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For Stuart Galbraith And Anyone Into Bizarre Rail Safety Vids


Mr King

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  • 4 weeks later...

Ref nationalization - Stuart, agreed. Done a fair bit of research into this , if only on an amateur/secondary source basis, and I'd suggest 3 points,

 

1/ The real problem was amalgamation post WWI, not that there was anything wong with contracting to a more rational division, but that it it would have happened more sensibly under commercial pressure than by diktat. The GCR for example, providing a viable third route to the north should never have gone to one side of a duopoly, in the hands of a 'Southern' or 'GWR' that line would catalyzed progress rather than spent 50 years withering slowly.

 

2/ given the scope of commercial activity the railways were involved with, just a simple limited period tax break would have done the job.

 

3/ The error with nationalization post WWII wasn't so much with the railways themselves, sure the gov sucked money out of BR rather than investing post nationalization, and that's never going to help the situation. But the big 4 were not just railway companies they were laterally and vertically integrated to a very high degree. It was forming British Road Services, British Waterways, and the like that IMHO spiked it. By eliminating the sources of internal cross subsidy, and breaking the integrated business links, they stripped the railways of the deeper revenue stream the Big 4 had enjoyed and forced the railways themselves to stand on their own two, decayed, feet.

 

shane

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Norfolk Southern Corp. has sold a painting from one of the better-known artists in its extensive collection to rev up a steam locomotive restoration project.

 

The untitled abstract expressionist work by Mark Rothko fetched just under $3.7 million at a New York auction Nov. 14 conducted by Sotheby's. The buyer wasn't identified.

 

Norfolk Southern said Friday that it will donate $1.5 million to the restoration of a former Norfolk & Western Railway steam passenger locomotive called the Class J No. 611. The locomotive is now part of the collection of the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke. Plans call for it to be put into service for passenger excursions in 2014.

 

 

http://hamptonroads.com/2013/11/norfolk-southern-sells-mark-rothko-painting-37m

 

Here's the painting;

 

 

Here's the locomotive;

 

 

A very wise choice, IMHO. The Chrysler Museum has some good stuff, but that painting falls outside of that category.

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I dont know, I kind of like Rothkos work, particularly the Seagram murals set. If you start at it long enough without blinking it flips into inverse, which is quite startling.

 

That's not art, that's a neurological condition. ;)

 

I prefer art and literature where the artist works his ass off communicating his message to me, not where I have to work my ass off trying to winnow the artist's message out of the work. Of course, when I go to a restaurant, I expect the chefs to do all the prep and cooking and the waitress to do the fetching. I'm weird that way. Thankfully, Hooter's obliges.

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There's half a dozen lines like that scattered about Stu, not to mention the joint ventures, take the old Slow & Dubious. Under joint operation it was almost peripheral to both the Southern and the LMS, Useful but nothing more than that, the LMS wasn't hunting loads for Southern to deliver, nor was the Southern falling over backwards to feed traffic into to LMS system. So the S&D only had its 'natural' traffic people/goods who actually wanted to get across the Mendips for their own reasons. Given to either of the major companies alone, they'd have still been the through traffic if via transfer or foreign running arrangements, but at the same time it would have been a competitive venture with the owner seeking to increase traffic rather than just a convenience.

 

shane

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I found this Book article.

In the 20's they were apparently pre-treating boiler water with various chemicals to help reduce scale formation. Soda Ash, Sodium Silicate, Sodium Hydrate, Tri-sodium Phosphate, Sodium Floride, Sodium Oxalate, Sodium Chromate, sodium Borate, and Baroum Salts. Also, Cahclk, tannins and wood extracts, Zinc and aluminum, Oils, starch, clay, talc and organic materials like glucose of all things.

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After what I saw taking an Amtrak train from Deland Florida, through Washington DC, to Chicago, then down to my home town, I seriously doubt you could convince me to get on a train that traveled none dedicated lines that fast.

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Problem is, it's a small segment of the US motive power market and the electric mode means it's a tiny segment of the small passenger type motive power.

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As far as speed goes, getting that sort of speed on the North East Corridor will be pretty hard. Many of the bends need to be made larger and a great many turnouts need to be made shallower. That's a lot of track to rework and in some very expensive land. I've seen comparisons of cost that noted it would be as expensive to straighten segments of the NEC for high speed service as it would to buy _new_ track rights of way from DC to New Orleans.

Edited by rmgill
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IT's not going to be doing 200 going directly into LA. It'll be slow as it approaches the station. Look at Shinkansen operations in Japan. They slow up as they get into the dense cities where they stop. I don't see downtown LA being a bypassed point.

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