[PRCo] Re: Gas Prices--Japanese trains

[Schneider Fred]

The only people I know personally who are living today and who have  
photographed JNR are Russ Jackson and Bill Middleton.   The first two  
are in railway equipment engineering.   Russ designed the SEPTA K- 
cars and the P&W replacement cars.   Bill Middleton was in the navy  
and was assigned there for several years; he is now past 80.  I had  
one other friend, Bill Janssen who was the resident inspector for  
SEPTA in the Kawasaki plant when the K-cars were being built; he died  
two years ago.

It's on my list of places to go.   I'll let you make me a list of  
places to go and things to see once you've done it.   Or maybe when  
you go, you might want to be the tour guide????????????



On Dec 29, 2008, at 9:31 PM, Bill Robb wrote:

> This is just a small part, but an important part of the JR system.   
> The
> news story doesn't say anything about JR East's Tokyo commuter lines
> which I assume ran without problems. There were storm related problems
> in other parts of Japan yesterday. But this also is the beginning of
> the New Year's Holiday in Japan.  Its like the days immediately before
> or after the American Thanksgiving. All intercity lines are swollen
> with traffic. In fact December 29th might be the busiest day of the
> year.
> I haven't been to Japan, I was hoping to go this year, but
> with the economy it won't happen this year. You Tube and the internet
> probably brought about this interest. I subscribe to 79 You Tube
> channels currently.  Each day I have a  proof sheet like page of new
> videos so I can see what's going on. I can read news stories,  
> translate
> web pages with machine translators and follow car lines with online
> maps like Google Maps. Over the weekend I traced each of the Hankai
> Electric Tramway routes on Google Maps.
>
> The culture is almost completely different and I am as hooked on  
> the culture as the streetcars and interurbans.
>
> The
> railfan culture is amazing.  Trains estimated this summer that there
> are 7 times as many railfans in Japan.  Railways run commemorative  
> runs
> when equipment is retired. Sometimes there might be 10-15 runs if
> necessary over a couple of months.  There are all kinds of models,
> magazines, and videos.  It is so main stream.  Model trains are  sold
> in department stores, resturants  are built around train layouts.   
> Most
> of the railways have at least one weekend a year when their shops are
> open to the general public, usually through a lottery because everyone
> cannot be accommodated. Just amazing.
>
> Anytime I want to hear growling gears or the chugging of steam, I  
> can hear it live on You Tube and usually farily recent.
>
> I'll get there some day.
>
> Bill
>
>
> Fred Schneider wrote:
>
> Amtrak's nationwide average is 76,000 a day (base on equal patronage
> every day of the week).   They hoped to have 126,000 on the day
> before Thanksgiving this year.
>
> And this story talks about a three out delay in Japan at the start of
> the day today which delayed 137,000 passengers, 80% more than Amtrak
> moves in an entire day!    Wow!   If Amtrak had not spun off all the
> clockers in the Northeast Corridor to SEPTA and New Jersey Transit,
> the USA total for a day might be in the range of the number delayed
> on one line in Japan in three hours.
>
> Bill, have you even been in Japan?   How did you come by this  
> interest?
>
> Fred
>
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