I agree fully with this. And after April 1 has gone, how is someone supposed to know it was a joke? I think such posts after April 2 should have “ARPIL FOOLS” written before or after the subject so people later on don’t read it and think that, for example, SRR will be using 4449 for the steam program (because in that case, it’s a historical fact that the original SRR steam program DID want to use that locomotive in the 1970s).
I have a great sense of humor (I used to be a standup comedian and I do cartoons on the side today), but I agree with the others than most (if not all) of the posts aren’t all that terribly clever. For example, if someone contends that am extinct locomotive was found in a barn and they put a clever photo shop image of said engine in a barn, THEN I’d find that funny. These posts simply aren’t that clever.
Want to see what a good ‘gotcha’ joke really looks like? Check this out! http://www.bigredhair.com/boilerplate/intro.html

Well, as the saying goes Opinions are like axxxxxxs, everybody has one".

''Opinions are like Axxxxxxs, everybody has one''
. . . and most of 'em stink.

I think its great that you have that stack.
How often do most folks get to be near one up close, to see just now BIG this stuff really is.

OK, so let me see if I'm understanding you correctly.

A single post in this forum, usually followed by comments such as "In your dreams!" "Don't we wish" and "Yet another April Fools Joke!?!" - That's a bad thing, it will confuse folks!

An entire website dedicated to a fictional robot, including detailed timelines, stories and fake historical photos - That won't confuse anyone, and it's a great idea?

I'm confused... How are they different? Of the two, the second looks far more authentic!

Frankly, I think anything that could fool someone should be clearly labeled. I used the example of the website to show what a well-crafted hoax looks like. Most of the april fools posts aren't even done very well and that was only an example of one that was done well. Seeing these april fools posts won't change, at least people can up their game so at least they're entertaining (because most are not).
I just don't want to waste my time with all the fake posts every 1st of April and others long after the day won't realize it's a fake story.
this is a forum for preservation and people shouldn't have to wade through fake (and not even well done fake) stories to get to real news, that's all I'm saying.

The original post was funny to me--but that's coming from someone who has seen all this crazy talk about a "Hudson in a barn," and now we have (hakk, kaff, kaff) evidence that there is something to it! (kaff, kaff)!

P-51, I didn't know you were a steam punk!!

Actually, that looks like a fun site. with a lot of interesting detail work. I have to say, though, that I wonder if the steam-punk crowd would actually portray railroads correctly, or at least as we would see them to be seen. . .

http://www.wired.com/table_of_malconten ... unk_model/

http://privateerpress.com/files/products/NQ24_Cover.jpg

http://novelnovice.com/2010/09/06/cassi ... unk-train/

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=81431

Chessie's real Allegheny looked better:

http://conceptartworld.com/wp-content/u ... ron_08.jpg

I remember looking at C&O 1604 in Baltimore, and being impressed by its huge size, in particular its height. I remember seeing Ross Rowland's 614 in the roundhouse at Hagerstown, Md., and noting not only its size, but how "modern" it looked compared to a BL-2 that was in the next stall, and thinking it didn't look out of place in a world of GP-40s and SD-40s. Who needs to exaggerate such a machine?

Indeed, the unusual look of C&O power was something I wanted to see in that TV series I tried to sell years ago; let the general audience see and learn that steam engines weren't all like Sierra 3 in Petticoat Junction. . .

. . .Then again, some of our "real" stuff looks an awful lot like something the steam punk guys would cook up:

http://media.photobucket.com/image/stea ... 446rdl.jpg

http://media.photobucket.com/image/stea ... rr5527.jpg

http://gloriaharchar.com/wp-content/upl ... eplica.jpg

http://www.cityofnewbabbage.com/reader/node/3168

http://quotulatiousness.ca/blog/2012/03 ... lcar-ever/

The McKeen Car wins without question....

Why is any of that surprising? WE INVENTED STEAMPUNK.

Yep, most of us were Steampunk before it was cool!

A note to the steampunk crowd... At least make your contraptions believable!

Take this locomotive for example! Not only is it overly complicated, there's not even any visible connection from the pistons to the drive wheels. Does this thing even HAVE drive wheels? Looks a bit like a 4-0-4 with tender. Crazy!

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=307097

That's a Climax which is a geared locomotive meant for mining or logging operations where tracks were usually quickly laid and temporary (meaning rough). They could take tight curves, which meant they needed to be flexible, so they had trucks instead of the traditional drive wheels on a rigid frame. The power is transfered to a gear box underneath which is connected to each truck by a driveshaft down the center of the locomotive.

The Heisler operates in a similar manner and the shay has the drive shaft down the engineers side of the locomotive instead of down the center.

Sorry, my comment was intended as humor... I'm familiar with the Climax, and Heisler, and Shay and Willamette. In fact, I'm one of a small handful of people who can say that they've actually operated all four of those. There's a few of us at Mt Rainier Scenic Railroad that can say that, and we may well be the only people that can make that claim, since we have the only operating Willamette. I've been working with geared locomotives for 30 years now, up at the MRSR where we operate them in their native habitat. When somebody mentions crazy locomotive designs, the first thing I think of is "Climax!" ;)

If you have a look at the photographer's name, you'll notice it's me. I was engineer that day, saw that nice light glinting off the engine (the shop crew had just shined her up) and so I stepped off the engine to take the photo. A few minutes later I headed out with her on the Santa trains.

Ah, sorry about that :D I love the geared steamers and hope to see one in action one day. So far I've only seen static ones.

No worries, in fact I felt bad that you spent the time typing a serious reply. There was no real way to tell based on what I wrote, so I can understand. (I was hoping the fact the photo was a real engine would tip folks off that it was meant in jest.)

If you'd like to see geared locomotives, seriously consider a trip to the Mt Rainier Scenic Railroad. We're one of the best places around for a geared locomotive fan, Cass being the other place that should be on any geared loco fan's "must see" list.

Keep an eye on our website, we're hoping to do some special events in the future with the geared engines. Many of us have the hope to some day operate Shay, Willamette, Climax and Heisler together, under steam on one (rather over-powered) train. It's a definite possibility. We've already done Shay, Heisler and Climax previously, as well as Willamette, Climax and Heisler, but not all four yet.

Here's a shot of the second variation:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=356471

Hope you'll get a chance to visit sometime!

Bob, that's interesting to see those geared engines; equally interesting is that so much seems to have survived from Rayonier, thanks to the railroad running as long and as late as it did in steam. Shays, Mallets, Mikados, with skeleton cars loaded with logs that could approach the size of a locomotive boiler--must have been some operation to see!

At the risk of drifting off topic, it might be worth mentioning there is a "diesel punk" school or style as well. Where "steam punk" largely takes on a Victorian air, "diesel punk" borrows largely from the Art Deco era from the mid 1920s to about 1950, with a strong accent on the mid to late 1930s:

http://dieselpunksencyclopedia.wordpress.com/

Of course, trains are a big part of this era, along with streamlined autos, airships, and so on. Apparently a rail enthusiast is on that site; there's a whole collection of rail articles on it:

http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blog/list?tag=rail

Some North American samples from the set:

http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blo ... -americans

http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blo ... elin-train

http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blo ... ower-games

It seems the theme is more streamlining and similar styles rather than diesels as such; I haven't counted things, but it looks like streamlined steam articles actually outnumber the true diesel articles, and this is in a collection that is quite international in scope. Again, we look at North American examples:

http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blo ... ine-42-the

http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blo ... -the-big-t

A Southeastern favorite:

http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blo ... e-34-local

Going a little more international in style, I was intrigued by the title of this early entry, "Steam Power, Diesel Era:"

http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blo ... diesel-era

A comment by the poster that I believe none of us would argue with: "Elegantly streamlined or brutally showing their muscle, they are beautiful. Just beautiful."

Electricity gets its due here, too:

http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blo ... reamline-7

http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blo ... ine-26-the

A couple of other entries that may be of interest, even though they are not North American:

http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blo ... l-balloons

http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blo ... -argentina

There's a lot more; have fun.