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DaveKamp 
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 Topic: Misleading advertisements...
Posted: 21 Jan 2024 at 7:27pm |
So, many of you may be old enough to remember the photo of Charles Atlas pulling a PRR railcar:
FORD has decided to try to pull the same stunt over a new generation with this advertisement video:
In the video, they pull a bunch of railcars with their new F150 Lightning electric pickup truck.
For you that have never seen this gag before, it plays upon people who really don't have a clue about the physics of a railcar, and they reinforce it by having a bunch of guys there to observe.
They pull these railcars with the truck, and everyone is amazed... and the joke is on you...
The amount of force it takes to move those railcars, on a straight and level track, is incredibly small. If there's no curves, no switches, and no grade, my '02 Camry will pull 'em just as well.
When I was teaching at railways, we'd hand-push a 3-car consist of 180,000lb passenger cars in and out of the shop several times a day.
Notice the tow strap they use... it's an ordinary strap. Only needs to have about 1500lbs of tensile strength to do this demonstration, as they're not accellerating very hard (that would break the truck). Just give it a little and be patient.
Edited by DaveKamp - 21 Jan 2024 at 7:32pm
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DaveKamp
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Posted: 21 Jan 2024 at 7:34pm |
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For what it's worth, one of the places I taught, was at the Long Island Railroad's Sunnyside yard. When I was there, this photo was posted on the shop walls, where we were pushing them in and out every day. It was the 'house joke', because this is where the photo'd stunt was performed.
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Ten Amendments, Ten Commandments, and one Golden Rule solve most every problem. Citrus hand-cleaner with Pumice does the rest.
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Les Kerf
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Posted: 21 Jan 2024 at 7:55pm |
I remember the Charles Atlas advertisements well  When I worked in sawmills we filled rail cars with wood chips; the chip car tenders had pry bars that they used to get those loaded cars moving, then they could push them along. They did need to ensure that no debris was on the tracks.
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im4racin
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Posted: 21 Jan 2024 at 8:00pm |
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Be careful! AC used a 7k series to pull a train in there advertising too!
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steve(ill)
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Posted: 21 Jan 2024 at 9:26pm |
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Like them all, but love the "B"s.
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DaveKamp
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Posted: 21 Jan 2024 at 9:50pm |
Allis's advertisement didn't make any silly claims about how 'never done before' or 'no other has done it', nor did they imply that it was any significant feat... but notice that the 7080 is DRIVING ON THE TIES... and furthermore, pulling it's consist around a curve, on some single-track, not in a level railyard.
The F150 Lightning advertisement is very intentionally misleading, and that's all there is to it.
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Ten Amendments, Ten Commandments, and one Golden Rule solve most every problem. Citrus hand-cleaner with Pumice does the rest.
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steve(ill)
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Posted: 21 Jan 2024 at 10:26pm |
well........... its not like the FIRST time a company has stretched the truth on the TV !!
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Like them all, but love the "B"s.
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Darwin W. Kurtz
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Posted: 21 Jan 2024 at 10:30pm |
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I remember the Like a Rock Chevy truck commercials......seems like they tried to move a boulder or a mountain or something like that
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WF owner
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Posted: 22 Jan 2024 at 7:08am |
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... so what is "misleading"?
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Codger
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Posted: 22 Jan 2024 at 7:16am |
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But if you see it on TV, backed up by the internet, (which is full of experts) it must be true.
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A career built on repairing and improving engineering design deficiencies, shortcomings, and failures over 50 years now.
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Ed (Ont)
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Posted: 22 Jan 2024 at 7:44am |
Remember GM plowing with the new square body 4x4??? I think was 3 furrow plow maybe. So many of these ads meant to be misleading. LOL.
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steve(ill)
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Posted: 22 Jan 2024 at 8:05am |
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im with WF... NOTHING miss leading about it. They SHOW it pulling a train car.. I did that.. Not photo shopped. ......... If you dont understand HOW that happens, its not their fault.
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Like them all, but love the "B"s.
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Codger
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Posted: 22 Jan 2024 at 9:17am |
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As a boy seen many a railroad car, (mostly flat and at most three) shoved into a manufacturing plant by hand in south St. Louis crossing a busy city street. Once you get them moving, they keep going easily if flat and straight rails.
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A career built on repairing and improving engineering design deficiencies, shortcomings, and failures over 50 years now.
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DaveKamp
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Posted: 22 Jan 2024 at 10:33am |
 steve(ill) wrote:
im with WF... NOTHING miss leading about it. They SHOW it pulling a train car.. I did that.. Not photo shopped. ......... If you dont understand HOW that happens, its not their fault. |
Yes, that's called 'playing on one's ignorance', and in doing so, the company insults the intelligence of those who DO understand basic physics, and in doing so, they seriously discredit their brand..
Listen to the dialogue... listen to what she says. It is very clear.
Dodge didn't make The Dukes of Hazzard, and when Bo and Luke were shown flying the 120ish like-painted Satellite/Challengers to (what was clearly) destruction, you couldn't go to your local Chrysler/Plymouth/Dodge and BUY one... the closest you could get... was This:
All 110hp of it... and Daisy would NOT be willing to sit in the back seat  Of course, with a hair-dryer shoved under the hood, it could manage 0-50 in 5.5 seconds...
And they said 0-50... because at that time, going to 60 would be breaking the law... (yes, they mandated that EVERY SPEEDOMETER read to 85mph... and not an ounce more. They also advertised '37 Est highway/24 EPA es. mpg"... and my personal experience was that, on the absolute best day, with a tailwind, tires pumped up hard... and using a feather on the foot-feed, that it's lesser-fancy sibling could get 26, mebbie 27 on the highway, and around 18 in town.... but that's 'epa' friendly numbers, right?
Edited by DaveKamp - 22 Jan 2024 at 10:37am
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Ten Amendments, Ten Commandments, and one Golden Rule solve most every problem. Citrus hand-cleaner with Pumice does the rest.
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Codger
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Posted: 22 Jan 2024 at 11:07am |
Had a lot of the 2.2, and 2.5ltr four cylinder engines and damned reliable for me. My 1989 Dodge Spirit with a 2.5ltr turbocharged engine ran 399,577 miles before getting stuck in a snow bank and the inexperienced driver destroyed the automatic transmission. I had sold that car at 395,000 and some change to a good customer's new driver daughter as the law of averages.....
That car was rated a bonafide piece of shi* by most of the magazines of the day and I always got 25mpg or better with it over 270K miles I owned it. Not once did it let me down someplace unable to drive home.
I purchased it as a non running bank repo with a dragged off exhaust. After installing a Mopar Performance computer, and Borla exhaust system, all I did was drive it like it was stolen. Once finding out how bad it "torque steered" under hard acceleration, a "Torsen" differential took care of most of that.
Did not burn, or leak oil when sold either.
Going back to those "Like a Rock" Chevrolet commercials I lost interest just as soon as seeing "air" under all six tires of a brand new one ton being bounced around so hard. Like the average guy is going to do that and trust something ain't gonna get  *d up in doing so.
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A career built on repairing and improving engineering design deficiencies, shortcomings, and failures over 50 years now.
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