Whatzit?

[rogruth]

I've never seen that in any railroad book. It is on rails, I think.
How long were they in use and who made them? What was the power system?

So I was on the right track back a few posts.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

It's an electric cart. No longer in use. It takes a worker into is lookout both. This worker sits in the Holland or Lincoln Tunnel. His job is to be a traffic spotter. Now replaced by several cameras.

Actually, as you can see on the side of the cart, it's the Port of NY Authority Police doing traffic control.

Would have posted the entire pic though since you got it close enough, but was on the road a bit......

[E7]

I could see that it was some kind of small vehicle. Couldn't tell if the wheels had flanges or were just "contained" within the track. Hades would have frozen over before I got the whole thing!

[Roy]

Very cool...wouldn't have guessed that in a very long time. I wonder when they did away with those?

Last I noticed, they were using an open version of the same vehicle, though I do not recall the bumper at all.

Is this your newer vehicle, Murph?:

[webenda]

Some more...





Rufus, your whatzit was more fun than a tunnel full of elephants.

[webenda]

How long were they in use and who made them? What was the power system?

According to one report, the little cars began to shrink and the officers could not get into them anymore, so they were abandoned. No date was given.



According to The New York Times, the Holland Tunnel catwalk car was operational until the spring of 2011, when they ran out of skinny officers. Power was a 3 hp, 240-volt motor.

Similarly, the Lincoln Tunnel also had a catwalk car.

Rufus' image appears to have been taken in the early fifties, judging by the Packard in the view. The press release with photos I posted (circa 1960) tells us the car is powered by an eight HP gasoline engine; it has small stabilizing wheels that run on the track near the wall and a single wheel in the outside center.

* Update * DrakeMaijstral reports: "To this day, the Lincoln tunnel catwalk car (one with single outside center wheel) is parked near one of the tunnel entrances on the NY side. I commute between NJ and NYC daily and see it."



Reference: https://books.google.com/books?id=fNwDA ... e&q&f=true

[rogruth]

The method of tracking and propulsion also seemed to change.

[robert.]

In the late 90's those cars were fully enclosed. At some point in time the went away. Officers were brought to their post by a regular car. Traffic was stopped and the officer would climb into that little hut. Now nobody sits in there. How would you like to sit in a smog filled tunnel all day. That may be one job in need of union support. Now they have cameras throughout the tunnel. During day time hours traffic never moves above a crawl. It's one of my most unpleasant jobs. Driving to NYC.

[webenda]

Who built the catwalk cars?

Rufus' catwalk car was built by Packard Motor Company.

The other catwalk cars were built by the now-defunct Lennox Military Fabrication Solutions based out of Columbus, Ohio.

[webenda]

The method of tracking and propulsion also seemed to change.

Packard made the electric catwalk car for the Holland Tunnel.

Lennox made the gas engine catwalk car with the single powered wheel for the Lincoln Tunnel. Since it did not require a railroad track with 240 Volts on it the Lennox design made walking the catwalk safer.

[webenda]

One of the Lennox cars is on display at the Hoboken Historical Museum, 1301 Hudson St, Hoboken, NJ 07030.

[rogruth]

Thanks, Wayne.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Yes, this is the car I recall, as well as this little booth, from my travels thru the Lincoln Tunnels decades ago.

A friend of mine, riding on the backseat of one of my Hondas, had to climb up there into that catwalk and rush himself down toward the entrance from the spot where my motorcycle ceased to function (incredibly, we had run out of gas [I mean, WHO does that with a motorcycle!!! What an idiot!!] ) at approximately mid-tunnel. No little car came to the rescue, not that it was needed. The traffic just patiently crept along behind me as I ran at full-speed alongside the bike, making my way out of the tunnel from the dip at the midpoint where my friend had to dismount and I had to begin to run my way out. That's why I recall the booth and the little car so distinctly, I believe. And for some reason, I thought they had rubber tires.
Murph

Nice information you provided us, there, Wayne; you certainly are thorough. Thanks !

[HONDO74]

Whatzit ?

0001.jpg (58.7 KiB) Viewed 5358 times

[webenda]

Whatzit ?

Seed of the Coco de Mer palm tree. Are you going to plant it or eat it?

Legends of the coco de mer
Formerly Lodoicea was known as Maldive coconut. Its scientific name, Lodoicea maldivica, originated before the 18th century when the Seychelles were uninhabited. In centuries past the coconuts that fell from the trees and ended up in the sea would be carried away eastwards by the prevailing sea currents. The nuts can only float after the germination process, when they are hollow. In this way many drifted to the Maldives where they were gathered from the beaches and valued as an important trade and medicinal item.[11][21] This association is reflected in one of the plant's archaic botanical names, Lodoicea callipyge Comm. ex J. St.-Hil., in which callipyge is from Greek words meaning 'beautiful buttocks'. Other botanical names used in the past include Lodoicea sechellarum Labill. and Lodoicea sonneratii (Giseke) Baill.

Until the true source of the nut was discovered in 1768 by Dufresne, it was believed by many to grow on a mythical tree at the bottom of the sea. European nobles in the sixteenth century would often have the shells of these nuts polished and decorated with valuable jewels as collectibles for their private galleries. The coco de mer tree is now a rare and protected species.

What is the difference between a seed and a nut?
Most nuts are seeds, but not all seeds are nuts.
Nuts are defined as a simple, dry fruit with one seed (very occasionally two) in which the seed case wall becomes very hard at maturity. True nuts include pecan, sweet chestnut, beech, acorns, hazel, hornbeam and alder. Peanuts, almonds, pistachios, cashews, horse chestnuts and pine nuts are not nuts.

Botanically speaking, a coconut is a fibrous one-seeded drupe, also known as a dry drupe. However, when using loose definitions, the coconut can be all three: a fruit, a nut, and a seed. Botanists love classification.

The coconut is a seed, a big one, up to 12 inches and 40 lbs in the case of the Coco de Mer palm seed.