text:
Living in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom is an impressive country that manages to combine rich history and ancient landmarks with modern architecture. It boasts a wealth of vibrant cities with first-class shopping opportunities and abundant restaurants and bars. The UK has earned a reputation as one of the world's foremost shopping and partying hotspots. After you have spent some time here, you will see that the UK has even more to offer.
Its diverse landscapes range from the snowy peaks of Scotland and beautiful Cornish coastline to the vast countryside and crystal-clear waters of the Lake District. The UK's natural beauty is often overlooked and undervalued in light of its sprawling cities and tourist traps, but it has much to offer in terms of both dramatic scenery and a much slower pace of life. The UK is home to numerous UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including many castles, cathedrals and churches that both symbolise the UK's past and add to its charm. Its old, industrial towns are also part of the rich tapestry of UK history and offer a welcome contrast to the bustle of major cities. Moreover, the UK's literary history often precedes it, given that it is the birthplace of writers such as William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde and J. K. Rowling. The UK is also the birthplace of major sports, such as tennis, cricket, golf, rugby and football (soccer).
The UK's population is one of the most multi-cultural in the world. London is a multicultural centre of Europe, and around 300 different languages are spoken there alone. The excellence of the UK education, the opportunity to learn English and the UK's high standard of living continue to entice students and workers from Europe and beyond, resulting in a society that is as unique as it is diverse.
Despite the fact that the UK does not enjoy the same sunny weather as many of its European neighbours, the UK usually enjoys a warm and settled summertime where temperatures can reach the 30s (Celsius) and people can revel in the delights that the UK coastline has to offer. Similarly, the lack of fine British cuisine is compensated by the UK's love of foreign food and the multicultural nature of its society, whereby you can sample delicacies from around the globe no matter where you live.


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Now Reading Jack Knowlton Diary: Entering Derby With 'World of Confidence' in Tiz the Law
Jack Knowlton Diary: Entering Derby With 'World of Confidence' in Tiz the Law
September 4th, 2020 by Tom Pedulla
Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve favorite Tiz the Law exercising on the main track at Churchill Downs. (Eclipse Sportswire)
Managing partner Jack Knowlton and his fellow Sackatoga Stable owners stepped out of a yellow school bus at Churchill Downs to gain an upset victory with New York-bred gelding Funny Cide in the 2003 Kentucky Derby. In another unexpected twist, Knowlton and Sackatoga have returned to the national spotlight with another stellar New York-bred.
Tiz the Law will enter Saturday's $3 million Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve as a solid favorite after sweeping the Feb. 1 Holy Bull Stakes, March 28 Curlin Florida Derby, June 20 Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets, and Aug. 8 Runhappy Travers Stakes through his first four starts this year. The Constitution colt is the runaway leader among 3-year-olds in the National Thoroughbred Racing Association's weekly poll.
Knowlton has been maintaining a diary that is now taking followers of America's Best Racing through a season deeply impacted by the pandemic. The Derby is not being run in May for the first time since 1945 and will represent the middle leg of the Triple Crown. The Preakness Stakes has been rescheduled for Oct. 3 at Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course.
Here is the seventh installment of Knowlton's diary, written with Tom Pedulla:
I thought Tiz the Law had the chance to be special even before he ran. Not only did he work quickly and seemingly effortlessly, but it was difficult to pull him up. He just kept rolling.
When he won his career debut by 4 1/4 lengths against state-breds last Aug. 8 at our home track of Saratoga Race Course, I cannot say I was surprised. He simply performed the way he had been training.
The only issue was what to do next. We wanted to be sure not to ask too much of him too soon. We debated whether we should limit him to stakes offered for 2-year-old New York-breds, which is the way we handled Funny Cide, or jump into the deep end of the pool by competing in the Champagne Stakes, the most prestigious race for juveniles in New York.
Jack Knowlton after the 2019 Champagne Stakes. (Eclipse Sportswire)
Speed figures indicated he would be the horse to beat in the Champagne and he continued to train exceptionally well. Our trainer, Barclay Tagg, who prefers to err on the side of caution, agreed that he deserved the opportunity to win a Grade 1, even if it was his second start. With Manny Franco aboard for the first time because Junior Alvarado opted for Green Light Go, Tiz the Law had everything go his way. He coasted by four lengths.
The Champagne is part of the Breeders Cup Challenge Series, so the winner gains a fees-paid berth in the $2 million Juvenile, held last November at Santa Anita. As big as that purse is and as much as we welcome the Challenge Series, I cannot say we were all that tempted to enter. The Juvenile is always a demanding race and Barclay was concerned about shipping such a young horse across the country and back.
We instead targeted the Kentucky Jockey Club. It gave Tiz plenty of time to recover from the Champagne and it would give him a race at Churchill Downs, which we felt would probably be important down the road.
I still think the plan was sound, but things did not go our way. The track came up sloppy and the other riders did a good job of pinning Tiz and Manny inside. I do not think the slop was the problem that day, nor do I think Tiz has any issues with the Churchill surface the way some horses do.
A number of partners were upset with Manny's ride, but these things happen in racing, especially when you have a young horse with a target on its back. I told the partners we needed to draw a line through the race and move forward. When I discussed the jockey situation with Barclay, he was adamant that we needed to stick with Manny. He was concerned about getting into a situation where we might be frequently changing riders, and he had every confidence in Manny's ability. He sure was right there.
Other than the pandemic and its many repercussions, this season could not have gone any better for us to this point. Tiz arrives at the Derby, now the second leg of the Triple Crown, with a 4-for-4 record that includes three Grade 1s. As I see it, we are chasing more than the Triple Crown. In winning the Travers, we can join Whirlaway as the only horses to pull off the Quadruple Triple Crown, something Whirlaway accomplished in 1941.
I have to think Barclay already has punched his ticket into the Hall of Fame with his masterful handling of Tiz under incredibly difficult circumstances. Despite an uncertain racing schedule due to COVID-19, he has kept Tiz at a high level throughout. There has never even been a hint of a drop-off, a wonderful testament to Barclay and his team — assistant trainer Robin Smullen, exercise rider Heather Smullen, and foreman Juan Barajas Saldana.
Click image to purchase shirt.
Tiz's two works since the Travers are showing us that he is as sharp as ever. The only worry was a poor forecast last weekend at Saratoga that had us very concerned. It looked as though we would work on Sunday, but at 4:53 a.m. on Saturday I received a text from Robin to get to the track as soon as possible. Tiz had beaten everyone else; now we would ask him to beat the rain. And he did, drilling five furlongs in 59.21 seconds for Heather and galloping out as powerfully as ever on a fast track shortly before the skies opened.
It is less than ideal that we drew post 17 in a field of 18 for the Derby. Obviously, we would have preferred to be a bit more inside. But it would have been a far greater concern if we had drawn the rail or any post that could have led to our getting buried inside.
Tiz has been breaking so sharply that I would anticipate that Manny will be able to secure an excellent striking position in the early going. Manny will be able to work out a good trip and his teammate will help him. Manny has all the confidence in the world right now in this horse, and Tiz will do whatever Manny asks to put himself in a good position.
I go into the Derby with a world of confidence. Why wouldn't I? I'm a big numbers guy. Tiz ran the fourth-fastest Travers in history and, if he had not been geared down, he could have run the second-fastest. He is the only 3-year-old proven at a mile and a quarter.
I do not want to be cocky or anything. If I did not have a piece of Tiz and I am an outsider looking in, I am saying, 'How are you going to beat this horse?'
I've been in racing for decades now, long enough to understand that the unexpected can, and sometimes does, happen. Horses can stumble. Horses can be interfered with. Bad trips are part of the game, especially in a big field.
At least on paper, Tiz is simply better than every horse in the field. And it's not close.
Watch and Wager on Kentucky Derby 146 from Home from America's Best Racing on Vimeo.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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← into the open madness: the poetry of kell robertson
gary goude and that crushed rotting dawg →
the machine gun blood of the poem
everything I could think of to get a wanted poster of John Dillinger off a kid called Keys Gunther but he wouldn't budge. The second he showed it to me I wanted it, I wanted it so bad that I broke out in a sweat just thinking about it. Nights I'd go to bed trying to figure ways to get it away from him. Maybe he'd go for a switchblade. Maybe if I upped the ante to two switchblades that might do it. Every time I went over to his house I'd make him get it out. I never got tired of looking at it. He used to say you can look at it but you can't touch it and all I really wanted to do was touch it, again and again. I wanted to hold it in my hand and run my fingers across Dillinger's face for luck. Then Keys would add, this belongs to my old man and if he knew I was showing it off like this he'd kick my ass.
Not long
after that, Keys and his old man disappeared. Just skipped town without paying the room rent. My old man said they left a beaten up cardboard suitcase behind with a lot of waste paper inside and I asked if there was maybe a wanted poster mixed in with the junk and he said no but he did find a live 38 round that he gave me. He was tossing it in the air with one hand and catching it with the other when he said, I wish I had the gun this belongs to.
man always wanted the gun and the book. For as long as I'd known him he wanted it all. Once he told me he envied Hemingway but it wasn't for his books. He was jealous of Hemingway for all the guns he owned. Especially that Thompson that Hemingway used to carry on board the Pilar when he went deep sea fishing. He said he'd seen pictures of it in some big time magazine, maybe Life, and he wanted one, too. I remember my old man fingering a stiff shot of whiskey when he said, if you have a gun like that and you have the book to end all books then you've done it, you're at the top of the game.
I wanted
to write a novel so bad that some nights I'd break out in a very cold sweat. I was twelve years old and I'd seen how thick my old man's novel was and I wanted one that thick and that important and that magical. I wanted a novel that would knock everyone sideways. I wanted to write a novel that would make a million bucks and take us out of that fleabag hotel. I wanted a novel that I could sell to the movies. I wanted a novel that Humphrey Bogart might star in. I wanted a novel that would be the beginning and the end of all novels. I didn't know who Faulkner was but if I had I would've wanted to knock him on his ass.
I'd watch
my old man take his novel down from a shelf. He kept the manuscript in a red folder that had strings on the sides and he'd untie the strings and lift the typewritten pages out and he'd let them spill across the table like they were cards from a lucky deck that he could shuffle and reshuffle and then he'd square the manuscript into a neat pile and sit down and study it, his cigaret half sprawling half dangling out of the corner of his mouth. And, he'd pull a bottle of Beam across the table almost casually, along with a shot glass and while he was pouring himself a shot he'd say, this is the one, this is numero uno, the number one baby. We'll all make it big with this one. That never happened.
And, I
wanted to write a novel so bad that even during the day I could feel the heat and the sweat and the desire of that longing flash all the way through me like lightning my blood generated.And, when the dream of writing the novel went south, it got focused on the poem. I wanted to write that one monster mother fucker of a poem, I wanted to write something I didn't know what but something and it wasn't until I got Dillinger back that I thought there might just be a ghost of a ghost of a chance. You know the drill. All that underdog shit. That was my story. Maybe it still is.
And, getting
Dillinger back was like getting that wanted poster back only this time it was a thousand times better because I didn't need to have the wanted poster itself; I had that Dillinger face fried so deeply into my nerve endings and dreams I didn't need the paper anymore. I could conjure it, I could call down whatever dark energy that Dillinger had and type it out on the page. Like molten lava, like nitro spilling across a sheet of paper before blowing. And, it was much better than all the second rate novels or screenplays swimming around in the culture because somehow I had cracked Dillinger's voice straight out of the void and it was talking to me. And, it was every bit as good as HIGH SIERRA because it felt like I had hit some kind of raw tornout vein in the nightmare of america, I had hit the big one and it didn't matter that most people don't read poetry, this was still the bone on bone raw stuff that most poets don't even come close to, except for maybe someone like Charles Bukowski.
And, when
I did hit it with DILLINGER, hit it meaning having the knowledge that I had lucked into something, I realized that there was no need to write a novel. Not after writing The Name Is Dillinger. Not after writing Dillinger's Thompson. Not after writing The Sign Of The Gun. Not after writing Russian Roulette. Not after writing The Corpse Is Dreaming. Not after writing Night Chant In The Shooting Gallery. And, especially not after writing The Riddle Of The Wooden Gun. Each of those sections functions almost like a skeleton novel, a novel written entirely in codes. A novel with all the excess words blown away from the spine of the story. And, all that remains is the force and the essence of the story itself. Distilled from the void. The biggest shot in the dark ever.
Because the
essence of story is the blood of the poem and if you have that then you have the full force power of any poem. And, that is all I have ever been after. The blood and the magic and the power of the poem. If you don't have that, then all the rest is just meat on meat, desperate noise, shit stuck in the throat.
It's late
at night. I'm writing The Riddle Of The Wooden Gun. The lines are coming fast. The words seem to be flying right off my fingers. Something I don't know what is telling me that this is the novel I always wanted to write even though it isn't a novel. And yet, it is still a novel. This is the kind of logic that flies against logic.
Right at
the end of Riddle where I have Hemingway asking Hammett just what the significance of the wooden gun is, Dillinger appears in the doorway of my office holding a Thompson sub machine gun. I almost ask him what he wants but realize he is waiting for me to finish Riddle. As though, something about this is mysteriously important to him. As though he is waiting for this version of Riddle to be played out.
And, right
after I got those last few lines down, Dillinger stepped into the room and handed my the Thompson. He didn't say anything. He didn't need to. He just handed me the Thompson and then walked out and disappeared into the shadows of the hallway and I was left holding the machine gun. And then the machine gun got all mixed up with Riddle and blood and dreams and longing and when is a poem a novel and when is a nightmare a movie and I let the machine gun dream pure murder back into the heart of the song.
Tagged as Dillinger, Outlaw Poetry, Poetry, the machine gun blood of the poem, Todd Moore


text:
class Project < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :name, :description

  has_many :milestones
  has_many :tasks

  validates_presence_of :name
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: Checkbox validation with LINQ As part of learning LINQ, i got stuck up with the following problem.
A windows form with N number of Checkboxes and a button. The button should be enabled only when, the user checks\selected any two checkboxes. I am trying to implement this using LINQ, but couldn't achieve the desired results.
I used the following code, but works only when any one of the Checkbox is selected.
btnAgree.Enabled = (from chkbox in Controls.OfType<CheckBox>() select chkbox).Any(b => b.Checked);

A: btnAgree.Enabled = (from chkbox in Controls.OfType<CheckBox>() select chkbox).Count(b => b.Checked) >= 2;
Should do the trick!

A: Try this:
btnAgree.Enabled = ((from chkbox in Controls.OfType<CheckBox>() select chkbox where chkbox.Checked = true).Count >= 2)

A: Count can return the number of checked Checkboxes:
btnAgree.Enabled = (from chkbox in Controls.OfType<CheckBox>() select chkbox).Count(b => b.Checked) >= 2;

A: Do you want the Linq expression to return true if and only if exactly 2 checkboxes are selected?
If so, this should do the trick:
btnAgree.Enabled = Controls.OfType<CheckBox>()
                           .Count(b => b.Checked) == 2;

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


50+ projects has been successfully delivered under the roof of Cybria. Below are few examples.
CMS - Complaint Management System was developed for an ISP to tackle the issue/ticket tracking problems.
Made an web based application for a small insurance company to help them in automating the process of insurance application.
This is a startup based in India, we made an application they needed for doctor appointment booking startup.
In this project we helped one of our client setting up a Web API for one of his distributed project.
Delivered a system to manage multiple Business units of one of our client within a very stipulated budget and time.
At Cybria Technology we managed to deliver a web based platform which enables the employees to manage all the loan applications online at their finger tips, Huge amount of calculations, those were being performed manually, were made easy with our platform.
Increased operational efficiency up to 60% by automating the process.
Delivered at a cost that is 40% less than the market price.
Provided a platform to keep track of all the application at a single place.
Delivered within time and took 20% less time as estimated .
Cybria enabled and accelerated the loan approval process of our Bank by delivering the desired application with a budget we never imagined off. These guys are genius in both design and development.
Our client has a big name in the Banking industry of Canada. Previously they were managing the documentation process and fund approval processed using some outdated and obsolete applications. Those applications do not have much flexibility to adopt with the changing needs of the customers and the Bak itself. So it was becoming very difficult for them to keep track of all the documentations needed for a customer. This resulted more time consumptions hence reduced the efficiency of their employees.
Cybria provided a web based portal to manage each loan account of customers and all the documentation needs the document preparation department has to go during each loan approval process. This custom web application helped their employees a lot in terms of their time and productivity.
20% more loans processed during a quarter because of increased efficiency.
Platform helped a lot in terms of searching and managing documents.
Cybria delivered with a price 40% less than the market price.
Our client is running an educational institute that offers some advanced ways for educating students. They have a website which was a bit outdated, So they approached us as they knew that in this tech era an out dated website may result in reducing business than increasing the business.
Cybria helped the client by making them a fresh Wordpress website. The template was designed under the roof of Cybria by our expert Designers. And then integrated to the Wordpress CMS. We have made few features like Request managements for Courses, approvals etc in the CMS. We managed to complete this job in a budget 60% less than the market price.
Increased the SEO compatibility and search engine presence, generating more leads.
Delivered at a cost that is 60% less than the market price.
Used the most advanced technologies to keep the client updated with rest of the world.
Made it easy for them to track the requests, hence increased their efficiency .
The delivered CMS website was the one what we wanted to have. These guys have made it within 1 month whereas the estimation was given for 1.5 months, and this saved me around 30% of the estimated budget.
When an European Internet service provider approached us for this system we figured out of flaws in the process they were using to track down the issues. They used some excel sheets and pen-paper to keep track of customer complaints, which leads to numerous problems when they want some specific reports for the closed, open complaints. Also they are not able to track down if their technical expert has attended the customer or he was telling lie.
Cybria's proposed solutions helped them to maintain the complaints properly and their changing status, Integrated SMS feature to the web application helped the management to know if the technical expert has actually attend the customer or not. Reporting made very easy with numerous types of reports to download.
Automating the process increased their employee efficiency by 30%.
Tracking Employees become very easy with CMS.
Customer satisfaction increased by 20%, attracting more customers.
Increased Management efficiency by 40% by usage of our advanced reporting module section.
CMS was something we should have done 2-3 years back. This web app helped us a lot in terms of customer satisfaction, managing our employees and most importantly the reporting part. Thanks to Cybria.
Our client is a startup in health insurance sector in Austria. Being a startup they needed an application to manage the applications they were processing for Health insurance, which should be in a stipulated budget and time.
Delivered at a cost that is 30% less than the market price.
Released the application at a time 2 months prior to the estimated date.
Enabled their agents to be more efficient by 30%.
We planned to launch our startup by 20th Oct, 2016 as we expected our product to be ready by 2nd Oct, 2016. But Cybria delivered a flawless, bug free product in just 6 months and we got it in our hand by 15th July, 2016. This made us to launch our product 2 months prior to the decided date.
Client is from an automobile parts manufacturing company, who was building their automation software by some interns, as this saves him a lot of money. We were into an agreement that when something critical comes in we will be there to help them out and develop the module for them. In the course of their development a phase was came where they needed us in a very urgent situation to handle a module by our own.
Beign occupied by various projects we managed to tackle the need of our client by engaging 1 developer to them to handle the situation within 2 days. We developed a whole module aimed for Axel-Shaft management and relation things.
Reduced the development time by delivering the critical modules.
Able to tackle the urgency of the situation.
Guided them to maintain a good code quality.
Helped in improving their User experience.
Client Area : Manufacturing Industry.
It was a very pressure situation for us as our interns were unable to tackle the criticalness of the module, But thanks to Cybria as they engaged an resource within 2 days and delivered the that module within 1 month, which might took 3 months for the inters to build.
When these guys approached us we were happy to help one of our fellow Indian building a startup. They have a very short budget and time in which they might not able to realize their idea into a product.
Cybria helped them building their dream project with a very short budget and time, We helped them in researching few things they should have in the requirements and also suggested them a lot of thing s that might help them in their growth and market penetration.
Delivered at a price much lower than the market price.
Saved 1 month from them by releasing the product before deadline.
Helped them in research to improve the product's user experience and capability to hold customer's interest for long.
Client Area : Healthcare Industry.
First of all thanks to Cybria for making our dream come true. It would not have been possible with that stipulated budget if Cybria refused to take it.
This client has a distributed project that is being used in various formats like web application and mobile applications. For these thing he had a lot of unmanaged code for separate applications. So he wanted to make some common API thing so that he can consume those apis in numerous application he has.
We took this opportunity to setup a Web API for the client which is backed with OAuth 2.0 authentication process for security purpose and helped him to consume those exposed API in all the applications he has.
Reduced maintenance cost upto 25% by setting the API.
Made the client independent of Data Access Layer.
Delivered within time and took 30% less time as estimated .
We have a lot of unmanaged code written, Cybria helped us managing those code and also helped us setting up a highly secured Web API for the numerous apps connecting to a single distributed server.
We developed a web based solution for the client where he will be able to keep track of opening readings and closing readings of each pumps, can check the profit and loss on every EOD. Helped him to figure out if his business is in a growth pace or not.
By automating the process we helped him to manage all the units.
Delivered at a cost 20% lower than the estimation.
Helped the business owner to monitor their employees properly.
Made him focused about the growth by simplifying and aggregating the process.
Cybria helped us in building a centralized application to manage all our fuel units, they really did a fantastic job.


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Illinois Electric Railway Museum
Ones That Got Away
March 25, 2020 March 27, 2020 David Sadowski 19 Comments
A CTA Stock Yards shuttle car in September 1957, just prior to the abandonment of this branch line. Service withered away as the Stock Yards did. Both are long gone. A portion of this line used a single track, one-way loop.
We are back, after working 16 straight days as an election judge here in suburban Cook County, Illinois, just in time to shelter in place during a quarantine. We apologize for the length of time since our last post, but as always, much work has been going on behind the scenes.
We are happy to report that we have a new book project that we are very excited about. More details will be forthcoming in the future, but we are hard at work already and have been for some time.
We have to compete with everyone else when purchasing traction photos, and our finances do not permit us the luxury of winning all the auctions that interest us (and could interest you). For every excellent photo we win, there are many others that slip through our fingers.
We have collected some of these here, and present them for your consideration, along with some explanations of why our luck and finances fell short. It's always possible that the winning bidders may choose to share some of these fine images with our readers in the future.
Prices on individual images may run as high, in some cases, as $100 for a single 35mm Red Border Kodachrome slide, depending on its quality, subject matter, and rarity.
In future posts, we will go back to showing more photos that we did actually win.
This, and the next seven pictures that follow, were part of a very interesting and unusual auction that we were outbid on. There was a fad in the 1950s for 3-D movies and photos, and these pictures were shot in stereo, probably using a camera called a Stereo Realist, which would shoot two half-frame 35mm images, each offset by approximately the same distance as your eyes. When mounted in a special mount, and viewed with the proper viewer, the result was, lo and behold, 3-D pictures of the CA&E and CTA in mid-1950s Forest Park! This view looks east.
Click this link for a complete rundown on Stereo Realist cameras.
A two-car CA&E train (460 and 421) loops in Forest Park. The 460 is now at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union.
The train seen in a previous picture approaches the terminal. During construction of the nearby expressway in the late 1950s, there were temporary tracks just to the right, and the stores on Des Plaines Avenue were demolished.
From 1953 to 1957, passengers could change trains here between the CA&E and CTA. The gas holder shown was a long-time Forest Park landmark.
A CTA wooden Met car on the temporary Van Buren Street right of way, circa early 1954 would be my guess. Note that a Garfield Park line bridge has not yet been dismantled at right, in the middle of the Congress Expressway construction site.
The CA&E train loops around, in close proximity to a bus, which presumably would either be CTA's Route 17, going to Bellwood and Westchester (it replaced the Westchester branch of the "L" in 1951) or one of the various Chicago & West Towns routes.
The CA&E train has looped and is now ready to pick up passengers for the trip west.
What are these strange looking freight cars on the Chicago Great Western, just north of the CTA tracks at DesPlaines Avenue? Thomas Kaufman: "That photo in the ones that got away showing a train on the Chicago Great Western appears to be some Maintenance of Way bunk cars used to hold sleeping quarters for the employees. Another giveaway is the orange paint as M of Way cars are generally painted different colors than the standard freight equipment." Andre Kristopans thinks some of those cars could date to the 1880s.
A two-car CTA train of flat-door 6000s is running on the Logan Square route. This may be California Avenue. However, why is there a bag over the coupler? This picture was probably taken in the 1950s.
What streetcar or interurban ran to Chicago Heights?
I had expected a friend to possibly bid on this nice 1955 North Shore Line picture, but he demurred. We all have our standards for what constitutes a good photo. He said he already had other shots like this, and this shows the back of the train. At any rate, this is street running in Milwaukee.
I am not sure where these two views of a CTA "L" station were taken. Answer: two different places. The top picture is 42nd Place on the Kenwood branch of the "L", looking west. The lower picture was taken at Fullerton on the north-south main line.
The top picture is the Belmont "L" station, and the bottom is the Illinois Central (now Metra) Electric.
Two downtown shots on the Loop "L", probably 1950s.
This location is a mystery. Daniel Joseph thinks this may be Dorchester, on the Jackson Park branch of the "L".
An IC Electric station.
An original sign, indicating the abandonment of trolley service in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. This was a unique line, which was about 8 miles long and was not connected to any other Philadelphia streetcar line. It ran only in the park and lasted for 50 years. Open cars were run in the summer, closed cars at other times. By the time it shut down, it was practically an operating museum.
The Chicago & West Towns had a line to LaGrange that included some private right-of-way through the Forest Preserves. I assume this is the bridge over the DesPlaines River.
C&WT 152 on the LaGrange line, signed for the Brookfield Zoo.
A nice early postcard view of the end of the Logan Square line. Unfortunately, the seller thinks this is worth $100, so I have taken a pass.
CTA postwar PCC 7101 (I think), but where? According to Jeff Wien, this is south State Street, between 88th and 92nd.
CTA 144 on one of those late 1950s fantrips… but where? The PCC further ahead is also likely part of the same fantrip, which took place on the weekend, when the CTA substituted buses for streetcars on the dwindling remaining routes prior to the 1958 abandonment. According to Jeff Wien, this picture was taken on May 25, 1958. The occasion was the final Chicago streetcar fantrip held by the Central Electric Railfans' Association. Note that the streetcars are heading north on Dearborn, crossing the Chicago River, using what had once been the southbound track, since this was once a two-way street.
C&WT 107 at, I am pretty sure, the south parking lot of Brookfield Zoo.
C&WT 154 in what looks like a late 1930s paint scheme. I presume this is the barn at Cermak and Harlem.
Not sure where this picture of C&WT 124 was taken… Maywood? Or could this be Madison Street in Forest Park? Bill Shapotkin adds: "This photo was taken in Maywood. The car is in 19th Ave and the west end of the Madison St Line. The Grade crossing in the background is the C&NW-IHB (the "Melrose Park" C&NW station would be located to right). View looks north."
By comparing this picture of C&WT 100 with a different one, I have determined this was taken at Madison and Austin in Oak Park.
C&WT 111 at Madison and Austin in Oak Park.
