HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jbvb@vax.ftp.com  (James B. VanBokkelen)
Subject: Re: Amtrak travel info request
Nntp-Software: PC/TCP NNTP
Reply-To: jbvb@ftp.com
Organization: FTP Software, Inc., Wakefield, MA
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 15:52:11

In article <BROWNP.92Jul29120237@bizet.cs.unc.edu> brownp@cs.unc.edu (Peter Brown) writes:

    In article <92210.145403LANDERSO@NDSUVM1.BITNET> LANDERSO@NDSUVM1.BITNET writes:
       1. How easy is it to sleep with the rail noise and frequent stops
          without being in a sleeper car?
    
    ... felt we slept better on coach....

I sleep poorly in coach, better in the sleeper (but any line with as many
curves as the old NYNH&H is going to be rough).
    
       2. What are meal prices like?  How good is the food?
    
    Too high; the food isn't bad, but isn't really good enough to be worth
    it (in our opinion).

I try to skip the N.E. Corridor snack counter if possible, but I try not
to miss a meal in the diner (particularly if it comes free with the sleeper).
    
       Are the showers at Union Station clean/safe/etc.? Is there a fee?
       Where do I put my valuables while taking a shower?
    
    ...  There were some lockers in the men's shower room, but I never
    figured out how you used them.

Since they got rid of the coin lockers (sometime after 1985), I've used the
"check room" when I've needed it.  The line can be slow, but you'd have to
be cutting it close to miss a train while getting your bags back.  If you're
checking stuff, just check it early.
    
       Where do I stow my carry on luggage when I want to walk around the
       train? How safe will it be?
    
    Leave it where it is (over your seat or in the luggage stowage on the
    Superliners); it's generally pretty safe.  I always keep the _really_
    important stuff (cash, tickets) on my person, but cameras, etc., seem
    to stay put pretty well...

On the corridor, I try to be at my seat for the big urban station stops where
the train remains more than a minute or two.  And I wouldn't leave something
obviously valuable/portable in a Superliner's downstairs luggage shelves.

James B. VanBokkelen		26 Princess St., Wakefield, MA  01880
FTP Software Inc.		voice: (617) 246-0900  fax: (617) 246-0901

Newsgroups: rec.railroad
From: samson@netcom.com (Peter Samson)
Subject: NYC info needed -- help! (was: NEC Signals; Computer Game)
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 92 04:47:09 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 

In <BrqzKD.7D2@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, roma@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Jon Roma)
discusses the imminent retirement of the original Grand Central
Terminal interlocking machines.  This bears on a computer game I am
writing, in which you act as a dispatcher for a portion of a large,
busy rail network.  (Also, you can put it on automatic and watch it
run by itself.)  The key concept is that the rail network is a *real*
one, modeled accurately down to the individual switches and blocks of
track, operated in accordance with the real schedules.

My first layout is the New York City Subway System.  I currently have
the entire IND division in and running (max. trains at rush hour =
192); the rest of the system is merely (!) a matter of time.  (This
is a spare-time project.)

My second planned layout is Grand Central Terminal.  I have the track
layout drawn, but not yet entered into the computer.  It would be
ideal to simulate operating the original lever machines, but to
implement this I need the details of which lever does what, prefer-
ably with copies of the Locking Charts.  I didn't realize till now
that this was urgent.  The Grand Central interlocking machines are a
landmark in railroad technology; this information must not be lost!
Unfortunately, I now live 3000 miles from New York, and will not be
able to get there until this fall at the soonest.

If you are interested in helping to get this information, or can
suggest ways I might get it, please reply by e-mail; I will be
delighted to discuss this with you.  Besides offering copies of the
game, eternal gratitude, etc., I may be able to pay for reasonably
complete information.  (I'm also seeking NYCTA operating timetables
circa 1968-1969 when both parts of the Chrystie St. Connection were
in service.)

Those of you in the New York area, please think about this; if you
have friends in the MTA, Metro North, or the NYCTA let them know.
This will be a good game; you can help make it a great one.

