54light15 You could see in the first video the guy struggling to steer that monster. No wonder the law was until 1904 in Britain that a man on foot had to carry a red flag in front of any road vehicle.
You could see in the first video the guy struggling to steer that monster. No wonder the law was until 1904 in Britain that a man on foot had to carry a red flag in front of any road vehicle.
Johnny
Something of importance here, which I’m not sure how to resolve properly, is the enormous distinction between the design from 1801, with its grime-smudged people getting knocked up and down, and the sophistication inherent in the 1802 design (even if its unsuspended chassis suffers bangs and knocks, the carriage-type slinging and 18th-Century equivalent of Bostrom seat make the ride like day after night!). Steering easily facilitated, too.
Seems to me Oliver Evans addressed some of the vertical shock issues by using or proposing sprung or resilient wheels; those would help the 1801 design... almost anything would. (might have helped later when permanent-way compliance and damping turned out to matter so much,too!)
But in my recollection the Red Flag Law was passed for a much different reason: the great advances in speed and juggernaut mayhem resulting from road development of the Goldsworthy Gurney sort. Too much speed and advanced design, not too little, and with canal and stagecoach interests fully represented at Parliament...
We might recall the early tribulations when the law was applied to motorcars... and how the modern automobile might be a very different thing had restrictive vehicle laws not been enforced. I have several ‘tachymeter’ watches from the turn of last century period that are calibrated right down past 3mph ... to be used by constables in town or country lanes to arrest scorchers when that fast was too fast...
I have long known of Richard Trevithick, but I had no idea that he is so well remembered as to have his own day.
By the way, how is the engine kept in line without a track? I saw no such marks on the roadway as the new Chinese train has.
Yes, a boxer- that is what I meant. Boxer=opposed. The term boxer wasn't much in use back in my air-cooled Volkswagen days. It was an opposed engine, that's what everyone called it. There could have been a way to cool the Citroen 6 cylinder engine, Corvair seemed to manage it but it's all a moot point now. I've seen photos of the V4 engine for the D- scary!
Yes, the French tax system. It killed Bugatti, Delahaye and Delage amongst others. The French government had a point, to get the economy going again after the late unpleasantness you really shouldn't be building luxury cars that no one could afford anyway. So, tax horsepower. Or in the charming French phrase, Steam Horse.
Apparently the real problem with the flat six (iirc it was a ‘boxer’ like the 911 or Corvair engine, what used to be called ‘horizontally-opposed’ not opposed-piston) was that it was derived from the 2CV engine, was underpowered, and was slung out entirely in front of the axle, just the reverse of where the Sainturat engine went in the D chassis. It was originally not air-cooled but proved so have so little power for the fuel it burned that air-cooling became desirable ... I personally don’t see much practical way of cooling a flat air-cooled six in the as-built D chassis.
The REAL answer was the two-stroke V4 with separately-engined supercharger, with the V8 done by the flat-six designer closely behind ... but lack of money and the French tax system did them in. Quelle dommage!
Friends of mine own D models. I was in the back seat of one and all the windows were down. On a highway, there was no wind buffeting at all. It was almost eerie. The D did have it's shortcomings as there wasn't enough time or money to develop a new engine so they used the engine that they had, which was the TA block with a hemi-head and a slightly different crankshaft. The engine block architecture is almost identical to the TA and as a result, the D was noisier than it should have been. Still, when the D was introduced in 1955, there were over 2,000 orders on the first day of the Paris auto show. The engine intended for the D was a 6-cylinder opposed-piston air cooled item. they couldn't figure out the cooling. They should have asked Porsche or General Motors. Andre Citroen wasn't afraid to talk to Henry Ford back in 1931 which explains the Tractions resemblence to the 1933 Ford.
Actually the TA was replaced by the DS19, which was introduced in 1955 and is still one of the most advanced designs of the 20th Century, far more advanced than a Light 15 in a great many ways and less advanced, to my knowledge, in none. The SM was in my opinion still more advanced, albeit I still need to redress its chief ‘shortcoming’ by putting a 4.9 in as originally intended...
54light15 Not bad for a car that came out in 1934 and over 700,00 were made. Production stopped in 1957 and it was still the most modern car on the road.
