Welcome to Ride the Rails

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My name is Dalon Williams, and I am a Media Art Major and Dance Minor at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater (UWW). I will be posting weekly content about different trains, the history of railroads, how trains are built and made, and fun facts about them. For a more in-depth discussion, we will take a train ride through different trains, museums, games, how railroads are made and built, and much more. I hope you are excited to see the different types of information that will be exciting and fun to see. Please check out the first post the discuss the train Tornado.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS :)

This is the final post before Christmas break and the last position that will be made on the trains page. Thankful for sharing this space to share my views on trains and showcase all the beautiful things I favor about them. Today’s post is pretty particular cause we will be discussing the Christmas train from polar express and the fantastic movie itself. The Polar Express train is a copy of the titular magical 2-8-4. The film, the American Berkshire-type steam locomotive, transports children to the North Pole on Christmas Eve. The locomotive pulls five passenger cars, including an abandoned toy car at the front and an observation car at the back. The real name of the train is the Pere Marquette 1225, a class “N-1” 2-8-4 “Berkshire” type steam locomotive built in October 1941 for the Pere Marquette Railway Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio. No. 1225 is one of two surviving Pere Marquette 2-8-4 locomotives. The other is 1223, which is displayed at the Tri-Cities Historical Society near the ex-Grand Trunk Western (GTW) coaling tower in Grand Haven, Michigan. It is perhaps most famous for serving as the basis for the locomotive in the 2004 film, The Polar Express. This train is fabulous and defines the traditional American high-class steam trains. The polar express got made into a children’s book before becoming a movie. The film got completed in 2004 and was the film in America, of course, and especially during the holiday season. I hope everyone has a great holiday break, and PLEASE watch the video and see the last picture on the page.

A Wisconsin Museum to check out

Introduce a train every week, AND I will still be introducing a train, but I decided to include a museum of trains that all can visit in Wisconsin. The East Troy Railroad Museum. It is a small museum that offers tours and rides on trains in Wisconsin, and all though it is small, it is charming and affordable. I recommend going to these after finals, during finals, after a long day, on a date, or maybe to get away from anything. It’s a charming area, and there are excellent places to eat within east troy. They also accept volunteers if anyone I looking for hours to service or need. “Like almost any other museum, the East Troy Railroad Museum exists because of its volunteers. The variety of tasks in the operation of a museum is amazingly wide. From answering the telephone to operating trains, many different kinds of people using many different kinds of skills come into play.” Back to the real reason you are here, though. We are going to discuss one of the most POPULAR trains in the world today. ICE trains. The Intercity Express. The Intercity Express is a system of high-speed trains predominantly running in Germany. It also serves some destinations in Austria, Denmark, France, Belgium, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, primarily cross-border services. It’s also awesome because you can see these trains in the games recommended on the other page if you are curious to play them. These trains are all around and are also super face trains. They also use pantographs: a jointed framework conveying a current to a train, streetcar, or other electric vehicles from overhead wires. I hope you guys enjoyed this week’s post and worked hard on your finals.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin First Electric Train

Since Thanksgiving is coming up, I thought it would be nice to place a train representing Wisconsin, where I was born. Surprisingly, there are only four electric trains built-in 1916 to 1919, Milwaukee Road class ES-2. They were of steeple cab design, with a single roof-mounted pantograph to access Milwaukee’s 3,000 V DC overhead line. This train has a weird parallel built and sadly has been scrapped, all four of them. “Despite their highly specialized niche on the Milwaukee Road, the ES-2s were well-liked by personnel. Engineers liked them due to their rapid throttle response, preferring them over diesels which were slower to transition and accelerate. Their simple nature made them easy to service, and the units seldom needed major attention. Few changes were made to them over the years, the most important of which was the addition of extra steel plates, which added weight and reduced wheel slip.” I did a project on this train years ago in my COMM 110 class, introduction to speeches. It sad to say its gone, “their age and the inadequate workmanship (motor armatures in particular tend to come apart) combined with the rough ride over the steadily deteriorating track have lead to numerous failures. Simply put, they are pretty well obsolete, and are slated for retirement shortly” It was fascinating and fascinating to learn about because it is such an interesting-looking train. I recommend looking at more pictures and searching for more videos about that rain. It is not easy to find the train since they were all scrapped and only four got built.

