Reader Tips

Reader Tips 39 Comments

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation, here is the cold start and fitness-to-run check of the East Lancashire railway’s D5600 Locomotive ¤, at the Castlecroft yard, after a piston change in 2006 (9:59). Ahh, I love the smell of diesel clag in the morning. And if that’s too boring for those of you living the life of fast-paced glamour, sacrificing your freedom to Martha’s Sons, then you can always simply sit back and enjoy these lovely 14 megawatt trumpets 😉

Update: This one‘s for Snagglepuss in the comments.

Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.

39 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  2. WELL..IN MY EXPERIENCE ALL THIS reverence for the old timers is all very well and good…always kudos to the foamers that keep the old stuff running..
    but…as a transition guy i must say even tho it appears to be occluded by history and performance rated in rather weird ways the very best there was was the GM SD 40….pulled..never wheel slip..loaded up like a motorcycle on methedrine…

  4. The principle difference, Larry, is that it doesn’t have the externally visible reciprocating action of the old steam locomotives. And I agree that externally visible reciprocating action is or at least can be under appropriate circumstances romantic. Still, I don’t think (and not that you were saying) that these modern locomotivies are without their own “romantic” appeal: they have a certain kind of electricity of their own.

  6. plus the control column on the SD 40 was laid out on the starboard side of the cab…as a Christian would expect it to be…not looking like a desk at some british motor vehicle office but like a goldarn north american dirty old freight pulling reliable as always ever locomotive dagnabbit…
    it is impossible to slag an SD 40..

  7. Ivison has posted new Nanos poll:
    ”an exclusive advance copy of a Nanos Research poll to be released later this week.
    The poll suggests two-thirds of Canadians are still nervous about economic recovery and favour continued stimulus spending.
    But when they were asked which of the party leaders they would trust to manage the economy, 40.5% said Mr. Harper,
    against 26.8% who said Mr. Ignatieff and 10.1% who opted for Jack Layton, the NDP leader.
    As worrying for the Liberal leader was the response that Mr. Harper is more trusted to manage tax policy (40.1% against 24.2%);
    the environment (21.6% versus 16.8%); and healthcare (28.9% versus 21.5%)….
    http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/09/22/john-ivison-ignatieffs-tacks-to-left-in-hopes-of-finding-tailwind.aspx

  8. Get this!
    Toronto has truly become a Police State
    The police in Toronto are door knocking on *THOUSANDS* and *THOUSANDS* of gun owners homes and seizing their guns because their paperwork isn’t up to date.
    The Police operation is called “Project Safe Streets”.
    What they should call it is “Operation Gun Grab”
    Now get this,the Police are using names from the *old* Gun Registration Database to go after Gun owners that haven’t properly Registered their guns under the New system.
    GET IT?
    The Toronto Police are using the Gun Registration Database to go into Toronto residents homes and then grab,or as the Police say it, “Seize” their guns.
    Remember also that the Government of Canada has vowed to SCRAP the Gun Registry when it gets around to it.
    It’s happening EXACTLY like Gun Owners have been saying for YEARS and YEARS.
    And Gun Owners have been saying this: The only REASON the State wants Gun Owners to Register their guns is so that at a later date the State can come over and SEIZE them.
    And that is exactly what is happening in Toronto.
    Read some of the comments at the bottom of the story.
    http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/news/local/article/58575–nearly-400-firearms-seized-as-toronto-police-pursue-project-safe-city

  10. Mr.g: that is a very disturbing story, an we told you so story. This must be fixed post haste or we’re all hooped.

  12. Yeah, Vit, That’s me last Thursday, or was it Wednesday?? Firing from both ends, but all’s well that ends well :)~.
    Great videos, btw. Luv them honkin diesels and anything exuding power and might. More please.

  13. Mr.G, that was an interesting story. The comments are worth reading too. But I have to say that I’m not surprised. Mayor Dave Miller has been on that warpath for a while, and I do think that an election is coming up.
    What I do find interesting is that they are scooping up all these ‘illegal’ guns, but the police are saying that they are not charging anyone. Sounds like they are afraid of having to put this operation before a judge.

