Robert Pence

Hillsdale is a nice town. Do they still have their 19-year-old mayor? Hillsdale College has a pleasant campus, but the general political climate there is pretty old-money conservative for my taste. The Indiana Northeastern Railroad, right next to downtown, has its operations office in the old New York Central division headquarters building. It's an early-20th century gem, with brick-and-stucco exterior, dark-varnisehd bead-board interior walls, and tile roof with copper flashing, gutters, and downspouts. The people there are pretty friendly, and probably would show you around if you asked.

Photos from this afternoon (Monday, March 29) of the mess at Waterloo, Indiana, are here

Norfolk Southern Coal Train Wreck Waterloo, Indiana, March 26, 2010 Photographed March 29, 2010 All Photos Copyright © 2010 by Robert E Pence On Friday, March 26, 2010, thirty-eight cars of a 126-car Norfolk Southern coal train bound for a power plant in Michigan derailed in Waterloo, Indiana. A local newscast said that the derailment had taken out the Amtrak station and all the cars parked there. I thought the station wouldn't be much loss; it's an asphalt platform with a doorless bus shelter and lights overhead on tall wooden poles. I didn't want to venture up there in bad weather and then get yelled at by cleanup crews as I slogged around in the mud with a camera. Today (Monday March 29) turned out sunny and bright, so in late afternoon I headed for Waterloo. I discovered the Amtrak facility untouched, reaffirming my opinion that most local TV news personalities don't know anything about railroads. In my experience, they don't know much about anything. When I saw the mountain of debris stretching eastward from Center Street, I immediately feared that the historic wood depot, moved and restored years ago, had been crushed and buried under tons of coal-gondola remnants. The earth was torn up with deep ruts from bulldozers, and segments of ties and rails and fragments of ripped-apart aluminum coal gondolas had been pushed up into a mound of mangled metal and wood. I felt great relief when I saw the historic depot still standing at the far end of the debris field. How close do you want it? Parts weighing a couple of tons can travel for considerable distances when a train wrecks at speed. The boarded-up windows aren't a consequence of the wreck; Rehab work on the building is ongoing, and it looks like they may be installing insulation and preparing for new siding. On the back side, the bay has been covered with tyvek. Business has resumed; both tracks are in place, but both eastbound and westbound trains are alternating on the westbound track.

Just one nephew's middle name, but he's turned out to be the best of the bunch. I've never gotten much respect from my parents or brothers. The feeling is largely reciprocal, but they started it.

Intermittently very sluggish this morning around 11:00 - 11:30. Sometimes it helps to exit the browser entirely, and come back in, but when I tried it this morning, I couldn't get back in at all. Using IE8, FIOS 10/2 connection and didn't have any problem accessing any of the other sites I frequent.

The Farley Post Office project may have been side-tracked for four years, but it's been discussed since long before that. I hope they can follow through with something appropriate to a city of New York's stature. The sad remnant of once-grand Penn Station is a disgraceful portal for a city of NY's stature; other world-class cities have nicer stations for their subways.

Safer alternatives for cycling, like bike paths/lanes, can provide access to jobs for people who otherwise would experience considerable difficulty finding jobs they can get to because they don't drive/have access to cars. Many cities, like mine, don't have late-night public transportation, and yet many of the jobs available to the working poor (cleaning crews, etc.) are late at night in locations distant from the neighborhoods where the workers live. The jobs don't pay enough to justify cab fare, and the only cars they can afford to buy, if at all, are old and unreliable. A local study some years back showed that Fort Wayne's working poor spend sixty per cent of their incomes, after food and shelter, for transportation.

I'm an uncle six times since 1973, and since then a great-uncle a dozen times. The thrill has mostly worn off. :-D

According to an AP article in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette this morning (Sunday, 03/28/2010) Amtrak cancelled Saturday's Capitol Limited and rerouted the Lateshore Limited with significant delays. Alternative transportation was provided for passengers between Chicago and Toledo. Read the article

Some nice old homes and commercial buildings, but prosperity from antique shops is ephemeral. Many towns in Indiana and Michigan have enjoyed a year or two of great popularity as go-to places for antique shoppers, only to be replaced by some other quaint village. The descent into oblivion, once begun, progresses very rapidly.

:? I don't want one too! Doesn't sound like a well-thought-out campaign.

I like to use that one to set off my rant/lectures on pet issues. I begin with a < :speech: > to warn people what's coming, and when I'm finished, I end with a </ :speech: > This one is good for announcing the beginning and end of lengthy dissertations, too: < :type: > and </ :type: > Check out the repertoire of smileys in SSP. It's an amazing collection.

