"OUR" PLACE - SEE NEW THREAD!

[siberianmo]

ENCORE! Saturday - ENCORE! Saturday
first Posted on page 181

PASSENGER TRAIN NOSTALGIA #36

Here’s something to ponder with regard to our appreciation and fascination with
Classic Trains. Check this out (from The Official Guide of the Railways – 1956)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . THE LAKER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . CHICAGO – DULUTH – SUPERIOR . . . . .

. . . . . On the Following Fast and Convenient Schedule: . . . . .

NORTHBOUND . . . . . (Daily – Central Standard Time) . . . . . SOUTHBOUND

Lve. CHICAGO . . . . . . . . . . 6 30 PM . . . . . . . . . . Lve. DULUTH . . . . . . . 7 30 PM
Lve. WAUKESHA . . . . . . . . 9 20 PM . . . . . . . . . . Lve. SUPERIOR. . . . . . 8 00 PM
Arr. SUPERIOR . . . . . . . . . .7 48 AM . . . . . . . . . . Arr. WAUKESHA . . . . . 5 40 AM
Arr. DULUTH. . . . . . . . . . . . 8 15 AM . . . . . . . . . . Arr. CHICAGO. . . . . . . .8 15 AM

FEATURES – Pullman Sleepers offering a variety of private rooms (Bedrooms, Bedroom Suites and Roomettes) and open sections.

Dining – Club – Lounge – Complete Beverage Service and the Best Meals on Wheels.


Enjoy! [tup]

Tom[4:-)][oX)]

ENCORE! Saturday - ENCORE! Saturday


THINK April 12th –
The 1st year Anniversary of ”Our” Place!

[siberianmo]

ENCORE! Saturday - ENCORE! Saturday
first Posted on page 180

PASSENGER TRAIN NOSTALGIA #35

Here’s something to ponder with regard to our appreciation and fascination with
Classic Trains. Check this out (from The Official Guide of the Railways – 1956)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Mountaineer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Famous Train through the CANADIAN ROCKIES

THIS YEAR will operate Daily June 29 thru August 28 between

ST. PAUL – MINNEAPOLIS

. . . . . . . . . . AND THE . . . . . . . . . .

NORTH PACIFIC COAST

Via Soo Line St. Paul-Portal. . . . . . . . . . . Can. Pac. Ry. Portal-Vancouver.

Through Standard Sleeping Cars offering Drawing-room, Compartment, Bedrooms, Roomette and Open Section accommodations, also excellent Dining Car Service.

Note – The Mountaineer is Diesel Electric Powered between ST. PAUL, MINN., and Portal, N.D. and in the Mountains.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . From ST. PAUL June 29 thru Auust 28.
Exmpl . down . . . From VANCOUVER July 2 thru August 31 . . up . . . Exmpl

Sat . . . 9 40 PM .lv St. Paul (C.T.) . . . . . . (Soo Line) . . . . . . . .ar 7:15 AM Sat
“ . . . . 1025 PM lv Minneapolis . . . . . . . . . (Soo Line) . . . . . . . .ar 6 30 AM “
Mon . . 7 15 AM ar Calgary (M.T.) . . . . . . . (Can. Pac.). . . . . . . lv 7 20 PM Thu
“ . . . . 10 30 AM ar Banff . . . . . . . . . . . . . (Can. Pac.) . . . . . . . lv 4 35 PM “
“ . . . . 11 45 AM ar Lake Louise . . . . . . . . .(Can. Pac.) . . . . . . lv 2 40 PM “
“ . . . . 12 55 PM ar Field (M.T.) . . . . . . . . . (Can. Pac.) . . . . . . lv 1 30 PM “
Tue . . . 7 50 AM ar Vancouver (P.T.) . . . . . (Can. Pac.) . . . . . . lv 6 30 PM Wed
“ . . . . 10 00 AM lv Vancouver . . . . . . . . . . (C.P.S.S.) . . . . . . . ar 5 25 PM “
“ . . . . 2 15 PM ar Victoria . . . . . . . . . . . . .(C.P.S.S.) . . . . . . . lv 1 10 PM “
“ . . . . 9 00 PM ar Seattle (P.T.) . . . . . . . . .(C.P.S.S.) . . . . . . . lv 8 00 AM “

C.T. – Central time; M.T. – Mountain Time; P.T. – Pacific Time


Enjoy! [tup]

Tom[4:-)][oX)]


ENCORE! Saturday - ENCORE! Saturday

THINK April 12th –
The 1st year Anniversary of ”Our” Place!

[siberianmo]

ENCORE! Saturday - ENCORE! Saturday
first Posted on page 178

PASSENGER TRAIN NOSTALGIA #34

Here’s something to enjoy regarding the BURLINGTON ROUTE in a 1949 advertisement from my private collection:

. . . . . VISIT Colorful Colorado! . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . Land of a Million Thrills! . . . . . . . . . .

* No vacation empire in all the world offers you more variety – more sheer enjoyment! Mile-high Denver and its mountain parks . . . picturesque Colorado Springs and pikes Peak region . . . the grandeur of Rock Mountain National-Estes Park . . . the friendly Dude Ranches. Ride or hike! Fish or golf! Go sightseeing or just be lazy! Whatever you choose, Colorado gives you extra pleasure!

. . . . . For Speed, Comfort, Pleasure . . . Go Burlington! . . . . .

* Choose between two famous diesel-powered streamlined trains -0 the DENVER ZEPHYR, overnight every night from Chicago to Colorado . . . or the CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR, with its entrancing Vista-Domes. Extra speed, extra luxury . . . but no extra fare!

BURLINGTON’S 100th ANNNIVERSARY * 1849-1949
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Way of the Zephyrs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . VISIT THE CHICAGO RAILROAD FAIR JUNE 25 – OCT 2 . . . . .


Enjoy! [tup]

Tom [4:-)][oX)]

ENCORE! Saturday - ENCORE! Saturday


THINK April 12th –
The 1st year Anniversary of ”Our” Place!

[siberianmo]

ENCORE! Saturday - ENCORE! Saturday
first Posted on page 177

PASSENGER TRAIN NOSTALGIA #33

Here’s something to ponder with regard to our appreciation and fascination with
Classic Trains. Check this out (from The Official Guide of the Railways – 1956)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . Roomettes Now Available On . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . The “WINNIPEGGER” . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BETWEEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

ST. PAUL – MINNEAPOLIS – and WINNIPEG

For the Best Meals on Wheels and Complete Beverage Service

. . . . . . . . . . In the Soo Line Dining-Club Lounge Car . . . . . . . . . .

Roomettes, Bedrooms, Bedroom Suites and Open Sections.

. . . . . . . . . . Clean Comfortable Coaches . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Restful Individual Reclining Seats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . All Equipment Air-conditioned. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

NORTHBOUND. . . . .(Daily – Central Standard Time). . . . .SOUTHBOUND

Lve. ST. PAUL . . . . . . . . . . 7 45 PM . . . . . . . Lve. WINNIPEG . . . . . . . . . . 7 10 PM
Lve. MINNEAPOLIS . . . . . . 8 40 PM . . . . . . . Lve. THIEF RIVER FALLS . . 11 25 PM
Arr. THIEF RIVER FALLS . . 3 55 AM . . . . . . . Arr. MINNEAPOLIS . . . . . . . . 7 15 AM
Arr. WINNIPEG . . . . . . . . . . 8 15 AM . . . . . . . Arr. ST. PAUL . . . . . . . . . . . 8 00 AM

The Milwaukee Rd. Hiawatha leaving Chicago 100 p.m., arriving St. Paul 7 15 p.m, Minneapolis 7 45 p.m., and C.B.&Q. No. 25 leaving Chicago 11 30 a.m., arriving St. Paul 6 15 p.m., connect with the Soo Line Winnipeger for Winnipeg and Western Canada.

Southbound “Winnipeger” makes convenient connections with morning “Hiawatha” and “Zephyr” and other important early morning trains from St. Paul to points East and South.


Enjoy! [tup]

Tom[4:-)][oX)]

ENCORE! Saturday - ENCORE! Saturday


THINK April 12th –
The 1st year Anniversary of ”Our” Place!

[siberianmo]

ENCORE! Saturday - ENCORE! Saturday
first Posted on page 157

Here’s another Fallen Flag for the gang from Classic American Railroads:

Reading Lines

Headquarters: Philadelphia, PA

Mileage in 1950: 1,286

Locomotives in:

1930:
Steam: 930
Diesel: 2 (box cab switchers)

1963:
Steam 4
Diesel: 337

Rolling stock in

1930:
Freight cars: 43,298
Passenger cars: 910 (includes MU self-propelled)

1975:
Freight cars: 12,213
Passenger cars: 176 (includes MU self-propelled and RDCs)

Principal routes in 1950:

Philadelphia-Jersey City (New York via ferries, floats)
Philadelphia-Bethlehem, PA
Philadelphia-Reading, PA
Philadelphia & Camden-Atlantic City, NJ
Manville-Port Reading, NJ
Reading-Harrisburg, PA
Reading-Allentown, PA
Reading-Newberry Jct. (Williamsport), PA
Reading-Wilmington, DE
Harrisburg-Hagerstown, MD (through arrangement Hagerstown-Lurgan, PA)

Passenger trains of note:

Crusader (Philadelphia-Jersey City (New York)
Wall Street (Philadelphia-Jersey City (New York)
Schuylkill (Philadelphia-Pottsville, PA)
King Coal (Philadelphia-Shamokin, PA)
Harrisburg Special (Jersey City (New York)-Harrisburg
Queen of the Valley (Jersey City (New York)-Harrisburg)
North Penn (Philadelphia-Bethlehem


Enjoy! [tup]

Tom [4:-)] [oX)]

ENCORE! Saturday - ENCORE! Saturday


THINK April 12th –
The 1st year Anniversary of ”Our” Place!

[siberianmo]

April Fool's Day


Used with permission from: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Formatting differences made necessary due to Forums requirements.


April Fool's Day or All Fools' Day, though not a holiday in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on April 1. The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends and neighbours, or sending them on fools' errands, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible. In some countries, April Fools jokes must only be made before midday.


Origin

The origin of this custom has been much disputed, and many theories have been suggested, e.g. that it is a farcical commemoration of Christ being sent from Annas to Caiaphas, from Caiaphas to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod, and from Herod back again to Pilate, the crucifixion having taken place about the 1st of April.

What seems certain is that it is in some way or other a relic of those once universal festivities held at the vernal equinox, which, beginning on old New Year's day, the 25th of March, ended on the 1st of April. This view gains support from the fact that the exact counterpart of April-fooling is found to have been an immemorial custom in India. The festival of the spring equinox is there termed the feast of Holi, the last day of which is the 31st of March, upon which the chief amusement is the befooling of people by sending them on fruitless errands.

It has been plausibly suggested that Europe derived its April-fooling from the French. They were the first nation to adopt the reformed Gregorian calendar, Charles IX in 1564 decreeing that the year should begin with the 1st of January. Thus the New Year's gifts and visits of felicitation which had been the feature of the 1st of April became associated with the first day of January, and those who disliked or did not hear about the change were fair butts for those wits who amused themselves by sending mock presents and paying calls of pretended ceremony on the 1st of April.

