daveklepper But in January, CATS told the Federal Transit Administration that it was, for now, opting out of a program to increase capacity on the line. CATS said it hoped to resume work by 2024.
Why can't CATS operate 3 car trains and leave the third car off the platform and not open the doors at short stations ?. That would be much like NYC subway ? Probably require some software changes ?
Also some signage at 3 car plaforms. This poster is constantly puzzled and dismayed why agencies do not provide for fouture extensions of platforms, It is very easy to provide utility conduits that terminate at the ends of platforms instead of having to dig up platforms to connect to utilities.
The extensions also sometimes have problems extending because original platforms did not provide for long enough sidings. Another problem for some agencies is not providing stations that have future plans for additional tracks that build platforms that will be torn out to accommodate another track(s). Example is VRE
Note: TriRail did build platforms for additional track that was installed at FLL Airport station.
You would think they could address the short-platform issue with the New York expedient of yellow stripes on the long platforms marking the zone that will have doors open at the shorter ones. That would have the effect of making the third car a virtual 'express' (albeit at regular speed) for the rush-hour people who will not often need to get off the train at shorter platforms inbound, and relieving at least some of the congestion in the 'regular' two cars outbound.
You are right. I think I could not read enough of the story as the right-hand ⅔ is cut off on a phone
The article clearly states that even before implementation of "The Trolley," parking is going to be improved and expanded. At the Zoo.
Please reread the article. Thanks!
I got exactly the opposite impression from the story: that parking at the zoo is so cramped, and access from some off-site parking to the zoo so dangerous for people with young children, that a trolley to give safe transport from 'distant parking' a bit like an airport parking shuttle is a preferred solution. Counterflow from zoo parking to 'downtown' attractions after hours would certainly seem an attractive benefit, but right now I suspect much of the required attractions and infrastructure for that will remain 'unbuilt' until the trolley is in place and running.
The story did not answer that question. It has been a long time since I have been in Norristown. How close is the Transportation Center to the downtown area, the theatre for example?
The purpose of the streetcar seems to be to enable visitors to downtown Norristown to use the zoo's parking facilities, and not have to worry about downtown parking. It doesn't seem to be primarily a part of the overall public transportation system, allowing people from Philadelphia to visit the Zoo without driving, but using public transportation instead. Maybe that will require a future extension?
Will the proposed Norristown trolley go all the way to the transportation center to connect with existing trains/transit?
Tucson, Ariz.
Yes, I do like the classic TTC paint scheme. Interesting to see how it could have been adapted for a fish-bowel-like.
Also, did ride all the PSNJ lines that ran through WWII, so the films did bring back memeories.
In 1948 and 1949, a warm day in Spring would see my Columbia Grammar Preparatory School class go on a pleasure trip to The Palasades. Once free to enjoy ourselves, I would dissapear from the class by catching a PSNJ bus south to Weehawken and spend the rest of the day riding streetcars, using the Hudson and Manhattan from either Journal Square on the Jackson line or Hoboken, to go home in time for dinner in the evening. Hoboken was a terminal for all the lines except for Western Electric-Federal, which was a rush hour WWII instigated operation put together from parts of the old Jersey City - Newark line and some abandoned freight trackage to bring workers to the Western Electric plant. The Weehawken, Union City, and Jackson lines used the Hoboken Elevated, the latter for its entire length. There was one other line from Hoboken, also using the elevated, that looped not far from the NJ entrance and exit of the Holland Tunnel, and maybe someone can refresh my memory for its name.
The wires and electric buses are gone, naturally- this is where the Dundas streetcar would turn around. The Dundas car north of Bloor was discontinued and replaced by the trolleys after the Bloor subway was extended west of Keele Street and the trolleys were withdrawn in about 1991. That blue building is still there as is the former bank on the southeast corner of Dundas and Runnymede. Here and there are the abandoned poles for the trolley bus wire on any of the routes where they served. The electric bus garage on Lansdowne was torn down about 15 years ago and is now a storage yard full of piles of gravel. Just a few doors east of the bank used to be a real old-time hardware store, the only place I know where you could buy a 1/2 pound of 6d nails and they'd be put in a paper bag. Sadly they closed down after 90 years in business.
So here is one for Dave K....and Trolley fans. Both types are quite appealing considering they are rubber tyred Trolleys but the older paint scheme is better in my humble opinion.
Flyer 9267 in new paint scheme and Marmon-Harrington 9152 in old colours. Overhead wires realigned directly into loop from Dundas Street (looking east). Note: Diamond Taxi in their taxi stand on east side of Runnymede.
Here's an interesting fact about early-life immunization. While records were kept of these things the US Army found that from the Civil War up to World War One regiments raised in American cities were healthier than those raised in rural areas.
The reason wasn't too hard to figure out. Any diseases (and disease was the biggest killer of soldiers up to World War Two, not enemy bullets) those recruits from the cities were likely to catch they'd already caught and survived, the population density of the cities was the reason. Recruits from rural areas that didn't have the population density and the intense human contact that comes with it weren't exposed to those same diseases, and when they were hit with them they were hit hard and usually died from them.
54light15 Top hat, sure. And spats. Maybe some high boots to deal with the horse manure. But make sure you have your polio shot first.
Top hat, sure. And spats. Maybe some high boots to deal with the horse manure. But make sure you have your polio shot first.
