's World of Ideas: Various InterestsThe transition of the urban scape to the JETSONS
NY-Springfield by local bus
LA Pacific Electric Subway
Alexanders hanging goods monorail system
Forgotten Milepost: Clemente Travel Center
Flowers brands; Shake Cakes, Drakes, UPC Codes link, etc.
Ridgewood Rant
RGB LED's
Flowers brands; Shake Cakes, Drakes, UPC Codes link, etc.
Ridgewood Rant
RGB LED's
Willy B map (combination bus and Subways in "the Map" style)
7 segment display
The transition of the urban scape to the JETSONS
Outline of the development of architecture over a little more then the last century:
19th/early 20th century: ornate masonry
c. Depression, a bit less ornate, but nice patterns in bricks and parapets.
right up to WWII: Art Deco. Less patterns in masonry, straight line and herringbone themes (i.e: >>>>>>>)
Post war, becomes plain red brick on all sides.
-Lowrise drops off in favor of high rise.
70's few low rise buildings built; masonry is generally different colored brick "columns" in line with windows.
Up to this point, all buildings had a vertical symmetry, with the same types of windows in each of the vertical columns of windows.
In the middle of the century, cities began tearing down blocks and blocks of small older buldings to make way for skyscrapers. At first, they basically followed the masonry patterns of the time, with brick construction. (Empire State Building, etc.) But eventually, they became just glass and metal panels, or smaller brick sections. Eventually, most of them become all glass panels. This is basically like the evolution of bus design, where before, they had full metal bodies, but in the 70's "Advanced Designs", became just attached rows of windows and fiberglass panels bolted onto thin "bulkhead" strips.
Even on many of the brick buildings, window dimensions changed from the pre-war size, to shorter and narrower, and often three or more single windows in a row. So the basic patterns on most new buildings was generally horizontal "rows" of alternating structure (brick or metal panel) and continuous window.
All of this may have looked nice in its own right, but with nearly everything following these patterns, it became monotonous, and created, basically a new "utilitarian" look. While we normally think of utilitarian as "drab", and these building weren't really drab in their own right; compared to the old buildings, they were.
Different cities had different variations of pre-war design. The most noticeable distinctions are the secondary exits: In NYC, the small steel fire escapes on windows, with a drop down ladder from the second floor to the ground, on all sides of the building; in some other cities, larger ones in the rear, with a door and regular staircases to the ground; and in New England and Chicago; these stairway/deck combinations [orignally] made of wood (even called "porches"). These types of things were known as the "character" of a city. Post war buildings however, look the same not only in every US city, but all around the world.
So right in the height of the steel highrise boom in the 50's and 60's, where blocks and blocks were decimated for ubiquitous towers (in central business districts, office towers, in the big city ghetto; high rise public housing "projects", and in small city ghettoes, cookie cutter barrack-like low rise ones), we were given fictional glimpses into the future. This was most embodied in "The Jetsons", a high rise world where you hardly ever see the ground. It was the basic direction urban architecture was going in. Stately rows of adjoining, low rise pre-war design were making way for fewer, taller structures with much more space around them, The space could be just greenery, or it could be parking space to make it convenient for the increasing rise in automobiles. Many old building get torn down just for parking lots rather than a new building. Smaller city or large city outskirt blocks then begin looking more flat and lifeless.
Follow this to it's logical conclusion, by the time of the Jetsons, all you have is poles driven into the ground, with the living or office space "blooming" at the top. Actual structures like this were already built in some places, like the sky towers in Seattle or Toronto. The ground, whenever it's shown, appears to be all parkland. Of course, vehicles fly in this age, which makes it ironic to me, because if they just kept the older buildings until flying cars were perfected, then the roofs could have been modified to become the new parking lots, and you would not have had to level so much ground for them.
Likewise, in one or more of the Star Wars prequels and other modern scifi, you have incredibly tall towers, as well as 3D traffic grids. (vehicles can go straight up or down, and streets have traffic lanes in several midair "levels")
In the 70's, in every city, you had total neglect, as the middle class fled to the suburbs, and landlords allowed buildings to become run down. Less were demolished for new building projects. Instead, often, they just sat there deteriorating; many being abandoned. Many of these were lost to fire, and damage from weather. Some were removed simply because they were a dangerous haven for junkies.