Thanks,

Peter Samson.
From: dp2r+@andrew.cmu.edu (Denise Pullen)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Re: Uploads to wuarchive.wustl.edu
Date: 31 Jul 92 03:28:37 GMT
Organization: Drama, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Excerpts from netnews.rec.railroad: 30-Jul-92 Re: Uploads to
wuarchive.wu.. by 31ochs@gw.wmich.edu 
> computer. We use X windows and have a program downloaded from an FTP site
> called XV controls, it can handle many different formats, including JPG,
> GIF,sun raster, and can also convert one to Postscript. You can also 

Thank you very much for explaining this issue. I also appreciate the
above information as I have received many questions about it and did not
know the answer until now. I am also limited by my 2400 bps connect rate
with makes uploading original .gif's impossible. All the files that I
make are scanned by myself and are compressed from original .gif files.
Loss should be minimal. Thanks again for you input!
From: billg@bony1.bony.com (Bill Gripp)
Subject: Re: Push-Pull Service: Which Way do the Locomotives Point?
Organization: LA&W RR
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 92 14:44:57 GMT

In article <1992Jul20.213251.26865@s1.gov> lip@s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich) writes:

>>The SEPTA push-pulls always seem to have the engine pointed away from
>>Philadelphia.  Also, it seems to me that they are going slower when
>>backing, though that may reflect the place where I see them, outbound
>>accelerating out of a station stop, in-bound slowing in anticipation of
>>same, rather than any operating restriction.
>
>	SEPTA push-pulls with distinct locomotives?
>
>	I've had some experience riding the SEPTA commuter lines, and
>they do _not_ have distinct locomotives -- just self-propelled cars,
>and all cab cars, as far as I can tell. The line ends I've seen are
>loopless. The trains themselves always have at least two cars, with a
>cab pointing outwards at each end, making them effectively
>double-ended.

These are not pushpulls, but MU cars.  The configuration you describe is
known as "Married Pairs".  If it doesn't have a locomotive, it isn't a
pushpull.
From: PLAWS@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (Peter Laws)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: BR shake up
Date: 25 Jul 1992 19:59:13 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

I only caught the tail-end of the report, but apparently BR is undergoing some
fundamental changes in their structure.   Anyone care to post details (Clive?)


================================================================================
Peter Laws            |"The '90s are gonna make the '60s|    pcl@engr.uark.edu
n5uwy@ka5bml.ar.usa.na| look like the '50s"--D. Hopper  | plaws@uafsysb.bitnet
From: lip@s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Re: _Scientific American_ profiles Maglev Trains
Date: 31 Jul 92 04:49:16 GMT
Organization: LLNL

In article <2179@tymix.Tymnet.COM> romeo@niagara.Tymnet.COM (Michael Stimac) writes:
>In article <1992Jul30.043740.22561@panix.com> dfl@panix.com (Danny O'Bedlam) writes:
:Maglev is NOT "railroad"; discussion of it doesn't even belong
:in this newsgroup. 
:
:Definition: Railroad - flanged wheels rolling on rails.

	Then what is the appropriate newsgroup? I don't know of any
newsgroup called "sci.engr.maglev" or "rec.maglev" or "talk.maglev" or
even "alt.maglev".

	Or maybe it should be called "alt.maglev-flame-wars"?
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
From: billg@bony1.bony.com (Bill Gripp)
Subject: Re: Push-Pull Service: Which Way do the Locomotives Point?
Organization: LA&W RR
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 92 14:13:48 GMT

In article <Ts8DoB1w165w@1776.COM> bob%1776.UUCP@XAIT.Xerox.COM (Robert Coe) writes:
>grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins) writes:
 
>If I'm not mistaken, the crawler/transporter that moves booster rockets from
>the assembly building to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral is double-ended
>(two control stations mounted on diagonally opposite corners).  Whether it's
>a "flat-road vehicle" depends on how you define the term.  Its caterpillar 
>treads ride on two parallel tracks of crushed stone (there being no pavement 
>known that could stand up to the weight).  If the vehicle were not double-
>ended, the problems encountered in turning would be similar to those of a 
>railroad, necessitating loops or wyes.

I'm not familiar with the details of the vehicle, but other treaded
vehicle (tanks, bulldozers, etc.) only require a circle whose diameter
is equal to (or slightly larger than) their length.  When the treads are
turning in the opposite direction, they can litterally turn on a dime.


Newsgroups: rec.railroad
From: farrell@esd77.enet.dec.com (J. Farrell)
Subject: G&U (GRAFTON & UPTON RAILROAD) 
Reply-To: farrell@esd77.enet.dec.com (J. Farrell)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 19:04:04 GMT



 Last time I was on the old G&U, the only customer left was
Washington Mills Abrasives in North Grafton.  Track from 
Washington Mills to Hopedale was "Out of service".  They moved
the GE 44 tonner to a new engine house @ North Grafton, the Alco(?)
remains in Hopedale.  There was some serious tie/rail work done last
Fall/Spring between Hopedale-Grafton.

