[PRCo] Re: [PRCo]End of a Street car line?

[Fred Schneider]

Machinery evolves over time, doesn't it.   (Retorical.)  We have gone  
from breaker point ignition systems to solid station ignition in cars  
and from carburetors to fuel injection but they are still gasoline  
burning behemoths.   Our trolley cars have gone from field weakening  
control to series-parallel control to series-parallel with field  
weakening for higher speeds to thrystor control to AC propulsion  
schemes but they are still trolley cars on steel wheels on steel  
rails.   OK, so we have plastic seats that the little bastards can't  
chop up like they can leather.   We also air condition them since  
about 1970 but does that make it any less a trolley car?  Because  
General Motors figured out how to put air bags instead of steel  
springs on buses to get under Minnesota's weight limit in 1953 for a  
40 foot bus, did that make it any less a bus?   Hell no, but the  
invention carried through to the Aerotrain and later to the Budd  
Silverliners in railroad commuter service.

The first time I encountered the term light railway, it was a good  
British term.   The Brits used it for any railroad that was not part  
of British Railways.   The Derwent Valley Light Railway, for example,  
was a common carrier that ran out of York, England, in 1960 with an  
0-6-0 steam locomotive built in 1896.  I rode that sucker.   We  
stopped at every farmer's field to open and close the gates across  
the tracks.   That was the first time I had ever seen a "light rail"  
but I had encountered the term in British literature previously.

So we adopted the term.   And now our politicians hang it on anything  
they want.

The strangest example of a Light Railway project is between  
Lancaster, Harrisburg and ultimately, Mechanicsburg, Pensylvania.    
It isn't a light railway.   But the politicians say it is.   It is  
nothing more than a political scheme to fund Amtrak's commuter  
service in the Harrisburg - Philadelphia corridor beyond SEPTA's  
jurisdiction at the Chester - Lancaster county line.   Every so often  
it appears in the Harrisburg Patriot or Harrisburg Evening News or  
the Lancaster newspapers as a light rail line.   Remember,  
politicians must always obfuscate the truth for only through a stupid  
electorate can they stay in office.

If any of you opened up the file I sent last week the list all the  
new light rail and heavy rail lines in the USA and Canada ... I have  
pretty much used light rail and synonymous with trolley car or  
streetcar.   Russ Jackson (an industry consultant, industry employee  
and friend) always felt that light rail was a concept that allowed  
for a vehicle to move on streets in mixed traffic.  I can easily buy  
into that.   We have, however, created some even some lighter weight  
vehicles which we are now calling streetcars or trolley cars, and we  
are using the Portland Streetcar or Sound Transit in Tacoma or  
Washington's Anacostia project as the examples.  I am not willing to  
distinguish because I'm going to stick with Russ's concept.   My  
definition for heavy rail was anything with high platform loading,  
such BART, LACMTA's Red and Purple lines, CTA, WAMATA, New York's  
subways.   The rubber-tired subway in Montreal fits that definition.

The list I put out does not include the third, fourth and fifth  
categories.   We have a list of commuter railroad lines if anyone  
wants it.  I think we are looking for someone who wants to team up  
with us and do the other two lists, i.e. inclines and museum  
trolleys.   Inclines are easily independent of the others.   But  
museums are hard to separate from heritage lines operated by  
operating agencies and any of you that opened the file I sent last  
week will have discovered, there are some quasi-museum lines included  
with the light rail lines because they operate a large number of days  
of the year, the run on public turf, and the have their hands in  
public pockets.   Therefore, whoever does the museum list needs to  
coordinate it with us.

End of Fred's rant.

On Aug 4, 2008, at 3:39 PM, Ken & Tracie wrote:

> I briefly argued with a friend who claims a "light rail vehicle" is  
> NOT a
> "modern" trolley, but an entirely new technology.
> So I sent him the attached photo.
>
> His reply?
>
> "You win."
>
> K.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
> Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2008 4:23 PM
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: [PRCo]End of a Street car line?
>
>
>
>
>> In December 2008, when the Phoenix light rail opens, we will have 58
>> cities in the Unites States and Canada with light rail or heavy
>> rail.   Note that we have changed the name to make the politicians
>> feel good.   Only in San Diego can we still feel good calling it a
>> trolley!
>
>
> -- Attached file removed by Ecartis and put at URL below --
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> -- Size: 103k (106424 bytes)
> -- URL : http://lists.dementia.org/files/pittsburgh-railways/ 
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