Piano on a flat car?

What RR was that filmed on?  Almost looked like a starter set running on those tracks with the locomotive and a couple cars

That was pretty neat!

On the Heber Vally RR, out in Utah.

Well if the Yamaha was worth $130,000 so was Kim Kardashians 2 million dollar cubic zarconia . The white part of the piano was the dead give away. Inside that big white box was just one of Yamaha's 88 key electrics. If you'll look closely you'll see the piano doesn't have any strings .  The whole concert grand body is just there for looks.
They slide the electric piano in where the regular keys would be and cover the top with the box so it gives the look of a more expensive piano

Yea that's a $130,000 gutted concert grand with a $ 3000 dollar Yamaha keyboard in it.

David

Hm. Interesting.

Beautiful Scenery too. I was beginning to wonder if the motion of the train would be affecting the Piano in a way or two.

LOOK closer, the piano does have piano wires not strings.

Three words........Do Not Hump!

If you stop the video several times you'll see the sound board, the dampers, the tuning pegs but what you won't see are the wires as you call them.
Thats why you have an unobstructed view of the brand in the middle .

The mid and high range wires would be hard to see but the bass would show easily.
Oh and I've only been playing the piano for 46 years ,15 years of that I played in a band . We played up and down the east coast and several jobs in Europe to crowds up to 500,000 people so I could be wrong.
Grands don't take moving around very well. They easily get out of tune merely by bumping or unloading them. Now that we live in the age of technology the easiest way to combat this is to gut the grand, use that shape and install a digital keyboard in it's place but to cover the added depth of the digital keyboard they had to build that taller deeper box . You can even see it doesn't match the original lines of the piano .

Another dead give away would be the name . If it's gonna be a 130,000 dollar piano it's not going to have Yamaha on it... It'll say Steinway.
And if you've ever spent hours tuning one they're strings ...alot of strings

David

For someone whos music tastes or lack thereof runs from AC/DC to ZZ Top, I enjoyed the music. 

Reminds me of the ill-fated Marlboro train lounge/bar car.  It had a grand piano.  I remember one of the guys saying we had to build the car around that %!@ piano,  only to find out it would never stay tuned and we can't get it out without destroying the piano or the car.

We had a pair of "Uprights" built and maintained in the old world style, about like almost a 100 years ago.

One has to wonder how that floor was so strongly built to hold the ton or two of mass over the Century. Basement was not a problem, slab. But the first floor tied into a firewall and had something like 16 inch wide 3 inch thick planks set on what must have been 2 by 8's from memory.

No, they don't build them the way it used to. Even today, I don't know if the dang thing is still there. I might write them this week and ask.

I was not much of a piano player being deaf and taught my first notes home schooled style (Before there was such a term) it was adequate.

I was sent home at age 6 by my piano teacher with a note saying "He'll never be able to play the piano" 46 years later I'm still going strong.
All the kids in my family (and my father) have near perfect pitch. The problem with this gift/curse is that you can easily tell when somethings out of tune and for those who have it someone singing off key will drive you nuts. It's not a problem if you play the guitar or Bass guitar but it is if your the piano player.
By 14 I could tune my own piano using tuning forks. Now I have a 1/4 grand and I use an electronic tuner. I do have a Kawai electronic piano that can reproduce thousands of sounds but only a real piano with real strings to me can give a true sound.

David

Teachers are interesting creatures. They are never satisfied.

When I was taught, it took a tap of a ruler. Today it will be considered child abuse, but it was quite simple; rote learning by sheer repeating until it was done right.

Many years later I would be at times handed a student or 10 to teach at work and get them working towards the main goal as a team. I quickly disposed of those who would not listen and rely on the good ones who helped a lot.

My last High school Music class was a bit "Off" the teacher always looked pained while he suffered my adequate playing. However it was better than some of the improvisation going on around from other students.

With regard to the Topic at hand, I always wondered how a actual piano would be shipped cross country on 39 foot jointed rail back in the day.

Cheers.

Grands are shipped on their side in a form fitting crate uprights are crated. Keys are removed and hammers are padded and the actions are locked in place.
Tops are removed on both uprights and grands , Grands also get their legs and pedals removed. A piano will travel quite well this way. Once at it's destination it takes about an hour to put a grand back together and another hour or so for tuning.

David

I noticed the lack of piano strings immediately. Even with strings, I agree a Yamaha is not a $130,000 instrument. With a real piano the rumbling of riding on the flat car would put it out of tune in short order. They'd need to finish shooting on the first take (not that they'd record the actual sound on a moving train.)

I too have a lifetime of piano playing. Though my 'axe' is a modest Acrosonic (Baldwin) spinet.

It is a very well done video with a couple of very talented musicians. But it's a Yahama piano, not an Imperial Bosendorfer. There is no way that electric piano is worth $130,000. The model 290 Imperial Bosendorfer is a 9'6" concert grand priced at $179,500. It has 8 full octaves, with 97 keys instead of the usual 88. It adds the 9 additional keys at the bottom to go all the way down to C0 at 16.35 hz.

