Game: Guess the train

Ameecher · Post by **Ameecher** » 25 Apr 2007 20:26

Knew it was lol.

Post by **Dave** » 25 Apr 2007 21:44

Bit long for a 20...

Train-a-Mania · Post by **Train-a-Mania** » 26 Apr 2007 01:24

The passenger cars in the background look American.

Railwaymodeler · Post by **Railwaymodeler** » 26 Apr 2007 01:44

Seems to be saying 'ALCO/MLW' to me for some reason.

michael blunck · Post by **michael blunck** » 26 Apr 2007 15:02

Road: Kowloon-Canton Railway (KCR)
Country: Hongkong (now China)
Gauge: standard gauge
Builder: Clyde Engineering (Australia)
Model: G12 (nos 51-55)
Year: 1954-1957

The engine in question is no 51, preserved at the Hung Hom shed (museum).

regards
Michael

Post by **PikkaBird** » 26 Apr 2007 20:58

Not much gets past Mr Blunck.

Dan also gets half a point for recognising it as a G12.

Interestingly, while "Sir Alexander" is preserved in HK, the remainder of KCRC's G12s have been exported back to Australia, where they are now CFCLA's TL Class.

[19:00] <Raichase> I think it's just plain ugly
[19:00] <Raichase> no offense Pikka
[19:01] <Raichase> I hate most non-aussie trains

michael blunck · Post by **michael blunck** » 26 Apr 2007 21:36

Not much gets past Mr Blunck.

Hehe. This turn was quite interesting. Shall I reveal how I did it?

I think I should.

- When I first saw that picture, I had no time to start researching because I was going to travel. Anyway, I didn´t recognize the engine. Although it looked like an EMD, there was something wrong with it and the livery was totally unknown to me as well - I doubted that this would be a US loco. OTOH, that engine looked suspiciously like a museum engine: ancient (if being a G8 or G12) but very clean and in an unnatural environment. All in all, I thought of an EMD licence-built engine.

- When returned today, I noticed that it still hadn´t been guessed. In fact, all our american experts had failed so far

. That convinced me of a license-built engine, and indeed, "Clyde" came immediately to mind (Pikka being Australian, hehe). Now, Clyde produced lots and lots of diesels but nearly all for the Australian market. I know there were some exported (Pakistan, Hong Kong) but couldn´t it be an Australian engine in the first place, now that we are obviously allowed to post engines from the same country as we´re living in? I really don´t know every Australian livery and it could be some exotic private mining railway?

- OK, I started googling and browsed "locopage.au". Yeah, those engines were there, built by Clyde as expected, but not that particular livery. I checked the Clyde exports, mmh, Pakistan, well, no. Hong Kong, well, they have a red livery. Mmh, returning to locopage.au, I read that four of the once five engines for HK had returned, so one must have been scrapped? Or better, preserved? In a museum? Doh. Then, obviously it should be the first one, no 51.

- OK, back to Hong Kong pages, and indeed, there it was. "Sir Alexander", still in its old livery, nicely preserved. Now, having spent almost an hour for this interesting task, I should as well find the photo itself. I checked the usual places and voilà, I immediately found it on "railpictures". Oh, wait - that´s interesting, it´s not exactly that photo, where for heaven´s sake does Pikka´s photo come from?

- Meanwhile I had the optimal key for google images ("KCR 51"), and I couldn´t believe it: Pikka´s photo is from railfaneurope (!), and it´s even by "tbh" (Tobias Köhler) whom I know from many discussions in the german railway newsgroups!

Very interesting round.

Shouldn´t we introduce a rule that the winner should point out how he guessed the train?

the remainder of KCRC's G12s have been exported back to Australia, [...]

Do you know why that happened?

I take it that I should post the next one?

regards
Michael

Post by **PikkaBird** » 26 Apr 2007 22:00

michael blunck wrote:
the remainder of KCRC's G12s have been exported back to Australia, [...]
Do you know why that happened?

