UP
Coming Events
November 5th Portable Track
Ocean View Fireworks Display
November 12/13/14 Christchurch Model
Engineering Exhibition
November 14 Portable Track Taieri Highland
Games, Noon till ?
November 27 Picnic St Patricks Lodge 2-4.30pm
December 4th Neill
Curry[Jnr]Birthday Party 1.30 until
3.30pm.
December 5th The Hiram Lodge No.46
Picnic 2pm until 4.30pm.
December 5th Portable
Track Fisher and
Paykel
December 11th Aotea Electrical
Picnic
11am-3.0pm
December 12th Picnic St Kilda
Kindy
11am-1pm
December 18th Picnic
WestpacTrust 11am
-1.30pm
JANUARY 2000 at Blenheim Jan.
6th-11th , CONVENTION 2000
February
12 Portable Track Portobello A&P Show
[tentative]
February
12/13 Model Vehicle Club [Otago] Display
February
19/27 Festival Week
Exhibition
February
26 Portable Track Mosgiel West [tentative]
March
4/5 International Plastic Modellers Display
March
4 TTn3.5 visits Roxburgh [tentative]
April
21/24 [Easter 2000]
Christchurch Model Railway Convention.
P O Box 8421 Christchurch.
April
29/30 Little Train Show in
Dunedin
Meet of the Millennium August 12-Sept4
2000 West Coast
of Canada and United States
GORE MODEL ENGINEERS
running day, 3rd Saturday of the month.
SOUTHLAND SOCIETY OF MODEL ENGINEERS run 1st
Sat of
month.
OTAGO MODEL ENGINEERING running last Sunday [pm] of
month.
Monthly Meeting
8 November 1999 AT 8.00PM
Scale Railway, Engineering and Boat Group
will give a
Presentation of up to twenty minute
on
Aspects of modelling related to their
group
Presidents
Comments
I would like to
thank John Clover for his excellent editing of last months
Conrod.
By the
time you receive this we will have held the OMES Members friends and family
day. The indicated numbers look
good so I am sure it will go well.
It is very pleasing to see the level of work that has been carried out
around the club in the last twelve months.
This includes a new roof on the main hall, new roof on the boat shed,
water circulating equipment, a porch on the new hall, the setting up of the
container, the painting of the main hall ceiling, new trolleys for the portable
railway, new axles and wheels on the portable railway trailer, deadlock on the
internal doors and numerous other small projects. We have extensions being made for the
honours board, which will include a category for those have made bequests to the
Otago Model Engineering Society. I
believe that the club records have all these documented, however we wish to
ensure that the Honours Board is accurate so if you are aware of any gift to the
Society of this nature please check with the secretary that it is included on
the list. Before the final set up
of the names on the Honours Board a list will be published in Conrod. I would like to remind you that as
editor I am always looking for input from the members for articles. It was pleasing to see the article in
the recent Model Engineer magazine on the electric locos built by the members of
our club.
On a personal level
I found the trip to the Southland Great Little Train Show most reward. The opportunity to meet up with our own
members in a different environment, old friends and new friends from other parts
of the country, discussing modelling has encouraged me to branch into building
an n scale portable layout which can be used for such occasions as the various
train shows. Have attended the last two Southland shows and have enjoyed both
visits. Unfortunately we were much
later getting the truck than anticipated however we arrived in Invercargill just
after nine and had the layout set up quite quickly. Saturday was a very warm but windy day
and the public turnout in big numbers.
The Club members ran British on the Portable Layout. On Sunday it was wet
and windy and still the public turned out in good numbers considering the
weather. The OMES portable layout featured American on Sunday. Because of the good number of members
present the packing up of the layouts and loading them into the truck went very
well. We were all ready to head
North by 6pm.
Last year I
mentioned to Jim Hall the trestle on the Southland club layout looked unfinished
and not nearly strong enough to support the trains running over it. Since my
last visit Jim has done a lot of work on the trestle and it is now one of the
nicest trestle bridges about. It is
good to see the Southland Train show so well supported and augers well for the
Dunedin Train Show next year.
At the recent
committee meeting the raffling of the current n scale layout was approved. The funds generated from this will be
used to build a new, more portable n scale layout, which is currently in the
planning stage. There has also been
talk of creating HO modules to connect with the current HO layout, which will
provide more operational possibilities, and I would hope this would provide the
club with another exhibition layout.