 Operations are on a "as needed" basis, with the 44 tonner making
the 1/2 mile trip to the Conrail interchange about twice a week,
usually in the early-mid morning.

Joe Farrell
Digital Equipment Corp
333 south Street
Shrewsbury,Ma.
From: larsenp@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Paul Larsen)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Downtown Pittsburgh
Date: 25 Jul 92 23:30:22 GMT
Distribution: usa

I know that this has already been asked in a slightly different way, but I 
will ask it again.  I will be in downtown Pittsburgh in a week without a car
and was wondering if there were any nice photo spots within walking distance
of downtown (i.e. less than a couple miles).  Please reply directly to my
e-mail address at larsenp@mace.cc.purdue.edu.



				Thanks,

				Paul Larsen
From: Steven.Schultz@mixcom.mixcom.com (Steven.Schultz)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Re: Department of Defense move
Date: 27 Jul 92 00:54:52 GMT
Article-I.D.: mixcom.1992Jul27.005452.17697
Distribution: usa
Organization: Milwaukee Internet Xchange BBS, Milwaukee, WI U.S.A.

In <1992Jul23.212830.15520@newstand.syr.edu>
cwebster@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Chris Webster) writes:

>Today I was sitting in the Carousel Center's (a large shopping mall)
parking
>lot, watching trains as my so shopped....  Anyway, it was a dreary
day, as
>often is typical of Syracuse, and the view between me and the tracks
was
>obstructed by traffic, wire lines, a fence, etc, so I didn't have my 
>camera out.  The second train to come by was an eastbound that
consisted of:

>1) a Conrail C40-8W, painted up in the Conrail Quality scheme
>2) an empty Trailer Train bulkhead flatcar
>3) a DODX flatcar carrying something that was large and cylindrical,
covered
>   by a tarp
>4) a yellowish DODX caboose!

>So, not only did I miss the chance to miss a three car train pulled
by
>a 4000hp loco, I missed the chance to shoot a caboose and the chance
to
>shoot a special DODX caboose.  And alas, I couldn't chase after it
(SO
>was in the mall...)

>What the hell was this?  Griffiss Air Force is roughly forty miles
east of
>where I spotted it; could it have been heading there?

>And, why do you need 4000 hp to pull it?  The flatcar looked like a
normal
>capacity, two truck/two axles per truck car.


>--
>-Chris Webster @ Syracuse University |
>Internet:cwebster@mailbox.syr.edu    |      (space for rent)
>Bitnet:cwebster@sunrise.acs.syr.edu  | 
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
 
The only car that I know of that matches that discription is a
depressed center flatcar that hauls spe nuclear fuel for the Navy,
under the DOD name. It could have been an empty container if it was on
a regular flat car.
-- 
Steve Schultz     Steven.Schultz@mixcom.com
Xref: sparky rec.railroad:5814 rec.models.railroad:1405
From: JDB6@psuvm.psu.edu (John D. Balogh)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad,rec.models.railroad
Subject: Re: Newest RR Sound Posted
Date: 21 Jul 92 14:41:31 GMT
 <1992Jul21.114714.29146@cbnewsm.cb.att.com>
Distribution: na
Organization: Penn State University

In article <1992Jul21.114714.29146@cbnewsm.cb.att.com>, cab@cbnewsm.cb.att.com
(carl.a.benevit) says:
>
>In article <1992Jul21.011238.11414@tellab5.tellabs.com> dawdy@tellabs.com (Dan
>Dawdy) writes:
>>POSTED TO "alt.binaries.sounds.misc"
>>
>For those of us who can't access alt.binaries.anything, could the
>sound files be put up on an ftp site such as wuarchive.wustl.edu?

I've put 10-37 and 4-14 on JDB.PSU.EDU in the usual area. There was another
file that my reader missed parts of. I'll get this new file (5-55) and put
it there also. I have also included the header information in .TXT files of
the same name as the .VOC files. Don't forget to use BINARY mode to get the
.VOC files :-).

Enjoy!

John Balogh, Penn State Model Railroad Club, Electrical Crew, JDB@ECL.PSU.EDU
From: jones@pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu (Douglas W. Jones,201H MLH,3193350740,3193382879)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Greenfield Village
Date: 21 Jul 92 21:07:47 GMT

I was at Greenfield Village last week, and I found it quite nice.  From a
steam enthusiasts perspective, the presence of a live-steam powered train
and steamboat was pleasant, but it was disturbing to discover that they've
discontinued the use of the stationary steam engines in their machine shop.
The line shafting is now driven by a hidden motor somewhere.  They say that
their Calumet and Hellica 2-6-4T (I may misremember the wheel arrangement
and correct spelling of the name) is the oldest steam engine in regular
service today.  Their Rogers 4-4-0 isn't an original, but it is pieced
together out of original parts that they managed to recover from various
scrap yards.