However, it is unlikely that this explanation of April Fool's Day’s origin is correct. Well before 1582 when King Charles IX of France brought in the new Gregorian calendar, French and Dutch references from respectively 1508 and 1539 describe April Fool's Day jokes and the custom of making them on the first of April.

Though the 1st of April appears to have been anciently observed in Great Britain as a general festival, it was apparently not until the beginning of the 18th century that the making of April-fools was a common custom. In Scotland the custom was known as "hunting the gowk," i.e. the cuckoo, and April-fools were "April-gowks," the cuckoo being there, as it is in most lands, a term of contempt. In France the person befooled is known as poisson d'avril. This has been explained from the association of ideas arising from the fact that in April the sun quits the zodiacal sign of the fish. A far more natural explanation would seem to be that the April fish would be a young fish and therefore easily caught.

The Dutch have their own reason. Back in 1572, the Netherlands were still ruled by the Spain's King Phillip II. There were roaming Dutch rebels who called themselves Geuzen, after the French "geux", meaning beggars. On April 1, 1572, they took a small coastal town called Den Briel. This event was also the start of the general civil rising against the Spanish in other cities in The Netherlands. General Alva of the Spanish army couldn't do much. Bril is the Dutch word for glasses, so on April 1, 1572, "Alva lost his glasses". Dutch people find this joke so hilarious they still commemorate April the first.

Hoaxes

Many media organizations have either unwittingly or deliberately propagated hoaxes on April Fools' Day. Even normally serious news media consider April Fools' Day hoaxes fair game, and spotting them has become an annual pastime. A number of serious journals would publish hoax articles in their April volumes. For example Datamation used to publish quite elaborate spoof stories related to computers.

The advent of the Internet as a worldwide communications medium has also assisted the pranksters in their work.

Well-known hoaxes

• Alabama Changes the Value of Pi: The April 1998 newsletter of New Mexicans for Science and Reason contained an article claiming that the Alabama state legislature had voted to change the value of the mathematical constant pi to the "Biblical value" of 3.0.
• Spaghetti trees: The BBC television programme Panorama ran a famous hoax in 1957, showing the Swiss harvesting spaghetti from trees. A large number of people contacted the BBC wanting to know how to cultivate their own spaghetti trees.
• Left Handed Whoppers: In 1998, Burger King ran an ad in USA Today, saying that people could get a Whopper for left-handed people whose condiments were designed to drip out the right side.
• Taco Liberty Bell: In 1996, Taco Bell took out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times announcing that they had purchased the Liberty Bell to "reduce the country's debt" and renamed it the "Taco Liberty Bell." When asked about the sale, White House press secretary Mike McCurry replied with tongue in cheek that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold and would henceforth be known as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.
• Lies to Get You Out of the House In 1985, the L.A. Weekly printed an entire page of fake things to do on April Fools day, which hundreds of people were suckered in by.
• Kremvax: In 1984, in one of the earliest on-line hoaxes, a message was circulated that Usenet had been opened to users in the Soviet Union.
• San Serriffe: The Guardian printed a supplement in 1977 praising this fictional resort, its two main islands (Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse), its capital (Bodoni), and its leader (General Pica). Intrigued readers were later disappointed to learn that sans serif did not exist except as references to typeface terminology.
• FBI Crackdowns on On-line File Sharing of Music: Such announcements on April Fools Day have become common.
• Metric time: Repeated several times in various countries, this hoax involves claiming that the time system will be changed to a one where units of time vary by powers of 10.
• Smell-o-vision: In 1965, the BBC purported to conduct a trial of a new technology allowing the transmission of odor over the airwaves to all viewers. Many viewers reportedly contacted the BBC to report the trial's success.
• Tower of Pisa: The Dutch television news reported once in the 1950s that the Tower of Pisa had fallen. Many shocked and even mourning people contacted the station.
• Wrapping Televisions in Foil: In another year, the Dutch television news reported that the government had new technology to detect unlicensed televisions (in many European countries, television license fees fund public broadcasting), but that wrapping a television in aluminium foil could prevent its detection. Within a few hours, aluminium foil was sold out throughout the country.
• Sidd Finch: George Plimpton wrote a 1985 article in Sports Illustrated about a New York Mets prospect who could throw a 168 mph fastball with pinpoint accuracy. This kid, known as "Barefoot" Sidd[hartha] Finch, reportedly learned to pitch in a Buddhist monastery.
• Assassination of Bill Gates: Many Chinese and South Korean websites claimed that CNN reported Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, was assassinated.
• Write Only Memory: Signetics advertised Write Only Memory IC databooks in 1972 through the late 1970s.
• Wheel of Fortune/Jeopardy! Double Switch: In 1997, Pat Sajak, the host of Wheel of Fortune, traded hosting duties with Jeopardy!'s Alex Trebek for one show. In addition to Sajak hosting Jeopardy!, he and co-host Vanna White appeared as contestants on the episode of Wheel hosted by Trebek. White's position was filled by Sajak's wife Leslie.
• Comic strip switcheroo: Cartoonists of popularly syndicated comic strips draw each others' strips. In some cases, the artist draws characters in the other strip's milieu, while in others, the artist draws in characters from other visiting characters from his own. Cartoonists have done this sort of "switcheroo" in several years. The 1997 switch was particularly widespread.
• The Trouble with Tracy: In 2003, The Comedy Network in Canada announced that it would produce and air a remake of the 1970s Canadian sitcom The Trouble with Tracy. The original series is widely considered to be one of the worst sitcoms ever produced. Several media outlets fell for the hoax.
• National Television Station (TVM) in Malta: In 1995, TVM announced the discovery of a new underground prehistoric temple with a mummy. Another year, TVM announced that Malta would adopt the European continent convention of driving on the right-hand side of the road.
• VeryCD: This P2Pweb site, one of the largest in China, announced in 2005 that it had ceased operation without specifing a cause.
• Free wine for all:The Norwegian newspaper "Bergens Tidende" announced in 1987 that the state alcohol monopoly had 10,000 litres of confiscated smuggler-wine. The inhabitants of Bergen were invited to the main store in town to receive their share of the goods, rather than spill good wine down the drain. That morning staff were met by about 200 men & women with bottles, buckets, and other suitable vessels for carrying the prized goods. Legislation in Norway means that alcohol is relatively expensive and has limited availability.
• The Canadian news site bourque.org announced in 2002 that Finance Minister Paul Martin had resigned "in order to breed prize Charolais cattle and handsome Fawn Runner ducks." The Canadian dollar dropped to its lowest level in a month before Martin's office debunked the hoax.
• SARS Infects Hong Kong: In 2003 it was rumored that many people in Hong Kong had become infected with SARS, that all immigration ports would be closed to quarantine the region, and that Tung Chee Hwa, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong at that time, had resigned. Hong Kong supermarkets were immediately overwhelmed by panicked shoppers. The Hong Kong government held a press conference to deny the rumor. The rumor, which was intended as an April Fool's prank, was started by a student by imitating the design of Ming Pao newspaper website. He was charged for this incident.
• China Decapitates Taiwan: In 2005, an undergraduate nicknamed SkyMirage, who was well-known in Taiwan for his humor, fabricated a series of news that China's airforce was bombarding Office of President, Taiwan.
• Annual BMW Innovations see a new "cutting-edge invention" by BMW advertised across British newspapers every year , examples including:
o The "Toot and Calm Horn" (after Tutankhamun), which calms rather than aggravates other drivers, so reducing the risk of road rage,
o MINI cars being used in upcoming space missions to Mars,
o IDS ("Insect Deflector Screen") Technology – using elastic solutions to bounce insects off the windscreen as you drive
o SHEF ("Satellite Hypersensitive Electromagnetic Foodration") Technology, which sees the car's GPS systems synchronise with home appliances to perfectly cook a meal for the instant you return home ,
o Marque-Wiper - mini-wipers for each exterior "BMW" logo coming as standard on all future models ,
o "Uninventing the wheel" to counter the "EU ban" on right-hand drive cars
• April 1st RFC
• Google's hoaxes

By radio stations

• Death of a Mayor: In 1998, local shock jocks Opie and Anthony reported that Boston mayor Thomas Menino had been killed in a car accident. Menino happened to be on a flight at the time, lending truth to the prank as he could not be reached. The rumor spread quickly across the city, eventually causing news stations to issue alerts denying the hoax. The pair were fired shortly thereafter.
• Free Concert: Radio station 98.1 KISS in Chattanooga, Tennessee falsely announced in 2003 that rapper Eminem would be doing a free show in a discount store parking lot. Several police were needed to deal with traffic gridlock and enraged listeners who threatened to harm the DJs responsible. Both DJs were later jailed for creating a public nuisance.
• New Format: Radio station KFOG in San Francisco, claiming new corporate ownership, switched to a new format - the best 15 seconds of every song. All morning they mixed in false calls from perky listeners calling with compliments. This hoax can also be considered a parody of late 1990s media consolidations.
• Sydney Olympics: Australian radio station Triple J breakfast show co-host Adam Spencer announced in 1999 that he had a journalist on the line at the site of a secret IOC meeting and that Sydney had lost the 2000 Summer Olympics. New South Wales Premier Bob Carr was also in on the joke. Mainstream media (including Channel 9's Today Show) picked up the story.
• Defy Gravity: In 1976 British astronomer Patrick Moore told listeners of BBC2 that unique alignment of two planets would result in an upward gravitational pull making people lighter at precisely 9:47 a.m. that day. He invited his audience to jump in the air and experience "a strange floating sensation." Dozens of listeners phoned in to say the experiment had worked.
• Shuttle landing: In 1993, a San Diego radio station fooled many listeners into believing that the space shuttle had been diverted from Edwards Air Force Base and was about to make an emergency landing at a small local airport.
• Cancellation of the Howard Stern Show: The April 1st, 2004 show started off with an announcement by the station manager stating that due to increased pressure from the FCC, Viacom had cancelled the Howard Stern Show. The station played pop songs until 7:00 am, when Stern came back on.
• Change of drinking age: On the Gold Coast, Australia's biggest tourist destination (particularly amongst school leavers), radio station Sea FM announced the drinking age would be changed from 18 to 21. This left a huge number of under 21s angry and frustrated, and incited protests. It was later announced at the Sea FM dance party that it was a hoax.

By television stations

• The Space Needle collapsed in a windstorm on April 1st, 1989. Seattle area TV program Almost Live! set up a phony broadcast room and dressed actors as TV anchors to pull an April Fool's joke of legendary proportions.
• After 50 years, the 1957 BBC report of the purported bumper annual spaghetti harvest (see Spaghetti trees above) remains one of the most successful TV hoaxes of all time.
• The BBC's Saturday lunchtime show Football Focus broadcast a piece centred on the upcoming change of the size of goals. Using West Ham United manager, Harry Redknapp, the report claimed that the size of the goals would increase by two feet in height and four feet in length. Redknapp was being 'interviewed' on the training ground where his goalkeepers were getting to grips with bigger goals.

They told the truth on the following week's show, where outtakes of Redknapp messing up his lines were also shown.

Other prank days in the world

The April 1 tradition in France includes poisson d'avril (literally "April's fish"), attempting to attach a paper fi***o the victim's back without being noticed.