  14. It’s stirring to hear the sweet symphony of engineering intentions battling its way through real-world occurrences…and winning.
    Huzzah! Move those goods.

  16. The loathsome Judy Rebick turns up in Tuesday’s National Post, calling the response to the anti-Israel protests at the Toronto film festival “hysterical” (which she claims left her “heartsick”), and referring to articles by Robert Lantos, Bernie Farber, Murray Teitel and Jonathan Kay as “distorted” and “unacceptable” (how they’re distorted or why they’re unacceptable is not explained). She doesn’t mention Karen Mock (co-author of a similar piece), who it seems to me has pretty much the same opinion on everything as Judy Rebick, with the apparent exception of Israel.
    Rebick mentions the nearly 1,400 Palestinians killed in the Gaza offensive, without mentioning the reason for it (rockets fired from Gaza into Israel that killed civilians).
    She then has the effrontery to say this: “not all Jews believe that Israel is above international law because of the horror that was inflicted on our people by the Nazis”. And then: “The Jewish tradition in which I was raised answers the Holocaust by working to build a world where that kind of violence will never happen again, not only to the Jews but to all peoples” (the column starts off with some reminiscences of her upbringing).
    What she of course omits is that Israel is surrounded by enemies that want to drive it into the sea, which would be tantamount to a second Holocaust. I guess it’s hard to give a damn about that when your ideological masters have given you the word to side with the irrational Muslim extremists because they can potentially cause havoc within western nations, and to hell with justice, freedom, peace and democracy. It’s hard to say with a straight face that you hope “that [Holocaust] kind of violence will never happen again” when you’re essentially aiding and abetting the very fanatics whose goal is to ensure it does happen again, and soon. But then, hypocrisy is the left-winger’s stock-in-trade. What a disgrace.

  17. After Billions loaned to this Province with no interest or forgiven altogether with all the workers from there we had come work here with open arms. This is our thanks in bad times.
    Its time to go. The East has become nothing but a black hole with ugly vapors.
    Ingrates.
    JMO
    Alberta workers vow to return to New Brunswick
    Protests prompt hotel, job site security upgrades
    By Sarah McGinnis, Calgary HeraldSeptember 20, 2009Comments (54)
    A lberta trades workers caught in swirling labour protests in Atlantic Canada are back home, for now, but the president of a Balzac-based company says his staff will be returning to New Brunswick to finish the job.

  19. Earlier this evening I got to participate in an hour long conference call (essentially a live podcast) with the NRO’s Rich Lowry, Jonah Goldberg, and Mark Steyn. It was very interactive and very cool!

  20. Re the Michael Ignatieff speech to the Toronto Board of Trade on Monday, of which excerpts were published in Tuesday’s National Post.
    First of all, there is a comment that “you can’t grow an economy without a government that leads”. This by itself should disqualify him from becoming Prime Minister. An economy is led by consumers spending their money on things they need and/or want, not by government.
    He goes on to say “a Liberal government will do more for our innovators and researchers. We will offer incentives for small and medium businesses to hire and train workers, especially [the young]”. And “We’ll make a priority of manufacturing research and commercialization, to help our businesses bring new products and new technologies to market. And we’ll help manufacturers invest in plant and machinery, to improve their productivity”.
    Blah blah blah. The Liberals always promise stuff like this, and sometimes they actually edge in that direction a little. But any “help” provided has to come out of tax dollars, with a paper-shuffling layer of parasitic bureaucracy in between. This hurts the economy, it doesn’t help it.
    He says a Liberal government will “stand up for flagship Canadian companies, made-in-Canada technologies and key intellectual property with an investment review process that protects our national interests. We will welcome foreign investment, but we’ll require foreign companies to build and sustain Canadian jobs and head offices”.
    You don’t need to “stand up” for companies; they are perfectly capable of running their own affairs without bureaucrats pushing them around, and in fact they have the right to do this. There are no “national interests” to protect: the only way you can find out if an investment is in the “national interest” is by letting it happen and seeing how consumers respond. And the requirement to build and sustain head offices seems very likely to discourage investment in this country.
    And Ignatieff would like to “… bring back the Team Canada trade missions”.
    These are a nice holiday for a bunch of politicians and businessmen and their hangers-on. But one suspects that companies abroad already know about opportunities in Canada, and the trade missions are redundant. Same goes, incidentally, for things like Invest Toronto (the organization headed by Michael Bryant until his legal difficulties): businessmen around the world already know about Toronto, it’s part of their job.
    Ignatieff says his party wants to “grow the economy so we can invest in national early learning and childcare, for every Canadian child; so we can improve our health care system, with a national strategy for health promotion; so we can help our seniors age with dignity, by securing pensions and strengthening the Guaranteed Income Supplement”.
    First of all, Canadian children are better off being looked after by their parents who know them, rather than in child care. If it weren’t for the depredations of government intervention and layers of unproductive government bureaucracy that squander our high taxes, families might not need to have two working parents.
    Second, what the hell is “health promotion” and why do we need a “national strategy” for it? Does anyone think people don’t know about or care about their own health?
    Finally, how are pensions insecure and why does the GIS need strengthening? Pensions have to be paid for out of savings derived from efficiencies of production. The extra taxes and bureaucracy he wants will make things worse.
    Meanwhile, on a related note, the Toronto Star weighs in with a Tuesday editorial titled, “Ignatieff’s logic faulty on taxes”. The fault is that he’s not in favour of pushing them higher. Believe it or not, the editorial actually says, “Canadians may be ready for an Obama-style ‘adult conversation’ on the subject of taxes”. And it notes that Ignatieff trotted out the usual litany of taxes well spent: aiding premature infants, police keeping streets safe, making sure we have teachers so our kids get a good education.
    Except that many people think kids aren’t getting a good education, what with some kids coming out of high school illiterate. Then there’s the kangaroo courts of the “human rights” commissions, the unproductive bureaucracies like the CRTC, the crazy transportation rules of the Wheat Board, and so on ad nauseam. Maybe we just need smaller government?
    Finally, the editorial rattles off a list of things Ignatieff attacked the current government for. One is “standing by as iconic Canadian firms are sold off to foreign investors”, as if they’re government property to dispose of. But the worst one is “having no plan to restructure the Canadian economy”. An economy is about production and trade, and each individual makes decisions for himself in this regard. Restructuring can be done by a company on an individual basis, if necessary, depending on how it perceives consumer demand. The economy is not the private fiefdom of government or the Prime Minister to restructure by fiat. What happens if a PM decided there are too many newspapers in Toronto and the Star should be “restructured” out of business?

  21. And speaking of parasitic bureaucracy, here’s another horror story in the Globe and Mail on Tuesday.
    In Montreal, a cabbie of 43 years’ service has been fined several times by the Bureau de taxi a total of $1,400 for the crime of having on his dashboard some pictures of his family, a couple of flags (Canada and Israel), a Remembrance Day poppy and a couple of religious artifacts.
    The cabbie, Arieh Perecowicz, is going to court next week – representing himself, because he can’t afford a lawyer – and has also filed a complaint with the Quebec Human Rights Commission (I would normally trash this latter move, since it too is a parasitic bureaucracy, but here I’m somewhat sympathetic and curious to see what happens).
    He says he only started receving tickets over the offending items (offending the bureau, never to any paying customer) when he criticized it for failing to crack down on unlicensed cabs. Also, a lot of other cabs have similar items front and/or back, like air fresheners, rosary beads, crucifixes etc., so perhaps he’s being singled out.

