HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: brennan@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Joseph Brennan)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Re: 63rd Street Tunnel (was Re: NYCTA - to JFK)
Date: 13 Aug 92 17:37:15 GMT
Reply-To: brennan@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Joseph Brennan)
Organization: Columbia University

In article <86088@netnews.upenn.edu> sfsmith@pennsas.upenn.edu (Sandy
F. Smith, Jr.) writes:

>Impressive indeed.  But now I'm curious:  are there provisions for mainline
>rail connections in the 63d Street tube? 

The 63d St tunnel is a huge tube, constructed to carry two tracks on
each of two levels, from the temporary (!) end of tunnel in Queens to
a location near 3d Avenue in Manhattan.  The lower level pair of
tracks were for the LIRR.  The missing links: under 1 mile from end of
tunnel to the LIRR on surface in Sunnyside Yard, and a connection from
3d Avenue either to a new terminal under 3d Ave and 48th St (1968
plan) or to Grand Central lower level at Park and 50th (approximately),
each being under 1 mile of new tunnel.  Admittedly that Manhattan bit
will be expensive either way, but heck, the river crossing is ready 
for track right now!

--Joe Brennan
From: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Re: SF Cable Cars
Date: 17 Aug 92 06:07:15 GMT
Reply-To: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA

In article <9208131739.AA20287@hplomg.hpl.hp.com> BRANDT_JOBST/HP1900_01@HPLOMG.HPL.HP.COM writes:
....
> The latter is called a depression pulley and was previously
> a safety and maintenance problem.
> 
> All depression pulleys no longer swing (unreliably) out of the way
> as the grip passes.  Previously these pulleys were on a boom that
> swung aside as the grip passed.  Afterwards the boom returned to its
> in-line position as the cable rises to make contact after the car
> has passed.  The grip and weight of the car depress the cable in
> passing but in the absence of either the grip or depression pulley,
> the cable would rise out of the cable slot and above the street.
> This hazard occurred occasionally and a better solution was found.
> 
> Fixed depression pulleys are now mounted on slot centerline while the
> slot is detoured around them.  The grip has sufficient compliance to
> swerve around the pulleys and while doing so holds the cable below the
> to one side of normal cable line.  This may not seem momentous but it
> is such a non obvious and solid solution to an age old problem that I
> find it a stroke of genius.  With this kind of ingenuity I hope to see
> a solution to the ineffective emergency brake that has failed nearly
> every time it was used.

I have mixed feelings about the reconstruction.  While rebuilding the
system may have been the cost of keeping in running well into the
future, a fascinating piece of evolved Victorian engineering bit the
dust in the process.  I guess one has to be happy that the cars haven't
been mucked with and still retain all their charm.

What is the problem you allude to about the emergency brake?  Anything
I've ever read has indicated that the brake is more than effective and
that run-aways or collisions have been rare considering the terrain
and the amount of traffic.

Trivia questions of the week - Are any of the other cable lines
simply paved over, or have all the streets been reconstructed by now?

-- 
George Robbins - now working for,     uucp:   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr
but no way officially representing:   domain: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com
Commodore, Engineering Department     phone:  215-431-9349 (only by moonlite)
From: aland@informix.com (Colonel Panic)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Re: Looking for book: _South_Pacific_Coast,_A_Centennial_
Summary: found it
Date: 12 Aug 92 20:35:49 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: The Helen Keller Bondurant High Performance Driving School for the Blind

In article <1992Aug11.021922.8038@informix.com> aland@informix.com (Colonel Panic) writes:
>I'm hoping to find a copy of the following out-of-print book:
>South Pacific Coast
>   A Centennial
>By Bruce MacGregor and Richard Truesdale
>...

After a series of phone calls, I finally found a place that has them.  If
others are interested, send me some email.

--
Alan Denney      aland@informix.com      {pyramid|uunet}!infmx!aland

"For they looked in the future, and what did they see
 They saw an iron road running from the sea to the sea."  -- G.L.
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
From: CZ94000 <CZ94@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA>
Subject: Re: Rail Access to Airports
Organization: McGill University
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 17:51:29 GMT

In article <714115794snx@warren.demon.co.uk> leveret@warren.demon.co.uk (Nick Leverton) writes:
>
>Paris Charles de Gaulle
>
>        Fast heavy-rail service from Paris (forget which station -
>        perhaps Gare de Lyons ?). Reasonably frequent.
>
Gare du Nord.  Frequency is every 15 minutes, if I recall correctly.

