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

[Mark McGuire]

 Speaking of Chicago, John, I just got back yesterday. My thoughts are if I lived there and worked in the city, no way would I drive. The traffic is absolutely horrendous. We drove into the city on a Sunday to walk around a bit. The traffic was not bad, but the parking charges were out of this world. We parked in a garage and 4 hours later the charge was $27. So on a weekday, if I were to drive and brave the traffic, probably leaving the house an hour or so before a normal day(is there such a thing in Chicago?), I would then be faced with a parking bill off the charts. Yes, people probably pay their parking monthly, but it still has to be rediculous. And with gas prices the way they are, I'd be very much inclined to take the Metra or CTA. I didn't pay much attention, but I'm sure they have "Park and Ride" lots all over the place. The question is how much do they charge to park? If you have a Metra line near your home in Chicago, consider yourself lucky. That way you can walk to the line and take the train into town watching all the stagnant, bumper-to-bumper traffic on your way. 
  I didn't ride CTA or the Metra, but I did get to finally ride on the South Shore line. My sis and I had to drop my other sis off at Midway airport, so after we did that we drove near the University Of Chicago, found free parking, and hopped on the SS line at 57th St. Station. Never rode it all the way to the end of the line, but I'm regretting that decision as I'm told the interurban train really opens up after Michigan City and we got off at Beverly Shores. But the beach was really nice there. I was very impressed with the smooth ride and the condition of the track and overhead. My ramble is over. Carry on.

                         Mark

-- John Swindler <j_swindler at hotmail.com> wrote:
 
Steering column guide lines???  Been around for decades.  We had them in Chicago to help the drivers get a 40 ft. bus under the el structures, such as the Lincoln-Wells route.  Suspect they were also at right hand turns to help driver avoid ramming the rear tires into the curb.  
 
J
 
 
> From: fwschneider at comcast.net> Subject: [PRCo] Re: [PRCo]End of a Street car line?> Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2008 18:47:23 -0400> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org> > Wouldn't that make a wonderful college prank to go out in the middle > of the night and repaint the line on the street?> > On Aug 4, 2008, at 5:45 PM, Ken & Tracie wrote:> > > I liked the "railfan" remark I received from a friend a few weeks ago> > concerning the French Civis trolley buses. It reflected a comment I > > made> > over a year ago:> >> > "Milwaukee wishes to reintroduce trackless trolleys. However, these > > will be> > steered by "reading" a painted line upon the street surface.> >> > "The Marmon-Herringtons and Pullman-Standards tossed upon the scrap > > heap in> > 1965 seemed to get along very well with their 'primitive' steering > > wheels."> >> > K.> >> > ----- Original Message -----> > From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>> > To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>> > Sent: Monday, Augus!
 t 04, 2008 2:14 PM> > Subject: [PRCo] Re: [PRCo]End of a Street car line?> >> >> 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.> >> >> > 
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