In Spanish-speaking countries, similar pranks are practiced on December 28, the Day of the Holy Innocents. This custom also exists in certain areas of Belgium, including the province of Antwerp. The Flemi***radition is for children to lock out their parents or teachers, only letting them in if they promise to bring treats the same evening or the next day.

In Iran, people play jokes on each other on April 3, the 13th day of the Persian calendar new year (Norooz). This day is called "Sizdah bedar" (Out-door thirteen). It is believed that people should go out on this date in order to escape the bad luck of number 13.

In Australia and New Zealand the April 1 tradition exists, however it is accepted that if somebody pulls an April Fool's Trick after 12pm (mid-day), then the person pulling the trick is actually considered the fool (this caveat may also exist in other countries).

Quotes about April Fool's Day

"April 1st: This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three-hundred and sixty-four." — Mark Twain
"You couldn't fool your mother on the foolingest day of your life even if you had an electrified fooling machine." — Homer Simpson

Nuisance caused to third parties by April Fool's Day

• One type of April Fool's Day hoax is to leave a message telling someone to telephone Mr. C. Lion or Mr. L. E. Fant (or various others) at a number that turns out to be a zoo. That prank, perpetrated upon many people, results in a flood of calls to zoos' telephone exchanges.
• In some cases, hoaxes appearing in a newspaper caused readers to send mail to nonexistent addresses, creating problems at postal sorting offices.

See also

• April Fool is the codename for a spy and double agent who played a key role in the downfall of the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
• Pigasus Award

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.


Used with permission from: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Formatting differences made necessary due to Forums requirements. Some heralds from other sources.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Enjoy!

Tom [4:-)] [oX)]



THINK April 12th –
The 1st year Anniversary of ”Our” Place!

[siberianmo]

(courtesy: www.trainweb.org)

The bar is CLOSED TODAY!



. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . APRIL FOOL! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .



SATURDAY’s INFO & SUMMARY of POSTS


Saturday and the weekend, a good time for a hot cuppa Joe, pastries from The Mentor Village Bakery and a selection from our Menu Board for a <light> or <traditional> breakfast![tup]


Daily Wisdom

It’s better to know the country than to be the best cowboy.[swg]


”Our” Place” ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION is Wednesday, April 12th!


Info for the Day:

Railroads from Yesteryear – Missouri Pacific (MP) arrives Tuesday!

* Weekly Calendar:

TODAY: Steak ‘n Trimmin’s Nite! – and –
ENCORE! Saturday


SUMMARY

Name …..…………… Date/Time …..…..………. (Page#) .. Remarks

(1) siberianmo Tom Posted: 31 Mar 2006, 06:19:45 (290) Friday’s Info & Summary

(2) coalminer3 CM3 Posted: 31 Mar 2006, 09:15:59 (290) Coalminer Speaks!

(3) siberianmo Tom Posted: 31 Mar 2006, 10:01:03 (290) RR Book Relay! status

(4) siberianmo Tom Posted: 31 Mar 2006, 10:32:30 (290) Acknowledgments & Comments

(5) LoveDomes Lars Posted: 31 Mar 2006, 14:33:35 (290) The Lars Report (abbreviated)!

(6) pwolfe Pete Posted: 31 Mar 2006, 14:56:07 (290) Wolfman Howls!

(7) siberianmo Tom Posted: 31 Mar 2006, 15:30:13 (290) Acknoweldgments

(8) siberianmo Tom Posted: 31 Mar 2006, 16:18:39 (290) Nostalgia #79 Ad – Pullman (1942)

(9) barndad Doug Posted: 31 Mar 2006, 21:11:45 (290) Tunnels, etc. & joke!

(10) siberianmo Tom Posted: 31 Mar 2006, 21:24:50 (290) Tom’s Index thru Mar 2006




The Mentor Village Emporium Theatre

NOW SHOWING:

Double Features and Three Stooges Short Subject!

. . . Sunday, March 26th thru April 1st:Major League (1989) starring Tom Beringer, Charlie Sheen & Corbin Bernson – and – Bull Durham (1988) starring: Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon & Tim Robbins. SHORT: Plane Nuts (1933).

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

. . . Sunday, April 2nd thru 8th: Eight Men Out (1988) starring: Jace Alexander, John Cusack & Gordon Clapp – and – Field of Dreams (1989) Kevin Costner, Burt Lancaster & James Earl Jones. SHORT: The Big Idea (1934).



That’s it! [tup][;)]

Tom [4:-)] [oX)]
Proprietor of “Our” Place, an adult eating & drinking establishment!



THINK April 12th –
The 1st year Anniversary of ”Our” Place!

[Anonymous]

Good morning Tom and all! I'll have two light breakfasts please. I can't believe it's finally April, and winter is almost behind us. As windy as it's been, there must be a change on the way ... I hope.

Quite the impressive index Tom. Mine pales in comparrison, but here it is nonetheless:

Barndad Doug's Roundhouse

168 ….. The Making of a Signalman, Part I
……….. The Making of a Signalman, Part II
……….. The Making of a Signalman, Part III
171 ….. Through Thick & Thin, Part I
……….. Through Thick & Thin, Part II
……….. Through Thick & Thin, Part III
172 ….. Through Thick & Thin, Part IV
174 ….. Walking the Track, Part I
175 ….. Walking the Track, Part II
175 ….. Walking the Track, Part III
178 ….. Recollections of a Locomotive Fireman, Part I
……….. Recollections of a Locomotive Fireman, Part II
184 ….. Recollections of a Locomotive Fireman, Part III
……….. Recollections of a Locomotive Fireman, Part IV
188 ….. Granville-Paris wreck in 1895
189 …. The Great Pickleworks Wreck, Part I
190 …. The Great Pickleworks Wreck, Part II
……… The Great Pickleworks Wreck, Part III
191 …. Sorting on the Road, Part I
……… Sorting on the Road, Part II
193 …. Maintaining the Way, Part I
……… Maintaining the Way, Part II
194 …. Maintaining the Way, Part III
……… Maintaining the Way, Part IV
195 …. Maintaining the Way, Part V
196 …. Caboose History
197 …. Steam Delights of India, Part I
……… Steam Delights of India, Part II
198 …. Steam Delights of India, Part III
……… Steam Delights of India, Part IV
201 …. Steam Delights of India, Part V
210 …. Steam Delights of India, Part VI
210 …. Train of Life (poem)
211 …. Genius at the Junction, Part I
……… Genius at the Junction, Part II
213 … Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad Company 1894 Wages
214 …. Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad Company 1894 Rules
215 ….. 1931 June Insurance Claims list
216 …. Danville letter from W.B. Henderson
219 …. Safety First letter from William E. Talbott
221 …. Chicago Tunnel Company
221 …. Russian Decapods, Part I
224 …. Russian Decapods, Part II
226 …. Russian Decapods, Part III
226 …. Smoke Deflectors, Part I
226 …. Smoke Deflectors, Part II
230 …. Smoke Deflectors, Part III
239 …. Cabs, Part I
239 …. Cabs, Part II
240 …. Cabs, Part III
242 …. Cabs, Part IV
242 …. Cabs, Part V
245 …. Cabs, Part VI
245 …. Our Own Lingo, Part I
247 …. Our Own Lingo, Part II
249 …. The Great Strike of 1877, Part I
249 …. The Great Strike of 1877, Part II
252 …. The Great Strike of 1877, Part III
252 …. The Great Strike of 1877, Part IV
255 …. Southern Pacific, a National War Agency, Part I
256 …. Southern Pacific, a National War Agency, Part II
258 …. Milwaukee Super Domes
260 …. The Dynamiter, Part I
261 …. The Dynamiter, Part II
262 …. The Dynamiter, Part II
263 …. The Engineer’s Brotherhood, Part I
265 …. A Preserved Pioneer (Zephyr)
268 …. Lionel M-10000 Streamliner
269 …. Burlington Zephyrs, Part I
270 …. Burlington Zephyrs, Part II
270 …. Hoodoo Engine
277 …. Two Million Locomotive Models
278 …. Tunnels, Part I
281 …. Tunnels, Part II
286 …. Tunnels, Part III
287 …. Tunnels, Part IV
290 …. Jesse James. Train Robber Part I
290 …. Tunnels, Part V

I'll be spending a several hours of my weekend pre-typing my humble offerings for the next week , starting in a few minutes. Take care ya'll!

[:I] A man is driving down a deserted stretch of highway when he notices a sign out of the corner of his eye....It reads:
SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS
HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION
10 MILES
He thinks this is a figment of his imagination and drives on without second thought....Soon he sees another sign which reads:
SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS
HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION
5 MILES
Suddenly he begins to realize that these signs are for real and drives past a third sign saying:
SISTERS OF ST FRANCIS
HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION
NEXT RIGHT
His curiosity gets the best of him and he pulls into the drive. On the far side of the parking lot is a stone building with a small sign next to the door reading:
SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS
He climbs the steps and rings the bell. The door is answered by a nun in a long black habit who asks, "What may we do for you my son?"
He answers, "I saw your signs along the highway and was interested in possibly doing business...."
"Very well my son. Please follow me." He is led through many winding passages and is soon quite disoriented. The nun stops at a closed door and tells the man, "Please knock on this door."
He does so and another nun in a long habit, holding a tin cup answers the door... This nun instructs, "Please place $100 in the cup then go through the large wooden door at the end of the hallway."
He puts $100 in the cup, eagerly trots down the hall and slips through the door pulling it shut behind him. The door locks, and he finds himself back in the parking lot facing another sign:
GO IN PEACE.
YOU HAVE JUST BEEN SCREWED BY THE SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS. SERVES YOU RIGHT, YOU SINNER. [:I]

Have you ever noticed that the longer a joke is ...the worse it is?

[siberianmo]

Tom’s INDEX, thru Mar 2006
recommended for "bookmarking"

A helplful hint:

Generic URL: Just insert the index page in place of “106,” copy ‘n paste ‘n “go,”

http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?page=247&TOPIC_ID=35270

-or- insert the index page in the address portion of this page (at the top).


