[PRCo] Re: Fwd: Streetcars All Over the World - Zurich (2)

Thu Sep 18 20:47:22 EDT 2008

Fred;

Thank you for your information and for sharing your bittersweet memories of your trip to Zurich.  My great-grandmother was born in Switzerland but have little information about her family - it is a work in progress.   Like you, I am finding joint and back pain are becoming unwelcome "friends".  I have not yet tried the Glucosamine/Condroyton combination but am considering trying it for a few months.

The picture mentioned will remain a mystery.  Perhaps someone may recognize it.  

I, for one, absolutely have NO objection to postings about other countries and seriously doubt that any true streetcar fan would.  We all have streetcars as a common interest - regardless of location.  We mave have lively discussions about the relative merits of one system over another but they are all a part of why streetcars are interesting to us.

As memtioned in previous posts, I lived in Frankfurt, Germany, for a couple years in the late 1970's and remember how easy it was to travel without owning an automobile.  An automobile was really not needed,  Frankfurt had tour trams operating and had food that was better than expected.  The pictures indicate they are still in operation.  The busses, S-Bahn, and U-bahn coaches were always clean and - most important - on time.  Never had to wait for a tram - just planned ahead and left home in time to walk to the station or stop just in time for the tram to arrive.  My first rides on the German trams were filled with apprehension because I didn't understand or speak German.  I learned to listen for the dreaded word "Umsteigen" (spelling ? ) which I came to know meant that a change in trains was necessary.  I simply followed the crowd and it never caused a problem.

Fred, you mentioned a "ticket validator" which is something I don't remember.  I remember buying a ticket from the fare machine and simply holding onto it until the end of the trip, and also remember the "fare inspectors" who would occasionally go around asking to see your ticket.  Does the ticket validator perform this function by opening a gate which permits entry onto the tram like we have here in the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)?    On BART, a ticket is purchased from a machine and then this ticket will open the gate allowing access to the platform.  The ticket has a magnetic strip which records how much money you deposited and will deduct from this amount and update this on the strip.  If additional money is needed, you are directed to the "Add Fare" machine in which you insert your ticket and it calculates how much additional fare is needed.  Sounds complicated but it really isn't.

Thanks again, and please keep posting.

Bob

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--- On Thu, 9/18/08, Schneider Fred <fwschneider at comcast.net> wrote:

From: Schneider Fred <fwschneider at comcast.net>
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Fwd: Streetcars All Over the World - Zurich (2)
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Date: Thursday, September 18, 2008, 3:38 PM

Bob,

I have no idea which funicular it is.   It isn't the Rigiblick (view  
of Rigi) Bahn (railway) because I've attached that.   And it isn't  
the Pilotbahn, because that's the last one in the column.   I'm not  
sure what it is unless the Japanese creator slipped in one of the  
hundreds of other alpine cog rails in the wrong place.

The blue cars in Zurich are VBZ (Verkehrsbetriebe Zurich or City  
Operations Zurich).   The red cars are the Forchbahn, a suburban  
system that begins in the southeastern edge of the city of Zurich.

Switzerland is one of those gorgeous places on the planet that you  
just die to go back to.   I have a particular near death story about  
Zurich of my own.   I had been in the country for several weeks.    
Arthritic joints in my back (lumber 3, 4, 5) had gotten so bad that I  
could barely move by the end of the trip.   Now I hate being gouged  
but I paid through the nose for a room in a five star hotel across  
the street from the train station just because of where it was.   And  
I stumbled in and stayed there for the last three days (at something  
like $300 a night for a single).   I fell out periodically to crawl  
two doors down to the Chinese restaurant for a meal and then back to  
the room.   The one cheery sight was going out on the street about  
6:00 one evening and seeing the tour tram go by with the tables set  
for dinner ... snow falling ... every one dashing to the train  
station to go home.   It was like a US city 50 years before.

Well, came my day to stumble across the street to the train station  
and catch a train to the airport to come home   Now that is the nice  
thing about Zurich ... a mainline train station in the basement of an  
international airport.

When I walked out of the room, there was the concierge vacuuming the  
hall.   Now, you know Bob that the concierge's job is behind a desk  
in the lobby and not vacuuming on the third floor.   He saw me, the  
vacuum got pushed to the side.   He came running down the hall and  
grabbed my suitcases.  He man was obviously there to see that I got  
to the train station in one piece.   He walked me over to the  
station.  Stood beside me while I fed my money into a ticket vending  
machine and then put the ticket into a validator.   Then he carried  
my suitcases onto the coach.   When I pulled out my wallet to tip  
him, he refused it.   I tried to get the man to take the money.   He  
said, "helping you is my job.  I get a salary to do this."

That man was probably the best salesman the chamber of commerce could  
ever ask for!

The arthritis?   The back has since been opened and the joints  
scraped.   The knees have come from a factory somewhere in the U.  
S.   The shoulders have been opened and rebuilt.  Glucosamine  
Condroyton seems to keep the arthritis at bay.   I find I can walk up  
to six miles for dinner again.   For a while.

And I hope some people do not object to my posting something from  
Europe once in a while.   I call it education.   I think we need to  
see how other people survive in this world with out as much fuel. I  
find it amazing that we are 3% of the world's population burning up  
20% of the world's fuel.   Europeans burn more than their share too  
but no where near what we consume.    I've spent four years of my  
life over there, half living there and half vacationing.   I never  
cease to enjoy those nations that have cities and countryside instead  
of cities surrounded my miles and miles and miles of suburbs and  
traffic.

http://www.skiresort.de/english/funicular.htm

http://www.funimag.com/suisse/Funimag-Suisse.htm#zurich

http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/ch/funicular/Rigiblickbahn/pix.html

http://www.stadlerrail.ch/index.php?page=233

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zürich

On Sep 18, 2008, at 5:34 PM, robert simpson wrote:

> Regarding pictures on link at bottom of page....
>
> Noted picture on Zurich (page 2) of a streetcar with a third rail.   
> What is the the reason for or the purpose of this third rail.  It  
> has on overhead power line.
>
> The pictures are fantastic!
>
> Thanks
>
> Bob
> From Krazy Kalifornia
> where higher taxes are on the way and English is sometimes heard.
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> --- On Wed, 9/17/08, Schneider Fred <fwschneider at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> From: Schneider Fred <fwschneider at comcast.net>
> Subject: [PRCo] Fwd: Streetcars All Over the World
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org, "SCHNEIDER ALAN"  
> <alschneider2 at juno.com>, "Volkmer Bill"
<bvolkmer at bellsouth.net>,  
> "McGuire Mark" <macmarka at netzero.net>
> Date: Wednesday, September 17, 2008, 2:54 PM
>
> The URL below was sent to me by Bill Robb.   I think he didn't want
> to take the heat for putting it on a Pittsburgh Railways address list
> so I'll take the crap.   It is a worldwide file of of an amazing
> assortment of about 6,000 streetcar pictures.  Go to the map and
> click on the city, or the country and then the city that you want.
> You can spend literally hours on this.
>
> While the list makes no pretense to have subways and heavy urban rail
> systems or other fixed guideway lines, it might have been nice to
> have such a file too.   If someone know of a similar worldwide file
> of these other systems, I would be happy to be the recipient of a URL.
>
> In the U. S. A. for instance, we are missing San Juan (Puerto Rico),
> Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, BART, Miami
> and Chicago.   In Canada, Montreal and Toronto's subways are
> missing.   And the people movers (ALRT, linear induction systems ...
> all those odd things) are missing, such as Vancouver, Scarborough,
> Miami,Jacksonville, Newark, New York, and all the capitve airport
> systems. There is also one in Texas that is missing.
>
> There are some things missing from this ... Charlotte's new light
> rail is missing.   Some of the San Diego lines are missing.   But I
> commend them for the monumental task that they did do.
>
> Now don't neglect to go to Switzerland and click on Zurich ... there
> is a real nice night time picture of a couple kissing on
> Bahnhofstrasse with a trolley in the distance and behind it the main
> train station.   They guy taking some of this stuff did have an eye
> for a picture.
>
> And if you are like me, it's a blast just looking at these to find
> all the places you've been.
>
> Enjoy, guys.
>
> http://www.shugotram.jp/twrldmap/twrldmae.html
>
>>
>
>
>
>
>