SCMaglev L0 is super FAST

Hello everyone, welcome back to my blog post; this week, we will be discussing a super fascinating train. We will be introducing the fastest train globally, the SCMaglev L0 series. The L0 series uses SCMaglev, a futuristic magnetic levitation system that uses powerful magnetic forces for all aspects of the operation—acceleration, deceleration, guidance, and levitation—resulting in over 300 miles per hour operating speeds in everyday service and travel times, unlike anything traditional trains can achieve. The way this train works is absolutely fascinating but overly detailed, so I will provide a link to watch and read. A fun fact is that there are a ton of marches like this, and many are produced in the eastern side of the world, mainly in parts of Asia. L0 series is a fascinating train that has hit the highest speed train can reach, over 375mph. “The first L0 series vehicle was delivered to the Yamanashi Maglev Test Line and unveiled to the press in November 2012. The first five vehicles were linked up and placed on the guideway in June 2013.” a fun fact about these trains are rather than riding directly on standard steel railroad tracks, SCMAGLEV trains levitate between the walls of a unique concrete structure known as a guideway. The U-shaped guideway has walls surrounding the trains on both sides, making the system free from the derailment. That is it for this week, and I hope everyone enjoys their break and has a really good thanksgiving. maybe you can ride the train while having your meal. 🙂

British Trains and Games

Today’s new post will be about a new train and one of the latest train games out in the world. The British class 03 locomotive is widespread and gets seen in many games and parts of Britain. The British Rail Class 03 locomotive was one of the British Rail’s most successful 0-6-0 diesel-mechanical shunters and similar Class 04. The Class 03, like other shunters of this size, was built for light duties where a giant locomotive was not needed, particularly for shunting at locomotive and carriage depots and as station pilots, or where larger or heavier locomotives could not get used. Moving on from the train, we can discuss the new train game, train sim world. Which also has released the second version of the game, train sim world two. Train Sim World is an immersive first-person simulator perfect for everyone, with complete in-cab interactivity, accurate detail on locos, real-world routes, and hours of gameplay. Thus, it is the only game I haven’t played because it gets made y the same creators of Train simulator. This game is supposed to have better graphics with a cleaner and defined look. In the future, once I have to money to buy the game when I want to, I would like to buy this game as it looks graphically insane and looks super realistic. It is a very well-presented game from the environment and scenery and got started by a Kickstarter. Many train enthusiasts and gamers pitched in to help make the game come to life, and it is impressive to watch. I hope everyone has a good weekend, and remember to watch the new video, photo and check out the pages.

Thomas and the Turbo Train M-497

Hey everyone, welcome back to my blog. I have some exciting things for everyone to learn about this week. First off, we will learn more about some fantastic diesel trains, M-497. This trains look super spectacular and look like a train with two turbo engines one top. This train is one of a kind. There is only of its kind. Sadly, this train is no longer with has-beens, and we scrapped. If you would like to see a little demonstration of how trains get scrapped, here is a video. Something fascinating about this train is that it is jet-powered and has two k47-19 engines attached to the front top of the train. For our first piece of media is Thomas the train. It sounds super childish and cliche, but I grew up with Thomas the train. It has always been a significant childhood memory of mine and has become why I love parades today. The show is exciting and saddening to read about. You learn about the death and mistake of “trains” and how they grow and move on. I also find it fun because you can import the custom content of Thomas the train into the trains simulator and Trainz simulator and drive the trains to from the various shows. Nonetheless, Thomas, the train stems from the railway series, a series of books written by the Reverend W. Awdry, who he read to his son, who later started writing more of his father’s books. If you are not into Thomas the train, I would recommend reading the conspiracy theories and creepypastas of Thomas the train, and they are enjoyable ready. Till then, please watch and look at the train of the week and have a traintastic weekend.

