[PRCo]

Fri Sep 26 01:50:04 EDT 2008

Are you tired of watching politicians lying to you?  Well, how about  
some entertainment.   A friend sent me some Milan bus and trolley bus  
YouTube videos.  Next to them were related videos for other trolley  
buses.   I just kept following them and then decided ... let's make  
up a series of links to one of my favorite cities on the planet.

Now I never really cared for New York City even though I can be there  
in three hours.   But, guys, I've been known to go to London,  
England,  just for a weekend with only one motive, to see a play.   I  
know Derrick Brashear has done the same thing.   John Swindler will  
probably like this because he is 50% British.   All this sounds crazy  
but London can be a very habitable place.   I can actually feel very  
safe walking around the British capital at night.   I like it.   So  
here are a series of links to London.   Some general interest, some  
trains, some trolleys, some subways.   Don't look at them all in one  
day.   Save some for tomorrow and the next day.   And each one has  
related items that you might like to click on.

IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, YOU WILL FIND A DELETE KEY SOMEWHERE IN THE  
UPPER RIGHT SIDE OF YOUR KEYBOARD.

The first link is a fantastic scene of London streets in 1903.  We  
complain about air-pollution.   Can you imagine the horse droppings  
on those streets?   Westminster Abbey and Houses of Parliament appear  
17 seconds into the video.   I think that's St. Paul's Cathedral in  
the distance 53 seconds in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDwXzy_EJok

This link to a Gasparcolor film made in 1935 predates Kodachrome by a  
year and shows intense shipping traffic on the Thames in London.   At  
2 minutes 24 seconds we see the Tower Bridge from the west with ships  
west of the bridge; it is seldom opened today.   Then we pass the  
bridge and see the Docklands filled with oceanic ships.   You do not  
find them there today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LGavykBbxM

This scene could be almost any country village in England.  It shows  
what we went over in World War II to defend.   It was a much simpler  
era ... few farms had tractors.   Few drivers had automobiles.   You  
got from town to town on trains.   You walked around the local  
village.   I can recall that as late as 1960 Jim and Mattie Aird, who  
lived in a Glasgow suburb, still did not have a refrigerator.  Didn't  
need it.   In summer you shopped for perishables daily.   In the  
winter you could just leave things outdoors or on an unheated back  
porch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRnLwASmvYs&feature=user

Ode to the disappearing Gent's Room

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUfLAnA3O1g

This next link is to a steam engine in the Kew Bridge Museum outside  
of London.   The museum is filled with fascinating steam pumping  
engines.  To the right of the principal film are more of them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ-y32i3DNs

Kew Gardens (The Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew) is what you might  
just want to call a "world class" botanical garden.   I met a person  
from the United States working there and asked him why he chose to  
work at London instead of Longwood Gardens or Golden Gate Park or  
Phipps Conservatory or anyone of hundreds of places in the United  
States.   His answer was, "If I get my ticket punched at Kew Gardens,  
I can work anywhere in the world."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnOAFDlUKCY&feature=related

One of the places every tourist goes in London is Westminster Abbey,  
the Royals' own church.   You will, as a tourist, have to pay an  
admission fee to get in.   You will also have to buy a camera pass if  
you want to take pictures.   That's typical in any cathedral in  
Britain.   However, services are free.  You simply put a donation in  
the plate like you would at home.   Weekdays at 5 PM, Saturdays or  
Sundays at 3 PM you simply go round to the right side door and walk  
into the choir area and have a seat and you will be treated to a  
choral presentation similar to what is on the next YouTube  
presentation.   The second link are aerials to the church.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmeQ_M7fPMw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF9lSQV2frc&NR=1

St. Martins in the Field Church, off Trafalgar Square in London also  
has a wonderful luncheon and evening concert series.   This YouTube  
link gives you an idea of what you can hear.   The pews are hard; the  
music makes it all worthwhile.    The building was actually copied  
from North American designs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlGTD6tQg9o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyRaH3-nKjE

I guess you are supposed to see the changing of the guards at  
Buckingham Palace.   In 15 trips to London, I've never done that.

