Robert Pence

Wow! That's an impressive addition to the campus; as others have noted, it's rare to see details from an earlier era incorporated into a new building, and done so beautifully.

Great set! Despite all the losses, Youngstown still has some wonderful structures downtown. The courthouse is gorgeous. I haven't yet made it to Mill Creek Park, or to the Butler Museum during hours when it's open. I really want to visit both of those.

Neat stuff! I don't think a lot of people understand how smart and intuitive horses are, and what an integrated team an experienced rider and well-trained horse can be. It's no different with the big, powerful draft horses used in farming; they quickly can learn complicated tasks, and once trained, don't necessarily require a very skilled driver to get the job done.

OK. That clarifies it, and it's just about exactly as I had speculated. The micro turbine burns diesel fuel and drives a generator that puts out the direct-current equivalent of about 40 horsepower to charge the batteries. The inverters take direct current from the batteries and put out alternating current for the drive system. The inverter capacity is twice the demand of the drive system, providing redundancy and avoiding overheating. (Direct current is like the power from the battery in your car, where one terminal is always positive and the other is always negative. Alternating current is like the power in your house, where the terminals reverse their polarity sixty times per second. That's what causes some things, like fluorescent lights, to buzz.) The final drive motors use alternating current for greater efficiency through more precise electronic control systems. The 335 horsepower total output provides for vigorous performance even when heavily loaded in traffic. Although the generator output is only about 40 horsepower, it's likely more than adequate; a bus cruising at steady speed doesn't require much power, and when decelerating, it uses none. During the low-demand part of the operating cycle the generator builds up a charge that will adequately supply the higher requirements of acceleration. Pretty neat; these things should be able to deliver the knock-standees-on-their-asses acceleration of trolley buses and be nearly as quiet in operation, without requiring the investment in catenary and support structure. That acceleration is a plus when operating with heavy loads and frequent stops in traffic. I'm happy now. :-)

I'd feel a moral responsibility to return the money, if for no other reason than I've learned through experience that what goes around, comes around. Several years ago I was on the other end of that situation; a bank credited my $565 deposit to someone else's account, and that person recognized the bonanza and emptied his account and closed it. Even though the bank admitted the error, they said they couldn't recover the money. Their "best offer" was to split the difference with me and make up half the deposit. It took me two years of badgering them and threatening to file a complaint with the BBB and maybe a bank examiner, before they finally made me good. I closed the account after that.

Yes.. I know what you mean... Hate that too! And then they take their own sweet time getting around to pumping, and go inside to pay and while they're there casually pick over the lottery tickets they want to buy before pouring themselves a coffee and fiddling around with creamers and such, and then get back in the long line at the register to pay for it.

It's not inappropriate to ask the original poster to repost photos or fix broken links, although you might not always get a response. I reorganized my web sites and on-line storage a year ago or so and broke a lot of links, and I've fixed as many as I can whenever someone points out a broken thread and asks me to.

Never fear! I am here! Here's all that remains of Rockhill Furnace in Pennsylvania. It's located on SR 522 near Orbisonia, the site of East Broad Top Railroad and Rockhill Trolley Museum. It's thought that the site was scavenged for bricks to build the present roundhouse at East Broad Top, as well as other buildings in the area. Jeffrey is right; these small operations cut over all the surrounding forest to make charcoal. The ones with nearby sources of coal were fortunate in that they were able to continue to operate using coke. Most easily-obtained local ore was inferior, though, and the iron was of poor quality and usually went into locally forged hand tools and other simple items. Output quantities were low, and the businesses were seldom very profitable. By late in the nineteenth century they became overshadowed by big producers that sprang up nearer to sources of good ore and coking coal. The introduction of Bessemer Converters and open-hearth furnaces facilitated the production of very large quantities of high-quality steel with a smaller amount of relatively unskilled labor, and brought an end to most of the small charcoal-and-bog-iron producers by early in the 20th century. And on the topic of the dying craft of journalism ... Passersby on the river and on U.S. 52 were covered in vines and blocked by trees? :? If they had moved faster, they might not have become overgrown. :|

It goes from bad to worse. Let me explain. The diesel engine is named after its inventor, and the term describes a reciprocating piston engine in which the pistons compress the air in the cylinders so much that it is hot enough to ignite fuel without the use of spark plugs or other ignition devices. Injectors spray a fine mist of fuel directly into the superheated air inside the combustion chambers at the proper time to produce power. A turbine doesn't have pistons or cylinders, essential components of a diesel engine. Further, you cannot charge a battery with alternating current. Try it, and you'll destroy the battery or the charging power source or both. A battery puts out direct current, and accepts only direct current for charging. Alternating current has advantages in modern electronically-controlled propulsion systems, and is increasingly common in electric railway equipment. Perhaps the turbine drives a direct-current generator to charge the batteries, and components of the propulsion control system convert the direct current from the batteries to alternating current to run the drive motors. </ :yap: > I give up.

Well, Superior Avenue does traverse one of Ohio's greatest bridges en route to passing right through Public Square. Haha. I'm not an expert on Cleveland, but are you talking about the white bridge that they light up (blue or purple, I think it is). I think it's near the Flats? Yes. This 1917 beauty, formerly the Detroit-Superior High Level Viaduct, now known as the Veterans' Memorial Bridge. It has a lower deck that once carried streetcars across the Cuyahoga River on four tracks, with room for two more tracks. This photo was shot from the Old Viaduct in 1988: To get you some more Cleveland, maybe more than you thought you could stand (even a few photos including photos of some of the forumers), click on the photo. There's stuff going back as far as 1978.

I yearn for the day when media will hire people with a glimmer of technical comprehension to report on technical subjects. A diesel engine, by definition, is a reciprocating piston engine. A turbine is a strictly rotary machine without reciprocating parts. It consists of a vaned wheel or series of wheels that react to a stream of high-pressure water (as in hydropower), combustion gases (as in a jet engine), or superheated steam (as in fossil fuel-fired or nuclear power plants). The buses may use gas turbines that burn diesel fuel, but "diesel turbine" makes about as much sense as referring to electric trains as "chugging," or sticking some oak and brass and an open balcony on a diesel bus and calling it a trolley.

Thanks for the info. I had googled North Road Handlebars but wasn't coming up with any useful links. It's the style my old Raleigh roadster has, along with a couple other of my old bikes. I never thought about scavenging some from a junker but that's a good idea. I'll also look into Wald.

Well, Superior Avenue does traverse one of Ohio's greatest bridges en route to passing right through Public Square.

Some marvelous homes, some promising works-in-progress, and some heart-wrenching scenes of decay.

Awww, Shucks! :oops:

Click the photos to see more: 1991 - I went there to get photos because I thought shutdown was imminent: Skodas in 2007:

Wonderful set!

Very sharp! The black-and-silver with a splash of red is elegant yet sporty. What are those handlebars? They'd work much better for me than the ones I have now, as I'm long-legged for my height (just a bit more than 5'10" but easily ride a 25" frame), That creates a problem for me with the length of the top tube; those bars would be a lot easier for me to reach without having to lean so far and then having to crane my neck to see ahead. I'm pretty sure I have a set of those Shimano bar-tip shifters, unless I've given them away.

Honey, take care of yourself. I worry about you in FW. UO, FW and the world would not be the same without you. Entiende?! Don't worry 'bout me. You might light a candle, though, for anyone who tries to mess with me. :wink:

Until recently, my daily routine has started with brewing a 10-cup pot from one of the Starbucks extra bold blends, and consuming the entire contents over the next eight hours or so. I've had to confront the fact that I was way overdoing it to the detriment of my health. I've cut back to one cup daily, first thing in the morning. I still get the pleasure of the Starbucks Sumatra or Gold Coast without paying the premium for buying it by the cup. I still brew a 10-cup pot, and then portion it out into ZipLoc containers and put them in the freezer. At bedtime I set one out to thaw, and in the morning I just nuke it for a minute and it's ready to go. The flavor and aroma hold up pretty well. Sometimes I drink it black, and sometimes I like a little dairy with it. To avoid the fat content of cream or half-and-half or having them go bad before I use up the whole container, I tried non-fat powdered milk; three tablespoons in a mug works just about right, tastes good, and buffers the acidity just right. Much more healthful than powdered non-dairy creamers, too.

I'm doin' well, thanks. I'm feeling a lot better, have my energy back, and working on gaining back the weight I lost, about 5 pounds that I really couldn't spare. I'm still carrying around some external plumbing, which I'll likely shed at my followup appointment in a few days. I'll stop there, lest I elicit cries of "TMI! TMI!" :-D

The Big Four Bridge is a legendary piece of ironwork, possibly one of the most imposing structures of its type.

Is there a good local camera shop that you patronize? Sometimes they can help. < :yap: >I know that some people around here take corrupt or accidentally-wiped cards to long-time locally-owned Sunny Schick Camera Shop, and they often can recover a lot of the stuff. I think sometimes they even do it gratis for regular customers. They've been in the same crammed-full, old brick house on the edge of the CBD for more than 80 years, and they should be a role model for a lot of others camera shops. Whether you're a pro, advanced amateur, or total newbie, the friendly, knowledgable people cheerfully take time to answer questions, help with selections, and provide after-sale support. I've been going there for 40+ years, and consider them a valuable resource. They're less than a mile from my house, on the same street, too. That's a plus. </ :yap: >

In the small town of Ossian, Indiana, maybe 1200 people or so, on a two-lane secondary state highway about twelve miles from Fort Wayne, there's a place called Brew-Ha. I think it's a small chain; I've seen a couple others, but I don't know how many stores there are, or what area they cover. Their coffee is fine and their baked goods are excellent; they have three or four varieties of killer cheesecake, their muffins and brownies are large and moist and fresh, and they just started offering Edy's Grand ice cream. Another plus is that just a block away is Heyerly's Bakery, a long-time locally owned operation that does a huge business in pastries and cakes. The image of a Heyerly's Apple Fritter just flashed in my mind, and I'll probably drool all over my keyboard now. The Starbucks near my house has good coffee, friendly staff, and at least one barista who's a hottie. Another plus is that instead of clearing the lot and building a new generic Starbucks, they cooperated with the redevelopment commission and historic preservation planners to repurpose a landmark Firestone station, providing an enclosed area with garage-style doors on three sides that can be raised in nice weather to provide open-air seating. I like to buy their whole beans to grind at home, but their pastries and baked goods completely suck; everything seems a couple days old, and dry. That's been the case with every Starbucks I've patronized.

Back from a few days of hopping in and out of the hospital, including a pre-dawn trip to the ER on Sunday morning. Over the rough patch now, and smoothing out the edges. I still have to straighten out a doctor who has an attitude problem, but that can wait until I figure out just how to rip him a new one while maintaining my sweet-and-innocent persona. Doin' fine, now. No cause for alarm. Getting old ain't for sissies but it's probably preferable to the alternative, at least so far.