Hello Sean; I guessed you were US based. Clearly, I spluttered somewhat on seeing an all-US timetine appearing, but I did appreciate you were working with the information you had to hand, and that UK and other country input could be expected along sometime later. I'm glad you started the timeline & hope others join in to populate it. I'll continue to do so as & when I have time. best wishes --Tagishsimon (talk)

Fairbanks-Morse

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I'm comparing the List of Fairbanks-Morse locomotives with the The Second Diesel Spotter's Guide and Diesel Locomotives: The First 50 Years. First of all, I can't find any references matching up with FM CF16-4 or FM CFA24-5.

Secondly, the article has been marked as an incomplete list, but the omissions seem minor to me. The first omission is the early railcars on the Milwaukee and B&O, but since other manufacturers made the carbody, I don't think they should be included in a list of FM locomotives. The other omission is breaking out the B units. I'm ambivalent about this one, because sometimes we do break out the B units (EMD GP7B), and sometimes we don't (EMD E8).

Do you have another reference source? Please enlighten me. Rmeier 05:00, 9 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Page FM-344 of The Second Diesel Spotter's Guide (complete reference in the list page) lists CFA16-4 and CFB16-4, and photos of PRR and NYC units are at [1]. The same site has photos of CPA24-5 units from LIRR, NH, NYC and the FM demonstrator; [2] and [3] both list CFA24-5 (although they list them as CFA-24-5). slambo 11:27, Jan 10, 2005 (UTC)
I'm thinking there are typos in the above references.
  • [4] refers to PRR 9450 as being "CF16-4". The The Second Diesel Spotter's Guide calls it a "CFA-16-4". I don't care about the dashes - just "CF" vs. "CFA".
  • [5] refers to NYC "CFA-24-5"s with 5 axles. The The Second Diesel Spotter's Guide calls them "CPA-24-5"s. And five axles is a spotting feature for "CPA-24-5"s. This source also refers to ten New Haven "CPA-24-5"s.
  • [6] refers to the 790s (total of 10) on the New Haven as being "CFA-24-5"s. The The Second Diesel Spotter's Guide calls them "CPA-24-5"s.
My real question is that in the List of Fairbanks-Morse locomotives, FM CF16-4 seems to be a typo duplicate of FM CFA16-4, and FM CFA24-5 seems to be a typo duplicate of FM CPA24-5. I would keep only the second of each pair. I think that says what I meant to say the first time.Rmeier 05:39, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Ooops, I had meant to let you and User:Vaoverland know I'd used it. I was familiar with it mostly because I have done some copyediting of VA's FACs. It was exactly what I was looking for--fairly mature/stable, with a good variety of most of the common article elements, and FAC-quality without being as lengthy as FAs tend to be. It helped that it was a reasonably interesting topic that most people are probably unfamiliar with, but since trains in general are familiar to pretty much everyone, it should be something people can easily understand/relate to. Niteowlneils 21:25, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Sean, thanks for the note. I am working on articles of many types, and run across many other writers. I think your work is exceptionally well-organized, consistent and logical in both approach and presentation. I like to provide thorough information which perhaps also educates (such as subtly defining unladen in this instance). Ergo, it's not surprising to me that our friend Niteowlneils would use our work on autorack as a good example. He does a good job of inspiring other editors. I wish we had your organizational skills going for us in some of the other WikiProject areas, but I'm sure you agree that there is plenty more to do with WikiProject Trains. I learn something new every night while writing, and I hope you are also having some fun.

BTW, I have had our Auto Train (Amtrak) article in Peer Review for a while. I am lacking any non-Internet source references, or I'd have already sent it back over for FAC consideration. Somebody needs to write book about the Auto-Train Corporation and Amtrak's Auto Train story, as there seems to be nothing in print!! Mark in Richmond. Vaoverland 21:41, Jan 11, 2005 (UTC)

Shortened DYK item

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I'm sorry for incorrectly shortening the item. Could you correct the year or period in the archive on Template talk:Did you know? Mgm|(talk) 09:22, Jan 12, 2005 (UTC)

Railroad History Database

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Have you seen the database at [7]? It's rather useful for finding out when railroads existed, though dates are often contradictory (as I found when looking through Moody's and Poor's). --SPUI 02:25, 20 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I added a brief section on freight/boxcar graf to the article. I wanted to keep it brief as the main body of the article is already getting around 40k. I'm posting here in case you had not seen my reply on the FAC thread. I'm also hoping there is something you might want to add to the section on train graffiti, or even something in particular you would like for me to add. I'd definately like to see it make FA this time around.  ALKIVAR  01:47, 30 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I added a photo of an old Norfolk and Western Railway boxcar equipped to haul new automobiles to your article on autorack. I hope you like it. PearlW 11:44, Jan 31, 2005 (UTC)