Not bad for a car that came out in 1934 and over 700,00 were made. Production stopped in 1957 and it was still the most modern car on the road.
If I recall it was replaced by the Citroen DS21
With the DS21 around, nothing else was "the most modern car on the road"....
Peter
daveklepper Parliamentary Trains
Parliamentary Trains
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentary_train
I am in London twice a year and work in a garage on old Citroens. I get a free place to stay, too. My boss told me that the original head of the business which was a machine shop before it was a garage played nothing but G & S all day long. He said 3 peopel quit after two days! All I know from G & S was what Sideshow Bob sang in "The Simpsons" in a Cape Fear parody.
Oh yeah- Wet Lube? Gluten-free bread? Fat-free cheese? Alcohol-free beer? Why not adhesive-free glue?
British coupling is moving away from the hook, turnbuckle and buffer combination. They use either a knuckle type or what I think is called a Scharfenberg type with a pin and socket alongside each other. Freight cars and vintage passenger equipment have buffers, either round or oval in shape.
I go along with respect for the British with the Magna Carta. And yes, I do love Gilbert and Sullivan. There is a group in Israel that gets together to sing through the repertory, but it meets in Tel Aviv at a time inconvenient for me. I had lots of G&S LPs, Iolanthi, Pirates, Mikado, Yoemen of the Guard (my favorite) and others, and sang once in a performance of Trial by Jury in the Boston area, when I participated in an amature G&S group. You reminded me that this is one thing I do miss.
Can the story of Nathan and King David demonstrate step toward a separation of powers?
Just to make this railroad related, the song from the Mikado, the Mikado does not believe in separation of powers, and states:
My project all sublime; I shall achieve in time; to let the punishment fit the crime, the punishment fit the crime.
And make each prisoner pent, unwilingly represent, a sorce of innocent meriment, of innocent meriment.
The people all in railway carriages, who scribble on window paines, shall only suffer to ride on a buffer, in Parliamentary Trains.
Each railroad in England was required to run one passenger train each way that "called" (stopped) at every station, no matter how unlikely any revenue passenger would be served. These were Parliamentary trains.
I'll let someone else explain British classic coupling cars and the use of buffers.
Overmod Actually, Dave, the Greek experience with parliamentary democracy only dates to 1843, which is why the operative word here ... parliamentary, not democracy ... is Norman, not Grecian.
Actually, Dave, the Greek experience with parliamentary democracy only dates to 1843, which is why the operative word here ... parliamentary, not democracy ... is Norman, not Grecian.
Oldest Parliament is the Althing in Iceland, dating to 930AD. Viking influence was pretty strong in Normandy, so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that Parliaments were a Viking innovation along with trial by jury. As Overmod said, the British innovation was separation of powers as codified by the Magna Carta.
As for European hell, one version had the comedians being Swedes (e.g. ROSMT).
Yeah. Thats pretty good Penny...Kudos!
Great job! It's fantastic!
Firelock76 Penny Trains Holy smoke Becky, where did you find that?
Penny Trains
Holy smoke Becky, where did you find that?
It's a Minicraft 1:38 scale model on a Standard Gauge 117 caboose frame. I added flag holders, brake wheels and removable fencing to turn it into a sort of "museum car".
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
Overmod Diana Rigg Ada Augusta Lovelace Emma Hamilton and let us not forget that most famous original railfan Fanny Kemble
Diana Rigg
Ada Augusta Lovelace
Emma Hamilton
and let us not forget that most famous original railfan
Fanny Kemble
And don't forget the late, lamented Elisabeth Sladen, the best companion The Doctor ever had!
French engineering? I don't know, there was nothing wrong with the SPAD 13, the "French '75," the Model 1916 155mm "Grand Puissance" field gun (the US Army liked it so much they bought a bunch of 'em, called it the M1917, and it became the precursor to the 155mm "Long Tom" artillery piece of World War Two) and that cute-as-a-button Renault FT-17 tank!
Oh, and those German guns the Rangers had to knock out at Point Du Hoc on D-Day? French Model 1916's. They weren't German at all, but apparantly the Germans were impressed enough with them to put them to use. Says something, doesn't it?
