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Very strange things

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Posted by gmpullman on Tuesday, September 15, 2020 8:10 PM

Miningman
1)  Must be a new route.

It may not take me back to the Pennsy, or even Penn-Central, but I'll at least settle for Con-Rail:

 Altoona_301_97 by Edmund, on Flickr

 Altoona_301_97_crop by Edmund, on Flickr

Back to the Future? Naw, I'll take back to the past any day.

Cheers, Ed

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Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, September 16, 2020 3:17 AM

.

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Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, September 16, 2020 3:22 AM

Flintlock76
if what I've read about them not too long ago is true they were supposed to have been an absolute PITA to drive, for various reasons.

The actual spelling, from the ghastly age that brought you Boxpok, is 'Futurliner'.  It has interesting Latin connotations, almost surely not intended...

You can almost have no idea how bad they were, starting with the fact there were offset duals on the steer axles.  The engines were originally 4-71s, with manual transmission, and I believe drive to all four corners; these were replaced by 145hp gas 302s and 4-speed old style Turbo-Hydramatic primary transmission ... in a twelve-ton vehicle.  You can imagine the fun involved with this railroad-like hp/ton ratio.

Meanwhile you are up at the top of a considerable staircase in the right nose, like climbing into a projection booth, where you found yourself under that bubble-dome 'canopy' full of distorted inside reflections ... with no air conditioning.  Assuming you can get the thing up to Interstate minimum speed, you get a cardiac workout, just like on a GN W-1 going into a tunnel, at every overpass.

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Friday, September 18, 2020 9:22 AM

Well this is the end of the "Strange Things" topic folks.  "Miningman's" been banned from the various Forums, no reason given, so your guess is as good as mine as to why.  

A "Strange Thing" indeed!  

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Posted by SD70Dude on Friday, September 18, 2020 10:23 AM

Well that bites!  But I suppose it was only a matter of time, if they banned Mike for whatever it was he was doing I suppose it was only logical (in their mind) to ban Vince for doing the same stuff. 

For the record, I quite enjoyed reading a lot of that stuff, and I don't think it rated being banned. 

I hope a new user calling himself "Miningdude" or some such name shows up soon!

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

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Posted by Overmod on Friday, September 18, 2020 11:55 AM

Yet another Wade Hoagland possibility, perhaps? It is getting on toward Samhain where various crossings-over from the dead are supposed to be more likely...Whistling  

The thing that bothers me, and perhaps ought to bother Wayne even more, is whether this is a reaction to the recent comment somewhere here that Vince was acting to help a banned member post material that often played fast and loose with copyright (or long quoted material pasted without permission or acknowledgement, which makes some other forum members irate and was one of the supposed 'proximate causes' that took wanswheel from moderation to a formal ban.)

As I recall, we had most of a book chapter reproduced recently, on the topic of train ferries 'north of the border'.  I found this delightfully informative, but others ... perhaps including some associated with the original book ... may have thought it sufficiently less so to complain.

I suppose we may find out more if Wayne has to come back as 'Vaporlock76' or whatever ...

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Friday, September 18, 2020 2:54 PM

I have my suspicions as to what brought the hammer down on Miningman, PM me if any of you want to discuss it.

Don't worry about me, I'm careful just to post links only. 

Anyway, Vince is going to be busy going full-bore to keep the mining school open, so he might not have had the time for any postings for a while.

Still, it's a shame.  Unfair if you ask me. 

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Posted by Erik_Mag on Friday, September 18, 2020 3:43 PM

One of the problems with the embedded images in Mike's and Vince's postings is they they did take up a lot of bandwidth just to get the page loaded. Related to that was having to do a lot of scrolling just to get through the page. Both of these can be a royal PITA for people viewing the forums on a mobile device.

Having said that, I did enjoy Vince's posts.

 

N.B.: Images are fine when done in moderation.

