[milwaukee-electric] Re: This and that ~ Speedrail

[Matthew Austin]

Thanks gents.

I go away for a few days and come back to find some informative and stimuating discussion. Much appreciated, it certainly helps build my knowledge.

I'm particularly interested in the Speedrail possibilities, as when one considers the huge social change and upheaval of the post-war world, how things might have gone. My reading on the topic would seem to indicate that life for the average American citizen in the 1950s was quite different from the life that citizens had in the 1930s, coming out of the Depression. This being the case, the call of the automobile must have been strong, especially for those who could afford the payments.

One of the best tramway museums in Australia is the Sydney Tramway Museum. The Sydney system was once the largest in the British Empire outside of London, closing in 1961. I visited the museum and rode one of their crossbench trams from the 1920s. Inside were some snack-food advertisements from the late 1950s. One was a frozen ice block in a 'rocketship' shape, capitalising on the popullarity of the space-race. I was struck by the gulf of change from the time the tram was built to the world of space exploration, all within thirty years.

I guess this ramble is to agree that there were a multitude of factors involved in the survival of transit systems.

Cheers,
Matt
 		 	   		  
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