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Post by lars on Apr 19, 2023 15:41:30 GMT -8
Can anyone give me a primer on FRA glass? When was it mandated in real life? Do all locomotives now have it, or are there exceptions? Thinking particularly about early EMD switches with the high arch windows as possible exceptions.
How is FRA glass represented on the modeling front, it at all? Is there any difference around the gaskets?
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Post by 12bridge on Apr 19, 2023 15:54:23 GMT -8
I do not know the years off the top of my head. There are exceptions for everything. Glass can either be installed in the original opening with the normal gasket, or more often then not they are preinstalled in an aluminum frame, that then sets inside the original opening (thus the glass size is slightly reduced). Microscale makes a sheet with some of the aluminum frames, but frankly, its pretty horrible. KV models apparently has an etched set coming soon for the Athearn SW/MP15.
Its a neat feature that really has not been done.
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Post by csx3305 on Apr 19, 2023 16:21:44 GMT -8
1980 or 82 ish IIRC. Whenever all the Uboats and cabooses started getting their superflous windows plated over.
i’ve seen lots of MP15’s and such get retrofitted “screw in” window gaskets that I’m not sure what the story is there. microscale makes decals to simulate them. they’re easy to spot because they left them shiny unpainted metal in most cases. A couple of the BQ23-7’s got at least one before they were turned into B units IIRC. not sure if it has anything to do with FRA glazing.
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Post by loco8107 on Apr 19, 2023 20:20:52 GMT -8
Conrail also plated over the outer SW1500 windows in the early 80’s.
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Post by lvrr325 on Apr 20, 2023 22:57:20 GMT -8
Switchers typically got the windows over the hood and the rear left lower plated. RS2/3 got the windows over the hood plated. Cabooses got a lot of windows plated. Must have started late 70s and they were given X amount of time to comply.
Pretty sure everything has to have it including passenger cars, I know the historical society here owned a set of cars for a while and they'd had lexan put in which was pretty beat up but a more affordable way to comply. I forget what they did to make them better.
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Post by sd80mac on Apr 21, 2023 5:28:24 GMT -8
Conrail also plated over the outer SW1500 windows in the early 80’s. They also removed the middle 2 front windows, lower rear door window, and lower fireman's side rear window from most of their 567 switchers around the same time. |
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Post by wagnersteve on Apr 21, 2023 6:23:11 GMT -8
April 21, 2023
finished about 10:22 a.m., EDT
Decades ago, when mostly young people started throwing stones at MBTA Commuter Rail trains along several lines, numerous locos and B&M cabooses got heavy metal screens installed over their windows and glass windows. "Ghetto grills" was an inappopriate nickname for those, because by no means all, and perhaps not most, of those who threw stones were in African-American neighborhoods. At the same time, the glass windows in many RDC's were replaced with Lexan, a plastic product I think was made by GE. That material quickly got scratched so badly when run through automatic car washers that you could hardly see through the windows from inside, much less take photos.
While this was going on, one of my brothers visited me from out of state. Because of trackwork on the Fitchburg Route east of The Willows in Ayer, trains to and from points on the commuter line from Ayer to Leominster and Fitchburg were routed on either the line to Lawrence that continued to Haverhill or, more likely, the line to Lowell, and thence over the Stony Brook branch to The Willows, which had already become the main freight line from there to New Hampshire and Maine. We rode one of those trains outbound. Since we couldn't see out the windows in the RDC where other riders were sitting, we moved to the next car, with glass windows. The conductor made us much back to the car with no good views of the world outside. So he wasn't my favorite.
However, some time later I was on a train where the same conductor severely criticized a woman who got onto a train at the Brandeis/Roberts when it was already moving out of the station. Shortly before a couple of women had done that, I think at a stop in Woburn, and one of them lost either an arm or a leg as a result. The woman was indignant and angrily said she was going to lodge an official complaint. I quietly gave the conductor my contact info and told him that in case she actually did and he got into trouble he should let me know and I would back him up.
The absolutely most dangerous and foolish thing I ever saw on a commute -- except for something really stupid I did decades earlier as a teenager, when I myself didn't look around sufficiently after getting off a trolley in Upper Darby, PA and nearly got hit by another going the other way -- was also at Brandeis/Roberts. A passenger trying to board an inbound train arrived late and tried to get to the low platform then in use by going UNDER one of the coaches that was already in the station. The man was very lucky the train didn't start moving until he'd done that. Sometime later, after a high platform was installed at that station, T employee was badly injured when a train started moving before he was fully back inside a coach and one of his legs was trapped between the platform and the car.
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Post by wagnersteve on Apr 21, 2023 17:41:23 GMT -8
April 21, 2023, a bit before 9:30 p.m.
One other incident from some years back, this time, if I'm remembering right, either just east or just west of Brandeis/Roberts on the Fitchburg Route while I was riding a westbound after dark. We weren't going particularly fast, and then there was a bump and we stopped. It turned out that the loco had hit a man who was lying between the rails, fortunately practically flat on the ties, and not stretched across the rails. He was intoxicated (from drinking something alcoholic) and apparently had either passed out or gone to sleep. Apparently he wasn't seriously hurt. There's an old saying that God takes special care of children, drunks and the United States of America. That may be true in many cases, but not all.
A substantial portion of deaths of people hit by trains, especially on commuter railroad or subway lines, are suicides. I know of at least two fatalities on the Fitchburg Route that may or may not have been intended by the person who was killed, but some others were very definitely deliberate and preplanned by persons familiar with the trains' schedules. When a person dashes out onto the track having been hidden from the engineer of a train not scheduled to stop at a station with a high platform, there is essentially nothing the engineer can do to prevent a likely fatality.
One reason why suicide remains illegal in many states is that emergency personnel can sometimes rescue a person who has attempted suicide. I was good friends with a young woman who tried to commit suicide and was discovered in time for her stomach to be pumped. She was very glad later that her attempt had not been successful.
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Post by lars on Apr 22, 2023 12:32:48 GMT -8
Conrail also plated over the outer SW1500 windows in the early 80’s. They also removed the middle 2 front windows, lower rear door window, and lower fireman's side rear window from most of their 567 switchers around the same time. That doesn’t seem right to me. Looking at Conrail 1986-1991 by Withers right now. Most of the NW2s have the middle window plated over. Most of the 7s, 8s, 9s, 900s kept their middle windows, while the 1200s look about half and half. It seems that most of the lower left rear windows are plated over. |
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