Subject:
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Re: subway info?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Fri, 2 Mar 2001 17:45:25 GMT
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Viewed:
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983 times
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Larry Pieniazek wrote:
>
> In lugnet.trains, Frank Filz writes:
> <Extolls the virtues of Boston as a source of proto inspiration>
>
> > The main transit types that
> > I think are missing would be interurban and monorail (of course there
> > are a few other types of train service Boston doesn't have such as high
> > speed electric).
>
> Well Boston DOES have Acela, it leaves from South Station. But it's not all
> that high speed till it clears the in town trackage...
>
> Of all the T lines I like Green the best because it has so many different
> right of way styles (underground ROW, surface separated ROW, surface ROW
> down the middle of a boulevard, surface ROW shared with street) and because
> of the complex underground trackage. It has some amazing junctions and such.
> Because it's trolleylike (insert plug for my PCC model here, I could do it
> or a close variant in Green/White if there was enough demand) you board by
> climbing steps from grade level. Even underground!
There's even just a bit of El. on the Green Line (though I think it's
dramatically reduced from what it once was). I think they're running a
restored PCC on the Green Line now for special occaisions. At least one
of those stations has a couple PCCs in orange livery.
The Green Line definitely has the most complex trackage of all the lines
(the Red line is the only other line to actually have a branch), the
Green Line has several branches. The most interesting Green Line Station
is Park Street, where not only do you board from grade level, you may
have to actually cross the tracks to get where you're going. In the Park
Street station you can also occaisionally hear the evidence of how
poorly train wheels do extremely right curve radii (some trains turn
around at Park Street, and actually run through the station heading
North, and then follow a curved track to U-turn back into the station
now heading South. The curve radius can't be much more than 100' and boy
do the wheels complain!
It's also well worth getting a seat up front in the Boeing (1) LRVs on
the Green Line. The LRV's are pretty close to an old style trolley (big
difference being that the operator sits in an enclosed cab separated
from the passengers by a door, but the cab is not the full width of the
train, so from the front seats you can get a real nice view of where the
train is heading).
Another favorite spot on the T for me is on the Red Line heading out of
Charles station intown towards Park. It almost appears that the track
enters a building as it drops down from an elevated station and heads
into the underground (the Red Line is the only line which crosses the
Charles river, and comes above ground to do so, and actually has a short
segment of El. between the bridge and downtown, and that's where the
Charles station sits (which just happens to be in the middle of a rotary
[traffic circle or roundabout, sometimes lovingly known as a
Massachusetts Death Circle), said messy road intersection being why the
T can't be at ground level there).
(1) Back soon after they introduced the LRVs, there was a derailment and
we all thought: "Well, is it any surprise that a train made by an
airplane manufacturer would go flying..."
--
Frank Filz
-----------------------------
Work: mailto:ffilz@us.ibm.com (business only please)
Home: mailto:ffilz@mindspring.com
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: subway info?
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| Thanks for describing Park St. Station, that was exactly what I was thinking of when I said "complex underground trackage" but I couldn't remember the name. I forgot that I have a T map in my computer bag, as well as a T token, a BART card with some (...) (24 years ago, 2-Mar-01, to lugnet.trains)
| | | Re: subway info?
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| (...) It took me a minute to realise you meant Charles/MGH. :D That intersection isn't *that* bad. You just have to learn how to drive in Boston, that's all. We're all really good drivers here- perhaps you're just not up to scratch. eric (24 years ago, 2-Mar-01, to lugnet.trains)
| | | Re: subway info?
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| (...) THAT'S what that noise is?! WOW, that makes sense! And MAN, it's a SCREEE...EEECH. You'd think they were dragging a 4'x8' slab of sheet metal across the tracks. --Todd (24 years ago, 2-Mar-01, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.loc.us.ma.bos)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: subway info?
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| In lugnet.trains, Frank Filz writes: <Extolls the virtues of Boston as a source of proto inspiration> (...) Well Boston DOES have Acela, it leaves from South Station. But it's not all that high speed till it clears the in town trackage... Of all the (...) (24 years ago, 2-Mar-01, to lugnet.trains)
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