<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div>Additional comments follow this … original message was moved to the top for clarity. Yes, Herb, I liked the Jerusalem pictures. </div><div><br></div><div>On Jul 8, 2014, at 8:54 PM, Herb Brannon wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div><br>Next, I was watching all the "happenings" in Jerusalem on CNN and noticed<br>that one of the streets shown in the broadcast had tracks and overhead<br>wire. Who would have guessed that Jerusalem had streetcars. Check out the<br>photos attached. Also, who would have guessed that it snows there. I worked<br>in Saudi Arabia, which is pretty much in the same area, and it was always<br>hot.<br><br><br>-- <br>Herb Brannon<br><br><a href="http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment.jpg">http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment.jpg</a> <br><br>http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment-0001.jpg <br></div></blockquote><br><blockquote type="cite"><div><a href="http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment-0002.jpg">http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment-0002.jpg</a> <br></div></blockquote><br><blockquote type="cite"><div><a href="http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment-0003.jpg">http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment-0003.jpg</a> <br></div></blockquote></div><div><div><br></div></div><div><br></div><div>And now what Fred has to broadcast. :<)</div><div><br></div><div>Whoda thunk it? The world is moving in places we cannot go because we might have to do it in all states at once and the politicians cannot do that. For example, we cannot have high speed rail because we need it in California, Texas and the Northeast Corridor but the politicians cannot give out the federal money unless you can also give it to Idaho, Wyoming and North Dakota and they sure as the devil don't need high speed trains. </div><div><br></div><div>Herb, a lot of the rest of the world is using light rail today because it doesn't use oil. Jerusalem has had that system for more two and half years. </div><div><br></div><div> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_Light_Rail">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_Light_Rail</a></div><div><br></div><div> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91wWmvJ6kWg">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91wWmvJ6kWg</a> </div><div><br></div><div> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqys0ge339c">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqys0ge339c</a></div><div><br></div><div>My favorite example of where the world is going today is France, which was one of the first nations to go modern and get rid of those noisy, old, ugly streetcars. Most of their systems were gone by the end of the 1930s ,,, Paris included. Only tiny operations remained in Lille and St. Etienne by the era when most of us began shooting pictures. Today? Why there are 26 systems in 25 cities in France,. The population of France is about 64 million --- just about the same as California and Texas put together. Can you imagine 25 cities in Texas and California with trolleys today? <b>We're not even close! </b>(We have them in Dallas, Houston, Sacramento, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Los Angeles and the BART system in the East Bay and a funded proposal to bring cars back to El Paso.)</div><div><br></div><div>The first one is in Caens, in Normandy. Is it a bus or a trolley? Well, it is fixed guideway using a single rail. So we have a pantograph and a rail return for power. But the cars ride on rubber tires. OK, Not our way of doing it but it works for them and it doesn't waste as much oil. Because of rolling friction, the tires probably require more energy than steel wheels on steel rails. On the other hand, it probably stops as fast as a bus if stupid fool walks out in front of it while texting. Guys, I'm looking for the good and the bad, not just an argument that it doesn't look like something we worship.</div><div><br></div><div> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiGrBzH9WTE">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiGrBzH9WTE</a></div><div><br></div><div>And here is a more conventional two rail operation in Nice down on the Cote du Azur (the Azure Coast) Makes the sounds you want. Fantastic artistic photography … one of the best videos I've seen of trams. The chap who shot it deserves a pat on the back. Damed if it doesn't make me want to go there and dine on a bowl of Bouillabaisse. (Only the French know how to make that fantastic fish stew.) </div><div><br></div><div> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQMHv_gYf-g">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQMHv_gYf-g</a></div><div><br></div><div>Italy had cars in Trieste, Turin, Genoa, Milan, Rome and Naples when I first visited that country in 1961. Today? Twelve cities. Most of us might go to Florence (Firenze), Italy to look at the art musums. I think I want to go back to see the new light rail cars.</div><div><br></div><div> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKv8GSSrETY">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKv8GSSrETY</a></div><div><br></div><div>The United Kingdom? This was a lot like France. In 1960, the time of my first visit, all that was left were a three lines in Glasgow, the downtown and promenade lines in Blackpool, Grimsby and Immingham, a little bit of Sheffield, and the Isle of Mann. G&I and Sheffield disappeared before the army sent me home a year later and Glasgow was gone by 1962, leaving only the promenade line in Blackpool and the Isle of Mann. Today? Nine cities!</div><div><br></div><div>Tyne-Wear Metro started the revolution in Britain </div><div><br></div><div> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuI7Nmst0MM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuI7Nmst0MM</a></div><div><br></div><div>Nottingham was next. Three more lines are now on the drawing board.</div><div><br></div><div> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd2wmx2Fk2o&list=PLMeK7Eqknvg5QmkS8uuqCmdLsMHFUzkZs">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd2wmx2Fk2o&list=PLMeK7Eqknvg5QmkS8uuqCmdLsMHFUzkZs</a></div><div><br></div><div>A test train in Edinburgh, Scotland last fall:</div><div><br></div><div> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7inHmbJgZ1E">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7inHmbJgZ1E</a></div><div><br></div><div>And the USA and Canada has gone from about 15 cities in the mid 1960s to 59 this summer when Tucson opens. An e-mail landed on my computer this morning announcing that DART will open its line to Dallas-Fort Worth Airport on August 18th. Nine other systems in the US and Canada are under construction or being designed.</div><div><br></div><div>But all is not perfect. Two new operations have closed … Galveston closed allegedly because of a hurricane and Memphis allegedly because of fires. I think that in both cases the management is attempting to find excuses to shut down tourist or heritage operations that were losing money hand over fist and it is much easier to blame the loses in Galveston, where it only hauled 100 riders a day, on a storm that really didn't damage the system. In Memphis, if you are only moving 3300 riders a day on three lines, maybe two accidental fires that might have been motorman error can be blamed on old cars and the cost of new ones could just be too much. </div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b>What is the latest complete line in the USA? The GREEN LINE from Minneapolis to St. Paul which opened </b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou7fH_IjhfE">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou7fH_IjhfE</a></b></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><br><div><div>On Jul 8, 2014, at 8:54 PM, Herb Brannon wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div><br>Next, I was watching all the "happenings" in Jerusalem on CNN and noticed<br>that one of the streets shown in the broadcast had tracks and overhead<br>wire. Who would have guessed that Jerusalem had streetcars. Check out the<br>photos attached. Also, who would have guessed that it snows there. I worked<br>in Saudi Arabia, which is pretty much in the same area, and it was always<br>hot.<br><br><br>-- <br>Herb Brannon<br><br><a href="http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment.jpg">http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment.jpg</a> <br><br><a href="http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment-0001.jpg">http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment-0001.jpg</a> <br></div></blockquote><br><blockquote type="cite"><div><a href="http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment-0002.jpg">http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment-0002.jpg</a> <br></div></blockquote><br><blockquote type="cite"><div><a href="http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment-0003.jpg">http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment-0003.jpg</a> <br></div></blockquote></div><br>
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