From:  orc@sybase.com (Orc)
Subject: Re: First Post! (was FAQ)
Summary: Okay, I'm still a trainspotter.
Reply-To: ss19@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: Department of Ambiguity
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 23:24:29 GMT

In article <1993Jan21.174652.5042@ctp.com> ebail@ctp.com (Erik Bailey) writes:
>In article <1993Jan21.025154.352@midway.uchicago.edu> ss19@midway.uchicago.edu (Orc) writes:
>>And boston still has a few trolley lines running.  No more Edaville nearby,
>
>*sigh* I have fond memories of my childhood -- my dad driving my little
>brother and I to Edaville Railroad, and riding the train for the
>afternoon... I was saddened to read a few weeks ago that it was closing
>forever... Did you know it is/was the only railroad of that gauge in the
>world?

   It isn't.  There are a good collection of two-foot (and 600mm and
1'11.5") railways scattered around the world.  Wales has a collection
of 1'11.5" railways (including the Festiniog Railway, which was the
inspiration for much of the Mainiac 2' railway system.

   South Africa has a few bits of 2' gauge railway, including the
Alfred County Railway, which still runs 2' Beyer-Garratts, including
a Wardale-inspired producer-gas rebuild of a NGG16 (Certain posters
from South Africa should take note of this, and be duly warned that,
unless I get fired, an Orc _will_ be visiting Africa this June or
July to drool over the railway in question), and you can find bits of
two-foot and 600mm railways scattered around Indochina and the Indian
subcontinent.

   There's a project underway to see if the remains of the Edaville
Railroad can be removed from the Atwood bogs and moved back to Maine,
probably to Portland. (Wiscasset would be better, because there are
still some relics of the WW&F in existance, and because the R.O.W.
is not particularly overdeveloped.)


>>but there are other compensations for the area.  I've heard good things
>>about the surrounding area, too.  Lowell has been recommended once or twice,
>>for instance.
>Lowell, huh? Well, I grew up in Arlington, and am currently living in
>Somerville (aka Slumerville). The Boston area *is* really nice -- west is
>best; the further you go, the nicer it is. I like this city a lot, and not
>just because I grew up here. It's the style (Seattle, SF, and [so I've
>heard] Atlanta are similar styles) that I like.

    My middle brother (one of the 900,000 vice presidents at Scudder)
used to live in Somerville, which I started to refer to as the living
discontinuity after he pointed out how convoluted the streets were.
Boston is pretty nice, once you get _far_ away from route 128 and its
laughable lack of mass transit.  The streetcar lines are awfully nice,
even though the Watertown line is indefinitely embargoed and will
probably be formally abandoned when the Watertown carbarn is finally
closed.


>Hmm. I busted my balls for four years to get OUT of Providence! :-) [I went
>to Brown] Where you gonna be in Providence? --Erik

    I'm visiting a couple of friends there (Hi, Elaine and Grant!)
because a mutual friend is visiting me from the UK and we both want
to visit the Providence crew sooner or later.  I rather like (aside
from the lack of mass transit) Providence.

                 ____
   david parsons \bi/ Aren't all bisexuals trainspotters?
                  \/
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