One of the high points of the visit was their locomotive turning demo.
They have an armstrong turntable, and at 2pm daily, they drive a little
Plymouth chain drive gas locomotive onto the turntable and turn it.  After
the museum staff have turned the engine, they let kids do it.  The
turntable is about 75 feet long, and my 9 year old son plus three younger
kids had no trouble turning it, and later, I saw a kid who looked 12 or 13
turn the engine single-handed.
					Doug Jones
					jones@cs.uiowa.edu
From: BRANDT_JOBST/HP1900_01@HPLOMG.HPL.HP.COM
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Re: Switchback (was: Trip report on the C&TS)
Date: 28 Jul 92 15:09:20 GMT

Mark Brader writes:

> Some railways follow a similar path, though the curves are necessarily
> less sharp than would typically be used on roads.  Although switches are
> not involved, it doesn't seem a totally unreasonable usage to accept the
> term "switchback" for these.

It seems to me that in the context of rec.railroad the term switchback be
used to mean a zig zag up a grade with switches at the ends.  For the non
railroader the general meaning that the path, whether road or rail, has
tight turns at the ends of the traverses may convey the meaning but
then that's what happens to English.  We have innumerable words that by
such vagueness have lost their definition such as "momentarily" which
means of short duration but is used to mean "any moment" as in soon.
Bimonthly and semimonthly now carry the same definition in American
dictionaries although "semi" means half (two weeks) and "bi" means two
as in two months.  The list is long and we on rec.railroad need not toss
in more words that have clear and specific origins.  The term switchback
certainly conjures up a specific picture to me.  Maybe that is because I
have traveled on such track.  It is after all a railroad term that has
been applied to roads.

jobst_brandt@hplabs.hp.com
From: blw@majipoor.Corp.Sun.COM (Brian Wong - SMCC Technical Product Marketing)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: unruly behaviour on public transportation (was: Re: Amtrak travel info request)
Date: 29 Jul 1992 23:32:56 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems
Distribution: world
Reply-To: blw@majipoor.Corp.Sun.COM
NNTP-Posting-Host: majipoor.corp.sun.com

Garth Groff wrote about a drunk on the Zephr, in which the drunk was put off
the train and his ticket price refunded.

I was on an airline flight from Washington DC to Portland, Oregon a couple
of years ago when a passenger got three sheets to the wind and started raising
a ruckus.  In my opinion, he was very annoying, but not particularliy physically
dangerous.  The flight crew warned him several times to settle down, telling him
that he would be put off the flight in Cleveland if not.  In his state, he 
thought they wouldn't do it, but there is apparently some law that provides for
stiff penalties and strong measures for dangerous situations on airline flights.
He didn't settle down (in fact he became verbally abusive), and so we stopped in
Cleveland and put him off the plane!  I was really astonished they actually did
it (so was he).  I was even more surprised when the flight attendent mentioned
that he would also be responsible for the landing fees AND finding his way to
whereever.  I don't know what the landing fees for a DC-10 (747?) are at a large
commercial airport but they can't be tiny... 

---

Brian Wong				Technical Marketing Group
blw@chessie.corp.sun.com		Sun Microsystems Computer Corp.
415-336-0082				Palo Alto, CA 94303
From: gemmellj@merrimack.edu
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Amtrack to ME? / MBTA rail to NH?
Date: 31 Jul 92 11:56:48 GMT
Organization: Merrimack College, No. Andover, MA, USA

Hi there.  I was wondering on the status of getting Amtrack service to
Portland, Me via Boston.     Also,   just a thought.  How come the 
MBTA commuter rail does not extend into New Hampshire.  Tons of people
who live in NH work in Boston.  If there was more public transportation
availble, then there will be less congested highways going ( especially
on interstate 93 in southern New Hampshire.
From: jmc@SAIL.Stanford.EDU (John McCarthy)
Subject: Re: _Scientific American_ profiles Maglev Trains
Reply-To: jmc@cs.Stanford.EDU
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
	<schumach.712542267@convex.convex.com>
Date: 30 Jul 92 20:45:22

It worries me that the artists' conceptions I have seen of maglev
show a single car that could hold about 30 people.  If that's the
model it will require a truly enormous subsidy.

