Working rail roads and their tracks.

[Williy]

Arlya, Chicago & Northwestern back in the early
80's 81 & 82. Was a gandy dancer, spicker driver
loader put the spikes in the guns

willy

 

[the old grind]

Keep it up, Guys!

 

[Williy]

For the air powered units just take a couple
of females with ya they'll give you some hot
air

willy

 

[the old grind]

Or me a day after I ate cornflakes for breakfast, had cornbread for dinner, and beer & popcorn for an evening snack. You'd WISH it only smelled like a gal's breath. (got methane? )

 

[MossRoad]

Ok Moss! A compressed air locomotive - how far did any of those go? Did they have a power system to compress air?

Yes. I was kinda surprised that they had compressors back then that could pump them up. They were for the mines, and could be refilled from the compressors that ran the air tools in the mines. They reportedly could run for hours on a single fill.

 

[MossRoad]

Maybe this one.

Iron Range and Huron Bay Railroad - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Bruce

"Davis, the chief engineer, fled to Mexico to escape allegations of fraud"

 

[MossRoad]

The first air locomotive I saw was in a park in Rapid City, SD.

Homestake Air Locomotive - Rapid City, South Dakota - Locomotives on Waymarking.com

Waymarking.com is a way to mark unique locations on the planet and give them a voice. While GPS technology allows us to pinpoint any location on the planet, mark the location, and share it with others, Waymarking is the toolset for categorizing and adding unique information for that location.

www.waymarking.com

It was built by these folks

H.K. Porter, Inc. - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

They were the largest builder of industrial locomotives, building over 8000 in steam, gas, diesel, and air.

Which, I believe, also built the one in the earlier video.

Fireless locomotive - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[jjeff]

"Davis, the chief engineer, fled to Mexico to escape allegations of fraud"

After seeing this screw up in person I bought this book I have read it, I recommend.

THE RAILROAD THAT NEVER RAN; THE IRON RANGE AND HURON BAY RAILROAD Paperback – January 1, 2004​

if Davis was around today and on this forum he could have posted on the stupid things thread

 

[the old grind]

I was kinda surprised that they had compressors back then that could pump them up. They were for the mines, and could be refilled from the compressors that ran the air tools in the mines. They reportedly could run for hours on a single fill.

Not to sidetrack but Lewis and Clark used air rifles in their day. As an avid pellet gunner myself I've always wondered about air pumps/compressors of old.

 

[oliver1555]

Lewis and Clark had at least one and probably more Girandoni air rifles. It shot a .46 caliber ball and the magazine held 22. I know this isn’t railroad, but they helped Westward Expansion and this video is worth a look. I saw one of the rifles on display in the Pentagon.