Robert Pence

When I first started to read the article, I had to go back and double-check my calendar to make sure it wasn't April 1, but I think it's an exciting idea. I'm eager to see how it plays out because of the implications for other cities and their traffic planning.

It's so beautiful, it almost makes me cry when I think how much of now-devastated Detroit once had comparable grace and elegance. Excellent tour.

Are these actually in prototype or production, hauling freight, now? The last I knew, they were still in design. Like I said above; This is being done, both with streetcar/light rail systems and electric trolley buses. The power fed back into the system by braking reduces demand on power stations or substations, saving on energy costs and on emissions from generating facilities. If a system can be managed so that cars stay close to calculated schedules, operations can be planned so that the cars descending hills approximately balance the power demand of cars ascending hills. I believe San Francisco does the mechanical equivalent of this with their cable car operations, so that descending cars counterbalance ascending cars. Streetcars/light rail systems have only one wire overhead, the "hot" wire, because the rail serves as the ground wire, the other side of the circuit. The same principles apply for power production and distribution.

In order to recover energy on the descent, locomotives need either to be powered by a distributed electrical system via catenary, or to carry batteries to store the energy generated. American railroads in the mountains have neither. Some freight locomotives do have regenerative braking, whereby the drive motors function as generators, but the energy is simply run through large fan-cooled resistor banks on the roof of the engine housing, and the heat is just blown of into the atmosphere. It saves wear and reduces heating on the friction brakes, but it doesn't recover energy. Some streetcar/light rail and trolley bus systems in hilly cities like San Francisco do feed the generated power back into the catenary system where it can be used by other vehicles ascending hills.

Mmmmmm! Sweet Potato Pie! :-) Some interesting houses, and great murals.

Wonderful photos! I love this firehouse:

In the early 1980s at GE I knew a process engineer who was working on his Master's degree. He was an avid model railroader with a big house with a full basement, where he had built a 20 x 30 foot HO layout. For his Master's thesis he designed a software/hardware system that would let him select destinations for up to three trains, and when launched, detect the location of each train, start it, control its progress, and control the interlockings to optimize time and deliver each train to its destination.

Holy smoke! There's already a huge amount of time and effort in all that trackwork. When they get the natural and built environment fleshed out around it, it will be something fantastic!

Just for grins, the Cardinal schedule from 1979. Note that Chicago is on Central Time, and all points east of there are on Eastern Time. The Cardinal ran daily on CSX (ex-C&O) track between Chicago and Cincinnati then. I rode it from Marion, Indiana to Tri State Station (Catlettsburg), Kentucky, and then rode the Hilltopper to Washington and Baltimore. The timetable image is a link; click on it to see the whole photo set from my train trip on the Cardinal and the late, lamented Hilltopper.

It's obvious the author is a smoker who's all upset about the proposed smoking ban, and trying to divert attention by making a lot of noise about something else.

Art Deco is probably my favorite style. Done properly, I think it's timeless. Indianapolis: What really defines the style? I don't have any training in architecture, so I'm a little uncertain about styles, but it seems to me that the World War Memorial blends neoclassical, perhaps, and Art Deco. It was built in 1928 to honor those who served in World War I. Inside and out, the memorial is formal and dignified, but absolutely glorious. Pro Patria (Henry Hering, 1929) is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful examples of heroic sculpture anywhere: Cincinnati - Carew Tower:

Maglev is horrendously expensive to build, compared with even high-speed rail using tracks. My personal curmudgeonly viewpoint is that spending that kind of money to link Disneyland and Vegas contributes nothing to the nation's real GDP over the long haul, and is utterly frivolous. As the impact of higher energy costs makes itself felt, national and international entertainment attractions like Vegas and Disneyland are going to feel the pinch very badly. We shouldn't be running up national debt for projects based on expectations of their endless infinite growth. The Anaheim-Vegas HSR is an excellent opportunity for private investment. If the Disneyland and Vegas interests think it will be enormously beneficial to them, with a postive cost-benefit ratio, let them build it. If needed, government could provide the muscle for eminent domain to help private interests acquire right-of-way, but stimulus money shouldn't be spent on it.

Impressive. Obviously on hard times, but downtown has some impressive buildings. Some gorgeous oldies on the campus, too. Thanks for sharing these.

If, as some doctors and psychologists assert, getting laid on a regular basis is beneficial for physical and mental health, then for single seniors the fees ought to be covered under Medicare. :-) Maybe my doctor will write me a prescription. :?

Maybe my joke got lost in an era when not many farms have poultry running at large, and most people travel from point to point on expressways and interstates instead of roads that run past barnyards. Whenever a car approached, any chicken near the road always felt a sudden and urgent need to be on the other side. Chickens not being very generously supplied with processing power, they invariably got the timing wrong. The scenario was something like; zoom-zoom, flap-flap-flap, thud-squawk! zoom-zoom. The result was always a shredded chicken on or beside the road. :wink:

I seen a shredded chicken jist t'other day, layin' in the road. Weren't a purty sight! :-(

Excellent photos, and a very handsome downtown!

I got a list of eight Lustron homes in Fort Wayne from the city's historic preservation planning section. One of those may have been demolished, though. When the cold weather lets up and I get my rental property up to snuff, I'll go out camera-in-hand and see what I can do.

Maybe the economics of investment, maintenance, and crew utilization don't work out, but I'd like to see Amtrak consider bringing back a modern version of the PRR Slumbercoach. They provided more sleeper capacity per car, while still providing the privacy and security of a roomette at a lower price. They were very popular when Amtrak still had them on the Broadway Limited. They weren't as spacious as a roomette, but for a guy my size they were adequate. For somebody over 6 feet tall, probably not so much.

Neat stuff! Lots of iron, lots of rail traffic.

Amid all the grit and blight, it's encouraging to see little islands of wonderfulness -- buildings and sometimes blocks that are intact and cared for, with people living and doing business there.

Although the product wasn't a commercial success in its time, the surviving homes are a strong testimonial to the soundness of the idea. All those homes still look solid and square, and all appear to have their original roofs. How many conventional homes of that era have managed to still look that good structurally, without large inputs of money, material, and labor? Most conventional roofs on houses of that age likely have been replaced three or four times, probably with a replacement of decking at some point.

A lot of run-of-the-mill structures, but some very good stuff, too. There's a lot of potential there. Realizing it probably requires reducing the width of the street and planting some trees, either in a boulevard strip or by extending the curbs and creating a tree lawn/park strip/whatever you call it in Columbus. I realize it's winter now, and most northern places look better in summer, but that area looks like it lacks foliage.

Great stuff, fascinating neighborhood!

I think that relaxation of social stigma and legalization have to go hand-in-hand, and that's where it becomes difficult - a chicken-vs-egg situation. If professional standards were in place in a legal setting, competition would work like it does in other legal enterprises to provide enjoyable services at market-driven prices for clientele with varying tastes. Working in a clean, safe environment for fair wages or commissions would attract a better class of worker than you're likely to find on a street corner in a scary neighborhood. A student, say, who works as a truly professional prostitute to get money for tuition shouldn't be regarded as less respectable than a skanky campus slut.