Modern Marvels: Trains

[b28_82]

Hey if anyone's interested and sees this in the next half hr. The History Channel is showing Trains on Modern Marvels at 10/9c tonight.. It looks like they're gonna show the interworkings of dispatching, tracking cars, servicing engines.

Jake

 

[LoudMusic]

w00t! Got it on the TiVo but I think I'll actually sit in and watch this one live.


Whoa ... live TV ... it's been so long since I've done that.

 

[FiatFan]

Fot those who miss the early show, it's on again at 1:00 AM central time.

Tom

 

[LoudMusic]

Well, that was very entertaining and rather educational.

My biggest thought from the show is that it's a shame they aren't taking the energy produced from dynamic braking and applying it somewhere else. Perhaps through overhead wires to a train climbing the same hill. Though, I drive a hybrid car so it's kind of the way I think now

Good show. I really like Modern Marvels.

 

[eightyeightfan1]

Excellent show.
Liked the shots of the GE plant. Nice to know how they are built.

 

[viperman]

Always wondered how they got the power to the trucks, now I know. Its kinda cool when I see a semi with a flatbed trailer hauling 4 of those (traction motor / single axle) down the road

 

[railohio]

*meh* Just a lot of fluff for the general population. Not much useful for the informed railfan in there.

 

[King Bonk]

*meh* Just a lot of fluff for the general population. Not much useful for the informed railfan in there.

as a beginner, though, im not so "informed" yet, so i really would have liked to seen it, fluff or no. it would have saved you all a bunch of silly questions from me.

oh well im sure they will repeat it.

 

[railohio]

To be honest it didn't really explain a lot about how railroads worked. It talked about a hump yard using UP's Bailey Yard in North Platte as an example, there were a few short segments detailing safetey features on locomotives and why cabooses are no longer used, then they moved on to show how General Electric builds locomotives in Erie. The final segment was about containers and the Alameda Corridor project near Los Angeles. I think that's everything they covered.

I agree there should be a show on for beginning railfans and modelers but it should be part of a larger railfan programming block and not one special produced three years ago.

 

[LoudMusic]

To be honest it didn't really explain a lot about how railroads worked. It talked about a hump yard using UP's Bailey Yard in North Platte as an example, there were a few short segments detailing safetey features on locomotives and why cabooses are no longer used, then they moved on to show how General Electric builds locomotives in Erie. The final segment was about containers and the Alameda Corridor project near Los Angeles. I think that's everything they covered.

I agree there should be a show on for beginning railfans and modelers but it should be part of a larger railfan programming block and not one special produced three years ago.

Well it wasn't about railroads, it was about freight trains. That's why it was called Freight Trains, not Railroads. And they covered most every mechanical aspect of what it takes to get freight from one location to another using the train and how it changed over the years to become what it is today. I'd say they did a pretty good job.

If you're looking for something to elevate the knowledge of someone who already knows everything about a subject, a television show isn't going to get you there. It's television - broadcast to the masses for FREE. If they want to get anyone to watch they have to bring it down to a level that the masses can understand. See, that's how television works. And it has nothing to do with the electronics that deliver the image and sound.

Since you think it was inferior how about you make one better and post it on youtube.com. I'd love to see what you come up with.

 

[TruckLover]

WWOOWW, Mow I liked that one!! bounce7 bounce7

That was a great episode of Modern Marvels. I loved that huge UP Yard and Im sure Deano loved it too (if he was watching it).

I stayed up till 11:00 pm but it was well worth it (Iusally try to go to bed around 10 on school nights because I find that it is extreamly hard to get up the next morning at 6:50 am)

 

[LoudMusic]

WWOOWW, Mow I liked that one!! bounce7 bounce7

That was a great episode of Modern Marvels. I loved that huge UP Yard and Im sure Deano loved it too (if he was watching it).

I stayed up till 11:00 pm but it was well worth it (Iusally try to go to bed around 10 on school nights because I find that it is extreamly hard to get up the next morning at 6:50 am)

Turns out my TiVo didn't record it at 9 (CST). It had scheduled to record the second showing at 1AM! So I let it pick it up then.

There have been lots of Modern Marvel shows I'd like to have copies of, so after last night's MM: Freight Trains I looked it up on their website.

http://store.aetv.com/html/subject/index2.jhtml?id=mm1000&_requestid=1537654

$25 for a 50 minute DVD burn is not what I had in mind. But they do have sets and longer shows for less.

http://store.aetv.com/html/product/...eCategoryId=&location=&parentcatid=&subcatid=

And did you guys know there was an entire series called "Trains Unlimited" ? It appears to have run last year / beginning of this year, but I'm not finding much more information on it.

 

[FiatFan]

as a beginner, though, im not so "informed" yet, so i really would have liked to seen it, fluff or no. it would have saved you all a bunch of silly questions from me.

oh well im sure they will repeat it.

The program will be rebroadcast on Saturday, Sept. 23rd, at 4:00 PM Eastern.

Tom

 

[Nick8564]

.
"My biggest thought from the show is that it's a shame they aren't taking the energy produced from dynamic braking and applying it somewhere else. Perhaps through overhead wires to a train climbing the same hill. Though, I drive a hybrid car so it's kind of the way I think now "

I think its GE that is coming out with a hybrid locomotive that uses the electricity generated from the dynamic braking and stores it in batteries for later use.
look here: https://www.getransportation.com/general/locomotives/hybrid/hybrid_default.asp

The show was pretty cool, nice to see inside the plant and seeing them being put together.

 

[LoudMusic]

I think its GE that is coming out with a hybrid locomotive that uses the electricity generated from the dynamic braking and stores it in batteries for later use.
look here: https://www.getransportation.com/general/locomotives/hybrid/hybrid_default.asp

The show was pretty cool, nice to see inside the plant and seeing them being put together.

8O

That's some crazy huge power to be slamming in and out of a battery all the time. I hope they make it cost effective because that would drive the "hybrid" technology in houses and other buildings pretty well too. Imagine if every building had a bank of batteries. The power suppy stations could run at a much more constant output making them significantly more effecient. Then if the area-wide draw was higher than the power stations output individuals would switch to their batteries, or even supply power back to the grid, as needed.

Cool stuff, thanks for sharing the link!

 

[TruckLover]

There have been lots of Modern Marvel shows I'd like to have copies of, so after last night's MM: Freight Trains I looked it up on their website.more information on it.

Modern Marvels is one of my favorite shows on the History Channel

 

[b28_82]

......... (Iusally try to go to bed around 10 on school nights because I find that it is extreamly hard to get up the next morning at 6:50 am)

6:50 am... thats sleeping in for me. or rather.. OH $#!% I SLEPT IN!!!!

 

[viperman]

me too, I'm about to head out the door at 6:50

 

[Herc Driver]

I've found that although Modern Marvels is very entertaining, if you know something about the subject matter from education or first hand knowledge, the show'd content is driven by what the show's directors/producers understand about the subject matter and not how something really works. Case in point...I watched a show about the C-5 - a plane I flew for five years - and it had many well...embellishments to the truth of actual operations. The show "played up" some very mundane things and "played down" what was actually more important IMHO. A lot of that I'm sure was driven from the footage they got. I didn't see this show on trains but I'm guessing they built the storyline around the footage they shot then edited it all together with their limited understanding of rail operations to make the show. Entertaining? Sure it is...but maybe not too exact as many of us would like.

 

[nolatron]

For iTunes users, I think Modern Marvels is one of the TV shows listed in the iTunes store. I didn't see this show listed the other day, but may just wanna check it every now and then to see if it gets posted if you wanna save a digital copy easily.