Light at the End of the Tunnel: A TL of the American Railroad
- Thread starter Duke Andrew of Dank
- Start date
Not quite yet. For one thing this is part of a plan to start a shared universe of TLs.
Nicely written so far.
How did Snow White do at the box office?
Also, will Pinocchio or Bambi be next?
How did Snow White do at the box office?
Also, will Pinocchio or Bambi be next?
For the most part, pop culture will be the as OTL until the late 1950s or 60s.
Locomotives: Baldwin Duplex Demonstrator 4-4-4-4
Artist's mock-up of the Demonstrator after becoming the first of the Atlantic Coast Line's Z-1 Class. Today it survives at the America Rails Museum.
The Pennsylvania Railroad's lone S1 Duplex was not exactly a smash hit. But Baldwin learned from its mistakes and this would allow the ACL Z-1 and the PRR's own T1s to have more success.
When the PRR first revealed the S1 Class 6-4-4-6 #6100 in 1938, many people were skeptical. On one hand, it was fast and impressive. But OTOH, not only did the presence of the tired-and-true K4 4-6-2s and R3 4-8-4s make it pointless, but it was also too long to be operated east of Crestline, Ohio. As such, Baldwin would turn to other railroads when testing the idea of Duplexes for a while. To that end, they build what was essentially a scaled down version of the S1 with a 4-4-4-4 wheel arrangement. This locomotive also featured a centipede tender, Walschaerts valve gear, roller bearing rods, a full-width diaphragm cab, and was streamlined in a design created by Otto Khuler.
The engine was first tested on the Pennsylvania Railroad's mainline to Chicago. While the engine was impressive, the Pennsy still saw little point in getting more at the time due to the K4s and R3s suiting their needs fine. As such, Baldwin went to dest the Demonstrator on several other railroads. The first one to try the engine was the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, who tested it over Sand Patch Grade and their mainline in the Midwest. However, the engine tended to slip on the steeper lines in the east of the network. The next railroad to actually consider the design was the New York, New Haven, & Hartford, who ran the Demonstrator on several passenger services normally hauled by the I-5 Hudsons. However, its a bit too big and the New Haven did not order any. The final railroad to consider the type was the Atlantic Coast Line, who ran it over their mainline from Richmond to Jacksonville, FL.
The ACL was satisfied with the design as it had improved the balance of the running gear through the use of smaller, lighter parts, reduced bearing loads, and improved steam distribution. However, it did increase the complexity of the locomotive and the duplexes tended to be "slippery", requiring more careful handling than conventional steam locomotives. Nonetheless, once the ACL began training engineers on specifically how to operate the engine, they were proven to be decent machines with enough punch to them. These machines would become legends and classified the Z-1s.
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UPDATE: Revised the state of NYC's Pennsylvania Division. Now, the B&O merely uses the part from the link from their own Buter-Buffalo line to Williamsport.
A little note fellas.
If any of you notice several changes for two, it's because I am revising posts at certain points. So please don't fret.
If any of you notice several changes for two, it's because I am revising posts at certain points. So please don't fret.
I'd say no to merging B&O and NYC. I think that it would be to powerful and unfair to Pennsylvania (even if they get Reading, and Erie) I'd like to see them as separate competitors for a long time.
War Reaches Warsaw: The Manure Strikes the Windmill
Nazi Infantrymen barricade themselves with a cart as they advance into Poland. September 1939. (Colorized)
One of Hitler's key ideological claims was Lebensraum, or “living space,” for the German people. According to his plan, the “racially superior” Germans would colonize Eastern Europe and the native Slavs would be enslaved. German expansion had begun in 1938 with the annexation of Austria and then Sudetenland and then all of Czechoslovakia in 1939. Both had been accomplished without igniting hostilities with the major powers, and Hitler hoped that his invasion of Poland would likewise be tolerated. To neutralize the possibility that the USSR would come to Poland’s aid, Germany signed a nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union on August 23, 1939. Fearing imminent attack, Poland began to call up its troops, but Britain and France persuaded Poland to postpone general mobilization until August 31 in a last ditch effort to dissuade Germany from war.
Needless to say, it backfired.
Shortly after noon on August 31, Hitler ordered hostilities against Poland to begin at 4:45 a.m. the next morning. At 8 p.m. on August 31, Nazi S.S. troops wearing Polish uniforms staged a phony invasion of Germany, damaging several minor installations on the German side of the border. They also left behind a handful of dead concentration camp prisoners in Polish uniforms to serve as further evidence, which the Nazis publicized as an unforgivable act of aggression. The next day, the invasion began. On September 2 Britain and France demanded that Germany withdraw by September 3 or face war. At 11 p.m. on September 3, the British ultimatum expired, and 15 minutes later British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain went on national radio to solemnly announce that Britain was at war with Germany, with the rest of the Commonwealth following. At 5:00 p.m., France declared war on Germany.
The Second World War had begun.
Who wants to discuss with me about re-working urban transport like trollies in the post war of my TL?
Mostly at least keep them alive in cities by urban renewal in the 1940s and 50s.
What cities/counties did you have in mind? I know personally there’s about six in CA that should’ve lasted.
I was thinking all major cities that ever had one in the East coast and Midwest for sure.
And if we’re both thinking the same thing, then there will also be more cities building heavier metros after the war?
So, Boston, NYC+Jersey city (model example), Philadelphia (only 2 lines), cleveland (1 line), pittsburgh (one line) and chicago had heavy rail rapid transit built before ww2 otl, and DC, Baltimore (one line only), Los Angeles (most of their system's lines could be called heavy rail, but they don't use much grade separation), Miami, San francisco, Atlanta, and the Canadian cities of Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal built some sort of heavy rail after ww2.
Excluding the Canadian cities, only one city has successfully built a system postsuburbanization that you can say has truly "taken cars off the road", and that's DC (one of the few good things about my hometown tbh). It's area coverage and ridership is on an almost 1:1 basis with the Chicago El despite being built much later and in a much smaller city
My point? Heavy rail rapid transit/metros aren't easy to build or run in America in otl for a number of reasons. However, because the issues mostly stem from the car, and the issues that don't are easily butterflieable, America could have had many more metros, and seeing as I can't drive, I sure wish we did.
I have to eat dinner, but I'll follow up with more info on how rapid transit can succeed in a couple hours.
Film in 1940
Tex Avery directs "A Wild Hare" for Warner Bros. Animation. It also marks the debut of future studio icon Bugs Bunny.
Walt Disney's second animated feature Pinocchio. The film is largely the same as OTL. But with several key differences...
- Mel Blanc's role as Gideon is kept, though he does not talk nearly as much as his partner Honest John. With his only major lines being when we first meet The Coachman. Where instead of Honest John singing, it's Gideon complaining about Stromboli's near meaningless payment.
- Stromboli has a pet parrot with yellow feathers that served him as a sort of sidekick, in order to justify the birdcage he traps the title character inside of. This parrot is called Terror and is only in a few scenes of the movie, with his most significant appearance being panicking and flying away when Pinocchio escapes Stromboli.
- A different ending where Pinocchio believes that an unconscious Gepetto had died as they escaped Monstro the whale. Then his old man awakens and everyone realizes that Pinocchio had turned into a real boy. Then the Blue Fairy appears to congratulate both Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket.
One of Charlie Caplin's few "talkies" came as The Great Dictator. In which the film panned then German leader Hitler. In his 1964 autobiography, Chaplin admitted he would have abandoned the project if the worst of Hitler's plans were known at the time.
Disney's other major project. Fantasia sets animation to classical music.
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