Planning is well
underway for festival week. Details
will be provided as festival week draws nearer. Now that the better weather is with us I
look forward to more activity at the Club.
We have bookings for picnics and Christmas parties, birthday parties and
the portable railway so we will need your support over the coming busy
period. I look forward to seeing
you all, active about the club.
Just a reminder that this is the last Conrod for those who have not paid
their current years subscription.
John Nelson
This bloke will be here soon.
"Men might as well project a voyage to the
Moon as attempt to employ steam navigation against the stormy North Atlantic
Ocean."
- Dr. Dionysus Lardner (1838) Professor of Natural Philosophy and
Astronomy, University College, London
The
Thursday Work Group
I mentioned last month, Allan Stevens’ M.E. article on battery locos, well, those who have access to the Garden Rail Magazine will see in the September 1999 number on page 38 another excellent article by John Clover on the same subject of ‘Batch Building’. Photos by John have been reproduced to a very high standard indeed. Title of the article is ‘The Magnificent Seven’.
Thursday Toiling is not all work, lots of modelling is seen to be done, such as John Clover casting stretchers and toilet seats (?) in aluminium, Des Burrow making brass jet-boat intake- grilles, re-testing two loco boilers for Charlie C and Bob Bell brazing up boiler for ‘The Rocket’.
Otherwise for the past month there has been a lot of activity on the various projects enhancing our facilities. Draught proofing battery locos area is finished, aerating paddle wheel had its motor cover fitted by Ken DaRin and I think is now finished. Doug Stokes has done a tremendous job, with overtime, on fitting very neat blinds to the scale railway for dust exclusion.
Peter Fitzgibbon did a lot of hard shovel work the other day to clear and improve the boat pond drainage. Did you know he also recently donated to the Society a bottle cooler for our catering area which only required minor adjustment by the local captive plumber man. Thanks Peter!
Colin Burrow has been busy also, whacking down our great winter crop of green grass assisted by two boilermakers getting exercise with a rake, followed by Ken and his weed spraying train.
A lot of lumps of spoked cast iron have arrived from the shot blasters lately so it looks like the 7¼¨ ‘Butch’ project is well underway, does anyone need iron filings for their flowers?
John and Tony had a great clean up of the foundry-steaming up shed and I will quote a remark by Tony (relating to their successes in moulding) “Expert = Ex (used to be) Spert (a drip under pressure)”.
That’s about the lot, apologies for omissions. Numbers present on Thursday vary from 10 to 14 or so. Tom Smellie is out and about again after having his main pump adjusted.
Cheerio (not the one you eat) for now.
Chas C.
Boat Group
News
Plans are underway
to improve management of the Radio Control frequencies at the pond. At this stage it looks as though it will
be a combination of coloured ribbons and name tags. Members are asked to check which
frequencies are being used before putting your boat on the pond. It is also
important to give all members a fair go on the pond so scale boats, yachts and
power boats do not clash.
Americas Cup (By
permission of YNZ Magazine Wavelength
“The oldest sporting
trophy in history”
“The worlds greatest
race”. Empire, Moguls, adventure junkies and technological trail blazers. The
America’s Cup doesn’t do things by halves – nor does it attract half hearted
interest. The sailors, the science, the sponsorship and the skill is all of “a
calibre” that makes the Cup stand head and shoulders above other sporting
events. With the first round robin
of the Louis Vuitton Cup about to start, the stage is set for some of yacht
racings greatest performances, with some of the biggest names in the sport
taking top billing. With entrants
from Europe, Asia, America and Australasia, the eyes of half a billion people
around the world , with a little help from satellite television and the
internet, will be firmly focused on the Hauraki Gulf.
With four months of
racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup before the America’s Cup match itself in March
2000, this will be a long running show.
The much litigated Deed of Gift that outlines the strict rules of
engagement for the America’s Cup contest says that any challenge for the Cup
must be made through a yacht club.
Similarly the defender must allied to a yacht club, indeed for any race
(March or Otherwise) held under the international rules of sailing established
by the sports international body ISAF.
There must be representation from a club, which is where the Royal New
Zealand Yacht Squadron enters the scene.
For much of the Cup history, the event has been hosted by the New York
Yacht Club, which is said to have more income amongst its members than the
entire New Zealand Gross Domestic Product.
