View allAll Photos Tagged Interlocking
This was another one of those entirely unplanned trains from our recent trip that was actually kind of a treat for all of us. While exploring along the Indiana Harbor Belt near Gibson yard we were just about to leave the area and were heading toward the highway just passing by Gibson Interlocking when we saw a Norfolk Southern local headed north on IHB’s Kankakee Line with a hot metal train. I exclaimed that we needed to turn around NOW because I’d always wanted to see and shoot one of these movement. Fortunately, there was 100% consensus that this was cool and worthy of our time.
We did a u-turn and raced back up Kennedy Ave. ahead of the train where we got on shot of him along their short run up the Kankakee Line to Michigan Avenue Yard. At Michigan Ave. an IHB crew would hop on and take the train the short hop to ArcelorMittal’s former Inland Steel plant in East Chicago just to the north along the Lake Michigan waterfront.
Meanwhile a loaded train was waiting at Michigan Ave., and presumably the same crew got off the empties and started back west with the loads. We followed the train for a while as it was an even more impressive sight with a total of six bottle cars each with a visible warm glow of molten iron emanating from their tops. Here is NS GP38-3 5809 (blt. Apr. 1980 as a high hood GP50 for the Southern Railway as their #7080) curling off the Kankakee Line and on to the IHB mainline at CP Gibson to continue their trip west to the Riverdale Mill.
In the background is the IHB's Gibson Roundhouse. It was built by the Chicago, Indiana and Southern Railroad in 1906 and is one of the oldest roundhouses still in daily use today. Originally it had 38 stalls though today only 12 are used for locomotive maintenance. The C&IS disappeared into the New York Central system in 1914 and Gibson Yard was itself once an NYC facility (having been built by the Michigan Central). Throughout its history the NYC and successors PC and Conrail have always held majority ownership of the IHB and that continues to this day with Conrail Shared assets (itself owned jointly by NS and CSXT) owning 51% and CP owning the other 49%. To learn more check out this great link I found: www.dhke.com/ihbarchive/ihbhst.html
These particular hot metal cars (sometimes referred to as bottle cars or torpedoes) are 10 axles (with a six-axle buckeye truck and a standard four-axle truck on each end) and allegedly have a capacity of 250 tons of molten iron from one source I read. But that would put the gross weight at about 870,000 lbs which seems a bit high, so I suspect the total loaded weight is closer to 715,000 lbs for these cars.
Regardless they are an impressive sight to behold, and one I’d longed to see in person ever since watching them roll behind Conrail geeps in that 1990s classic Pentrex VHS program Today’s Chicago Railroads that was one of my favorites and that I wore out watching over and over!
Hammond, Indiana
Saturday August 15, 2020
Sprinting through HOLLY interlocking, Amtrak ACS-64 652 takes Amtrak Northeast Regional train 130 northward. Next stop, Philadelphia 30th Street Station. 2016-07-20.
Southbound tote train R121 rattles the windows as he rolls south past Haley at 1:15 in the morning on October 23, 1987.
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The Giant's Causeway, Portrush, Northern Ireland.
20 Interlocking Irregular Hyperboloidal Dodecahedra 600 units 5-fold view.
At long last, I have completed an update on this model, the largest wireframe polyhedron compound ever. In this version, I have slightly lengthened the proportions, adjusted several angles, and expanded the tabs, strengthening several of the locks. The original version also needed a refold out of better paper. I should have precreased more of the tab folds for a cleaner result, but overall I think that it turned out well, and the final construction is extremely tight and sturdy. The coloring here is tetrahedral, so that there are 5 colors, 4 dodecahedra in each color, where each dodecahedron represents one vertex in a compound of 5 tetrahedra.
10 different paper proportions.
Designed by me.
Folded out of Zander's Elephant Hide paper.
An interlocking mechanism for Romsey’s lever frame. A few visitors have asked at exhibitions whether I could add it, so I thought it would be a fun challenge. Interlocking prevents unsafe or conflicting movements through the junction. Drive bars are black and the grey slopes are the ‘dogs’ that engage with the locking pins on the yellow locking bars. 3 locks are included, although more could be added, as it’s modular.
