wjstix I'd argue - since I'm old and argumentative - that a roller coaster wouldn't count as riding a train, since it's not self-powered.
I'd argue - since I'm old and argumentative - that a roller coaster wouldn't count as riding a train, since it's not self-powered.
Oxford dictionary sez a train is: a series of railroad cars moved as a unit by a locomotive or by integral motors.
Same me, different spelling!
One might argue that a railroad definition of 'train' would be more appropriate in this situation than an OED or even Fowlerite one.
But even so, no current coaster would qualify -- they all lack the requisite markers to display...
True. Cars are cars and locomotives are locomotives but like die casting, the word train has been morphed by the uninitiated to mean anything they think it should mean. However trains of coaster cars make more sense than trains of Frisco cable cars.
pennytrains However trains of coaster cars make more sense than trains of Frisco cable cars.
However trains of coaster cars make more sense than trains of Frisco cable cars.
To be an annoying pedant...
Many of the cable car lines used a grip car to haul trailers, so some cable lines did operate trains. OTOH, I would expect that the cable trailers were on lines that were relatively flat such as in Chicago as opposed to the steep hills in san franCISco.
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Hey, when did SLSF have cable equipment? That's a whole new one on me.
The accepted correct term for the Bay City is just SF, the same as it is for 'science fiction' instead of sci-fi.
If you must capitalize your stereoisomers, isn't there more of it that's technically San FranTRANSco? (What you meant to write was FrANCisco, a left reading-frame, or a register, shift or something, simple but significant...)
Don't the locals call it "Frisco?"
The "san franCISco" is the way I remember the locals pronouncing during my Bezerkeley years. Bay area was pronounced as one long word...
The San Diego area has a few place names that are useful for separating the locals from the tourists. Garnet is one that comes to mind.
Most cities have something like that.
In the 1980's I was the faculty advisor/sponsor for the railroad club at our high school ("The Theodore Roosevelt Guild of Railway Enthusiasts"). A few years after he graduated, I ran into one of our former presidents on the Cedar Point & Lake Erie RR. He was the engineer, and just as grimy from his work as he might have been had he worked for the New York Central in 1925. Needless to say, he was delighted with his job!
Since then he has spent his working life as a Boomer, employed by several small roads, always in engine service. The C.P. & L.E. gave him a great start to his career.
Among my former students are any number of doctors, lawyers, scientists, professors and the like, but just one steam locomotive engineer, of whom I'm very proud.
54light15 Don't the locals call it "Frisco?"
Well I do
NKP guy In the 1980's I was the faculty advisor/sponsor for the railroad club at our high school ("The Theodore Roosevelt Guild of Railway Enthusiasts"). A few years after he graduated, I ran into one of our former presidents on the Cedar Point & Lake Erie RR. He was the engineer, and just as grimy from his work as he might have been had he worked for the New York Central in 1925. Needless to say, he was delighted with his job!
That reminds me of Winston Churchill's career advice to his children:
"Do what you like, but LIKE what you do!"
He'll never get rich but I'm sure your former student is one happy guy!
54light15Don't the locals call it "Frisco?"
54light15, I know you're kidding. Actually, in California it's known simply as "the City."
Among the Argonauts, calling the City "Frisco" will earn you a correction that's always embarrassing.
* * * * *
Flintlock, you are so right about him.
CSSHEGEWISCH wjstix I'd argue - since I'm old and argumentative - that a roller coaster wouldn't count as riding a train, since it's not self-powered. Based on that definition, riding the cable cars in San Francisco wouldn't count, either.
My thinking here was that most roller-coasters, at least 'traditional' ones, are coasters... i.e. they make their journey coasting downhill, using gravity as the only power. Since cables cars move on their own up and down hills via under-the-track cables they access, I would think they'd qualify as being 'powered' vehicles.
The cable may be analogous to the chain that pulls the coaster up the first grade (with all sorts of clicking and whirring) before that hair-raising first drop.
I found 3 grainy photos of C. P. & L. E. operations from the 1988 to 1991 time frame.
https://link.shutterfly.com/uBnqzDCZStb
2-6-0 #3 "Albert" is retired and sits by the "old" mainline station platform near Millennium Force. You can also see loco #22 "Myron H." and I think the "Judy K." on the engine house leads. The big red building in the background is the Cedars Hotel turned employee dormitory. If you look just beyond the pole on the right side of that photo you can see the big pile of coal.
More on these locomotives: https://cplerr.weebly.com/locomotive-navigation.html
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