Robert Pence

I agree. Our economy runs on oil, and as oil becomes more expensive, the money to pay for new and improved rail infrastructure will be harder to find. If we wait until oil availability reaches a crisis, we won't be able to afford the infrastructure to reduce our oil dependency.

That concrete bridge is very similar to one on US 27 just south of downtown Portland, Indiana. I don't know the details, but several years ago historic preservation concerns stopped the state from replacing it with a newer, wider structure.

Huh??? Only in mountainous regions are Amtrak trains restricted to such lows speeds for any appreciable distance. Even here in Ohio, the normal cruising speed for Amtrak trains is 79 mph. Please earn your opinions. I think the disparity may be the difference between track speed limits and the average speed of trains from terminal to terminal. Even if a train runs on-time and makes the 79mph on most of the route, station dwell times for passenger loading and baggage handling, along with slower approach speeds through yards and terminal tracks, can really knock down the average speed. And when passenger trains sit in sidings because of freight congestion, of course, that knocks the crap out of average speeds. Service like topping off passenger-car water tanks or fueling locomotives can affect the average speed, too. When the Amtrak still ran on the B&O line across Indiana, they used to fuel the locomotives from a tank truck at Garrett. I think it had something to do with simplifying terminal logistics and power turnaround in Chicago, but did create a significant delay en route. When watching corridor trains at Baltimore, I was impressed by how brief the dwell times were. The passengers seemed accustomed to moving quickly, and the conductors put the hurry-up on anyone who dawdled. It was quite a contrast with what I was accustomed to in the midwest, where boarding ten or twelve people seemed to take an eternity as they shuffled and bumbled around. Of course, the low-level, sometimes uneven, platforms don't help.

Good stuff! Views of New York around the holidays help put me in a festive mood.

Nice shots. I agree on the blade signs. Around 1970, the one of the latest things in updating downtown facades was the removal of all those signs that projected from the fronts of buildings, in order to open up sight lines. Usually that "improvement" accompanied a nice, clean, modern aluminum cladding job, often in white and covering all the windows and other architectural features.

Beautiful old city. I have mixed feelings about whether I would want to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau. I think I'd have to really psych myself into the right frame of mind beforehand. Otherwise, being there with some knowledge of the history of the place would be emotionally very disturbing to me.

A remnant from the time when America's economy was fueled by making things, before the money manipulators turned it into a giant Ponzi Scheme.

I've heard that Prague is a treasure, and your photos bear that out.

Sweet-looking place, beautiful pics!

Beautiful photos! I love the Chinatown scenes.

Some nice-looking buildings and an orderly downtown, but it looks like Lorain continues its decline. There used to be a big coal-transfer dock at Lorain, where they transferred coal from railroad cars to bulk freighters. The beach sand and pebbles used to have coal mixed in with them. I don't know if the coal dock is still active.

It was a piece of luck that the last car in the freight train was a single container loaded on a flat. It was low , and the end of the car provided a ramp that lifted the Amtrak locomotive off its trucks and let it ride up and over. It wasn't exactly a soft impact, but it wasn't anything like what might have happened if the end of the freight train had been cars of rock or coal, or loads of steel coils or steel beams, all likely cargo in that territory, or if they had hit another locomotive head-on. In those scenarios, the impact could have been much harder and the Amtrak cab could have been crushed. Derailment of freight cars and/or passenger cars, possibly into the moving freight trains on either side, would have been more likely. The video makes one wonder what the Amtrak engineer was thinking. Subsequent news releases have stated that he was aware of the signal indication, but accelerated to 40mph anyway. The track curves there, and the presence of trains on both adjacent tracks severely shortened the line of sight. In those circumstances, the 15mph speed called for by the signal would have made for a pretty hard stop by the time he could see the freight train.

Overall, it looks nicer than Gary. :wink: Great shots, actually!

Great shots! Cincinnati just keeps getting better!

It's sad that so much equipment often is abandoned and ultimately destroyed when a hospital closes. A lot of the equipment may be old, even obsolete by current standards, but much of it is still serviceable and I'd think it would be prized by clinics and medical missions in impoverished countries.

I'll agree with all of the above. There are some neighborhoods, of course, that go beyond iffy to clearly no-no. In an unfamiliar city it helps a lot to tour with somebody local who knows where to go. Forum meets add a comfort factor sometimes. A group of ten or a dozen people can sometimes explore places where an old white guy like me, with a conspicuous camera, might feel uneasy going solo.

Excellent shots, and some territory I've never seen. I like 'em a lot!

Some striking shots. The light in the first one is wonderful.

Rather nice-looking town. I might want to visit, but I'm not sure I'd want to live there.

Shouldn't it be, "I seen what you done thar" ?

Probably safer than a trailer park, but less interesting, too.

I really like the courthouse tower.

You can tell folks it's retro-minimalist, and maybe it will take off and become the next big thing.

Charming place!

Intercourse, Pennsylvania is near Blue Ball and Bird In Hand -- and when you get there, you're not far from Paradise. :-)