Australia's standard-gauge freight network has recently been privatised. However, unlike what happened in the UK, the big players are not selling off large numbers of surplus locomotives to their potential competitors, which means smaller companies like CFCLA have to source locomotives wherever they can get them (see, as another example, QR's 423 Class, 40-year-old 3'6" locos which have been rebogied to run on standard gauge!).

I take it that I should post the next one?

Please do.

michael blunck · Post by **michael blunck** » 26 Apr 2007 22:16

PikkaBird wrote:big players are not selling off surplus locomotives to their potential competitors, which means smaller companies like CFCLA have to source locomotives wherever they can get them

Ah yes, that´s exactly the same way the DB acts over here.

OK, here´s a new one:

country: ??? [1 point]
railway co.: ??? [1 | 2 point(s)]
line: ??? [2 points]
gauge: ??? [1 point]
electrification system: ??? [1 point]
purpose: ??? [1 point]
type: ??? [1 | 2 point(s)]
builder: ??? [2 points]
year: ??? [1 point]
extra: [max 2 points]

Total max 15 points (min 8 to win this round).

happy guessing
Michael

Post by **PikkaBird** » 28 Apr 2007 01:12

Looks like you've stumped us with this one, Michael!

Flavius · Post by **Flavius** » 28 Apr 2007 01:27

Country: Algeria
Railway Co.: SNTF
Line: Tebessa-Annaba
Gauge: Metre
Electrification system: 3kV DC
Purpose: Phosphate/iron ore freight
Type: 6CE
Builder: Skoda
Year: 1972
Extra: ???

michael blunck · Post by **michael blunck** » 28 Apr 2007 05:59

PikkaBird wrote:Looks like you've stumped us with this one, Michael!

Nah, we have Rollo.

Rollo wrote:Country: Algeria [1 point to Rollo]
Railway Co.: SNTF [1 point to Rollo]
Line: Tebessa-Annaba [2 points to Rollo]
Gauge: Metre
Electrification system: 3kV DC [1 point to Rollo]
Purpose: Phosphate/iron ore freight [1 point to Rollo]
Type: 6CE [1 point to Rollo]
Builder: Skoda
Year: 1972 [1 point to Rollo]
Extra: ???

Yeah Rollo, you did it again, with just the minimum 8 points out of 15!

Are you satisfied with your guess, although the builder is wrong? Or are you going to improve on this?
[edit: I think you should. <hint> The builder isn´t czech, in fact it´s german ...</hint>]

BTW, I don´t think that you found a picture of the 6CE on the net, so you must have read something (rfe?

) where Skoda is falsely mentioned ...

Excellent guessing so far.

regards
Michael

Flavius · Post by **Flavius** » 28 Apr 2007 09:21

Hi Michael

Thank you for kind comments, this was a tough one.
I did find a pic of the mystery locomotive.

Firstly i was satisfied it was of course a desert scene, flat, dry, hot and sparce vegetation. Next i was drawn to the locomotive and the badge on the front, It looked like SNCF. Also i decided it was of European design, possibly France.

Because of the desert i started in South America by way of a change er Michael.

Turned it upside down spent ages and got nowhere.
So i was reduced to searching on Google using 'image' and 'Web'.
Finally i tried it using Algeria or Morocco as they where once French colonies.

Country: Algeria
Railway Co.: SNTF
Line: Tebessa-Annaba
Gauge: Metre
Electrification system: 3kV DC
Purpose: Phosphate/iron ore freight
Type: 6CE
Builder: DB
Year: 1972
Extra: Doubling of track is taking place.

michael blunck · Post by **michael blunck** » 28 Apr 2007 11:02

Rollo wrote:Thank you for kind comments, this was a tough one.

Yes, I thought so. Nevertheless, there were some ways to find out, and one of them was indeed by railfaneurope ...

I did find a pic of the mystery locomotive.

No, you didn´t find one!

The one you found is from the algerian stock list on railfaneurope, but o/c it´s not a photo of the algerian 6CE.

Instead, that picture is showing the originally east-german E251, later used by the DB as class 171 on the "Rübeland" route in the Harz mountains. This is a very special engine (one of my favourites) and I´ll write something more in my "postings" thread.

