Big N&W Steam Locomotive

This was just too easy.

No see ums. They always travel in pairs.

Nope, can't see 'em unless it's the two black cats on the roof of the furthest building.

Del

One "crossbuck" can be seen in the foreground - there must be another lurking on the other side of the tracks... :^)

Bert

Crossbuck, must be an American term.

Regards JD.

I've been an American for almost 70 years, and I've never heard the term 'crossbuck' either. And by the way, my spellchecker says its not a word. I've always heard them called 'cross arms'. Again my spellchecker says it must be two words, not 'crossarms'.

It could be only an American term - but it is a an official one:

http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/resources/policy/yieldstop_guidememo/yieldstop_policy.htm

Sonuvagun! You're absolutely right. I think maybe I'm stuck back in the steam days.

Thanks Bert. That's a new one for me!

If I interpret your link correctly, the crossbuck refers to the 'X' sign, whereas I was thinking of the movable arm.

Dick

I think it could be driver who is clearly visible and the stoker who is not.

That's pretty good. I wrote "animal" rather than animal as a guide (I hoped) that I didn't mean real animals. So, I didn't even think about the engineer(s) and stoker(s).

The crossing sign is usually called crossarms on US railroads. A crossbuck has the same general shape but is used on the ground to hold a log for sawing (sometimes called "bucking").

Anyway, at 12 o'clock low, there is a frog.

Now that you mention it, I have heard of the crossbuck for sawing (in fact I have one).

I'm familiar with frogs used to hold flowers. Is that one between tracks one and two?

The object next to the crossing pavement is a switch. Just beyond it, adjacent to track 2 is the frog.

Here's a nice new catalog showing frogs

http://books.google.com/books?id=Tm05AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=railroad+interlocking+crossover+frog&source=web&ots=SnUbNT388-&sig=k-QZc9KwG8Ix5rLRXogkaFru22Q&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result

Well, I never said it was easy to see - this was just for fun for OFs who like railroads.

I went there, and found 'frog' on pages 2,51, and 52. I still can't tell what a 'frog' is, or even whether it is a mechanical or an electrical device.

I may have reversed the links. Here's the correct one. Look on pages 326 and 327 (among others). Frogs are mechanical.

http://books.google.com/books?id=yJAOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA140&dq=union+switch+railroad+switch+catalog&lr=#PPP5,M1

So, the interlocking switch between the tracks uses a frog (fixed, I think) to guide the wheels onto the siding. I forgot the British call frogs something else, so this wasn't fair to them. The little tower is a switch tower and had (at least) several levers to activate the switch(es) through rods that ran down the pedestal post and then down the track. In an interlocking switch, it was necessary to use some Boolean logic to avoid screwing everything up, so the levers had locking dogs that made (usually) AND or NAND gates. Class yards had more elaborate logic, with OR and NOR gates (though for the life of me I can't figure out how they would have done a NOR!).

But, I didn't even think about the crossbucks since I didn't use that name.

I guess I could have used this photo where no animals are visible

http://www.trainweb.org/chessiephotos/photos/cabs/900257cs-c&o.jpg

From my vast experience of American cabooses in "Little Golden Books" they only come in RED.

Are you try to damage my childhood memories and my faith in American Literature?

BAB

"...where no animals are visible..."

Unless you count the trademark napping cat...

Maybe the driver (engineer - in what I suspect is the original meaning of the term) is clearly visible from your side of the world, but he sure isn't from here!

i can see a lion cub and i spose by implication s/he is playing with her/his brother or sister?

I give.... I went back and forth pondering this for an embarrassing amount of time with nothing more found than Bob's Noseeum creatures.

Do you have any full side on pictures?

If frogs count as animals then the "Cow Catcher" on the front of the loco should also?

BAB

Yeah, I thought about that, but then I'd have had to include the catwalk too.

I would send you guys a digital image of some 1/48 scale turnouts (railroad switches) that I am building that would show the frog but I ain't smart enough to import it into this thing.

Just use this icon above: , then hit "browse", find you pix, and click "submit".

OK, here is the attempt. The frog is where the rails cross. The guard rails to either side help the wheel flanges take the correct path.

Came through fine, and nice job!

Nice photo. It shows how the designers of steam locomotives were not all that inventive though. You want more power, build it bigger! The thought of building better, more efficient designs seems to have escaped them. The use of water-tube boilers, condensers, and using the steam engine more efficiently seems to have escaped them.