Those old rotary blowers are really cool. That particular unit is steam powered off a donkey engine inside it. The early locomotives didn’t have the horsepower to push straight through, so they had to clear mechanically like this. Blowers are still occasionally used in really extreme areas like Roger’s Pass, but mostly nowadays we just add more power units until the snow cries uncle. 
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Neither do I, tbf
Oh. Not exactly bullet trains. Precursor, maybe. Just because it has a slant nose front doesn’t mean it’s a real bullet train. I hear the next gen might break 120 mph in real world use and the one after that might hit 150, but I’m not holding my breath.
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Well, the Acela?
Pretty sure that is the definition of a bullet train, you know, the bullet shape. Whether it qualifies as high-speed rail is a question of definitions apparently.
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Ha! Ok. But that means the 20 mph trams at some airports are bullet trams!
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Had…
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Doesn’t matter if the locomotive is capable of those speeds if the track is not ready for it. Even in the North East Corridor where Amtrak owns the track and freights are pretty rare, there are enough curves to prevent high speeds like this over most of the route. And when you consider that most of the mileage used by Amtrak is owned and maintained by freight roads…There is zero chance that those tracks could be maintained to the high standard speeds like this require while being beat to death by heavy freight trains.
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How do they keep the water from freezing in the tenders and the tank car for the rotary. It’s not like they can add antifreeze because that would raise the boiling point which would be no good. Is there a feedwater heater?
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Okay, maybe not like a bullet shot from a gun. Maybe more like a bullet thrown in a limp and effete manner by a 78 year-old man.
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I was living in England that winter and the snow was weird. Fairly heavy fall of it but you couldn’t make so much as a snowball with it.
I’m kind of sympathetic about people not solving problems that almost never occur. I bought crampons over a decade ago after three sets of 30cm snow in just over a year. Needless to say they’ve never been used and, as the time they could have been used before was 40 or so years ago, I may never use them.
Not really a way to run a country.
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That’s a very astute question, and I honestly don’t know. Feedwater heater is a good guess. It’s also possible that the warmth from the boiler and insulation in the tender is enough? Steam engines are hot in a 20’ radius around them (no fun for the crews in summer) so that might be enough.
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Civ games taught me we need to master power grids first. 
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Love that movie.
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Clear the candy store! Clear the candy store!.. for gods sake think of the children and the candy!!!
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Yeah, as they say, the UK doesn’t have a Climate, it has Weather; there is never enough of anyone thing for us to make effective plans about it. Of course, when the Gulf Stream shuts down, we’ll start getting a Climate. 
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Fuck yeah. That’s when we’ll notice that Dublin is the same latitude as Moscow.
Not looking forward.
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