Robert Pence

It probably will be a quite a while before there will be trains from Fort Wayne to anywhere, if Governor Mitch Daniels has his way. He has steadfastly refused efforts by NIPRA and Indiana HSR to get Indiana on board for allocation of some of the federal funds declined by other states, or to endorse or support any efforts toward HSR in Indiana. Until significant changes take place, Chicago-bound Columbusites would be well advised to board Amtrak at Toledo, rather than driving to South Bend. Toledo is a much shorter drive, and the only advantages offered by South Shore are cheaper fares and more frequent trains that run on time. The older South Shore single-level cars are uncomfortable for that 2:20 ride; the seats are too firm, the seatbacks make you sit straight up and they don't recline, and the ride is rough and noisy compared with Amtrak.

That was a regular occurrence in a sweat shop where I worked when I was a young whippersnapper. The foreman was the only person in the shop less competent than his best pal, the lead operator, and they used to do that to me on a regular basis. They came to regard me as a threat and started setting me up to take the fall whenever they screwed up. One day they pulled something that was about to get a written reprimand put in my file, and the union steward stepped in and brought everything to a screeching halt. I hadn't yet joined the union, and the only thing that stopped me from signing up that day was that I knew I was short-term because the draft board was breathing down my neck.

If you're buying from a local retailer, ask if they offer classes. Some do, geared to various experience levels. Your salesperson may have recommendations regarding books. Photography/camera clubs sometimes have classes, too.

From the outside, at least, Good Shepherd is in way better shape than many parishes in gritty neighborhoods. The windows are all intact and none are boarded over, even in the dome, and the grounds are well kept. I like the density there, too; the church isn't isolated in a sea of asphalt parking lots like so many. Something else I've noticed about those neighborhoods in Toledo is that, even though they're poor, sometimes impoverished, they're not trashy and slathered with tagging. They look like somebody must care a little bit. I've only been there on Saturdays in early or late winter, and I want to go visit some more on weekdays in warmer weather to see how things compare. I was wondering, does Toledo have any area comparable to Columbus' German Village or Dayton's Oregon District, with historic buildings and homes that have been restored and are maintained, and with period-appropriate infill? I don't get the same feeling from Dayton; I think there's a little more activity downtown, even on weekends, and Dayton doesn't feel quite so much like a near-abandoned big city. Toledo isn't without good stuff, though. The art museum and the zoo both are world-class, and I haven't visited either in many years. I plan to remedy that this summer. The public library is a gorgeous building on which the county commissioners spent a bundle, making necessary retrofits and updates while preserving its architectural integrity. When I saw it on a Saturday last November, a lot of people were coming and going.

I can agree with that part. I only know Amarillo by reputation, and I'm fortunate to never have been there. The above photos were taken in the San Angelo area in 1963 while I was stationed at Goodfellow AFB just outside San Angelo, which overall was a pretty nice town that treated USAF people well. I had the misfortune to spend January 1965 TDY at Sheppard AFB, near Wichita Falls. Leaden skies, perpetual wind, and freaky skittish weather. One morning it snowed so hard I couldn't see across the street, with lots of thunder, and dropped about four inches of accumulation in about twenty minutes. Three hours later when I came out of the classroom building to go to lunch, the snow was gone and dust was blowing around. Dismal place. All my Toledo photos were taken on Saturdays; that's when the All Aboard Ohio meetings are held. With the massive loss of manufacturing jobs and the annihilation of downtown retail, the urban core areas are desolate on Saturdays. The only exception is the beautiful public library, which gets a lot of activity. There are photos of the CBD and more of Central Union Terminal here.

Hmm. Being familiar with both places, I'm trying to see the resemblance: I remember the lovely Catlettsburg depot; I changed from the Cardinal to the Hilltopper there in 1979. It must have been designed by the same architect who created South Bend's charming Amtrak station. The newspapers had just arrived on the Lake Shore Limited, and hadn't yet been picked up by the intended recipient. If recipient is a local carrier/distributor, his/her customers got their New York Times a little late that morning. Toledo Central Union Terminal is steadily being cleaned up and fixed up. It looks a lot better now than it did when I first saw it in 2008. Well, that wasn't really my first visit; the first time was when I took a train from Detroit's Michigan Central Station to Toledo about 1980. Conrail was using it for offices then and it was thoroughly trashed. The property now is owned by Port Authority of Toledo, and they've been working on it as funds become available, which isn't exactly an avalanche of money in Toledo's economy. The interior has had a first-class restoration and is in use by various municipal agencies as well as Amtrak. Amtrak is now in the former baggage room at track level, and only the platform nearest the station entrance is in use. Plans call for making repairs to the other platforms and moving Amtrak upstairs to the original main waiting/ticketing area in order to gain multi-platform access via the overhead concourse in preparation for the day when public support and demand for more trains will overwhelm the likes of Kasich. The overgrown brush is on Norfolk Southern property, and neither the Port Authority nor Amtrak has any jurisdiction there. The platforms need work, but much trash has been cleaned up and there's no tagging on or around the platforms and station building. Actually, it's in surprisingly good shape considering the long-term low level of utilization it has experienced. To see my photos from three years ago, including interior shots, go here. This time of year, the Lake Erie cities redefine bleakness. In the photos you can't see the 35-mph wind.