Or, you could go for the World's Most Valuable Bosendorfer Piano - "The Emperor" priced at a cool $1.2 million!

Well if my rich uncle ever gets out of the poor house I'm gonna buy one of those.
Till then my little baby grand will do just fine. At 1.25 million I think I have time to wait on him. Not like there's going to be a rush.

David

Only a true piano has a piano feel, otherwise you're just playing an organ keyboard .  Whenever I attempt to play my basic songs from piano (started playing last year) on the 3/10 barton pipe organ at the Redford Theatre, it always takes some getting used to that keyboard.  You only have to press the keys, not actually "strike" them like a piano.

Though I like playing piano, nothing beats a theater organ when it comes to having fun while playing with all the gizmos and different sounds you can make on it.  I can take a beginner piano song and get it to really sound almost amazing on the organ (well, maybe not quite that good )

I couldn't see them putting a $100,000+ on a freight car anyway.

One of these days as young as you are if you ever get the pleasure of playing a real pipe organ you'll change your tune about the one in the theater .
The new synthesized digital keyboards from makers like Kawai and Yamaha will let you sound like a piano accompanied by your own full orchestra .
You also have pitch control so you can play like your playing in the key of C while actually playing in the key of A. They even have weighted keys to feel like a real piano. Technology has come a long way since the Hammond organ and the Fender Rhodes.
Oh and Jake a piano is a percussion instrument so just like a set of drums your supposed to beat the crap outta it. Coarse if you tell that to my wife you'll get the same look I get when I play loud
Stop by a good music shop in your area and give one of those I've mentioned a ride.
They''re usually pretty good about letting you try em out.
You may find out your not just saving money for trains anymore
That and practice........... a lot

David

Are you referring to the electric organs as being real pipe organs, or an actual pipe organ?

I think the organ I mentioned is about as real as a Pipe organ can be.    I don't know of many electronic organs from 1928.  All the gizmos I mentioned, like drums, a car horn, xylophones, chimes, etc... are real instruments activated by air.  Not a speaker on the thing and we take pride in that.  All that, plus the regular organ pipes.

Here's a link to our website page about the organ if you don't believe me   It isn't a hammond by a long shot

http://redfordtheatre.com/organ/

Very Cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry I stand corrected on your pipe organ. The amazing thing is not that the theater has one but that there are craftsmen still out there that know how to fix and maintain them.Like the calliope there aren't many people out there anymore that know how to fix one.

Nothing wrong with the Hammond either it was the forerunner of it's day as was that pipe organ at one time. But for practicality and ease of mobility that pipe organ only has a home in a venue like the theater or a church.

Today we can replicate the sound of the pipe organ well enough that you can't tell the difference. I know you'll say different . But 2 recordings of the same song with you not being privy as to which one was played on your organ and which one is synthesized sound and a good recording studio will make it so you can't tell the difference.
We can have the sound of a full size 9 1/2 foot long concert grand and so many more instruments and just as easily pick it up, tuck it under one arm and walk off.

but Jake it is very impressive that the pipe organ is still around and working.

Back to the subject. the video must have been blue screened because I've played on a moving vehicle and its called dam near impossible  and it had rubber tires not steel wheels.

David

Wow, lots of incorrect information about that piano.

It's is a real piano.  It's the Yamaha C3 NEO.   No electronics.   Only 10 were built in 2002 for Yamaha's 100th anniversary of their grand pianos.

It's approx 6' 1".   The design is a one off to distinguish it.   It's no shell with a CP5 or other digital board in it.  The odd aluminum like finish on the soundboard frame and the transparent lid do make the strings disappear, so to speak.  It plays very nicely, just like the studio C3.  It's a heavy beast at 700lbs, about 200lbs heavier than my 1973 Steinway L series grand, but 200lbs lighter than the Fazioli we use on tour.

The nice thing is it doesn't have that overly bright sound that many Yamaha grands are known for.

  There's a C3 Neo at a studio in Nashville sitting next to a 3 year old Fazioli F228, which by the way is about the best sounding grand of modern times I get to play.  That being said, the C3 Neo is cool as heck and sounds wonderful in its own right.

But I've only been playing for 44 years and make my living at playing and being a tour tech. (For the Neo and the Fazioli), so what do I know

Bet you guys are all fishermen too

Doug

Well I'll be doggone..it IS really so. Funny thing is, I hunted all over the 'net to find this piano, even the Yamaha company site...nothing. Then EscapeRocks comes up with the

C3 Neo, I "google" it and thar she blows, just as pretty as can be.

Ed Mullan

We are ALL railfans here.

Now this right here is music for me!

This is CSX's Q 266, with GE and EMD power, right near the summit climbing the west slope of Sand Patch just a few hours ago. Full out, with a long loaded autorack, no helper at 11 miles per hour.