Fallen Flags (passenger ops):

106/150/253 SP … 106/150 MP .…….. 108/155/170 WP ….. 109/182 Frisco
112/187 CNR . . . . .112/182 Heralds . . 114/195 ACL …..….. 115/195 SAL
116/195 D&RGW .. 118/181 RI . . . . . . 119/202 D&H …..….. 120/144 PRR
122/144 NYC .…… 124/202 UP ..…..… 125/203 AT&SF ..…. 127/203/234 B&O
128/204 CM&StP . 129/205 CB&Q ..…. 130/205 Soo Line …. 133/205 C&NW
134/206 SP&S ….. 136/213 GN ………. 139/216 B&M .…….. 140/218 NH
141/219 MEC …… 142/221 BAR .……. 145/226 NP .……….. 146/231 L&N
147/237 WRR …... 148/234 C&O .……. 148/243 KCS ……… 151/250 N&W
152/256 Erie …….. 152/263 IC ……….. 154/271 NPR ……… 155/280 SOU
156/284 CGW ….. 157 RDG ..…………158 MON .....………. 159 IT
162 LV ..………….. 163 GM&O ...……..164 Extra


Personal rail trips

12 ………... Canada Rail Journey, Part I
13 ………... Canada Rail Journey, Part II
15 ………... Canada Rail Journey, Part III
16 ………... Canada Rail Journey, Part IV (final)
80 ………... Dallas Trip
99/206 .…... A trip to remember (personal account of cross-Canada rail trip)
124/243 ….. A tale of Classic Trains BC Rail RDC trip
134/206 ….. Personal RR journey CPR’s “The Canadian”
199 ………. A Trip to Remember (Remembrance Day Train 2005)


Passenger Train Nostalgia:

110/181 .…. MKT Combined Fallen Flag and Ads
112/187 ….. CNR Ad - Super Continental Time Table
113/144 .…. #1 ”Start ups” 1800s & early 1900s
117/144 .…. #2 Ad - Vista-Dome sleeper obs-lounge
121/174 .…. #3 Ad - CP Hotels & Lodges
127/202/234 .B&O Ad - Strata-Dome
127/219/234 .B&O Ad – Diesel Electric Trains
129/174 .…. #4 Ad - CN Hotels, Ltd.
130/206 .…. Great Britain #1 Poster - East Coast Route
133/221 .…. #5 Poster - CP 1886
133/211 ….. #6 Poster - CP 1950s
134/244 ….. #7 Poster - Washington & Old Dominion Railway
135/226 ….. Great Britain #2 London & Northwestern & Caledonian Railways
137/231 ….. Great Britain #3 London & Northwestern & Caledonian Railways
137/231 ….. #8 Ad – GN (1956)
139/237 ….. #9 Ads – GN (1956)
140/237 ….. #10 Ad – UP
141/250 ……Nostalgia 1956 Hotel Ads
142/257 ……Nostalgia Fairbanks-Morse motive power Ad
143/257 ….. #11 Ad - PRR – The Jeffersonian
145/259 ….. #12 Ad – NP
146/263 ….. #13 Ad – L&N
146/257 ….. Great Britain #4 Poster (1870s)
147/237 ..... #14 Ad – Budd & Wabash – New Blue Bird
148/234 ..... #15 Ad – C&O
149/264 ….. HERTZ Ad - 1956
151/271 ….. #16 Ad – Budd RDC (1950)
153/271 ….. #17 Ad – Budd RDC (1950)
153/247 ……North American Steam Loco Wheel Arrangements
154/272 ….. #18 Ad – Budd RDC (1953)
155/272 ….. #19 Ad – Budd RDC (1954)
156/250/253.#20 Ad – SP, Golden State (1951)
157/253 ……#21 Ad – SP, Sunset limited (1951
158/254 .......#22 Ad – SP, City of San Francisco (1951)
159/246 ……#23 Ad – AT&SF (1950)
161 …….…. 9 WWII Ads ENCORE! of Vets/Remembrance Day Commemoration
162/246 ……#24 Ad – AT&SF (1951)
163/247 ……#25 Ad – AT&SF (1952)
164/279 ….. #26 Ad – Olympian Hiawatha
166/264 ….. AVIS Ad – 1956
167/280 ….. Pocket List of RR Officials Ad – 1956
169/240 ...... #27 Ad – NYC Aerotrain (1956)
170/240 ...... #28 Ad – NYC Xplorer (1956)
171/284 ….. #29 Ad – CP (1950)
172/285 ….. #30 Ad – CP (1950)
173/285 ….. #31 Ad – Pullman (1950)
176/285 ….. #32 Ad – Pullman (1950)
177 …….…. #33 Ad – Soo Line – Winnipegger (1956)
178 …….…. #34 Ad – Burlington Route (1949)
180 …….…. #35 Ad – Soo Line – Mountaineer (1956)
181 …….…. #36 Ad – Soo Line – The Laker (1956)
182 …….…. #37 Ad – MoPac – Eagle Dome Coaches (1956)
183/240 ….. #38 Ad – NYC – New 20th Century Ltd (1948)
184 ……….. #39 Ad – PRR – Broadway Ltd (1949)
186 ….……. #40 Ad – British Railways (1948)
186 ……….. #41 Ad – Glacier National Park (1949)
188-189 ...... #1-8 Ad Christmas RR travel #1
190/240 ….. #42 Ad] – NYC – Dieseliner (1950)
191/247 …...#43 Ad – AT&SF – El Capitan (1949)
193/254 ..... #44 Ad – SP – Golden State (1949)
194/250 …...#45 Ad – Rock Island – Golden State (1949)
196 …….…. #46 Ad – CP (1949)
197/260 ……#47 Ad – NP – Yellowstone (1949)
199 …….…. #48 Ad – British Railways (1949)
200 ……….. #49 Ad – UP – Bryce Canyon (1949)
200 ……….. #50 Ad – SOU (1949)
209 …….…. #51 Ad – CP (1963)
209 ……….. #52 Ad – EMD (1948)
210 ……….. #53 Ad – CNR (1949)
211/234 ..... #54 Ad – B&O (1946)
212 …….…. #55 Ad – Pullman (1946)
218 …….…. #56 Ad – CP (1965)
219 …….…. #57 Ad – SP (1946)
222/260 …...#58 Ad – NP (1947)
222/240 ….. #59 Ad – NYC (1954)
224 ……….. #60 Ad – Great Britain: LMS – LNER (1933)
225 …….…. #61 Ad – UP (1933)
228 …….…. #62 Ad – California Zephyr (1949)
228 ……….. #63 Ad – Budd Company (1949)
229 ……….. #64 Ad – Pullman Company (1949)
230 …….…. #65 Ad – Milwaukee Road (1933)
231 …….…. #66 Ad – Swiss Federal Railways (1933)
239 …….…. #67 Ad – SP (1948)
249 ……….. #68 Ad – NYC (1954)
254 ……….. #69 Ad – Railways of France (1933)
256 ……….. #70 Ad – CNR (1933)
258 ……….. #71 Ad – Great Britain: L M S and L N E R (1933)
271 ……….. #72 Ad – NP (1933)
274 ……….. #73 Ad: - CP (1952)
276 ……….. #74 Ad: - SOU (1956)
276 ……….. #75 Ad: - SOU (1956)
276 ……….. #76 Ad: - SOU (1955)
281 ……….. #77 Ad: - CP (1969)
284 ……….. #78 The Pullman Company
290 ……….. #79 Ad: - Pullman (1942)


Canadian RR events, history & Railways of the Past

215 …….…. Significant events in Canadian RR History (Jan): Part I of II, 1800s to 1900
216 …….…. Significant events in Canadian RR History (Jan): Part II of II, 1900s to present
241 ……….. This day in Canadian RR History (Feb 8th): Hinton train collision
243 ……….. Significant events in Canadian RR History (Feb)
246 ……….. Canadian Railways of the Past #1 – CNoR
249 ……….. Canadian Railways of the Past #2 – NAR
261/262 …... Canadian Railways of the Past #3 – BCR
271 ……….. Significant events in Canadian RR History (Mar)
278 ……….. Canadian Railways of the Past #4 – HBRY


Railroads from Yesteryear

233 ……….. #1 – Baltimore & Ohio (B&O)
234 ……….. #2 – Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O)
237 ……….. #3 – Pennsylvania (PRR)
240 ……….. #4 – New York Central (NYC)
242 ……….. #5 – New Haven (NH)
246 ……….. #6 – Santa Fe (ATSF)
253 ……….. #7 – Southern Pacific (SP)
259 ……….. #8 – Northern Pacific (NP)
267/268 ……#9 – Coastline/Seaboard (ACL – SCL – SAL)
276 ……….. #10 – Southern (SOU)
282 ……….. #11 – Denver & Rio Grande Western (D&RG)
287 ……….. #12 – Great Northern Railway (GN)


Railways of Europe

247 ……….. #1 – British Rail
248 ……….. #2 – Eurostar (London-Paris-Brussels)
255 ……….. #3 – TGV of France
270 ………. #4 – ICE of Germany
279 ………. #5 Irish Rail


Little Known Operating Railroads

283 ………. White Pass & Yukon Route (WPY)


Model & Toy Trains

288 ………. OO Gauge & British Model Trains


The Mentor Village Gazette

165 ……….. Vol I, Number 1 – November 17th, 2005
188 ……….. Vol I, Number 2 – December 12th, 2005
208 ……….. Vol II, Number 1 – January 2nd, 2006
236 ……….. Vol II, Number 2 – February 2nd, 2006
278 ……….. Vol II, Number 3 – March 17th, 2006 – 2 Parts



NOTE:

trolleyboy Rob’s Barn - passengerfan Al’s Streamliner Corner & barndad Doug’s Roundhouse have individual Indexes


Enjoy!

Tom [4:-)] [oX)]


THINK April 12th –
The 1st year Anniversary of ”Our” Place!

[Anonymous]

Good evening Tom and friends! I'll have a bottomless draught and glady purchase a round for the few visitors I see. Rob wrote a nice article on the BB&G, and Tom put up an interesting Pullman add. Glad to get your comments on the Jesse James post sir Peter, but now it's time to get back to my tunnel series ... so here goes!

Tunnels by Henry B. Comstock June 1947 Railroad Magazine

The same snow conditions which had plagued CPR’s Rogers Pass route came to grips with David Moffat’s uncompleted Denver & Salt Lake Railroad every winter. Storms of incredible fury lashed the horny shoulders of James and Arapahoe Peaks, beyond Newcomb, Colorado. There, lofty Rolling Pass, reached by an amazing succession of hairpin turns, a spiral curve and innumerable giant trestles, took the brunt of the blizzards, avalanches and frost heaves which are frozen hell on any man’s railroad. Coupled to that, a four percent grade make the whole route to the rich timber, coal and livestock area beyond, unfeasible for heavy traffic.

Surveys showed that a six-mile tunnel would eliminate the jug-neck. The city of Denver, which stood to be the principle beneficiary, went to bat for the project in the face of heavy opposition from less favored Colorado areas, particularly those cities located along the line of the Rio Grande, in the valley of the Arkansas River. Long litigation in the Colorado Supreme Court came to an abrupt end when high water swirled through the Royal Gorge in 1921, inundating Canyon City and Pueblo. Denver turned a deaf ear to cries for state assistance in the matter of flood control until its own newly doctored bill was given kindlier consideration. As passed, it provided funds for the “improvement region benefited by the tunnel” his method of financing, wherein a district guarantees a bond issue, and constructs and leases a property to a privately owned railroad, was novel and, as matters turned out, profitable.

Using methods of construction efficient beyond the wildest dreams of early tunnel workers, including a supplementary, pioneer bore; traveling cantilever girders, to hold back loose rock while timbering operations progressed; and electric mockers which cleared away rubble easily and swiftly, the job was carried to fulfillment on February 27th, 1928, and named in honor of the practical dreamer who had devoted his whole vast fortune to rail expansion through the Rockies.

Meanwhile, surveys beyond Craig, Colorado, on the western end of the Denver & Salt Lake, did not encourage rail projection from the point to the Utah capital. Instead, it was decided to swing a line southwestward down the headwaters of the Colorado River to Dotsero, where it would tie in with the Rio Grande, reducing Denver Salt Lake trackage by more than one hundred and seventy miles. Nobody anticipated, then, the tremendous part the Dotsero Cutoff would one day play in speeding a vast army to victory. That was to be the undeclared dividend of the Moffat Tunnel Improvement District.