This could be true considering the club’s challenge for the right to sail
against Team New Zealand next march was funded early on by a six figure donation
from it’s members. By the time the
winner of the Louis Vuitton series has been decided in early February, there
will have been three round robins followed by the semi finals in December and a
final sail off in late January to decide the winner. Regatta operations will have assembled a
cast of hundreds to run the show.
And what happens once the final curtain comes down, all bows have been
taken, the applause has subsided and the members of the audience have gone home?
“Business as usual” says the organising committee “We’ve got the yachting New
Zealand Olympic Trails to look forward too.
HMS Bounty
A coal-carrying
merchant ship operating on the coast of England, the Bounty was purchased by the
admiralty and recommissioned in 1787 for a special m e was to sail halfway
around world to Tahiti; collect sapling breadfruit trees and transport them to
the West Indies. Owners of the burgeoning British plantations there needed a
cheap source of food for the workers.
To lead the
mission, the admiralty picked 33-year-old Lt. William Bligh, who had just
returned from the South Pacific on Capt. Cook's last voyage of discovery. Though
portrayed as abusive tyrant by Hollywood, Bligh may be one of the greatest
seamen who ever lived.
After trying
for 30 days to make it westward around Cape Horn, as he had hoped to go, Bligh
turned about and followed the course of the Roaring '40s under the Cape of Good
Hope into the Pacific. After arriving in Tahiti, 10 months after leaving
England, Bligh and the crew set about to collecting the more than 1,000
breadfruit plants they were to take to the Caribbean. They spent five months on
Tahiti, during which time Bligh allowed many of the crew to live ashore. Without
the discipline and rigid schedules of the sea, the men went native. When the
time came to return to England, some were already contemplating staying on the
islands.
Two weeks out
of Tahiti, miserable with having left the Tahitian wife he took while there,
first mate Fletcher Christian took the ship. Of the 44 men on board, 31 sided
with Bligh. Of the 31, 18 went over the side to be set adrift in the longboat
with Bligh. The mutineers then set off for Tahiti, where they put the rest of
the sailors loyal to Bligh ashore, picked up their Tahitian wives, girlfriends
and several Tahitian men, and set off to hide forever from the long arm of the
British law.
Bligh navigated
the longboat 3,600 miles to safety in 41 days using only a sextant and a pocket
watch. Only one man died -- stoned to death by angry natives on the first island
they tried to land on. The voyage was a feat of navigation that is unparalleled
to this day.
The mutineers
eventually settled on Pitcairn Island, an isolated rock in the South Pacific
that was misplaced on British charts. They burned the ship in Bounty Bay and
weren't found for 25 years.
After all but one of the mutineers had been killed by
either each other or the Tahitian men they brought with them, the last one,
Alexander Smith, began rebuilding a society on the island based on the ship's
bible. Today their descendants still live there in a moralistic society that
still only sees one ship every six months.
A full-rigged ship built in 1783 at the River Hull as the Bethia. Registered dimensions: 85'1"½×24'4"×11'4", burthen 220 26/94 tons.
1783 [?] Keel laid in Dry Dock No. 2 on the River Hull.
1787 May 26 Purchased by the Navy Board from Meesrs Wellbank, Sharp and Brian for £ 2600. She was moved from the Old Wapping Stairs to the Deptford Yard for fitting out.
1787 June 8 Renamed the HMS Bounty.
1787 August 16 Lieutenant William Bligh was appointed by the Admiralty as the commander of HMS Bounty.
1787 December 23 HMS Bounty sails from Spithead for Tahiti.
1788 March 23 – April 21 Struggles to round Cape Horn, but is forced to turn around and sail for the Cape of Good Hope instead.
1788 May 24 – June 28 Repairs and provisioning at the False Bay.
1788 August 20 – September 3 Provisioning at Adventure Bay.
1788 October 26 Arrives at Matavai Bay, Tahiti.
1789 April 4 Leaves Tahiti for the West Indies.
1789 April 29 A mutiny lead by Fletcher Christian occurs.
1790 January 23 The Bounty was burnt at Pitcairn Island after having been stripped of everything useful.
The Log of HMS Bounty - William Bligh are on display at
the Mitchell Library - State Library of New South Wales
Scale
Railway
Following on from contact with Folkstone Model Railway Club over permission to reprint the Anti Model Railway Club we have exchanged some Conrods for Fishplates. They are real machinistic people and the Club layout is in EM, or finescale OO, with hand laid trackwork. They have had some problems at a previous exhibition and it sounds like a major re-build is in place.
