Sad to say, I do not remember the source, but a year or two ago I saw a study which showed that more energy is used during the time that we have to get up an hour earlier than we should than during the time that our clocks are closer to sun time. In other words, Daylight Saving Time wastes energy. But, it seems that the people in Bedlam-on-the-Potomac are immune to reasoning.
"Bedlam"--the British pronunciation of "Bethlehem;" many years ago there was a hospital named "Bethlehem" where people who were not quite right in the head were confined.
I do not remember if it was William Sydney Porter (O Henry) who originated the expression "Bedlam-on-the-Potomac;" I do remember his using the expression "Bagdad-on-the Hudson" for New York City.
Johnny
I hear ya, Stix. I no doubt remember too many things that ain't so!
Be glad you're not Chinese. The whole country observes Beijing time. Sunrise at 9:00 AM in the far west, anyone?
As for this old Air Force type, let's hear it for Zulu!
Chuck
Deggesty Sad to say, I do not remember the source, but a year or two ago I saw a study which showed that more energy is used during the time that we have to get up an hour earlier than we should than during the time that our clocks are closer to sun time. In other words, Daylight Saving Time wastes energy. But, it seems that the people in Bedlam-on-the-Potomac are immune to reasoning.
I remember wondering what the logic was behind changing to daylight saving time as a solution to the energy shortage. Someone suggested that its purpose was just to disrupt our routine to remind us to conserve energy.
Something else puzzled me: Before the crisis, power plants in the south ran mainly on natural gas which was abundant here, and up north they ran on coal. Part of the solution to the energy crisis was to have the south convert to coal which had to be shipped down from the north so that the natural gas could be sent north. I never have figured that one out.
I have always been anti-DST.
_____________
"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
Re. Paul above:
As I recall it, the argument was that natural gas was too precious to burn for the generation of electricity. (This was before today's plentiful supply.) The proper use was for home heating. Perhaps the effect was a net shift of natural gas to the north. I do know that, up north too, we had plants burning gas or even oil. These too were encouraged to switch to coal, where practical.
K4sPRR Semper VaporoIndiana used to leave it up to the individual county as to whether to adopt DST. Due to that, a friend of mine who grew up in Indiana told me he would wear two watches.
Semper VaporoIndiana used to leave it up to the individual county as to whether to adopt DST.
Due to that, a friend of mine who grew up in Indiana told me he would wear two watches.
Could this be an added reason to use the "Fort Wayne" hour hand sometimes found on railroad watches? This has two hour hands fixed one hour apart (one usually red or gold, the other normal blued (or for Illinois, plum). I had thought this was just for operation across a time zone... but yikes! if railroad time varied with county time, there might be an additional use.
Overmodif railroad time varied with county time...
Overmod K4sPRR Semper VaporoIndiana used to leave it up to the individual county as to whether to adopt DST. Due to that, a friend of mine who grew up in Indiana told me he would wear two watches. Could this be an added reason to use the "Fort Wayne" hour hand sometimes found on railroad watches? This has two hour hands fixed one hour apart (one usually red or gold, the other normal blued (or for Illinois, plum). I had thought this was just for operation across a time zone... but yikes! if railroad time varied with county time, there might be an additional use.
My father who was a officer on railroad divisions that spanned two time zones had his Railroad Approved Bouleva Accutron with two hour hands.
The nominal orientation of Indiana and time zones was that the counties around Chicago, observed Chicago time - the balance of the state observed Eastern time. It would get 'wild' when daylight saving time went into effect - the counties around Chicago observed what Chicago observed, the counties around Cincinnati observed what Cincinnati observed, and as I recollect, the state as a whole did not move to 'Daylight Saving Time'.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Pay your money and get the 'study' says what you want it to!
The older I get the cinical I get to all these 'studies'!
One study says coffee is bad, the next says coffee is good, the third says coffee does nothing, the fourth study says tea does it better - ad nauseaum
I just ran across this item about time zones and time changes. The time is appropriate, as we are about to change our clocks again in 2019. I covered the Interstate Commerce Commission for Traffic World magazine from 1958 to 1969 and a hearing examiner once told me that the worst, most bitter hearings he ever presided over were those involving a proposed time zone boundary change. In World War II, everybody went on "war time" (permanent DST), and some metropolitan areas went on Double Daylight Saving Time. When I was in Chicago in the summer of 1946 some public clocks had two hour hands, one for DST and the other for standard time that the railroads still ran on. I have heard that trains stop for an hour when universal DST goes into effect so that their schedules will match the new times. Does anyone know if this is true?
Like everyone else, RRs moved their clocks forward an hour in February 1942 and stayed there until September? 1945.
RRs nationwide moved their clocks forward an hour on 30 April 1967 -- the first year of standardized nationwide DST. When they moved them back at the end of October, a scheduled train that was running on time would indeed have to stop and wait for an hour, unless the dispatcher annulled the schedule. But nowadays "scheduled trains" don't actually exist.
WILLIAM O CRAIGsome metropolitan areas went on Double Daylight Saving Time.
In the US? Where?
Amtrak trains do have schedules that the public can access. Certainly, if the Amtrak schedule states that a train is to leave a certain point at a certain time, the traveling public will expect the train to not leave before the published time--so an Amtrak train would be held uttil the clock reaches that time.
In general, long distance trains have no published times of departure from Alexandria to New York City--so they may leave such stations any time after the announced arrival time.
After the change from standard to daylight time, all trains with a schedule will run an hour late unless they are able to make time up. It is only at the fall change that scheduled trains would be held.
Other than station stops, Amtrak trains run either on signal indication or some version of Track Warrants (TWC or DTC, depending on the owning railroad) so there is no timetable in the "Timetable and Train Order" sense. A train arriving early at a passenger stop is expected to "wait for time" as Johnny indicated, unless its a "D" stop where a timetable note says the train may depart before the scheduled time.
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