Because the railways in Japan were introduced from Britain, and highways then followed railway practice. On Tue, Nov 24, 2020 at 9:19 AM Steve Sattler <sattler31@gmail.com> wrote: Dear all, this question comes from our friend Gedalia at the Weizmann Institute. Why do Japanese drive on the left side of the road?
Dear all, this question comes from our friend Gedalia at the Weizmann Institute. Why do Japanese drive on the left side of the road?
I get nothing when trying to see these pictures; in fact I have trouble even getting to the reply button.
Please, if you have to paste pictures inline or hotlinked, at least take the time to format them correctly and get permission. And stop formatting text that runs off the page when displayed. I don't care if you have to paste it into some cheap word-processing program, convert the text into RTF, and reflow the line and page breaks. Just make it readable to those of us with mobile devices...
Overmod:
1. I had no idea the text would cause problems, and as soon as I saw it did, I went back and did the correction. You visited the thread as I was making the correction in edit mode.
2. I think the ideas presented are worthwhile even if the URL's don't work for you. The server of a New Yorsk City religious institution apears to automatically block any email from me, or possibly from anyone in Israel excepting those on a preferred list, and I've had trouble trying to provide a fellow NYChapter AGO member with my Chapter-wide Thanksgiving-Day message, so maybe your server uses the same resstrictions. Possibly no ideas-rejection intended but block against presumed cyber-warfair danger from this part of the globe.
Going back to the topic: CNW LH running was attributed to British stockholdes, also to the location of all Illinois stations on the north side of the RW and original single track. Which? Or both? Rock's Illinois stations were on the south side, if memory is correct.
I went back to try using the URL again, hoping to post on this thread, and found the page removed.
Yeah, page is still unreadable, and the two sets of pictures still map as unreadable (from two distinctly different servers) - they both say the picture content is inaccessible, not that it is blocked (one set was apparently linked from private files in an e-mail account!)
The ex-IC freight line through Memphis has been 'revised' to work left-handed for CN trains. This is interesting because the Aulon 'cutoff' sees many trains a day to and from the Broadway line and the ex-L&N to the east, and those often work right-handed where possible.
I note that the train in the Ashtabula Horror was on the south side of a double-track bridge when it fell, and thus was left-hand running (LS&MS a few miles into Ohio, mid-1870s).
MC and diningcar might comment about left-hand running on ATSF in the Ash Fork area (and now with the new flyover) for operational reasons. (They have explained this before but I don't remember well enough )
C&NW is famous for left-hand running, but not because of British influence or financing. Instead, on the West Line at least (formerly Galena Division, formerly G&CU), it was because the towns were primarily on the north side of tracks. Passengers and commuters needed the station to remain located there next to the inbound track, for their morning ride into the city once a 2nd track was installed and then a third came later.
We actually looked into this when I was gainfully employed by CNW (ie., before the UP merger). Mr. Hebdo is correct. The generally accepted strategy for locating passenger stations on multiple track in the heyday of railroad passenger service was that they should be located on the track where most of the passengers boarded. That didn't matter when the G&CU (C&NW's ancestor) was constructed west of Chicago, as it was originally only a single track line. But, for reasons lost to history, G&CU constructed the stations on the north side of the track. When the line was double tracked (and later triple tracked east of West Chicago), left hand running permitted the existing stations to continue being used for inbound traffic (the predominate boarding traffic) where they stood. They didn't call C&NW the "cheap and nothing wasted" for nothing.
There actually isn't a compelling reason for right hand operation, and CNW wasn't the only major U.S. to railroad operate left handed. I believe that one of the major components of the NYC (I think it was LS&MS) was left handed for many years, but eventually changed to right handed for consistency with the rest of the NYC system. But CNW kept it longer than most. Of course, today, major multiple track main lines are typically bi-directional CTC (including the CNW line).
Falcon48But, for reasons lost to history, G&CU constructed the stations on the north side of the track.
In northern climates, it's nice to have the station platform with a southern exposure in the colder seasons. It's warmer and helps to melt snow/ice on the platform. It seems I also read this in an article on the C&NW.
Falcon48The generally accepted strategy for locating passenger stations on multiple track in the heyday of railroad passenger service was that they should be located on the track where most of the passengers boarded. That didn't matter when the G&CU (C&NW's ancestor) was constructed west of Chicago, as it was originally only a single track line. But, for reasons lost to history, G&CU constructed the stations on the north side of the track. When the line was double tracked (and later triple tracked east of West Chicago), left hand running permitted the existing stations to continue being used for inbound traffic (the predominate boarding traffic) where they stood.
If you look at those towns, almost of the business districts and often the better homes (in those days) were on the north side of the tracks.
Sorry. I had another meltdown with this website and ended up duplicating a number of prior posts. I hate computers.
Here's what I meant to say:
I think the business districts and the "better homes" came after the railroad. As i recall, G&CU's original route was planned to be a little further north close to what's now St. Charles Road (similar to the later CGW alignment), which would have put the town business districts and "better homes" south of the railroad. They were persuaded to lay the line further south by the promoters of the towns (probably by donations of rights of way and other financial inducements).
Wheaton was settled in the late 1830s by the Wheaton brothers. It was settled by more people from Connecticut in the 1840s and the brothers gave a right of way to the G&CU in 1848, which completed laying track out to Elgin by 1850.
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