  22. The Purge:
    Liberal Ignatieff/Hezbollah Coderre’s Purge.
    Case Study: “And all hell has broken loose inside the party.*”
    ** >>> “Perceived political orientation was the key variable in these mass atrocities. But gender played an important role,”.
    The Hit List*:
    *Stephane Dion, Raymonde Falco from Laval-les-Iles, Lise Zarac from LaSalle-Emard and Bernard Patry from Pierrefonds-Dollard.
    Dion’s “crime and punishment”: urlm.in/dblq.
    *”Liberals hurt themselves fighting over Quebec ridings”
    urlm.in/dblr
    …-
    **”Case Study:
    Stalin’s Purges
    Summary
    Under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin, tens of millions of ordinary individuals were executed or imprisoned in labour camps that were little more than death camps. Perceived political orientation was the key variable in these mass atrocities. But gender played an important role, and in many respects the Purge period of Soviet history can be considered the worst gendercide of the twentieth century.
    The background
    According to the historian Robert Conquest, Joseph Stalin “gives the impression of a large and crude claylike figure, a golem, into which a demonic spark has been instilled.” He was nonetheless “a man who perhaps more than any other determined the course of the twentieth century.”
    http://www.gendercide.org/case_stalin.html

  23. Stand with Israel.
    “Canada’s empty seats will not go unnoticed.”
    …-
    “Canada set to boycott Iran’s UN speech
    Canada will boycott Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech at the United Nations today, saying his outbursts about the Holocaust and Israel are “shameful.”
    Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon will be at the world body to attend the opening of the UN General Assembly’s annual debate, but officials signal he and other members of the Canadian delegation will vacate when the Islamic republic’s president approaches the podium.
    Walking out of the chamber is seen as a strong diplomatic show of disgust at the UN — and since the 192-member chamber is generally packed on the first day of the annual summit, Canada’s empty seats will not go unnoticed.”
    http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Canada+boycott+Iran+speech/2022648/story.html

  25. O’s socialist-imperialism.
    Down with O’s socialist-imperialism.
    Stand with Honduras.
    …-
    “Soldiers Surround Zelaya
    Supporters at Brazil’s embassy driven away”.
    http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?id=2023681
    Here is O’s socialist Hildabeast with O’s socialist-imperialism.
    “”Now that President Zelaya is back, it would be opportune to restore him to his position under appropriate circumstances, get on with the election that is currently scheduled for November, have a peaceful transition of presidential authority and get Honduras back to constitutional and democratic order,” she said on Monday.”

  26. A “Heads Up” for Southern Ontario bloggers and Posters……. Kathy Shaidle is having a TEA PARTY in London Ontaio
    Saturday, October 3, 2009
    12:00pm – 2:00pm
    Reg Cooper Square, behind City Hall
    300 Dufferen Avenue
    London, Ontario, Canada.
    Let’s join and meet at Kathy’s gathering.
    And someone be kind enough to INFORM the London Free Press.
    RANDY RICHMOND in particular, Randy’s not a big fan of Kathy, or is the London Free Press as a news disseminator in southern Ontario region, for that matter.
    Check out her blog “Five Feet of Fury”.

  27. Thanks for the heads up Molnar, I will try to be back on time to meet Kathy…Out of town that week, BUMMER!!!
    Speaking of Tea Parties…Guess where the next US grass roots move will be on Oct. 17th?
    In front of most all alphabet media studios and head offices around the US, except FOX of course.
    Link:
    http://www.operationcanyouhearusnow.com/

  28. Insanity- repeatedly doing the same thing but expecting different results.
    “At the hearing, and in others across Capitol Hill, Democratic majorities are pressing hard to expand some of the very policies that led to the reckless home lending that in turn helped lead to the great financial meltdown. If Chairman Barney Frank and his fellow Democrats have their way, we’ll do it all again — and more.”
    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Democrats-on-path-to-repeat-housing-disaster-8275069-60060902.html

  29. Not that trains starting aren’t that fun to watch but my fav goes to a DC-3 starting on a cold Winnipeg morning. Bonus points with the combination of new pilot, rich mixture and rookie fire guard. Ahhh, the memories 😉