Since we are considering a re-built or modification with more destinations there is one wiring concept of interest. Instead of section switches on the train control box these are incorporated into the point switches. Obviously PECO and others had it right in the first place. It is thought this leads to less confusion than having to change a point AND cut/connect power to the section of track. Though how you do it for double-ended ladder configurations?
Some brain-storming in Committee resulted in a further job for the Scale Railway carpenter's]. After pushing the giant display cabinet around and around during painting the idea came from Allan Stevens that it should be re-cycled into shallow shelving which would enable closer and better examination of the HO/OO stock it usually contains at exhibiton time This would normally be attached to the `yellow' wall but could be removed to other sites such as the Little Train Show, wherever that is to be held. Gary Douglas has also offered to donate thin mirrors so that the reverse side of the model can be seen.
John Nelson expressed his reluctance to provide trains on the occasional basis for picnics and whatever but was happy to lend a permanent `in-resident' train if others were also willing. A further suggestion was that these should be stored `ready-to-run' out of storage onto the layout … akin to a roll-on roll-off ferry. It would make life a lot simpler for people setting up shows where a range of models is probably more appropriate than our one-country style at exhibition time.
For those who have put together an Athern loco kit, or read the directions, it is a simple matter to change the loco's direction of travel. You swap the bogies around. It's a simple matter having removed the body to lift off the plastic cap at the top of each bogie, and the bogie drops out of the frame. It's a different matter if one has never seen Athern before and been used to the Traing XO style motors where you just change the wires over. Anyway, about an hour and a half latter we had the Club's third American style loco going in the `right' direction.
A second and third prize have been purchased for the raffle of the Club's N gauge layout. The layout is valued by some associated with it's construction as $1000 of materials plus their labours in building it.
Chris Bray brought one of his baseboards, a terminus section, in for advice regarding the wiring of it with twin cab control. He got plenty of advice on that and other aspects of wiring with the lid lifted on the Club's yard control box as an example of what to aim for. Although a home layout it has to be capable of being removed when the train-room is required for other uses. The legs fit into pockets very simply made of a short length of leg and a bit of 12mm ply. The layout is 12mm ply with 50x50 blocks at the corners. When packed away it fits on a series of shelves in the garage. Judging from the workmanship displayed it looks like being a very nicely turned out product.
A bit-on-the-table at a recent Group meeting was Group Leader James Tamis's coal auger adapted from a piece of photocopier doing a similar job. So instead of moving the horrible black-stuff found in photocopiers it will move the black-stuff from the mines. Next project is a wagon-tipper to empty the coal out of the wagons at the other end. The auger is powered by a motor also from a photocopier.
Welcome to
Woodvale 7'1/4" Electric Tramway
Believed to be Australia's
only 7 1/4 gauge electric tramway with working overhead wire we are situated at
Woodvale (about 12km north west of Bendigo) in Central Victoria. We operate as a
club on my 1km private track. New members and visitors are always
welcome.
As well as a miniature Birney
tramcar we run a couple of diesel-electrics and a steam loco. Visitors may run
their own rolling stock subject to AALS wheel standards and by prior
arrangement.
We run most days with steam
always on 1st Sunday of month (fire restrictions allowing). Phone, fax or email
for your invitation. We run for railway/tramway enthusiasts ONLY and DO NOT
offer rides to the general public.
Contact
Details
Phone/Fax: (03) 5446
1742
E-Mail:
tramway@hitech.net.au
Postal: PO Box 307, Eaglehawk, VIC
3556
HO Con-Cor
Digital Command Control (DCC) MP-15 Diesel Switchers
Con-Cor is making a limited
quantity of the HO MP-15’s available with a factory mounted DCC board which is
fully compatible with the new NMRA standards.
Retail: $109.98 sale $77 E-mail concor@azstarnet.com
The Rail Motor
Society
INTRODUCING THE
SOCIETY
The Rail Motor
Society is a group of dedicated volunteers who supply their time and energy to
the restoration, maintenance and operation of Rail Motors. The Society's Rail
Motors are passenger carrying self propelled railway vehicles. These vehicles
were introduced into the then New South Wales Government Railways in 1923 and
had a service life of approximately 60 years. They have an overall length of 42
feet (imperial) and a total seating capacity for 52 people. Their classification
code was CPH and railway staff affectionately called them Tin
Hares.
