[PRCo] Re: A Great Brussels Museum Video

Fri Oct 15 13:13:19 EDT 2010

This is really off base for the nature of the website but I agree with education and the need to do it.   I am also getting to that point where I am thinking that we need to provide a university level education for our kids as a benefit of just living here.   

When only college was needed by only 10% who went into management and executive positions and a college education was cheap enough that the average kid could work his way through if he wanted to, then I might not have felt that way.   But today with a huge chunk of the jobs requiring a post high school education in infuse a technical background into our kids, seems to me its in the public interest to train them or pay welfare.  

Foreign languages?   Most nations acknowledge when they have more than one language.   We have a problem admitting that close to 20% of us speak Spanish and the number is rising because every nation to the south of us has lower incomes.   You can put up all the walls you want but it isn't going to keep people out if they can earn 3 or 4 or 10 times more money here.   Maybe we simply need to recognize that anyone willing to risk his life getting over or around the wall has some ambition ... maybe more than our own kids (certainly more than mine). 

The ability to navigate around the internet did nudge one toward English.   However, it is my understanding that other languages and alphabets are now possible????   However, some of my friends in other countries solve the problem by writing in multiple languages.  Dwight Long, on this site, knows very well a mutual friend who works for German rail ... name of Christopf Grimm.   Chris writes notes to friends around the planet.   He often sends out photos with two accompanying notes, one in German and one in English and I might add that I've noticed that they are not necessarily the same messages ... one does not translate to the other.   

On Oct 15, 2010, at 12:32 PM, John Swindler wrote:

