Miningman Firelock --Video "Unavailable" ,,,try from another angle
Firelock --Video "Unavailable" ,,,try from another angle
OK. I got it. I'm having trouble with gremlins tonight.
I thought gremlins disappeared with the end of World War Two! Or when Warner Brothers stopped starring them in Bugs Bunny cartoons! Jeez! Try 'em again everybody.
Yup...works good now! Thanks Firelock.
Always saw ads and coupons for the Palisades Park on the back pages of comic books.
Marvel comics used Palisades as a backdrop for many of the encounters between the superhero and the villain. The big tip off was that parachute ride thingie.
I was always like ' geez, not fair, I can't go there but some day I will!
By the time I could it was a goner. Went to an N-Trak meet in that area and was so disappointed to discover of its demise. My best memory from that trip was finding some really rare hard to get Arnold Rapido auto racks, stopping to tap the Tapeen Zee bridge and taking a guys door off of his car with my ex Niagara Tours Bus on a very narrow street. We settled up, no problems.
I still laugh out loud when I recall the look on that guys face.
An N-Trak meet in that area? Say, when was that, and was Northern New Jersey N-Trak the hosting organization? You may have run into Lady Firestorm's brother "Big B!"
Yes we discussed that some time ago....I was with the Bluewater International group out of Sarnia/Port Huron. Cannot remember the hosting club...SONS Group? Perhaps if I concentrate I will get it by the morning. Perhaps '89-'90? Possibly a bit later.
I was just founding a new group around that time called the MOB...Misssissauga, Oakville, Burlington. We may have represented ourselves as that, or at least announcing it.
I do not have Dave Kleppers recall of minutia and detail...met a lot of people, you are really pressured and focused at that those things to get set up and not screw up. Can recall quite a bit but names are fading.
Ask your brother in law if he had his door ripped off by some jerk from Canada driving a tour bus.
Northern New Jersey Group...yes maybe! either that or Society of N Scalers.
It went well but they ran a tight ship. Nerve racking experience really, that I remember. The Bluewater group I was with were a pretty laid back bunch, not used to that level of discipline.
It was fun though. My modules, 3 of them, featured custom painted GTW green and gold and steam from the mid fifties.
Maybe I can help you a bit.
Here's the site for Northern New Jersey N-Trak, http://www.nnjn-trak.org
When you get to the home page, scroll down to "Atlantic City N-Scale Weekend."
Look for "Mike Wongs Photo Site," click on that. A photo album of the meet will come up, proceed to page nine, there's a group shot of the members in the middle of the spread, click on it, click again for max enlargement. "Big B's" wearing a baseball cap and standing under sign right under the "www."
I very much doubt you took a door off his car, he'd be talking about it non-stop from that day to this!
Yeah pretty sure that was the hosting club. Probably did meet Big B. Maybe he remembers the Grand Trunk guy. There was precious little available painted for GTW in those days so I had a lot of custom painted...passenger cars, freight cars, loco's. Probably 25-27 years ago. Good grief. What the heck happened with the time. Not fair. Can we get a Mulligan on that?
Took one of my daughters with me, she was maybe 8 or 9 at the time. She always wore her Chessie girls T shirts to the train shows and N-Trak meets. Even today she has a cat named Chessie. Another great memory- We stayed in a place that had a Murphy Bed, as the second bed in the room. I knew of them but never really saw a real one and she thought that was the coolest thing ever. Once in a while it still comes up in a conversation.
She loved crawling underneath and throwing all the accessory switches and seeing that everything worked. Had a lot of animation and operating signals. Also a pretty good sky hook when needed.
Oh I know! A train passed by my signal on one of the tracks and it went from green to red and a big fella a couple of modules down from me called out and said..." Did I just see that signal go from green to red...how did you do that!" Maybe that was Big B.
To get back on track:
They ripped up the tracks in Hamilton and replaced the streetcars with rubber tired trolley buses. I did not like them.
Seemed like every time I glanced at one the driver was outside with that long pole trying to get his contact back with the wires. Everyday common occurance. Especially on turns.
Also the wires created a spaghetti mess in the sky above you, especially at four way corners and other intersections. Looked like heck.
Eventually replaced slowly (started in the 70's but the last late into the 90's) by stinky black smoke belching Diesels. Really hated them. Those things stopped everywhere and when your walking along the sidewalk you would inevitably get skunked by the exhaust as it pulled out from a stop.
