Pretty amazing film, that! Makes me a little sad though when I realize that no-one in the film (with the possible exception of the toddlers seen toward the end in the background) is alive today. Oh well, time marches on. Dammit.
Vince, by the Lincoln train I'm assuming you're speaking of the Lincoln Funeral Train? There's a local legend that on the anniversary of its run up the Hudson the "ghost" of the train makes an appearance on the old New York Central. You know, one of those "...cold, clear, moonlit night..." kind of stories.
I've got it here in the archives of the "Fortress Firelock," I'll have to see if I can find it.
Found it! 'Scuse me while I blow the dust off...
POOF! Cough, hack wheeze...
OK, this is from NRHS's "National Railway Bulletin," Volume 59, Number 1, from 1994. Exerpted from an article by Anthony W. Reevy.
Lincoln's Funeral Train
Every year at midnight on the evening of April 26 or thereabouts, a chill wind runs down the tracks of the mainline between New York and Albany. (This stretch of railroad was once the Hudson Division of the New York Central system). If there is a moon, clouds slowly obscure it and the air all about becomes still. Railroad men who are working then step aside and watch. They know what's going to happen, although any chance passersby are in for a surprise.
Soon, the men know they are in the presence of the unknown. A black carpet seems to roll down the tracks, and all sound is deadened. Then, IT comes: Lincoln's funeral train. The train, which crawls slowly by, is divided into two sections: both are led by old-time wood-burning engines with huge smokestacks, resplendent with polished brass. The engines are heavily draped with flowing black crepe.
The first section of the trains is made up of an engine - running without a crew- that pulls several flat cars. On one of the flat cars is a grotesque band of skeletons sitting in fantastic poses, playing noiselessly on black instruments. That section is followed by the funeral train itself, which is an engine pulling just one flat car. On the car is a single lonely coffin, attended by neither ghost nor skeleton. As the train passes, ghosts of men in blue uniforms, some of them carrying their own coffins, may be seen floating in the air all around. Neither train makes a sound as it passes by. If another train happens to go by at the same time as Lincoln's train, the spectral special runs right through the real one without harming it. As it does so, the sounds made by the real train are muffled.
The next morning, all the clocks on the division are unaccountably five to eight minutes behind. What's more. all of the trains that were out on the line the night before are running five to eight minutes late. The old-timers know why.
Isn't that something?
Time Machine
the first two minutes of this video shows 11th Ave. & 33rd St., looking north, and later, the traffic cop is at 10th Ave and 30th St. Abraham Lincoln's train went right through both intersections, and right under Hudson Yards skyscraper platform.
Donald Trump, Citizen, gets his big start.
Reorganization court proceedings: the Penn Central Transportation Company, debtor: in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Hon. John P. Fullam, D.J.
Here's a bit more from Mike on the fireboat "Harvey." Interesting reading!
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/23/nyregion/hudson-river-journal-old-savior-of-the-waterfront-is-pressed-back-into-service.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/26/arts/on-a-harbor-cruise-under-a-rainbow.html
You're welcome Miningman! I first heard about the "Harvey" several months after the attack, the story was told in a TV documentary about the 9/11 attacks. I forget if it was on PBS or one of the History Channels, but it doesn't matter.
I remember choking up a bit when I said ( as I did in my last post) "No-one's going to scrap that ship now!" Lady Firestorm choked up too. She does have salt water and fire department in her veins, you know.
I'm choking up a bit now thinking about that ship and the men who crewed her.
Amazing story Firelock. Something I did not know. That's the sort of story that would not make it up here in any mainstream way.
Thank you for bringing this to light.
So that B&O building is still there! Truly amazing!
There's something else amazing if you click on that "ogrforum" link. At the end of the photo spread there's a shot of the "John J. Harvey", a former FDNY fireboat and 9/11 hero ship.
