Heavy Metal

Snotty · Aug 30, 2016

It would scare the Hell out of me to work on that thing!

tallhair · Aug 30, 2016

amazinblue82 said:
From another thread, so I put here so that fine thread can carry on without interruption as that train caught my eye.

post #340 - Old photos with cars

The New York Central Streamliners .. cool then in the 1930's, still cool to me even now. The Commodore Vanderbilt and the Mercury. Conventional locomotives with "shrouds" added.

source: Streamlined Steam |

1934 - Commodore Vanderbilt

The New York Central was the first to fully streamline a steam locomotive in the United States, adding a shovel-nose shroud to a three-year old Hudson (4-6-4) locomotive and naming it the Commodore Vanderbilt.

First made public in December, 1934, the locomotive entered revenue service pulling the railroad’s prestigious, but still heavyweight, 20th Century Limited in February, 1935.

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1936 - The Mercury.

The New York Central asked Henry Dreyfuss–perhaps the nation’s second-most notable industrial designer–to design a train for Cleveland-Detroit service called the Mercury. Dreyfuss saved the railroad millions of dollars by suggesting that it rebuild 10-year-old commuter cars to his design, and to lead the train he put a shroud on two 4-6-2 Pacific locomotives.

Introduced in May, 1936, their design became known as a “bathtub” style and was derided by many people.

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Reminds me of

amazinblue82 · Aug 30, 2016

Snotty said:
It would scare the Hell out of me to work on that thing!

I can surely understand that. I would get that funny feeling one gets when tall structures sway in high winds.

though this rig might be as stable as these land-based structures that make me wonder why they don't topple over (they don;t because they are well engineered and constructed

)

My fascination with the oil business is it combined extraordinary engineering and geological science. With this rig, how it was built would be neat to learn, details of the whole field's operation, etc.

amazinblue82 · Aug 31, 2016

The Largest Oil Rig in the World. Troll A. Extraordinary piece of engineering. It basically "stands" via gravity (due to its own weight - 2.5 BILLION POUNDS - and a complex ballast system) on the ocean floor. Cost to build (1996 Dollars) was $650 Million.

Troll A platform - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Troll A platform is a "condeep" offshore natural gas platform in the Troll gas field off the west coast of Norway. It is the tallest and heaviest structure that has ever been moved to another position, relative to the surface of the Earth, and is among the largest and most complex engineering projects in history.

The Troll A platform has an overall height of 472 metres (1,549 ft), and weighs 683,600 tons (1.2 million tons with ballast). The platform stands on the sea floor 303 metres (994 feet) below the surface of the sea

The walls of Troll A's legs are over 1 metre thick made of steel reinforced concrete formed and each is a mathematically joined composite of several conical cylinders that flares out smoothly to greater diameters at both the top and bottom.

Snotty · Aug 31, 2016

amazinblue82 said:
I can surely understand that. I would get that funny feeling one gets when tall structures sway in high winds.

though this rig might be as stable as these land-based structures that make me wonder why they don't topple over (they don;t because they are well engineered and constructed )

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My fascination with the oil business is it combined extraordinary engineering and geological science. With this rig, how it was built would be neat to learn, details of the whole field's operation, etc.

Good point! I've been to the top of the Space Needle - didn't hesitate.

amazinblue82 · Sep 4, 2016

These NY Central guys -- for a "stodgy" railroad company -- we're doing cool stuff for 40 years. 184 mph in 1966 .. fastest ever diesel locomotive. Jet powered no less.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/this-1960s-jet-train-is-still-americas-fastest-locomo-1526862324

In the mid-1960's, New York Central Railroad engineer Don Wetzel was exploring ways to make trains run safer, cheaper, but most importantly: faster.

And, clearly, the most logical means of accomplishing all three of these objectives was to strap a pair of Air Force surplus jet engines to the roof of a prototype high-speed locomotive, creating the world's fastest self-propelled train. Wait, what?

Built in 1966 by the New York Central Railroad corporation, the M-497 Black Beetle experimental jet-powered locomotive was the first, but surprisingly not the last, of its kind.

