FRN

The End of the Line

Jonathan Crowe — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 02:31:01 +0000

Given the dearth of posts on this blog lately, this will come as no surprise, but I’ve decided to bring FRN to a close. I have increasingly found myself stretched a bit too thin over a few too many projects. To borrow a relevant cliché, I’ve run out of steam.

I’m reluctant to stop, because I’ve been proud of some of the work I’ve done here since last October. Of the more than 280 posts over the lifetime of this blog, here are some that I like the best:

When Scale Isn’t in Gauge (March 21, 2007)
CN Safety Audit Released (March 2, 2007)
El Cementerio de Trenes (February 15, 2007)
CN’s Safety Record Gets on Television (February 10, 2007)
Model Railroading: Rich Men, Deep Pockets? (January 24, 2007)
Gorre and Daphetid (December 1, 2006)
Prototype vs. Freelance (November 29, 2006)
Narrow Gauge Tourist Railroads (November 17, 2006)
Darius McCollum Arrested Again (November 13, 2006)
Take Your Model Train to Work Day (November 10, 2006)
Cheap, Accurate, Easy: Pick Two (November 2, 2006)
A Bounty of Big Boys (October 27, 2006)

If only I had the time and energy to post entries like this on a regular basis. But I don’t — not often enough to make this blog viable as a standalone entity. So, I’ll be folding posts about trains back into my personal blog, which is where I blogged about them before I launched FRN. I’m not going to stop blogging about trains — not by a long shot. (I’ve even got something about CN to post tonight, just you wait.)

So join me there, won’t you? With any luck, you’ll even be able to tolerate my posts on other subjects …

Thomas and Friends Lead Paint Recall

Jonathan Crowe — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 17:10:16 +0000

As if melamine in cat food wasn’t enough. Two weeks ago, the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission issued a recall of wooden Thomas and Friends toy trains that the toymaker’s Chinese manufacturers painted with lead paint despite instructions to the contrary. The New York Times points out that “[u]ntil a few decades ago, lead-painted toys were as American as the Little Dutch Boy, the National Lead Company emblem who cheerfully extolled the virtues of pure lead paints for homes, cars, water tanks and toys.” The U.S. has been trying to get the lead out of virtually everything — paint, gasoline, pipes — but this isn’t the case elsewhere in the world. Via (and see also) Treehugger.

How to Hop a Freight Train

Jonathan Crowe — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:55:42 +0000

On a related note, this Ask MetaFilter thread on how to hop a freight train is both cautionary and dangerous, in that it provides exactly everything you know: how to do it (and how not to — never jump on a moving train, apparently) and the dangers involved in doing it — both in terms of risk to life and limb (which is significant) and in terms of what happens when the authorities catch you at it. This whole thing strikes me as just nuts — too much risk for too little reward. Injecting heroin seems sensible by comparison. But there’s enough romance in it, apparently, to ensnare enough people willing to give it a try.

Buy Hopping Freight Trains in America at Amazon.com
Buy Rolling Nowhere: Riding the Rails with America’s Hoboes at Amazon.com
Buy Two Trains Running at Amazon.com

Riding the Rails in Bangladesh

Jonathan Crowe — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:39:46 +0000

Akash’s photo gallery of Bangladeshis riding atop freight trains: “Due to Bangladesh’s large population, inadequate seats on the trains and poverty, it is quite common to see a thick layer of people occupying the roof of a train. Frequent accidents, which occur when a free rider slips, are not enough to deter these stowaways of the railway.” Amazing shots. Via Gadling.

Gadling Does Skagway (and the WPY)

Jonathan Crowe — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 22:56:18 +0000

Travel blog Gadling has been running a series of posts on touring Alaska “without a cruise ship.” In today’s post, we arrive at Skagway, where, naturally, the writer thoroughly enjoys himself on the White Pass and Yukon Route: “I love train travel and this was one of the very best train journeys I’ve ever taken.” Ironically for the theme of the series, the railway is a major attraction for cruise ship passengers, and would likely not be in service without them.

Previously: Narrow Gauge Tourist Railroads.

British Rail Network Rebuilding Program

Jonathan Crowe — Wed, 30 May 2007 01:46:37 +0000

Rebuilding and expansion will keep fare increases above inflation for the time being, the Guardian reports: “The government will unveil a multi-billion pound rebuilding programme for the British rail network this summer to ease congestion on the most crowded lines. … However, the government has warned that inflation-busting fare increases will continue for the foreseeable future. It is ordering 1,000 extra rail carriages to cope with rising passenger numbers and it expects fare increases to cover much of the £1bn cost.” Via Treehugger.

Travelling Cross-Country by Train

Jonathan Crowe — Wed, 30 May 2007 01:44:12 +0000

Cardhouse’s tips for travelling cross-country by train pulls no punches about the shortcomings of Amtrak — or the shortcomings of fellow passengers, for that matter. Practical if a wee bit cynical. Still seems to prefer it to flying: “Anyway, on a train you can get up, stretch your legs, walk up and down the train cars making furtive eye contact with people who are working on their deep-vein thrombosis projects.” Via Kottke.

Swanson Is New CTT Editor

Jonathan Crowe — Wed, 23 May 2007 12:03:50 +0000

Model Railroader senior editor Carl Swanson is the new editor of Classic Toy Trains, Kalmbach announced last Friday. Via OGaugeWatch.com.

Previously: Besougloff Is New MR Editor.

Amazing 1:6 Kriegslok Model

Jonathan Crowe — Fri, 11 May 2007 01:26:23 +0000

Large-scale models can be awfully impressive. For proof, go to the forum of the UK 1/6th Collectors Club — that’s 1:6 scale, or 2 inches to the foot — for a series of magnificent photos of Peter Shaw’s WWII-era Class 52 “Kriegslok” German steam locomotive (and accompanying vehicles and figurines). It’s not just the amazing models, Vince’s photography is beyond first-rate. Stunning!

A Propeller-Driven Monorail

Jonathan Crowe — Fri, 11 May 2007 01:15:22 +0000

Our friends at Modern Mechanix have the goods on a 1933 report of a propeller-driven monorail — a French equivalent, perhaps, of the roughly contemporaneous Bennie Railplane. The plans called for a 15-horsepower engine and speeds of 155 miles per hour: try that on conventional rail! Via Boing Boing.

FRN 2.0

Jonathan Crowe — Fri, 11 May 2007 01:01:32 +0000

Six months in, and I’ve been doing some thinking about this blog. Expect fewer posts about railroad earnings, accidents and strikes, and other news reports: keeping track of such things isn’t nearly as interesting as finding web pages about cool train stuff but takes up a lot of time and energy, neither of which I have in abundance. So, from here on in, less of the former (unless it’s big), more of the latter.

Ottawa Central Open House

Jonathan Crowe — Fri, 04 May 2007 11:28:17 +0000

I mentioned in my entry on the Ottawa Central that there was an open house on April 28 that I was thinking of attending. Well, despite the rain, I decided at the last minute to go, and I have now posted my photos to Flickr.

It was set up like a temporary rail museum, with rolling stock, locomotives and MOW equipment set up along the yard and shop tracks — vintage equipment from the Bytown Railway Society plus O-Train and VIA Rail trainsets. An OCRR locomotive took people up and down Walkley Yard on cab rides (at a good clip, I thought); there was a long lineup for that. Some of the exhibits were familiar to me from the Kemptville show, but those from the rail industry had a definite focus on safety. (On a related note, security there was very tight; we were, after all, at the Ottawa Central’s World Headquarters.)

Subway Map Controversies

Jonathan Crowe — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 14:02:19 +0000

On my map blog, The Map Room, a couple of recent posts about subway maps: Madrid’s new metro map is encountering some resistance; a designer is trying to get his new map of the New York subway into circulation. In both cases, the new maps are so different from their predecessors that, even if they’re demonstrably better — which they may or may not be — their unfamiliarity is getting in the way of their adoption.

Disneyland Steam Engines, Now on Biodiesel

Jonathan Crowe — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 03:17:57 +0000

Both Disneyland and Walt Disney World have a railroad: each has a small fleet of refurbished narrow-gauge steam locomotives running on a couple of miles of track around the park. Even though they’re steam engines, they’re also kind of diesels: the fireboxes are heated by diesel fuel rather than coal or Bunker C. Starting this year, though, the Disneyland steam engines have been running on biodiesel. (The fuel is mostly soybean oil.) The engines, which range from 50 to more than a hundred years old, seem to be working well on the new fuel. Via Boing Boing. Photo by Rich Martin; see also the Disney Railroads Flickr group.

CN Strike and Accident Update

Jonathan Crowe — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 12:32:39 +0000

With workers in some areas on strike or locked out and others reporting for work, the union side of the CN strike seems to be in chaos, and now the Canadian labour minister announced plans to legislate an end to the strike yesterday.

The previous round of strikes had a major impact on Canada’s trade surplus (and, therefore, on Canada’s export-based economy).

Meanwhile, the Cheakamus River derailment has not gone away as a headache for CN: the B.C. government says that CN may be charged under provincial environment and federal fisheries legislation. CN’s offices were searched on Thursday.

Update, April 18: The House of Commons passed back-to-work legislation Tuesday night and could be law by the end of the week.

Passenger Rail as Economic Stimulus

Jonathan Crowe — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 00:54:55 +0000

Speaking of Dan Zukowski, he’s impressed with new Amtrak chief Alexander Kummant, particularly for his argument (briefly made here) that public investment in passenger rail promotes economic development.

Mr. Kummant’s comment signals a shift in the conversation. It’s no longer about “subsidies” for passenger trains; it’s about spurring economic development by answering demands for better transportation, revitalized downtowns and more livable cities. Investment in passenger rail is no different than building a sports stadium, hosting an Olympics or opening an airport. Government investment becomes the economic engine that drives private investment.

(Mind you, a sports stadium or the Olympics may not be the best examples to base your case on … )

A Ride on the California Zephyr

Jonathan Crowe — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 00:48:14 +0000

Dan Zukowski rode Amtrak’s California Zephyr in August 2005, during a time when Amtrak’s future was in some doubt. That three-day trip has now been distilled into a ten-minute video:

Via Dan Zukowski.

On Board the Record-Setting TGV

Jonathan Crowe — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 00:30:03 +0000

Philippe Hérissé was on board the special TGV trainset that broke the rail speed record last week, and begins a detailed account of his experience. In French. Via TrainBlog.

Previously: TGV Speed Record Video; 574.8 Kilometres Per Hour; SNCF Hypes Imminent TGV Record Attempt; Another TGV Speed Record.

Rail Runner Races Fire

Jonathan Crowe — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 12:26:14 +0000

A controlled burn near Albuquerque got out of control; during live TV coverage of the fire (in fact, just as they were cutting away), a New Mexico Rail Runner commuter train appeared to go right past the flames. And there was much consternation, though apparently no real risk. Via Techyum.

CN Workers Reject Deal, Begin Rotating Strikes

Jonathan Crowe — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 12:18:02 +0000

Oops. Despite their union reaching a tentative deal with CN six weeks ago, CN’s conductors and yard workers overwhelmingly rejected the deal in a ratification vote yesterday. The vote was nearly 80 per cent against. Rotating strikes are now under way, beginning in British Columbia.