Speaking of trains

I'll second that. Not much style in most of the new locos and pretty bland freight loads covered with graffiti.

 

Simon

You want Bland guys, then come to the UK!!! Almost all passenger stuff is Multiple Units, & our freight is pitiful - not helped by a tiny loading gauge. Even single containers have to go on wagons (cars) with small wheels so they'll fit under bridges - absolutely no chance of double-stacking here!!! Despite Privatisation we have no equivalent to Short Lines at all.
No wonder there is a thriving community of modellers here who model US outline, & I'd say the most popular Era for us is 1980's to Present Day, not the famed Transition Era so beloved Stateside. We don't have Basements to create empires in, but a lack of space is merely a challenge to the imagination.!!
Take a step back, & be grateful for what you do have on your side of The Pond - 'cos much of it is a helluva lot more interesting than you might think!!!

Sorry chaps.... I didn't mean to kill off the topic quite so dead..!!!

I think the Amfleet cars are repulsive. Beer cans with wheels- yuck. Can they kill these things off anytime soon; pa-leeezee

Need I continue ?

We invented the darn things. Gave it up for a better system. Right!?

I know it's not that simple; but we as Americans made our vote at the gas pump. We can't complain.

We do have the best transportation system in the world in 1986; it was... We still live in 1986 for the most part. It's comfortable here in 1986.



We've given this up for this:

At the risk of my forum membership being revoked, I submit this. By the way, I'll be on vacation for the next 25 years so forgive me if I don't respond immediately to your kind comments of support

"Complain" is what we do best!

Keep in mind that it wasn't just our choice as Americans to drive. Companies like General Motors bought out mass transit (street cars, etc.) in cities like Detroit and Los Angeles so they could pull up the tracks and people would be forced to buy their cars. The choice was made for us to some degree.

I love trains hence in the hobby.

 

They were good efficient people movers (along with streetcars) 100 years ago around WWI.

 

But to be realistic, they are not anywhere near as convenient and efficient for moving people as personal cars.    Efficient in terms of getting you where you want to go, when you want to go.   

 

If mass transit was so wonderful, henry ford would have gone bankrupt on the model T!

 

       
       


You are right. And it frankly it is far more efficient to load a jumbo jet with 500 people and shuttle them in 2 hours between point a and b.

Japan has the rail model we should look at. We did and do but nobody wants to give up the Esuvee

Recently in the news....

http://www.breitbart.com/calif...lifornia-test-track/

 

They call it high speed "rail" but it looks to me like the passengers are sitting in a tube that you would see at a drive-thru bank teller. 30 minutes LA to San Fran. The view probably sucks though.

I go to a round robin model RR group most thursdays.    The farthest meeting is about 40 minutes away by car.   I can leave at about 6:30 after dinner and be there by 7:15 and we usually car pool.

 

If we still had rail, it would run on the main roads only.   I would have to walk 1/2 mile to the main road, about 15 minutes maybe.    Then I would have to wait, lets be optimistic, for a trolley on the half hour (this is not downtown).    Then I have to ride for about a half hour, and get off and transfer to one going south.    Wait a bit and another 1/2 hour ride probably.    Maybe a 3rd transfer to get to the west burbs.    And then another 15 minute walk.   so I estimate 1 1/2 hours riding, 1/2 hour walking, and maybe 1/2 hour waiting for connections.    So that totals up to about 3 hours for the trip.    It is doable, but I would not want to do it very often.   It would require leaving home at 4-4:30 and getting back 1-1:30 am (assuming the cars still ran).   These estimates are based on good half hour headways, which I think would be realistic for interurban runs, maybe even optimistic.   

 

I would travel 6 hours for 3 hour meeting.    And when I was working it would require leaving work a few hours early just to go play trains.    I can't see it as being a wonderful world.

By the way, Tom, you should come up and see my layout.

Anytime Jim. You can reach me at
thomas dot taipalus at gmail dot com

I love trains, but I'm not a big fan of rail-based mass transit in California because politicians are trying to be stylish rather than practical -- i.e., routing trains where people actually commute and/or using the project as a way to funnel money back to campaign donors (don't get me started).

 

Ironically, in 1960 Alweg (builders of the original Disney monorails) submitted a proposal to Los Angeles County where they'd build the monorails down the medians of the freeways feeding into downtown. The proposal was rejected 4-1 (Kenneth Hahn was the yes vote and no surprise, he was the one who successfully resurrected the PE Long-Beach line).

 

The California "Bullet Train" is doomed to failure for several reasons I won't go into, but the primary reason is that it's not following a commute pattern currently handled by automobiles.

Since Amtrak runs the same routes as passenger trains did in the 1940s and '50s, I think that Amtrak should paint there locomotives and cars to match those of the passenger lines they took over. They would look a little better then.

Amtrak cant get funding for standard safety devices, i doubt they will be able to pay for retro paint jobs that will appeal to a limited few people.

Pittsburgh to DC with limited stop signs.  There is even a section that parallels a tourist railroad. 

This is how it goes.  Amtrak pulls up and stops in front of the gas station which also has a coffee shop where everybody can watch how we railroad in this country.  Somebody climbs out the window and is beating on the air horn which begins to bleat softly and then goes silent once more.  In the meantime, freight is stopped while an Amtrak pickup arrives with several people in white hard hats who stand  around, watching the guy on the roof hammering the airhorn.  I didn't have time to see how this problem was dealt with, but at Gilman another freight was hung up as well.  CN  - 18 miles between parking lots.