I worked with three people who all lived in the same rural upscale housing development, and they had a fifteen-mile commute to work. That was way back when gas prices were less than $2/gallon, but they used to gripe about traffic and about winter commuting. When I proposed they could car pool to share the burden, they defended their one-person-one car commuting by saying that their schedules were inconsistent and sometimes one or another had to come in early or leave late. During the four years from then until I retired, I never saw any of them in the office before 8am or after 4:30pm. All of them drove guzzler SUVs (They needed the heavy 4WD vehicles for Winter :laugh:), and I wonder if current fuel-cost trends might have changed their attitudes. At least two of them probably are retired by now, though. Edit: 87-octane unleaded was $3.58 in Toledo on Saturday, March 12.

Thank you. I have taken your suggestion to improve my wording.

Toledo, Ohio - March 12, 2011 - Sunny & Bright -> Gray, Cold, & Windy All Photographs Copyright © 2011 by Robert E Pence Lacking transportation alternatives, I drove to Toledo to attend an All Aboard Ohio meeting at Central Union Terminal. Afterward I set out to take some photos around the city. The westbound Lake Shore Limited is due at Toledo at 5:55am. When I pulled up in front of the station about 9:30am, the train was sitting at the platform, delayed by a track washout and detour in New York State. Viewliner sleepers and a baggage car bring up the rear. Saturday's New York Times, headlined with news of the 8.9 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. After the meeting, I picked a street and followed it to see where it went. The morning had started sunny and pleasant, but by 11 0'clock overcast was building and the wind was picking up. The day quickly turned cold, damp, windy, and unpleasant. The siren echoed through mostly-empty streets. By the time I got to the Erie Street Market, the winter farmers' market already had closed for the day. The Libbey Glass Factory Outlet was open, though, and doing a brisk business. I sought respite from the cold wind and found some things I liked, on sale. From the market I saw this imposing old building and went to check it out. The faded letters painted on the bricks said "Fireproof Storage" but I wonder if it had an earlier, more interesting use. The design reminds me of some late-19th century powerhouse buildings for large factories. I had a flashlight in my pocket, and in younger, more reckless times I might have been tempted to explore. Now, not by myself. A burnout next door. This might have made the firefighters nervous. Good Shepherd Catholic Church. Been here long? Nice! Kessler Park, a pocket park off Main Street. The script above the arch says "Lucas County Power Station." Former Movie Theater? Acme Power Plant, inactive since 1993 and undergoing partial demolition. I'm not a fan of drive-by photography, but by this time I felt like I was on the brink of hypothermia, notwithstanding multiple layers under a jacket that's usually resistant to wind. That's all I can stand! I'll find a large hot coffee, and then I'm headed for home!

Correct! That was quick! Outwardly, at least, Good Shepherd appears to be in a good state of structural repair. In that respect it stands apart from a lot of old parishes in rather hard-times neighborhoods.

An unwanted consquence of longer passenger trains is an overwhelming boarding crush and often a long hike with luggage at origin stations like Chicago's Union Station, and the answer to that is increased frequencies with smaller trains, which also would provide performance and train-handling benefits including quicker acceleration to track speed after stops. That comes with a cost in the form of more locomotives and crew members, though, and although those might eventually be offset by higher ridership, that's a difficult hurdle to overcome initially. Maximum train length in some cases is ruled by the length of available sidings. As I recall, the length of the Broadway Limited between Chicago and Pittsburgh through Fort Wayne (R.I.P. November 12, 1990) couldn't exceed 14 cars because of the length of some of the sidings it might have to use. On single-track lines this is especially critical. Last Saturday (March 12) when I arrived at Toledo Central Union Terminal about 9:30 for the All Aboard Ohio meeting the westbound Lake Shore Limited was at the platform, safeguarding its reputation for running hours late. This time, the delay was caused by a track washout and detour in New York State. I didn't count the cars, but it appeared to stretch the entire length of longest platform, the one immediately adjacent to the station, with locomotives at the far west end just clear of the switch that gives access to the main. A train that length is arduous to walk through when you're making your way to the lounge or dining car, especially if you haven't done strength training to cope with the doors at the ends of some of the older equipment. That may sound like I don't like Amtrak, and that's far from true. I, too, prefer to travel by train whenever possible, and I'm impressed by how much Amtrak's managers and passenger-service people can do with so little. I really want to see that change, and I let my legislators know of my support for passenger trains.

