Made a stop in Gorham to see the local train museum, which includes a cute ex-Grand Trunk station in a stunning setting; an F7 in truly sad shape; and an 0-6-0 that I understand worked in an industrial setting but is painted for CN/GT.
Stopped in Whitefield to see New England's most (only?) famous rail signal, an ancient ball signal that once protected an MEC/B&M diamond. GATX MP15AC works for Vermont Rail System, which acquired this nearly dormant track recently and has been working to revive it.
Boo
Yup!
This place is extremely cool
Only to Waumbek, halfway up, but it's still pretty cool
βοΈπ
There are certain foundational things that it's useful to know. I did get something out of my grad school experience--at a very practice-focused program. But I always say I learned more from Transit and Housing Twitter than in school.
IME this is not much of a hot take among people who have been to planning school. Academics in the field are notoriously disconnected from what we might politely term "practice" and less politely call "reality."
Outstanding
Presumably a nod to ICG's bicentennial unit?
www.railpictures.net/photo/451197/
Back on the E because of the OL diversion and I've already watched one car drive through the Heath St busway and another illegally pass a stopped train on the street running segment. Make it stop.
I admit I wasn't necessarily expecting this war to give us a Belgrano moment but here we are apparently
www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...
Pretty huge news tonight: it seems that NJ Governor Mikie Sherrill has agreed to significantly downsize the proposed replacement of the Newark Bay Bridge. This is part of the Turnpike Extension proposal, which was already significantly scaled back. newjerseyglobe.com/governor/she...
Ok, I guess they started looking for Kurdish speakers last week. Loads of prep time!
x.com/i/status/202...
Image: Andy Dwyer from Parks and Rec, played by Chris Pratt, with text saying "I cannot emphasize enough how little I was thinking"
Hell, they didn't even think of the eternal "make the Kurds the expendable substitute for boots on the ground" play until the bombs were flying
From the rapidly rotating explanations and arguments it seems pretty clear that they just really wanted a war and didn't care about goals or justification, no? There's no real content to analyze there.
An oldie, but an important lesson: Arlington added 50,000 residents. Traffic fell.
Wilson Blvd (its main street): β23%.
Transit ridership: +34%.
When you build housing around transit, people drive less. @ggwash.org
ggwash.org/view/35122/a...
Many such places in Iowa!
Shabby, decayed Boxcar Red is apparently that town's thing
ROW quality indistinguishable from a cheaply built interurban--classic characteristic of a granger branchline.
Absolutely massive.
Congestion charges have been enacted in quite small cities in the UK, notably Durham (population 50,000) and Oxford (population 165,000). The assumption that congestion charges are only for cities on a New York / San Francisco / Philadelphia scale is not necessarily correct.
T'ruah's Purim Torah (satirical Jewish content on Purim) is always excellent but this year is particularly on point.
Cool! The NdeM PA at Puebla is operational!
youtu.be/EbU5W1XSX04?...
Judge Lewis Liman (brother of Doug Liman) has ruled that the federal government canβt unilaterally end congestion pricing, giving the MTA yet another court win on congestion pricing
Also a plausible read! In the context of the ancient world I would tend to think of "tribute" as being organized as a king-king relationship and I read this more as being a tax on everyone. But that's definitely an interpretation, not necessarily the literal read.
@jdcmedlock.bsky.social is the leading Poster and theorist of Taxes are Good on this site (and previously, the old site)
Ofc that assumes we translate ΧΧ‘ as "tax" rather than "forced labor," which is also a plausible, precedented translation
Esther 10:1 is the most Medlock verse of the Bible