I'll speculate that the pro-maglev sentiment starts from the idea
that airplane travel is less energy efficient than train travel,
and in response to the argument that trains are too slow, counters
with maglev and other exotic schemes - ignoring cost.

Airplanes are an extremely flexible means of long distance travel,
and I don't believe they will be displaced for any significant
amount of their prsent applications.  A Japanese told me that he
went from Osaka to Tokyo by airplane rather than by the bullet
train.
--
John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford, CA 94305
*
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.

Newsgroups: rec.railroad
From: lip@s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich)
Subject: Re: Train .GIF uploads to wuarchive.wustl.edu
Organization: LLNL
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 16:59:39 GMT

In article <8eRBDju00WB90QUFYO@andrew.cmu.edu> dp2r+@andrew.cmu.edu (Denise Pullen) writes:
>Get the JPEG .gif decompression program. Use the -g switch to force a
>grey-scale decompression.

	One question: are these _all_ grayscale? I'd like color
pictures, if at all possible.

/Loren
From: lip@s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Re: <None>
Date: 30 Jul 92 01:39:26 GMT
Organization: LLNL


	Once, when I was waiting at BART's Ashby Station (I had slept
through downtown Oakland by accident), I noticed an argument. There
was someone who accused another passenger of having performed voodoo
and witchcraft to make her feet hurt. The station attendant was
attempting to settle this dispute by suggesting that the supposed
witch get on at the other end of the train (sounds like Einstein's
criticism of ESP for supposedly being distance-independent); but this
self-proclaimed victim claimed that her black magic was independent of
distance.

	She claimed to serve "he who created all" and she said that
she would get me too. I got on at another car when the train finally
arrived. Fortunately, I had to change trains at the next station.
From: 31ochs@gw.wmich.edu
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Re: Local laws apply?(was Re: Horn-blowing)
Date: 29 Jul 92 21:03:15 EST
Organization: Western Michigan University

In article <92211.092127RMCCU@CUNYVM.BITNET>, RMCCU@CUNYVM.BITNET (Robert Chambers) writes:
> In article <92210.155751C31801IE@wuvmd.wustl.edu>, Derek Morgan <C31801IE@WUVMD>
> says:
>>
>>  Not necessarily; there are towns in Missouri that have been known to
>>stop trains and issue tickets because they were going over the speed
>>limit. The track is certified FRA 79, but the town speed limit takes
>>precedence (I think this town's limit was 40.) UP pays the fine.
> 
> How exactly does the police dept pull a train over?  Do they have
> a speeder with flashing lights? Do they perhaps just wave them over
> at a grade crossing?  Road/rail blocks?  If I were the engineer, I
> might wave to the cops though.  since SPEEDING per se is a moving
> violation the ticket would be issued to the engineer, even if the
> railroad paid the fine, the points etc would still go on the
> engineer's record..  I could see if the headlights on the loco were
> faulty, or he had a brake light out (:-) that such equipment fines
> would be paid by the owner rather than driver.
> 
>>Maybe it's a city revenue strategy for the 90's...
> 
> That wouldn't be at all suprising.

Hmmmm the only thing that seems strange about this is an RR track is
on privately onwed property. Am I not allowed to go higher than the 
speed limit if I'm on my own property? Who would have any say as to
how high or low my speed limit would be on my own property. Unless 
it's considered public at grade crossings, which is understandable.
In Dowagiac Michigan, the max speed is 79, but they have to go 45 over
all the grade crossings in town. It's an old grandfather law from
the 40's I believe.
What exactly is the status with speed laws? Can they only be regulated
at public grade crossings?

Just curious,
Fred Ochs

31OCHS@gw.wmich.edu   (VAX)
ochs@sol.cs.wmich.edu (UNIX)

_________________________________________________________________________
        _______________
       /_______________\__+--+_---_+--+__
    ___|[  ]| ###|  ###   ######|###### |
  | | ______|    |                      | |
  |_|/|_|___|____|______________________|_|
   H   \--/  \ \o/  o          /  \--/   H
___"__O----O__`---------------'__O----O__"_____

A GP30 with some imagination ;^)
From: smb@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Re: New Signals on NEC Mainline ?
Date: 21 Jul 92 18:42:12 GMT
Distribution: usa

I've always been puzzled by the lack of redunancy in some signals against
a burned-out light bulb.  It's always seemed to me that using position/color
signals, or using the PRR-style six-bulb circle with a bulb in the middle
does provide an extra margin of safety, compared with searchlights or
traffic-light style signals.  Am I missing something?
Newsgroups: rec.railroad