Robert Pence

I avoided after-hours events with co-workers whenever possible, but the annual off-site management dinner was mandatory. The free bar opened at 5:30, a long, windy speech by a visiting corporate bigwig at started at 7:00, and the meal was served after the speech. Apparently not everyone understood why they plied us with free booze on empty stomachs Usually someone had to be escorted out and taken home, and I watched/listened to a purchasing manager heckle a corporate VP during the VP's presentation. Bye, bye, career! The bar opened again during the meal, and afterward people could stay, drink, socialize, play cards, and make fools of themselves as long as they liked before driving home drunk. Corporate responsiblity at its best!

I really thought Pennsylvania was the only state to produce such stupid and inattentive drivers... I guess I'm wrong. I think it was at Brookville or Dubois (PA) on an on-ramp onto I-80 that I nearly rear-ended a driver who stopped at the end of the ramp instead of merging. She was moving down the ramp at normal speed, and I took my eyes off her for an instant to check for an opening in the I-80 traffic stream. When I looked back, she had stopped dead right in front of me. I jammed on the brakes and headed for the shoulder, and slid right past her on the gravel, screaming obscenities at her from my open window the whole time. She gave me a "WTF is the matter with you?" look. She had a handicapped license plate. I'll bet she got it from a car wreck. On 322 near Boalsburg, I saw a driver put his Mercedes into an uncontrolled skid and end up in a ditch to avoid hitting a small dog that ran out onto the road. I love dogs, but he made a bad choice; he messed up an expensive car, and maybe he had the money and insurance to take care of that, but he had his wife and kids with him and could have gotten someone injured or killed.

A buddy introduced me to the charms of Old Taylor when I was barely 21. The label still exists, but I've heard the product isn't as nice as it was when I first became acquainted with it.

Wiedemann's beer! Might have helped if they had run it through the horse one more time. And Richman Brothers - wasn't their slogan "700 Fussy Tailors?" Great photos! Trolley buses were everywhere; almost every street scene has catenary in it.

I had a date last night and missed his responses! Darn it!! That'll teach you! I'd much rather sit home and play with my on-line forum friends than go out on a date! :roll:

I see Indianapolis on that map; they continue to develop and refine a system with some gorgeous routes for both recreational and work/shopping destinations, and the Monon Trail seems to be a sort of central artery connecting various others. On a pleasant weekday after business hours, or on a weekend, the traffic around Broadripple and Carmel can get really dense. I expect that Fort Wayne will make that map soon. The city's greenway system has strong support from the mayor's office and is gaining a lot of community-wide support. While the original system was primarily recreational, and didn't provide much utilitarian function, there's strong emphasis now on remedying that by extending the system and upgrading the quality of existing trails. The Northwest and Southwest affluent suburban areas have had no safe access to/from the central business district by other than private car and limited, infrequent bus service. Now Aboite Township and St. Joseph Township are building their own trail systems with an eye toward connecting them directly with the city's system. The interest of affluent potential users is producing paths built to very high standards in those areas, and I haven't heard the storm of NIMBY protest that often comes from trail-building efforts in affluent 'burbs.

I was in San Francisco, staying with a friend who lived near the People's Temple, when that story broke. We had heard many more sirens than usual that day, but didn't know what it was about until the evening news, when we learned that a large number of people had tried to storm the Temple, which was protected by a fence and gates. They were trying to find out the fate of their family members and friends who had gone to Jonestown. The more information came out, the more horrifying the story became. I think it had more impact than the Waco/David Koresh incident because it unfolded so abruptly without the long siege and buildup that culminated in the inferno at Waco, and because most of the victims went willingly to their deaths (although there was evidence of coercion in some cases).

Looks like a Department of Corrections booking shot. Just swap the orange tee for a jumpsuit the same color. What are you in for? :wink: Edit: I would be scared if I met that guy alone on a deserted street at night. :-o

Are you using IE8? If so, here's how you fix the jumpy cursor when editing a post: Immediately to the right of the box where the URL is displayed, there's a button with an image that looks like a torn or broken page. That's the Compatibility Mode button. Click it to go into IE7 Compatibility Mode, and all your troubles will be over. Well, at least the ones you're having with editing your posts. :-)

In the May, 2010 issue of Trains on page 8, long-experienced and insightful Don Phillips' column, High speed rail is only the past disguised as the future, is recommended reading for those too young to remember the American passenger-rail era before the decline and disinvestment that gathered momentum in the 1960s and culminated in the malaise that existed 1971 when Amtrak was born. He writes of speeds in the range of 90 - 100mph behind steam and diesels running on jointed rail as routine, and writes about what is needed in order to achieve those speeds again. On pages 12 and 13, articles provide synopses of the potential effects of High-Speed grants and stimulus funds, especially as their application may affect Amtrak service into and out of Chicago, a notorious choke point in the system that contributes to many delays. Finally on page 14, Fred Frailey, another experienced and acknowledged authority on most things railroad, writes Amtrak's bright and perhaps not-so-bright future - Five predictions for the next five years. Those are all concise, interesting reads, and the issue is rich with Summer tourist-train information, too, including a very good article by Craig Sanders about the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad.