Looks earthquake-proof, and if there's a tsunami it probably would float. :-)

Here's another Toledo photo. I invite anyone to identify it.

... and about six weeks later will come a short Autumn, and then eight more months of winter again! :-D

So far, it's proven impossible to dispel the myth propagated by the anti-rail folks ever since the 1971 creation of Amtrak, that train travel shouldn't be subsidized because we don't subsidze driving or air travel.

Beautiful photos. I've reached the point where I'm appreciating snow more in other people's photos than in my own experience.

You have your lawyer(s) go over the lease with a fine-toothed comb to see if there are any loopholes that will let you break it without penalty, and you evaluate the cost/benefit of paying whatever it costs to break it. The landlord must have a big, lucrative prospective tenant on the waiting list for a near-term vacancy, and they're working at clearing out space. If that's the case, they may be willing to negotiate on a break-lease.

Because, it's Indiana. And they are only slightly ahead of Ohio in offering transportation choices -- mainly because of Chicago's proximity. ... and because Indiana's Governor Mitch Daniels is Wisconsin's Scott Walker, only with less opposition. Hoosiers are much more susceptible to "divide-and-conquer" tactics; they regard taxes as theft and are all for anything that they're promised will cut their taxes, so long as they're not the ones who will have to give up services or amenities. State legislators who represent NW Indiana are outnumbered by those from central and southern parts of the state, so it's difficult to get funding for commuter transportation in the northwest. On the other hand, there's been little effective opposition to the southwest extension of I-69 between Indianapolis and Vincennes via the most expensive and most environmentally-destructive route from among the available options.

Not being a Clevelander I can't be more specific, but maybe this will help someone else: I photographed #35 with almost exactly the same view in 2006 while walking around in a drizzle in the vicinity of W 6th Street not far from the RTA office. I think it might have been adjacent to this:

The cost to upgrade existing ROW to higher-speed rail is significantly greater than the cost to implement conventional speeds. I think it was apparent in the campaign and afterward that Kasich is ideologically opposed to intercity passenger rail, and I'm convinced that if a plan had been presented for higher-speed trains, he would have based his attack on the cost. We've been through that discussion ad nauseam already, and there is no point in re-hashing why Kasich killed it or trying to lay it at the feet of the backers. Read the title of the topic; it's now "Restarting Passenger Rail In Ohio's 3C Corridor." Do you have any on-topic comments to offer?

Great shots, fabulous place. Re #64, I did that in the late '70s; it was a great way to spend an afternoon.

Minneapolis in January! A brave soul, you are. I've only been there in August and early September, and it was gorgeous then. That was years ago, before they had the light rail; I need to return. Excellent photos!

Old power plants were really something to see when they were operating. The generator rooms were vast spaces with high ceilings and acres of glass to let in lots of light, and the whole area usually was kept spotless by a large crew of people whose job was to keep things clean. Even the boiler rooms often were kept cleaner than you might expect, because coal dust creates a horrific explosion hazard.

My web sites aren't primarily for the purpose of marketing, so I claim an exemption for not posting a phone number. Ninety percent of my land-line phone calls are solicitations for money or people I don't want to talk to. I still put my email on my web sites, but to thwart data miners I did this: I created a new document in Photoshop and used the Text tool to type my full email address. I saved the document as a JPG, and then displayed it on my web site with an "img" tag. In the HTML code it's an image, not text, and it can't be read by bots. People can contact me with it; they just have to type it into their email instead of clicking on it. Sometimes I go weeks without any spam at that address, but real people who have feedback or requests still can and do contact me.

So there you have it, David. Maybe you've been overlooking the opportunity for some counter-manipulation at work. :-D Some good-looking straight men are charmers/manipulators when they work with or for someone they know to be gay, too. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I figured out that with some of them I could turn it around; they're used to the attention and count on it, and it messes with them when sometimes they get it and sometimes they don't. :evil: