Virginian wrote:I was not grinding an axe over a 62 years past war, I was stating facts.
Virginian wrote:I was not grinding an axe over a 62 years past war, I was stating facts. I am still chafing about a war that ended 142 years ago, with the wrong side winning !
I don't think this is a forum to pick on the French. Let's keep it in persective. Remember they gave us our Statue of Liberty and much more. Drop it there, and end our comments pertaining to French on a positive note. You are not supposed to judge people; you are supposed to pray for people.
Here in the USA, we should focus on transport if are to solve energy issues. Alternative energy sources, backed by both political parties, should be set aside. The real answer is alternative modes of transport. Railroads are much more fuel efficent and much more environmentally friendly than is the case with highways and airways. Yet, Uncle Sam spends more than 100 times more on highways and airports each year than he spends on railways.
Write your Congressman and your Senators. I do that.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Yikes!
Gentlemen,
Many of us have strong, mixed views of France's actions in recent and past history but hey......what does it matter if this was a publicity stunt or not? This train helped the world (including the U.S) briefly focus on the potentials of high speed passenger rail travel. Is that not a GOOD THING?
Yes, the U.S and Canada have too many long distance stretches, but there are dozens of corridors where this technology could prove viable. The public has to decide if it wants it or not.
Did anyone see the video clip of the train passing underneath a bridge full of onlookers? Can you imagine what a thrill that would have been for railfans? That thing whipped by faster than the wind speed of an F6 tornado!
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
grayfox1119 wrote:FERGIE: At that speed, I could be in Nova Scotia in 1:15 hours!!! Worcester to Boston, Boston to Calais, Maine, Calais Maine through New Brunswick to Nova Scotia!!!
Same for me... Once I get my passport!
I just can't believe how political this thread went Then again the French have the advantage of being rather dense... population that is. I can only imagine something like this would surely threathen the Airline and another industry who shall not be named.
Gawd!!! I missed uze Guyzzzz
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=5959
If one could roll back the hands of time... They would be waiting for the next train into the future. A. H. Francey 1921-2007
Newyorkcentralfan wrote: The Acela carbody is a Bombardier product. That would make it Canadian technology.
The Acela carbody is a Bombardier product. That would make it Canadian technology.
It is a French design assembled in Canada.
It was designed in France.
The components were built in France.
They were shipped to Canada.
It was assembled in Canada.
Dave H.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Virginian wrote:This is the United States of America. ANYBODY can make all the wildly inaccurate statements they want to. Haven't you listened to any of the presidential candidates? Don't you watch network news?
This is the United States of America. ANYBODY can make all the wildly inaccurate statements they want to. Haven't you listened to any of the presidential candidates? Don't you watch network news?
I do not hate the Japanese...But, I must give just a little credit for any success they ever achieve in anything, to the nation that beat the ever loving you know what out of them, bombed out 35 square miles of their largest city in one night, and all this after they attacked us...
and then rebuilt their whole darned country, wrote them a whole new constitution, helped transform them into a manufacturing giant, and gave them favored nation trade status.
I do not hate the French. I would have thought everyone would have picked up the hint when I said no white flags, and I am all steam. I am well aware that Layfayette, Rochambeau and quite a few other Frenchmen were invaluable allies in the Revolutionary War (even though the main reason the French Government got in it was because of "the enemy of my enemy, is my friend" thinking). I realize that without DeGrasse defeating the English fleet in the Battle of the Chesapeake, the ONLY major English naval defeat between the days of the Armada and WWII, that Cornwallis would have been reinforced at Yorktown and the outcome would have been seriously in doubt.
I do not hate the Japanese. I have been to Japan. Very ingeneous and hard working likable people. I worked with a Japanese engineer on a very famous book he was writing. I loved the trains. They actually think a schedule means something, a concept that has been totally lost in the United States, and that chaps my a$$ daily on numerous accounts. But, I must give just a little credit for any success they ever achieve in anything, to the nation that beat the ever loving you know what out of them, bombed out 35 square miles of their largest city in one night, and all this after they attacked us, and then rebuilt their whole darned country, wrote them a whole new constitution, helped transform them into a manufacturing giant, and gave them favored nation trade status.
marknewton wrote: Virginian wrote: And the US is perfectly capable of building an excellent rail system. Just look at the one in Japan, paid for with US dollars. Utter nonsense. If you're going to make wildly inaccurate statements about Japanese railroad history, do it when nobody knowledgable is around. The men who pioneered railroads in Japan were from England, Germany and Norway, or were locals trained by these men. American influence and finance during the period of expansion was minimal.Work on the Shinkansen network started before WW2. Not too many US dollars being spent in Japan then, methinks. And the New Tokaido Line was designed, built, operated and maintained by Japanese railroaders, not Americans.Mark.
Virginian wrote: And the US is perfectly capable of building an excellent rail system. Just look at the one in Japan, paid for with US dollars.
And the US is perfectly capable of building an excellent rail system. Just look at the one in Japan, paid for with US dollars.
There you go again, Mark, confusing the poor guy with facts.
Andre
Virginian wrote:And the US is perfectly capable of building an excellent rail system. Just look at the one in Japan, paid for with US dollars.
Midnight Railroader wrote: Virginian wrote: I was not directing any sarcasm at the French in order to belittle their railway achievements, or to try to elevate the US railway situation. I do not like the French. We saved their butts in two World Wars and they can not bring themselves to forgive us. I know, I worked with them. Therefore, they can kiss my you know what. And anyone else who doesn't like it can lump it. They saved ours first.
Virginian wrote: I was not directing any sarcasm at the French in order to belittle their railway achievements, or to try to elevate the US railway situation. I do not like the French. We saved their butts in two World Wars and they can not bring themselves to forgive us. I know, I worked with them. Therefore, they can kiss my you know what. And anyone else who doesn't like it can lump it.