After what was supposed to be a "temporary" abandonment of the Lehigh Valley Transit's Liberty Bell route between Allentown and Norristown (PA) in September 1951, the railroad wasted no time in ripping up rails, so as to make it permanent. They were out there the very next morning.
Illinois Terminal interurban car 284 at an unknown location.
CTA prewar PCC 7013 on the Cottage Grove line, circa 1952-55.
In August 1957, a two-car CTA Garfield Park "L" train crosses the Chicago River near Union Station. Less than a year later, this line was replaced by the new Congress line, which connected to the Dearborn-Milwaukee Subway.
CTA wooden "L" cars, including 345 at left, and a Met car at right, being scrapped at Skokie Shops in September 1957.
Photos of streetcar company employees are always interesting. The car in this early 1900s photo is signed for Halsted Street.
Chicago Aurora & Elgin car 20 in South Elgin in August 1968. This is now called the Fox River Trolley Museum. It's original name was RELIC.
The North Shore Line's Highwood Shops on November 1, 1962, in a photo by R. W. Ferge. Car 767 is at left. Such interior photos are rare.
On May 20, 1956, this is a view of the CTA's Metropolitan main line just west of the Loop. By this time, Chicago, Aurora & Elgin trains only ran as far as Forest Park, and 2.5 miles of the Garfield Park line ran in Van Buren Street. These tracks, or two of the four tracks, actually, continued in service for two more years, until the new Congress Expressway median line opened.
South Shore Line car 105 in South Bend, near the end of the line, in August 1955. Service was cut back to the outskirts of town in 1970, but there are plans to bring the line back downtown, although not via street running.
A CTA prewar PCC car at 77th and Vincennes on August 10, 1956, just prior to scrapping. Note how the seller has given this picture an extreme tilt, just to level it out. These cars were last used on Western Avenue.
This very nice picture shows two of the CTA's new single car units on November 25, 1960, and was taken by Robert E. Bruneau. These were given high-speed motors and "circus wagon" colors for a time.
This is the first time I can recall an original George Krambles slide being offered for sale. It shows a North Shore Line train "at speed" at Briergate in 1949. There are two schools of thought about such pictures. On the one hand, it's not technically perfect. It does not show a train posed in the sun. On the other hand, it does convey motion. These were moving trains, and boy, did they move!
A Philadelphia PCC on Route 23 (Germantown) is at the Mermaid Loop on July 29, 1968.
This picture of CTA 144, at the Illinois Electric Railway Museum at its original location in North Chicago, was taken on February 21, 1960. It's very interesting, but we already posted a very similar photo before, so we did not bid on this one.
If I had to guess, I would say this Chicago, Aurora & Elgin photo was taken at Wheaton. But so were a lot of such pictures, and the light was not shining the right way to illuminate the ends of the cars on this one.
A three-car North Shore Line train on June 16, 1962.
One of the two North Shore Line Electroliners on June 17, 1962. Looks like a fantrip.
A two-car CTA wooden "L" train on April 13, 1957. I would expect that we are not too far south of Howard Street.
Oak Parkers "of a certain age" might remember there was once a time (up to October 1962) when the outer portion of the Lake Street "L" ran on the ground, using overhead wire, running parallel to South Boulevard. This is an excellent example of such a photo. Note there is no fence on this portion. The "L" was relocated to the adjacent Chicago & North Western embankment.
Accident photos are a sensitive and controversial topic in the railfan field. Some don't think they should be shown at all, while others believe they are an important part of history. This is the aftermath of the 1977 accident where one CTA train ran into another, right at the corner of Wabash and Lake, and pushed some "L" cars off the structure. Since that tragedy, where several people lost their lives, additional steel has been added to the structure to prevent a reoccurence. This is a Mark Llanuza photo.
This Mark Llanuza picture from December 1982 says it is a "last run." I can't make out what the sign says, but at the very least, it's a six car CTA "L" train, made up of three sets of 6000-series cars, each painted different colors.
This must be a fantrip train, and the date is August 6, 1972. But where was this taken? It can't be on the Evanston branch, as that was still powered by overhead wire, and there's no evidence of that here. According to Daniel Joseph, this actually is Noyes on the Evanston branch, and the picture must have been taken after third rail was installed. So the date provided could very well be wrong.
CSL/CTA work car AA101 at 77th and Vincennes in 1955. Don's Rail Photos adds: "AA101, salt car, was built by South Chicago City Ry in 1907 as SCCRy 335. It was rebuilt in 1907 and became C&SCRy 834 in 1908. It was renumbered 2849 in 1913 and became CSL 2849 in 1914. It was later converted as a salt car and renumbered AA101 in 1948. It was retired on December 14, 1956.
A 1958 date means this picture of a CTA PCC on Route 22 was taken on the last remaining streetcar line in Chicago, Wentworth. It is headed south. A few people have pointed out that 4385 is headed south on Clark Street, just north of the Chicago River, after passing over freight tracks.
CTA trolley buses- are they coming or going? A June 25, 1974 date indicates they are going, towards Mexico and additional service there. This was just over a year since they last ran in Chicago.
The Rochester (NY) Subway, 1956.
We haven't actually lost this auction yet, but this image is bundled with several others, and the price has already gone high. But this is an interesting picture, as it shows the temporary CTA Garfield Park/Congress right of way, somewhere west of the Lotus Tunnel, and presumably after a portion of the Congress median line opened in June 1958, but before the highway opened in 1960. Is this Austin Boulevard? At left, there is a residential street. At right, is the future site of the Congress (now Eisenhower) Expressway. In the distance, is perhaps a freight train, an industrial area, or maybe even part of Laramie Yard. A real mystery. We really do hope we will have the financial wherewithal to purchase this fascinating image.
Our resident South side expert M. E. writes:
https://thetrolleydodger.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/10.jpg
I suspect you will find your answer (which interurban line is it?) in this map:
http://www.shore-line.org/images/JS_map.jpg
My two cents is that this is the Chicago and Interurban Traction Co. See
https://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr3137.htm
which is the red line in the shore-line.org map.
I certainly remember the building that housed the barn at 88th and Vincennes. There was still trackage leading into it.
The sign says Ravenswood. The maximum length of Ravenswood trains was 6 cars.
Thanks… the sign I meant in picture 52 is the one hanging from the chain. I assume this was a Sunday fantrip, during the time when the Rave only ran to Belmont. So they would have been the only train on this part of the line, with photo stops galore.
Tricia Parker writes:
I was writing with a quick inquiry about a recent found beach object, which I believe is a streetcar badge. (Attached) Awhile back, before I found the badge, a friend directed me to your IG page, which I much enjoy!
I am seeking any information, and would be willing to pay for research time. The badge reads (all caps) "S. Haehlen's 117 Express." I believe it might be a 1933 World's Fair route, but it's a guess.
I am looking to make a brief video about it for educational purposes, and would welcome any knowledge. Happy to give you credit for any information. Thanks so much!
Thank you for your kind words. Let's see what our readers can make of this.
Glad you like the photos I post on IG, even though I hardly ever put any train pictures there (look for @thetrolleydodger).
Vernon Glover writes:
As a now aging kid from Chicago, I enjoy your efforts a lot. And have purchased some items. Today, however, I am fully engaged in southwestern rail and industrial history, especially the El Paso & Southwestern System, an arm of Phelps Dodge. I have a number of M. D. McCarter prints and I would like to ask properly for permissions in publication for a forthcoming book with the Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society (SPH&TS).
Anything you have on the current status and address of the McCarter photo collection would be appreciated.
I am not sure what happened to his collection. Unfortunately, he died a few years ago. At one time, I tried calling the phone number listed for him, and there was no answer. I too had purchased some photos from him.
Sorry I can't be of more assistance. Perhaps someone out there might know?
Todd Liebenauer writes:
Hello – Reaching out to see if you can help with a project I'm working on. My name is Todd Liebenauer, grandson of Karel Liebenauer. I think you may have used some of his pictures in your publications.
My father Karl and I both model O scale trolley cars and we both have a model of the Cleveland 5000 streetcar.
I've been researching the internet for every picture I can find of these cars to determine what equipment was on the underbodies of these cars. I have found a number pictures but none have given me a clear enough image of the left sides of the front and rear cars. What I have determined is not all the cars were the same. The pictures I found prove that. Would you happen to have anything you can share about these trolleys?
Attached is a picture of the model I have.
Thanks for any help you might be able to provide.
Another question I can't answer… but maybe one of our readers might know? Thanks.
Allen Zagel writes:
I found your site while doing a search. Very interesting site.
Anyway, I seem to remember that a series of old Red CSL streetcars had unusual trucks featuring two different size wheels. In searching my Shore Line dispatches, especially #9, page 88, it appears that possibly it was High Side Brill #6063 but I can't be sure.
Would there be any info or photos or drawings around?
Hopefully you might be able to help?
Thanks for writing. While I don't know the answer to your question offhand, it's likely that someone who reads my blog might.
Keep those cards and letters coming in, folks!
RRCNSLR
Railroad Record Club – North Shore Line Rarities 1955-1963
Newly rediscovered and digitized after 60 years, most of these audio recordings of Chicago, North Shore and Milwaukee interurban trains are previously unheard, and include on-train recordings, run-bys, and switching. Includes both Electroliners, standard cars, and locomotives. Recorded between 1955 and 1963 on the Skokie Valley Route and Mundelein branch. We are donating $5 from the sale of each disc to Kenneth Gear, who saved these and many other original Railroad Record Club master tapes from oblivion.
RRC-OMTT
Railroad Record Club Traction Rarities – 1951-58
From the Original Master Tapes
Our friend Kenneth Gear recently acquired the original Railroad Record Club master tapes. These have been digitized, and we are now offering over three hours of 1950s traction audio recordings that have not been heard in 60 years.
Properties covered include:
Potomac Edison (Hagerstown & Frederick), Capital Transit, Altoona & Logan Valley, Shaker Heights Rapid Transit, Pennsylvania Railroad, Illinois Terminal, Baltimore Transit, Niagara St. Catharines & Toronto, St. Louis Public Transit, Queensboro Bridge, Third Avenue El, Southern Iowa Railway, IND Subway (NYC), Johnstown Traction, Cincinnati Street Railway, and the Toledo & Eastern
$5 from the sale of each set will go to Kenneth Gear, who has invested thousands of dollars to purchase all the remaining artifacts relating to William A. Steventon's Railroad Record Club of Hawkins, WI. It is very unlikely that he will ever be able to recoup his investment, but we support his efforts at preserving this important history, and sharing it with railfans everywhere.
Disc One
Potomac Edison (Hagerstown & Frederick):
01. 3:45 Box motor #5
02. 3:32 Box motor #5, May 24, 1953
03. 4:53 Engine whistle signals, loco #12, January 17, 1954
04. 4:13 Loco #12
Capital Transit:
05. 0:56 PCC car 1557, Route 20 – Cabin John line, July 19, 1953
Altoona & Logan Valley:
07. 4:00 Master Unit car #74, August 8, 1953
Shaker Heights Rapid Transit:
08. 4:17 Car 306 (ex-AE&FRE), September 27, 1953
Pennsylvania Railroad GG-1s:
11. 4:35 August 27, 1954
Illinois Terminal:
13. 5:02 Streamliner #300, northward from Edwardsville, February 14, 1955
14. 12:40 Car #202 (ex-1202), between Springfield and Decatur, February 1955
Baltimore Transit:
15. 4:56 Car 5706, January 16, 1954
Niagara, St. Catharines & Toronto:
17. 4:19 Interurbans #83 and #80, October 1954
18. 5:20 #80, October 1954
Disc Two
St. Louis Public Service:
01. 4:34 PCCs #1708, 1752, 1727, 1739, December 6, 1953
Queensboro Bridge Company (New York City):
02. 5:37 Cars #606, 605, and 601, December 31, 1954
Third Avenue El (New York City):
04. 5:07 December 31. 1954
05. 4:47 Cars #1797, 1759, and 1784 at 59th Street, December 31, 1954
Southern Iowa Railway:
06. 4:46 Loco #400, August 17, 1955
07. 5:09 Passenger interurban #9
IND Subway (New York City):
08. 8:40 Queens Plaza station, December 31, 1954
Last Run of the Hagerstown & Frederick:
09. 17:34 Car #172, February 20, 1954 – as broadcast on WJEJ, February 21, 1954, with host Carroll James, Sr.
Disc Three
Altoona & Logan Valley/Johnstown Traction:
01. 29:34 (Johnstown Traction recordings were made August 9, 1953)
Cincinnati Street Railway:
02. 17:25 (Car 187, Brighton Car House, December 13, 1951– regular service abandoned April 29, 1951)
Toledo & Eastern:
03. 10:36 (recorded May 3-7, 1958– line abandoned July 1958)
04. 16:26 sounds recorded on board a PCC (early 1950s)
Total time (3 discs) – 215:03
The Trolley Dodger On the Air
We appeared on WGN radio in Chicago in November 2018, discussing our book Building Chicago's Subways on the Dave Plier Show. You can hear our 19-minute conversation here.
Chicago, Illinois, December 17, 1938– Secretary Harold Ickes, left, and Mayor Edward J. Kelly turn the first spadeful of earth to start the new $40,000,000 subway project. Many thousands gathered to celebrate the starting of work on the subway.
Order Our New Book Building Chicago's Subways
There were three subway anniversaries in 2018 in Chicago:
Building Chicago's Subways is in stock and now available for immediate shipment. Order your copy today! All copies purchased through The Trolley Dodger will be signed by the author.
Ravenswood Rarities
May 13, 2019 November 23, 2020 David Sadowski 6 Comments
CTA 4271-4272 head up a Ravenswood "A" train leaving Kimball and Lawrence on October 21, 1973. This shows how this pair of cars looked before they were renovated as part of CTA's historical fleet.
This time around, we have lots of classic traction photos for your consideration. For whatever reason, many of them were taken in the vicinity of Lawrence and Kimball, terminus of the CTA Brown Line (formerly known as the Ravenswood "L").
There was a recent fantrip on the CTA "L" system, using historic cars 4271-4272. This sold out quickly, and unfortunately, we were not able to participate. But it did help raise money for two very worthy causes. Besides helping to keep these early 1920s railcars running on the CTA, funds also went to assist the Fox River Trolley Museum recover from the vandalism they suffered last year. We encourage our readers to help with these efforts by contacting those organizations directly.
We do have several images of 4271-4272 from previous fantrips, however (and one, at the top of this page, from one of the last times they were used in regular service).
Many of these images come courtesy of Bill Shapotkin. We hope that you will support Mr. Shapotkin's efforts by attending his programs, which include the upcoming Hoosier Traction Meet this September. More about that will be found further down in this post. We also have some additional recent photo finds of our own.
Just to dispel any notion that these images always looked this way, this time we have included some "before" shots that you can contrast with the "after" ones. There is a lot of work that goes into making these images look better.
As always, if you can help provide any additional information about these photos, we would love to hear from you.
PS- A few of our readers have pointed out that in our last couple of posts, clicking on the various images with your mouse would not bring up a larger version of that picture, so you can study it more closely. We have fixed that issue in this new post, and promise we will go back soon and correct it on those two as well.
From the Collections of William Shapotkin:
CTA PCC 4380 on the Wentworth line on June 16, 1958, less than a week before the end of streetcar service in Chicago.
This is a duplicate slide, but started out as a 1958 Ektachrome slide, where the color layers other than red were unstable and faded badly. This left very little to work with, but I did the best I could.
Here it is again, tweaked by our good friend J. J. Sedelmaier.
CTA historic cars 4271-4272 on the Skokie Swift on December 11, 1976.
This and several other similar photos were seriously underexposed.
CTA 2200-series "L" cars at Skokie Shops on December 11, 1976.
CTA Wheel Car S-313 at Skokie Shops on December 11, 1976.
CTA "Met" cars at Kimball Yard, being used either as offices or for storage, in August 1967. (Compare with the picture of these same cars a few years later, showing how they had deteriorated somewhat after being stored outdoors.)
CTA 5001 in the Kimball Yard on July 14, 1961.
Restoring this photo was particularly satisfying.
CTA 2858 at Kimball on the Ravenswood line on April 14, 1957. I believe the occasion was a charter trip, held by the Illinois Electric Railway Museum. Don's Rail Photos: "2858 was built by Pullman in 1906 as M-WSER 858. In 1913 it was renumbered 2858 and in 1923 it became CRT 2858."
CTA 4063 at Kimball and Lawrence on January 31, 1958.
CTA 6706 at the Kimball Yard on November 1, 1986. (Ronald J. Sullivan Photo)
CTA 6049-6050 at Kimball Yard on March 16, 1980.
CTA 6041-6042 at Kimball and Lawrence on March 2, 1977. (Ronald J. Sullivan Photo)
CTA 4271-4272 and 3441-3442 at Lawrence and Kimball. These cars were used on a Central Electric Railfans' Association fantrip in 2000. (John Allen Photo)
CTA 2411-2412 have derailed at Kimball Yard on August 25, 1978.
Here, a couple of old CTA "Met" cars are being used as either offices or storage at Kimball Yard in April 1974.
CTA 6643-6644 in the Kimball Yard on February 1, 1987.
CTA 4387 and 4432 in the Kimball yard on July 25, 1970.
CTA 6165-6166 at Kimball, the outer terminal on the Ravenswood line (today's Brown Line), on May 21, 1977. (Ronald J. Sullivan Photo)
CTA 6166-6165, working a westbound trip on CTA's Ravenswood Line, approaches the Kimball and Lawrence terminal on June 20, 1952.
CTA 6139-6140 at Kimball and Lawrence on November 13, 1977. (Ronald J. Sullivan Photo)
CTA 4271-4272 at Kimball and Lawrence., during an NRHS fantrip on December 13, 1998. During the fantrip, these cars were operated between the terminal and the storage yard, for the benefit of ticket-holders. (William Shapotkin Photo)
On December 13, 1998, CTA historic cars 4271-4272 are being operated as part of an NRHS fantrip. At left, 3455-3456 has just arrived as an in-service train, and is about to be moved to the yard. The view looks north, off the south end of track 3. (William Shapotkin Photo)
CTA gate car (either 280 or 390) at Kimball and Lawrence on a Central Electric Railfans' Associaiton fantrip in the 1950s. (Ken Rieger Photo)
As you can see, the original for this 1950s slide was somewhat washed out and devoid of much color.
CTA 2769-2770 at Kimball and Lawrence on a Central Electric Railfans' Association fantrip on August 29, 1994. (William Shapotkin Photo)
CTA 6101-6102 at Kimball and Lawrence in March 1993. (John J. Le Beau Photo)
CTA 6139-6140 at Kimball and Lawrence on June 12, 1976. (Ronald J. Sullivan Photo)
It appears CTA 6138 is at the tail end of a train that is approaching the Ravenswood terminal at Kimball and Lawrence in August 1978.
CTA articulated 5003 near Kimball and Lawrence on September 9, 1958.
CTA gate car 270 at Kimball yard on September 13, 1953.
There is a difference between the faded-out brown here, and "Traction Orange."
CTA wooden "L" cars 361 and 257 in the Kimball Yard on February 4, 1951.
CTA 6103-6104 are at the head of a 6-car Ravenswood train at Kimball and Lawrence on January 23, 1979. (Ronald J. Sullivan Photo)
A CTA single-car Skokie Swift train near Skokie Shops on December 11, 1976.
CTA Flatcar S-300 at Skokie Shops on May 21, 1977.
CTA Flatcar S-1500 at Skokie Shops on May 21, 1977.
A train of CTA 2000s (on the Lake-Dan Ryan line) are on the Loop "L" on September 13, 1976.
The CTA Randolph and Wells station on September 13, 1976. This station has since been replaced by Washington and Wells.
I was particularly happy that I could improve this picture, which is practically monochrome.
At left, CTA's Tower 18, at the junction of Lake and Wells, on September 13, 1976. The view looks north.
CTA articulated train at Skokie Shops in August 1986. Here, it has been repainted to its original Chicago Rapid Transit Company livery. Don's Rail Photos: '5001 was built by Pullman-Standard in 1947, #6747. It was renumbered 51 in 1963 and acquired by Fox River Trolley Museum in 1986. It was restored as 5001."
A CTA work train, powered by 6000-series "L" cars, including S-406, at Skokie Shops on May 21, 1977.
The CTA bridge over the Chicago & North Western, used by the Lake-Dan Ryan line, in September 1977.
CTA 4271 at Skokie Shops on December 11, 1976.
The front trucks of CTA 4271, at Skokie Shops on December 11, 1976.
A CTA single-car unit, equipped with an airfoil pan trolley, on the Skokie Swift on December 11, 1976.
If you are used to seeing old slides that look this way, you may not realize that much of the original color has faded, or that it is even possible to bring it back now.
A train of CTA 2200-series "L" cars at Clinton on the Lake branch of the Lake-Dan Ryan line in September 1977. the view looks west.
A train of CTA 2000-series "L" cars, running on the Lake-Dan Ryan line, approaches the bridge over the Chicago & North Western in September 1977, heading westbound.
Bringing back the color in this shot made this photo into something special.
A train of CTA 2000-series "L" cars at Clinton on the Lake Street "L" (today's Green Line) in September 1977.
A CTA single-car unit, equipped with trolley poles, is running on the Evanston branch near Howard on May 28, 1977. Although overhead wire was no longer being used on Evanston, poles were left on a few such cars to serve as backups on the Skokie Swift if needed.
CTA Line Car S-606 at Howard Yard on May 28, 1977. Don's Rail Photos: "S-606 was built by Cincinnati in January 1923, #2620, as Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee 606. In 1963 it became CTA S-606 and burned in 1978. The remains were sold to the Indiana Transportation Museum." With the demise of the ITM site in Noblesville, Indiana in 2018, the 606 was acquired by another group, with the intention of restoring it.
The east side of Skokie Shops on December 11, 1976.
The CTA junction of Lake and Wells, by Tower 18, on September 13, 1976.
CTA MoW car S-365 at Skokie Shops on December 11, 1976.
The CTA Skokie Swift (today's Yellow Line) on December 11, 1976.
A CTA single car unit on the Skokie Swift (today's Yellow Line), on May 28, 1977.
CTA 6000s on the Evanston branch at Howard Yard on May 28, 1977.
A CTA 6000-series "L" car at Skokie Shops on December 11, 1976.
Hoosier Traction 2019
This PDF file explains what's happening in Indianapolis this September 6-7:
hoosiertractionmeet_2019_05_public
Steinway Lines Birney car 1660 in September 1937, signed for the H line in Pelham Manor, NY. According to a knowledgable historian: "There's a rather long story behind this. Yes, it's a Steinway car, and yes, it's on the TARS line in Westchester County. (The specific line was the route from New Rochelle to Pelham Manor.) Fontaine Fox, a Pelham native and creator of the "Toonerville Trolley" cartoons, said that he used this line as his original inspiration for the cartoon. So when the line was discontinued in 1937, the locals put on a big celebration at which Fox held forth as honored guest. For the occasion, TARS imported the Birney from Queens as the closest thing to the Toonerville Trolley. (Normal service was TARS convertibles or 700s.) The photo shows the car some time before or after the ceremony."
Prewar Chicago PCC 7010 is at the western terminal of Route 63 – 63rd Street, located at 63rd Place and Narragansett Avenue. After streetcars were cut back to this loop in 1948 (double-ended cars had previously gone a half mile west to Oak Park Avenue) this became a transfer point for buses heading west. This bus is heading to Argo, which is not the name of a suburb, but the name of a factory in suburban Summit that produced Argo corn starch. If you could see the front of the PCC, there were "tiger stripes," intended to make the cars more visible to motorists and pedestrians. PCCs ran on 63rd Street from 1948-52. (William Hoffman Photo, Wien-Criss Archive)
Here, we see CTA PCC 7236, a postwar product of the St. Louis Car Company. Jeff Wien: "It is on Western Avenue Avenue during the one man period 1955-56. Because of the grass in the foreground, it seems park-like, which was the case where Western Avenue was paralleled by Western Blvd., which I believe extended from Archer to Garfield. I would guess that the slide is on Western Ave south of Archer." (Wien-Criss Archive)
Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company (aka Red Arrow Lines) car 18, a double-ended product of St. Louis Car Company that closely resembled a PCC but had conventional running gear, at the end of the line in West Chester. Rail service on this long interurban line was replaced by buses in June 1954.
CTA 4355 and it's semi-permanently attached mate (not sure of the #) at Marion Street, on the ground level portion of the Lake Street "L", on September 10, 1957.
Chicago Aurora & Elgin car 50 (with 44 at left) at the Wheaton yards on September 13, 1953. (Robert Selle Photo)
Chicago Aurora & Elgin car 428 at the Forest Park loop at DesPlaines Avenue on October 10, 1953. Less than a month earlier, CA&E trains stopped running downtown, and a new terminal arrangement was hurriedly put into use, so riders could switch between CA&E and CTA trains. (Robert Selle Photo)
A three-car Chicago Aurora & Elgin train , including cars 316 and 314, as seen from the Halsted Street platform of the Garfield Park "L". The view looks east on June 18, 1953, about three months before CA%E service was cut back to Forest Park. (Robert Selle Photo)
Someone gave me this slide. I am not sure of the circumstances, but it seems to show Blue Bird Coach Lines bus #1.
This is an interesting photo for several reasons. It shows the temporary ground-level operation on the Garfield Park "L" in the south portion of Van Buren Street, used from 1953-58 while construction of the new Congress rapid transit line was underway in the nearby expressway. But this is not a regular service train– it's a fantrip for the Illinois Electric Railway Museum. By the time this photo was taken (1958), wooden "L" cars were no longer in use on this line. The second car has been repainted for use in work service. We are at Van Buren and Ogden. In the distance, you can see the old Paulina "L" crossing Ogden. By this time, it was being used by Douglas Park trains to reach the Lake Street "L", as the Pink Line does today.
Chicago Aurora & Elgin interurban box motor 5 at Wheaton in 1949.
A single CTA wooden "L" car heads east on the ground-level portion of the Lake Street "L" circa 1955. This was relocated onto the adjacent Chicago & North Western embankment in 1962.
A mother and her two kids have just gotten off a northbound Evanston train of 4000s at Isabella in June 1972. This station closed on July 16, 1973 and within a short period of time, all traces of it were removed, as it was a short distance from the Linden terminal and had low ridership. That same year, the Evanston branch was converted to third rail operation, and overhead wire was removed.
In 1935 CSL and CRT began exchanging transfers. In 1936 CMC and CRT transfers followed.Some time soon, exact date unknown to me, CRT and West Towns transfers followed, but these were gone sometime after 1938. Each transfer type was its own color as follows:
CRT to CSL – yellow (actually "newsprint?")
CRT to CMC – green
CRT to West Towns – pink
CSL to CRT – blue
CMC to CRT – unknown to me
CWT to CRT – unknown – any ideas what they looked like?
In 1943 CSL and CMC transfers began and colors were revised:
CRT – CSL – blue
CRT – CMC – green
CMC – CSL – pink
Around 1947 CMC to CSL and CRT became orange. Once CTA was formed all L transfers became blue, both to CTA durface system and to CMC, while surface to CMC remained green and CMC to CTA surface or L remained orange. In 1953 orange transfers were eliminated as former CMC routes were put on regular surface transfers. L transfers remained blue until about 1962 when they became green.
If anybody has any additional information or can offer any corrections, they would be very welcomed!
Jon Roma writes:
I can offer the attached color image of CNS&M/C&NW Ryan Tower, given your recent feature on the subject along with the statement that there are few shots of the location. This is digitized from a slide by unknown photographer that resides in my collection; it's obviously a railfan excursion taken on or about March 1962. Please feel free to use if you'd like.
We thank all our contributors!
TRACTION AUDIO, NOW AVAILABLE ON COMPACT DISC:
We appeared on WGN radio in Chicago last November, discussing our book Building Chicago's Subways on the Dave Plier Show. You can hear our 19-minute conversation here.


text:
Can some one who understands gravity explain this?
Thread starter cannafield
baywax
G01 said:
Have any f you guys ever seen that trick were he lays on this guys fence and impales himself! I love that one, really freaks out the people watching! Anyone have an idea of how he does this??
He replicates himself in a Tesla replicating machine (see: The Prestige) and impales the replicant. Then stands up and takes a bow.
LightbulbSun
Mk said:
Why hasn't the explanation of it been plexiglass cylinders been offered?
This seems to be the most plausible explanation for how he "walks on water", and I plan on testing this in the near future. It's obviously a multitude of platforms because if he could truly walk on water he wouldn't have to be so careful with his steps.
DaveC426913
I have watched his show, and I have done a bit of research on him and have determined and there is one trick up his sleeve that magicians before him didn't take advantage of - which is why his audience falls for the trick.
He is, first and foremost, a TV showman.
His segments are very definitely edited. He cuts real illusions with staged illusions and crafts a TV experience. More importantly - and this is the one that even we 21st-century people wouldn't be so cynical as to question - He stages audience reactions.
eg. He'll do his "small" levitating trick (the chair one) with genuine audience A, and then splice it into the same segment with his "big" levitating trick (the building-to-building one) with staged audience B. The net effect is that naive TV viewers assume all scenes and all audiences are bona fide. They're not.
The buiilding-to-building trick is done with a simple crane. It's the awestruck audience that's the illusion.
Do some reading, it's not really a closely-kept secret. you can even start with Wiki.
As for the walking on water, I'll list just one example:
At 1:55 we see his own viewpoint looking down into the water, where a girl swims under him. We can see no supports under his feet. How does he do this?
Quite simple. So simple, we daren't think he would insult our intelligence.
For that shot, he is hanging from an overhead crane; his feet are barely touching the water.
The illusion here, is the audience - and the editing - which, when crafted by an expert con man, leads us to believe that
a] the shot is continuous
b] the trick can be done without any apparent supports or props
c] the audience is there throughout all shots (including the ones where we see no audience)
d] the audience is not staged
In short, this is the TV equivalent of "PhotoShopping".
russ_watters
It was offered in post #3....
DaveC426913 said:
Dave, I really don't think it needed to be anywhere near that elaborate. The camera angle was pretty tight. All it required was to not have the supports in the frame.
I hate people like Criss Angel who toy with the impressionable.
Gelsamel Epsilon
Chris is a crappy magician - Penn and Teller all the way.
At 1:53 both of his feet appear to be in the air at the same time...
mgb_phys
CINA said:
Haven't seen the video but is his back is toward you and is he wearing baggy trousers?
The usual way to do this is to have a small magnet in the side of the shoes and a slit in the front of the trousers. You put the shoes together an slip one leg out forward through the trousers. You then stand up on this leg on a (hidden) platform in front of you. The other leg lifts the shoe and trousers held in place by the magnet - it looks like two legs off the ground.
It's been done for 100s of years.
I do dislike his shows for using stooges in the audience to check props - if you are going to do this you might as well do the whole show in CGI.
I checked that time. It doesn't look to me like both feet are off the bridge.
Schrodinger's Dog
delta001 said:
How the hell did this guy make an elephant dissapear without any mirrors, ropes or trapdoors in the pavement, if anyone saw that episode. The nature of these magicians simply confounds me.
I've seen this done for an elephant in a cage, on that show with Mitch Pelagi as host, in that particular one they used mirrors that slid out from the wooden bars of the cage to give the Illusion the elephant had vanished.
I saw another one where they made it appear a tank had just vanished by simply moving the entire curtain and camera, which are all on the same rig, about 10 ft to the left of the tank, it appeared seamless, when the curtain dropped the tank was no longer there, and then it was revealed again as if by magic; the truth is the tank was where it always was, but your perspective wasn't and you didn't notice the change. When the tricks are revealed it usually appears to be fairly simple.
T.O.E Dream
Green screen!
dontdisturbmycircles said:
I am fairly confident that Criss Angel pays people to stand there and say "WOWWWW". Its TV, things can be edited fairly easily. It is common practice for magicians to use 'stooges'.
This is critical to understanding his illusions. The clips you see on TV are edited together from different cuts. Some are real (but modest) versions of the stunt in front of real passersby, some are using obvious supports but with stooges who stand around and say "Wow". Cut them together properly, and you have a clip of what appears to be innocent strangers watching a fantastic illusion.
mgb_phys said:
Yes, there's a video out there somewhere of him (or someone) actually demonstrating it.
NWH
I didn't really read all this thread, but this trick is simple. Plexiglass platforms. It's all down to the camera angles, some you can see the platforms, others you can't, so they specifically use the angles where they can't be seen. You just use multiple platforms, so you can have convincers, like people swinning across the path in front or behind the magician to make you think there's no walkway there.
chayced
I doubt there was any creative editing done. Also I'm sure that most of the people around the pool had no idea what was going on. The pool area is closed off for the trick early in the morning. The assistants come in with plexiglass boxes and place them in the water. Plexiglass is almost completly invisible in water (ask anyone in the nuclear industry, they will tell you!). The boxes are positioned by the assistants who are now in the water preparing for the shoot. Criss takes one practice walk across so that he can memorize the positions of the boxes since they are slightly below the surface and invisible to him. After this people are invited in to watch the show so that there can be real reactions. He then walks across. He drops his shoe to prove that there is nothing beneith his feet, and since the boxes are only placed in the specific places he steps the shoe falls to the bottom. Then halfway across the girl swims underneath him. This is only possible because plexiglass is very slightly visible underwater, and even then there may have been markings added to increase her visability. There the whole trick is ruined, I hope you are all happy now. There is no Santa Clause either!
Edit: forgot to mention. The boxes don't float, they sit on the bottom.
SDetection
chayced said:
I doubt there was any creative editing done. Also I'm sure that most of the people around the pool had no idea what was going on...
I think he is hanging from something in the shot with the ball, where the girl is about to swim underneath him.
ibcnunabit
cannafield said:
Hello everyone! This is my first post here, so I figure I would make it the most interesting thing I can think of. Which is walking on water. Some say it's a magic trick, others say it's something only Jesus can do. But how does Criss Angel do it? How can he walk on water? Some of you think he's a magician and illusionist. He claims he does some of his stunts as an illusion, though some of his stunts contradict his released statements on how he does them. (i.e. levitation) Some of the others he does are claimed by him, that they are done through meditation.
Please, I would like anyone who is interested in this post to watch this video if they havent already seen it. Here Criss Angel walks on water and shows no signs of hoax.
If you watch the whole thing through, you'll notice when he steps on the water, the water doesn't seem to ripple much at all, if the water does at all from mass exerted by his body weight. Nor does he sink when he steps in the water. Which I don't get. He kicks off his shoes around 2:31 and a girl swam underneath him. So there couldn't of been glass or anything underneath him that would be solid enough to walk across.
I've seen another magician duplicate this trick and then reveal how it is done. It is indeed plexiglas that is slightly underneath the water's surface. He used plexiglas planks (about an inch) supported by plexiglas rods, and indeed a girl did swim underneath him. From the angle it was filmed, the plexiglas was absolutely invisible, although occasionally you could see a faint edge effect of the waves lapping over it.
But there WAS a definite indication that it was a hoax. It was being performed by a magician!
--Mike
Last edited by a moderator: Sep 25, 2014
Ivan Seeking
ibcnunabit said:
Is it a hoax if everyone is supposed to understand that it is a trick?
When I was a kid, everyone knew that magicians were performing tricks. Somehow that simple and implicit understanding seems to have been lost along the way.
ZacharyFino
he is walking on arc shaped platforms which allow people to move under him appearing as if there is no platform
Schrodinger's Dog said:
That's what Copperfield did with the Statue of Liberty trick. The audience was on a slowly revolving stage, The lights on Liberty were turned out, and another ring of lights was turned on to the side, where the audience (and the camera) was facing when the stage stopped revolving. The slowness of the rotation meant that they had to kill a LOT of time, and Copperfield had to launch into this long speech about liberty, and America, land of the free and home of the brave, blah, blah, blah for quite awhile.
Angel has used that trick to great effect on an escalator--it's brilliant in that the sides of the escalator mask him from the sides, and forces the audience and camera to see it from the perfect perspective to hide the trick. Makes it look like he's gliding or even flying up the escalator about a foot above the steps. Very clever.
