page.
New Regiosprinter links here
Funicular Subways
Check out
the
page.
New
Regiosprinter
links here
Funicular
Subways
| Rating | Link | Comments |
 |
Railfan Europe | This used to be the European Railway server. It is still one of the most awesome rail sites on the web. |
|
Urbanrail.net | A legacy web site for metro fans, it is comprehensive and accurate. The webmaster has written a series of books about metros and runs the Yahoo urban railways forum. |
|
NYCSubway.org | Don't let the name fool you folks. This comprehensive and professional site is worldwide and will keep a subhead busy for hours on end. |
| Rating | Link | Comments |
|
Trolley,Interurban, and Subway Resources | |
|
ANAT - Association Neuchâteloise des Amis du Tramway | A French/Swiss train fan society, with lots of images and information on subways and trams in France and worldwide. Update frequently. |
|
Rob van der bijl's Light Rail Atlas | great site, emphasis on Netherlands and Belgium |
|
Trolleyana | tram views of Asia from the early twentieth century |
|
Streetcar Boy's home page | good photos each month, mostly from North America, some vintage |
| |
Roger DuPuis' page, Trams Stop Here | a compendium of info and photos on the systems in Toronto and, Pittsburgh |
|
Allen Morrison's Latin American traction | Lots of rare stuff! Highly recommended. |
|
Robert Reynolds Subways/Transport Page | Ultra-cool comprehensive page, worth ckecking out. |
| Eric Hjelme's Railroad Photo Archive | An FTP site with many urban rail transport photos | |
|
TRAMWAY's Homepage | Includes lots of hard to find photos and quite comprehensive, updated often |
|
The New Electric Railway Journal | Rarely updated |
| Joe Brennan's Rails and Transit Page | Mostly NYC Subway with a few other links | |
|
STEAM ENGINE JOSEF STALIN | Lotsa neat stuff much of it in Russian. |
| |
World Rail Transit List | Comprehensive, text based |
|
Trams on the World Wide Web | Colin Seymoure's popular and comprehensive site on worldwide systems. Includes several specialized pages on UK systems |
|
New England Transit Site | Lots of good Boston information |
|
Dave's Train Pictures | A compendium of old streetcar system photos, mostly from the midwest US, and current photo collections of Chicago, St. Louis, Shaker Heights, Toronto, New Orleans and Pittsburgh (March 1988) |
|
Jim Middleton's Lightrail.com | A new site offering links and a transit list. |
|
Robert Schwandl's Metropla.net | Pages and links on metros worldwide. The definitive source for metros worldwide |
|
Michael Azima's Funicular Web magazine | The best on funiculars. |
|
Monorail Quick Links | A good selection with images |
|
Kenji Hojo's Streetcar Page is great. | The coolest streetcar images from all over Japan. Hours worth of fun. |
|
Jerry'sRailroad Photo Album (traction section) | Several vintage US subway and trolley photos. Be sure to check out the archive at the bottom of the page. |
|
The Train Brain- a visual simulation that's fascinating | |
|
Jon Bell's Transit Pages | Mostly North America. Comprehensive with some great photos. A classic. |
| Rating | Link | Comments |
|
TrainWeb's Rail Related Web Sites | |
| Transportation information from Travel.Com | Links to various transit authority sites | |
|
|
The Subway Nut | They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. This site of fun photos of subway stops worldwide, with a strong emphasis on New York City, is sure to keep anyone in our fiold happy and busy. |
|
|
The Transport Politic | Rail systems and the bullshit that ensnares their inceptions and operations |
|
Jane's Urban Transit List of international line mile ridership per mile for world LRT's and Metros | |
|
Leif Spanberg's Tramway Links | Good stuff, often something new |
|
Sergiy Pakhomov's transit maps from around the world | Purely maps but very, very comprehensive |
| |
|
|
|
Kenji Hojo's Streetcar links | Make a pot of coffee and send the Mrs. to Mom's for the night. |
|
Mark Kavanaugh's Trolley, Streetcar, Transit and Railroad links | Some great museum, US, and Japanese photos and links |
|
Railserve's links | Too many too list |
|
Tramscape's tramway links | |
|
Links from Leif Spangberg's fine site | |
| |
Routes International's worldwide links to public transit agencies | Quite a few links. |
|
APTA Web Site Index | Web sites for transit systems all over the United States. Put on a pot of coffee. Very comprehensive. |
|
Brian F. Case's Railroad Links | Miscellaneous, random links. Add your own! |
|
Transit Systems Worldwide | part of www.nycsubway.org |
| |
Japanese subway links from www.subways.org | No relation, site in Japanese only |
| Link | Comments | |
| A New Era for APMs | (Thanks to Philippe Berthe) |
|
| American Underground Construction Association | ||
| BombardierDWA | ||
| CAF | projects include Bilbao, Hong Kong, Madrid and Mexico City | |
| COGIFER SA | ||
| CWA Construction | people movers and funiculars | |
| DE Consulting | ||
| GEC Alsthom's Home Page with a What's New section | ||
| Gomaco will build you a new trolley. | ||
| Hitachi Ltd | ||
| Jakes Associates transportation consultants | ||
| The Lagardere Group, makers of the VAL | Good for news and press releases. | |
|
Lamoreaux & McLendon | Engineering consulting services for light rail and PRT |
|
Lea & Elliott | Transportation planning firm. Good info, some pictures. |
|
LRT Association | Current news and photos - a really cool site from the UK |
| Otis Transportation's Home Page | ||
|
Beton- und Monierbau | Builder of subway tunnels, and pioneers of the New Austrian Tunneling Methid (now used worlwide) |
|
Parsons Brinkerhoff 4-D Imaging Rail Transit Projects | Incredible |
|
Railway Technology | Good information on systems in progress, including Oporto and Kuala Lampur |
|
Railway
Gazette International |
News from around the world. Excellent news source. |
| Semaly | ||
| Siemens | ||
| Severn-Lamb will custom build a train for you. | ||
| Skoda | ||
| Soule Transit Systems | APM manufacturer | |
| Systra | ||
| Yantrak's Home Page | (APM builder) | |
| Dopplemeyr | An Austrian APM builder | |
| Kinetsu Corporation | Images galore | |
|
Newlands & Company | Visual simulations for LRT projects |
| Railway Consultants list | from Rob Armstrong | |
| WGH Transportation Engineering | An English company that makes heritage trams and monorails. Have a look at the strange monorails. |
COMMERCIAL LINKS (Videos and Books)
When
a cat is dropped, it always
lands on its feet, and when toast is
dropped,
it always lands
buttered side down. It was proposed to strap
giant
slabs of hot buttered
toast to the back of a hundred tethered
cats;
the two opposing
forces will cause the cats to hover, spinning
inches
above the ground. Using
the giant buttered toast/cat array, a
high-speed
monorail could
easily link New York with Chicago.
| Rating | Link | Comments |
| Infiltration | You've gotta see this, an on line magazine about exploring areas closed to the public | |
| Larry's Funicular | very cute | |
| A neat subway poem by the great Earl Ron Hubbard | ||
| What the hell is a River Subway? | ||
| Williamson's Tunnels | You have to read this one! | |
| Frederic Deltaire's Forgotten Subways | An interesting compendium of "lost" subways, including the Crystal Palace Pneumatic Railway in Sydenham, England and the Beach Pneumatic Subway | |
| "Curiosities" from BS | A Metro on the high seas? | |
| Rated "T" for "Tasteless" | Freight Train Hopping | A gross site only for the depraved |
| Feeling downright mad about your rail hobby? Try the Militant Railfan Organization. | Nicely done renegade page | |
| The Urban Adventure Site | ||
| Zine Review Subway Surfer | Don't try this at home. | |
| Flash Mountain Monorail Girl #1 | X-Rated | |
| Not a subway but you've got to check out subtropolis | A real underground commercial city |
A
rumour going around: Could
it be true?
From
CaptKopier
The US Standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and the US railroads were built by English expatriates. Why did the English people build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.
Why did "they" use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing. Okay! Why did the wagons use that odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing the wagons would break on some of the old, long distance roads, because that's the spacing of the old wheel ruts.
So who built these old rutted roads? The first long distance roads in Europe were built by Imperial Rome for the benefit of their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts? The initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagons, were first made by Roman war chariots. Since the chariots were made for or by Imperial Rome they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.
Thus, we have the answer to the original questions. The United State standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman army war chariot.
Specs and Bureaucracies live forever. So, the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly right. Because the Imperial Roman chariots were made to be just wide enough to accommodate the back-ends of two war horses.