20 of the Weirdest Successful Trains Ever | History in the Dark

I'm still sick. Unfortunately I can't record so here's another montage to pass the time.
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#trains #railfan #top20

[@kamokev_92]

Does anyone never get tired of Darkness roasting British Rail?? Pure gold! 😂

[@bertmeinders6758]

BR corporate management: Remember that this the country which in the 1950s had the world's largest motorcycle industry. two decades later, during a prolonged boom in motorcycle sales, it collapsed. Why? Example: In 1956 Bert Hopwood showed Norton's board his design for the Jubilee, a 250 twin. The cylinders and head were cast as one, eliminating a troublesome gasket and reducing the overall height of the engine. It was rejected, because "Motorcyclists like spending Sunday mornings decarbonising and locating valves" (I prefer to ride motorcycles, and anyway on Sunday mornings I'm in church - I'm a minister).

[@Nine-Signs]

He didn't roast British rail, he roasted capitalism that destroyed it via privatization.

[@atsf47legit]

I might be wrong but I don't think he likes British Rail.

[@Jasper-roadblocks]

Ya

[@JSmith19858]

I don't understand why as the rail operator of a foreign nation is nothing to do with him, really, and it's pretty tiring, and not that funny, considering the other good content. I could also hang long logs of shit on American rail operators and the numerous issues they still have, and had during the last century. Someone needs to check their own heels for shit and not pay attention to Tory propaganda and funding cuts that sought to tear down BR so it could be pointed to as a failure and sold off to their friends. I'm also certain he could find similar failures in other national operators histories, but not as easily due to details not being available in English. He only knows about BR's supposed failures because the information is easily available in English.

[@J.B.29]

@@JSmith19858 lighten up! It's just a joke! 🤣

[@cmdrflake]

Ya think?

[@JSmith19858]

@@J.B.29 it is really tiresome at the start of what would have been an interesting video. It is deeply tiresome and he has worn the arse out of it

[@AutZentus]

Here is a piece of trivia about the coffee pot engines. In the cgi thomas series, introduced in the 2015 special the adventure begins, there is a character based on said class of engines and it's basically just coffee pot number 1 with a name and face.

[@andrewbowen4544]

Glynn

[@jingles9657]

The 6% rating on the shay is already insane, but Cass Scenic reaches 11% or even slightly more in some spots

[@TheOutlaw2.0]

And here I am believing that anything over 10% was close to impossible... The More You Know, I guess

[@obelic71]

For the Swiss railways you forgot to mention they had lots of electrical power from renewable sources (water power alias white coal) That why those electrified steam engines while inefficient just worked .

[@ChrisCooper312]

Interesting you mention the cab design on the 58s. The basic layout of the controls was carried over to the American EMD built class 59s (the exception being a us style control stand), as well as the British built class 60s. Although slightly updated, the same basic layout from the 59 was copied over to the later Class 66. So the early 80s design from the 58 was largely still being replicated on 66s built as late as 2015. The Class 90 and 91 electrics also took elements from the 58 cab design for their cabs, they just make it a bit more ergonomic.

[@robdgaming]

Two cog or rack railways that I've seen are the Mt. Washington Cog Railway in New Hampshire and the Panama Canal's "mules" that keep ships centered while going through the locks.

[@HuongBui-kl7je]

21:59 mighty mac,little giant,merddin emrys from T&F28:39 ferdinand from T&F,30:05 jackman from chuggington

[@brentboswell1294]

RE: Southern Pacific cab forwards, the reason for their existence is that crews in the steep mountainous districts on the Espee were observed to run trains with the locomotive backwards. This was because otherwise, the head end crews were choking and gasping for air when they came out of tunnels and snowsheds on the system. Having the cab in front eliminated the problems. You should research the "Tunnel Motors" that EMD designed for the same routes to eliminate the problems that the Southern Pacific encountered trying to operate the original EMD SD45's over Donner Pass and the Cascades...

[@ivoryfields2631]

31:34 * casually covers the eyes of a child that may be very close to my exact location *

[@williamsquires3070]

Actually, the steam-electrics would have been useful in New York as well, where local laws prohibited steam locos (or, for that matter, diesels) in the subway tunnels, but the electrification was pretty much confined to the subway system, so being able to keep the train going once you got out of the electrified territory was really handy. And time-saving. I think the New Haven had some dual-purpose locomotives with both diesel prime movers, and pantographs, for just this reason, though I admit I’m not really an expert on the history of the New Haven.

[@EITURKEY1]

The Drumm train was a battery powered unit built in 1932, used in the Dublin suburban, but the batteries became an issue as they got older resulting in the trains being converted to DMUs after the end of the second world temper tantrum.