The Black Beetle utilized an existing Budd Rail Diesel Car (RDC-3) with an added, streamlined front cowling covering the RDC-3's conventionally blunted nose, and a pair of second-hand General Electric J47-19 jet engines, which had previously been employed as boosters for the Convair B-36 intercontinental bomber, that Wetzel had acquired from the USAF.

Though the RDC-3 itself was eventually scrapped in 1984, its jets live on as snow-blower engines.

tallhair · Sep 4, 2016

amazinblue82 said:
The Largest Oil Rig in the World. Troll A. Extraordinary piece of engineering. It basically "stands" via gravity (due to its own weight - 2.5 BILLION POUNDS - and a complex ballast system) on the ocean floor. Cost to build (1996 Dollars) was $650 Million.

Troll A platform - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Troll A platform is a "condeep" offshore natural gas platform in the Troll gas field off the west coast of Norway. It is the tallest and heaviest structure that has ever been moved to another position, relative to the surface of the Earth, and is among the largest and most complex engineering projects in history.

The Troll A platform has an overall height of 472 metres (1,549 ft), and weighs 683,600 tons (1.2 million tons with ballast). The platform stands on the sea floor 303 metres (994 feet) below the surface of the sea

The walls of Troll A's legs are over 1 metre thick made of steel reinforced concrete formed and each is a mathematically joined composite of several conical cylinders that flares out smoothly to greater diameters at both the top and bottom.

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Thanks for the pics and info.

I just found out a childhood buddy's daughter works on one of these as some sort of geologist or engineer or something making a 3/4 of a metric butt load of cash

Frankly I'm still a little shocked cause he was dumb as a box of rocks in school ... obviously got her smarts from momma LOL

amazinblue82 · Sep 4, 2016

dunno about today given collapse in crude oil prices, but four-five yrs ago my best "handy man" (nice guy, 40yrs old but nevet graduated HS. not dumb -- but very little education obviously) got an oil field job inspecting pipelnes . .just driving a truck and reporting what saw.

six figure income. how do i know? i did his taxes first year

. I am sure your buddy's daughter is brilliant and should be making mega bucks .. its just than in boom times, the oil and gas business pays everybody well it seems.

tallhair · Sep 4, 2016

amazinblue82 said:
dunno about today given collapse in crude oil prices, but four-five yrs ago my best "handy man" (nice guy, 40yrs old but nevet graduated HS. not dumb -- but very little education obviously) got an oil field job inspecting pipelnes . .just driving a truck and reporting what saw.

six figure income. how do i know? i did his taxes first year .

yeah I've known plenty of smart people who either didn't graduate or apply themselves in school ... not the same here

He makes a good living building houses actually and has common sense (a major plus for anyone) is good with hands as they say, good people skills, and a good work ethic so he's done quite well for himself.

amazinblue82 · Sep 22, 2016

The 353 Detroit thread got my attention, so I started lookin' around. Some of you may be seen this.

Piss'd Off Pete. Note in the Leno vid, Jay ain't drivin

amazinblue82 · Sep 22, 2016

Stumbled onto this. Advertised as largest semi truck engine ever built. 3500 horses they say.

Dunno who Mike Harrah is .. some of you might. I am kinda impressed with this creation. I like how it sounds throttled up.

Probably not practical for the road, but a lotta skill (and dead presidents) sure went into it.

amazinblue82 · Sep 22, 2016

Russian Tank .. stuck in the mud.

about 2 minutes in, the fun starts. as the terrain changed a bit, you just knew something was gonna happen. Wish i could speak Russian .. probably a lotta these flying around: Вот дерьмо!

The mystery is did the tank get out. If so, how? It wasn't what I thought in the end.

amazinblue82 · Oct 15, 2016

It's here. Take a look at Post #90. This USS Detroit is in town for its christening in about a week.

Hopefully, it never has to come back for "business" reasons

Here is a vid of it arriving.

Detroit News Video Carousel- USS Detroit

I'll post some more pics later -- the ones taken against the Detroit skyline. There's a barge between the ship and the riverwall .. the river is just too shallow near the edge.

That's Windsor Ontario in the background of course.