It seems the "Harvey" was written off by the FDNY and was due to be scrapped, but some fireboat enthusiasts managed to save it. When the terrorist attack of 9/11/01 happened and the water mains at "Ground Zero" were unusable the "Harvey" was the first fireboat on the scene. Seeing the catastrophe unfolding the enthusiasts got the old ship cranked up and on the spot expecting the FDNY was going to need all the help they could get. All the pumping equipment on the ship was still functional and put to immediate use. The "Harvey" did yeoman service that day.
No-one's ever going to scrap that ship now. Ever.
Here's the website...
https://www.1931fireboat.org
Got to luv that schwarma scene in the Avengers. Thanks Flintlock/Wayne!
Can you imagine what Steamtown or the T-1 Trust could have done with the $200,000,000?
Or any one of a number of rail museums around the country?
I'll tell you, sometimes it hurts to be a railfan.
Somebody say "shwarma?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P05deS1h6oM
The whole thing is one big New York city throw away money joke!This money could have gone to rebuild the Hudson river tunnels that
will be now done (maybe) with my tax money. And too, with global
warming, I mean climate change, the tunnels will fill with water
and you'll need a boat to get to Hudson Yards!
Geoff
That would be another $200,000,000.
New Yorker article on Hudson Yards... whoo boy,
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/hudson-yards-is-the-hotel-california-of-new-york
Ya know, maybe "The Vessel" would look a lot better if they filled the interior with oversized "to scale" artificial fruit. Apples, pears, oranges, bananas, plums, know what I mean?
And maybe a big "get-well" card hanging off the side?
Miningmanhttps://youtu.be/1cTd73uT108 I guess the younger generation is not impressed. The " Shwarma" they are calling it. Like the middle eastern meat on a spit. Yikes! Should have built a gigantic model railroad instead. .. Vince Also, thank you Midland Mike. Puts things in perspective.
I am wondering if it is ADA compliant?
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Miningman looking north, B&O freight station, Starrett Lehigh Building and New York Central 30th St. Yard. 12th Ave. on the left, 11th Ave. down the middle. Important link to magnify photo http://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/26581
While the NYC yard was served by the west side line, the B&O yard had no connection to the national rail system except by car float. Between the two yards visible, there were three more similar boat connected yards for the DL&W, Erie, and LV. PRR also had a boat served yard a little further north. There were also some car floats that had a platform between the 2 tracks that allowed the boxcars to be unloaded without ever leaving the carfloat.
Here are some views through time of the Empire State Building and the land area where 'The Vessel' is now.
In the older colour photo I see what appears to be New York Central Pacemaker boxcars but from what little I know I believe this is PRR trackage. I can see the Post Office building but not Pennsylvania Station, perhaps it has already been tore down.
In the b&w photo Pennsylvania Station is quite visible, or at least it's roof outline.
In the 2019 photo of 'The Vessel' it is apparent that the Empire State Building has greatly diminished in stature and appearance. I wonder if newer generations will bother to notice it .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXNNCO5tT78&t=1m30s
Late Edit--.Mike straightened me out and schooled me!!
What PRR trackage? This is New York Central's 30th St. Yard. There's a tiny portion of Penn Station waiting room visible behind the post office. "Now and Then" thread.
Also this: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/4L8AAOSwgLdawAjh/s-l1600.jpg
Here you go... take a walk to the top.
https://youtu.be/2GBWVXBZn2I
Miningman $200,000,000 Vessel = about 6 round trip subway rides from Times Square. Excerpt from “The Cost of New York City’s Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project” https://www.economicpolicyresearch.org/images/docs/research/political_economy/Cost_of_Hudson_Yards_WP_11.5.18.pdf (Hudson Yards Infrastructure Corporation] bond proceeds covered the estimated cost for the subway extension, which was $2.1 billion in FY2006. Of this total, $100 million was marked for costs overruns. However, bids for the excavation of the line were higher than expected, forcing the city to cut one of the two planned stations to save $450 million... But despite scaling back the plans, the cost still went over the estimate by $267 million, for a total of $2.367 billion. Thanks to Mike for this information. Thank you Jones for your reply. Very interesting. Still lots of it hiding in vaults in Switzerland.Geez, wonder how that got there.