Fact is that nowhere on railfaneurope you´ll find a picture of the real engine. I once found one single picture (the one I posted) of the 6CE on the net but I´m unable to find it again, so possibly it´s gone by now.

The reason why they have that photo on railfaneurope is simply that the 251/171 is very similar to that algerian engine because it´s built by the same manufacturer, namely "LEW" from the former German Democratic Republic. Only after re-unification and the merger between East-Germany´s DR and West-Germany´s DB, that engine has been used by the DB.

I don´t know who entered "Skoda" on that page, but that´s totally wrong. I do have a building/delivery list of LEW and those algerian engines have been built definitely there.

Because of the desert i started in South America by way of a change er Michael. [...]

Yeah, I´m doing in deserts ATM ... Thanks for writing how you proceeded.

Well OK, I´d say it´s your turn again. Excellent guessing, as usual.

Here´s the result:

country: Algeria [1 point to Rollo]
railway co.: Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Algériens (SNCFA) / Société Nationale des Transports Ferroviaires (SNFT) since 1976 [1 point to Rollo]
line: Annaba - Tebessa [2 points to Rollo]
gauge: 1435 mm
electrification system: 3kV DC [1 point to Rollo]
purpose: iron ore and phosphate trains [1 point to Rollo]
type: EL104 / CE6 [1 point to Rollo]
builder: LEW, German Democratic Republic
year: 1972/73 [1 point to Rollo]
specialty: there´s a "parent engine" with DR and DB (251, 171)

regards
Michael

Flavius · Post by **Flavius** » 28 Apr 2007 13:53

Country:
Railroad:
Type:
Wheel Arrangement:
Builder:
Year Built:

DanMacK · Post by **DanMacK** » 28 Apr 2007 17:12

Country: USA
Railroad: PRR
Type: Q2 Class Duplex
Wheel Arrangement: 4-4-6-4
Builder: PRR Altoona Shops
Year Built: Class Engine #6130 blt 1944, 6175-6199 in 1945

How I got it? I love the PRR Duplexes, one of my favourite locomotives. Just had to find year built and whether they were homebuilt or not.

Good one Rollo. Good guess on the previous one too. I got to the Railfaneurope page, but couldn't find anymore details, and you posted before me

I found my info on the Railfanning in the Northeast site

michael blunck · Post by **michael blunck** » 28 Apr 2007 18:33

> I love the PRR Duplexes, one of my favourite locomotives.

Yeah, very interesting engines.

> Good one Rollo

I fear he´ll get a little bit frustrated any time soon ...

> I got to the Railfaneurope page, but couldn't find anymore details [...]

Although I knew they had a stock list for algerian railways including the engine to be guessed (and with all the necessary information!), i thought/hoped it would be not so obvious because of the wrong/missing photo. Anyway, time to avoid railfaneurope for a while, they even had Pikka´s mysterytrain ("Sir Alexander") and that has more to do with China than with Europe.

> northeast.railfan

Very good site, I know it since working on my first train set (arctic).

Good guess, Dan.

regards
Michael

Flavius · Post by **Flavius** » 29 Apr 2007 00:40

Hi DanMacK

Thank you for the kind regards

I was awe struck when i first saw this locomotive and i just knew everyone would appreciate seeing this pic.

You have all questions answered correctly. Well done

Thoughtfully some links suggest Baldwin to be the builder. But i have been chastened after Michael pointed out errors in our previous Guess.
Some links.....

http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_bo ... /shs2a.htm
http://www.steamtrainartist.com/image_s ... L1066.html

Over to you

Post by **PikkaBird** » 29 Apr 2007 01:28

Oh man, I was looking at photos of the Q2 just the other day, you're lucky you got in first Dan!

ssbn742 · Post by **ssbn742** » 29 Apr 2007 05:10

PikkaBird wrote:Oh man, I was looking at photos of the Q2 just the other day, you're lucky you got in first Dan!

yeah, I need to check this topic more often.

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