The interior of the train car looked a lot more like a bus than a train, including having the engineer in a seat near the front door, just ahead of the first row of passenger seats.
We had those in this country as recently as twentyish years ago. They were connected in pairs, a pushme-pullyou configuration. At the terminal the engineer'd shut down the engine in this unit, put the gear on neutral, turn the brakes on remote, and lock down the control desk. Then he walked over to the other carriage, opened the control desk there, and started the engines there.
There was a passage between the carriages, but only the conductor would pass from one carriage to the other when the vehicle was in motion.
The things even had transmission like a bus. You could both hear and feel the acceleration, release of clutch and changing of gear, and acceleration on the next gear...
Dunno on this one, but BluMindy and I have begun to write, and I have strong dreams, as does D'Glenn. D'Glenn and I have done road trips, and it's not uncommon for a dream to make up something you've never seen. And given that it's D'Glenn, and she's an engineer, and an empath, it could be anyone's head. But I haven't had any train dreams lately.
Somehow I feel there ought to be something witty and perhaps punnish to say about railroads, roadtrips, switches, and connections. Doesn't gel. Luckily.
Don't worry. I can make up all kinds of things from those words. Not that I was thinking that way when I wrote them. (But now that you mention it...{smiles and licks lips}) Except we're working on respectable stories, not erotica, much less porn. Although...time for a conference. Thanks.
I'd never seen the inside of one (and haven't actually seen one at all in a month or three -- I haven't been driving past the Light Rail stops lately).
What kinds of distances did they use the pushme-pullyou trains for?
I'm experiencing cognitive dissonance over the idea of a train with a bus transmission. It's not that it doesn't make sense -- I can't see any reason it wouldn't -- but it just feels like an odd juxtaposition of ideas that are catagorized farther apart in my head than I can figure out a reason for. Oof. Not the most parseable sentence.
"Whose head have you been walking in?"
Good question. I'm not sure. It seems I have been sleeping carelessly. (Hmm. As long as I don't litter while I'm there, no harm - no foul?)
As a matter of fact, those things were even called railbuses.
They were used for commuter traffic. That, of course, can translate to 100 km, the distance from a small country whistlestop to the county capital and market city.
Whaddya mean, not the most parseable sentence? It came quite natural to me. I have seen (and, heaven help us, generated) sentences whose parse trees are tangled skeins. That exemplar felt quite normal.
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We had those in this country as recently as twentyish years ago. They were connected in pairs, a pushme-pullyou configuration. At the terminal the engineer'd shut down the engine in this unit, put the gear on neutral, turn the brakes on remote, and lock down the control desk. Then he walked over to the other carriage, opened the control desk there, and started the engines there.
There was a passage between the carriages, but only the conductor would pass from one carriage to the other when the vehicle was in motion.
The things even had transmission like a bus. You could both hear and feel the acceleration, release of clutch and changing of gear, and acceleration on the next gear...
Whose head have you been walking in?
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train dreams
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I'm experiencing cognitive dissonance over the idea of a train with a bus transmission. It's not that it doesn't make sense -- I can't see any reason it wouldn't -- but it just feels like an odd juxtaposition of ideas that are catagorized farther apart in my head than I can figure out a reason for. Oof. Not the most parseable sentence.
"Whose head have you been walking in?"
Good question. I'm not sure. It seems I have been sleeping carelessly. (Hmm. As long as I don't litter while I'm there, no harm - no foul?)
(no subject)
They were used for commuter traffic. That, of course, can translate to 100 km, the distance from a small country whistlestop to the county capital and market city.
Whaddya mean, not the most parseable sentence? It came quite natural to me. I have seen (and, heaven help us, generated) sentences whose parse trees are tangled skeins. That exemplar felt quite normal.
(no subject)