Even before the Moffat could lay claim to top honors among American railroad tunnels, Great Northern was hewing away at the backbone of the Cascade Range, making swift headway toward completion of a still longer corridor, measuring forty-one thousand feet between facings. Chipping out large fragments of this Washington State obstruction was no new experience for the Big G. Jim Hill’s original line had see-sawed its way across Stevens Pass by means of a temporary system of switch-backs, involving four reversals of trackage. While the first trains in and out of Seattle were shuttling over its breathtaking grades, construction engineers were busy driving a permanent line through the upper strata of the big hill at a point where its flanks were separated by some two and one-half miles of formidable granite. It took the better part of eight years to lance a lane between them, and the finished job was nothing to write prosy travelogues about. Winter weather at those heights was rugged, and before GN was through, it had hammered together eight miles of supplementary snowsheds and was shelling out a cool six hundred-thousand dollars annually for drift removal.

Then there was the problem of ventilation. In February, 1903, suffocating smoke nearly gassed out a trainload of passengers when a double-header lost its feet in the bore. Only the quick action of a double-heading fireman by the name of Abbot, who cut off the coaches and allowed them to coast back down the tunnel, prevented a loss of life unparalleled in railroading history.

Taking a cue from the Baltimore & Ohio, which had completed the first heavy-duty electrification project in America when it sparked juice through its Baltimore Tunnels in 1895, Great Northern wired the original Cascade in 1909. But the obvious advantages of a longer, lower-level bore had long since become apparent. The new and greatest smoke hole of them all, begun in December 1925, was the consummation of this dream. Never in all construction history was a project engineered with greater vigor. No item had been overlooked. Even when a subterranean river rushed into the tunnel at the rate of ten thousand gallons per minute, it found a diversion sluice already prepared for it.

In 1928, President Coolidge took his Indian was-bonnet long enough to press a button on his desk in Washington, D.C. Over the nation’s telegraph wires a tiny electrical impulse found its way to the deep recesses of the Cascade. Almost before growling gelatin could heave the headings into a shapeless mound, surveyors proudly announced that their calculations had miscarried by a matter of a mere half-foot.

Like its predecessor, the Western Hemisphere’s greatest tunnel is electrified. With new approaching trackage, it represents a twenty-five million dollar investment – money well spent, in view of nine difficult miles of 2.2 per cent trackage eliminated. Gone are the days when steam pressure in Great Northern pusher Mallets dropped from two hundred pounds to a mere seventy, simply because fires could no longer burn in the exhausted air of the five-hundred-foot-higher, old Cascade.

There are only five railroad tunnels in existence which exceed the New World champion in length. Curiously, all of them are in the Alps. Heading the list is the famous Simplon, whose twin bores link the Swiss Rhone valley with Iselle, just across the Italian frontier. 64,971 feet in length, it was completed in 1922, at a cost of approximately twenty million dollars. Then, in order, come the Etruscan Appinine (60,720 feet); St. Gothard (48,927 feet); Loetschberg (44,685 feet); and Mt. Cenis (42,150 feet).

As the latter proved a testing laboratory for the Hoosac, in the matter of compresses air drilling, so another Alpine project laid the pattern for America’s most unusual tunnels – the CPR spirals above Field, British Columbia. Until 1903 the main line of the Canadian Pacific clambered out of the Kicking Horse valley by means of a heart-breaking 4.5 per cent gradient which was a veritable ski-slide in reverse. The close-spaced canyon walls defied any attempt at relocation until construction engineers recalled a neat trick which the burrowing Swiss had used to reduce the slope of their ST. Gothard line. Entering a mountain side they had proceeded to carve a sweeping circle through it, emerging at a higher elevation, crossing the original line; then plunging back into the slope for a second complete ascending loop.

Canadian Pacific followed suit, varying its new track pattern in only one respect. For want of a mountain long enough to embrace two circles of track, it plunged its rails into the north flank of the defile; next swung back over the stream and hammered its way into the south wall for a second spin. The resulting spiral tunnels present the unique picture of a railroad train heading in three directions over parallel track for a matter of the two miles. In the course of the intricate process the rails gain a vertical height of nearly four hundred feet between outside portals; all on an actual grade of 1.6 per cent.



[:I] One day in a lawyer's office the devil appeared, he told the lawyer, I have a deal for you. I can make you five times richer, all your partners in the firm will appreciate you, all you clientes will like you, and you will win all your cases. The lawyer said that sounds good, what do you need, the devil replied I need your soul and your wife and your two children, is it a deal, the lawyer said what's the catch? [:I]

[siberianmo]

G’day All!

PASSENGER TRAIN NOSTALGIA #79

Here’s something to enjoy regarding the PULLMAN COMPANY in a 1942 advertisement from my private collection:

. . . . . . . . . .

Man deflates brother-in-law

1. Arriving home for family reunion at Christmas, he notes particularly smug look on brother-in-law’s face.

2. Brother-in-law immediately launches into bragfest on how he and family made trip home by Pullman.

3. Expounds at length on delicious steak dinner which he, wife, and Junior had immediately on boarding train.

4. Tells next how they left Junior tucked in bed and in care of Porter as they went back for evening in club car.

5. Paints glowing picture of refreshments in club car, and general refined air of people gathered there to enjoy pleasant evening.

6. Gets practically poetical telling how wonderful a sleep he had, claiming Pullman beds are best beds in entire world.

7. Winds up oration by explaining how rail and Pullman fare is less than 4 cents a mile – whereas it costs 5 cents a mile to run your own car.

8. After hearing out b-in-law to end, our hero says quietly, “I know! I came Pullman myself like I always do. Nice, isn’t it?”

For Comfort – For Safety – For Dependability – Go Pullman

You get there refreshed, readier for a good time. Try it next trip.


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GO PULLMAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


Enjoy! [tup]

Tom [4:-)][oX)]

THINK April 12th –
The 1st year Anniversary of ”Our” Place!

[siberianmo]

G'day!

Nice to see ya Pete! You and Lars have been our only customers today! What a difference time can make, eh[?] Friday's used to be our busiest - been a long time. But then again, this is the "Feast or Famine Bar 'n Grill," one just never knows who or "what" will come through those doors - and when![swg]

Cheers to all - thanx for the rounds and we're getting ready to take Juneau for an early trek 'round the subdivision. Translated: he gets an early walk - then another upon our return home this evening - as the one coming up doesn't "count!" Get it[?] Dogs!!<grin>

Hey Lars! Just think of it this way - better to be thought about than forgotten, wouldn't you agree[?][swg] [bday] to you![tup]

Have a Nostalgia piece comin' up . . . .

Tom[4:-)] [oX)]

[pwolfe]

Hi Tom and all.

A pint of Bathams and some fish and Chips if there is any leftover please[tup].

Glad you got through the high winds last night without any damage TOM. It got very windy here but the main storm skirted us, poor Sedalia MO had a tornado again but this time without the injuries as far as I know.

Many thanks Mike for the links to Rugby ND station [tup][tup][tup].It looks a delightful building with a great interior. To sell 5,300 tickets with a population of only 3,000 is a marvellous achievement. I do hope they are successful in keeping the Empire Builder continuing calling there.
The station's namesake in England is to go a complete re-building soon. The present station is the 3rd to serve the LMS lines in the town dating from 1886,
It is an island station with two main platforms with bays at both ends with the through and goods lines to the outside, the main platforms are 1,410 feet long There were a scissors switch half way down each platform controlled by small signal boxes and they could hold two trains at once.

ROB The EMD class 66s built for the UK have been, as far as I know, very successful.
The intial order for 250 for EWS, with the Winconsin Central connection,have been added too by other frieght operators and the total now running or on order has reached 397. Although one 66 was written off after the Heck accident.
There as been some of the type built for other European railways. some of the new locos for Holland have been assembled by ITS Rail at ST Catherines instead of at London Ontario.
The 66s got the nickname of Grey Squirrels by some railfans when they first arrived(although they were mainly red) an introduced animal killing off the local species.

DOUG Great piece on Jesse James. In St Joseph Missouri is the Jesse James Home Museum where he was shot . A railroad connection is that near the home is the Patee House Museum which houses an 1892 4-4-0 engine which was put back to its early apperance in the 30s to represent the Hannibal & St Joseph #35 with a replica of the railroad's first Railway Post Office.

[bday] LARS . Have a great day.

I'll have another Bathams and a round to celebrate. PETE.

[LoveDomes]

G'day Tom and fellow travelers at the bar!

Just a real short visit today - family is about to descend on us and then it will be "celebration time!"[swg] Thanks to all for the b'day greetings - seems like we've done this once B4, huh[?][swg]

Set 'em up on me, Tom and I'll start off with a JD straight up . . . .

Comments[?] Nah - I'll refrain. After all, what's the use, huh[?] I said what I said and it remains said! Can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen - didn't one of our former Prez people say that[?][?]

Actually I DO want to say this: I like the way our Proprietor has organized this Thread - that's part of why I'm here. I participate and try to contribute. Can't understand why anyone one frequent this bar for reasons other than to join in. I think the term "inclusive" fits quite well - although a bit on the "lib" side for my tastes![swg] Anyway, I kinda go with "consideration." If you give it - you get it![tup]

Love the CP going on over on your "other thread!"

Enjoyed the "reads" from Rob 'n Doug - especially got a kick out of the Jesse James story. All I could think about was that old Henry Fonda movie . . . .

As I mentioned earlier on, if you need some help with the "RR Book Relay" send it to me - even though I have it, I'll "autograph" the page and return it.

Ding-dong, goes the door bell - "I'll get it" bellows the wife - and let the party begin!<groan> I really don't care for these things . . . . I'm coming, I'm coming . . . .

Again, [bday] to the Mrs. and enjoy the dinner, etc![tup] Just think how close we came to being the April Fools![:O]


Until the next time!

Lars

[siberianmo]

Mornin' Gents!

Just a quickie from mid-Continent USA! Big doings goin' on 'round here.[swg]

Petrol is now at $2.40 (rounded) up at "Collusion Corner," and the rise was not a surprise. It'' go even higher - count on it.[tdn] Storm front came roarin' thru about midnight - blowin' up a gale force wind. No damages, thank heaven.

Received a "bunch" of E-mails and appreciate the comments. Rather than get "into" them here - let me just say, 'tis better to communicate directly with whomever it is one has a disagreement with than to use this bar 'n grill for gripes 'n complaints. Unfortunately, everyone doesn't seem to think it is important to provide an Email address in their Profile, sooooooooooo . . . . . .

Thanx for the B'day wishes for my bride! She's most surprised that anyone in cyber space would remember her, along with the Email best wishes too![tup][tup][tup] Nicely done, gents!

I enjoyed putting out that Toronto Union Station piece and apparently it was well received.[tup] Makes the effort worth the while, eh[?]

Rob 'n Doug at nite! Now there's a combo, fer sure, fer sure![swg] Always good stuff and enjoy the reading. Jesse James, eh[?] One of the things that kinda stuck wtih me when I moved to these parts was that it was really not that long ago in history when the James Gang was terrorizing the railroads and banks in Missouri, Kansas and other places. The wild west, fer sure, fer sure.

