https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNnKiMPmApg
I’m trying to work up a reference to “The Quiet Man” but it just ain’t working!
Holy Moly! What a beast! A small beast, but a beast.
Look at the smiling passengers’ faces - you couldn’t fake that for the camera. And I’d trust the driver implicitly.
I also did not realize how fast it would go. You can see from the steam that the film hasn’t been sped up for effect…
Two boilers to maintain, apparently. I presume the fireman had to feed two fireboxes. It also looks like motion sickness for the passengers might be a concern for any longer trips!
In other words, a novel concept that would not fare well when faced with practical realities.
John
It would have fit in well with Stern’s “Duplex Railway” at Dreamland:
It was also called the “Leap Frog Railway” or the “Flip-Flap” by park visitors.
Amazing what people’s minds can come up with.
Penny, on that last leapfrog, it looked like the overtaking train came down with quite a violent jolt for the passengers. They seemed to be happy, though.
That “Dreamland” train (or ride, or whatever) is hysterical!
Looks like it was a gas to ride!
I’ve sure never heard of that Dreamland “thing” - I wonder how long it was in operation?
And then there’s this- I think it was posted before but is worth seeing even if it was:
Can only imagine applying that technology to today’s 15K+ foot trains.
It lasted from 1888 to 1924. You can ride a small restored portion of the line. It may look like steam, but the recreation is diesel powered.
More about the design.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lartigue_Monorail
Jeff
Dreamland was perhaps the greatest of the Coney Island parks, at the height of joy and wonder there. It opened in 1904, and catastrophically burned completely the day before it was scheduled to open Memorial Day 1911, but it’s worked over a century of memorability since then.
The Stern railway was actually intended … with much longer trains, and much shallower approach and departure angles, to be sure! … to facilitate ‘safe’ high-speed operation on a single track of railway without stopping for sidings, interrupting the track with switches, or being concerned with head-on or following collisions of any kind. It is not pure silliness like its relation the telepomp!
You can imagine how useful this would be to build and maintain on an interurban line with limited construction capital or the wherewithal for a large MoW or dispatching department. Or on that project to take M&E in glorified model-railroad cars between New York and Chicago in 10 hours … now easily, and at least semi-automatically, both ways.
Dreamland:
Luna:
Steeplechase:
Today parks are judged against Disney. But back then it was these three magnificent parks against which all others were judged.
I was last in Coney Island in about 1961. I was six years old and I sort of remember the steeplechase building but I don’t remember going inside. I did ride the Wonder Wheel and the Thunderbolt roller coaster. I also remember going to the Nathan’s that was a counter right on the street (Surf Avenue?) where I couldn’t see over the top of the counter. But wow, the hot dog and french fries were excellent!
But, it was years before I learned about the Whitefish. [:-^]
Hey Wayne, how about one of Jersey’s very finest:
Excellent hot dogs at Nathan’s?? Surely you jest. The hot dogs are infinitely better at Portillo’s.
Well- it was excellent to my 6 year old self. I wasn’t exactly a connoisseur (thanks!) back then. Here we call hot dogs from street vendors, street meat. People here (not me) put all kinds of garbage on them. Corn! Olives! Who the hell puts that stuff on a hot dog?
Chicago style pizza? That’s more like a lasagna type of food than pizza. Apples and oranges for that, comparing theirs to anyone elses. Best pizza? Not in Italy, that’s for sure. Pizza in Naples in the 1970s when I was there in the Navy was a disc of bread with a mashed up tomato on it including seeds, skin and the stem, a sprinking of nasty tasting cheese, one olive and one anchovy. Take one bite, throw in the nearest garbage can. I can only hope it’s better today.
Chicagoans think their pizza is better, too. Heck, they’d claim Chicago-style New York cheesecake would be better.
And perhaps they are. But there’s no reason to go full-court San Francisco and denigrate others too… [:)]
[PMs are down with all the other IT wackery, so I have to note connoisseur here. Fix it and I’ll delete these two sentences…]
An amusing story. In Michigan, hot dogs with chili, onions and mustard are known as coney dogs and are served at “coney islands”. Years ago, my BIL and I were at Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York. We were eating at the food concession and noticed something called the “Michigan hot dog”. We asked the waiter what it was. He had previously worked at Fort Mackinac in northern Michigan and he laughed. He told us that it was a coney dog. I found it ironic that in NY, it has a MI reference and in MI, it has a NY one.
PS–the best pizza is Buddy’s.
Perhaps you should try living in the present? The experiences of servicemen in foreign countries ~40 years ago are pretty irrelevant to the present day. For the record, my impression of Italian pizza in Naples or Rome over the last 20 years is very positive, as confirirmed by many pizza parlors here serving something similar, including wood-fired ovens. New York- style pizza is much better than the increasingly passe Chicago-style deep dish or double crust glop.
Ah, smokin’ hot Joan Jett! But the thing is, she ain’t a Jersey Girl. She was born in Pennsy, raised in Maryland and LA. Maybe she LIVES in New Jersey now but I haven’t been able to determine that.
She’s got a Jersey Girl vocabulary though. Almost as colorful as Lady Firestorm’s! Almost. She’s still a beginner.
Amusement parks? I’ll give you an amusement park. I’m sure Overmod remembers this one, or maybe he’s a bit too young? For all I know he may be the baby of the group.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkNVwV5zquM
And the classic commercial, or maybe this belongs under “Transit?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjVF0IKKlZc
Hot dogs? Gimme one with mustard, good BROWN mustard! That’s all I need! And preferably a Hebrew National, Nathans, or Sabretts if there’s any around. Boars Head is a pretty good one too. Shofars were a great brand as well, but they’re not made anymore. [:'(]
Pizza? Anywhere in North Jersey, pick a place, they’re all good! There’s more pi