Reminds me of a story: A Lufhansa pilot was calling the tower in Frankfurt Airport, and he called them speaking German. The tower called back, “Speak English, please. The international language of aviation is English.” “But I’m a German pilot, in a German aircraft, at a German airport. WHY must I speak English?”
And a British Airways pilot cut in at this point, “Because you lost the war, dear boy!”
Well yes. Fortunately for the Allies Hitler decided to get into a two front war and invaded Russia. Had he not done so the outcome could have been different. German could be the language of aviation.
Don’t want to turn, this from a “Streetcar” thread into a “Hitler” thread, so I’ll say this and no more.
Hitler’s big hero was Frederick the Great, King of Prussia in the 18th Century and one of the world’s great military geniuses. The thing is, if Adolf had read everything about Frederick, and I mean EVERYTHING, and not just the stuff he liked, he wouldn’t have caused all the trouble he did and gotten into all the trouble he did. There was more to Frederick than his skill on the battlefield, a lot more.
'Nuff said.
I certainly desire that we return to street cars.
You have to excuse me now. I have a heavy date with Blanche.
Good for you! And be the gentleman, she does rely on the goodness of strangers, don’t you know?
How could I be anything but a gentleman with a high society dam… I mean lady like Blanche?
DuBois was no more a ‘high society lady’ than Barbara DuPont.
And we all know what happens when the gentlemen callers are no longer being ‘kind’ in the right sort of, ahem, way.
I call “Delta Dawn”. (And that applies to all too many streetcars’ desirability, too… puns intended)
Bite your tongue, Overmod.
My good friend Stanley promised me that Blanche is absolutely chaste. Just because she rides the street car doesn’t mean that she is fooling around. And stop snickering.
John
Here is one more of the same stuff:
Frankfurt airport tower staff has a reputation for being quite teutonic. Here is a clip of a conversation between a member of the tower staff and a British Airways pilot, who did not clear the landing strip fast enough:
Tower: BA Flight xxx, don´t you know your parking position?
BA Flight: Well, yes, I look it up in a moment!
Tower: This your first time in Frankfurt? (The BA pilot was a very senior guy).
BA Flight: No, not really. I remember, it was 1945, a different type of Boeing, just to drop off something …
[(-D]
One thing that literature would be greatly the better for
Would be a more restricted employment by the authors of simile and
metaphor.
Authors of all races, be they Greeks, Romans, Teutons or Celts,
Can’t seem just to say that anything is the thing it is but have to
go out of their way to say that it is like something else.
– Ogden Nash
If you want to talk about REAL street running, visit the Molli in Bad Doberan along the Baltic. My favorite street cars have steam locomotives pullin em’ ! You can also visit the littile cafe in the town square and have a tall draft (mixed with Sprite if you desire!) and listen to the little mikados roll through town a block away. I do not recommend the pickeled herring.
I rode the Mollibahn a few years ago. The thing that got me besides the obvious were all the people taking pictures of the train from the sidewalk. I wanted to yell, “You people see this every day! What is the big deal?” They couldn’t all have been tourists. The best place to have a drink is at the station patio in Kuhlungsborn at the end of the line where you can watch the locomotives come off the front and switch around to the rear of the trains. Also impressive was the overall condition of the equipment and the line itself. The roadbed looks like the Canadian National, perfectly graded and not a weed in sight. Look closely at the lift-up gates at the ends of the coaches. The pivots have new brass bushings, new washers, cotter pins and so forth. Everything is in mint condition. On that same trip we went to the locomotive works at Meiningen and there they were building a brand-new Mikado for the Molli; business must be pretty good!
Didn’t get a chance to get to Kuhlungsborn on my trip as they were rebuilding the imaculate roadbed west of Heiligendam and turning trains at that point. We did, however have that new mike as our power. Beautiful little hog! Ran like a swiss watch and clean as a whistle! I also had a ride on the Harz up Brocken, a cab ride courtesy of our generous German friends. I’ve been in a few steam locomotive cabs in my time. Never seen one as clean as that 2-10-2T! One thing I noticed on both lines was a total lack of cinders. Type of coal, or exhaust arrangement? Maybe someone out there knows.
They are coming back in a limited way to cities. We are about to build a short tourist line running from Forest Park to the Loop entertainment area very soon. It’s been in the planning for a few years. There is also talk to running one from downtown to some areas. But we also have light rail-Metrolink- so not sure how that will work.
A friend lives in KC and they are about to get one built in their city too.
Of course, New Orleans has had them for years and so has San Francisco, including the cable cars
But I don’t see them coming back as a major transporation mover, they can get held up in traffic and can’t go around, like a bus can. I can remember riding them as a kid, but they have been gone since mid 1960’s.
Philly still has it’s five subway-surface routes which run through the streets of west Philly and the traffic/drivers are pretty agressive and non-yielding. They also reactivated the cross town route 15 in the past few years. I haven’t heard any talk of Septa reactivating any additional lines, but I’m pretty sure the 23 route is basically intact. I guess as far as being able to get along in traffic, once streetcars are in place, the general public just sort of gets used to em’. Those Philly cars have pretty impressive acceleration, faster than the local busses I’m sure.
Not to brag, but I have done the entire Harz system twice in the last 8 years along with a bunch of other NG lines in Saxony. What a beautiful part of the world and the railways make it that much better with superb beer to wash it all down! One time on the Harz a guy in a vintage Wartburg station wagon was chasing the train and taking pictures at every road crossing. Nice!
(Wartburg is a 3-cylinder, 2 stroke East German car, about the size of a Ford Falcon)
I’m glad to hear that the Philadelphia streetcars are in good shape and lines are reopening, I was getting a little worried about Philly for a few years, it seemed like the streetcars were going away. Philadelphia has an awesome rail system, all lines taken in to account. I rode the Norristown line about 20 years ago and didn’t the Electroliners run there after the North Shore closed down?
You have truely been blessed! Someday I shall return and bask in that Saxon steam! The family we stayed with had grown up in the east. Didn’t have any kind words for their auto technology. For now, I’ll have to be content with youtube videos of German steam. I found a pretty cool video of an 0-4-0T operating in the streets of Darmstadt. Check it out!
Pickled herring is common in northern Europe. It goes well with scrambled eggs for breakfast. If you are unfamiliar with it try it in sour cream on rye crisp. It is also good with Schnapps.
Pickled herring – YES
Lutefisk – NO NO NO
54LIGHT15: Yes the Electroliners did run on the Pig and Whistle a few,or alot of years back. There’s a nice photo in the latest Classic Trains. That Norristown line, plus the Red Arrow lines to Media and Sharon Hill still operate, but with newer equipment. I grew up in the Philly area and can vividly remember the Red Arrow line line to the car barn at Llanarch running down West Chester Pike. Until sometime in the mid60’s the Ardmore cars ran that way, too. I can still remember seeing that line being torn out. By the way, the reborn route15 operates with modified PCC’s. They look great in the old PTC paint.
John WR: The herring I had was covered with some sort of slime. The young couple we were with said they would not personally eat it, but it was considered a local favorite. To each his own! I’m the only one in this household with a passion for fruitcake!