[@PiersDJackson]

@17:41 - The Victorian Railways B class was built locally (Clyde Engineering in New South Wales) under Licence, and in the 1980's some were rebuilt as A class, which involved replacement of the 16-567BC engine with 12-645E3B, the generator, traction motors and various other ancillaries, the running numbers remained with a changed class, eg. B60 became A60. As for "Dieselisation" the first was actually the F class shunter, a variant of the British Rail class 08.

[@TheHoveHeretic]

The Ffesterbahn are improving their Fairlies (single and double ended) to this day. Small world, but the 1872 machine shown, No.8 James Spooner (scrapped in the 1930s) gave it's identity to the line's latest Blodge built double loco, launched into service just two years ago. Not sure what the first double loco you showed was, but as it had two separate boilers (not visible in the cab, as it were!), t'weren't any sort of Fairlie I know of. More cab space, but I suspect really good exercise for one fireman to keep fed!

[@michaelmclachlan1650]

The locomotive shown with two separate boilers is a variant built by Vulcan Foundry for a railway in Bolivia; they built something similar for Burma as well. Despite the separate boilers they're still classed as Fairlies. North British built another variant for South Africa that superficially resembles a Beyer-Garratt.

[@greenheadparkrailway]

some of the photos of fairlie locos aren't of fairlie locos, a fairlie has one boiler with two fire boxes in the middle and two smokeboxes at the extreme ends, both ends of the boiler share a steam and water space and some of those photos show two entirely separate boilers as you can see daylight through the full height of the cab. They're probably copies with enough changes to avoid patent infringement

[@brentboswell1294]

Actually, in regards to steam and electric propulsion, steam heating (and air conditioning!) was the standard for passenger coaches until the 1970's, when head-end power became the norm. So electric locomotives intended for passenger service had a steam generator, like the Pennsylvania GG-1's and even the General Electric EE60CP that Amtrak ordered...

[@markstott6689]

An excellent addition to the train output. Thanks. 😊❤😊

[@robdgaming]

The "elevators" inside the St. Louis Gateway Arch, built in the 1960s, use a similar concept to the Swiss self-tilting funicular.

[@iBackshift]

The Nederlandsepoorwiggy, if it was painted red, it would look like the villain robot, MAXIMILLIAN from 1979 "The Black Hole". haha

[@BattleshipOrion]

Bro showed a DM&E unit...I am happy now... Also, the worlds largest LANDLOCKED steam locomotives, a pair of 2-6-6-2T's in SD, handle 6% grades between Hill City, and Keystone, SD. They're also joined by 2 other steam locomotives, and a GP9. As for the Shay, I'm in a region with a crap ton of them on static display. I'm south of where they, and the GS-4 were built, which is another historically significant lil' ton you've never heard of, but you have heard of it...Apollo 11 is your ONLY hint.

[@koppadasao]

42:19 Nyd...what ever... Note that not even Scandinavians pronounce the name of that factory. We just call it NOHAB

[@carlossaraiva8213]

The german battery train certainly is adorable. It has that type of adorable quality that only Germany can do, either with vehicles designs or women beauty too. Hard to describe but impossible to resist.

[@mychaldbeausoleil3043]

There was a Shay as a star in a tv series Peacemakers with Tom Berenger as the Marshal in 2003

[@alexhajnal107]

05:36 Sehr gut Dunkelheit!

[@bertmeinders6758]

I can hold a good conversation in German, but Schweitzerdeutsch is different; imagine German with a Glasgow accent.

[@USSHistory10]

Bro the e2 failed but the e4 succeeded and is still around today

[@lonewolf4215]

Blinks twice

[@Tom-Lahaye]

I'm very delighted with the inclusion of LTM 51, the tram Garratt, it had a higher tractive effort than most of the freight steam locomotives on the Dutch Railways. It operated in the area I live in, but the line was laid off long before I was born. But today there can still remains of the line be found, like the concrete piers of a large steel trestle that once spanned the Gulp valley and a couple of short tunnels. This is the only not so flat area of the Netherlands in the very southeast. There did also operate the ETA150 or later as Br 515 known battery railcars, they ran between Maastricht and Aachen, and yes, they operated on hills as well as the line isn't level at all, I fired a steam locomotive on the same line after it got into preservation. Neither is Heimbach shown in the video in a flat area, it's in the German Eifel hills southeast of Aachen. The Stoos funicular wins for oddity.

[@harrisonallen651]

4:00 Glynn

[@rail-ryder7135]

You should do 5 trains that spent a long time in revenue service.

[@brentboswell1294]

The story behind the CF7's is a little more convoluted than you presented. EMD was known in the 1960's to offer reduced prices to customers on new locomotives for trading in old units. They would re-use the Blomberg B trucks from EMD trade-ins (modernizing them in the process) and AAR type B road trucks from other manufacturers on new EMD units, which is why you find GP30's and GP35's on AAR type B trucks. Before that, EMD would basically rebuild older passenger power into E7's and E8's for customers, and only from EMD trade-ins. So the Santa Fe approached EMD about rebuilding F7's into road switchers. EMD flat refused, so the Santa Fe turned to one of their most talented shops, Cleburne, TX and asked them to see if they could engineer a conversion, build a couple of prototypes, and see if it would be cost effective. That was a much bigger task than it sounds like on paper. The F7's car body is a full monocoque design, meaning that the carbody itself is the structure of the locomotive! It's a miracle that the Cleburne shops were able to design a frame that was up to the task. The early rebuilds used a section of the EMD cab section as the cab, while the vast majority used a new custom designed cab for better visibility (and, in the Southwestern USA, the flat roofline allowed for the all-important installation of a cab air conditioner!) 😅

[@goldlockrails4388]

funny enough there is video footage off a similar design too the saxon III K running ”Sarajevo kloselok BR 189” also it’s nice to see someone touch on the TGOJ turbines i belive they are restoring 71 into operation atmo

[@alexhajnal107]

Hope you feel better soon!

[@nopamineLevel100]

Funiculars are the best! You need a video on those, they're adorable 😍

[@carlossaraiva8213]

I have great admiration for seedish engineering. They come up with strange ideas that others either dismissed or abandoned at first try but the seedes persist until they made it work and then they become pioneers and the standard to follow. Swedish engineering is like german but with a punk attitude.

[@tommcglone2867]

Darkness. Please dont light my touch paper on the COLOSSAL FUSTERCLUCK that is British rail network. If you think British Rail was a mess then the current system is Chernobyl.

[@Beans1905-rv2ev]

The fact that the shay creator has the same name as me spelling and everything is just werid also climax the goat

[@bn_gp38]

Let’s gooooo Santa Fe 2571 at the ORM got on here!!!

[@mokou2526]

31:35 Great, now trains are having relations with each other fucking hell man WHY DID YOU DO THIS NETHERLANDS?!

[@brianrigsby7900]

5:44 Switzerland? That sounded more like German than Swiss…😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@Xalerdane]

The Swiss don’t have their own language: depending on where in Switzerland you go, they speak German, French, Italian, or an Italian-adjacent language called Romansh, which is the closest thing to a Swiss Language.

[@KibuFox]

Say it together now "Fun-ICH-ular." There is no A in the middle of the word.

[@Eidolon1andOnly]

The pronunciation of _funicular_ was driving me nuts. Not just the _i_ being pronounced like a long _A_ but the entire word itself. For future reference it's _fyoo_ - (like the beginning sound of _future_ btw) _nick_ - yule - err.

[@alexhajnal107]

Personally, I pronounce it foo-NICK-yew-lerr

[@Eidolon1andOnly]

@@alexhajnal107 close, just the first part is slightly off. Has that fyoo (or how _few_ is pronounced) sound rather than foo.

[@alexhajnal107]

@@Eidolon1andOnly Yea, that's correct as well. In some dialects (such as mine) that _y_ sound is silent.

[@Eidolon1andOnly]

@@alexhajnal107 I guess. Still better than the i being pronounced like an A. I don't know of any American dialect that would make that mistake. I think he was mixing _funicular_ and _vernacular_ in his mind when saying it.

[@alexhajnal107]

@@Eidolon1andOnly Yea, I've never heard the _i_ pronounced as an _a_ either. As for the _y_ sound, my English is primarily American but there's also a lot of British, Canadian, and Australian mixed in (even the American is a mix of different regions); not sure where that silent _y_ is native to.

[@nicowolters8959]

Did you heard about the Uintah Railroad and their two 2-6-6-2T Mallets Steamengines on 3 ft gauge with a 7,5% grade?

[@xXLiamsTrainsXx]

3:19 BR are you drunk, GO HOME!

[@Xorlisian]

Yay! Nederlandse Spoorwegen!

[@andrewbowen4544]

Blinks Once.

[@LongHoodForwardProductions]

31:25 anyone hear the smoke detector beep?

[@The_NW_EngineYT]

50 Grades Of Shay

[@oldsoul-ms5gj]

What about the Santa fe beep

[@thedemolitionmuniciple]

Yes, current batteries are bad for the environment, and there will always be some drawbacks. The first diesels were a lot worse for the environment than the ones we have today. The first steam engines were a lot worse for the environment than those that came after. Any technology needs funding in order to be properly developed. I am not the first person to say that things have to get worse before they get better. It is corporations that are destroying the planet, it is their job to fix it, but that isn't an excuse for the average person to just ignore the issue, or to deny the progress that is being made (even if it is being made by [a company owned by] the manchild named Musk).

[@jailbird1133]

The planet is fine. Humans will disappear long before the planet dies.

[@ManuelPerez-ip4bb]

Blink three times if you lost the plot 🤣🤣

[@dumasz]

blink blink!

[@jackchatfield5464]

yeah it gets annoying, At least our diesels look different.... not all the same, like American diesels are. I mean come on it's like a copy and paste scenario