The question was implicit in what he wrote: Do any Chicagoans have any definitive information on where in the business district skateboarding is permitted or prohibited, and whether there are any specific rules to follow to stay out of trouble? :-)

All legislators and other elected officials who influence fiscal policy should be required to sell their possessions and take a vow of poverty (Clearly, chastity or even marital fidelity is too much to expect). It would dissuade the charlatans from running, and help the objectivity of those who get elected. :-) As to what we might do about stupidity among the electorate, I haven't a clue.

"Honey Grahams" Graham Automobiles at the ACD Museum May, 1998 All Photos Copyright © 2010 by Robert E Pence The Graham Brothers had various business enterprises before building cars under their own name. Their glass-bottle manufacturing operation was a predecessor of L-O-F, and they built and sold truck-conversion kits for Model T Fords before starting to build their own trucks using Dodge engines, and selling them mostly through Dodge dealers. Eventually Dodge bought their truck business and hired the brothers. They worked for Dodge until 1927, and then quit and bought the Paige-Detroit Motor Company, makers of Paige and Jewett automobiles. Their first cars bore the name "Graham-Paige." Graham automobiles quickly established a reputation for quality and were successful in racing, an important promotional tool of the time. Please forgive any errors in dates, etc. I put together as much info as I could from Wikipedia and from looking at whatever photos I could find. I welcome corrections and additonal information. Circa 1928 Touring Sedan: Circa 1929 Roadster: The 1932 Blue Streak turned the automotive design world on its ear and set competitors scrambling to catch up. The radiator cap, previously a prominent design element on almost all automobiles, was concealed under a sleek hood that extended all the way to the base of the windshield, and the radiator housing disappeared behind a grille. Fenders were redesigned to conceal their often mud-splattered undersides. Headlights were contained in streamlined nacelles, either painted in body color or chrome-plated. Traditionally squarish overall design got its contours smoothed. The Blue Streak name originally was coined by the company for its supercharged eight-cylinder engine, but soon became associated with the automobile model line. By the mid 1930s the effects of the Great Depression were taking a toll on Graham. An attempt in 1935 to update the Blue Streak body didn't turn out well, so for the 1936 and 1937 model years, Graham paid a royalty to REO to purchase the Hayes-built body that REO used. Even though these cars aren't considered as anything remarkable by some critics, this 1936:Crusader was my favorite: Maybe it's the snappy paint job and the abundance of bright trim that seem to give this touring sedan a jaunty stance. Years after taking these photos, I still smile at the memory every time I see this one. 1937 Cavalier: The 1938 Spirit of Motion won international design awards and acclaim, but in the US became known as the Sharknose and was a complete sales flop: In 1939 Graham needed a good seller to try to recover from the failure of the Spirit of Motion. Another struggling automaker, Hupmobile, had bought the body dies for the Cord 810 designed in Auburn Indiana, but had no money for production. Graham contracted to build Hupp Skylark and a very similar Graham Hollywood. Because the Cord was front-wheel drive and the Hupp and Graham were rear-wheel drive, some modifications were made. The front end was restyled from the cowl forward by John Tjaarda, who created the Lincoln Zephyr, and provision had to be made for the driveshaft. I saw a Graham Hollywood on a used-car lot in Marion, Indiana, in 1962. It didn't look too bad cosmetically, but I can't testify as to the mechanical condition. If only I had comprehended what I was looking at, and had had the resources to just take it home, put it up on blocks in the barn, cover it up, and keep it! I remember reading in a magazine years ago that after Hupp/Graham, the dies were bought by a Japanese firm and used to build a few cars in Japan. The brief article was accompanied by a photo of one, taken by a GI there after WWII. Graham's Hollywood and Hupp's Skylark weren't enough to save either company. Graham quit making automobiles in 1940, and during WWII they used their plant for military production. In 1946 they made another go at automobile production with the Frazer, named for the company's vice-president. Plans to resume production under the Graham name were cut short when they sold all their automobile assets in 1947 to Kaiser-Frazer, formed by Joseph Frazer and industrialist Henry J Kaiser. Subsequently they went into commercial real estate.

I spend 'way too much time here. I need another, more absorbing hobby, maybe like porn. Sometimes an item pushes one of my buttons and I type a long, detailed response describing how I feel about that, and why I feel that way. Then, I preview it, read it, fine-tune it, read it again, and then cancel the whole thing ... Unless it's late at night and/or I've had a couple of drinks. Then, I just might click the "Post" button.

My greatest fear is that someone, somewhere may be having fun. :x I may not be able to monitor the whole city, but when I hear kids laughing or grownups partying on my block, it's my job to put a stop to it! :whip: :wink:

Easter Alert!! If the Easter Bunny leaves a pile of chocolate jelly beans in your yard, DO NOT let your kids eat them!!

When my next-younger brother was four, he climbed up on a bench in the basement to try to reach something he knew he wasn't supposed to touch. The bench tipped over and he fell onto the cement floor and fractured his skull. He was in the hospital and developed an infection and was on penicillin for a while. He's now 68 years old, and all his life he's had quirky behavior and social-adjustment issues. Maybe it's a result of his head injury, but others in our family have had mental-health problems, so I wouldn't know. I do know that he's accident-prone, obsessively controlling, rigid and uncompromising, difficult to live and work with, and is twice-divorced and working on a third one. Maybe the behavior that got his skull fractured was just an early manifestation of what he would become.

Very nice!

Ditto.

Not everyone has a solid grasp on the distinction between "restore" and "repair" or even "patch up." I'm disappointed by the treatment of the parapet and windows. On the upside, the structure survives and formerly grandfathered structural elements now must be brought into compliance with current codes. It's better than a parking lot, and if Bluffton's economy improves enough to justify investment in downtown quality residential space, the facade has been preserved well enough to make it fully restorable. March 10: Pre-fire (May, 2005):

Exactly the same complaints were heard about building Parkview Field in Fort Wayne and moving the Tin Caps downtown, plus, "There's nothing else to do downtown" (like there were scads of exciting attractions next to Memorial Stadium and the Coliseum), and "traffic getting to and from the games will be horrendous." The first-season attendance was record-breaking, the adjacent parking garage never is anywhere near capacity even with a full ballpark, and there has been no problem with traffic congestion. Besides, people are discovering the downtown eating spots that used to be open just weekdays at lunchtime, and those places are doing great business on game days and extending their hours. The economy went sour just in time to stall the hotel and residential/commercial segments, but the hotel is now moving along and there's hope that financing may be on the horizon for the rest of the development.

Win Schulers used to be a popular destination for people from Fort Wayne. I drove there with friends at least a couple of times for dinner. For a while after the Fort Wayne Marriott opened, they ran the dining services and had a very popular Sunday brunch. The rest of the time, though, it wasn't quite up to snuff compared with the home restaurant in Marshall.

Beautiful view. I love the time of year when the buds on the trees are getting all fat and pink and ready to pop open in a few weeks.

Jeff, I thought you might want to model that to give even more authenticity the railroad club layout. :wink: Seriously, seeing that gave me religion, at least for a while. I literally shuddered when I saw that it happened exactly where I've stood trackside to photograph and videotape. Sherman, I think you're referring to bolted, or jointed, versus welded, or continuous, rail. If I have my terminology right, jointed rail is the old-school way, where the ends of segments of rail are held together by plates clamped to each side by large bolts made of high tensile strength steel. The wheels passing over the joints made the familiar clickety-clack sound that accompanied train travel back in the day. Now rails for high-traffic and high-speed use are welded together into lengths that typically run a quarter mile, and loaded onto specially-designed trains that transport them to the construction site. It's startling to watch what you've always thought of as rigid material sagging like wet spaghetti as it's fed out onto the railbed. Existing jointed rail in good condition can be field-welded into continuous rail. They saw off the ends with the bolt holes, pull the joint together, and weld it using a process that's been around since before gas and electric welding and continues to be refined to fit various niches. Google "thermit" or "thermite." Don't try this at home; it's pretty cool to watch, but my science club damned near burned down the high school with a demonstration that got out of control. That rail line is part of the legendary former New York Central Water Level Route, carrying the Twentieth Century Limited and other famous trains. It still carries a lot of freight as well as Amtrak's Lateshore Limited and Capitol Limited, and except for ride quality, the line is impeccably maintained. The ride at 79mph, especially on Amfleet coaches, is jiggly-rattly, and would benefit from rail surfacing. It's safe, though. So far, it's thought that the wreck was caused by a wheel on a car picking a switch; a wheel broke through a switch and tried to follow a diverging track or crossover. That can be the result of an excessively worn wheel flange, a poorly maintained or improperly closed switch, or a combination of those factors. Given the importance of that line in NS's overall business, I'd lean toward a defective car and away from poor track maintenance. Regarding ties, the treated wood ones actually perform very well when installed on a well-drained and maintained roadbed. Typical tie life is estimated to be twenty years, and the old standard even on mainlines of the Pennsylvania, New York Central, and other major carriers with fast passenger trains was to replace every fourth tie every five years. Nearly forty years ago in Austria and Germany I saw steel ties. Currently a steel-cored composite tie made almost entirely with recycled materials, being developed by Steel Dynamics (SDI), is undergoing testing and evaluation. The prestige passenger trains of railroads like New York Central, Pennsylvania, Milwaukee Road, Chicago Northwestern, Burlington, Santa Fe and others regularly achieved speeds up to and sometimes exceeding 100mph on bolted rail laid on wood ties in the 1940s - 1950s. Norfolk & Western's sleek J-class locomotives were designed to sustain 110mph hauling 11 heavyweight passenger cars. A steam locomotive's maximum speed theortically is determined mainly by the size of the driving wheels, the steam-generating capacity of its boiler, and the skill of its fireman. Fast passenger service and comfort were important parts of those railroads' identities, and they put a lot more manpower into day-in, day-out track maintenance. Section gangs stationed at frequent intervals along the line patrolled for defects and received daily reports by train crews regarding rough spots and other incipient problems, which they addressed that day.

Please do!