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Posted by pennytrains on Friday, September 18, 2020 7:06 PM

We know you're watching and we love you Vince!  Big Smile

Big Smile  Same me, different spelling!  Big Smile

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Posted by Overmod on Saturday, September 19, 2020 8:29 AM

Erik_Mag
Related to that was having to do a lot of scrolling just to get through the page.

For those who may not know, there is an option (in Settings/Advanced Options/Site options, at the top) to view posts "Newest to Oldest".  This makes it possible to deal with monster posts that have many pages or inches in them, and monster threads that run to multiple pages.  Infuriatingly the MR forum does not observe this global setting (you have to click 'Descending' above each thread every time you open one) but the Trains Magazine forum and this one do recognize it.

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, September 19, 2020 9:18 AM

pennytrains

We know you're watching and we love you Vince!  Big Smile

 

Vince says "Thanks so much Becky!"  He really appreciates the sentiment!

And yes, he is watching!

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Posted by Jones1945 on Sunday, September 20, 2020 1:46 AM

Becky is right. I also want to thank you Vince for all his interesting posts and contributions! 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, September 20, 2020 4:10 PM

Rest assured Mr. Jones, he's looking in!  And I'm more than sure he appreciates your thoughts!

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Posted by BaltACD on Sunday, September 20, 2020 7:42 PM

I am not a copyright lawyer!

To my mind - If it gets on the web, no matter how or by who - it is now in the public domain.

Anything Wanswheel or Miningman have posted have been from somewhere on the web and thus from the public domain.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, September 20, 2020 8:51 PM

BaltACD

I am not a copyright lawyer!

To my mind - If it gets on the web, no matter how or by who - it is now in the public domain.

Anything Wanswheel or Miningman have posted have been from somewhere on the web and thus from the public domain.

 

I kind of feel the same way.  If the "owners" don't want people looking at the material and downloading it in whatever form WHY make it available to begin with?  But what do I know?  This has been argued ad nauseum  in the Forums for years.  

As I said earlier, that's why I just post the links, either to a web site or YouTube video.  Supposedly you won't get in trouble that way, at least no-one's told me not to do it.

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Posted by SD70Dude on Sunday, September 20, 2020 11:00 PM

If you think this place is bad, you should see the copyright arguments and fights over photo credit on Facebook.

One particular ongoing battle comes to mind, about 10 years ago a longtime Canadian railfan and photographer named Peter passed away, his heirs allowed another railfan (and railroader) named Mark to scan and digitize a number of Peter's photos.

Mark then emailed the photos to a select group of friends, with strict instructions to only enjoy them and not use them for profit, and to only share them further if those instructions were included.  Before long they started showing up in magazines, most notably the gossip rag "Canadian Railway Observations", whose owner already had a reputation for snagging photos off the internet and using them without permission, not to mention never paying royalties.  The CRO owner also shared at least one of the photos without including the proper credit information, and it ended up being posted online with him being credited as the source instead of Peter. 

Mark blew a gasket and swore to never share the photos ever again, but he failed to follow his own advice and so this story has repeated itself a couple times over the years. 

What do I think about this?  Several things. 

1. The law should state that photos automatically pass into the public domain immediately after the photographer's death.

2. In the absence of that Peter should have left his photos to the public domain in his will.

3.  Mark never earned a cent from all his labours, nor did he intend to.  The point of all his work was to preserve and share a bunch of historic images.  So why get mad over someone else spreading them around further, regardless of how slimy that person may be, and even if the slimeball is making a profit off it? 

4.  Instead of emailing them around Mark should have uploaded them to a site like Flickr or Railpictures.net, so that as many people as possible have free access to them.  

I'm starting to think I should join that Swedish file-sharing religion, they believe that the sharing of information is sacred.

