Posted on 04/29/2023 11:56:54 AM PDT by John Leland 1789
“The US Heartland has been hollowed out, so there is probably little business for the railways where you are.”
Sending our manufacturing overseas reduced the need for railroads to transport raw materials and completed manufactured products from factories spread across the nation. Environmental regulation has destroyed mining for coal and other minerals in the US. Mining was a heavy user of railroad transportation. Consolidation of the local and regional railroads into a few giant railroads has resulted in lower volume routes being eliminated as superfluous or marginally profitable. During the last 50 years interstate trucking has taken market share from the railroads for interstate freight.
My favorite thing about the Metro North is the bar car. Do they still have the bar car? Nothing like the bar car on a Friday night. And all the folks drinking big cans of Foster's (tho' I was a Heinie drinker). Unfortunately, I don't drink anymore but I have some very pleasant memories of those days.
Also a big fan of rails-to-trails since I am a cyclist.
What’s happening? ... it’s the Democrats putting a queer in charges of transportation and him not taking enough time from his maternal duties and bashing conservatives to fix any rail problems.
They don't have the bar cars anymore but they do allow you to bring alcoholic beverages on board - except for certain days of the year like Saint Patrick's Day, New Year's Eve, and SantaCon (an annual Christmas pub crawl), for obvious reasons.
When I'm in the mood, I'll go to the RITE AID at Grand Central where they have many beers under $2 a can so I'll take advantage of that. The Foster's oil cans go for about $4 there but that's still cheap given the size of them.
There are so many unspoken protocols on the Metro North that commuters learn over time, that you can immediately tell the regular commuters from the novices. I could put together a fascinating article on that one of these days.
Also on the trail is the site of the only 4 train accident in the US. Two passenger trains and two freight trains got together, only two deaths.
So do I. My favorite VR site is LaPlata, Missouri, where more people view the camera online than is in the town. I love watching the VR Grab Bag, especially the Darwin Award Candidates.
Maybe Xi bought more land?.
Yes, derailments are quite common. The company I work for gets a lot of raw materials brought in by train. A couple of winters ago, they were very adamant that we inspect our tracks for ice before they would do a rail switch for us. They said they had something like two dozen derailments locally in the past couple of weeks. Never heard of any of them in the news.
However, train WRECKS are not very common. And that is what I would call all of these ‘derailments” that we’ve been hearing in the news of late.
Has to do with where choo-choo go.
When that track goes through Rock Ridge, the land will be worth millions!
What would a nickel then be worth now?
In the mid-1960s, my allowance was a nickel, and I could buy a candy bar with it. Now it’s almost $2 to buy a candy bar! (Which is good for my waistline, at least.)
So I can only imagine what a nickel in the 1890s would be worth!
Thanks for the tip!
My theory is, and has been for decades, is that rail cannot and never will be able to compete against public roadways.
Rail has to build and maintain its tracks and right of way from within.
Trucks travel on taxpayer funded roadways.
Part of it is indeed the old Monon Line. There is still a very nice museum in Salem highlighting that Line. I was unaware of the 1937 event. I am not originally from this region. My children began to find their spouses around here; two of my sons-in-law own their own businesses in the area.
The CPI index says 5¢ in 1890 would buy then what $1.66 buys today.
( https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1890?amount=0.05 )
The inflation chart at the bottom of that page is about to do the hockey stick pattern that Al Gore was so fond of.
Or from a different perspective, 5¢ of gold in 1890 would be worth $5.29 in 2023
( 18.94 : 2003.30 :: .05 : 5.29 )
( Oz. of gold in 1890 : Oz. of gold in 2023 :: .05 : 5.29 )
Take your pick.
Americans like to have a certain amount of jealousy for European and Asian rail passenger transit systems. However, if you go over there, you’ll find them highly jealous of our freight systems.
Nobody does freight like the US...
What you’re seeing is a result of the efficiencies our freight systems have undertaken. It’s called intermodal.
Container ships come to ports, then highly automated systems select containers and place them onto rail flatbeds. These trains then travel to rail hubs along the network. These hubs have been consolidated by region and metro. At those depots, the automated systems hoist the containers onto truck flatbeds, where they continue to a regional distribution hub. There, they are offloaded to local retail or commercial delivery vehicles for dissemination.
Because of this efficient, pared-down system, there is no longer a need for many freight rail lines. They are becoming redundant to the system.
The logistics are amazing. And to state again, NOBODY does freight like the United States...
And the funny thing is they’re already electric: diesel-electric.
How are the treasonous, feckless, ignorant, arrogant, witless, corrupt, compromised, amoral, narcissistic morons in the political, NGO and bureaucratic positions going to get around that?
Very cool site—thank you!
Everything I remember the price of way back when has gone up much higher than they say it should have! But I don’t remember the price of mundane stuff like bread, so I imagined it all evened out in the end!
Are you talking about rail in the US, or just in your spot in IN?
Not quite.
The diesel-electrics generate their own electricity with...you guessed it....fossil fuel.
The electrics mentioned would not have that, just external electricity brought to the loco.
That makes it look like there is no fossil fuel, but at the plants that send that electricity out...yeah, that fossil fuel. Or evil nuclear.
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