Thanx for the intersting link between rails and waterway transportation, Rob - good stuff![tup]

Appreciate the rounds (and quarters) guyz! Always helps to have more left in "Tilla 'n Cashinator" than when the day began![swg]

CM3 I doubt that the Spadina Terminal will make my list - however, feel free![swg]

Would love to see the Pix that accompany that list of B&O - C&O - WM motive power. Impressive . . . .

Later![tup]

Tom[4:-)][oX)]


THINK April 12th –
The 1st year Anniversary of ”Our” Place!

[siberianmo]

”Our” Place RR Book Relay!



Status report: The fourth mailing is en route Florida and Theodorebear Ted from trolleyboy Rob.


There is STILL TIME to join in on this idea - ship me an Email with your address and I'll add you to the list of recipients.

Tom[4:-)] [oX)]


THINK April 12th –
The 1st year Anniversary of ”Our” Place!

[coalminer3]

Good Morning Barkeep and all Present; cofee, please; round for the house and $ for the jukebox.

Many thanks for the Toronto material. Brought back more than a few memories. At least it's still there which is more than we can say for the Spadina engine terminal.

Nick - Baby TMs were smaller; generally a question of horsepower and different types of service as you suggested. The TM itself was a beast. Advertising copy at the time suggested that something this big could do the work of "more" units. I need to get back into the technical section of the east wing at the house and get some stats; it'll explain more clearly what I mean.

Jesse James - An interesting sidebar for certain.

Rob - Thanks for the BB&G material. Ft. Erie was a busy place back in the day with CN, Wabash, and NYC activity.

I found this in the stack of stuff last night. It's a 1975-era combined listing of C&O/B&O/WM locomtives that were in service.

Check out the models that were still running.

Road Freight
EMD
F7-42 (all WM)
GP7-205
GP9-543
GP30-117
GP35-85
GP38-130
GP39-20
GP40-363
SD7-5 (all B&O)
SD9-10 (all B&O)
SD18-19 (all C&O)
SD35-41SD40-83
BL2-2 (all WM)

GE (all C&O)
U23B-30
U25B-37
U30B-35
U30C-13

Alco (all WM)
RS2-5
RS3-14

Yard Engines (listed by horsepower)

Alco
900 HP (all WM)
1000HP-80 (all B&O)
EMD
600 HP-12
900 HP-28 (all B&O)
1000 HP-93
1200 HP-84

Date for this compilation is July 2, 1975.

work safe

[siberianmo]

[bday]HAPPY BIRTHDAY to LARS (66)![bday]



(courtesy: www.trainweb.org)

We open at 6 AM (all time zones!). (Don’t ask how we do that!)[swg]


FRIDAY’s INFO & SUMMARY of POSTS


Friday! End the work-week with a hot cuppa Joe, pastries from The Mentor Village Bakery and a selection from our Menu Board for a <light> or <traditional> breakfast![tup]


Daily Wisdom

Some folks morals are as loose as a busted egg.[swg]


”Our” Place” ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION is Wednesday, April 12th!


Info for the Day:

Railroads from Yesteryear – Missouri Pacific (MP) arrives next Tuesday!

* Weekly Calendar:

TODAY: Pizza Nite! & Steak Nite!
Saturday: Steak ‘n Trimmin’s Nite! – and –
ENCORE! Saturday


SUMMARY

Name …..…………… Date/Time …..…..………. (Page#) .. Remarks

(1) siberianmo Tom Posted: 30 Mar 2006, 05:57:48 (289) Thursday’s Info & Summary

(2) siberianmo Tom Posted: 30 Mar 2006, 07:40:07 (289) RR Stations, Terminals & Depots Ad

(3) siberianmo Tom Posted: 30 Mar 2006, 08:10:13 (289) Acknowledgments, etc.

(4) siberianmo Tom Posted: 30 Mar 2006, 12:22:45 (289) RR Stations, Terminals & Depots #1

(5) BudKarr BK Posted: 30 Mar 2006, 14:17:11 (289) The BK Report!

(6) LoveDomes Lars Posted: 30 Mar 2006, 14:56:42 (289) The Lars Report!

(7) pwolfe Pete Posted: 30 Mar 2006, 16:16:50 (289) Wolfman Howls!

(8) wanswheel Mike Posted: 30 Mar 2006, 17:34:42 (289) URLs[tup]

(9) siberianmo Tom Posted: 30 Mar 2006, 18:55:02 (289) Acknowledgments, etc.

(10) nickinwestwales Nick Posted: 30 Mar 2006, 19:03:12 (289) Nick at Nite!

(11) nickinwestwales Nick Posted: 30 Mar 2006, 19:17:28 (290) A question

(12) siberianmo Tom Posted: 30 Mar 2006, 19:33:09 (290) reply to Nick

(13) trolleyboy Rob Posted: 30 Mar 2006, 20:38:24 (290) Inclusive Post, etc.

(14) barndad Doug Posted: 30 Mar 2006, 20:53:27 (290) Story of Jesse James & Jokes, etc.!

(15) trolleyboy Rob Posted: 30 Mar 2006, 23:32:23 (290) More

(16) trolleyboy Rob Posted: 31 Mar 2006, 00:23:04 (290) Classic Steam #20 – BB&G




The Mentor Village Emporium Theatre

NOW SHOWING:

Double Features and Three Stooges Short Subject!

. . . Sunday, March 26th thru April 1st:Major League (1989) starring Tom Beringer, Charlie Sheen & Corbin Bernson – and – Bull Durham (1988) starring: Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon & Tim Robbins. SHORT: Plane Nuts (1933).


That’s it! [tup][;)]

Tom [4:-)] [oX)]
Proprietor of “Our” Place, an adult eating & drinking establishment!






[bday]HAPPY BIRTHDAY to LARS (66)![bday]


THINK April 12th –
The 1st year Anniversary of ”Our” Place!

[trolleyboy]

Allright then Leon another Keith's please. One more bot of steam from the vault this evening I think.

CLASSIC STEAM # 20 THE BUFFALO BRANTFORD & GODERICH


The BB&G : Fort Erie to Stratford

In the 1850's there was all sorts of speculation over where new rail lines were going to be built./ As the railroad building bug had bitten hard. As the Grand Trunk and Chief Rival Great Western Railway began to build their main routes, the various towns and villages clamoured to get on the lines.Despite the various municipalities wi***o participate in and welcome the railway's to town, the land owners tended to hol dout for top dollar forcing the railways to give many of them a wide berth. Despite the want this was not an exception with the merchants of Brantford.

Tired of shipping their wares and importing raw materials along the slow and seasonal Grand River Canal ( barge canal it's remainder is at the end of my street ), they demanded the fast year round access to markets that the railway's could provide. In 1849 when the Great Western was surveying a route which would pass north of Brantford , the group ( merchants ) formed a company to raise money for a railway to Link Buffalo with Goderich on Lake Huron. to thier delight this initiative met with the favour in both communities and with most of the other municipalities along the proposed line.

Surveys began, starting in Fort Erie, then west to the Grand River where the surveyors followed the east bank of the river into Brantford. the line then crossed the Grand at Paris before angling northwesterly into Stratford. In Stratford it met a roadblock named John Gywnn, who was trying to promote another railway that would run from Toronto to Guelph then on to Goderich. He lobbied parliamment to deny the BBG permission to proceed beyond Stratford. Gwynn failed,and the legislature approved the BBG. Also there were no govt, funds involved in the construction. The BBG was the only railway of it's day built without gov. money.

In 1854, before the Grand Trunk even opened it's Montreal - Toronto line the first wood burning steamer pulled into Brantford from Buffalo. The newspaper's of the day tell of a gala celebration and fireworks in fron t of the court house. With a Grand Ball starting at 8pm in the second story of the depots machine shop ! twop abnds one from Buffalo the other the Brantford Philharmonic and 1500 guests !

Two months later the railroads problems continued. The railway buildings were set ablaze and destroyed. Then when they reached Stratford, in sept., it came face to face with the Grand Trunk which uncerimoniously removed the BBG's rails. The BBG's boss then ordered his local contractor to tear up te Grand Trunk aand relay the BBG, and set men to watch it. The GT had plans of it's own, and sent two carloads of armed and drunken navies. However cooler heads prevailed and the confrontation did not happen.

In Ridgeway ( near Ft Erie )later the same year 30 BBG labourers angry atv not being paid began to rip up tracks. The BBG then brought in scab workjers to repair the damage guarded by 25 speacial constibles. Theifght that ensued left one dead aand several injured.

In 1858 the line finally reached Goderich and instantly hit the profit column. The new terminus at Goderich allowed the BBG to access the Lake freighters which now could make two trips a year instead of one ( sailing vessels ).Townsfolk also could ride the rails to the various beaches and resorts along the Lake shore, something many could not do before the railway.

At Fort Erie, a ferry ( BBG owned) would shuttle people accross the entrance of the Niagara river from Buffalo to a new warf terminal in Ft Eries Downtown, and then later to the GT's Victoria later Bridgeburg station ( approx where the peace bridge is today )


From Ft Erie the line ran strait accross country to Port Colbourne where the first station on the line sat at a diamond ( TH&B)on the east side of the Welland canal. This lione was now called the Buffalo and Lake Huron ( just before the 1869 takeover by the GT ) Mnay local resorts an destinations grew out of this line, Ft Erie racetrack,Crystal Beach amusement park ( & town ) the US Based Humberstone resort at Humberstone, now part of Pt Colbourne. A street is still called Tennessee ave there. Another flag stop called Lorraine was set up to serve a US enclave ( summer homes ) called Point Albino which still refuses non residents access along their private road to a lovely old lighthouse at the point. Which has been designated a National Historical Sight

West of Port Colbourne the BBG established a station at Wainfleet then as it approached the Grand River at Dunnville it made use of the already established river port facilities there and provided transport for local fish and manufactured goods. At Cannfield JCt abit further along, the BBG crossed the Canada Southern and the Canada Air Line . stopping at Port Dover,Caladonia,Cainsville and then finally Brantord.From Brantford it moved onto Paris amd crossed the grand over the high level bridge ( still in use today )before meeting the Great Western at Paris Jct.
From Paris the line continued accross the fertile farm belt to Stratford then onto Guelph and Toronto.

The line is still part of the Corridor 90% of which is still intact. the main Toronto-Buffalo mainline of the CN today.


Rob

[trolleyboy]

Good evening again folks. Lepn just a short one please.

Doug Bad joke[:o] good story[tup] Where else can one read about jesse Jame's , Booze trains,model railroad stuff, streamliners,and classic train stations in all of two pages on these forums. Truly shows how extra speacial this thread is. 5x[tup][:D] for Capt. Tom and his rowdy crew [swg]

Nick To answer a question of yours from yesterday that i missed. I do indeed have Ian Wilson's next volume reserved, I haven't missed one yet ! The museum gift shop has sold all of Ian's books over the years. " To Stratford Under steam" "Steam through London", & " Steam to Niagara" are the only older ones that we still have in stock. The new book should be out in about a month or so. ( can't wait ) it's covering the CNR Steam in Northern Ontario,North Bay to Capreol,possibly two more books are still to come after this one. Thgere may be a small reprint of his original book "Steam Through Allandale" as well. I'll keep you posted.