The CPH Rail Motor
was designed for branch line operation, mainly in country areas and serviced
locations where it was uneconomical to operate steam locomotive hauled passenger
trains.
This Society
operates a number of Rail Motor tours throughout the year with a duration of 1,
2 or 3 days to places of interest within New South Wales and arranges
appropriate overnight accommodation for patrons where
necessary.
FOUNDING OF
THE SOCIETY
The founding of this
Society was due to the proposed closing of many country branch line rail
services by the then State Rail Authority of New South Wales (SRA) who replaced
the Rail Motor services with road coaches.
A group of members
from the Newcastle Branch of the Australian Railway Historical Society (A.R.H.S.
- NSW division) realised that the CPH - 42 foot rail motors were soon to be
retired from service and would eventually be scrapped. With the electrification
of the Sydney outer suburban areas progressing rapidly the last remaining areas
of rail motor operation would cease as their services were replaced by suburban
electric rolling stock and the need for action was imperative. With only a
limited amount of time remaining the founding members began an urgent campaign
to generate interest of members in kindred societies with the hope of acquiring
and preserving these historical vehicles.
During 1984, the
then State Rail Authority of NSW (SRA), withdrew and disposed of their last
remaining CPH and 400 class rail motors and this event lead to the formation of
the Rail Motor Society in October of 1984 and was located at Paterson on the
Main North Coast Railway Line, 55 kilometres north of Newcastle. This Society
became an autonomous unit in 1986.
The Society was
granted full accreditation under the Rail Safety Act as a railway owner-operator
by the NSW Department of Transport in May, 1995. The Society is incorporated
under the NSW Associates incorporation Act, 1984. The Society is also nominated
as an official repository for the NSW heritage artefacts.
Man Killed by
Thomas the Tank Engine! Sir
Topham Hat
THOMAS THE TANK
ENGINE JUST KILLED A MAN.
A special pulled by the English version of the
Thomas the Tank excursions was on a private railroad when a man committed
suicide by jumping out from the woods along side the track and throwing himself
under Thomas the Tank.
The engineer couldn't bear to stop the train and have
the children on board see the decapitated body, so he kept on going until he
could stop out of view of the accident. An investigation is pointing out that
the man was emotionally distraught and had been drinking before the
accident.
The engineer has been cleared of wrong doing as the man jumped out
in front of him before anything could be done.
UNION
PACIFIC PLACES LARGEST EVER ORDER FOR NEW LOCOMOTIVES
Union
Pacific has placed an order with GM’s EMD Division for 1000 new SD70 Locomotives
to be delivered over the next three.
These locomotives will be leased from EMD and will reduce the diversity
in the UP fleet by allowing many older models to be retired. A press release from UP states that 18
models will be eliminated from the fleet with the acquisition of the SD
70’s. These are the first new DC
traction locomotives to be purchased by
UP since AC traction became available. These units will not have the isolated
cab. The
new model SD70 locomotives are slated to form the core of the Union Pacific
fleet,
replacing as many as 1,500 older, less efficient units with GM's
higher-horsepower, more fuel-efficient models.
Even the leasing Companies are buying new locos
with a recent or placed for 40 SD70 MAC, 20 new 1600 hp unit and 20 new 2000 hp
unit from EMD
With the
recent major rail accidents in the UK and New Zealand still under investigation
I decided to publish this report on a number of major accidents in the US in
recent times.This report was first published 11-01-1998
Fatigue
puts rail workers on a dangerous track
Irregular
schedules, antiquated regulations and railroad culture create crews of weary
workers running trains VETERAN
railroad conductor Jimmy Davis told his wife the early morning train trip would
be "a piece of cake." Instead, it would be his last. The 57-year-old conductor died along
with three other train workers on July 25, 1994, when his Southern Pacific
freight train entered a curve of West Texas track and plowed head-on into
another train coming from El Paso. The dozen colliding diesel engines burst into
flames and created a jolt that some
residents of nearby Marathon initially thought was an earthquake. Federal investigators later concluded
the probable cause the crew members of the eastbound train missed a stop signal
was they suffered from "reduced alertness consistent with falling asleep and
were not aware of the signal indications." The conductor had 4 1/2 hours of
sleep in the prior 51 ½ hours, while the engineer had slept 4 1/2 hours in 35
hours. More specifically, the
railroad's poor scheduling system made it difficult for workers to predict their
work and rest times and plan their sleep, the National Transportation Safety
Board said. "My dad always said, `You know, the unpredictability and the way
they are pushing men to the brink, one of these days there's going to be the
mother of all accidents,' " said Davis' oldest son, J.C., an engineer for Union
Pacific Railroad, which
bought Southern Pacific in September 1996. "And he was
right."
Worker
fatigue is an age-old problem in the 24-hour, seven-day-a-week railroad
business, which has long demanded that employees ignore their body clocks and
adapt to oddball schedules to move the goods. But there can be a steep price to
pay. In September, after the
first of two safety inspections, federal regulators cited Union Pacific for
safety problems including the concern that employees weren't getting enough
sleep. Of 14 accidents on Union Pacific lines in 1998 that were investigated by
the NTSB -- including three wrecks since that have claimed seven lives – at
least two involve crew fatigue as a possible factor. Among them is the collision
at 2:15 a.m. on July 2 1998 in Rossville, Kan., in which an engineer was killed
when his train rammed a passing freight train. The ensuing hazardous chemical
fire forced 1,000 people to evacuate the area, including 76 residents of a
nearby nursing home. Many conductors and engineers said the hardest part of the
job is their ever unpredictable schedules. Often working seven or more days in a
row, train workers privately confessed to suffering from exhaustion and
sometimes falling asleep or operating trains while drowsy.
To be
Continued in next months issue.
For
Sale
Bernie Revell has a "Canon 210 bubble jet printer I will sell at a
reasonable price, my daughter has bought me another printer, and I cannot seem
to use two at a time , so if you know of anyone needing one, perhaps you might
mention it (good working order)
phone
[03]-486-1898
Jack Anderson 03-688-1862 has a 12v DC GEC 2 speed compound wound electric motor for sale. Rated 1/4 to 1/3 HP at 2200<2900 RPM. It would be suitable for electric traction or as a 12v Electric Hoist motor. Comes with 2.5:1 gearbox and Jack wants $70 for it.
Convention
2000
The October Convention Newsletter has arrived and is on the Library notice board.
Loyal Careys Bay Yachting
Club
Have invited us to join in radio-controlled and free sailing model yachts on the morning of Sunday December 5th . Between 9am and Noon approximately. Following on in the afternoon at 1pm is a Dingy Race featuring Ug the Nuisance and Committee and at 2pm the Seagull Race for Windward Girls and Committee. Following that is an invitation race for outboard motors under 10hp of pre-1940 vintage. The headquarters of the LCBYC is of course the nearby tavern from which in recent years they have run the winter yacht race season.
Postscript to Engineering
Notes
Maintenance of the electric locos requires that the batteries be `boiled' every six months. We have a very nice kind member who is doing this for members who have to work for a living. It takes about two hours to do an we only have one outlet to do it with off the multiple charger.
Wrecks
from History in the USA
On Oct, 10, 1888 the
Lehigh Valley Railroad ran a series of extra trains from the Wyoming Valley to
Hazelton, for the Father Matthew Day, at temperance Movement (anti-drinking). The fifth extra train, stopped at
Mud Run to let off passengers. The sixth extra ran into the stopped train and
telescoped three cars right into each other. The boiler on the engine burst
scalding many.
Among the 66 dead, 23
were from Pleasant Valley, the name at the time for the present day town of
Avoca, PA. Historians argue, that
after the crash, the name was changed from Pleasant Valley to Avoca, meaning
"Vale of Mourning". The book,
History of the Lehigh Valley, by Robert Archer has a section on the
disaster.
A large two engine train
was crossing America. After they had gone some distance one of the engines broke
down. "No problem," the engineer thought, and carried on at half power. Farther
on down the line, the other engine broke down, and the train came to a
standstill. The engineer decided he should inform the passengers about why the
train had stopped, and made the following announcement: "Ladies and gentlemen, I have some good
news and some bad news. The bad news is that both engines have failed, and we
will be stuck here for some time.
The good news is that you decided to take the train and not
fly."
"What can be more
palpably absurd than the prospect held out of locomotives traveling twice as
fast as stagecoaches?" - The Quarterly Review, England (March
1825)
"When the Paris
Exhibition closes electric light will close with it and no more be heard
of."
- Erasmus Wilson (1878) Professor at Oxford University
