Search for videos too, there's stuff from the old reel to reel at the height of the war years. The thing is insane. Still in use today for Amtrak, CSX, and Norfolk Southern, but with only half the tracks in place still. They blasted a whole road along the edge of a mountain.....because long term it was cheaper and faster than going around the mountain. And now we have the people in that NBC video about "well we have all those boring and tunneling to do." Huh? PRR did that on an insane scale almost a century ago purely for profit motive. We're not even talking about "worthwhile public infrastructure projects in need of government funding." We're talking good old capitalism ROI.
Another fun one, they were experimenting with in-transit refueling of steam locomotives. They build these steamers with water pickups below, and build these giant shallow reservoirs atop sections of track. The idea was that refueling was just too slow and disruptive. So with this, an express train can just plow through a reservoir like a log flume ride at 95mph, open the intakes, and refill the boiler without even slowing. It was insane. The spending was off the charts, and ultimately it never went mainstream because diesel was right around the corner. But it's a heck of a sight if you find some videos.
Flash forward to 2019 and we can't even build the locomotives here anymore, we buy them from Europe and Asia (though we built the motors they built them with.) Henry Ford, and subsidiary industries ruined the country.
@NEStalgia - The funny thing about old Dutch is that his dad was German (Braun) and his mom was Dutch, but he acquired the nickname because people thought he spoke with a Dutch accent. I never noticed it, but he didn’t talk much. If he had one, it must have been acquired, he worked for Pennsylvania rail for 50 years.
Incidentally, I had a couple travel days recently. After three hour layover number two, I was ready to douse myself in jet fuel. I don’t have a suggestion on how to fix it other than burn it all down and start fresh. Whenever I fly, it’s really the only time I wonder if we need more government in our lives. Maybe take domestic out of the private sector. It would probably be much worse though. I had a layover in Dallas FW. The terminals were individual buildings connected by rail. I had to ride a train to get to my plane. The only times I’ve enjoyed travel is on a train, or in my own vehicle.
@bimmy-lee Ahh, speaking of PRR! If he was lucky he retired by the PC years? You never think of teal the same way again....
I'm all for burning it all down. Though I don't think government would help. It was government meddling that gave us the TSA airport nightmare. And bailed out all the airlines that were bankrupt (how do we all forget half the airlines went bankrupt before they basically became government run industries for the benefit of shareholders?) Passenger train went bankrupt. Passenger airline went bankrupt. I think the real reality of the 21st century is to realize that moving people in bulk from place to play has always lost money and always will lose money, and the world should probably stop being built in a way that expects people to move around all the time. We've built this whole way of life based on misconceptions of future technology as envisioned in the 1940's and never thought the model might be wrong.
@NEStalgia - Ha, you could have a point. Everyone got too carried away after the ‘39/‘40 World’s Fair. The World of Tomorrow! Just imagine, one day you too can cram yourself in a dirty airplane that might be older than you and fly cross country in just 12 hours! There will be pretzels! You’ll only be in the air for four hours, which gives you plenty of time to explore the two or three airports you’ll visit throughout the day. Sheesh. Every time I think the government should get involved, I remind myself of TSA, among other things, and that changes my mind.
Edit - I think my great grandpa retired in the early 70s. My dad has his pocket watch, and he gave his whistle to my daughter. It’s ear shattering. It has a wooden ball inside, and it’s very distinct.
"No de-icing delays, wind-shear delays, sitting on tarmacs for hours"
No delays, they just shut the train down completely if they FORECAST 10" or more of snow - happens every year once or twice - or it gets too windy or icy.
@rjejr Hah, well that first one is an example of my own point though. 45 minute delays for a downed pole, is different than snow and ice. And an airliner would be grounded for hours or all out cancelled with the odd snow and ice and wind issues they get. 45 minutes is less delay than a sunny day in June for LIRR.
Well, sure they shut down the trains and the planes for foot+ blizzards. And the roads are nigh impassable too. Obviously at the weather extremes transit in general grinds to a halt. But trains run through normal weather issues including snow without nearly the amount of issues that air inherently and unavoidably has. It's just the nature of the vehicle, from the runways to the aeleron articulation to the aerodynamics, air is finicky by nature. Sure a foot of snow they need to send the plows out first, and they need point heaters on the switch points etc etc. (Though diesels run as their own plows....only reason electric can't is because the extra load of the plowing is too much voltage drain on the grid, so they send diesel MOWs out before service.
