Interestingly, my subway station is closing for repairs for a year, and I will probably have to take this train downtown to work. It only makes a couple of stops within the city, but one is in my neighborhood. Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire
hi-speed
Everything is relative... METRA's top line speed must be the notorious 79 mph = 127 km/h limit, I find even that only on part of some lines.
suburban communter trains (not the subway & not Amtrak)
I see I forgot to specify that... now corrected. Actually part of the current METRA stock is original C&NW stock, most of the rest is former private railroad stock too. (To connect to you twice, I first read of Chicagoan bi-levels in a book written by a British railway author touring the USA, which I lent out at the American Embassy library in Budapest in my highschool years.) *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
How true! Being a partisan of the Milwaukee 4-6-4s, I praised the F-7s here.
The drivers of the J-6 locomotives would file complaints of rough riding at speeds of 120 - 130 mph.
J-6 of which company? Is there not a typo? At any rate, what you say sounds like a very interesting tidbit, and if you can find a source, and if another certainly interested party, Chicago area railfan and fellow F-7 partisan SHKarlson doesn't turn up here, I'll email him. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Probably J-6 is wrong, but the speed was correct. I'll see what I can google keep to the Fen Causeway
Does anyone know if it's still possible to get a recording of "Silent Night" by O Winston Link.
Basically the organist of a presbyterian church was requested to play "Silent night" over and over as a steam train of the N&W came up the valley for 10 minutes, stopped at the station and then disappeared off into the night. The recording lasts until the engine can no longer be heard. It last for about 29 minutes I'm told. keep to the Fen Causeway
(What was the second high-speed railway?)
'The first' here is of course a relative and thus so is the second, but an interesting subject.
The very first first could be Brunel's Great Western Railway: built with broad-gauge rails, wide curves and lots of superstructure to have small inclinations, and still today forming the spine of the West Coast Mainline, it was definitely a quality jump compared to other railways.
Then in the thirties, while Chicago-Minneapolis, Hamburg-Berlin and British lines got rather fast service, it was Mussolini's Direttissima lines and the Pennsy's Northeast Corridor upgrade that first produced truly dedicated high-speed lines. Still, ones for less than 200 km/h resp. 125 mph.
Then came the Shinkansen, the first truly separated purpose-built high-speed line, but when it started, top speed was barely above 200 km/h.
Italy again pre-empted others in Europe with a dedicated high-speed line, but it didn't yet have the trains to really make much of it -- so the French TGV got the first spot as a full system... *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
The US locos were maintaining their speeds for mile after mile, up hill and down hauling 1000 tons trains. keep to the Fen Causeway
Not quite. It is true that the LNER's Mallard might have briefly touched 125 mph on the way down Essendine bank, while a heavier Milwaukee Road test train maintained 120 mph for over five miles, with a possible maximum of 125 or 126 mph on a slight downgrade, but the best performances with steam Hiawathas were 30 miles or so at 100 mph but not exceeding 110 with at most nine car trains.
But I'm with DoDo in championing the Milwaukee Road as operator of the world's fastest steam engines. (And there's a lot about the Midwest Hiawatha line through Hampshire, Genoa, and Kirkland in my back yard that hasn't been properly investigated.) Stephen Karlson ATTITUDE is a nine letter word. BOATSPEED.
By suburban commuter trains, I am referring to the purpose and the actual trains themselves, NOT the tracks on which they run. The subway line follows the old trolley tracks but you would never refer to the subway as the trolley because it is not. The Metra runs on all kinds of old tracks, like the Illinois Central, and one section of it is "electric" but they have all basically the same interior design which is vastly different from the el or the Amtrak. You could not confuse them. Purpose-wise, they extend only to the suburbs, and with a few exceptions, they are not a very good way to get around inside the city. Hence, they are suburban commuter trains, connecting the suburbs to the city. Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire
Ah. 'Express', 'rapid' or 'fast train'. I guess the terminology is confusing because all the words refer to velocity even though express trains don't necessarily attain higher top speeds than stopping trains, but "high-speed rail" usually refers to non-local trains on high-quality tracks with significantly raised top speeds; today, that's usually anything significantly beyond 125 mph. (In the US, applied to the 150 mph AMTRAK Acela.)
By suburban commuter trains, I am referring to the purpose and the actual trains themselves, NOT the tracks on which they run.
I understood that. I guess it's my mentioning of line speed limits that made you think I don't? I note line speeds can be the function of both track and trains: the 79 mph limit for example, IIRC introduced just after WWII and stopping the development of US long-distance traffic, is valid if trains and/or the line aren't fitted with a (compatible) Automatic Train Stop system (e.g. a system that automatically brakes down trains speeding or passing a stop signal). *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
The only Metra train allowed 79 mph is the last evening departure from Antioch on the "North Central" (old Soo Line) that returns to Chicago via the Milwaukee Road. I discovered that run last summer.
Burlington's Naperville Zephyrs and a few of the Elburn trains briefly touch 70 mph. The Metra Electric, however, is not very fast, and some genius off the Chicago and North Western arranged the schedules so that offpeak trains for South Chicago, University Park, and Blue Island leave five minutes apart at the half hour, rather than leaving at 20 minute intervals to provide something more like rapid transit service as far as 63rd Street.
Metra Electric also provides the Chicago South Shore and South Bend, an interurban complete with track in the middle of a street, with its access to downtown Chicago. Stephen Karlson ATTITUDE is a nine letter word. BOATSPEED.
No, I meant your predicted travels on METRA trains! And some Chicago 'sight-seeing'. But if the camera is the problem, I desist. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
But they've never been made handicapped accessible, and there is currently not enouch room on the platforms for riders. So it has to be done... Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire
This is why I'm thinking of taking the commuter train, which is also about a 10 min walk and is much more expensive, but will cut my communting time.
Still, walking 10 minutes anywhere in a Chicago winter is ... character building. Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire
I have to wake up earlier.
The cold, the wind, or both? (10 minutes is my current walk time to the station.) *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire
