[PRCo] Re: Fwd: Odds & Ends Youtube

bobrathke at comcast.net bobrathke at comcast.net
Mon Feb 14 18:33:15 EST 2011 

Thanks, Fred.  A nice  collection of films. 



Bob 




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net> 
To: Pittsburgh-Railways at Dementia.Org 
Cc: "Bruce C. Bente" <bbente at bellsouth.net>, "Daniel Joseph" <holymooses at sbcglobal.net>, "peter folger" <transitman at maine.rr.com> 
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2011 4:54:26 PM 
Subject: [PRCo] Fwd: Odds & Ends Youtube 

More pictures that Peter Folger has found on youTube and which I thought you might enjoy.   Some are relevant to this website (Johnstown and Pittsburgh) and some to my mindset and those of John Swindler (England, lads). 
> 
Subject: Odds & Ends Youtube 
Odds & Ends Youtube. 
Snow (1963) .   This isn't for rivet counters.   It's for people who simply love nostalgia.   It takes you back to Britain in the early 1960s when there was still a mix of steam and diesel ... a professional film showing the superiority of railways over highways back when it was still fun to sit in the diner on a cold winter day and have a home cooked meal and watch the traffic stuck in the snow on the parallel highway.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl4pJwcE7JI&feature=relmfu 

Blackpool Victoria Pier (1904).   This was Whitsun or White Sunday, the seventh Sunday after Easter, or May 28th, 1904.  This is sort of the British equivalent of our Easter Parade up 5th Avenue!   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo7eMiAGO5k&feature=related 

Manchester Street Scene (1901).   English working class life 110 years ago. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0QkJNqYpFM&feature=related 

Old London Street Scenes (1903).    Why don't you see any trams in this?   Two reasons.   One, the city didn't permit them in the central core ... the underground ran there and carriages and buses  but except for the Kingsway tram subway (1903), nothing ran north of the Embankment or south of Marlybone Road in the central city.   The other reason?   Electric streetcars only came to London in 1901 in the suburbs.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-5Ts_i164c&feature=relmfu 

Jamaica Street, Glasgow (1901).   This is one of the most fantastic old films I have ever viewed.   It is as sharp as the come.   It has a full range of tones from white to black.   It shows peoples' lives and commerce.    We own a great debt for its preservation and to Peter for drawing our attention to it. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpWbp4kx7uQ&playnext=1&list=PL7E96E83252B10B93 

Minden hatodik �r�ban 1/2.   Two part safety film from Budapest ... the usual safety and manners lecture with photos of kids chasing balls into the street, people jumping off streetcars and being run over by trams, cars splitting switches ... all the good stuff in two reels.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjgLEMej5hE&feature=related 

Minden hatodik �r�ban 2/2. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mj0cHifLHA&feature=related 

�reg villamos megment�se - Saving an old tram in Budapest. 

(note the transfer table at the end) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhLf5O1Xbmo&feature=related 

Oslo Tramway.   Strictly railfan type pictures. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpFWHXCwoA4&feature=relmfu 

Essais tramway � Mulhouse.   This isn't a town we're all familiar with because it lost its old trams years ago.   Mulhouse, France, is about 20 miles north of Basel, Switzerland and about 50 miles (80 km) south of Strasbourg, France and about 5 miles or 8 km west of the Rhein River.   The first of many routes in the new tram network opened in 2006.   

The caption under this film explains that this is the first test run of trams on the Mulhouse-Bourtzweiler line on Thursday May 14, 2009 at 9 a.m. over the section of line between the Rettachment and Ch�taigner stations.   There are two stations in between:  Tuillerie and St. Nazarre.   Where you see two trains side-by-side, they were used for clearance tests. 
"There were more than 80 technicians Sol�a, Alsthom, Sitram and many pros and amateur photographers, journalists and TV France 3 more people in the area. It was a lot of people. Everything was checked. It should check the contact between the wheels of the tram and rail. The correct gap tram / dock stations, checking the correct passage to the switches, check the pantograph good electrical contacts, cable, etc. 

"There were more than 80 technicians Sol�a, Alsthom, Sitram and many pros and amateur photographers, journalists and TV France 3 more people in the area. It was a lot of people. Everything was checked. It should check the contact between the wheels of the tram and rail. The correct gap tram / dock stations, checking the correct passage to the switches, check the pantograph good electrical contacts, cable, etc." 

(The translation of the first paragraph is mine.   The translation of the second two paragraphs is one of those on-line automatic systems that does it in a split second.) 

Indented after the link for the movie is a link for the Wikipedia story on the system. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp8-dcwR1w8&feature=related 


     http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tramway_de_Mulhouse 

Waiting for the wrong trams or an evening in the life of a tram photographer :).   Great night time snow scenes in Budapest. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrQfD0uhMZU 

Raitiovaunu tulessa Pasilan asemalla 13.9. 

(Helsinki I believe. Almost seems like they are used to this.) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br-u3Ab_VO8&feature=related 

DONETSK TRAMS TROLLEYS IN SNOW UKRAINE MARCH 1995.   Unlike a lot of the other European nations that have become very western looking, this looks just like we imagined the USSR. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhJUxbOe2Bw 

Trolleybuses in the snowy Switzerland.   How would you like to drive articulated or motor-trailer trolley buses in the snow?  Ugh.   Most of these are Zurich. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aouKweCzxj8&playnext=1&list=PL5A515E0AF0C965F3 

Schneefall in Basel.  (Snowfall in Basel, Switzerland) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUNqzSEhA0Y&feature=related 

Und dann kommt Schneechaos in Basel. (I added this one.) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0L154E0p8M&feature=related 

I also added this next one ... a fabulous film of the motor-trailer operation two decades ago in Basel.   In order to obtain economies of scale, we lengthened our cars from 16 and 18 feet to 40 and 45 and 50 feet and made the motormen also do the conductor's work.    In, Europe, where the streets were much narrower those options were not available.   In Britain, the cars were shorter but double decked.   In Germany and Switzerland, motors with trailers were preferred ... you could at least get rid of a motorman every time you hung on another trailer.   When I first went to Europe in 1959, only a handful of cities had Grossraumwagen (large room cars) or Gelenkwagen (articulated cars) which are common today.  These little four wheelers towing trailers where almost everywhere.   I want you to also notice that these cars have both air brakes and braking controllers and the motorman has to think how to integrate the two ... he doesn't just push down a brake pedal like an air PCC ! 
 and have the car do the thinking for him.   .   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwuIlJsV-sE 

Here is modern Basel rail transport.   In 1961 I boarded one of their brand new articulated cars and was in for the ride of my life.   I was used to PCC cars doing 20 miles an hour on narrow streets.   That operator simply wrapped that beast up and the store fronts went by like picket posts in a fence.  The rail was smooth as glass ... not like Pittsburgh.   It was a revelation in how streetcars should work   Thanks, Peter, for reminding me.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vxPqUcVrF8&feature=related 

PTC in Northeast Philadelphia -1950's.   This includes a faux Hog Island car, a whole flock of 5200s and a postal truck in green and olive (remember them?).   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npo_15DImBg&feature=related 

Johnstown Traction Company Part 1.  -  mostly late 1950s, unsharp 8mm.   One shows the last day car in bunting. 

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

Johnstown Traction Company Part 2.  -  equally dreadful. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMHwo9iuMCA&feature=related 

Pittsburgh Trolley Fan Charter July 10 1966.   M454 in Oakland and Frick Park. 

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

Pittsburgh Trolleys.  Three minutes of pealing paint and rusty cars on the approaches to the Smithfield St. Bridge interrupted by the Monongahela Incline.   I remember a letter from my friend Bente back in the late 1950s after he made his first trip to Pittsburgh.   He was then going to Villanova University and was accustomed to Philly cars with fresh paint.   He got to Pittsburgh and wrote to me something about having never before seen such neglected paintwork.   I remember that PTC took one 80-hundred out of the paint shop in 1957 and hauled it right to Ballis Scrap Yard.   He had a point!   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2bcSMVSOg4&feature=related 

Tram nr 14 in Prague.   Modern Czech Republic light rail.   This is one of those from the cab videos.   There are many others for other routes ... look at the stub to the right to tour the city. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1UbJgZScNk&feature=related 

Freight trams and a tram trailer.   At risk of making PEST of myself, I don't know whether it is in Buda or in Pest.   One or the other.   :<) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBpOpFHb5Bg&feature=related 


And finally, a little humor from Britain and Peter had nothing to do with this....It's just funny. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUfLAnA3O1g 
Peter Folger 
P.O.Box 1741 
Biddeford, ME 04005-1741 
transitman at maine.rr.com

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