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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Sun Jun 06, 2021 11:35 am 

Joined: Fri Dec 22, 2017 6:47 pm
Posts: 1398
Location: Philadelphia, PA
In the USA, railroads were operated by private companies, not a government agency. Stations were open, with no ticket barriers (except at major terminals where you needed to show a ticket to get on the platform). You bought your ticket from the Ticket Agent or Clerk, who validated the ticket, which was numbered and had to be accounted for. Then you boarded the train, took your seat and the Conductor or Trainman punched the ticket using a unique ticket punch.

If you paid cash on the train, the Conductor or Trainman punched a cash fare receipt using the unique ticket punch and gave the passenger one side of the receipt while the other remained in his book.

US railroads usually had two classes of ticket: Coach, valid for a coach seat, and Standard (later called First-Class), valid in Pullman or Parlor Cars. Some roads had an intermediate fare called Tourist, valid in coach or Tourist sleeping cars (usually old Pullmans). Pullman and Parlor cars had a separate "Space" charge to pay for the sleeping or parlor accommodations. This went to the Pullman Company if they were operating the sleeping or parlor cars. Some luxury trains carried an "Extra Fare" to pay for the extra amenities on those trains. but they were uncommon.

Going into greater detail gets complicated as each RR was a separate company and had its own rules, subject to regulation by Federal (ICC) and/or State authorities.

Phil Mulligan


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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Sun Jun 06, 2021 12:51 pm 

Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2004 3:01 pm
Posts: 1730
Location: SouthEast Pennsylvania
There were a very few compartment coaches on U.S. of A. railways, mostly back in the beginning in the 1830s.


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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Mon Jun 07, 2021 6:12 am 

Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2020 1:51 pm
Posts: 167
Location: Bucureşti, Capitala României / Bucharest, Capital of Romania
In Romania you can't pay with credit card on the train. Or at least 2 years ago it was so.
Does any of the locos from the beginging of this film exists? That rail barge moved the train to another syde of the port? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylvwk5ehjSI

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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Mon Jun 07, 2021 1:20 pm 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:51 pm
Posts: 11481
Location: Somewhere east of Prescott, AZ along the old Santa Fe "Prescott & Eastern"
djl wrote:
Does any of the locos from the beginging of this film exists? That rail barge moved the train to another syde of the port? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylvwk5ehjSI


"Video unavailable
This video contains content from WMG, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds."


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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Mon Jun 07, 2021 3:31 pm 

Joined: Wed Jul 26, 2017 4:24 pm
Posts: 113
Ahh well being the rare american train fan, not living stateside, I could see it. The barges for NYC area harbor car floats are gone, there are a few of the railroad company tugs in different ownership, I think. The southern Pacific 4345 mountain class in the start of the film I believe is scrapped.

So on the other side, any good rail sites I should see in Craiova or Bucharesti or on the road between the two?


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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Sat Jul 03, 2021 7:23 am 

Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2020 1:51 pm
Posts: 167
Location: Bucureşti, Capitala României / Bucharest, Capital of Romania
But there is any ferry rail crossing left in the U.S.A.?
I just can only imagine the lost world of U.S.A. railroads.

As for Bucureşti - Craiova, no point of interest between them cames to my mind now.
Beaware: the electrified lines is in work (for more then 5 years), so trains will have delays.
You can see some rail activity in Bucharest - this includes both old and new cars.

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Last edited by djl on Sat Jul 03, 2021 4:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Sat Jul 03, 2021 2:21 pm 

Joined: Fri Dec 22, 2017 6:47 pm
Posts: 1398
Location: Philadelphia, PA
New York New Jersey Rail LLC is owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and provides the only remaining carfloat service in New York Harbor, between Greenville Yard in Jersey City, NJ, and 65th Street Yard in Brooklyn, NY.

NYNJR has new carfloats and uses contractors for tugboat service.

Here's a link to NYNJR:

https://nynjr.com/about-nynjr/

I should point out that the PRR tunnels through Penn Station were never intended for freight service and that the Southernmost RR bridge across the Hudson River was at Poughkeepsie, and was closed to rail service in 1974 after a fire. The next bridge is at Selkirk, making it some 300 rail miles from the New Jersey side of the Hudson to the NY side at NY City.

Phil Mulligan


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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Sat Jul 03, 2021 3:59 pm 

Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2020 1:51 pm
Posts: 167
Location: Bucureşti, Capitala României / Bucharest, Capital of Romania
But why they didn't rebuilt the bridge?

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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Sat Jul 03, 2021 4:16 pm 

Joined: Fri Dec 18, 2015 8:30 pm
Posts: 77
At that point in time there wasn't enough traffic to justify the repairs. The Maybrook line was down to 1 train a day, IIRC. That's the short story. There's a long version that would take up a couple of books.