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

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Posted by Overmod on Sunday, September 20, 2020 11:30 PM

This is reminiscent of a different future, for audio files, in the halcyon years when AT&T/Lucent were going to be the major players in digital, before Frauenhofer and other efficient codecs changed the face of digital music.  The idea was that the digital equivalent of 'radio' quality (50-15kHz) would be provided 'free' (with some internal watermarking code intended specifically to prevent resale for money of any 'free' content, the idea probably being adapted from copyleft) and those are the files that would be shared on cheap devices.  The high-quality, serious listener audio ("CD quality" and the 48kHz/96kHz premium content to be the counterpart of SACD and the like) would then be sold with appropriate copy protection, and any 'downloading' of those could be rightly prosecuted.

The 'answer' to publication on the Web is the same thing as what many image sellers on eBay do: watermark the hell out of any content actually served to be copied, with the unrestricted copies only available upon signing of the equivalent of a NDA (and stiff DMCA-like penalties for everyone who proceeded to crossload unwatermarked versions outside the agreed scope, including Napster-style takedown and artificially draconian penalties and 'consequences' anywhere the pirated images might be located...)

If you are using the pictures for education or most noncommercial uses, the presence of watermarks isn't that much of a concern.  Those seeking restricted use of the image 'with permission' have only to ask ... as they are supposed to do anyway.  And those who want to make a buck ... have to do what anyone else who wants to make a fair buck has to do: pay fairly for the resources used.

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, September 21, 2020 8:46 AM

I don't mind if someone makes a buck by using one of my posted photos.

Most people are ethical, and to demonstrate that fact one would expect at least credit the photographer and the Kalmbach website as the source.

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Posted by BaltACD on Monday, September 21, 2020 11:30 AM

daveklepper
I don't mind if someone makes a buck by using one of my posted photos.

Most people are ethical, and to demonstrate that fact one would expect at least credit the photographer and the Kalmbach website as the source.

In posting photos in the Kalmbach world - the link to the photo has to be used with either the [img] tags or through the use of the 'Install/Edit Photo' dialog box.  To my mind that link is the attribution of the source.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by pennytrains on Monday, September 21, 2020 7:34 PM

BaltACD

 

 
daveklepper
I don't mind if someone makes a buck by using one of my posted photos.

Most people are ethical, and to demonstrate that fact one would expect at least credit the photographer and the Kalmbach website as the source.

 

In posting photos in the Kalmbach world - the link to the photo has to be used with either the [img] tags or through the use of the 'Install/Edit Photo' dialog box.  To my mind that link is the attribution of the source.

 

Yes, I agree.  At the very least if you right click on a photo you can usually discern the return path and find the site of origin.  I use that technique often to explore in greater detail.

We run into this issue a lot in the paper modelling community.  A lot of us want our work to be free for anyone to download and build the models we design.  But we also have to be on guard for each other because a really good kit can show up on Ebay.  (Usually with a far east seller posting it.)

Big Smile  Same me, different spelling!  Big Smile

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Wednesday, September 23, 2020 4:35 PM

In my own humble way I'm going to try and put a little more life in this thread.

How's about three minutes of Jersey Central?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BfIILYpsD8  

Watch the starbord side of the YouTube screen, there's more where this came from!

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Wednesday, November 11, 2020 9:48 AM

One last post on the "Strange Things" thread.

Vince, our lost "Miningman," asked me to say a final good-bye for him to all of you, his loyal fans and followers, he's not ever going to attempt a come-back here, even under a disguise.  Crying

BUT, with some new electronic toys on hand he's going to try doing a new classic railroading website of his own!  I'll be sure to keep everyone posted "if and when" it debuts.  

He sends his fond regards to all!  He's not through railroadin' yet!

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Posted by pennytrains on Wednesday, November 11, 2020 7:06 PM

Flintlock76
He's not through railroadin' yet!

Never doubted that for a second!  Big Smile

Big Smile  Same me, different spelling!  Big Smile

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Posted by Jones1945 on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 7:30 AM

Thanks, Miningman and Wayne! I am looking forward to his new "Classic Train Station" Wink.

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