I saw this poster on the subway and did a little research. It was commissioned by the MTA (Arts for Transit) and created by Chris Gall. His work reminds me of something by William Joyce.

Related
Chris Gall: Just Another Day on the MTA

Labels: railroads, weekend

(1) Stalin's Lost Railway

(2) Design Tutorial: Creating a Propaganda Poster

(3) 1984

(4) 30 Worth Seeing Stencil Graffiti Artworks

(5) Good vs. Evil Foosball

Labels: books, railroads, soccer, weekend

(1) Get Dunked on by Patrick Chewing (Snickers Ad)

(2) Walt Disney and the 1964 World's Fair - This is a must have for Disney Stereo Hi-Fi Phonatics. The packaging is brilliant and the booklet includes artwork from Mary Blair.

(3) MTA OKs Fare Hikes, Service Cuts

(4) The Venture Bros. Album on Vinyl by J.G. Thirlwell (Includes "Assclamp!")

(5) The Complete Airport (begins Saturday on AMC)

(6) Adventureland: The Official Movie Site


Acorn Canvassers (Organizing For America)

Labels: disney, railroads

I just finished Conquering Gotham by Jill Jonnes. It is an historical narrative of the building of Penn Station (and its tunnels) by the Pennsylvania Railroad.

I'm going to skip the review (dirty politicians, distinguished engineers, despicable journalists, dastardly union leaders and a couple of dashing industrialists that make Jeffrey R Immelt look like a dandy) and post links* to some of the main characters.

Alexander J. Cassatt
McKim, Mead and White
Daniel Hudson Burnham
Samuel Rea
Evelyn Nesbit
William Randolph Hearst
Seth Low
Richard Croker
Colonel DeWitt Clinton Haskins
Gustav Lindenthal
Mary Cassatt

This is a gripping tale of blood, toil, tears and sweat and it makes you wonder whether or not we squandered such an embarrassment of riches. I will be taking Burgoyne by rail to the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum in Strasburg, PA this summer to see the statue of Alexander Cassatt that once adorned the steps leading from the Arcade to the General Waiting Room at Penn Station.

Update
I forgot August Belmont Jr.! A big omission considering his namesake is on one of my favorite places to drop some coin.

*Wikipedia Free

Labels: books, history, railroads

I found this at New America Foundation (see below) after reading this article [The Plot to Kill Google] in Wired.

Looking for a way out of this dilemma, Virginia transportation officials have settled on an innovative solution: use state money to get freight off the highway and onto rails. As it happens, running parallel to I-81 through the Shenandoah Valley and across the Piedmont are two mostly single-track rail lines belonging to the Norfolk Southern Railroad.Known as the Crescent Corridor, these lines have seen a resurgence of trains carrying containers, just like most of the trucks on I-81 do. The problem is that the track needs upgrading and there are various choke points, so the Norfolk Southern cannot run trains fast enough to be time competitive with most of the trucks hurtling down I-81. Even before the recent financial meltdown, the railroad couldn't generate enough interest from Wall Street investors to improve the line.

Related
Book Review: God and Gold

Labels: railroads

Buffett's Burlington Northern Binge
The billionaire scoops up more of the ailing railroad's shares.

This is a smart play (especially now that government is choosing winners and losers in this newly nationalized economy).

Labels: obama, pelosi, railroads

"Railroad stations in all their physical immensity and importance had emerged as the cathedrals of the industrial age, monuments to modernity and to the machine that at their best reflected and honored the full panoply of the train station's drama. In what urban crossroads in human history had so many multitudes high and low, so many varied nationalities, converged in such vast numbers for such different purposes? All those often inchoate human emotions tied to departures to far-flung destinations, to new beginnings and romance (had not George Westinghouse famously met his wife on a train?), even to human routine, deserved a suitably noble setting. Every architect who designed terminals coveted this prize."

- Conquering Gotham, Jill Jonnes

Labels: books, quotes, railroads

(a) Walthers to Distribute LGB Products

(b) Extinct Attractions - Preserving theme park history through
documentaries, audio recordings, books, podcasts and the stories told by the Disney legends themeselves.

(c) SuperComputer™ gets a major overhaul. A new motherboard and some Thermaltake equipment.

(d) Empire: Total War

(e) Everything Maddux wasn't - First of all, he wasn't greedy enough. He signed for only $75,000 after the Chicago Cubs selected him with the 31st pick of the 1984 amateur draft. No messy holdouts. No nothing. And get this: He actually reported to Pikeville of the Appalachian League that season. For $175 a week. Loser.

(f) 2009 Predictions: Why 2009 Will be Worse than 2008 and Bursting Obama's Balloons

(g) Staying Local: City: Urbanism and Its End

(h) Spore DRM Controversy Spawns Protest Creatures

Labels: baseball, disney, railroads

The Romance of the Rails
A generation that grew up with model trains is renewing its love affair with Lionel and others

Labels: railroads, toys

(1) Is Google Making Us Stupid?

(2) Some meaty reading from Iain Murray on rail privatization.

(3) Obama: I’d like higher gas prices, just not so quickly

Labels: obama, railroads

Great news for long-suffering rail fans and advocates of the iron horse (HAT TIP: INSTAPUNDIT)

Harvard professor predicts railroads will return to prominence in the U.S.

Labels: railroads

...a post about the Future World icons.

Sunday Mass Transit Field Trip
Bear and I boarded a Metro-North train bound for South Norwalk. After we arrived at the South Norwalk station we walked a couple of blocks to downtown SONO. Our destination was the SONO Switch Tower Museum. This free museum is operated by the Western Connecticut Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. It is a fully restored switch tower that was built in 1896. This year they are celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the line(s) electrification.

The towers were used by the railroads to house the equipment (mechanisms) used to switch trains from one track to another. These towers were staffed by operators who would actually operate the switch tracks by throwing levers in the tower (source).

The museum allows you to operate the levers AND the exhibits are clean and current. Our guides were passionate about railroads and were exceptionally knowledgeable. The one thing you learn very quickly is how capital intensive it is to run a railroad and how much technology has changed the way the roads are run. All of the equipment in that switch tower could be managed by one computer chip today. In the days before UI the railroad used to generate its own power in a facility somewhere in New York?

After our tour ended we had pizza in some swanky (and pretentious) SONO restaurant before we caught the next train home. It was a great afternoon.

George Orwell
A little poem

A happy vicar I might have been
Two hundred years ago
To preach upon eternal doom
And watch my walnuts grow;

I took this photo at the train station along an abandoned siding.

Labels: railroads, weekend