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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Sat Jul 03, 2021 7:33 pm 

Joined: Fri Dec 22, 2017 6:47 pm
Posts: 1398
Location: Philadelphia, PA
The bridge has been rebuilt as a pedestrian walkway.

The railroad, Penn Central, had inherited the bridge when they were forced to include the New Haven in the PRR + NYC merger. PC had not wanted to operate over the bridge even before the fire and instead wanted to route all traffic via Selkirk. When Conrail came in, they also did not want to operate over the bridge. Conrail eventually removed the track leading to the bridge.

At the time of the fire, there was one train each way connecting PC with the Erie Lackawanna, and Penn Central had been ordered to operate that train. The other roads that had connected with the New Haven via the bridge had put together a new route via the Delaware and Hudson and the Boston and Maine through Mechanicville, which is further North than Selkirk.

Phil Mulligan


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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Sat Jul 10, 2021 6:40 am 

Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2020 1:51 pm
Posts: 167
Location: Bucureşti, Capitala României / Bucharest, Capital of Romania
Oh, I just looked again on some old rail films and what a gone world. Makes me sad. Rails ment people, meant indusrty, meant might. Beats me how far passanger trains might went if the number of rail passanger would be at least as in years 1955-1958. Maybe they would have had introduced compartementd cars, more domes and superdomes. Oh, I do have one curiosity: there was ever a train to have a shop inside, like for eg you where on a long travel and you wanted to buy some beach articles or films for cameras.

In old films you don't see black people, apart for the one serving meals or "Pullman" porters. But they did travel, in segregated or non-segeragated trains. Did there where compaines with whic Black people with more money traveled on excurisions more then on another companies. I guess even in North most hotels where segregated, but probably there where some accomodations for Black people too in big tourist areas.

Oh, untill when there was radio aboard trains?

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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Sat Jul 10, 2021 9:11 pm 

Joined: Fri Dec 22, 2017 6:47 pm
Posts: 1398
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Americans don't seem to like being stuffed into a compartment with people they don't know.

However, I had a great conversation in a Compartment on the Northlander in Northern Ontario. But that was Canada, not the USA. And the train was a former TEE train from Europe.

As to radio, what kind of radio are you talking about? There's broadcast radio playing music etc. in the lounge car and there's two-way communication voice radio between the train crew and block operators or the train dispatcher.

Broadcast probably began as soon as the stations could transmit and the receiver on the train could work with the electric power available. Trains bounce and vibrate and both the tubes and tuner could loosen. Also the radio worked only when it was in range of the radio transmitter.

Two-way radio mostly had its start after WWII (1945) as that technology matured during the War. Adoption of radio was slowed well into the 1960's because the operating crews' labor agreement called for extra pay for using radios.

Phil Mulligan


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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Sat Jul 10, 2021 10:59 pm 

Joined: Fri Dec 22, 2017 6:47 pm
Posts: 1398
Location: Philadelphia, PA
As to the Black people, things are complicated.

First, in the "old films" the people in the cars are actors or RR employees. The companies controlled the filming and other than cooks, waiters. Porters etc. they didn't cast Black people in films intended for white audiences.

There were promotional films intended for Black audiences, and these did feature Black actors.

Blacks travelling had serious difficulty finding lodging, restaurants, etc. In the former Confederate States, plus a few border states, public transportation (including rail) was segregated and Black prople had to occupy only certain parts of certain vehicles.

The movie, Tuskegee Airmen, has a scene where the train was stopped in Cairo IL (last stop in Illinois) and the Black soldiers (during WWII) had to go to the "Colored" car before the train crossed the Ohio River and entered Kentucky.

Here's a link to the Wikipedia article about "The Negro Motorist Green Book" which addressed some of the travails Black travellers faced.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Negro ... Green_Book

Phil Mulligan


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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Sat Jul 10, 2021 11:41 pm 

Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2020 1:51 pm
Posts: 167
Location: Bucureşti, Capitala României / Bucharest, Capital of Romania
Commercial radio.
Funny thing, in Europe there wansn't the problem of staying with unknown people in the same compartment. And sometimes still isn't.
'till now I didn't yet find a promo rail movie for Black people.

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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Mon Jul 19, 2021 12:13 pm 

Joined: Mon Feb 15, 2021 6:54 pm
Posts: 199
Question:

A friend recently asked me if the distinctive smokebox on the NYC Niagaras had a name, and what purpose it served. I noted that it was also used on the MILW S3 class, and he noted that the NYC L4bs and PL&E A2as also carried the same smokebox.

Does it have a name? Does it serve a purpose?

Thanks in advance.


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