  32. Islam’s jihad: Islam’s war against Western civilization.
    …-
    “Up to 24 More People Sought as NYC Tightens Security in Terror Probe
    NEW YORK — Police in New York City stepped up their patrols and increased their random searches on subways and buses Wednesday following reports that as many as 24 more people are being sought in a suspected cross-country terror plot. Amid media reports that some public storage centers in the region were being raided, the FBI told FOX News that there may be “consensual searches” under way, but no facilities were being “raided.”
    The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued bulletins earlier this week warning law officials around the country to watch mass transit, stadiums, warehouses with rentable storage units and hotels for any unusual activity.
    The feds circulated the internal alerts in the midst of the investigation into a suspected New York City-Colorado terror plot in which three people are in custody for allegedly lying to the government. The three are due in court Thursday to face the charges.
    The possible Al Qaeda-linked scheme may have included plans to detonate bombs stuffed into backpacks, much like the subway attacks carried out in Madrid and London, authorities say…
    Meanwhile, police acting without the FBI’s knowledge may have inadvertently helped blow the surveillance of Denver airport shuttle driver Najibullah Zazi, who is the focus of the investigation. A criminal complaint suggests that NYPD detectives may have compromised a bomb plot investigation at a sensitive stage by questioning an imam in New York about Zazi…
    The complaint also suggests investigators may have tipped off Zazi, 24, by towing and searching a rental car he was using on a New York City trip that heightened fears of an attack…But it also apparently didn’t get by the suspect: In the phone conversation with Afzali, Zazi said the car’s disappearance convinced him he was being watched.”
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2346391/posts

  33. Mao Stlong Repolt:
    You wan dim sums?
    You wan “negatives” flom AGW ostliches with heads-in-sand?
    You wan Copenhagen snuffed?
    Kyoto not dead enoughed.
    …-
    “UN climate summit dims hopes for Copenhagen pact
    A summit of world leaders has dimmed hopes for a strong new U.N. climate pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol in Copenhagen in December, with details looking ever more likely to be left for 2010.
    But climate change experts and observers also refused to focus on the negative, noting that many countries struggling with recession were likely to make concessions only at the last moment.”
    http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-42658020090923

  34. > Sounds like they are afraid of having to put this operation before a judge.
    Oh, you bet this will be before a judge, when the robbed citizens will demand a return of their stolen property. There’s still amnesty in place.

  36. Goreacle Report:
    Moi am not now; nor, have Moi ever been a snake in the long grass; nor, the short grass; nor, the sweet grass; nor, …..
    …-
    “World leaders kick climate policy into the long grass
    Copenhagen was essentially sidelined yesterday at another event, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s Climate Change Summit in New York. There, along with Chinese leader Hu Jintao, U.S. President Barack Obama more or less shuffled climate control policy off into the great dreamscape of unattainable plans and long range objectives. Like equality for all and peace in our time, the world will have to wait for sweeping and binding climate policy.
    –Terence Corcoran, Financial Post, 22 September 2009”
    http://wattsupwiththat.com/

  37. O’Blind.
    O leads the blind black man to the bus lane. There, …..
    …-
    “Wife: Gov ‘stunned’ O wants him out (race card played on Obama)
    Gov. Paterson’s wife — emotionally stunned at President Obama’s request that her husband not run for another term — ripped into him today, saying that it’s “very unfair” the president asked New York’s “first African-American governor” not to seek office.
    “You never heard of that before,” Michelle Paterson, in her first comments on the situation, said following a luncheon in Midtown.
    “David’s the first African-American governor in the state of New York and he’s being asked to get out of the race. It’s very unusual and it seems very unfair.”
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2346628/posts

  39. Re: British locomotive.
    The USA models would have been running smooth and smoke free at about 2:40. The French TGV would have been speeding along at 300Ks before the Brits even got to full revs. Shame shame!!

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation