soon with Virgin Galactic.
Not satisfied with their accomplishments so far, Rutan and Allen are now teaming up with Elon Musk of SpaceX to develop a spacecraft capable of carrying cargo or passengers into orbit. The partnership is called Stratolaunch Systems. As reported in Wired, the new vehicle will use a carrier aircraft like SpaceShipOne did, but this one will be much larger, with a wingspan of 385 feet, the largest ever. (The current record is the 319 foot wing of the Hughes H-4 Hercules).
I was fortunate enough to be able to attend all three space launches of SpaceShipOne back in 2004, and I hope Stratolaunch succeeds in this new venture.
Filed under Space, Technology
How come nobody told me about this before now? Science fiction publisher Baen has adopted an innovative strategy to fight online piracy: they’re giving away books in electronic format. The participating authors are essentially giving out free samples of their work, in the (undoubtedly correct) belief that in the long run it will increase sales. It’s not really any different than having books available in free public libraries, and I’ve heard very few authors complain about that.
Filed under Uncategorized
After many, many years of wishing and thinking and, yes, procrastinating, I’ve finally gotten started on a model railroad. Power (in the form of an HO scale CF7 diesel locomotive) has been ordered, and I’m developing the final track plan. Sometime in the next few days I’ll be getting some lumber to begin construction.
The right of way that I’ve managed to procure is rather small; just 6 1/2 feet long by 2 1/2 feet wide. But it’s a start. Someday we’ll move into a larger house, with more room for hobbies. In the meantime, it’ll sure be nice to be able to run a train without having to go all the way down to the club in Carson City.
Filed under Railroad
I admit it. Sometimes I really enjoy reading demotivational posters. Especially when I find one that has a connection to archaeology.
Filed under Archaeology
Lance Mindheim has done an incredible job modeling Miami in HO scale. Go check out the photo galleries on his website. It’s hard to believe that some of those pictures are models.
Filed under Railroad