LIRR's a great example though....terrible weather compared to most of the country, yet the busiest railroad by volume. Their biggest problem (other than the union) remains the track layout. The unending flow of grade crossings and the fact that every New Yorker with an SUV is an imbecile that should be excised from the gene pool as rapidly as is feasible and thinks they can beat a train by racing under crossing gates in rush hour traffic.
Those trains are getting through a lot more snow than most airplanes....and any motor vehicle I'm within 1000 feet of at any time.
Besides, you have to give bonus points for the M7s. Any railroad that can procure modern MUs that look as if they were made in the 70's deserves praise.
And yeah, I know the tracks....read the above about the old PC days and the 10MPH 45 degree vibrator.
@NEStalgia OK, so you now admit there are weather dependent train problems. Based on the number of people that take trains now lots are complaining. Now imagine planes and airports go away and you replace them with more trains and train stations. Do you know what that means. More train delays. And with the weather getting crazier - pretty soon The Weather Channel is going to need a spin-off channel "The Tornado Channel" - you'll get more and more delays. And if the earthquakes start picking up there's a lot of busted tracks. If they ever build a high speed line between LA and San Fran - and there really should be one there already, no snow - within months there will be a giant earthquake that destroys it all.
I'm not going back and reading stuff, as tempting as the 10MPH 45' vibrator sounds.
Someday we'll find it
The rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers and me
On the topic of airports: I don't mind flying itself. Heck, I typically enjoy the experience as long as I get a window seat and the view is decent. It's also easy to just plug in my headphones and listen to Spotify in offline mode or play my DS Lite.
It's airport security that I absolutely hate, but I'm pretty sure I've been over that topic here before.
@ThanosReXXX Bummer. I'd love to go to Germany and briefly was offered an opportunity to see some religious and cultural sites there that would have occurred next year. However, that kind of fell through and I didn't think I'd be able to pony up enough cash by that time anyway.
@Link-Hero Good to know, thanks! The problem was he kept boxing me in; I kept vaporizing the puddles so X wouldn't get stuck, but somehow that still happened sometimes. Then the sucker's seemingly random pattern landed him on top of me in spaces I couldn't move sometimes.... 🤬
Currently playing: Pokemon Scarlet DLC, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury (Switch)
Has anyone ever play Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival Wii U ?
I think i want to consider that game despite of all negativities.
What are the Pro and Cons from that game ?
Can i at least enjoy that game even just for their Mini games ?
The only game worth your time is Desert Island Escape, and that was added to New Leaf with the amiibo update, with the added bonus of not needing amiibo cards to play.
Overall the game is clunky and slow, lethargic. There’s not much to keep yourself interested unless you really like collecting costume changes for your figurines.
You would also need to buy said figurines and extra cards to play all the games.
If you can find the bundle with the cards and amiibos cheap enough, go for it. However, don’t expect it to be hours of fun. At this point it’s mostly just an amiibo starter kit.
@Heavyarms55
I have some Animal Crossing Amiibos and i will play it Solo vs CPU.
I think i will wait for a while until Nintendo Direct 11 June 2019, to see if Animal Crossing Switch is different game than Amiibo Festival.
@Anti-Matter If they released another Amiibo Festival, rather than a mainline Animal Crossing like New Leaf or City Folk, I think there would actually be riots. Or at least serious anger and even outrage.
I for one would be incredibly disappointed.
But I seriously doubt they would do that. Nintendo really seems to have paid more attention to fans in recent years, and the way they announced AC for Switch seemed to suggest a real Animal Crossing game.
Nintendo Switch FC: 4867-2891-2493
Switch username: Em
Discord: Heavyarms55#1475
Pokemon Go FC: 3838 2595 7596
PSN: Heavyarms55zx
@Tyranexx Well, if it's sites as in places, then they oughta still be there at a later point in time as well, don't they?
Or are we talking moving/pop-up events here?
@NEStalgia Thanks for all the info. I do have to tell you, that I'm not really anything remotely like a train buff or anything, so I'm not really up for a deep dive into all the material that you linked to, but I appreciate the effort nonetheless. The primary reason that I brought the topic up, is because, even though I may not be a train-enthusiast, I most certainly am somewhat of a speed freak, so obviously, high speed trains would also interest me, because of that.
