Archive for the ‘Trains’ Category

Obit watch: April 7, 2022.

Thursday, April 7th, 2022

Eric Boehlert.

A frequent commentator on television and radio, as well as a prolific writer, Mr. Boehlert never shied away from searing critiques of what he saw as bias in the mainstream press and the circular impact of media on politics.
After more than a decade as a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, a left-leaning media monitoring group, Mr. Boehlert had in recent years started his own newsletter, Press Run, as a vehicle for his commentary.

According to reports, he was hit by a train while bicycling.

Justice John Michalski, “an acting justice of the [New York] State Supreme Court”.

But last month, Justice Michalski came under renewed scrutiny, and his cases were once again reassigned, after federal and state investigators raided his home. He had not been charged with any crime, but he had drawn the authorities’ attention because of his ties to Peter Gerace Jr., the owner of a strip club in Cheektowaga, another Buffalo suburb.
Mr. Gerace was charged in federal court in Florida last year with sex trafficking, drug distribution and bribery of a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent. He denies the charges, and the case has since been transferred to the Western District of New York.
The former agent, Joseph Bongiovanni, has been charged with bribery, obstruction and conspiracy. An indictment detailing the charges against the two men says that Mr. Bongiovanni’s associates included people “he believed to be members of, connected to or associated with” organized crime.
Another man identified in the indictment as having links to organized crime is Michael Masecchia, a longtime Buffalo schoolteacher now facing up to life in prison after pleading guilty to gun and drug charges.

According to reports, the judge committed suicide. He had tried to kill himself last year on the same day Mr. Gerace was indicted.

Rae Allen, actress. Other credits include “Lou Grant”, “Soap”, and “The Untouchables”.

Most Shocking!

Tuesday, October 5th, 2021

Here’s a surprise for you:

Federal investigators on Tuesday morning raided the Manhattan office of one of New York City’s main police unions in connection with an ongoing investigation, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
The union, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, represents about 13,000 active and retired police sergeants in New York. Its headquarters were searched as part of an investigation by the F.B.I. and the public corruption unit in the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, the people said.

The home of the union’s president, Edward D. Mullins, was also searched.

Though the focus of the investigation into the Sergeants Benevolent Association is unclear, it comes as Mr. Mullins faces departmental discipline over his conduct on social media. Known in recent years for making brash and incendiary remarks on Twitter, particularly about Mayor Bill de Blasio, Mr. Mullins declared war on the mayor last year after two officers were shot, accusing Mr. de Blasio of promoting anti-police attitudes.
Mr. Mullins is being brought up for department discipline over his posts on Twitter, including for sharing a police report documenting the arrest of Mr. de Blasio’s daughter, Chiara, during protests over police brutality and racial justice in New York last year. The Police Department does not typically release internal reports, and the one that Mr. Mullins shared contained personal information about Ms. de Blasio.
A disciplinary hearing on the charges started last month and is scheduled to resume on Oct. 27. Mr. Mullins’s lawyer, Andrew C. Quinn, has defended his conduct as free speech and as part of his obligation to advocate on behalf of the union’s members.

Mr. Mullins also faces internal discipline over tweets in which he used profane language against Dr. Oxiris Barbot, the former city health commissioner, and Representative Ritchie Torres, a Democratic congressman who represents the Bronx.
Mr. Torres, who has called for Mr. Mullins’s resignation over what he has described as racist, misogynistic and homophobic remarks, tweeted on Tuesday that Mr. Mullins had received a “first-class raid” from the F.B.I.
Mr. Mullins has also drawn scrutiny for his outspoken right-wing politics in a city where Democrats significantly outnumber Republicans. Both the sergeants’ union and its larger sister union, the Police Benevolent Association, have been run mostly by conservatives whose views are not widely shared by many in the metropolis they police.
Mr. Mullins has praised former President Donald J. Trump, a Republican who was deeply unpopular among city residents. He also came under fire from liberal lawmakers after giving an interview to Fox News surrounded by paraphernalia linked to QAnon, a fringe conspiracy theory popular among Trump supporters.

(Side note: “one of New York City’s main police unions”? You may be asking: how many police unions does NYC have? Mike the Musicologist asked me that same question a while back, in relation to a different scandal. Other than the Sergeants Benevolent Association, there’s also the Police Benevolent Association, which represents the line officers, and the Detectives Endowment Association, which represents the detective ranks. It isn’t clear to me if the command ranks (above sergeant) and the civilian staff have their own unions.)

Edited to add 10/6: Sergeant Mullins resigned his union presidency last night, after I posted this. The Post reports that he remains a NYPD sergeant, and that he made “$88,757 from the union and $133,195 from the NYPD” last year.

When was the last time there was a shootout on a train? Maybe the Long Island Rail Road, but was that a shootout?

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 410

Saturday, May 15th, 2021

I said I wasn’t going to make Safety Saturday a thing, and I’m still not. However, I do have a couple of videos I can’t pass up.

“Handling Explosives in Underground Mines”. There’s some good information in here, if you are a miner.

The most important safety tip, which is not covered in this video, is: do not try to cross Boyd Crowder.

Bonus #1: How about something different? Like trains?