Rob

[Anonymous]

Good evening Tom and friends. I've only got time for a quick shot, but I'll leave money for a B'day round for Lars. Sorry to be so short on time, but that's how it goes sometimes. COuldn't help but notice Rob's booze line post ...for some reason. Nice OO gauge and especially fine Toronto Union Station post Mr Tom.

I for one liked the recent Big G theme "data-dumps" from Al. I disagree that the material was excessive. This is exactly the kind of information that is so unique to this thread. I am very apprecictive that Al takes so much time to provide all that he does for us. I can't help but notice he has not posted today. I sure hope we didn't lose him. [:(]

As for my jokes... we'll ...I am definitely reaching the bottom of the barrel ... and they are all quite attackable.

Sorry not to be more inclusive with this post, but I really must fly. Please accept another humble offering of another series ... but don't worry ... the Tunnel series is far from complete!

The True Story of Jesse James, Train Robber Sep 1932 Railroad Stories

The James homestead at Kearney, Mo. Where the notorious Jesse spent his boyhood


There were few human touches in the criminal career of Jesse Woodson James, train bandit, whose gang operated for fifteen years in Missouri and Kansas, occasionally making forays into near-by states.

The search for this outlaw chief was one of the keenest this country has ever known. He mocked railroad bulls, the police, the sheriffs. In vain did the Pinkertons send out their best men. Some never returned. Detectives bombed Jesse’s house, tearing off his mother’s right arm and murdering his half-brother. A total of $75,000 was offered for the arrest and conviction of Jesse and his older brother, Frank.

Born in 1847 at Kearney, Mo., Jesse was only four when his father, a clergyman, went to California in search of gold and died there. The evil influence in the early lives of the James boys may be traced to William G. Quantrill, known as “the bloodiest man in the Civil War.” Quantrill was a Confederate guerilla leader. His outstanding feat was the sacking of Lawrence, Kan., a peaceful town which he invaded in 1863 at the head of about 450 men, including Frank James. They killed 182 of the population in one day!

Two months afterward, Jesse, a lad of fifteen, was plowing a cornfield when Federal militia decided to “teach the cub a lesson” – apparently for no reason except that his big brother was with Quantrill. Jesse was lashed until the blood came. His stepfather, a kind-hearted country doctor, was strung up to a tree.

The future brigand vowed vengeance. Young as he was, he joined Quantrill’s irregulars and fought under the banner until the was ended. Then he tried to surrender but was shot twice in the chest – wounds which never completely healed.

An outcast from society, Jesse organized some of Quantrill’s men into that terrible murderous band which held up railroad trains, banks, and stagecoaches. Thus “Jesse James” became a name of terror. No railroad man passing through the Middle West in those days knew when his train would be held up or when he himself would become a target for bandit bullets. An old minister who had known the desperado since childhood once remonstrated with him: “Jesse, why don’t you stop these things?” The reply was: “If you tell me how I can stop, I’ll gladly do so – but I don’t aim to stop right under a noose!”

That was it. Once embarked upon a series of crimes, there was no turning back. Jesse James lived perpetually in the shadow of the gallows and within earshot of whistling bullets. He was determined not to be taken alive – and he never was! Jesse James never saw the inside of a jail, although he carried so many bullet wounds that people said you could dig into his body almost anywhere and strike lead.

The first train robbery which can be traced to the redoubtable Jesse occurred on the Kansas Pacific Railroad on December 12, 1874, near Muncie, Kan., a flag stop ten miles from the old union depot at Kansas City, Mo. There were six highwaymen, said to be the James brothers, Clell Miller, two of the three Younger brothers, Cole and Frank, and a switchman named Bud McDaniels.

In some was Bud had learned that a train leaving Denver with a shipment of gold dust would pass Muncie at 4:45pm. Six horsemen, armed with carbines and heavy revolvers, masked with red bandanas, rode over there and got busy. As a curtain-raiser they robbed Purdee’s general store of $24 and forced the proprietor to help them pile a lot of ties upon the track. At the same time they set out the flag at the station, to make doubly sure the train would stop.

Engineer Robert Murphy, on the train from the West, seeing the flag and the obstruction on the track, closed his throttle and ground to a stop. The robbery had been well planned. While one man climbed into the cab and covered the engine crew, the others cowed the trainmen and passengers. A freight train was close behind, so Conductor Brinkenhoff started back to flag it. “Where the hell you going?” Jesse demanded, firing a shot in his general direction. Brinkenhoff explained. The bandit leader was unconvinced. “That’s O.K.,” injected Switchman McDaniels, who knew his railroading. “He just wants tuh head off another train an’ keep it from crashing into our rear.”

“Well, he better watch his step,” growled Jesse. “All right, let him go.” Meanwhile the crew were forced to uncouple the express car and pull it away a short distance from the rest of the train, and the looting began. Frank Webster, The Wells, Fargo & Co. express messenger, had been caught unprepared, with the doors of his car unlocked. Two ruffians leaped into the car. “Let’ssee how quick you can open that safe, fella,” said one of them. “We’re in a hell of a big hurry.” “But I don’t know the combination,” protested Webster. “i-“

“Maybe this’ll teach you!” bellowed the thug, striking him on the head with a revolver butt. Dazed, the messenger did as he was told. The booty consisted of $30,000 in gold dust, $20,000 in currency, and jewelry valued at about $5,000. All of this was dumped into a wheat sack – the usual receptacle carried by the James boys on their raids – and the rest of the car was searched thoroughly. It contained nothing else of value except some silver bricks, which were too heavy to carry off. As they left, Jesse flung a parting threat at the express messenger: “If you poke your lousy head out of that door we’ll shoot it off!”

Meanwhile, two members of the gang had been robbing the passengers of money and watches, which they returned upon learning what had been taken from the express car. “We’re not after chicken feed!” they said. To delay pursuit, the brigands shot two horses which they found in the vicinity, then mounted their own steeds and galloped off. Waving a greeting to the engineer, one of the gunmen called out: “You can back up now and get your train,” and to the scared passengers he shouted: “Give our love to the folks in Kansas City.”

Murphy lost no time in hooking up and making the fastest possible run to Kansas City, but it was too late for posses to pick up the trail. The James gang had crossed over into Missouri and were hiding in the mountains. Two or three days later Bud McDaniels boasted to his girl friend in Kansas City that he had acquired a lot of jewelry, and made a date to take her on a buggy ride. But she did not keep the date. Instead, she went out with another man.

Bud was furious. Here he was ready to show a lady a good time, with lots of money, and she goes off with some other guy! Can you beat that? Felling the need for consolation, he drove over to a saloon and soon got tanked up. Late that night he was arrested for reckless driving and drunkenness. Searched at the police station, he was found to have more than $1,000 in cash, two six-shooters, and pieces of jewelry which were identified as part of the loot taken at Muncie.

“I bought that stuff for Susanna,” he insisted, “but I don’t give a *** who gets it now. She’s gone back on me.” This explanation seemed fishy to the authorities, who made an investigation, the upshot of which McDaniels was indicted for complicity in the holdup. The unlucky switchman escaped from a deputy sheriff before being placed on trial, but was located a few weeks later and was shot to death while resisting arrest.

[:I] An old hillbilly farmer had a wife who nagged him unmercifully. From morning till night (and sometimes later), she was always complaining about something. The only time he got any relief was when he was out plowing with his old mule. He tried to plow a lot.
One day, when he was out plowing, his wife brought him lunch in the field. He drove the old mule into the shade, sat down on a stump, and began to eat his lunch. Immediately, his wife began haranguing him again. Complain, nag, nag; it just went on and on. All of a sudden, the old mule lashed out with both hind feet; caught her smack in the back of the head. Killed her dead on the spot.
At the funeral several days later, the minister noticed something rather odd. When a woman mourner would approach the old farmer, he would listen for a minute, then nod his head in agreement; but when a man mourner approached him, he would listen for a minute, then shake his head in disagreement. This was so consistent, the minister decided to ask the old farmer about it.
So after the funeral, the minister spoke to the old farmer, and asked him why he nodded his head and agreed with the women, but always shook his head and disagreed with all the men. The old farmer said: "Well, the women would come up and say something about how nice my wife looked, or how pretty her dress was, so I'd nod my head in agreement".
"And what about the men?" the minister asked.
"They wanted to know if the mule was for sale". [:I]

[trolleyboy]

Good evening Leon a nice tall Keith's with a nice medium rare porterhouse please,baked potatoe with all the trimmings though.[:D]

Tom Wonderfull piece on good ole, Toronto Union. Great way to get the boyz into the mood fer sure fer sure. [swg] Not sure if we will ever see the airport link, at least not with the jokers that call themselves the mayor and council of the city. To interested in giving themselves raises.[tdn][:(!] A happy borthday to your beloved as well sir[bday]

CM3 Thanks for the additional "soaked" railway information sir. [tup] I have to say that i do love my books and articles and periodicals and ... well you get the picture. That and my wifes family tend to live and breath things with steel wheels on steel rails, tends to rub off after a while.

lars [bday] for real today sir ! I shall buy you a round even if you have to get it tomorrow due to our time in the bar difference. I've heard nothing else from any of the people I have emailed either,we sahll now sirt back and see what will transpire on the 12th.

BK I'm glad you enjoyed the tale of "Hiram" a second time around.No impuning of your sovreignity was intended yesterday,just commenting on tom's comments as it were. Allow me to furnish you with a round as well to atone. Kokanee perhaps[?] Seeing as you are near to where that particular nectar is brewed .[swg]

Nick I see that you enjoyed the Hiram story as well [tup][:D]. I would say that you are bang on in your wonderings about the baby trainmaster.Less hp but still a brute,main difference is that they road on 4 axle trucks instead of the 6's. I trust that you helped your sister have a merry birthday as well.

Pete Nice extra info on the old British steam locomotives as well.I wonder how the newest EMD power is fairing back home for you. I remember GMD of London turning out the 710 powered latest diesels bought after WC assumed control of the frieght systems for a while. I wonder how the AC traction on those new brutes is holding up.


Rob

[siberianmo]

Yo Nick

300 is a guarantee! At the rate we're turning pages, we've got plenty of time with some room to spare . . . . [tup]

B'day greetings relayed to the bride . . . . one thing though, she claims 39.[swg]

Glad you enjoyed the Toronto Union Station piece, and yes - it does fit quite nicely with our Rendezvous! It trully is one of the finest operating rail stations left . . . Doesn't have the traffic that the square footage can handle, but still is an awesome structure. If you could put the traffic of Chicago's Union Station into that place - well, then you'd have something really special.

Those RDCs that are operating down in Dallas (formerly VIA Rail) were refurbished in Montreal before being sent south for ops on the Trinity Rail Express. Anyway, these cars were built in the 50s - amazing how much "life" they have in 'em. I'm really surprised that Toronto hasn't gotten off the dime with a rail connection to Pearson. Even St. Louis has a light rail running from Lambert International to downtown - and compared to Toronto, this area is a "burg."

Okay, 'nuf for me.

Catch ya'll later . . . .

Tom[4:-)][oX)]


THINK April 12th –
The 1st year Anniversary of ”Our” Place!

