Oldgator73
Well-known member
Forgot about peak and off peak fares.one way off peak.
Forgot about peak and off peak fares.one way off peak.
The Chunnel ( rail tunnel under the channel to France) has rail cars you drive into and you stay in your car for the short journey to/from Calais
Economics made the decision. We're now in a tertiary or service economy (1. Agrarian 2. Industrial 3. Service (consumer)). There's no chance railroads could deliver the volume of goods required to keep this juggernaut functioning. The highways are the conduits which enable the "on time" inventory system to work. Gone are the days when you asked " can you check in the back and see if you have any of x". Their store rooms and warehouses are traveling down the road at 70 mph. What you see on the shelf is largely what's in stock, if it wasn't stocked overnight, it's because there wasn't any. That's also why diesel fuel went from being $.10 a gallon and cheaper than gas in the 60's to what it is today, "demand".As the railroads grew, so did the U.S.A. Then around 1970 the decision was made to switch to trucking to move goods and only use railroads for long distance transportation.
IMO that slowed growth in the U.S.A. Local spurs have been mostly eliminated and in some cases main lines through cities.
People were complaining about trains through towns/cities blocking traffic. Thing is, the railroads were there first, then towns sprang up along them for the convenience factor.
The most efficient method of moving goods is by water, which has obvious limitations, #2 is by rail, by truck is a very distant #3, then airplanes is a distant #4 and the most expensive.
One of the RR trestles in Indiana is the longest and tallest in the U.S.A.
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yup.I'm told there is a line in the US (East coast) Where car and people share the train (not like the Chunnel far as I know) I'd like to see that for cross country.. I could for example Drive to Detroit. Or Toledo. either park my car on a rail car or hand my key to porter and get off in or near Wyoming to visit my grandkids. I'd have my car. with my radios and no need for a rental or loss of coms.
Trains, trucks, ships & plane all work together in a highly complex system of product delivery and distribution. Other than the long distance factor you mentioned, trains will never be replaced when it comes to moving materials such as coal, iron ore, fertilizers, sugar, grain etc.As the railroads grew, so did the U.S.A. Then around 1970 the decision was made to switch to trucking to move goods and only use railroads for long distance transportation.
yup.
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The idea isn't a bad one, but it is not inexpensive, and there is only one route. And the embarkation-Debarkation is a bit more time consuming that seems practical. It's not really practical for a short term run, but
I know some snowbirds who use it each year, and love it.
Making a East-West cross country route would be interesting.
My limited experience (living in Germany three years... during Regan) is that Europe, or at least Germany is you can get around OK without a car, but not so much in the US. Some things may have changed since then..
Did ja have yer ears on nawin a turkey leg.The only time I have ever ridden on a train was around Disneyland.
Yea, I regret not getting a Eurorail pass when I was there but in my defense I got caught up in a RIF and discharged before completing my term. I had 30 days leave and a couple grand saved up to tour around Europe... and was close to finding a "traveling companion". (We started dating just before Regan dropped the bomb on me and a few thousand others airmen.)Much of The England. France. Germany and other countries "over there" are crisscrossed with railroads and trains run frequently.. Alas the US many rail lines are no longer there and mostly freight on a lot of them That said I've traveled by train a number of times.. Starting in elementary school (School trip) then later to an event and even on a few STEAM (Historic exclusion trains) (Two different engines 3 trips) One was a Mighty-Mike (Mikado) made for Japan just prior to WW II but for obvious reasons never delivered. This one has the ring of bolts on the font like the engine in the movie Murder on the Orient Express The other engine was 1218 A freight engine.
There is a somewhat tragic story about how I came to ride that one... I'm a ham radio operator and we put an operator in each car so if things were needed we could radio to wherever they were. Well one of the radio operators was a certified medic but not on the train. There as an accident where some teens tried to beat the train across the crossing (Fatal mistake). He tried to be all EMT.. They told him he was no longer wanted and I was his replacement... After something happened I talked to the official paid EMT and told him "Now I know what to in this situtation" And he got that 'Oh no" look.. I continued with "Pick up this mic and call for you" He relaxed and said "Exactly".
I and a friend outran a train once when we were about 12. We were out with our BB guns and there was a loonngg trestle (3/8 of a mile) crossing over a slough and flood plain. Looking north you could see for several miles as the rails ran straight as an arrow but to the south they disappeared around a bend less than 1/2 mile away. About halfway across I dropped some BB's and knelt down to pick them up. While I was down there I happened to put my hand on the rail and it was vibrating. I looked north - nothing. I turned around and looked south just as a freight train rounded the corner doing about 40 MPH. "Train!"my first experience riding a train was back in 1958. brother and I walked down to the rr tracks and there was a train stopped and we climbed up the ladders to see what was inside the coal hopper. got to the top and the train took off. luckily it only went about a mile before it stopped again. getting killed by the train was less worry than what my parents would have done if they found out.
WOW, that was you?!I turned around and looked south just as a freight train rounded the corner doing about 40 MPH. "Train!"