I was not directing any sarcasm at the French in order to belittle their railway achievements, or to try to elevate the US railway situation. I do not like the French. We saved their butts in two World Wars and they can not bring themselves to forgive us. I know, I worked with them. Therefore, they can kiss my you know what. And anyone else who doesn't like it can lump it.
Yep, if it wasnt for the French, their Army and their Navy, we'de still be saying things like "Sorry old chap! Thats just bollacks" Drinking our beer warm and have bad dental hygene.
Of course we did repay them by exporting our revolution to them which gave their king a very very short haircut...and in the chaos afterwords led to the rise of the first modern military nutjob dictator, Napoleon Bonapart, who did to the rest of Europe what sadly became a roadmap for the first 1/2 of the 20th century, talk about the unforseen consiquences of signing that paper on July 4, 1776
Have fun with your trains
ndbprr wrote:"it takes 4 days to across North America ." Sure does. Maybe the fact that the USA is about four times as big as France and has those pesky rockies as well as a desert to deal with might have some bearing
Actually, the US is about 17 times the size of France (3.5 million square miles vs. 210,000 square miles).
And SNCF doesn't have to contend with UP and CSX dispatchers who put Amtrak in situations where there are 3 trains and only one passing siding.
Andre - actually has taken Amtrak coast to coast
dehusman wrote: The Amtrak Acela trainsets are basically TGV's. I had a friend who worked on the Acela program. The TGV windows leak, the Amtrak units had the fairings over the roof and underbody peieces keep blowing off, the brakes weren't up to a system with as many stops as the NEC and they had lots of other problems with them that nobody will talk about. If the French weren't the low bidder, the Acela sets would have been Swedish. Better technology.
Virginian wrote:I was not directing any sarcasm at the French in order to belittle their railway achievements, or to try to elevate the US railway situation. I do not like the French. We saved their butts in two World Wars and they can not bring themselves to forgive us. I know, I worked with them. Therefore, they can kiss my you know what. And anyone else who doesn't like it can lump it.And the US is perfectly capable of building an excellent rail system. Just look at the one in Japan, paid for with US dollars.
Do you know any French people? Have you ever been to France? I think this is just blind hatred on your behalf. Unless the French raped your mother or murdered your little sister I don't see the purpose of your hatred. TheFrench are only rude to you if you come to their country and insist on speaking to them in English. But even if you speak to them in the crappiest French, they'll love you for it. I'm SURE a person like you has treated many a foreigner rudely.
dehusman wrote: Midnight Railroader wrote: Yeah, it sure is easy to discount another country's effort when yours can't do it.Don't know that we couldn't do it. How many french flags are on the moon?
Midnight Railroader wrote: Yeah, it sure is easy to discount another country's effort when yours can't do it.
Yeah, it sure is easy to discount another country's effort when yours can't do it.
Don't know that we couldn't do it. How many french flags are on the moon?
France's railroads were around long ago. They just saw their value, whereas this country hasn't.
Fergmiester wrote:Actually I don't think any MR could handle that!
Nelson
Ex-Southern 385 Being Hoisted
By the way, it was "stock" track, and included switches and a diamond crossing.
But it used special engines, a very small train that wasn't loaded and they raised the voltage in the lines above normal and it was probably for a relatively brief stretch of tangent track. Its not something that they could do with a normal trainset under normal conditions.
Thanks for demonstrating typical American arrogance ("If we didn't do it first, it's unnecessary"), in case we'd forgotten what it looks like.
Not at all. We actually have a longer high speed system, with more tracks. But since our high speed system was designed 100 years ago it has too many curves to operate comfortably to the passengers over 150 mph or so (even though we proved it could operate at speed in excess of that in the late 1960's).
The Amtrak Acela trainsets are basically TGV's. I had a friend who worked on the Acela program. The TGV windows leak, the Amtrak units had the fairings over the roof and underbody peieces keep blowing off, the brakes weren't up to a system with as many stops as the NEC and they had lots of other problems with them that nobody will talk about. If the French weren't the low bidder, the Acela sets would have been Swedish. Better technology.
Newyorkcentralfan wrote: And the recipient of the award for this threads most moronic post goes to... Virginian wrote:In order to return full measure the noted French (unwarranted) arrogance, I have no intention of modelling anything French. I will not even have any white flags on my layout.
And the recipient of the award for this threads most moronic post goes to...
Virginian wrote:In order to return full measure the noted French (unwarranted) arrogance, I have no intention of modelling anything French. I will not even have any white flags on my layout.
I guess Virginian doesn't operate any extras.
(Quote from Peter Josserand's Rights of Trains: "Extra trains will display two white flags an in addition two white lights by night, in the places provided for that purpose on the front of the engine.")
Of course, maybe he has no need to run work trains, snow plows, Sperry test cars, rail grinders...
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Gosh, you disliked this one even more than the other one? I'm shocked.
I found this site to be very interesting and informative. You might want to check out all the links on the site after watching the video...
http://www.record2007.com/site/index_en.php
loathar wrote:Did you ever see the pics of that one bullet train that chucked a wheel at 200mph? Derailed into a concrete bridge. What a mess! Forget how many people died. I see they're dreaming of an under sea tube train between NY and Europe that's supposed to go 2500mph.
ndbprr wrote:According to the news story I saw last night it took 25000 HP and special wheels ( probably the equivalent of code 100 track for the flanges too). My guess is at least 10,000 of that horsepower was for the last 20 mph. Not practical and a typical French stunt unless they plan to use it when they retreat from any battle they have ever been in.
Does that account for the track in such bad condition that trains run at 20 mph?