[PRCo] Re: Clermont - Ferrnand, France

Fri Jul 31 19:13:31 EDT 2009

Not surprised, Jerry, that there were no flat tires.   For one, there  
are no road hazards.   No one is tossing out nails or exhaust pipes  
or grocery carts onto the guideway.   Second, they don't run fast  
enough to build up excessive heat in the tires, even for Jacksonville  
in the summer.   Tops is probably 30 mph and then they cool down for  
a few minutes.   Average speed is probably somewhere around 12 mph.    
We might get worried about heat build up at sustained speeds of 90  
mph or more with today's tires.
Regarding Clermont - Ferrand in France:   I'm looking for someone to  
go there for dinner with me......    It's much more fun to go with  
friends.

My dream would be to put together a group about ten people  ....  
small enough to fit in a couple of vans  ....  large enough to get  
discounts ... people who were interested in (1) transit, (2) don't  
have hang-ups about the local food (water yes, food no ... you don't  
drink the water in India or China), (3) could spend half the time on  
other things beside trains or transit ... the kind of people who also  
want to look at the scenery' the historical buildings, cathedrals,  
castles, or even go climb a mountain or look at a flower garden (4)  
the kind that don't mind having bed and breakfasts one night, a  
common garden variety cheap hotel another night, and maybe a better  
class hotel some other night but they don't have to be in top end  
hotels every night.  The kid who won't make the natives point and  
stare at us.    It is a dream isn't it?

There was also one guy in that group that walked right in front of me  
to take a picture.  When I pointed out that I had my picture lined  
up, he flatly told me he was more important.   (Later on, when I  
found he had ignored the warnings from the group leader, and had his  
pocket picked of all his cash and his credit cards ... funny how I  
had trouble raising any sympathy.)

So far the largest really compatible railfan / general interest tour  
I've had was three people for a long trip.   We fit well into an Audi  
A3 and into the same hotel room and surprisingly we all could go  
along with the flow no matter what impromptu idea came up.    That  
was an Austrian trip in 2007 for a couple of weeks.   But three  
people doesn't get any discounts on air fares or rooms or entrance  
fees.   Perhaps I just have to accept that you'll never get more than  
three compatible people.     There were four of us (Jack and Clair  
May and Phil Craig and myself) who went to Puerto Rico in January  
2007 ... that was to see the subway in San Juan and the countryside  
too and that worked out just fine.   But my dream of ten seems to be  
stretching it a tad.

On Jul 31, 2009, at 5:56 PM, JERRY.MATSICK wrote:

>
> Jacksonville's Skyway Rubber tire Express system downtown and on  
> the south bank, article recently said not one flat tire in all the  
> years that  they have been operating,  my thought on the Clermont- 
> Ferrnand Trolley bus was that having a flat on them would prove to  
> be a task to repair, of course we don't know if the side panels  
> open up to reveal the tires on the units?      Fred go over and  
> check them out and give us a report!!
>
>
>
> Jerry M
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Schneider Fred" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Sent: Friday, July 31, 2009 5:30:52 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Clermont - Ferrnand, France
>
>
> Fix it, I guess.
>
> But then, Jerry, when is the last time you had a flat tire.
>
> Today's steel belted radial tires are amazingly durable.   I have
> lost two through road hazards, one in 1974 in Washington state and
> another when a railroad time fell off a pick up truck right in front
> of me on an expressway and there was absolutely no way I could dodge
> it.   That cost me more than a tire ... it also cost me a wheel.
> That's two tires in over a million miles, Jerry.
>
> I also had one go bad on two go bad on rental cars but then maybe
> they don't put the best tires on their cars.   One happened in
> Scotland and the other driving a Ford over an imaginary road (or
> trail) in the Mojave Desert while trying to get to the Santa Fe
> railroad.   Maybe that is because of a** holes like me that the
> rental car companies no longer gladly give you new tires when you
> chew them up driving over rocks and snakes chasing trains.
>
> If we go back to the 1920s, expensive touring cars might have had one
> spare tire on each running board and perhaps some might have even had
> a third spare on the rear and they weren't ornaments either.
>
> Even 50 years ago flats were common.   My father had a lot of
> problems with his 1952 Ford ... the wheel rims would constantly chew
> up inner tubes (remember them?).   Called rim cuts.  He might have
> had one or two flat tires a year because of rim cuts.    The car was
> a mistake to begin with ... the dealer in Lancaster didn't want to
> sell dad a 6 cylinder automatic but dad had to have one; he ordered
> it through a Pittsburgh dealer and had it made special in Michigan.
> What a gutless wonder.   It would do all of 15 mph on some Pittsburgh
> streets.   He solved the acceleration problems and rim cuts with a
> 1956 Mercury ... he learned his less and bought at V8 (and I don't
> mean tomato juice).   I don't think he ever had another flat tire.
> And, get this Mr. Lybarger, in spite of body to frame squeaks, he did
> get 146,000 miles out of the Merc which was phenomenal for those
> model years.
>
>
> (And how many typos are in this one, Ed????)
>
> On Jul 31, 2009, at 5:10 PM, JERRY.MATSICK wrote:
>
>>
>> Flat Tires?    What in the world would you do with one?     Nice
>> looking system!
>>
>>
>>
>> Jerry M
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Schneider Fred" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
>> To: "Skip Gatermann" <biker4 at sbcglobal.net>, "May Jack"
>> <Jack.May at americomm.net>, "Craig Phil" <philgcraig204 at yahoo.com>,
>> "Bente Bruce" <bbente at bellsouth.net>, pittsburgh- 
>> railways at dementia.org
>> Sent: Friday, July 31, 2009 5:04:32 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
>> Subject: [PRCo]
>>
>> Isn't this an interesting way of doing business ... a hybrid trolley
>> bus or a hybrid streetcar?   It has a guideway which
>> serves as the power return rail.   Therefore we only need a
>> pantograph to collect positive energy from the trolley
>> wire.   But apparently it runs on rubber tires and is steerable,
>> following the guideway.   And it's as long as a light
>> rail car.
>>
>> Occurs to me that it might be an interesting place to go have
>> dinner.....
>>
>> Clermont - Ferrnand, France.
>>
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GweHFXI3Ak&feature=channel
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
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