In the late 70's, there was a glimmer of hope, as new renovation programs breathed new life into old buildings. After the demolition of Penn Station in the 60's (for another one of those glass and metal boxes with an arena connected to it), a new kick in landmarking and restoration began. People began to appreciate and stand up for the old architecture. Sometimes, at least the fa็ades of old buildings would be kept in new projects. New skyscrapers often have "bases" that are roughly the same height and property line of the old buildings, so you wonder why they wouldn't just build on top of the old more. Restoration in blighted areas proceeded somewhat slowly, however.
Now, we enter a new building boom. But with it, mass demolitions have resumed again. Expansions of business districts (like Long Island City as a new "Midtown East"); new projects like the Atlantic Terminal arena, etc. once again threaten to push "the little people" in their little old flats out. (Makes you wonder where all of this money was 30 years ago! It's like they allowed the heart of every city to decay, until they were good and ready to move in and sweep everyone out, after decades. I guess, when "the Market" determined the time was right. That's the virtual deity that the corporate powers that be use to justify all of their actions).
One difference, is it's not in the ghetto this time. The cities all realized that the high rise housing for the poor was a mistake. In some places, they are even being torn down in favor of new row houses! However, for the rich, the tendency is once again to build big tall boxes. Most are condos, going for millions in some places. And in both these, as well as office buildings, the desire seems to be "the corporate look" of wall to wall, floor to ceiling windows, so on the outside, it's mostly a glass box.
On a positive note, there is also a return to low rise construction, and many in the last decade have even brought back such pre-war masonry features as quoins, cornices, and jack arches with keystones! Though in most cases, the odd window dimension/configurations have been retained. Where on older buildings, most windows were single, and you would often have a row of double windows placed symmetrically on each side of the front; in new "retro" styled buildings, almost all windows are double. Also, many new windows are horizontal sliding. This may be more convenient to open, but takes away from the classic look, and creates what I consider a "cheap strip motel" look. Those are more fitting on newer styled suburban houses.
Also, in many cases, the vertical symmetry is broken, and different types of windows appear in different places often in the same row. Especially if the apartments are duplex, where there are different rooms in the same apartment on top of each other. Most new buildings have concrete balconies (basically replacing the old fire escapes), and sometimes these are placed asymmetrically. Especially in orthodox Jewish neighborhoods, where balconies are used for the Feast of Booths (Sukkot). They apparently try to keep them away from each other, and not have one balcony providing a "ceiling" over another. It seemed to be these constructions that actually sparked off the pre-war style renaissance. Many new buildings in Boro Park have odd fitting gambrels ("barn roof"), topping otherwise very good reproductions of 1920's design. There is also more blank space on new buildings where there are no windows at all, for some reason.
There are some new buildings that are bland tall and skinny boxes stuck in standard sized lots between the older buildings. (and usually out of scale, with the lower ceilings and smaller windows) Some older buildings are even being totally defaced, or altogether replaced for these things. Even in suburban blocks, you have "McMansions" stuck in rows of houses that stick out like a sore thumb.
Many new buildings, short and tall, have uneven roofs, for penthouses and decks. This also messes up the look usually.
Since most new buildings are steel frame, instead of the load-bearing brick exterior, then if the walls are brick, they rest on the floor, which thus sticks out in the fa็ade. Brick fa็ades are also simply laid in front of a cement block wall, instead of the solid brick "American Bond" (or other styles such as Flemish) walls of the old buildings, which consisted usually of three layers of bricks interlaced by "header" courses every 5 rows, which were a row of bricks rotated perpendicularly so that they were apart of two layers at a time. In these new walls, it looks like those fa็ades could come off very easily.
In the poorer neighborhoods, most of the new houses are town houses, many greatly resembling the old brownstone type design! Most return to wooden joist construction, borne on the side walls. The fronts are often prefab construction, with a brick fa็ade, while the rears are also prefab, and with aluminum siding over sheetrock nailed to a metal wall frame. A few use metal joists, and a few two story single family townhouses even use hollow core concrete planks (steel reinforced slabs with round holes running from end to end), providing a solid, completely fire-proof structure. What's good is that old buildings do not have to be torn down for these, as there are already plenty of lots to build on as the old buildings were already destroyed years ago. Or sometimes, they will remove a shabby one story commercial, industrial or parking garage.