http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=2fC8BaUQZiI&feature=related

How to make pie and mashed (potatoes)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LOCYTmyYl4&feature=related

London streets in the 1960s.   Notice how little traffic there is.    
You can even find empty parking spaces.   Today they tax cars coming  
into the city to keep them out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DXTn0dDhwo&feature=related

London trolley buses still ran in the early 1960s.   Scroll down to  
the right and you'll find more of them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejnRrN3QhgE&feature=related

London Trams of a Bygone Era?   The only on-line link I could find is  
this one to the last tram being run into the depot in 1952.   It was  
extracted from a much longer video that you can buy from the London  
Transport Museum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn9zANEaofE

The first so-called light rail in England was the London Docklands  
line.   This video runs from Bank to Shadwell station out the front  
of a train.   You will probably have to paste the long link back  
together.   The first time you see a passing train is 3:30 seconds  
into the tape.   Most of it is looking at a subway tunnel!   Not very  
awe inspiring.  I have trouble call a line with A. T. O. and third  
rail and high level platforms light rail but their politicians do.    
It was a way to get better transport to East Londoners.

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/london-docklands-light-railway-dlr- 
from-bank-shadwell/12979056?icid=acvsv2

Croydon Tramlink ... this is the long light rail line south of London.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF9A5Jd9HhE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRW0q4MXvDU&feature=related

London tube stock southbound Bakerloo Line at Waterloo station.   The  
Mind the Gap announcement (don't fall between the cars and the  
platform on the curve) is clearly enunciated.   The round cars are  
used in bored tubes with tight clearances.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goE1TEQj0xc&feature=related

New Victoria line improvements

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=R5BvJa5DwqQ&feature=related

These underground trains in London are designed for lines with more  
copious clearances.  Some of them, such as the Circle line, started  
out as steam underground lines.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kasAfln08M&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxJKvYBNgo8&feature=related

People don't like strikers anywhere, do they?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbpB9jfu5Q4

London Transport Museum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC_SPNaQCpA&feature=related

How about British steam ... I have two years on the wrong end of a  
coal scoop on the Strasburg Rail Road but the first place I ever  
touched a shovel was on a British Railways Black 5 in Scotland 48  
years ago.   I have very fond memories.   And only in Britain would  
we build a new steam locomotive in the last ten years because all of  
its class have scrapped.   Don't expect it to happen in the U. S.  
A.   The British steam had fabricated frames; our most modern power  
had forged frames and we no longer have the steel mill capability to  
build a New York Central Hudson.   But, the first below show the  
60163, a Peppercorn A-1, named the Tornado, on her trial runs just  
weeks ago.   I'm astounded!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODKAIMSo0mY&feature=related

The other links below show other steam in the 2008.   How about a  
steam festival in the Yorkshire Dales with multiple engines stomping  
down a mainline?

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/4771-restarts-on-1in49/4034125000/? 
icid=VIDURVAUT12

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/nymr-lner-gala-28th- 
march-08/2670750255/?icid=VIDURVAUT03

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/60019-at-the-nymr-lner- 
festival-2008/2451734057/?icid=VIDURVAUT10

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/nymr-lner-gala-part-2-30th- 
march-2008/3718696416/?icid=VIDURVAUT08

http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=ik7pbV5trmY&feature=related

National Tramway Museum, Crich, England'   In the third feature, part  
of the 1940s weekend at Crich, about 3:30 into the film, they are  
loading children into a tram to take them away.   What is the  
significance?   During World War II tens of thousands of English  
children were removed from the cities and taken to the country or  
even evacuated to the United States so they would not be injured in  
attacks against England.   In the song  the White Cliffs of Dover,  
the same theme recurs when Johnnie can sleep in his own room again  
(the last link, 2 minutes 1 second).   Yes, I'm sentimental.

http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=DAPIAVTFVmY&feature=related

http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=hDrLjllKit8&feature=related

http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=6qZa3PB8Os0&feature=related

http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=6IHkVdewip4&feature=related