1) Lever 7 (Down Main Points) locks lever 8 (Up Points), so you can’t send an up train across to the branch if the points are set to allow a train to cross the junction on the main
2) Lever 8 (Up Points) releases lever 16 (Up Branch Starting Signal) so you can’t pull the signal until the points are set correctly for the branch
3) Lever 18 (Up Main Starting Signal) locks lever 8, so you can’t change the points if you’ve given the train the signal to start
With a rather haggard-looking GE P42DC leading, northbound Amtrak Northeast Regional passenger train #96 shoots over the Doswell, VA, diamond and past the ever-present RF&P-era interlocking tower looking as forlorn as ever on the afternoon of November 15, 2020.
A northbound Hiawatha Service train slams the diamonds at Grayland Crossing on Chicago's northwest side. Metra's Milwaukee District North Line crosses UP's former CNW "40th Street Line" here, once an important route to 40th Street Yard, but long since singled and truncated north of Cragin to serve a few industries. Interlocking piping and cranks remain hidden in the brush here- who knows how long they've been dormant for.
Designer & folder: Michal Pikula
Paper: 80gsm copy paper (Optix, Quill)
Unit: rectangle 1:2, rectangle 1:3.6
120 units
Folded in February 2014
It is possible to make variations by changing paper ratio, adding more cubes or interlock them different way.
When the interlocking signal is pulled into the clear position the distant signal changes from yellow to green. When the interlocking signal is at stop, the distant signal shows "proceed, prepared to stop"
UP #1430 clears its exhaust as it thunders out of North Avenue with one car for Alpha Bakery on the Cragin Lead. A different take on what would've otherwise been a backlit view of the skyline.
I have never seen this type of building block. If you know something about it, please share your knowledge with us.
I wonder whether this system any stronger than traditional bricks. The overlap makes it seem as if it is. If the blocks were actually in contact with one another (and even connected), then it might be effective. However, since the blocks are separated by a layer of cement, isn't the wall only as strong as the cement itself?
I'm no structural engineer, and there may be something I'm not picking up on that makes this system superior. However, if it were better, why is it this is the first time I have ever come across it in over four decades of looking at old buildings?
Goldendale, Washington.
Foreman Jim Bottoms continues his trek northward after getting permission to pass thru the "Wabash" Interlocker at Shops. I&M employees have recently been referring to the Norfolk Southern crossing interlocking using this name. I don't know if the name has been officially changed, or if I&M employees are just having a bit of rail history fun.
this is the interlock. The receiver takes up a 4x4 footprint and is two bricks high. there is a technic link made from two 1x8. technic bricks. The axle part makes the lock.
Origami model designed and folded by Peter Stein, September 2017
The paper I used is handmade by John Gerard (wonderful paper!)
The locking mechanism is borrowed from Jeremy Shafers "interlocking rings" (he really shows two rings in his model, mine is just giving the illusion of two rings) - it was folded for a silver wedding of two friends,
wetfolded from a square piece of paper (19x19cm).
NS 5310 passes Morris Tower as WPBS-03 rolls through Morrisville, PA, off the NEC and onto the thorofare track and back onto CSAO rails. August 1, 2018.
Interesting building in Shanghai by British architect built in 1930's. It was a food manufacture originally and has been converted into commercial use recently.
For FCF we'll just look at a couple of classic logos like this one on a VTR 40 footer shoved to (and through) the end of a spur in Florence, Vermont
Car park, Nottingham – a slightly different perspective on an image I uploaded last year. © All rights reserved 2013
This image must not be used on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit written permission - failure to do so may incur copyright infringement notices/publication fees.
Designer & folder: Michal Pikula
Paper: 80gsm copy paper (Quill)
Unit: rectangle 1:1.25, rectangle 1:1.75, rectangle 1:2.25, rectangle 1:2.75, rectangle 1:3.25, rectangle 1:3.75
Folded in February 2014
It is possible interlock in this way n prisms (n≥2).
With run-through power, a westbound manifest train navigates the Grand Ave. Interlocking and continues on the UP Jefferson City Sub.
Looking out the door glass from the long gone 14th Street interlocking tower that controlled crossing rail routes near downtown Birmingham Alabama. Occasionally, a tower operator would allow a railfan inside until another crackdown on unauthorized. I could not resist taking a shot from the wrong side of the door as a L&N train passed. Scanned from a June 1980 Ektachrome Slide.