Tom Box
CZ94@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA

Newsgroups: rec.railroad
From: jones@pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu (Douglas W. Jones,201H MLH,3193350740,3193382879)
Subject: Re: Restroom Closings on Amtrak (Was: My Amtrak Vacation)
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 18:43:55 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

This brings to mind a bit of old doggerel, to be sung to the tune of
Motzart's Violin Concerto:

   Passengers will please refrain from flushing toilets
     while the train is waiting in the station, I love you.
   Please refrain from flushing toilets while the train
     is waiting in the station; trackmen have a soul as well as you.

I forget where this is from; it could be an old musical, but I learned
it from my folks while on a long train ride through Italy that was
delayed again and again by washed out tracks during the storm of the
century back in the 1960's.
					Doug Jones
					jones@cs.uiowa.edu
From: salfi@53iss6.Waterloo.NCR.COM (Mike Salfi)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Another Roundhouse bites the dust
Date: 18 Aug 92 20:15:49 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Imaging Systems Division, NCR Corp, Waterloo, Ont., CANADA

When I was in Sudbury at Easter, I visited the CP Rail yards and talked
to several employees. As I had my camera with me, one suggested I take a
picture of the roundhouse as it was to be demolished. I didn't ask, but I
guess that includes the turntable, or maybe it is being sold (I don't
know). He said that any diesels needing repair would be shipped to
Toronto instead of being repaired in Sudbury. I looked around and there were
still plenty of diesels awaiting assignment, or possibly needing repair
(there has always been about 20 diesels, excluding yard diesels, in the
Sudbury yard)
Well, I was back in Sudbury earlier this month and went back to see if
anything had happened. Well, the roundhouse and turntable are still there,
but only yard diesels remain, thus i guess the roundhouse will be gone soon.

There are still many trains through Sudbury daily, and the dispatcher was
kind enough to give me a printout of the trains going through so that I
could plan my arrival at some of my favourite photo locations in the
outskirts of town to get some pictures.

Mike Salfi
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
From: wb8foz@skybridge.SCL.CWRU.Edu (David Lesher)
Subject: Re: Cost of transit systems vs highways
Reply-To: wb8foz@skybridge.scl.cwru.edu (David Lesher)
Organization: NRK Clinic for habitual NetNews abusers - Beltway Annex
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 92 17:16:07 GMT

Others said
# 
# >This is a typical short-sighted response to transit -- "It will make it
# >easy for (insert member of community most feared by community) to get
# >to our homes" ... usually this means "racial minority" or "poor
# >would-be theives" and at a macro level, this is even what has stopped


That was the case here, where Georgetown fought a pitched battle
against having a Metro stop anywhere nearby. So there is none.  And
because of that, there is NOWHERE, but nowhere, to park in one of the
most popular parts of the city for nightlife. So now, many
establishments are moving elsewhere, in [well-founded] hopes of getting
customers that refuse to battle the traffic & parking hassle in
Georgetown.
--
A host is a host from coast to coast..wb8foz@skybridge.scl.cwru.edu
& no one will talk to a host that's close..........................
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433
From: hudson@pnet51.orb.mn.org (Hudson Leighton)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Re: Employee Timetables - Carl Loucks
Date: 21 Aug 92 13:11:11 GMT
Organization: People-Net [pnet51], Minneapolis, MN.

I never pay more that $5 for a timetable less than 10 years old unless it's
something really special.

Look around for your local RR Fleamarket (Trains & MR have lists).

At our local one I can usually pick up a reasonanly current BN timetable
for a $1-$3.

Some have maps but the tend to be schematic type maps.


the FRED (EOT) frequencies are 457.9375 mhz


UUCP: {crash tcnet}!orbit!pnet51!hudson
INET: hudson@pnet51.orb.mn.org
ICBM: Lat. 44.59 x lon. 93.13
HAM:  NONMX  444.100 repeater
Advertisement: Try the Railway Post Office BBS (612) 377-2197 a Railfan BBS
From: mhale@ac.dal.ca
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Telephone numbers for Amtrak reservations
Date: 12 Aug 92 09:20:45 -0300
Organization: Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

The following telephone numbers for Amtrak reservations appear in
'Rail Ventures', 5th Edition (1992):

Boston, MA                (617) 482-3660
Chicago, IL               (312) 558-1075
Los Angeles, CA           (213) 624-0171
New York City, NY         (212) 582-6875
Philadelphia, PA          (215) 824-1600
Washington, DC            (202) 484-7540

From Canada, you can call 1-800-4AM-TRAK or 1-800-426-8725.