Ivan Seeking said:
I only used the word "hoax" because of replying to someone seeming to believe it is REAL, and because the magician is able to convince so many people that what he does is real. For myself, I enjoy "magic" and admire the abilities of skillful magicians. What I see being lost along the way (for magic and other things) is people's basic skepticism. Has anyone else noticed this? So, so many people don't want to hear skepticism, they "want to believe" in things that are demonstrably untrue. It's like we're living in the gullible generation. Look at all the new "ghost shows" popping up on cable. They're ridiculous and fake! But people take them seriously.
I too am a skeptic but I'm going to play Devil's Advocate for a moment.
What is the harm in following ghost stories and magicians? People's lives are generally full of reality - bills, health issues, etc. When they can escape or shut their brain off, why not?
This is the same rationale that has people reading grocery store rags and watching celebrity shows on TV. They know it's trash but so what? They have nothing to prove to anyone, it's not like they are judged on what they watch or read just for entertainment. I don't think they are truly taken in by this stuff, they simply recognize it for what it is and don't care if skeptics or science geeks look on in horror. In that sense at least, these people are more self-assured than us skeptics. We are on-guard all the time, making sure no one can ever pull a fast one on us. They are more open to a willing suspension of disbelief.
(Notice the slick straw man there? Went from ghost stories and magicians to grocery store rags and celebrity shows...)
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McGivern: 'Fans' Support Can Play Massive Role'
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Port Vale defender Ryan McGivern says the support of the fans can be 'massive' between now and the end of the season.
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Speaking ahead of the match, McGivern stressed the important role the supporters can play over the next nine fixtures.
"It can be massive," he told Valiant PlayerHD. "I think whenever you see the fans come in their numbers and how pleased they are and what it means to them, it's great to see.
"If we can fill the ground up a bit more between now and the end of the season it'll give us that push."
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Garda Chief Superintendent warning: 'Ireland is loaded with cocaine.... we will lose a generation of young people if we don't tackle it as a health issue'
Garda Chief Superintendent Christy Mangan says Ireland has massive issue with cocaine
He says demand for cocaine has to be tackled as a national health problem
Says it is far worse than heroin epidemic ever was
People across society and of all ages are using cocaine, he said
He warns Ireland risks 'losing a generation of their young people' unless problem is addressed
'Cocaine is literally everywhere, in every county and in every town'
Chief Supt Christy Mangan
Nicola Tallant
Drogheda's Garda Chief Christy Mangan has said that Ireland has a massive issue with cocaine and that the town's problem with warring drug gangs could happen anywhere.
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/garda-chief-superintendent-warning-ireland-is-loaded-with-cocaine-we-will-lose-a-generation-of-young-people-if-we-dont-tackle-it-as-a-health-issue-38102830.html
https://www.independent.ie/regionals/argus/news/article37901024.ece/c9124/AUTOCROP/h342/2019-03-12_the_48653014_I1.JPG
He says the demand for cocaine has to be tackled as a national health problem and recognised as far worse than the heroin epidemic ever was.
Thirty extra gardaí have been deployed to the Louth area as officers plan to take down both sides of a feud which has resulted in a spree of shootings, arson attacks and violence.
However, the Chief Superintendent says that beneath the surface of the gangland war which has erupted in the north east is a cocaine problem which has seeped into every area of society.
Chief Superintendent Christy Mangan. Photo: Colin O'Riordan
"The feud in Drogheda, like all the other feuds, is about turf and money and that is fuelled by the demand for cocaine, which, unlike heroin, knows no social divide," he says.
Read more here: Drugs robbed children of their mothers, says family of loving sisters who died just weeks apart
"The country is loaded with cocaine. The dealers are benefiting from their bread and butter, which are the people who use it all the time and then the bumper weekends where everyone from sports people to workers are out buying it for so-called 'recreational use'. This is doubling the dealer's money.
"This is a national problem and if we don't act as a group with health practitioners and reduce that demand we will lose a generation of young people. This is very, very serious," he said.
Mangan, who spent seven years working in the Garda's National Drugs Unit and has served in some of Dublin's busiest districts, says he has never seen a drug be so acceptable in normal society.
"During the heroin epidemic we had a few dealers to handle and the drug itself was also largely confined into a socio-economic group. Cocaine knows no such boundaries. There is no shame associated with its usage in the way there was with heroin," he says.
"In Drogheda we are dealing with the fallout when there is serious violence between two groups and the ripple effect of the intimidation against the communities.
"The top players in this feud need to fund their war and the pressure goes downward to the streets and into families where young people have run up debts.
"There are countless ordinary decent families in this area who are living in terror because of drug debts. Their son or daughter may have run up a debt of say €2,000, but the dealers are demanding €8,000. There is no end to it.
"We will face down the threat that these gangs are posing to one another and to the people of Drogheda.
"We are now resourced to do that. We will be going after their assets, their drugs and their weapons, but a similar situation could blow up anywhere in Ireland. Drogheda is not unique; cocaine is literally everywhere, in every county and in every town."
The global production of cocaine is up and last year the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said it was at record levels.
It had been hoped that the historic peace accord with FARC guerrillas, who were believed to have been a major player in the drug trade, would reduce production, but the opposite has happened.
President Donald Trump is losing patience with his Colombian neighbours as the U.S. pumps $400 million into the South American nation's fight to reduce production.
For their part the Colombians say they are hamstrung by a ban on a planned fumigation of hundreds of thousands of cocoa-producing lands due to health concerns. They also point out that 120,000 farmers rely solely on the crop for their livelihood.
The effects of the drug are being felt worldwide and the surge in production means more of the product is reaching Irish shores.
Back in Drogheda, a row over the hefty profits has led to a violent feud which has drawn national interest and forced Garda Commissioner Drew Harris to reassure the people of the town that additional gardaí are being assigned.
The officers are being deployed on a permanent basis, but Mangan will also be using the resources of specialist Garda units, including the Criminal Assets Bureau and the National Support Services.
There have been more than 70 feud-related incidents in the Louth town since last year, the most serious of which have been attempted murders, including those of gang boss Owen Maguire and his brother Brendan, who survived shootings.
Patrols are set to be increased along with searches and checkpoints in the region and Mangan is confident that the threat from the warring gangs can be tackled.
However, he does believe that the underlying problem of demand also needs to be tackled in a multi-agency approach.
"There is no stigma attached to taking cocaine and that is a societal issue that needs to be tackled. It isn't just for the gardaí. Why is cocaine taking referred to as 'recreational' – even the wording of that makes it sound OK. It's not. Its fuelling all the problems up the line," says Mangan.
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Athletic feats and faith: Living for Jesus on and off the field
Home » Athletic feats and faith: Living for Jesus on and off the field
Twenty-fourteen is the year that America learned more about its athletes than it cared to know. Much of the off-the-field news made it clear that sports is not necessarily the place we should look for role models.
There are exceptions of course, and this past week saw two athletes who could serve as role models honored for their accomplishments.
Sports Illustrated has named San Francisco Giants southpaw Madison Bumgarner its "Sportsman of the Year."
It is not hyperbole to say that the North Carolina native had an October for the ages. In the postseason, he "pitched 52 ⅔ innings, threw two shutouts, and saved a game while posting a 1.03 ERA." Only two pitchers in history had done that in a month during the regular season. Believe me, folks, this a huge deal.
The save alone catapulted Bumgarner into "legend" status. After winning games one and five of the World Series as starter, he came out of the bullpen in game seven to lead the Giants to their third World Series title in five years. As his teammates put it, Bumgarner put the team on his back and carried them to the championship.
Note, his teammates say that—you'll never hear it from Bumgarner. SI's Tom Verducci marveled at Bumgarner's humility. As Verducci put it, "He wants success without spoils, achievement without attention and the ball without excuses," traits that are "rare in an era when self-promotion defines too many athletes."
That's because Bumgarner is interested in promoting something else. He told Verducci that "My short-term goal as a person is to witness an activity of Jesus in my life, and my long-term goal is for people when they look at me to see something in me about Jesus."
The second athlete honored last week, Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota, shares a similar goal. As he told the Fellowship of Christian Athletes magazine, "With [Christ's] power, we are able to pursue and play for His glory. We want to go out and show the world that Christ lives."
While the Heisman is awarded for Mariota's on-the-field accomplishments which are considerable, his off-the-field record is what makes him most worthy of admiration.
His Oregon teammates have nicknamed him "St. Mark." Whatever else that means, it's says something about how they view his character. In an age of numerous academic scandals involving football and basketball players, Mariota graduated in 3½ years with a degree in science.
There are, as USA Today puts it, Marcus's "weekly unannounced visits to the Boys and Girls Club" and daily stops to pass out food and water to the homeless. As one of his coaches put it, "The best thing I can say about him . . . is he's done absolutely everything right since he's been here."
Ironically, his character is sometimes held against him. According to Sports Illustrated, some NFL teams worry about whether he is "too nice."
That's a rap that's often applied to Christian athletes. It's untrue, and, in an age when saying that an athlete is in a "lineup" can carry several meanings, more than a little shortsighted.
So, congratulations to Madison Bumgarner and Marcus Mariota, and thank you both for your witness to Jesus.
— by Eric Metaxas
Metaxas is currently the voice of Breakpoint, a radio commentary (www.breakpoint.org) that is broadcast on 400 stations with an audience of eight million. Copyright© 2014 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. BreakPoint is a ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries