Whatzit?

[chuck]

Wayne, thanks for the links to the archive.

REPAIRING DUMMIES A T THE SCHENECTADY TESTS An interesting auxiliary of the fender and wheel-guard tests now being conducted at Schenectady by the New York Public Service Commission of the First District, is the shop built for handling the dummies used in the trials. As mentioned in the article on these tests published in the issue of Dummy Repair Shop Built for the Schenectady Fender and Wheel-Guard Trials to take up all the play and side motion in a joint between two M.C.B . couplers. The new device is a simple knuckle , which is made to fit any standard coupler head. It is so designed that it is interchangeable with the regular M.C.B. knuckle . An electric railway which has its cars fitted with these new knuckles can handle steam cars without changing the coupler head or using special coupling bars. Sept. 19, the dummies are fully clothed. The limbs are of wood , but the feet are of iron forms partly filled with lead, so that experiments with the dummies in standing positions can easily be made. The figures are being furnished by the Elmer P . Morris Company , of New York, and, as it would be too expensive to employ new dummies every time one was damaged, this company also keeps them in repair.

Early version of "crash test dummies".

https://www.alamy.com/the-regan-fender-under-test-at-schenectady-the-clark-wright-wheel-guard-showing-manner-in-which-body-is-picked-up-ionic-medication-this-dummy-picked-up-while-facing-car-which-150-pound-dummy-on-track-sideways-this-shows-mutilation-of-person-struck-in-trying-to-pass-was-moving-at-15-miles-an-hour-to-approaching-car-in-front-of-car-scientific-american-1908-09-26-image334354001.html

[webenda]

Wayne, thanks for the links to the archive.

Early version of "crash test dummies".

Exactly right, pedestrian crash dummies.

Thank you for the Scientific American images.

[webenda]

`

[rogruth]

Interesting. I had wondered if the street car people had been tested some way.
I recall that most street cars in our eastern Ohio area had some type.
Not all were the same. I was 11 or 12 when the street cars were killed.
Although the buses were prettier they smelled awful and I never liked
riding in a bus.

[chuck]

GM/Ford/Chrysler made pretty sure to eradicate the street car/interurban from memory/history. This was even a major plot point in "Who framed Roger Rabbit".

S.E. Michigan had a bustling interurban network to connect towns together back when "roads" were soggy/sloggy affairs. There were networks that connected Detroit to its "suburbs" and there were interconnections to connect what we now call suburbs together. Back then they were just towns! Every now and then you can find remnants of the old lines when they do a major street repair or someone notices remnants of an anachronistic bridge abutment or a tunnel portal.

There is a four part series of books detailing this, I picked up vol 3 because it covered my area's of interest, Detroit west to Jackson, and I have a number of historical studies of Plymouth/Northville that cover the routes and equipment used. Similar publications on the "Red Cars" and the PGE interurbans for LA have been published. The Michigan series was published under the banner "When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails".

"Light Rail" is making a comeback. As people realized the amount of time they are wasting along with the amount of money on parking, gas, insurance, etc. the more attractive the light rail commuter lines look. Some of the "trains" even feature bike parking on the car so you cab bike to/from the station on either end. There are folks in the NY Metro area that are living in western NJ and eastern Pennsylvania that ride NJ Transit or Metro North to get into NYC. The trains have wifi and reasonably comfortable seats that allow you to work on the way in/out is you so choose. Gonna be a while before you can do that with a car.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

"Coffeefruit extract, " found listed among the ingredients of a bottled-tea which is somewhat new to me: any definitive views of this substance? As food? For some reason, I am reluctant, though a bottle of bai tea containing it sits in front of me .

[chuck]

OK, the coffee we normally drink is from the beans inside the coffee fruit. Think about cherries. There is the part we eat and then there is the pit. Coffee beans are the "pit". It is extracted from the coffee cherry (real name, not making it up) and then dried, roasted and ground. The fruit is normally discarded.

From Web MD:

Caffeine
Vitamin B2 (riboflavin)
Magnesium
Antioxidants
Chlorogenic acid
Quinic acid
Diterpenes (cafestol and kahweol)

What we don’t know is the exact amount of coffee fruit that you should eat.

The presence of these materials throws it into the super-food category. That last line is probably the most important, "dosage".

Allegedly has the effect of boosting immunity and neural activity. I wouldn't recommend jugging gallons of the stuff partially because of the caffeine.

[webenda]

Whatzit July 3, 2021

[Rufus T. Firefly]

For a reversing loop trolley line - single pivot?

[chuck]

No guard rails, frogs or points. It's not a double slip as the traffic can only continue on it's present course or de-rail.

It looks like some kind of interlocking mechanism. Unless it can automatically detect an on-coming train and pivot that short section of track it's going to cause a derailment.

[webenda]

For a reversing loop trolley line - single pivot?

Could be used in a reversing loop. You are correct about "single pivot", only one of these whatzits needed for the application.

No guard rails, frogs or points. It's not a double slip as the traffic can only continue on it's present course or de-rail.

It looks like some kind of interlocking mechanism. Unless it can automatically detect an on-coming train and pivot that short section of track it's going to cause a derailment.

"No guard rails," correct. "No frogs," correct. "No points," wrong. "It's not a double slip," correct. "Traffic can only continue on it's present course or de-rail," derailment depends on which course it is on. "It looks like some kind of interlocking mechanism," wrong. "Unless it can automatically detect an on-coming train and pivot that short section of track it's going to cause a derailment," wrong.

[chuck]

There are no points in the photograph you posted. If there are points, please display them.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

For a reversing loop trolley line - single pivot?

Could be used in a reversing loop. You are correct about "single pivot", only one of these whatzits needed for the application.

I'll have to ponder a bit on another application then vs. a reversing loop.

[rogruth]

The pivoting rail takes the place of a frog in a gauntlet track or adding a third rail for dual gauge.

[webenda]

The pivoting rail takes the place of a frog.

Right you are again, Roger.




No picture of the points was shown, Chuck, nor is one required to understand the function on the Frogless Switch.

"As now constructed, the section of rail at the frog is either mechanically or electrically interlocked with the switch signal so that the clear signal cannot be given until the frog has been locked in one position or the other."