Oh, by the way, speaking of theater organs, I visted my sister one time in Phoenix

Arizona, back about 1986, and we went out to a place that had one of these. At that time, it was set up with long tables and benches and served pizza and Pepsi. I'm sure it was a real air, not digital set up, wish I had taken photos. Anyone remember this place?

Ed Mullan

I am about as far from being a musician as you can get, but the Organ Grinder Pizza parlor in Portland, OR (closed 1996) had a Very impressive organ. The Puget Sound  Theater Organ Society, has refered to it as "The Grand Daddy of Pizza Parlor Pipe Organs" I had to wonder how they could include such an instrument(expensewise) and still make a profit, which in the Organ Grinder's case, they obviously couldn't.

http://www.pstos.org/instrumen...nd/organ-grinder.htm

Doug

I love the Piano Guys.    My favorite is Cello Wars :-)

I've been a subscriber of their site for over a year now.  Great stuff!

For some real Organ fun, try you tubing LARGE organ pipes. (Known as Registers I think..) I think I recall one about several feet across and what must have been 60 high. When they build enough air to move through, it topples all the music stands, blows the sheet music and pulls hairs off the beard. Essentially the building itself is the air supply to blow.

There should still be a place somewhere around Iowa that makes em in the old style.

Loved the information and pictures! Learn something every day!

They also had Steam Calliopes on a wagon drawn by horses for easy transport. I would imagine most folks today have to google it to know or hear one.

I recall Cellos from the Obama Inauguration to Presidency and noted the cold biting breeze as the players suffered through the necessity of sawing out the tunes. Thankfully the Monster trons had digital recordings so that the people wont know how horrible the real ones were.

Boy if that Yamaha cost $130,000 just think what a Harley piano would cost....

Just a bad joke from a Harley owner....

Thanks for the info on the organ stop pizza. It was awesome, the place had a balcony, and there were horns and a bunch of different instruments placed  there which  made for a very interesting vist!

I could not believe it when brother-in-law said it was gone.

Ed Mullan

since this thread has drifted to pipe organs, our club layout is located in the basement of a 150+ year old church that has and still uses its large pipe organ. in the layout room are a large air supply box and 16" diameter supply pipe for the organ upstairs. it happens to run right across the layout room at one end.

most times it is not being used while we are there, but once in a while when they fire it up while were operating or building, the resonance down below shakes the whole place!

Those horns and extra instruments are what make a Theatre organ different from a regular church organ (along with a number of other things).  Occasionally after movies at the Redford I'll demonstrate the organ for people that are checking out the console.  I always remember to tell them that the percussion and other instruments they're hearing aren't digital recordings.  When you hear a drum being played, there's actually a drum up in the organ chamber.  People are always amazed by that  Our organ chambers of course are all closed up so you can't see any of the pipes or things behind the grille work and few people are given the chance to take a "behind the scenes" tour.

And to kind of bring this back to a train related status:

Maybe a little better recording of a different organ without all the restaurant noise in the background

There were a number of organs that were known to crack the walls of the buildings they were in.

Wow!  So if they filmed the organ on the flat car is could be called Shakes on a Train!

Cool Videos.

 I didn't see him bail off the independant brakes when stopping though... LOL

Well you could play any song, it's title would still be called Shake ,Rattle and Roll.

I played the Electric Piano on a 52 foot flat bed tractor trailer during a Christmas parade one time (Don't ask how we got hooked into that)
Instead of Jingle Bells it was more like Mangle Bells. The poor guy driving tried his best but the stiff suspension and tires with 100 Lbs. of air pressure made it like fallow the bouncing ball.

Oh and Bill your slipping in your old age. What I thought you'd post was about the streaker the cops chased into the Theater that Jake works at. They did finally catch him when one of the cops caught him by the organ. Ba rump bump.

Put some ballast of any kind on that trailer and have it round about12,000 pounds or so. It will smooth out the ride as well as anything. The Tires are big yes, however it is the suspension that counts for everything. Put 52,000 pounds into the "Box" or on the deck and then you will experience the "Tippys" as the COG is higher than that of the vehicle itself.

Tires are big yes, however it is the suspension that counts for everything.

Larger tires will give a smoother ride than smaller tires. letting a bit of air out of the tires will also help soften the ride, I would bet on about 20,000 lbs to help the suspension, if it is riding on springs, wouldn't need as much if it is an air-ride trailer.

Doug

Great video with nice scenery. The music reminded me of a concert band piece I conducted several times (I'm a retired band director) called The Great Locomotive Chase by composer Robert W. Smith. The kids always loved learning and performing that music.

Stunning Nickel Plate locomotive in the video, and the caboose looked like an old Erie Lackawanna. Perhaps Lionel should offer a flatcar loaded with twin grand pianos. They've put everything else on flatcars!