You are welcome, Vince. In case our reader doesn't understand why a family house of a billionaire from the 1930s hiding so many fake pieces of stuff in the storage, please allow me to clarify a little bit: these fake stuff (The owner probably call them "my collection") itself worth nothing or have very low values, just like some of the contemporary artworks. When A wants to offer bribes to B, A bought a worthless fake stuff from B (B accept bribes) or pay a large amount of money for something have zero or very low values from B, vice versa... the Revenue Department and Custom can do nothing about it since it was just a "normal" dealing of antiques or artworks...
That said, even a true antique or artwork can be used in a corruption case. For example, a headlight used on one of the Dreyfuss Hudson worth 800K USD, but the buyer pay 30% more to the seller on purpose, so on and so forth...
Jones 3D Modeling Club https://www.youtube.com/Jones3DModelingClub
Oh, my dear Miningman, you know the homo sapiens had a very long history of using artwork to launder money, don't you? Of course, I am not saying all dealing or purchases of artwork involve money laundering, but it exists and nobody can stop it. I heard a wealthy family of one of my friend's friend's friend's friend had tons of antique in the basement storage of their 3-story mansion. Before they demolished their father's house, (he was a famed billionaire and politician in the 1930s) for their own property development, they let their most trusted servant randomly pick one item of antiques in their storage but turn out all of them are fakes made in the 1960s to 1970s. They probably don't know they are fake since their father died when they were very young and they do treat their old servants extremely well.
Regarding Hudson Yards' 'The Vessel', it has values that can't be quantized: the designer, the traveler, the tenant, the property developer, the community and New York City itself will be benefited from this amazing structure. Any great city like New York always needs more new epic, charming and creative landmark which is good enough to match the status of the city.
But I do agree with you that some contemporary artworks are plain stupid; lack of skill and talent, made a mystery of nothing to gloss over their laziness and shallowness, wasting (my) time (to watch them), wasting of public space and resources...
The Gateway Arch at St. Louis is amazing.
Well at least they are getting something substantial. A white canvas with a vertical red stripe painted with a roller up the middle for 25 million is absurd. Toronto paid millions for The Archer sculpture in front of city hall which is just a blob of steel. It's dumb. Looks dumb.
As for carrying around money I can sympathize. $200,000,000 million is handy when you need an ice cream cone and you never know when you run into a casino on ones travels. Be prepared!
A squash court and a skateboard park are products of a mind that is less than artistic. Archetects, the celebrated ones, are artists who create three dimensional sculptures as buildings for people to use - a high end development like Hudson Yards needs some form of captivating centerpiece - squash courts and a skateboard park just don't cut it as a centerpiece.
$200M might seem like a high price - in the context of Hudson Yards it is just 'walk around money'. In the context of the prairies of Saskatchewan and Manitoba it is BIG MONEY. Like art anywhere - it is in the eye of the beer holder.
Overmod It's good (even allowing for the fruity video) ... but not in the league of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=Rsj1pkfolxI which not only has explicit railroad history but is still cutting-edge architecture over half a century later. And yes, here they could have built it without compromising the Moynihan Station building ... and it could be argued it could have been built right in this location in the early 1960s without compromising Penn Station. But of course it had green-team history...
It's good (even allowing for the fruity video) ... but not in the league of this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=Rsj1pkfolxI
which not only has explicit railroad history but is still cutting-edge architecture over half a century later.
And yes, here they could have built it without compromising the Moynihan Station building ... and it could be argued it could have been built right in this location in the early 1960s without compromising Penn Station. But of course it had green-team history...
Wanna see a copy cat of it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton_Tower
Well fine, but $200,000,000! How about a squash court and a nice skateboard park? Some nice trees and a few squirrels.
Miningman Two Hundred Million Dollars... $ 200,000,000... ( and loss of revenue space from tenants) ... Whaaaaat? Geez Louise!
In upscale developments - not all space can be revune producing - upscale clients don't want to be treated like cattle.
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