Trolley Interurbans Electrics from Sunday River Productions

more: www.sundayriver... Just a sampling - relive the days of yore when trolleys, interurbans, and electrics powered through our cities and towns. See more of these DVDs on our website. [Music by Dan Sebring]

[@honestycounts9352]

I just thought of something that makes A HECK OF A LOT OF SENSE, something very few people have thought about: EVOLUTION. (step 1): Horse power: First people used horses to move cargo around. Even with canals, they used horses to pull the canal boats.
(step 2): Wind power: Then people harnessed the power of the wind via sails and large ships to move things around, it was an 'Evolution'.
(step 3): Steam power: first steam power was used to power the ships, and then it was used to create locomotives for railways. Steam on rails allowed railways to replace canals and ships as the primary method of moving people and good around.
(step 4): OIL : Oil was converted into diesel and gasoline. Most people think it was the power from the internal combustion engine that replaced trains but that is not the case. It was the creation of our modern road network that lead to the replacement of trains. Without modern roads, trucks would have never replaced trains. Imagine all of our roads that exist today as being in the form of GRAVEL ROADS? If all roads were gravel, we would still be using trains to move stuff around even today. Modern hard-surfaced roads are made from ASPHALT, and it is the processing of oil into liquid fuels that results in the waste by-product tar that creates our asphalt. As the use of oil went up, so did our production of asphalt, and along with that was the expansion of our modern hard-surfaced road system and the demise of the railroads as a way for transporting people and goods. Yes, concrete roads might have been created in small quantities, but there are not enough supplies of concrete materials available to have created the road networks that we have today at a low-enough price to make them viable. Only high-use roads can justify the added cost of concrete for construction.
So there you have it, we are now at the final evolutionary stage/step.
Rails are now used simply as a COST SAVING MEASURE. Since tonnage is cheaper to move by rail due to less rolling resistance, it is better to use rails to move freight over great distances over land. Then once near their destinations, move from rail to truck (if required), then to the final destination via truck (if required). Other than that, trains moving cargo serve no real purpose anymore.
As for passengers, trains are being used as a TIME SAVING MEASURE: With roads getting clogged up with cars, trains are making a comeback for passenger service since they are not affected by traffic jams, so more and more people are turning to public rail transport networks for their commutes to work, but that is ONLY for areas that are serviced by rail networks, and these days those areas are few and far between.

[@oldman4803]

I see they saved the best for last. The venerable GG1. I lived right next to the Pennsy North East corridor as it exited Baltimore when I was a kid and would see any number of those beauties going north and south daily. With the exception of articulated steam there is nothing more beautiful on the rails