As for that news item I was talking about earlier: turns out it was about the forever stuck in limbo high speed train line in California. As you may already know, there's a completely finished train station in San Francisco,
but it is not operational, and now it's slowly starting to fall apart. It may not be a mall, but it looked like the perfect setting for a zombie apocalypse...
Anyway, across several presidential reigns, millions of dollars have been pumped into it, and the current one refuses to dedicate more money to it, so the process has now been halted, and like previously mentioned, will more than likely forever stay in limbo. A shame, really, because the station looks pretty nice, as does the train itself, but now all it can do is travel to and fro at normal speed, which is of course not what the train, and the track, were built for. It was supposed to be a direct, high speed connection to LA, but now it's going nowhere.
I've never understood things like these, were projects are started under one government, allowed to progress until they're halfway done or nearly finished, and then the next president comes along, and freezes the budget that would/should be dedicated to finishing it. If you ask me, all these half-finished projects, which are now cluttering the landscape across the States, like some kind of neo-classical ruins, do far more damage than they would have done, if they'd just finished them. Might even be better to just tear them down completely, instead of allowing spooky, abandoned places like the San Francisco high speed train station to remain where they are, serving no purpose whatsoever...
@Morpheel You have to keep in mind that you're talking to a guy who plays 1-2 Switch against himself,
so contrary to all of us, he'll probably have a heck of a lot of fun with Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival...
@Anti-Matter - Save your money for the upcoming Switch game. As Thanos mentioned, you may be able to find some joy with this game, but it was basically an Amiibo scam in an Animal Crossing skin. One good mini game is tough to justify, even if you have some AC Amiibo, and you can get it cheap; you’ll probably drop it as soon as the real, mainline game releases on Switch. AC Switch will be my first game in the series. I’m looking forward to it. I really hope I can find some form of revenge on Isabelle for spamming Lloid at me in every Smash match. I want to fight her in real life.
@ThanosReXXX The unfortunate reality about "government funded" spending projects in the US is that they are never, and I repeat NEVER about actually building the infrastructure specified. That was never the goal, from the first draft, to the first administration budget approval, to the final precedential defending. They are all kickback programs. Every single one of them. Always "follow the money." Every time. Every single time, these programs can be traced to a particular politician and an a related industry/relative/contributor/friend of a friends wife's cousin's son's kindergarten teacher's nephews Greek shipping magnate grandfather who contributed influence and money to the politician's campaign and as a coincidence managed to help support a tremendous program to help all the people of his/her district/state by building a giant private shipping port for the particular type of cargo his company happens to ship. Every one of them is always an ill planned, high spending project with no reality, pie in the sky figures, and no real plan beyond absorbing the cash infusion, laundering it through partly building "something", and when it goes belly up inevitably, when the next set of politicians pulls the plug on the obvious useless and unfundable project plan, they can point fingers at the "other party" (whichever one it is that time) and meanwhile the brother's cousin's freinds all cash out on the unfortunate "politically inflicted" bankruptcy. It's also convenient to point at presidencies when presidents aren't supposed to be responsible for spending anything - Congress has the power of the purse. If the president is spending (or not spending) anything, it's because Congress isn't doing their job, (or is responsible for the kickbacks to begin with but likes to launder money through the executive branches at various levels for deniability and a single point to blame who's job is to take blame without any real consequence. )
Which is why nothing gets done, and what does get done is more damaging than helpful. Corrupt like Rome. If they ever propose a high speed rail line right from my front door to every destination I could ever want to go to up to and including downtown Tokyo, I'd be against it. Because I'd know there's no plan to actually build it, they'd just dig a really big hole for $12 billion, it would stagnate for 10 years, then become a drug and prostitute shelter before getting torn down in 25 years for another $8B (the demo company of course being connected to the politician that signs it.)
Not that the EU is any better...if not worse. Ironically the only reason anything gets done in Europe is strong "state's rights" that no longer exist here. The smaller geographies with strong sovereignty in their governments tends to be able to dodge the broader corruption better than, any random state here that has no true autonomy even though constitutionally they're supposed to, because the modern 20th century and beyond Federalist movement absorbed the states like a monolithic Holy Roman Empire reborn. CA gets the closest to being semi-autonomous in certain areas. Trouble is their local government is even more corrupt than the federal one, so it's squandered value.
It's not so much a case of "the US is more corrupt than Europe" so much as the way the dependency and check and balances work out, at present, there's more local escape from the corruption in Europe than here, though the EU is continuously working on finding ways to erode that as successfully as was done here, so it's a temporary benefit.
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