Wonderfully researched and laid out! That area was an important staging area for much of the development of Southern Indiana. The canals had their own culture. At congested points like locks, contested right-of-way often was mediated by out-and-out brawls. Passengers of packet boats, once on board and under way, had no recourse for their displeasure. First-person narratives from the era tell of awful food, beds of bare planks set up at night, and merciless, relentless hordes of mosquitoes. Canal travel was brutal by today's standards, but then it was much preferred to overland travel where roads sometimes passed through nearly-endless marshlands, swamps, and dense forests whose only human residents were criminals and renegade Indians who preyed upon unlucky travelers.

Nice-looking designs. It'll be interesting to see it as it matures and the green stuff grows in.

Beautiful photos. I'm sorry to hear about the breakin. That happened to me a couple of years ago while on vacation in Lacaster, PA. I didn't lose anything of marketable value, but an irreplaceable book on family genealogy was in a briefcase that was taken. Sucks to discover something like that.

Wonderful! You may want to browse other books of his, once you've gotten your hands on that one. Meanwhile, staying warm and dry on land, eagerly awaiting Spring:

I was thinking that as I shopped for groceries yesterday. Aaaackkk! Muzak-style covers of oldies that were annoying when they were new, the kind of noise that drills holes in your head. And then there's the sharp, loud, sudden bird-chirp noise in the produce section just before the taped announcement that the spray-misters are about to turn on. It always startles me and makes me flinch. I may resort to my noise-exclusion gear when shopping in such stores. It works fine for excluding the mechanical noises and motormouths' ceaseless, mindless babble when riding the South Shore to Chicago. First, I insert those roll-up foam ear plugs that are available in most hardware stores. Then I put on my industrial 29db earmuffs. Blissful near-silence!

C-Dawg, there's a book I think you might enjoy; I've referred to it in response to some other Great Lakes ships photos on the forums, but here's the info again: End of an Era: The Last of the The Great Lakes Steamboats David Plowden Published 1992 by W.W. Norton & Company ISBN 0-393-03348-1 David Plowden's photographic skill and craftsmanship are at least equal to those of Ansel Adams, Eliot Porter, and other renowned photographers of the 20th century, and many of his images show the man-made elements of our environment, from small towns and ghost towns of the great plains, to ships, railroads, and the gritty industrial scenes of rust-belt cities. The photo subjects are the ships, their ports, their machinery, and the people who make everything work. The reproductions, layout, and typography are excellent, and Plowden's narrative is knowledgeable, informative, and beautifully written.

Then you're watching too much TV! Unplug the evil brain-infuser and turn it to face the wall, so you can't watch it and it can't watch you! :wink: I did it three-plus years ago, never bought a new digital TV or converter. I'm experiencing success in my recovery, and haven't relapsed. Now I feel an aversion to the things, and whenever I encounter one in a waiting room or other public place, if no one else is watching I turn it off.

I have to ask, have you traveled on Amtrak? If not, I think it would be a good idea. Although one day-trip wouldn't put you on the same footing with many of the posters in this thread who have many miles of rail travel behind them, both in the US and abroad, it would help answer some of your questions and give you a clearer understanding of the comparisons between train and other modes. Something you could accomplish in a day, or a weekend if you wanted a good getwasy destination, would be Amtrak from Cleveland to Pittsburgh, and then return via Greyhound. Or you could switch the modes the other way around. Either way, you'd be able to compare the comfort, convenience, and amenities of both modes over the same trip.

Wow! Stunning downtown, and with light rail! Does it snow much, there? :-D

Amazing, and wonderful to see that people still turn out in huge numbers for it. I was there in 1979 with then-BF who lived in Lakewood. After the parade we got on the Rapid, where the fareboxes were covered - free ride. At the W117th stop, we couldn't even get to the doors to get off the train. We had to ride clear to Brookpark before we could get off, and then take a train back to W117th. I hadn't expected such a spectacle downtown, and didn't even have my camera with me. :cry:

Some info about Alpena: http://www.boatnerd.com/pictures/fleet/alpena.htm

My apologies if I've already posted this, but women dressing like whores in public. If you're not open for business, don't dress like it. If you are, there are neighborhoods where potential customers are looking for you!

Careful, guys. I almost jumped in with a sarcastic comment but changed my mind. Let's not spoil the thread with another round of political jousting. It's OK to report current events relating to 3C and include reference to the political affiliation of the actors, but let's stay with facts and maybe predictions/projections, without starting or joining a partisan war.