We were watching the news the other night when we saw that some trick or treater in Hercules, CA got some meth in his bag of treats. No word on how it got there, which is another story.
My wife asked me why the town was named Hercules and I nailed it without even looking it up. Any of you know–without Googling it? BTW, it might make an interesting place to model is you’re into period stuff.
Blasting Powder?
An educated guess…
I looked up the answer after…
Have fun
John
Got to be propellant powder - from battleships to handguns.
tac, a shooter of the stuff, like it says here on the can.
An old neighbor of mine worked at Hercules in Wilmington, DE.
Some info here Joe:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules,_California
Incidentally n my Heritage railway we have a loco named Hercules. It is a 2-8-0 Tank engine numbered 5239.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GWR_5205_Class
http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/great_western/5239.jpg
You blew it Alan…your not supposed to look it up!!
LOL
Well it matches the weather here.
What’s interesting is that the locos used at the powder plant in California (or anywhere else, I suppose) ran on compressed air, according to the Hercules Historical Society web site.
A few miles down the road from me, is the largest ammunition store in Europe.
It really is a heck of a size and all the rail is made of bronze!! Its near a small village very close to the old English Civil war battlefield…Edge Hill. It also has its own underground railway…the place is like a honeycombe…
Google Earth Kineton UK. One part is slightly to the SW and the major part just to the east of the village.
Zoom down on the east depot and the railway marshalling yard is full of old London underground railway stock.
(Just to the north is the old V Bomber base now used as a test track for Aston Martin vehicles…)
When I was a kid I lived in Pinole which is right next to Hercules. We used to go to Hercules for parades on the 4th of July. My father was the yard master in Oakland at the time.
My brother worked for Hercules for many years. Currently, my sister lives in Hercules CA. Coincidence?
Compressed air locomotives and bronze rails. Yup, makes sense. One errant spark and the whole she bang goes up.
I used to take a bunch of students to CAD Kineton to show them what a real ammo dump storage facility looks like. An amazing place - absolutely NO brought-in pyrotechnics, fire-making artifacts, cigarette lighters - nothin’.
Hand 'em all in as you pass through security, get 'em back when you leave.
No cameras, either - it’s the flash, you see.
One of the things we used to show them was the remains of a Soviet-era ammo dump after a lightning strike back in the early '80’s - over 2000 acres of blackened earth was all that remone.
Oh, and the holes.
MANY holes.
Some 250 yards across…
tac
OVGRS
Right there Tac. They reckon if Kineton goes bang half Warwickshire goes as well.
(Well…it will save a lot of work when they start Fracking!!)
LOL
(Edward Woodward the actor - played Callan in the series of the same name- and his wife used live down the road from there at Edge Hill.
They moved as he heard the ghostly shouts of the armies from the Englkish Civil War.)
Apparently several people have. Weird eh?
Decent place for launching model gliders tho!!
David Maynard said:
Compressed air locomotives and bronze rails. Yup, makes sense. One errant spark and the whole she bang goes up.
Yea and considering it is just down the road from the “Port of Chicago” we don’t need another big bang in the area!