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To Hell With "Railroad Time"

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  • Member since
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Posted by Deggesty on Wednesday, February 1, 2017 2:33 PM

Victrola1

Non contiguous time zones would be interesting on the California Zephyr. 

You currently leave Chicago at say 14:00 and cross the Mississippi. Arrive in Burlington, Iowa at 17:30. 205 miles in 3.5 hours for a 58 mph average. 

Make Iowa an island of standard time surrounded by daylight time. 

You leave Chicago at 14:00 and arrive in Iowa at 16:30. 205 miles in 2.5 hours for a 82 mph average. Accomplishing high speed rail goes to hell when you go from Creston, IA to Omaha, NE. 

 

There would be notes in the Amtrak TT for this train and for the Southwest Chief, just as there are notes for the trains that cross Arizona (one of two states with intelligent legislatures concerning standard time). Of course, some people might have trouble handling two more time changes asthey travel.

Johnny

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Posted by Victrola1 on Wednesday, February 1, 2017 2:17 PM

Non contiguous time zones would be interesting on the California Zephyr. 

You currently leave Chicago at say 14:00 and cross the Mississippi. Arrive in Burlington, Iowa at 17:30. 205 miles in 3.5 hours for a 58 mph average. 

Make Iowa an island of standard time surrounded by daylight time. 

You leave Chicago at 14:00 and arrive in Iowa at 16:30. 205 miles in 2.5 hours for a 82 mph average. Accomplishing high speed rail goes to hell when you go from Creston, IA to Omaha, NE. 

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Posted by Deggesty on Wednesday, February 1, 2017 2:16 PM

Before the institution of standard time zones, it was quite difficult to make certain that a train you planned to ride made a connection with another train in a town west of where you started. Standard time made it possible to know whether or not such a connection existed.

If you traveled from Norfork to Chattanooga, you traveled over five railroads--and each road operated on a different time.

The resistance is to upsetting daily routines twice a year for the sake of "more daylight time in the evening." In the southern states, it means another hour of hot afternoon and one less cool hour in the morning. Several years ago, a study showed that more electricity was used during the DST period than was used during the rest of the year.

The British observed double war time during WWII--to reduce the number of people on the street at the time that the German bombers came over.

To me, it is Daylight Stupid Time. From time to time, there is talk of enacting a law in Utah to the effect that 105th Meridian time will be observed year-round.

Johnny

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Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, February 1, 2017 2:05 PM

BFD

On CSX there is CSX Time - the entire railroad operates on one time as defined by the CSX Computer System.  Eastern or Central it doesn't matter.  The computer system does observe Eastern Daylight time when it is in effect and Eastern Standard time when it is in effect.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, February 1, 2017 2:04 PM

I'm not sure one could characterize this as resistance to standard time, only to daylight savings time - and there's always been a measure of that.

There are already several states that do not observe DST.

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To Hell With "Railroad Time"
Posted by Victrola1 on Wednesday, February 1, 2017 1:57 PM

DES MOINES — A bipartisan move is afoot in the Legislature to go lights-out on daylight saving time in Iowa.

Sen. Jeff Danielson, D-Cedar Falls, has filed legislation — Senate File 168 — seeking to establish Central Standard Time as Iowa’s official 24-hour daily measurement. House Republicans expect their bill to surface Wednesday and put the kibosh on making the time switch later this year that would move clocks ahead by one hour on March 12 and move them back one hour on Nov. 5.

http://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/government/iowa-legislators-want-year-round-standard-time-20170131

Railroads established time zones in 1883 to end confusion. 

There was resistance to standardized time then. It has surfaced again. 

 

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