Buddy I am with you on this one, it is perceptions

 

I agree. When I was in France last year (yuck), I rode the TGV from the Garde de Nord(sp?) Terminal to Valencienne, a small city in Northern France.
The train was a bullet train, with comfortable seats, traveling at >150mph.
If I could take one of them from Detroit to NYC or LA for a reasonable price, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Once you've ridden in a bullet train, there's no going back to cattlecars.

 

I say let's resurect the trains. I have a couple of giant boxes full of "O" gauge Lionel, about 100 foot of track, and four switches, a trestle set, and the biggest transformer Lionel made 40 years ago. I'll get that old coal engine, and the diesel on the tracks, and see if I can get my electric milker running. You guys do the same, and eventually we'll have a setup across the country, running from basement to attic, to basement, etc.

 

We'll have to have an interchange at my place. I model the Maine narrow gauge lines (two foot gauge) in S (1:64th) scale.

 

Streets serve every business in the country. Tracks do not. Trucks can reach more places with less investment (by the company served) with smaller lots. Most comanies don't do the volume that would economically justify train service. Also, a company can be more flexible in its location because of the interstate system. Also for most companies to be directly served by trains like they are now served by trucks would require purchasing a huge amount of property for ROW. Image the fight that would occurr if a freight train tried to put tracks through your neighborhood.

 

HO scale, right here. The buildings are still out because they look kind of interesting and might break after I pack em up and move. I'm putting them in plastic bags before going in the boxes with packing nuts - that'll keep any loose parts from escaping.

 

Wow, that would be pretty cool, actually!! That would be awesome to watch them go by from your back porch..

 

"Does that train go by every morning at 5:00am?"
"No Sir."
"Ok"

next day

"I thought you said that train doesn't go by every morning at 5:00am."
"That's right sir, it usually goes by at 2:00am."

 

I think that the Freight system is pretty well established, but I think the focus is more on a passenger system.

 

Thread revival !



I was watching some trains in a town about 10 miles from me today.

One was on a siding waiting for another from the other direction to pass.

I have searched and searched on the net for a site that explains how railroad systems
operate.

Like Amtrak & Canadian pacific Railroad.

I tried "How stuff works" but that was no help.

I have watched movies with Amtrak in them and seen giant boards with lights on them.


Basically I want inside info on train operation on the rails.


ie: North Bound freight pull into siding at springbook to allow south bound freight to pass. ETA approx 17 minutes.after SB'r passes Continue North to ....blah blah....


I would assume that some is computer controlled and maybe some is By Radio/phone.

 

Me too, I'll watch this thread closely. Tis a hobby of mine.

 

While waiting for a rundown on the current rail systems, you might have a look at
www.davesrailpix.com and see some of the old interurban passenger cars, that in many
areas exist no more.

 

General Train passing procedure:
1. Train A enters the siding and stops.
2. Train B passes Train A via the main line.
3. Once Train B passes, Train A is only allowed to leave the siding
after obtaining permission from the train dispatcher, either
verbally over the radio or by trackside signals (giant boards
with lights).

Not really sure if this helps....

 

i lived in europe for 3 years and loved the train system they have there. its quick, efficent, cheap and gets a person anywher they want. combine that with the bus services and a person can really get anywhere, even to the smallest village.

i have traveled back and forth across the whole of europe on train, it is fairly simply systme to interpret, do not even need to know the language, and the trains were always on time.

it would be great to have that system here, but the infrastructure costs would be huge, and something even bigger would be getting over the culture barrier we have with using cars as our primary mode of transport. but of course the non hub centric layout of many places now days almost makes it next to impossible.

 

There are a lot of issues with trains -- I'd love to see them built up, but it 's a tough deal.

Friom what I've heard, a lot of the track that still is around is poorly maintained. Trains have to travel 20 - 30 mph in places where they used to routinely go 60. The regular section crews are a thing of the distant past ( as far as I know). The government doesn't maintain tracks as they do airports and highways.

There's also the issue of the railroad companies themselves. For as long as I can remember( and I'm 61), they've tried to narrow their market. It started with passenger service. They were constantly petitioning the government to discontinue ' unprofitable' routes.

They did the same thing with freight. My father in law worked for the Burlington, and he said that all they really wanted to haul was coal. He told me that they owned some coal l fields. I don't know if that was true. I do know that they were constantly closing yards and cutting back on maintenance schedules.

As for freight, I don't know. There probably is nothing as efficient as a train
to haul big loads. The question is who needs the big loads. The obvious answer is manufacturing, and I don't know how much of that we've lost.
Manufacturers can work with rail because they need a LOT of stuff, and they can plan ahead. A lot of lumberyards/building suppliers used to connect to rail as well, but they seem to have gotten away from that.

So, I agree that it would be a good thing to get freight rail back up, but I think it's a tough deal. I don't know aboout passengers. America is a lot bigger than Europe or Japan, so it's not the same concept ( as others have said). As for the high density areas where you might do some short runs, I think that you'd have a heck of a time reestablishing the right of ways to put in the tracks.

Just my (mostly uninformed) opinion,

ford2go