The New Diesel Train (British rail class 55)

This week will be similar to last week; I will be introducing a new diesel train and a new train game. It will be the second to the last diesel train and game I will be shopping for until more get possibly planned. The two pieces of content learned this week will be the British rail class 55 and Trainz Simulator. Yes, it has a “Z” in it. The British rail class 55 is a prevalent diesel train used often in Europe and is very multi-purposed; pulling freight and passengers on different lines, the train is most prevalent in places like York or England. The train has come in different liveries: “A livery is a uniform, insignia or symbol adorning, in a non-military context, a person, an object or a vehicle that denotes a relationship between the wearer of the livery and an individual or corporate body.” I have seen different colors of green, blue, and sometimes red in other areas of Europe. Train Simulator has been out since I was a little kid, around 2006 or later than this. The game has advanced over ten branches for more than ten decades and has grown to the newest version, Trainz railroad simulator 2019. My love for trains has grown some far because of this game. This game also allowed you to create your maps for trains to own, create different liveries, import other trains from custom content to more. I would say this game is a bit more fun than realistic compared to the train simulator. Train simulator and Trainz simulator are the same game types but different companies with different pros and cons. I would recommend the Train simulator for people who like realistic scenery and graphics, and gameplay. I would recommend the Trainz simulator for custom content, more accessible play style, and creators. Remember to check out the video and picture of the week, and have a great weekend.

The Santa Fe Train/ Our first Game: Train Simulator

Welcome back, everyone, to the page about trains… Ride the Rails. Today will be a bit of a shift into some different topics of trains, and we will also be looking into some more media outlets of trains. I will most likely be posting more museums, but we will be stepping away from that. For the next few weeks, we will be focusing on some moves and games, and the first one I will be introducing is Train Simulator 2021. There are many previous versions, but this game is impressive and overly realistic per se. It includes tons of maps from all over the world and various trains, including some discussed within past and future posts. The game retails for about 60 bucks with over 600 add-ons, including different trains, maps, packs, scenery, and event add-ons. I have had this game since the version of railworks, so almost ten years now. I recommend it if you enjoy the engineering of trains and include driving them and maintaining them on the rails. Something new about our post is that we will be shifting from Steam to Diesel trains. Our first Diesel trains will be on the Santa Fe passenger diesel trains, which are popular in the Western part of the U.S. This train does not often get driven like in the past, EMD-7; however, there are various train rebuilds. The Sante Fe train was created in February 1949 – December 1953, and nearly 2,400 wear was built, with 1,500 boosters getting constructed. Boosters or Cabless cars are similar to the tender of a steam train. Helping diesel run and adding a more excellent look to the diesel train. We will discuss each topic more within the other pages, and remember to check out the new video of photos of the week. Have a good week 🙂

Big Boy 4014 / Steamtown National Historic Site

Welcome back to my blog. I hope everyone is excited to learn some astonishing facts about trains. Today, I will be sharing some fun information about the infamous Big Boy 4014 owned but Union the pacific. We also will be learning a little about the steam town national Historic site and, of course, the link to it. “Union Pacific 4014, also known as the “Big Boy,” is a steam locomotive owned and operated by the Union Pacific (UP) as part of their heritage fleet.” When I tell you this train is enormous, it is the most considerable steam train on earth. The locomotive is 132 feet long and weighs a whopping 1.2 million pounds. INSANE. 4014 is the last of its kind as 25 of them were made into existence, and only eight remain today. 4014 is the only one that operates on the tracks of today out of the eight. This train is fascinating ready about. Next, the steam town national historical museum; here at this museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania, you can find the most American manufactured trains made since the beginning of steam engines. Also, where you can find the other existing seven trains that are no longer operating from the extensive boy fleet, visits from 4014 come into play. The site was made in 1986 on October 30th. Scary right, an old train yard with old trains preexisting since the beginning of time. Please remember to check out the website and look at the different trains and programs provided. Please remember to look through the post and comment your interest.

A4 Class/ National Railway Museum

Hello everyone, welcome back to my blog. I hope everyone is having a good week and are staying well and safe. I will be discussing the new topic today on our pages. We will be talking about the famous LNER A4 class, which got built-in 1935. This model got made by Nigel Gresley, the same designer who created the Flying Scotsman. The A4 courses are known to be the fastest steam trains globally and get designed to become streamlined. A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating streamlining in shape, providing reduced air resistance. The term gets applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s and their successor “bullet trains.” Please remember to check out the weekly photo and video this week to see more pieces of information and pictures of the train. This week, another post will be made on The National Railway Museum, a museum in York forming part of the Science Museum Group. The museum tells the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. This first museum post will be made for the website, so please check it out as soon as possible. This museum contains some of the crucial facts of high-quality trains, including the streamlined locomotive, Mallard, the fastest speed steam train in the world. The museum also includes the Flying Scotsman, which is a great post to check out if you are interested in learning more about the brother of the A4 classes. Please remember to comment and provide feedback on things you know about the topic.