> 
> Hi Fred
> 
> Of course I am aware of the British colonies.  I have second cousins scattered in many of them.  And as for British colonies, don't forget the British settlements in South America.  There is a Andes Highlanders pipe band in central Chile.  (And the Germans' settled in Chile's lake district.)  Surprising what comes up when browsing youtube for the '79th farewell to Gibralter'. 
> 
> But that was then.  What about now?   If I lived in a foreign country, the ability to navigate around the internet would tend to nudge me towards English as a second language.  Sure there are multi-language websites, there is content in other languages, and there are translators, but so much seems to be in English.  There are also many opportunities to travel overseas to be an English instructor - even for just a couple weeks.  If the opportunity in Prague still exists in a couple years, I'd be tempted.
> 
> Concerning Gates, the problem with the internet is that it is difficult to determine if someone is commenting or the commet is in jest.  I was jesting - but also throwing in something outlandish to ponder.  
> 
> As for German students coming to the US to improve their English, the piece of information you don't have is the relative cost for a semester/school year in different countries.  Sure, I could think of other places,  but as a hint - the US is cheap.  The problem is finding host families in the US, not foreign exchange students with parents willing to spend around $10,000 for a school year in America.  Check website for Experiment NV. (if I remembered it correctly)  
> 
> This strays totally beyond the site topic with no hope of recovery.
> 
> Cheers
> John
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: A Great Brussels Museum Video
>> From: fwschneider at comcast.net
>> Date: Tue, 5 Oct 2010 17:28:42 -0400
>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>> 
>> You are blaming Bill Gates?
>> 
>> Come on John. Remember your mother's heritage. 
>> 
>> Think of all those paces the British colonized: Canada, the United States, Hong Kong, South Africa, Rhodesia, Jamaica, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, St. Kitts and Nevis, the Falkland Islands, Ireland, Grenada, Gold Coast, Zulu, and so on and on and on. Close to 2 billion people in the world speak English because Britain colonized them. 
>> 
>> I can think of other places to go if a student wishes to "improve" their English. 
>> 
>> 
>> On Oct 5, 2010, at 10:25 AM, John Swindler wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> And there is Beau Graham's story about riding a SEPTA vehicle in front of some Korean women making derogatory comments about Americans and the US. As he got up to exit, he thanked them for their commentary - in Korean. 
>>> 
>>> Beau had spent his Army time in Korea, and unlike so many others, had taken the time to learn the language - at least enough to tour the countryside looking for steam.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> And as for so many in foreign countries knowing English, perhaps we should give Bill Gates some of the credit. So much of the internet is in English. There are many opportunities available to travel to foreign countries to teach English, and many students come to the US to learn/improve their English. We are currently hosting our tenth exchange student.
>>> 
>>> Cheers
>>> John
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: A Great Brussels Museum Video
>>>> From: fwschneider at comcast.net
>>>> Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2010 16:41:30 -0400
>>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks for the tip. I didn't see if before. I particularly liked the 8th archived video of them rerailing an errant Hague articulated PCC. Yes ... PCC. Those red 3000s used trucks from the older scrapped single-unit PCC cars. 
>>>> 
>>>> I went to Lisbon with a now deceased man from Baltimore. It took a while for him to catch on that a lot of Europeans spoke and understood English even though they might now which to acknowledge that skill. While he was astonished at and never ceased to explain to others back home that the Central Station information clerks in the Hague in Holland all spoke four or five languages (Flemish, English, German, French and one other rotating language), it never quite sunk into the poor man that English was the second language of choice in those smaller (minority language countries) until we got to Lisbon on one trip. And then it bit him in the ass.
>>>> 
>>>> We were riding back from a private tour of the car shops. The car was being run by a young lady who was a student operator. Dick was making a bad mistake. He just could not refrain from telling me what he thought of her performance based, of course, on his prior years of experience as an operator for Baltimore Transit Co. I kept trying to signal him to shut up. I was getting no where. I eventually dragged up finger across my throat like a knife. That didn't work. I finally looked at him and said, "Shut your f--king mouth." Well, we stopped. The instructor got off the car to make a phone call. The student operator turned around. She smiled at me. Then she looked at Dick and in most clear and frosty English, said to Dick, "Does by performance meet your lofty expectations sir?" You could have scraped him off the floor of the car. Perhaps that is why the next day he was in a London hospital suffering from a stroke? He did learn his lesson. Not ever!
>>>> yone in Lisbon speaks only Portuguese and Spanish isn't always the second language.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On Oct 4, 2010, at 3:56 PM, John Swindler wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> There is also an archives button upper left that leads to several videos of Lisbon. Also found the Antwerp video in the archives section of interest. Includes PCC mu train in subway.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Some of the Lisbon videos were taken in vicinity of what appears to be a large plaza near the town center. What a difference from the area around Philadelphia's city hall. 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>>> From: fwschneider at comcast.net
>>>>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: A Great Brussels Museum Video
>>>>>> Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2010 15:06:47 -0400
>>>>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Well, at least Derrick, Herb, Dwight, and Ed looked at something furrin on the Pittsburgh list and seemed to enjoy it. I don't feel too bad about posting it. My wife gave me hell for trying to educate people. 
>>>>>> Frankly, sometimes I think we need to take a good long look at how other people do things. 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> On Oct 4, 2010, at 2:30 PM, Derrick Brashear wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> On Oct 4, 2010, at 12:40 PM, "Edward H. Lybarger" <trams2 at comcast.net> wrote:
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> I've never seen anything as clean as Singapore.
>>>>>>>> City...transit...countryside...airport...you name it.
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Litter, get caned!
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> On the other hand, there are the birds that share the food buffets...so
>>>>>>>> clean may not always equal sanitary.
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>>>>> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
>>>>>>>> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of Dwight
>>>>>>>> Long
>>>>>>>> Sent: Monday, October 04, 2010 12:27 PM
>>>>>>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>>>>>>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: A Great Brussels Museum Video
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Fred
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> That's an excellent, professionally-done, video. Thanks for sharing!
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> I was struck by the superb condition of the open track. Eat your hear out,
>>>>>>>> Pittsburgh Railways Co!
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Also noticed was the fact that not all cars bore the dreaded Faively
>>>>>>>> "pantographs." Real pantographs, bow collectors, and--gasp--actual trolley
>>>>>>>> poles still in use--wow!
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Wattman--one who regulates the consumption of watts?
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Now as to cleanth, would you venture a comparison with Singapore? I would
>>>>>>>> think that it is the measuring stick these days.
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Dwight
>>>>>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>>>>>> From: Fred Schneider
>>>>>>>> Sent: Sunday, 03 October, 2010 20:18
>>>>>>>> Subject: [PRCo] A Great Brussels Museum Video
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Thanks to Jack May who alerted me to this item ...
>>>>>>>> No it isn't Pittsburgh. So what. 
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> It is one rather interesting video of a Traction Extravaganza in Brussels
>>>>>>>> using museum equipment. Their local trolley museum has a feature that who
>>>>>>>> do us all proud. The museum carbarn sits right on a major STIB line on the
>>>>>>>> Rue de Turvueren. STIB operators who are museum members run the museum
>>>>>>>> fleet on the outer end of city route 39 and 42 on Saturdays and Sundays.
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Their museum fleet is almost entirely former STIB equipment from Brussels.
>>>>>>>> I think they might have one Vicinal car in the museum. But the video of
>>>>>>>> the extravaganza shows all sorts of wonderous other stuff ... a red car from
>>>>>>>> Wien (Vienna) (thats 4038 with the Schottentor destination sign), a gold and
>>>>>>>> brown car from Rotterdam, a cream and green PCC from the Hague, a Milan
>>>>>>>> Peter Witt clad in yellow, and that fantastic Liege car in two-tone green.
>>>>>>>> They brought stuff in from all over. 
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> For people who like running strange cars, the Liege car has a series -
>>>>>>>> series/parallel - parallel drum controller, i.e. three running points: (4
>>>>>>>> motors in series; 2 series pairs connected in parallel; then all motors in
>>>>>>>> parallel) It goes like hell. I rode it over that same track about ten
>>>>>>>> years ago before it was sent to Liege for static display. He left ahead of
>>>>>>>> one schedule car and before long had caught up its leader. 
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> The interiors of Brussels cars are easy to pick out. You will see some
>>>>>>>> pictures views of a narrow PCC with do not talk to the motorman signs in two
>>>>>>>> languages: Ne pas parler au Wattman (French) on the left ... and Niet
>>>>>>>> ........ sparken on the right (Flemish). The old rules used to be that if
>>>>>>>> you wanted a job driving a bus or a streetcar in Brussels, you had to
>>>>>>>> bilingual or you simply were not qualified. Can you imagine Dallas or New
>>>>>>>> York or San Diego or Los Angeles telling bus drivers they need to speak
>>>>>>>> Spanish and English if they want to drive bus? Or the bus drivers serving
>>>>>>>> Alhambra (CA) need Korean, Vietnamese, Spanish and English? 
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> The final thing I want to draw your attention to ... look for the clutter
>>>>>>>> and trash on the ground. How much do you see? Brussels is the capital of
>>>>>>>> Belgium, so why not compare the litter to our capital. How does it compare
>>>>>>>> to Washington DC? Now compared to most German cities, Brussels will be
>>>>>>>> dirtier. Compared to Switzerland, Brussels will be a lot dirtier. I've
>>>>>>>> seen Swiss people walk a block out of their way just to throw a candy
>>>>>>>> wrapper in a trash can. 
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Enjoy. 
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> http://www.digitaletramfoto.nl/video/2010/201009/20100919-01.htm
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Brussels_Tramway_Museum
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 
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