Perhaps one of these numbers may be useful for people outside the
US who wish to make travel reservations.

Mike
-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Hale, PhD            |  EMail: mhale@ac.dal.ca
Asst. Professor              |  SMail: Medical Physics Dept.
Dept. of Radiation Oncology  |         Nova Scotia Cancer Centre
Dalhousie University         |         5820 University Ave., Halifax, NS
EMail: mhale@ac.dal.ca       |         B3H 1V7          CANADA
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Science has achieved some wonderful things, of course, but I'd far rather be
             happy than right any day." - Slartibartfast
From: scott@svl.cdc.com (Scott Gerken)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Re: Comparing other systems to BART
Date: 13 Aug 92 20:28:40 GMT
Distribution: na

forags@yogi.berkeley.edu (Al Stangenberger) writes:

>In article <1992Aug12.095750.998@msus1.msus.edu> schumann@msus1.msus.edu writes:
>>In fact, I seem to recall that both systems were designed by the same
>>company.  I believe that this company did both the fare collection systems
>>and the rolling stock, which would explain the similarities.
>>
>>Anyone remember which company did this work?

>BART's original cars were built by Rohr in Chula Vista, CA.  BART staff did
>a lot of prototype development on a test track near Walnut Creek, CA, which
>was later incorporated into the system.  I don't know what company did the
>engineering design on the cars.

According to a book that I have on the St. Louis Car Company they did all
design work on the BART cars.  St. Louis did bid against Rohr to manufacture
the cars.   The designing of the BART cars was the last major contract that
St. Louis had before going out of business.

a little side note is that for a very short time the St. Louis Car Company
did manufacture airplanes.
From: alj@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Al Jackson)
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 18:57:51 GMT
Subject: Re: Re: Coast Starlight late again
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA
From: yves@speedy.dev.cdx.mot.com (Yves Vidal)
Subject: Railroad Shrines (was Tehachapi Loop..)
Organization: Motorola Codex, Canton, Massachusetts
Distribution: rec.railroad
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 15:57:19 GMT
Followup-To: rec.railroad

Some people have been mentionning some very interesting places
to watch the best train sceneries : CAJON PASS, TEHACHAPI LOOP, 
CALIENTE...etc.

Could anyone make a summary and indicate how to get there by road ?
Usually, the good spots to watch trains are not always obvious to find
and this kind of little guide would be very helpful. Thanks.

Yves

Newsgroups: rec.railroad
From: johnm@hpmcaa (John Mosbarger)
Subject: Re: Snowsqualmie Falls, WA Train Yard?
Organization: HP Cardiology Business Unit - McMinnville, OR
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 16:16:25 GMT

 
Tom Vervaeke (tvervaek@col.hp.com) wrote:
> On a recent business trip to Seattle Washington, I made an evening 
> trip out to the little town of Snowsqualmie (sp) Falls. Its about
> 30 minutes east of Seattle directly on Interstate 80. The town is
> famous to some as it is the filming locations of the now-defunct
> show Twin Peaks. I believe they recently filmed a Twin Peaks movie
> there also.
>  
> ANyway. Upon entering the little town there was a decent sized
> collection of railroad hardware along the road.  There were at 
> least 1/2 dozen steam engines in various stages of rusting, a
> good selection of railroad cars, etc.. I was in kind of a hurry,
> but did not see a museum.  The local area has a logging history
> so perhaps there was a railroad here in times past (maybe even
> now).    
>  
> Anyone on the net who know anything about this area? I'd very much
> like to know more about it.
> 
> Thanks.
> 

     My wife and I were there in 1976, so my memory will be somewhat in-
complete.  It's the Puget Sound & Snoqualmie Valley RR, a tourist line
that originates from the old NP depot in Snoqualmie.  They have quite a
collection of "hulks," and have been plagued by a shortage of volunteer
help (compared to the number of items needing restoration).  When we were
there, they were running an ex-US Plywood 2-6-6-2 on a short section of
track, but have acquired quite a bit more track since.  Most of the equip-
ment we saw was logging-oriented, but there are a few "mainline" pieces,
such as an ex-GN or NP rotary snowplow.