[nickinwestwales]

Well heres a thought for you all to ponder-will we get to page 300 by the anniversary...............[C=:-)]

[nickinwestwales]

Well good evening all,before I begin-[4:-)][oX)]TOM-there should be a bottle of bubbly in the back chiller and I put out a tray of flutes earlier since we have a small toast to drink-A triple natal day celebration,We have MRS CAROL WEBER (21),my dear barking mad sister SARAH (21) and our very own man on the scene in the big apple MR LARS (also,by a quirk of fate,21)
[bday][bday][bday] to you all,may your special day be truly special[tup][^][tup]
Right-looks like a busy day,better get to posts whilst I can still type...........
ROB-enjoyed the booze line <hic>,thanks for heads-up on FL9`s-at last,I can rest easy at night [swg]-didn`t realise the cyl hprs were known as `Trudeaus`-got a half dozen in various liveries,break up the line on a short freight really nicely and look good as a block working as well but a bit light-footed moving through complex pointwork...could use more weight I suspect..
[4:-)]{oX)]TOM-Ah yes -you`ve noticed the detail thing-I just have that sort of mind,not quite autism but beyond normal assessment parameters.
Very nice Union Station piece-what better mood setter for the jolly boys outing [tup]-liked the idea of a Pearson Airport-Union shuttle using refurbished R.D.C`s-Some good thinking going on up there [tup][^][tup]
CM3-Thanks for heads-up r.e. trainmaster-Am I right in thinking that the Baby Trainmaster was a downsized version with wider route availability ?
As to the inverted Zeppelin Flypast,have spoken to Helga & Hilda and both are up for it but consensus of opinion is that,given the risks,the further back the audience is kept ,the better......
BK-Glad to see the mountain air is suiting you-[tup]Enjoy[tup]---Do what works for YOU-the rest can take the long walk home
LARS-congratulations on your natal day,many happy returns
PETE-thanks for the update on 488-Memory suggests I`ve seen her in lined black (& looking very elegant I must say) but no pictures,sorry....
Right guys,was going to post a menu but unexpectedly taken drunk so you`ll just have to pester Boris and persuade one of the girls to help him
Take care everybody,speak soon,nick [C=:-)]

[siberianmo]

Gentlemen!

I see some acknowledgments are in order this fine day! Thanx for stopping by and helping to perpetuate the idea of this cyber bar 'n grill - interaction - recognition and inclusiveness! All very much appreciated.

Tweeeeeeetable offense(s) directed toward wanswheel Mike held in abeyance pending . . . . those URLs got him out of a jam, and of course the B'day wishes didn't hurt either![swg] [tup] However, rules #1 & #2 were simply blown off . . . [tdn] Greet the bartender - order a drink and/or food . . .

BK You really hit it on the head - if one "airs one's business" then of course the probability is strong for responses. However, the intent of those comments also must be weighed and I figure they fall in the category of "best of intentions," rather than intrusiveness. Just my [2c]

Lars Of course we can prepare that steak![tup] Glad someone appreciates the fine cuisine served 'round here![swg]

Pete While I concur wholeheartedly with your commentary regarding the rail stations, the reality lies in the times we're in. For example, the Union Station in KCity is costing the city mega bucks for the utilities alone. Those huge edifices simply are cash eaters when it comes to heating, cooling, etc. No doubt that they are committed to history and should be preserved - but the idea is also to find a use and one that doesn't break the bank. The Union Station here in St. Louis isn't really knocking down the income once projected. Fortunately, it is in private hands and the city isn't losing anything, aside from whatever incentives were offered back when the project began. Actually, those incentives may have long run the course . . .

Toronto's Union Station is quite the place to visit - much more fun when waiting to board the "Canadian" en route Vancouver![tup][yeah] Anyway, I don't think I've ever seen a building of that style occupy so much space - it is huge. Given the numbers of trains operating there, I'm sure more than one "bean counter" has wondered aloud whether it is cost effective to keep it operating. I'd hate to see it razed, but perhaps one day . . . . I'm just thankful that I not only had many opportunities to walk the concourses, but to arrive and depart by VIA Rail on at least a dozen trips.

Glad you guys enjoyed the first in the series of RR Stations, Termianls & Depots. This particular "run" will just take a place in line with the others.

How many others, I was asked[?] Let's see - Fallen Flags has pretty much run its course (although there's always the option to add a few more . . . .) Nostalgia continues along with RRs from Yesteryear - Canadian Rwys of the Past - Rwys of Europe - Little Known Operating RRs - Significant Events in Canadian RR History and now, RR Stations, Terminals & Depots <phew!>[swg]

Lars 'n BK Thanx for stopping by "my other thread" - even saw 20 FIngers over there - but, alas - not here! Amazing, eh[?]

B'day greetings relayed to my bride![tup]

Leon the Night Man has the bar at 9 PM (Central)!

Later!

Tom[4:-)] [oX)]


THINK April 12th –
The 1st year Anniversary of ”Our” Place!

[wanswheel]

Real good of Lars to remember Carol's [bday] while forgetting his own. Cool.

http://www.gngoat.org/03rugby3.jpg Pete here's another historic station
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/200202/21_rehab_amtrak-m/8.shtml
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/200202/21_rehab_amtrak-m/
http://timf.anansi-web.com/cycles/images/98mn1k/rugbynd.jpg
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/map/nd.html

http://imagescn.technomuses.ca/structures/index_view.cfm?photoid=83995986&id=37 Rob is this nearby?

http://imagescn.technomuses.ca/railways/index_view.cfm?photoid=91691204&id=58 For BK
http://imagescn.technomuses.ca/railways/index_view.cfm?photoid=-873504597&id=58 For BK's "intended"
http://imagescn.technomuses.ca/railways/index_view.cfm?photoid=87166652&id=58 For "Moi"

Uncle Mike recommends name the boy Sue (Congratulations John!)
http://andyboy.typepad.com/bloggytime/files/johnny_cash_rock_island_line.mp3

[pwolfe]

Hi Tom ana all.

A pint of the usual and a round for anyone else in.

ROB The GM power unit used in the class 57 rebuilds wasthe GM 645 either the12E3 or theF3B
Enjoyed the Classic Steam on the Booze line and CM3's post. I did see the article on the Coors Brewery railway. The town of Burton - on - Trent in the East Midlands of England was the UK equivelent of Milwaukee as a big brewing town, with a massive railway system serving the breweries with many road crossings. A considerable amount of the beer was taken to London in barrels.
In the later days of steam the train hauled by LMS Jubilee 4-6-0 locos allocated to Burton shed. Under the rail level at the Midland Railway terminus in London, St Pancras, was a basement used for the unloading and storage of the barrels a massive area. This area now is being incorperated in the new alterations to St Pancras as the station for the new high speed line to the Channel Tunnel.

NICK I have found out at the status of the Adam's Radial Tank. It is at the Bluebell and waiting for major boiler-work to be done. Apparently it last steamed in 1990 (it doesn't seem that long ago). I remember it ran in the BR black livery carrying the # 30583 for a while.

TOM Another great series on Railroad Stations. [tup][tup][tup] A magnificent building which had an impressive list of dignataries at its opening.
To think that in 1972 they wanted to demolish it, luckily good reason prevailed. I thought there was a fair bit of simularity between the Great Hall shown in the photos and the one in Union Station in Kansas City.
I think we live in more enlightened times now with reguard to old buildings. When the old (London) Euston station was demolised in the 60s
especially the 1838 Doric Arch at the entrance It made people realise that these things could be lost and it kickstarted the movement that got historic buildings protected by law by geting the buildings Listed as of Historic Importance.
Look forward to more in the series [^] PETE.

[LoveDomes]

G'day Tom and fellow travelers at the bar!

That steak from yesterday was so good, I'm ready for 'nother one! Can do[?] A pitcher of Alexander Keith's finest ale, if you please! And, a round for the bar![tup]

Fries, chips, et al - I generally pass 'em up. Where I need the starch I'm not getting it and where it isn't needed, it roosts, if ya know what I mean![swg]

My "bookend" made it in rather "late" for him, huh[?] One of these days, I'll bet him through those doors and he'll have to spring for a drink or three for me![tup]

Really enjoyed the Toronto Union Station submission and for my money, that's one fine station - as you and some of your northern friends like to say - fer sure, fer sure![swg] Seriously, a nice read and some great shots to go with it. Am looking foward to your next installment. How many "series" have you got running[?][%-)][%-)]

Not very much to report this day, no e-mail responses and pretty much same-ol, same-ol. Tom summed in up quite well regading who has hasn't responded to my request - so pick it up wherever you like, gents, any help is most appreciated.[tup]

Wondering if Doug had "one of those nights" with the JO living below them[?] Bad & sad situation, huh[?] We've had the fortunate experience of being able to live in a single family home for more years than I care to count. However, we did begin in apartment living - having both been raised that way. Then again, I think the times and people were far different than what most of us encounter these days. Seems like a "screw you" world more times than not.[tdn]

A day around here (and the "other thread") without 20 Fingers Al is like a day without the sun. Whazzup, pal[?] Hopefully you're not conjuring up a huge "data dump" directed my way![swg]

Looks like our planned trip to the left coast is in for an "adjustment" or two. Fortuantely, we were able to make the 'adjustments' with only minimal stress - and that was from the airline. Amtrak was very helpful and we wound up getting the same accomodations for the same price. Airlines charged us a few bucks for the change - but nothing to fret over. We fly to Chi-town, then board the Zephyr for the westward journey.

Enjoyed your "classic" submission, Rob and I'm wondering where in the world you find these things! Between yours and Doug's, you keep the info-flow first rate.[tup][tup]

To all who posted last evening - appreciate the banter![swg] Good reading and good fun.[tup]

Early [bday] wishes to your Mrs., Tom!

Until the next time!

Lars

[BudKarr]

Good Afternoon Captain Tom and all assembled!

A round of cheer, if you please and a double Southern Comfort on the rocks, thank you!

My acknowledgment to those who passed along the unsolicited advice. While not intended, nor really needed, I understand where it comes from gentlemen. Big boys make big decisions, and I definitely concur that they are mine to make. Having aired my thoughts, it is only natural to receive the feedback. The resolution is still pending and I assure one and all that should I take them up on this latest offer, ours will be the interests most considered.[tup]

Captain Tom I must admit that over the course of these months my thoughts have gone to the stations, terminals & depots. Where have they been? Excellent start of a new series and the Toronto edifice is simply a grand place to have begun. Having had the opportunity to travel to and from that fascinating place in my childhood and then again later in life, the memories flooded back while reading through your submission. Very much appreciated and the photographs are equally excellent.[tup][tup][tup]

Sir Rob believe it or not, the "booze train" is something I recall hearing about from my dad. "Hiram" was no stranger in our house.[swg]

Sir Coalminer your wit is akin to that of Sir Nick. Perhaps you two are the "bookends" from two far flung mining regions, eh[?]

Is it me, or have we somehow run out of daytime customers? I thought the "No Doze" was a "prop," but apparently there is a legitimate use!s[swg]

Not much news from the mountains today, other than we are preparing for another venture southward. A bit unsure about the departure date, as we have to coordinate a few matters prior to getting going. Again, things are looking favorable for the 12th.

Regards to those who acknowledged my post - Cheers to you![tup]

BK in beautiful Alberta, Canada's mountain country!