Speaking of polio--I remember seeing quite a few years ago, I think on PBS, a program about polio that claimed that it was not a serious problem back when horses were everywhere because almost everyone came in contact with it in infancy. Apparently, at a very early age the body's immune system could cope with it, and once you had it, you were immune for life. I remember it because it seemed to be a case where more sanitary conditions caused an epidemic.
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"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
Life expectancy in 1900? I think the average was 55 years old. Certainly if you were a child back then you had only a 50/50 chance of making it to adulthood.
An interesting thing I've noticed from being a student of history. Back in those days, it seemed the longer you lived the better your chances were of living longer. 55 may have been the average, but quite a few people lived much longer than that.
Anyway, I'd certainly love to go back to those days for a visit, but I certainly wouldn't want to stay there.
But who knows for sure? If any of those people in the film were still around today, I'm sure a lot of them would say "Come now, my good man. It wasn't all bad!"
I'm not sure how good I'd look in a top hat, or a derby for that matter.
I know, that was sort of a theme of one of Woody Allen's recent films, "Midnight in Paris." If you're ever going back in time, make sure you have all your shots. Life expectency wasn't much back in 1900.
Ghosts is right..man those sidewalks were packed with people.
Really be something of an experience to spend an afternoon there at that time. Have to buy a top hat first though.
'Bout time we kicked some life back into this thread!
I found this old, old bit of footage, shot by Edison in 1903. It's a trolley ride through the streets of Boston as it was at the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGBN8_9aGmY
Take a deep breath before you click the link, because when you do for the next eight minutes you will be in the company of ghosts.
A fascinating film clip, but a bit eerie as well.
Now I know this thread's supposed to be about trolleys, and not the stinky, smelly, smoke-belching diesel buses that replaced them, but the following old radio commercial's too good to pass up, especially if you remember it like I do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjVF0IKKlZc
Sometimes you can get nostalgic for buses too.
Great websites, Firelock, thanks for posting. We don't have diners here in Canada but the equivalent would be the souvlaki and burger joints in every town. Usually storefronts, sometimes free standing buildings. Go in and ask for a cheeseburger with onions and lettuce. The guy will interrupt you and say, "Chizbooger!" (really) then he will cook it and then say, "What you like?" Every single one of these places works just this way. I eat at these places all the time.
54Light, you pretty much hit the high points concerning diners.
"Roadside" magazine as we knew it, Lady F and I were subscribers once, doesn't exist anymore, however for fans of the magazine there is a website...
www.roadsidefans.com
"Roadside Fans" trys to pick up where the old mag left off concerning diner culture, and it's well worth a look.
I'll tell you, Lady F and I, along with our friend Shotgun Charlie, would rather go to a good, solid, reliable diner than any fancy restaurant around. When we're hungry, we want food, and plenty of it, not atmosphere.
Unfortunately, where we live in Virginia now there's no diners in the conventional sense, we have to go back to New Jersey for them.
There's another website, www.njdiners.com which is fun, but it looks like it hasn't been updated for several years.
For a real treat, check this site out, www.johnbaeder.com
John Baeder's an artist of the "Photo-Realist" school, and one of his favorite subjects is diners. Go to the "Oil" and "Watercolor" sections of his site to see them. Who knows, you may find a favorite diner you've been to!
If you like old diners, "lunch wagons" and the like, go to Worcerster, Massachusetts. That seems to be the place where it's a major cult and I think where it all started. There's some awesome historic diners there. As I understand it, diners were made to look like trolley cars but were never actual transit vehicles but some must have been. The key thing that designates it as a proper diner is that it was built in a factory and trucked to the site. There is or was a diner newsletter called "Roadside" that you could pick up in diners. It's got articles about restorations, manufacturers, recipes and all kinds of info. Similar to a magazine that we all read.
In Red Hook, New York is the Red Hook Diner on Route 9, a 1927 Kullman that is on the National Register. Best home fries I ever ate! There's several at exits on the Taconic Parkway such as the Chief Taghkanic at the Route 23 exit to Hillsdale, New York. It's like stepping back in time in that place.
That's a good point too Overmod. I'll say this much though, I've had some pretty good snacks n' stuff out of roach coaches over the years.
And of course, Mr. Magoo's old alma mater Rutgers has it's "Grease Truck" tradition!
I think he means that local governments or citizens didn’t want their neighborhoods dotted with shabby streetcars, the prewar equivalent of roach coaches. Not that manufacturers of diners colluded with Public Service or scrapyards to see the cars ‘halved’ or burned to increase their potential market share...
I think he means
MidlandMike NJ built a lot of diner style restaurants. Maybe they didn't want people using old trolleys a a cheap substitute.
NJ built a lot of diner style restaurants. Maybe they didn't want people using old trolleys a a cheap substitute.
Ummm, maybe. It's as good a guess as any. New Jersey had a number of diner manufacturers, Kullman, Tierney, and O'Mahoney spring to mind, but collusion between them and Public Service to keep old trolleys out of the hands of those who'd convert them to eaterys seems a bit unlikely.
But hey, who knows? It would take quite a bit of work and a total gut job of an old trolley to turn it into a serviceable diner, however. Might have been cheaper to buy a new purpose-built diner, they did come in all sizes and the financing usually was quite reasonable.
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