Hamilton Street Railway, HSR, ran an express Diesel bus, very limited stops, from Burlington to Hamilton over the Skyway bridge that got me to my Grandma's Fish and Chip shop for Thurs, Friday and Sat. nights where I delivered fish and chips wrapped in newspaper on a bicycle like a crazed weasel. The windows opened on that bus, and I would lean on my elbow at the open window and peer at the great view of the steel works along the shoreline of Bulington Bay. That bus easily hit 75mph over the bridge which is part of the Queen Elizabeth Highway (QEW). It was very lightly patronized, at times I was the only one. Would sit near the back and have a smoke!...t was a safe place where I would not get into trouble. I was 13, 14. That is the one and only good memory of riding a Diesel bus. Looked forward to those trips as my private chauffeur at speed where I could sneak a smoke, lean out the window and the world was mine!
Now that would not happen today under any circumstances. The driver would probably be charged!
None of them had the charm of the streetcars, which I also rode as a youngster wth my mom. Loved that clang clang. The lighting was warm, not like in the buses, and to a kid the car seemed so big and safe...very serious seats and steps! Every time was an adventure.
Firelock76 Palisades Amusement Park in Cliffside Park NJ, now gone, had a symbiotic relationship with the local trolley lines. No trolley company built it, but they sure made money bringing patrons to the park. If you're from that part of the country like I am, and you remember, I'm sure you'll get a kick out of this... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOjvDVO3Jzw
Palisades Amusement Park in Cliffside Park NJ, now gone, had a symbiotic relationship with the local trolley lines. No trolley company built it, but they sure made money bringing patrons to the park.
If you're from that part of the country like I am, and you remember, I'm sure you'll get a kick out of this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOjvDVO3Jzw
Freddy Cannon at 80
http://www.gettyimages.com/license/97299674
Excerpt from NY Times, Sept. 13, 1981
http://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/13/nyregion/palisades-park-just-a-memory.html?mcubz=3
The park was opened in 1895 by the Bergen Traction Company, a trolley line hoping to attract evening and weekend riders by featuring the park as the carrier's terminus. The park overlooked the Hudson River, straddling what is now Cliffside Park and Fort Lee. Between 1907 and 1909, it introduced a crude potpourri of diversions, including a Ferris wheel, a baby parade and diving horses. In 1910, the Realty Trust Company purchased the property, promising that the park would be ''devoted to families, ladies and children ... a perfectly safe and sane place to visit.'' To lure New Yorkers, the company built a scenic railroad that ran from the ferry slip in Edgewater up to the park. At the time, and despite a local newspaper's praise of the company's efforts, 60 separate affidavits were filed by residents angered over the noise caused by the train's whistle and the park itself.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Hudson_County_Railway
Hard to find photos of Hamilton Street Railway streetcars.
I rode these as a kid as described above.
Maybe Dave K. Could shed some light .
Car 417. Note different colour doors compared to car 409 above.
Four photos: Eugene Van Dusen/Joseph Testagrose Collection
HSR 526 on Belt Line route. One of 48 cars built by National Steel Car
As far as I know, the Hamilton arch-roof cars were built after WWII, and were the last North American streetcars built (until Portland, OR started the true streetcar revival) that were not PCCs, except the interurban-suburban Red Arrow St. Louis-built cars that had double-end PCC bodies, two saved and now being rebuilt as true PCCs for San Francisco E-line streetcar service. All pre-WWII Hamilton cars had deck-roofs, like Atlanta's, still being steel one-man safetly cars. And Hamilton's streetcars were well maintained to the end. As noted, the replacements were trackless trolleys. And I presume at least one Hamilton streetcar was preserved.
Dave Klepper- Thanks so much for that. It's possible that the Halton County Railway Museum has one of Hamiltons cars.
Halton Radial Railway Museum is the correct name. Of the Hamilton Street Railway streetcar fleet there is, and they have, only the body of car #521 built by National Steel Car. It is pending restoration.
The museum also has 2 of the HSR trolley buses.
They have a lot of equipment and some of it running on their own track.
Just go to Halton Radial Railway Museum for more information.
My God, when did Freddie "Boom-Boom" Cannon turn 80?
And I stand corrected, Palisades Park was opened by Bergen Traction Company, I though it just sprang up as an independent operation.
Bergen Traction eventually became part of the Public Service Co-Ordinated Transit trolley system.
Here's a goodie I found, it's a song from 1904 called "On A Good Old Trolley Ride," brought to you courtesy of Mr. Edison's wonderful talking machine and the magic of You Tube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d3TDPE0K2c
I always wondered what was meant by "radial railway".
I believe it refers to a rail system with very tight radius curves.
MidlandMike I always wondered what was meant by "radial railway".
CSSHEGEWISCH is correct.
I stand corrected.
Firelock, thanks for the Palisades videos- I sure remember the song. On the first one, the guy in the bowler hat at .43 I am sure is Fatty Arbuckle. When the video came up, on the side was another about Officer Joe Bolton's 100th birthday- I loved that guy! Officer Joe and the Three Stooges, what a great thing to watch after school.
I remember Officer Joe very well myself, also how enjoyable it was to come home from a hard day at school and turn on the Stooges. I mean, what kid doesn't enjoy seeing grown men making total fools of themselves?
Hard to believe Officer Joe would be over 100 years old now if he wasn't still dead.
Good times.
Firelock76Hard to believe Officer Joe would be over 100 years old now if he wasn't still dead.
If it helps any, he is over 100 years old now even if he is still dead.
I did not know as a kid that Joe Bolton had a LONG career in broadcasting, starting in 1927, and was a respected senior figure when he took up kids' programming (I was too young to remember anything but the Stooges and Dick Tracy).
I have to wonder who is programming sidebars these days: Joe died in 2010. It's not exactly breaking news.
He's still dead- I'm still laughing!
I find You Tube videos pop up whenever they pop up. Seems it's whenever the poster feels like posting it.
On the other hand, it may have been there for a while. Sometimes they show themselves if they've got something to do with another posted vid.
I was suprised myself that Joe Bolton got his start in broadcasting at the age of 17, can you imagine the mature speaking voice he had at that age to make it in radio?
I'll say this much for him, even though he never was a real one Joe Bolton really looked like a New York City cop!
A correction: Joe died in 1986. The You Tube video's from 2010.
Firelock76 I mean, what kid doesn't enjoy seeing grown men making total fools of themselves?
Me. I remember in grade school hearing other kids talking about them, but when I did see them as a short feature at a movie, I thought it was all just stupid violence. Then, in my fifties, I started watching them on TV re-runs and started to appreciate them. Second childhood?
_____________
"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
Firelock76 Hard to believe Officer Joe would be over 100 years old now if he wasn't still dead.
I have to wonder who is programming sidebars these days: Joe’s 100th anniversary came back in 2010. It's not exactly breaking news. [Corrected from confusing and mistaken statement that he died that year]
http://www.gettyimages.com/license/97331975
http://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/16/obituaries/joseph-bolton-3d-75-officer-joe-on-wpix.html
Terrific scenes of steam, a wide variety, and equipment, for Sante Fe fans and steam historians. Lots there in the opening scene at the roundhouse.
Speaking of Officer Joe, there's Captain Jack McCarthy- I recall him announcing the St. Patrick's Day parade and I recall him getting loaded near the end. The story was that people would give him shots of Jameson's during the commercials.
54light15 Speaking of Officer Joe, there's Captain Jack McCarthy- I recall him announcing the St. Patrick's Day parade and I recall him getting loaded near the end. The story was that people would give him shots of Jameson's during the commercials.
OH, so THAT'S why his Irish brogue got heavier and heavier as the parade went on! I always wondered.
I'll say this much, both Captain Jack and Officer Joe had wonderful speaking voices. In addition to the kids shows they hosted they also did station voice-over's, newscasts, you name it. Ol' WPIX in New York had quite a staff of pinch-hitters.
Speaking of WPIX, anyone remember this on Channel 11 Thanksgiving Day?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC5Ltba-dUM
Hey, they left out the bayonet charge! I'm gonna fix that right now! OOO-RAH!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDdhg8CyeUo
All you old Channel 11 kids are gonna love this!
Absolutely nothing to do with trolleys, I know, but as long as we're on a New York area nostalgia roll we've just got to go with it, right?
Oh hell, yeah! March of the Wooden Soldiers- every Thanksgiving. Look close, you see a mouse tossing a brick at a cat; A tribute to the best cartoonist ever to live, the late, lamented George Herriman of Krazy Kat legend! And then there's King Kong and his little brother, Mighty Joe Young! Every Thanksgiving too or am I wrong about the apes?
Not at all! "King Kong," "Son of Kong," and "Mighty Joe Young" were over on Channel 9, WOR. If memory serves they came on in the early afternoon right after "March Of The Wooden Soldiers" finished on Channel 11.
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