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Joined: Mar 2001
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OP
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Does anyone know why Thomas is a "tank" engine or what exactly defines a tank engine? I had never heard the word tank in this context before. It doesn't seem to refer to the wagons he pulls, as he pulls all sorts.
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Joined: Sep 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
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It's a self-contained engine with an integral water tank and coal hole, so not needing a tender pulled behind: this makes for a compact general purpose shunting engine. ah, the glory of steam trains.... http://www.howstuffworks.com/question275.htm
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Steam locomotives were very impressive in the sounds they made, much of which was the "chuff" of escaping steam. But this meant they were losing water. The big locos as Mav says had a coal and water tank tender attached to the loco. But some lines had an alternative that gave me a very disagreeable surprise. I was going from Boston to Philadelphia. I disobeyed the signs forbidding passengers to remain in the space outside the passenger compartment where passengers got on board at the station. The train was going well over sixty miles an hour when suddently I got a very cold shower bath. I learned the hard way that the Pennsy had its own system to replenish water. There was a very long pan of water between the rails, into which the engineer lowered a scoop. But at that speed a lot of water became airborne and I got soaked.
Even more dampening to my spirits was the merriment of passengers and conductor at my appearance when I re-entered the passenger compartment.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
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[taking-the-left-fork-of-the-rail e]
Dr Bill, your use of the term "shower bath" caught my eye. Around here, one might say he took a "shower," meaning he was sprayed with water, or he took a "bath," meaning he was submerged, but would not put the two terms together. I've notice the "shower bath" combination in some older books, and now I am wondering if the term is old-fashioned, or regional, or in general use.
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Joined: Nov 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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When I was a boy, my father was very friendly with a bloke up the road who drove the AB-class steam locomotives which were used for almost everything except main line long-haul journeys. By American, and by most British standards, the ABs were small, although they were in the normal configuration, i.e. they pulled tenders and were not tank engines. The railway track gauge in New Zealand is only 3ft 6in, narrow gauge, so you get the idea.
I was asked (at about age 8 or 9) if I'd like to go on a trip on the footplate of an AB. I ask you, you offer a boy the opportunity to ride in the engine and even dream that he'll say no?
The journey was from a town south of Dunedin called Milton up a branch line through some reasonably rugged country to a town called Roxburgh. The purpose of the trip was to bring the substantive portion of the annual stone fruit harvest down to the coast, Roxburgh being in what is known as Central Otago, river flats ringed by mountains.
The AB locos had semi-open cabs; that is they were not weatherproof - or smokeproof. There were twelve tunnels on the line, none of them very long but they were long enough that the smoke from the funnel would quickly accumulate in the cab. To alleviate this, the fireman and I lay down on the cab floor under wet sacks. The driver put a wet rag around his mouth and nose and wore a pair of beaten-up goggles over his eyes. Talk about Casey Jones! Not the most pleasant of experiences, but, hey, it was novel as all get out to me!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Here is a URL with several pictures of the water towers that were so necessary for the transcontinental trains of eighty years ago: Note the large tilted pipe that could be lowered to fill the tender's tank. http://www.mcrwy.com/tour/watertower1.html
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Ah, but you're all forgetting the original: Ivor the Engine (pronounced Ifor) - he had a particularly fine Welsh accent and puffed out little cotton wool puffs of steam while going 'shush-ti-ku, shush-ti-ku' as he went down the track. Bliss! Up there with The Clangers in the all time top ten of children's programmes.
Also, did I hear right that when Thomas the Tank Engine came to the US they changed the narrator? We had Ringo Starr (ex-Beatle), did you?
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Actually, we have Alec Baldwin for some stories and Ringo Starr for others.
In the Thomas the Tank Engine movie (done for the US market as it is called, "Thomas and the Magic Railroad") they have Alec Baldwin starring as Mr. Conductor.
One change from the books is the Fat Director (who becomes the Fat Controller after nationalisation of the railway) is just called Sir Topham Hat in all of the TV stories.
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old hand
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old hand
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Being old enough to remember, I've got to say that for all the efficiency of modern diesel/electric engines, there's NOTHING that sounds as wonderful as a steam locomotive! Hearing the shrill wail of their whistle late at night, one imagines valkyries on the loose.
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