Texas Pete gunrunnerjohn: The acceleration is very smooth in the subways, but the stops are not nearly as smooth in many cases. When they're stopping and you're standing, you want to be holding on! You got that right! The smoothness of stops seemed to be pretty much motorman dependent. A rare few were consistently good stoppers. The ones that drove me nuts slowed the train quick and smooth only to stop it with a big jolt. Fortunately, after a stop or two we hapless riders usually figured it out. Urban survival, never again! Pete Pete, I second that oath of never again. I had to ride the EL daily and some motormen took the sharp curvature above the streets as a Grand Prix challenge. The screaming of flanges for new riders made for more than a few silent hail mary's.. that showed on their pained expressions and wide eyes. . I remember one Evanston Express back in the day ground to an abrupt stop and the conductor stepped out on the platform hailed by a passenger to see a large cloud of smoke coming from under the car body. He thought he had fried the brakes, and it turned out they had fried the traction motor..no surprise there. Bruce
gunrunnerjohn: The acceleration is very smooth in the subways, but the stops are not nearly as smooth in many cases. When they're stopping and you're standing, you want to be holding on!
The acceleration is very smooth in the subways, but the stops are not nearly as smooth in many cases. When they're stopping and you're standing, you want to be holding on!
You got that right!
The smoothness of stops seemed to be pretty much motorman dependent. A rare few were consistently good stoppers. The ones that drove me nuts slowed the train quick and smooth only to stop it with a big jolt. Fortunately, after a stop or two we hapless riders usually figured it out. Urban survival, never again!
Pete
Pete, I second that oath of never again. I had to ride the EL daily and some motormen took the sharp curvature above the streets as a Grand Prix challenge. The screaming of flanges for new riders made for more than a few silent hail mary's.. that showed on their pained expressions and wide eyes.
. I remember one Evanston Express back in the day ground to an abrupt stop and the conductor stepped out on the platform hailed by a passenger to see a large cloud of smoke coming from under the car body. He thought he had fried the brakes, and it turned out they had fried the traction motor..no surprise there.
Bruce
Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.
gunrunnerjohn The acceleration is very smooth in the subways, but the stops are not nearly as smooth in many cases. When they're stopping and you're standing, you want to be holding on!
"You can’t study the darkness by flooding it with light." - Edward Abbey -
Texas Pete Those cars were used on the A train of my youth, and that departure was exactly right, therefore it was completely realistic. The acceleration is fast and smooth, no problem for standees. Pete
Those cars were used on the A train of my youth, and that departure was exactly right, therefore it was completely realistic. The acceleration is fast and smooth, no problem for standees.
I am now double awed. They must have gone through a lot of brake shoes. I thought incorrectly that this run was one of those "let's see what this stuff can do".. sort of once in a lifetime opportunities like that great account in TRAINS of taking a last opportunity to take a PRR T1 to it's upper limits... Impressive to say the least on both counts. Never too old to learn something. Thanks Pete for clarifying this. I rode the Chicago CTA in the era of ex PCC cars running on the El and there's no comparison ( at least in my memory) of this kind of acceleration in the subway. The only acceleration I saw to compare to this was a vintage film of a IRR "high speed" taking off from a standing stop like a rocket..
Wow, that would be quite a ride. There are many layout visitors who love to see the trains roar around the track like that. Usually 027 curves change their mind.
Doug Murphy 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers...' Henry V.
EIS2 The engine was probably built by Williams. Earl
The engine was probably built by Williams.
Earl
Like the old watch commercial, "takes a licking and keeps on ticking." What was that old Navy acronym, "KISS"..Keep It Simple, Stupid. The long lives of pre and post war equipment toy and prototype seems to attest to the wisdom of this philosophy. Subway equipment that is nearly 80 years old taking off like a rocket is a wonder to see.
These were built around 1940 and owned by a NY subway museum which makes this a pretty impressive acceleration performance. It made me think of of my own trains whipping around defying gravity at times on 027 curves.
Beautiful and smooth, most likely about 2 ft per second/per second computer controlled. It gets you get under way without spilling the passenger's drinks.
Don U. TCA 73-5735
The next time someone remarks that you have a either a heavy hand on the throttle or overly accelerate from a standing stop..show them this video. Yikes. Vintage equipment no less.I thought my crews on the layout were exposed to G forces. No more..imagine being a standee.
watch?v=lpM1ZalRg94&feature=colike
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