[PRCo] Transit Happenings (Not Necessarily PRCo)

Wed Jul 9 17:46:44 EDT 2014

The sad thing about the rail system in Jerusalem was the fact that the
tracks were strewn with litter from bombs.The overhead was hanging down
very low, and missing between some of the support poles, again probably
from bombs. Jerusalem streetcars will probably suffer the same fate as the
trackless trolley buses of Kabul. In an area of the world where little
value is placed on human life, I'm sure even less is placed on the
streetcar system.

On Wed, Jul 9, 2014 at 5:05 PM, Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net>
wrote:

> Additional comments follow this … original message was moved to the top
> for clarity.   Yes, Herb, I liked the Jerusalem pictures.
>
> On Jul 8, 2014, at 8:54 PM, Herb Brannon wrote:
>
> >
> > Next, I was watching all the "happenings" in Jerusalem on CNN and noticed
> > that one of the streets shown in the broadcast had tracks and overhead
> > wire. Who would have guessed that Jerusalem had streetcars. Check out the
> > photos attached. Also, who would have guessed that it snows there. I
> worked
> > in Saudi Arabia, which is pretty much in the same area, and it was always
> > hot.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Herb Brannon
> >
> >
> http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment.jpg
> >
> >
> http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment-0001.jpg
>
> >
> http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment-0002.jpg
>
> >
> http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment-0003.jpg
>
>
>
> And now what Fred has to broadcast.   :<)
>
> Whoda thunk it?   The world is moving in places we cannot go because we
> might have to do it in all states at once and the politicians cannot do
> that.  For example, we cannot have high speed rail because we need it in
> California, Texas and the Northeast Corridor but the politicians cannot
> give out the federal money unless you can also give it to Idaho, Wyoming
> and North Dakota and they sure as the devil don't need high speed trains.
>
> Herb,   a lot of the rest of the world is using light rail today because
> it doesn't use oil.    Jerusalem has had that system for more two and half
> years.
>
>      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_Light_Rail
>
>      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91wWmvJ6kWg
>
>      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqys0ge339c
>
> My favorite example of where the world is going today is France, which was
> one of the first nations to go modern and get rid of those noisy, old, ugly
> streetcars.   Most of their systems were gone by the end of the 1930s ,,,
> Paris included.   Only tiny operations remained in Lille and St. Etienne by
> the era when most of us began shooting pictures.   Today?   Why there are
> 26 systems in 25 cities in France,.   The population of France is about 64
> million --- just about the same as California and Texas put together.   Can
> you imagine 25 cities in Texas and California with trolleys today?   We're
> not even close!    (We have them in Dallas, Houston, Sacramento, San Diego,
> San Jose, San Francisco, Los Angeles and the BART system in the East Bay
> and a funded proposal to bring cars back to El Paso.)
>
> The first one is in Caens, in Normandy.  Is it a bus or a trolley?   Well,
> it is fixed guideway using a single rail.   So we have a pantograph and a
> rail return for power.   But the cars ride on rubber tires.   OK, Not our
> way of doing it but it works for them and it doesn't waste as much oil.
> Because of rolling friction, the tires probably require more energy than
> steel wheels on steel rails.   On the other hand, it probably stops as fast
> as a bus if stupid fool walks out in front of it while texting.    Guys,
> I'm looking for the good and the bad, not just an argument that it doesn't
> look like something we worship.
>
>      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiGrBzH9WTE
>
> And here is a more conventional two rail operation in Nice down on the
> Cote du Azur (the Azure Coast)   Makes the sounds you want.   Fantastic
> artistic photography … one of the best videos I've seen of trams.   The
> chap who shot it deserves a pat on the back. Damed if it doesn't make me
> want to go there and dine on a bowl of Bouillabaisse.     (Only the French
> know how to make that fantastic fish stew.)
>
>      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQMHv_gYf-g
>
> Italy had cars in Trieste, Turin, Genoa, Milan, Rome and Naples when I
> first visited that country in 1961.   Today?   Twelve cities.   Most of us
> might go to Florence (Firenze), Italy to look at the art musums.  I think I
> want to go back to see the new light rail cars.
>
>      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKv8GSSrETY
>
> The United Kingdom?   This was a lot like France.   In 1960, the time of
> my first visit, all that was left were a three lines in Glasgow, the
> downtown and promenade lines in Blackpool, Grimsby and Immingham, a little
> bit of Sheffield, and the Isle of Mann.  G&I and Sheffield disappeared
> before the army sent me home a year later and Glasgow was gone by 1962,
> leaving only the promenade line in Blackpool and the Isle of Mann.   Today?
>   Nine cities!
>
> Tyne-Wear Metro started the revolution in Britain
>
>      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuI7Nmst0MM
>
> Nottingham was next.   Three more lines are now on the drawing board.
>
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd2wmx2Fk2o&list=PLMeK7Eqknvg5QmkS8uuqCmdLsMHFUzkZs
>
> A test train in Edinburgh, Scotland last fall:
>
>      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7inHmbJgZ1E
>
> And the USA and Canada has gone from about 15 cities in the mid 1960s to
> 59 this summer when Tucson opens.  An e-mail landed on my computer this
> morning announcing that DART will open its line to Dallas-Fort Worth
> Airport on August 18th.   Nine other systems in the US and Canada are under
> construction or being designed.
>
> But all is not perfect.    Two new operations have closed … Galveston
> closed allegedly because of a hurricane and Memphis allegedly because of
> fires.  I think that in both cases the management is attempting to find
> excuses to shut down tourist or heritage operations that were losing money
> hand over fist and it is much easier to blame the loses in Galveston, where
> it only hauled 100 riders a day, on a storm that really didn't damage the
> system.  In Memphis, if you are only moving 3300 riders a day on three
> lines, maybe two accidental fires that might have been motorman error can
> be blamed on old cars and the cost of new ones could just be too much.
>
> What is the latest complete line in the USA?   The GREEN LINE from
> Minneapolis to St. Paul which opened
>
>      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou7fH_IjhfE
>
>
>
>
>
> On Jul 8, 2014, at 8:54 PM, Herb Brannon wrote:
>
> >
> > Next, I was watching all the "happenings" in Jerusalem on CNN and noticed
> > that one of the streets shown in the broadcast had tracks and overhead
> > wire. Who would have guessed that Jerusalem had streetcars. Check out the
> > photos attached. Also, who would have guessed that it snows there. I
> worked
> > in Saudi Arabia, which is pretty much in the same area, and it was always
> > hot.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Herb Brannon
> >
> >
> http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment.jpg
> >
> >
> http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment-0001.jpg
>
> >
> http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment-0002.jpg
>
> >
> http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment-0003.jpg
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Herb Brannon

*In Pittsburgh.............................A City And.........A State of
Mind *

Let's Go Bucs

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