OK, some of you might say "What have they done lately?" but I'm sure you see my point.
Well there is always the exception to the rule hence the successful Citroen model, but, French Engineering is an oxymoron! As for German police, don't even go there. Swiss lovers?..ha ha ha good one, Italian Bankers, yeah ok, say goodbye to those funds! British cooks?..sure, have a chip. Also British lovers....no thanks, please we're British. Hey this is fun!
Maintenance guy "Eric" was in my office today with another oxymoron...a spray can of "dry lube"...probably use it on Overmods "high level subway bridge" submission.
Thats enough, it's Friday evening. Milankovitch cycles today twice to 2 different classes, 4 hours face time...I'm done.
54light15French engineers in Hell?
They screwed Chapelon over, then scrapped the 242 A1 as an excuse. For that alone, they deserve what I give them and more.
In Hell the French are the engineers? I resemble that remark! I have owned a 1954 Citroen Traction Avant since 1983. It has the following:
All steel unit body
front wheel drive
Torsion bar suspension
rack and pinion steering
Wet-liner overhead valve engine
A "step-down" body long before the post-war Hudson
The first modern car and the basis for most cars built today. You can drive every day in normal traffic, it handles like a sports car and is a lot more reliable than any Mercedes I've ever owned.
French engineers in Hell? Fooey to you, sir!
Just in case anyone does not recognize the other half of the punchline:
in European hell
The Swiss are the lovers...
the Italians are the bankers...
the French are the engineers...
the Germans are the police...
and well, that leaves the British. Most definitively leaves them, as the Goons (another Britannic cultural treasure) would probably have said.
(The joke is no longer quite as stinging, with respect to the French, as it was in the ‘70s when a French girl told it to me.)
MiningmanItalians/French Lovers/Cooks are interchangeable unless you want to start a war between who is the better cook and who the better lover.
Yes they are. But then the rest of the joke doesn’t work as well. There are at least SOME respectable French bankers...
[I am tempted to add that if hell broke out over the cooking the police would put a quick and final stop to it, ja ‘stimmt]
Italians/French Lovers/Cooks are interchangeable unless you want to start a war between who is the better cook and who the better lover.
In European hell the British are the cooks, and all hell would break loose.
Do ya really think the Spit is prettier than the S6b?
And I don’t mean to imply there aren’t good British things to eat; just that the vast majority of the stuff tends to be ... well, there is a reason that in European heaven...
the Germans are the engineers...
the Swiss are the bankers...
the Italians are the lovers...
the French are the cooks...
and the British are the police
Whereas, in European hell, the British are ... ???
That's Mangia-cake. For the "Mayonaissers" as Tony Soprano called 'em. Really, English food is different these days. London is full of top-notch stupidly expensive restaurants with grub from all over the world. They have more pretentious "foodies" than Toronto which has a train load of them. I was in a pub where Gordon Ramsey designed the food. I ordered a hamburger. It was two long sticks of finely ground beef on a very thin piece of bread. Whisky Tango Foxtrot was all I could say.
But for good unpretentious inexpensive food I eat in pubs and a steak-and-ale pie with a side of mash and peas with a nice pint is good eating. Also the curries are outstanding. There is a chain of fish and chips places called Superfish- everything is fried in beef tallow, Yorkshire style. You can feel your arteries shutting down but man, it's good!
54Light15 (and all)-- Living in Toronto you should know better than most that at Italian wedding receptions they always have a seperate "monge-cake" table ( "white bread") for those Anglo friends in attendance that abhor anything tasty.
Also, there's Reginald Mitchell, designer of the Supermarine Spitfire, to me the most beautiful aircraft ever built. AND- Real ale on cask! Ever have a pint of Dark Star Partridge Best Bitter? You'll never drink lager again! Speaking of food, having that to wash down a bacon sarnie is without a doubt, one of my ideas of living in an English heaven!
Actually, Dave, the Greek experience with parliamentary democracy only dates to 1843, which is why the operative word here ... parliamentary, not democracy ... is Norman, not Grecian. Representative government with separation of powers IS largely British and we should honor that for all that it is.
i appreciate Barcarolli and Sir Thomas, but why no Gilbert and Sullivan?
Just don’t get started on the food.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.