--
John Mosbarger
HP McMinnville, OR
johnm@hpmcaa.mcm.hp.com
From: jimj@cleanplate.EBay.Sun.COM (James D. Jones)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Restroom Closings on Amtrak (Was: My Amtrak Vacation)
Date: 17 Aug 1992 16:01:22 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: cleanplate.ebay.sun.com

In article <1992Aug14.212907.17098@donner.SanDiego.NCR.COM> sheldon@.SanDiego.NCR.COM (Steve Sheldon) writes:
 
<We arrived  in Denver  about  5 hours  late.   We  went into  the
<station  to use the restrooms because the crew announced that the
<restrooms  would  be  locked in  the  train  because  of a  local
<ordinance.    Many passengers  were  annoyed that  they  were not
<allowed  to reboard,  especially the  ones that just  stepped off
<onto the platform, who were ordered into the station building.

When I took the Coast Starlight, I noticed that they closed the restrooms
as we went through a couple of cities (some vague references to local ordinances
were made) and crossed major waterways (the Columbia, Carquinez Straits).
Nobody came right out and said it, but my wife and I gradually deduced
that toilets on Amtrak must have no waste holding tanks, and simply flush the 
stuff right onto the tracks.   Is this indeed a fact?  

If so, it's yet another reason not to walk track (yeccch).
Xref: sparky rec.railroad:6504 ba.transportation:1994 talk.politics.misc:39829 talk.environment:3262
From: lip@s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad,ba.transportation,talk.politics.misc,talk.environment
Subject: Re: Cost of transit systems vs highways
Date: 15 Aug 92 01:29:54 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: LLNL

In article <1992Aug14.231811.3662@pbhya.PacBell.COM> whheydt@PacBell.COM (Wilson Heydt) writes:

>And notice how many companies are moving to places where they don't
>have to pay for the transit subsidies--and thinning the support base
>for the transit systems that are focused on core cities.

	Where did you get this accusation from?

	What is really going on is that companies often expand into
places that never had much need for a big public-transit
infrastructure. In the places that already have it, there is usually
not much room to expand in the first place.

	Example: Before Santa Clara County became Silicon Valley, much
of it was semi-rural, with orchards and vineyards and whatnot, and one
doesn't need much in the way of public transit for that kind of area.
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
From: knop@dutecag.et.tudelft.nl (Peter Knoppers)
Subject: Re: Rail Access to Airports
Organization: Delft University of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 09:08:08 GMT

warrenc@bcstec.ca.boeing.com (Cherie Warren) writes:

>Amsterdam: Schiphol Airport
>           Train station connected via passageway to airport; direct
>	   connections to Centraal Station in city centre, or RAI in
>	   southern part of the city.

This is incomplete. There are also direct connections to Leiden,
	  The Hague (== Den Haag), Rotterdam, Flushing (== Vlissingen),
	  Antwerp (Belgium), Brussels (Belgium) and (only during the
	  night) Utrecht. (During the day travellers to Utrecht must
	  change at Amsterdam CS.)

The passageway is underground and one is allowed to take the (free)
airport luggage carts onto the railway platforms.

Greetings from Delft, The Netherlands,

Peter Knoppers - knop@duteca.et.tudelft.nl
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
From: brennan@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Joseph Brennan)
Subject: Re: RR bridges, was Cost of transit systems vs highways
Reply-To: brennan@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Joseph Brennan)
Organization: Columbia University
Distribution: na
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 18:04:08 GMT

In article <2317@tymix.Tymnet.COM> romeo@niagara.Tymnet.COM (Michael
Stimac) writes:
>This is interesting; I've read that it is a general principle of
>civil engineering that a suspension bridge is not a suitable choice
>for a railroad bridge.

True, and the Manhattan Bridge is a prime example.

>I know that there was planned and built a railroad suspension
>bridge over Niagara Falls (in which project John Roebling of the
>cable company came to fame). It didn't remain in use very long.

Yes it did!  It was there a long time, and it's still there, sort of.
Suspension Bridge station, on the New York side of the crossing, was a
major "union" station for US and Canadian railroads, too.

I can try to find the details if there's interest, but the Suspension
Bridge was rebuilt under traffic into a non-suspension bridge by
building new structure around it and then cutting the cables-- pretty
weird.  This is the bridge used by Amtrak-VIA service, the more
northerly of the two bridges (the Michigan Central bridge is the other
one).  As a suspension bridge and now, it has two decks, the lower one for
highway traffic (two lanes).

>Does anyone know of any railroad suspension bridges in use today?

Manhattan and Williamsburgh bridges carry bopth subway and road
traffic.  There's one in Sydney, Australia, I think, that is another
mixed-traffic bridge.

--Joe Brennan

Newsgroups: rec.railroad,rec.models.railroad
From: sdejour@mksol.dseg.ti.com (stewart l dejournett)
Subject: Re: Opps...Link GIF's posted to a.b.p.m.
Organization: Texas Instruments, Inc
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 18:30:46 GMT

In article <1992Aug20.132233.8607@tellab5.tellabs.com> dawdy@tellabs.com (Dan Dawdy) writes:
>I forgot to say that these were posted to
>alt.binaries.pictures.misc. , just in case
>we have some newer viewers out there...
>
>Dan
Dan
       On what node is alt.bin....   stored.  I have gotten link GIF's
off of wuarchive but I do NOT know where alt.bin...  repository is.

Please help a little more.  

Thanks
stewart
Organization: Arizona State University
Date: Monday, 17 Aug 1992 14:00:55 MST
From: <IACECO@ASUACAD.BITNET>
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Re: VIA's excellent, Amtrak sticks bigtime
 <1992Aug14.162208.4967@gw.wmich.edu> <16846B86C.M00209@MBVM.Mitre.Org>

I have enjoyed reading the discussion on VIA and wanted to ask another VIA-
related question( and can't figure out how to send a new note).   I plan to
travel from Montreal to Windsor next month and wanted to know is it worth the
extra money to travel any or all of it 1st class?   I also don't know how much
extra it is yet since it's not so easy to find out anything about Canadian rail
 travel in Phoenix, Az.   I also plan on going from Sarnia - Montreal and if
there's anything noteworthy about that, I'd love to know also.   Thanks.
Ed Oetting
Arizona State University
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
From: christo@bcarh803.BNR.CA (Mark Christopher)
Subject: Re: VIA's excellent, Amtrak sticks bigtime
Reply-To: christo@bnr.ca
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 21:44:14 GMT

In article <18AUG92.10177873.0069@VM1.MCGILL.CA>, CZ94
<CZ94@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA> writes:
|>In article <1992Aug15.231018.4889@informix.com> aland@informix.com
(Colonel Panic) writes:
|>>In article <5471@transfer.stratus.com> btarbox@sw.stratus.com (Brian
Tarbox) writes:
|>>>I just returned from a circle America trip:
|>>>VIA rail from Montreal to Vancouver,
|>>>Amtrak from Vancouver to San Fran. to Boston.
|>>
|>>Really?  I had heard that they had shut the VIA transcontinental
service down
|>>(sorry if this is an old topic here; I've never followed the
newsgroup before).
|>>The PBS series _Travels_ had a two-part feature called "The Last
Train Across
|>>Canada", where they took one of the last possible ocean-to-ocean rail trips
...
|>VIA Rail's service was cut in half on Jan. 15, 1990, but it was *NOT*
|>ended entirely.  There used to be daily service between Vancouver
|>and Toronto or Montreal, with a choice of two routes (CN or CP)
|>between Vancouver and Winnipeg.  Now you can only go from Vancouver
|>to Toronto, only over one route (CN), and only 3 days/week.
...

The VIA route that was cancelled was the one that went over CPR as:

	... Winnipeg Regina Calgary Banff Vancouver

The VIA route that remains goes over the CNR route to:

	... Winnipeg Saskatoon Edmonton Jasper Vancouver


As I understand it, there are special excursions that travel between
Vancouver and Banff.  Initially this was to be a pricy luxury train,
but I no longer know what happened with this.

-- 
Mark Christopher        Bell-Northern Research          christo@bnr.ca
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Re: Restroom Closings on Amtrak (Was: My Amtrak Vacation)
From: Robert Chambers <RMCCU@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Date: Tuesday, 18 Aug 1992 12:47:45 EDT
Distribution: usa
Organization: CUNY/UCC VM Systems


In article <1992Aug17.184355.12928@news.uiowa.edu>, jones@pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu
(Douglas W. Jones,201H MLH,3193350740,3193382879) says:
>
>     while the train is waiting in the station, I love you.
>   Please refrain from flushing toilets while the train
>     is waiting in the station; trackmen have a soul as well as you.

Or

   Please refrain from urination
   when the train is in the station
   it annoys the man who taps the wheels

(Back in the days when a man tapped the wheels with a hammer to find
defects after a run)

>                                        Doug Jones

Robert