Robert Pence

There's definitely a working Cincinnati PCC in Kenosha, WI. I've ridden on it a few times. Among other rail equipment business lines, Brookville Equipment Corporation in Brookville, PA, builds new replica streetcars and rebuilds vintage streetcars with state-of-the-art propulsion and control technology for operation on modern systems.

I remember reading a few years ago that many vacant downtown buildngs had been destroyed by arson fires. Photos showed numerous charred and half-collapsed building still standing, and apparently someone has found the resources to clean up that part of the mess.

In some respects downtown looks a little better than it did when I was there in 2006; some of the buildings appear to have been spruced up somewhat. Sadly, though, the flatiron building beside the river has deteriorated even farther, losing still more of its cornice and roof. When that one goes, it will be a sad loss to the downtown fabric. Did you visit the National Flood Memorial, at the site of the failed dam? Johnstown has had numerous floods because of its valley location that catches massive runoff from heavy rains, but the 1889 flood commemorated by the memorial is the one that most people refer to when they speak of The Johnstown Flood. The exhibits and film there really helped me grasp the magnitude of what happened then. The incline still is used as transportation, and is part of the city's public transit system. It was opened in 1891, at least partly in response to a need to be able to more efficiently evacuate citizens when flash flooding threatened. It is billed as the world's steepest vehicular incline. As on mass transit systems in most, if not all, Pennsylvania cities, senior fares are paid by state lottery proceeds. All I had to do was show my Medicare card, and I rode free. It's an interesting city and area; in 2006 I stopped by there en route home from Coolspring Power Museum, near Brookville. I intended to ride the incline and spend a couple of hours looking around. I ended up spending the whole day, staying overnight, and spending most of the next day before continuing homeward. I felt like I could have spent still more time there.

Any updates on the model railroad layout?

Youngstown Thermal - Photos from 2008 Click any of the photos to go to the full Youngstown photo set.

That's right. That was before they installed that stupid, obnoxious, view-blocking gridwork.

Clicking on either of those two photos will take you to a fairly large set of photos from those years.

Excellent. Extraordinarily handsome downtown.

The Canal Road plant used to have three of those tall smokestacks, as you can see in the first two shots, both from a distance. 1979: 1985: 2007 from the Good Time III

Time trip!

See other comments about source probably being conservative. Since when did you expect conservatives to ever be able to pull off humor? :-D

I stayed overnight in Scranton one night in 1963, but I arrived late at night and left early in the morning so I didn't see much or take photos. I was active-duty USAF then, and stayed at the YMCA because I could stay there very cheaply and YMCAs generally had Spartan but clean and adequate facilities. I went out for a walk around downtown, was out about an hour and didn't see even one other person, and everything was coated with coal dust and soot. Even the leaves on the trees were black with it. It seemed a desolate and dirty place then, but if I had seen it during a pleasant weekday during business hours I probably would have had a different impression. I seem to recall that at night at the Y they closed and locked a gate to block off the stairway that led from the lobby to the floors above, and I had to go to the desk and show my room key to get someone to take me up on the elevator.

BYU is Mormon.

Where I live, that would be like laying out a buffet for termites and inviting them to bring all their friends and relatives.

That's probably where all the heavy scrap from those mills went.

Imposing downtown buildings, and the place looks clean. Steamtown National Historic Site is captivating, and the adjacent Electric City Trolley Museum offers vintage streetcar rides to local historic industry sites. Also, don't forget the Anthracite Heritage Musem and Lackawanna Mine Tour. If you're an industrial heritage geek, it would be easy to spend a couple of days in Scranton; I spent a whole day, didn't see as much of Steamtown as I would have liked, and never got downtown at all.

You've waded into a long-established conversation as an absolute newcomer and set about picking fights, telling long-term, well-informed members they're wrong and worse. You would have done well to have paid attention to the discourse for a while and figured out who was who, and then entered some carefully thought-out comments to establish yourself as a thoughtful participation in the discussion. Heed that advice; it might serve you well in future interactions in other forums. I suspect your future here is short.

I know what you mean. When I see the media frenzy and people trying to outdo each other with their parties, I can't connect. The commercial hoopla has completely overwhelmed the event to the extent that the actual game is almost an anticlimax. A neighbor asked me if I was ready for the Big Day, and when I told him I didn't own a TV and planned to take a nap, he stared at me in disbelief. Conversation ended.

My recollection from spending some time there on a work assignment mid-1990s was that people were almost universally laid-back and friendly and the city had a very comfortable ambiance that welcomed visitors but wasn't pushy about it. I was fortunate to be there mid-summer, with sunny days and blue skies, and wish I had had more downtime to explore.

Except that the infrastructure is already there and largely amortized, and it can readily be adapted to more green energy as more comes on line. It would cost a lot more to reinstall the catenary later if it were removed now and scrapped because of the value of the copper. Right, nobody is talking about removing the infrastructure any more. Cleaner coal would be great! Not sure about this but I read somewhere the Calgary light rail system draws nearly 100% of its energy from a wind farm in southern Alberta just outside the city. San Francisco's electrified mass transit is powered by hydroelectric stations, including one fed from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir. An environmental movement now under way wants to drain Hetch Hetchy and return the valley to Yosemite National Park, claiming that the hydropower generated from it isn't green energy because it involves the ongoing disruption of natural habitat.

Except that the infrastructure is already there and largely amortized, and it can readily be adapted to more green energy as more comes on line. It would cost a lot more to reinstall the catenary later if it were removed now and scrapped because of the value of the copper. Plus, even with coal as an energy source, large central power plants with scrubbers and other controls likely are less environmentally damaging per horsepower hour than individual diesel engines installed where weight and mobility are concerns

It's more a promotional stunt to bring tourist money into the town, than anything else. Puxsutawney isn't all that affluent, but they know how to put on a show. The groundhog probably is domesticated and trained to put up with the handling, and probably is planted there before the crowds arrive. As a kid I dealt with a lot of groundhogs on our farm, and believe me, one in the wild is not something you would pick up and handle. They're not friendly at all, and they have a powerful bite and are not afraid of much when they're cornered. Our dog tangled with quite a few, and he got pretty badly torn up sometmes but never learned to leave them alone; his ears had pieces out of them. Get between one and its burrow, even inadvertently, and it will attack.

its hideous along with the carpet and wall color. Maybe the best thing for them is to have the house burn down, with no loss of life. Jeez mts you sound like my landlord. She constantly rips on me for my failures at interior design... or "lack of any design," but just "a few scattered pieces of showroom floor models". I told her if she comments again I will paint the apartment all black and choose ugly granite for the counters. Child, you need to be adopted by some gays! You live in downtown Chicago, don't you know one, just one, gay man? We should get a group together and stage an intervention. :-D

The better to give you a ride with, my dear!

Ha! That's why I bought a truck; in the six years since I traded in my last truck, my "friends" started dropping out of sight. I consider some of my friends on UO almost as family, and often with fewer issues. I need some more of the local flesh-and-blood kind, though. :wink: In all the years that I owned trucks, I got so many new friends. I never minded pitching in for a few hours on a Saturday if they were prepared when I arrived, and especially if they returned the favor with food, or on occasion that other primal desire. Most, though, were utterly unprepared when I arrived, still shuffling around in a bathrobe or pajamas, nursing a cup of coffee, and asking me where they could get some boxes. I soon learned to filter between the established friends and the "Oh-you-have-a-truck" friends. As soon as a quoted a five-dollar per hour rate for the latter group, with a dollar off for each additional helper they provided, the deadbeat slackers took offense and dropped it.