One of the craziest railroad films of all time, “Escape from Limbo” is part Twilight Zone episode, part safety film that is just as entertaining as any half-hour TV show from the 1950’s. The film tells the bizarre tale of Pennsylvania Railroad fireman Henry who apparently gets killed in a hunting accident. He ends up in Limbo where a Devil explains that he is now required to cause accidents on the railroad line — in an attempt to gather other souls for his patron. This unique premise allows the filmmakers to show nearly all types of accidents, from switch weights dropped on feet to maiming and — death.

Bonus #2: This could have gone in Military History Monday, but it is short and amused me. The Marines remind you: “Safety First”.

Don’t forget to hydrate.

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 401

Thursday, May 6th, 2021

Travel Thursday!

Do you like kids? Do you like trains? Do you like kids on trains?

“Big Trains Rolling”, from the Association of American Railroads. This dates to either 1946 or 1955: YouTube contradicts itself.

Is it just me? Am I an old man? Or do those two kids seem awfully young to be taking a train trip alone?

Bonus: I can’t believe I haven’t used this one, but it doesn’t come up in a search, and I had it bookmarked…

“Wings to Guatemala” from those wonderful folks at Pan Am.

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 385

Tuesday, April 20th, 2021

Today’s my birthday, so I’m queuing this up in advance. I thought I’d try to do something a little different today, maybe go back to some things I haven’t done in a while.

Like trains.

“Last of the Giants”. This appears to be a Union Pacific documentary about their “Big Boy” steam locomotives, which they operated in “revenue service” until 1959. UP still operates one “Big Boy” and one “800 Series” locomotive for promotional purposes.

Interestingly, the “Big Boy” has actually been converted to run on oil:

Bonus: Do you like people speaking with Russian accents? Do you like Zippos? I like Zippos. Most of the time, I can take or leave Russian accents.

By way of “CrazyRussianHacker“, “7 Zippo Gadgets You Did NOT Know Exist”.

It doesn’t (generally) get that cold in Texas, but I kind of want one of those Zippo hand warmers anyway. I remember my dad used to have something similar kicking around, but he didn’t use it much in my memory, because it doesn’t (generally) get that cold in Texas. There have been some New Year’s Eve’s when we’ve been setting off fireworks, though…

Bonus #2: Here’s a bit of a time capsule for you. It could also fall under “Travel Thursday”, but I’m not putting it there for two reasons. One, this is different.

The “Museum of Automata” in York. Apparently, this was filmed sometime in the 1990s.

Reason number two is that, sadly, from what I’ve found on the Internet, the museum closed quite a while ago.

Bonus #3: I will freely admit, I am posting this one to tweak someone who says “‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ f–king ruled!” (My own personal opinion: the monster fight scenes were pretty good. Unfortunately, there was an excess of humans and human interaction in the movie, and I really didn’t like any of the humans. The kaiju film that would “f–king rule” for me would be the monster equivalent of “The Raid: Redemption”: maybe two minutes of introductory setup, two minutes of epilogue, and 116 minutes of giant monsters fighting.)

Anyway, C.W. Lemoine ruins the first fight scene from “Godzilla vs. Kong”.

To be honest, I thought the movie looked a lot better on the screen at the Alamo than it does in this video. Also, to be fair, it is just a TV show movie: I should really just relax.

Edited to add 4/20: Hand to God, I had no idea Lawrence was even working on this, much less planning to post it today.

Bonus #4: I see a lot of folks talking about minimizing their lifestyle, and stripping away almost everything to the point where they can live almost completely out of a van. (I see very few of these folks who have toilets in their vans: apparently, when they need a bathroom, they find one at a gym, gas station, store, or other place of public accommodation. But I digress.)

Have you ever listened to these folks talk, or read any of their praises for van life, and asked yourself, “Self, what do these people do when it is -20 degrees? -20 Communist Centigrade degrees, too, not -4 American Fahrenheit degrees.” (See, by converting from Centigrade to Fahrenheit, you’ve already made yourself feel warmer. If you go a step beyond and convert to 455 degrees Rankine, you’ll probably give yourself heat stroke.)

Well, here you go.

Bonus #5: Okay, I know I’m posting a lot of stuff today. Consider this a present on my birthday to you, my loyal readers.

Have you ever asked yourself, while stoned on your couch, “Self, what ever happened to all those paintings Bob Ross painted?”

I’m going to guess: probably not, because I don’t think most of you are stoners. But just in case, the NYT (who probably are a bunch of stoners, judging from some of the crazy (stuff) they publish these days) investigated. Here’s what they found.

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 357

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2021

I was talking with my brother about calculator watches recently, which reminded me of this video from Techmoan: “Hewlett Packard HP-01 1977’s Smartest Watch”.

As a HP geek, I would kind of like to have one of these: however, examples in good condition are expensive.

Bonus #1: I also thought it might be interesting to do some startup videos. Not tech startups, but starting up things. For example, an Airbus A320:

Bonus #2: Or a railroad locomotive.

Bonus #3: Or a DC-3.

Bonus #4: Or a tractor, “with a 12 guage shotgun shell”. I believe this gives new meaning to the term “shotgun start“.

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 338

Thursday, March 4th, 2021

Travel Thursday!

Would you like to fly in my beautiful balloon? Or if not that, a passenger airplane from the 1950s?

From those wonderful folks at TWA, “Flight To California”.

Bonus, plus CanCon! “The Mother of Rivers”, about the Columbia River ice field. Made about 1947 for the Canadian National Railways by our old friends at the National Film Board of Canada.

Bonus #2: Again, I’m stretching the definition of travel, but this involves planes and is short. Have you ever wanted to see a Boeing 747-8 fully loaded abort a takeoff at 200 MPH? Using only the brakes, no reverse thrust? And by the way, the brakes are worn down to the metal studs?

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 321

Monday, February 15th, 2021

I don’t want to seem like I’m whinging about the cold (even if it is 477.67 degrees Rankine out at the moment) so I thought I’d fall back to some more military history today.

From 1944, vintage OSS film: “Army Experiments In Train Derailment & Sabotage”. You know, it is a lot harder to derail a train than you’d think…

Bonus video #1: higher quality, and more recent: “An Eye In the Darkened Sky”, a promo video for the A6-E Intruder and the Target Recognition Attack Multi-Sensor system (TRAM).

This was a small, gyroscopically stabilized nose turret containing a FLIR boresighted with a laser spot-tracker/designator and IBM AN/ASQ-155 computer. TRAM allowed highly accurate attacks without using the Intruder’s radar, and also allowed the Intruder to autonomously designate and drop laser-guided bombs.

Bonus video #2: “Royal Navy Learning Gutter Fighting”. Might be some useful tips here if you’re the kind of person who gets held at bayonet or gun point.

Bonus video #3, and I think this one is a real treat: “Cowboy 57” a 1959 short about the day to day activities of a B-52 crew. The treat is: this is narrated by Brigadier General James Maitland Stewart.

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 319

Saturday, February 13th, 2021

My phone currently claims that the low on Sunday will be 11 degrees Fahrenheit with snow, and the low on Monday will be 8 degrees Fahrenheit.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…

“Clearing An Avalanche Using Explosives!”

“Railroad Crew Uses Howitzer CANNON to Trigger Huge Avalanche”.

“With this long range 105 howitzer, the team will fire shells into the danger zone…”

You know, those space blankets are so cheap, you probably ought to get a few. Keep one in your car(s), maybe tuck one away in a windbreaker or coat pocket (they’re small, too)…search Amazon for “mylar survival blanket”.

“German Military Special Forces Mylar Blanket Survival Shelter”

“Now you might be asking yourself, ‘Self, why is this guy taping chapstick and a lighter together with 550 cord?'” Answer: “Make the Best Fire Kit! Light a Fire Any Time Any Where!!”

Finally, “Lost WINTER Survival Challenge (NO Food, NO Water, NO Shelter!) | Knife, Saw, Axe, Wire, Rope”.

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 315

Tuesday, February 9th, 2021

Since I ran really long yesterday, I thought I’d go mostly shorter today. I also thought I’d post some things totally unrelated to military aviation: while I have a bunch of new related stuff in the queue, I’m going to try to avoid going back to that well more than once a week.

(And, of course, Thursday and Sunday are already booked up with unrelated topics.)

From 1953, according to the YouTube notes: “The 225,000 Mile Proving Ground”, a short documentary about railroad research and development. Featuring Hugh Beaumont being a little hard on the Beaver.

Bonus #1: Did you know there was an Early Television Museum? There is. According to their website, it’s even open right now. Hillard is closer to Columbus than my usual stomping grounds of Cleveland, but not out of the realm of possibility for a day trip.

In the meantime, here’s a tour of the Early Television Museum. And I guess this does sort of tie back to yesterday’s Walleye video.

Bonus #2: I said “mostly shorter” because I did want to make one exception, on the grounds of timeliness: from the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco, October 31, 2013: “An Evening With Hal Holbrook”. About 77 minutes long.

In a rare treat, the audience enjoyed several extended recitations of Twain throughout the evening.” If that helps you make up your mind…

When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have…

Thursday, December 3rd, 2020

wheel-lock pistols.

mudslides.

train tracks.

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 241

Thursday, November 26th, 2020

Travel Thursday! And happy Thanksgiving!

I was hoping that Pan Am would have done “Wings to Turkey”, or something similar. But, alas, no. So how about a tour of a turkey farm with Temple Grandin, from the National Turkey Federation?

Bonus #1: “To Mount Lowe With Love”, a documentary about the Mount Lowe Railway. Because I feel like putting the “fun” back into “funicular”.

Bonus #2: Stretching the definition of “travel” a bit here, but I wanted to do something appropriate for Spaghetti Carbonara Day.

There are an awful lot of spaghetti carbonara videos on YouTube, many of which seem to be responses or complaints about Gordon Ramsey’s version. I thought I’d use this one, since I believe Lidia Bastianich is pretty trustworthy when it comes to Italian food. If you’re cooking for my mother, though, please leave the onions out. (She loves Lidia, but she hates onions. I actually don’t think onions are part of a traditional carbonara, but I welcome being proved wrong.)