So, while a lot of the new buildings may look nice, and evem mimick some aspects of the old buildings, they still are no replacement for the solid, symmetrical grand old architecture. (It seems like the new "retro" designs are like some sort of "compromise" to fit in with "the character of the neighborhood"). Once an old building is gone, that's it; new designs are vastly different, and even attempts to recreate the old pale in comparison. Even though there is a natural cycle of building age and replacement, the pre-WWII 20th century masonry is like works of art, with a lot more work going into ornate fetures, and the new architecture (much of which highlights new and unusual structure shapes or shiny glass exteriors, and "retro" designs being largely superficial) is just no replacement for it.
I just wonder why they seemed to have picked up on the transformation of the urban landscape to the Jetsons. You would have thought that the "replace all the old with tall, glass and skinny" mindset had changed. Are these sleek, glass and steel towers power symbols or something?
Europe seems to have blocks and blocks of their old stuff intact. I guess if all the big business tycoons want old, they can just hop a plane to over there like nothing. But America's old architecture is somewhat unique from Europe (which seems to all have those gabled roofs, that come to a ridge at the top). And since the new architecture looks all the same, the world is like a giant neighborhood to the leaders of these corporations who are constantly traveling around on business and pleasure.
Cognitive Confessions:Why do I care so much about this? What difference does old buildings make?: |
NEW YORK to SPRINGFIELD, MA by LOCAL bus!!
Traveling between New York and Springfield to see my [paternal] grandmother, I always noticed how different New England cities looked. What always stood out were the dark wooden "back porches" on the backs of nearly every pre-war apartment building, frame house and townhouse (including my grandmother's) which served both as balcony and fire escape (back stairs). I felt so away from home with our flimsy looking thin fire escapes you had to climb out the window to get to, and you wern't supposed to be out there anyway. I always wanted to see the gradual change from New York to New England, when passing by the cities in between on the Greyhound, Trailways or Peter Pan on the interstates. Since the cities in Westchester, and southern Connecticut were all close together; I wondered if their bus systems connected. I eventually find that they do, with the not too long ago added "Coastal Link" between Norwalk and Milford completing the way to New Haven. And then, with easy access to the Connecticut Transit website; I find that connection all the way to Springfield is in fact possible. But there was a very narrow "window" it had to be done in. Starting out early from NYC, by the time you get into central Connecticut, it will be late afternnon, and buses in towns will stop running soon, including the final Hartford to Springfield connection, which are commuter runs. So I set out in April, 2003, attempting to go all the way from home via the Q58 to Flushing, to the QBx1 to Pelham Bay Park for the W45 to New Rochelle, to the W61 to Port Chester for the Connecticut leg of the trip. But I just miss the 45, and they are two hours apart. So by now a Transit worker, I hang out at the Pelham crew room (totally foreign to me, as I had never worked the IRT yet), and then continue. I then have a long wait in New Rochelle. This really set me back, and by the time I get to New Haven, it is 6PM, dark, and I knew I had to turn back (by Metro North). So I set out again on Oct. 28 of that year, took the train and picked the W61 up directly at Fordham, and this time made it!
| W61 | Fordham Port Chester | 6:30 7:58 | Flx. Metro #814 | $2.00 |
| CT 11 | Port Chester Stamford | 8:02 (late 7:45) | Flyer DLF40 # | T |
| 42 | Stamford Norwalk | 9:01 9:47 | MCI Classic #9633 (first ride In Series 50 powered Classic) | T |
| Coastal Link | Norwalk Milford | 9:50 11:43 | RTS #130 (Norwalk "Wheel" Bus) | $1.25 |
| O5 | Milford New Haven | 11:40 | MCI Classic #9179 | T |
| C1 | New Haven Meriden (Kohls Plaza) | 12:30 1:35 | MCI Classic #9096 | $1.00 |
| A | Kohls Plaza Downtown | RTS #A107 | T | |
| B | Downtown Westfield Shoppingtown (formerly Meriden Plaza) | 2:00 2:15 | RTS | $1.00 |
| AR | Westfield New Britain | 3:00 | RTS #B141 | T |
| P | New Britain Hartford | 3:25 4:08 | RTS #C155 | T |
| CT 5 | Hartford Enfield | 4:15 | MCI 102DL(?) #305 | $2.35 |
| PVTA 16 | Enfield Springfield (Bball Hall of Fame) | 4:45 5:00 | RTS #1120 (35 ft) | $1.00 |
TOTALS: 10:30 (from Fordham); 12:00 (from home; left at 5AM); $8.60
I left like I was usually doing on another day of the week for the 6:35 D203 job at 205th. I missed the L, which then makes me miss the 4 and D that would get me to 205th on time. This time, to try to catch the 6:30 W61, I stayed on the 4, got off at Fordham, and ran across towards the little park the 61 begins at. Before I reached the Concourse, I saw a Bee-Line parked on the triangle block where 188th St. splits off of Fordham on the West side of the Concourse. I ran, and it was the 6:30, and he was getting ready to leave, and let me get on there, since I wouldn't have made it to the boarding location across the Concourse and a few blocks down.
Pretty Lucky.
I see a CT 11 bus at Port Chester earlier than the 8:12 on the schedule, so I decide to get on, and he only goes as far as Stamford. Most other 11's become 41's to Norwalk at Stamford, so I got an extra transfer.
Everything went well, and I basically kept moving continuously (no long waits) until Meriden, where I find that it was not the simple transfer to New Britain that I thought. I had glossed over the schedules online, and saw that the New Haven "C" went to a Meriden shopping center, and connected with an "A", and that the New Britain "A" bus also started from a Meriden shopping center. (CT uses a lot of letter routes). What I didn't realize was that these were two different shopping centers on the opposite side of town, and two additional buses were needed to connect: from Kohl's Plaza to the downtown train station, and from there to the former Meriden Plaza, which has been renamed Westfield Shoppingtown (further adding to the confusion). They all connected fairly well, but it put me behind. I thought I would be leaving Meriden for New Britain at 2:00 and then New Britain for Hartford at 2:50, with about 20 minutes to spare at both places, but I wound up leaving Meriden RR sta. at 2 for Westfield instead, and it got there 15 minutes after the hourly "AR" to New Britain had left. So I had 45 minutes there to get something to eat, and look around, but now I was leaving the Meriden area an hour behind at 3. I got to New Britain just in time to catch the 3:25 "P", and this got me to Hartford in time to catch a 4:15 Enfield express (It only had listed a 4:10 followed by a 4:20, the latter missing the 4:45 PVTA #16 (the Springfied system's connector), and the next and last one after that would be 6:21, almost 2 hours later). I had to find the boarding location for the #5 in Hartford, and luckily, it was right around the corner from where the P left off, and was pulling up. Now this seemed sort of like a cheat, as this route travels on the 91 nonstop, and uses MCI commuter coaches, and therefore was little different from catching the Peter Pan, except that it boarded curbside instead of at the terminal, and stopped at this intermediate town. (I had never seen any of the towns between Hartford and Springfield before, as the interstate coaches never made any stops in that stretch). The whole way up so far, I had only been on regular roads, such as US 1 and 5, with stops and lights about as frequent as in a city. So even after that hour setback, I made the PVTA connection, but even though the transfer ticket collectors look the same, they do not take CT transfers (makes no sense to me, as the Bee Line and CT transfer to each other).
It was now dark, around 5. I had been trying to do this for months since the March attempt, but have been too busy or tired. I looked at the last Tues. before the daylight time shift, but was too tired, especially with the way they had been putting me on late PM jobs because the N wasn't running on the weekend. I got to say hi to my aging grandmother, in a nursing home near the Basketball Hall of Fame (who was surprised to see me), and then left, returning by Peter Pan.
It was perhaps the best time to go, with all the fall foliage, in the farm areas in the New Haven to New Britain stretch.
So it was an interesting trip. Diehard bus fans and sightseers (with some extra time on their hands) should try it sometime! I may do it in reverse some time.
I later learn that there was at one time local connections all the way to the other city I was familiar with, which I never would have believed possible: Norfolk, VA! I recently discover that the DART system covers all of Delaware (not just Wilmington), and the Salisbury-based Seashore Transit covers all of Maryland's Eastern Shore. Virginia's Eastern Shore, which is even more rural than the other states, is covered by STAR Transit. They once had service to the MD line, where Seashore had a connecting service. They also had service across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel to Virginia Beach! Being that DART connects to SEPTA, and SEPTA connects to New Jersey Transit, it was connected all the way! (Though you would have to go out of the way to Lakewood, where the North and South Jersey bus systems connect, and these lines use modified coaches, which would make it feel like riding an interstate line. However, all the service in Maryland and Virginia is with vans, and not even real buses). Due to lack of funds, connecting service between T's Corner or Chincoteague, VA, and Pocomoke City, MD was discontinued as well as service south of Cape Charles, over the bay. I never imagined all of those little towns I used to pass through on the way home from college were or would be connected like that, other than the interstate coach! I guess because of the isolated nature of the Delmarva Peninsula, with only the main US 13 corridor, traffic is focused either north or south, so transportation would be useful, (especially now that Greyhound/Carolina Trailways has cut most of the stops from the run).
Unlike the Connecticut connection, this probably was not doable in one day, anyway. Not only is it much longer (more than twice the distance), but you do not have the string of moderate sized cities you have between New York and Springfield. It is mostly small towns; large stretches of farmland, and the small cities of Pocomoke, Salisbury and Dover. So those van services would have limited runs as it is, and by the time you traveled a certain distance, it would be night, and it all would be shut down. Yet it would be a nice thing to do over two or three days, staying overnight in the towns along the way!
Eight years after completing the Springfiedld trip, I would follow it up with an also long-planned similar trip to Montauk. It was the ultimate extension of the December Long Island holiday decoration viewing trips, which at first were confined to western Nassau, then Eastern Nassau, and then as far as Bablyon where the Nassau bus system ends.
It kept getting put off for a few years, because of just getting tired as I get older, plus being caught out there in the cold at night.
I finaly pushed myself to do it in '11, due to the uncertainty of the impending Veolia (private) takeover of MTA Long Island Bus (the Nassau System), with arlier talk under MTA of massive cuts on the systems (like the whole southeast corner of Nassau). So on my winter vacation by now able to get as late as early December), and a warm day though very dreary, I set out early in the morning.
From Jamaica:
N4 7:12 8:10 (1676)
Freeport
N19 8:15 9:17 (1723)
Babylon
S40 9:30 10:20 (9923)
Patchogue
S66 10:30 11:50 (1034)
Riverhead County Center
S92 11:55 1:15 (1065)
East Hampton
10C 1:35 (1075)
to Montauk RR station
I wanted to ride around the whole loop, but it passes the railroad station first (clockwise), and the train left a little whole after that (2:51). The next one after that leaves after 10PM and doesn't get back to Jamaica until after 2! (This later trip was my original idea, but then I just replotted it in the earlier window. since it was daytime, I couldn't see any lights until the return trip, and it was hard to see with the rain and fogged windows).
On the way back, I stopped at East Meadow to see the RXR Plaza tree (it was raining again).
I had only been in Eastern LI twice before, both on fishing trips we were driven to. '80, to Sag Harbor, and '82, to Montauk.
Incorporate old Pacific Electric Subway into expanding LA rail network.
As slow as NYC is for building new rail projects; LA, which had eliminated all its rail in favor of roads, is really moving forward with both "heavy" and "light" rail projects. With all the new subways and streetcars being built, I noticed none had bothered to utilize the old subway LA once had, as I had thought at least one of these new lines would use: the Pacific Electric tolley tunnel through downtown. That way all the subways you ride in LA wouldn't just be the new one, but rather an old one as well. You don't normally think of LA in terms of old subways, and I had never heard of it for a long time.
The big barrier is that it was severed right in the middle, to build the foundation for a couple of buildings including the Bonaventure hotel. That was that interesting four-round tower building you would see on TV sometimes. That was the very first thing I went to see when I first arrived in LA in the Air Force (stationed at a base in the distant desert parts of San Bernardino county, not too far from Edwards AFB, where we did some military exercises once). I passed between those funny sharp angle shaped office towers you aften see (the Wells Fargo Plaza), on the way. I looked into it for my honeymoon four years later, but the Bonaventure was not part of the travel agency's package, so we ended up not too far away on 7th St.
So I would say, if possible, build around the building foundations. Or turn the tunnel into a tourist shuttle for people staying in the hotel! That would be cool. It would go right from the hotel basement to closer into downtown, where it once had a nice terminal in the basement of a building that still stands, and was rebuilt as condos. I guess it could go the other way, as well. You can find out more information on it here:http://www.westworld.com/~elson/larail/PE/tunnel.html. This site: http://www.erha.org/pewst.htm (Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California) does not even mention the Bonaventure foundation being built in the space, but instead says that it was simply it was filled in, due, to a claim by the city that it was "unsafe" due to "incompatibility" with the Bunker Hill redevelopment project because "the tunnel lacked reinforcing steel, hence nothing could be built above it". (While, "As a matter of fact, the Harbor Freeway, a defence system highway, was constructed directly over the tunnel in 1947, after U.S. Army and state engineers had determined that the subway was so strong that no bridge structures or caissons would be required". This would seem to suggest that the construction was actually above the tunnel, and there should be no impediment to removing the fill-in. (Perhaps reinforce it to satisfy the city's concerns).
Located on the site where the Bloomberg Tower was built, and a Home Depot taking some of the space, the flagship store (59th/LEX) featured an attempt at a fully automated in-store merchanside delivery system.
It consisted of a hung rail similar to what you see in cleaners. Above the rail was a red painted metal cogway encasement, down out of which stuck the pairs of "teeth" that pulled the trolleys or kept them from rolling too far forward.
The "trolleys" were bars hanging from a pair of metal two wheel assemblies, as also some cleaners have. Since the rails were hung from one side, you had to make sure you hung the trolley wheels from the other side. They included buttons on the wheel assembly, which were like movable bolts, that would activate the automatic switches along the way, to determine which floor it goes on.
By the time I got there in 1986, the 21 year old system was largely inactive, except from the loading platform on 58th St. down to the Receiving area in the sub basement. As soon as it got to the receiving area, the cogway looped around and headed back to the platform, and the rail branched off into a "yard" so to speak, (about a dozen parallel rails accessed by hand dropped switches, which were just a piece of rail on a hinge that clamps down on top of the straight rail to divert the trolleys); where the merchandise would be sorted by department, and then since the rest of the system wasn't in service anymore, us stock men would come down and take our stuff off and take them up on racks onto the elevators.
Past the yard, the rails continued to where they were picked up by the cogways to either side of the building: south-58th St.; north-59th St. facing Bloomingdale's. (Actually, the "yard" was entirely perpendicular to the rail they came in on, so if you kept going past the yard, you picked up the north side, and if you went through the yard you would merge into the perpendicular rail heading back to the south side near where the rail from the platform was).
The rails went up through shaftways staggered from floor to floor, coming up in the stock rooms usually near the freight elevator landings. There, you would have turnouts (the automatically thrown switches) to the the line staying on that floor where the staff in that dept. would pick up; and the cogway rail would continue up the next shaft to the next floor. They only went up as far as the fourth floor on each side, where they looped back. Fifth floor was hard goods (furniture, electronics, etc) and only used the elevators. (That was the top retail floor, and the 6th floor was a municipal parking garage accessed only via car elevators on 58th St. and the 7th floor was building maintenance and the generator room, which was accessed through the south freight elevator).
The rail system on both sides was shut off for years and only collecting dust. I also later discovered that another section of it (painted dark green), from the 2nd floor landing to the mezzanine (mezzanines were only in the stock areas, not on the selling floors) also worked, but for some reason, no one was using it. So I began using it to send dresses up to that storage area.
Each of the four cogways had its own power switches (just a fixture with an on and off button). IIRC, there were switches on each floor, so I can imagine there were conflicts of people wanting it on or off.
There was also a conveyor belt system for lighter boxed goods that followed the monorails on both sides up to the fourth floor; but like the monorails, only the section from the platform to receiving was used.
There was also another kind of monorail, which ran from one corner of the sub basement to a mezzanine down there, where the Alterations room was. In this one, the cogway was actually within the rail itself, and it had teeth sticking up out of the rail every three or so inches, and you just hung the individual hangers of merchandise right on the rail.
I used to love [the idea of] that system, and wished to see the whole thing used again. I wondered which other stores might have had them. I know Macy's, where I worked next, didn't. But this seemed to be a 60's thing anyway, and that Macy's flaship was much older. I did hear that the Mays on 14th street might have had one. That was gutted when it became Bradlees.
I wish I had taken a picture of it. (Wonder if Vornado, who purchased all of Alexanders' properties, might have inherited any archived plans/diagrams of it).
Since people in a discussion have said that these monoral cars in these pictures of store monorails in Kresge's and Wanamaker's:
http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w28/x92164/kresge04monorail.jpg
http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2009-05/images/Monorail.jpg
look like cells, then they could have used those for merchandise (hanging or shelf goods) instead, then.
Cognitive Confessions:Why am I so interested in this?: |
Forgotten Milepost:
Clemente's Travel Center
One piece of transportation history that seems to be in the process of being completely forgotten is the Clemente Travel Center, also known as "State Road" in New Castle, Delaware.
Right in the center of the mid-Atlantic roadway corridor, nestled between the New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore/Washington metropolises and Atlantic City and the coastline (and on the outskirts of Wilmington, DE), this roadway stop billed itself as the place
"Where the Nation Meets and Eats".
It was the major rest stop and transfer point for the interstate bus system (Greyhound and Trailways). Even the express buses to the deep South or cross country (such as the ones we used to take, whose first city after leaving New York was Richmond) pulled off of the 
, and headed a few miles down 
, (like they were going down the Delmarva/Eastern Shore Line), to make the stop, and then had to cut across DE Rte. 
(Frenchtown/Christiana Rd.) several miles to pick up the again in Christiana.
The stop consisted of a really large cafeteria in the front (very big dining area), and likely a gift shop, as well as the ticket counters for the buses. And of course, restrooms.
In the back was the door to the long platform running straight ahead, with the bus bays on both sides.
Behind all of this was parking space, and behind that a marshy area with a small road, a pond, a freight track, a park, and the end of a creek eventually leading to the nearby Delaware River. A nice sunshiney place in the morning, and the gateway to the cozy, peaceful looking Eastern Shore.
The food I most remember is the cheesecake, which had a similar creamy texture to NYC's famously unique Junior's, though tasted a bit different, and had some crumbs on top.
My first time there may have been in '75 on the return bus trip from my aunt in central Virginia. But I'm not sure. (On the way down, we had met my aunt in the city and she drove us down. First time to the South). I know on my next trip down there, in '80, the bus stopped there both ways. I had liked it so much on the way down, I looked forward to making ths stop on the way back.
Four years later, I chose Virginia's then largest city, Norfolk, to attend college. When driving, we usually took the all the way, and I suggested Clemente's as one of the stops, which then we always did.
At first, when coming back home for the holidays or summer, I flew (first time ever). But then, I became ever so curious about the cities I was flying over (and we had passed by without stopping, whether by bus or car). So I began taking the bus; either the 12 hour trip via the western "Peninsula" and mainland (Richmond, Washington, etc), or if going straight, the more direct 9 hour, but non-interstate (little towns and traffic lights) Delmarva peninsula. Both routes came back together at State Road.
I continued making the trips down there, even after leaving college.
Time began running out for the Center, when the Baltimore Travel Plaza opened, which was closer to the , being right near an exit in eastern Baltimore. Service then began moving into the new stop, which was in addition to Baltimore Downtown (the former Trailways station, with the Greyhound station closed after the merger).
The June, 1991 Russell Guide (which I managed to get), still listed some mainline runs, and all the Eastern Shore runs at State Road. That year's trip (to both my aunt, and Norfolk; a huge triangle), was my last time there. My next two trips; my first Florida ("expansion") trip, that summer (Jacksonville, which in many ways is a sister city to Norfolk), and the second one, a year later (Key West); the super expresses all stopped at the new Travel Plaza.
By the fall '92 Carolina Trailways schedule, State Road was reduced to a flag stop, and the new crossroads between the Eastern Shore and the corridor was nearby Wilmington (which is kind of out of the way for the buses going straight to New York, as it is past the turnoff to 
, which is the mainline highway heading to the Delaware Memorial Bridge to New Jersey, while goes through Philly). Previously, Wilmington was part of the local route to Philadephia).
All mainline service used Baltimore Travel Plaza (and/or Downtown) instead.
Eventually, the super expresses from New York to Richmond and beyond no longer stopped even there, but instead began using the Maryland House, which was a rest stop in the median of the highway (i.e. between northbound and southbound roadways), not too far north or east of Baltimore. Of course, this was faster and more convenient than even the Travel Plaza since it was right in the highway.
On my next Norfolk trip, in late '92, Clemente's was but a dark, shuttered derelict we zipped by between Odessa and Wilmington. (The meal stop was now at a lesser fast food chain {Roy Rogers or Hardees?} in Maryland somewhere).
I would be married less than a year later, basically ending my nearly decade long string of solo interstate bus jaunts. I had already been plotting my next trip, to Chicago (a place I had never gotten to, focusing on the South so much), but money, and trying to to do things together; with her not liking buses, it was put off indefinitely.
Forward over a decade later, the MC12 model coaches that were just coming out when I last rode are now the dwindling old fleet, and carrying the last of the distinctly sounded Detroit Diesel two-stroke engines that provided power for more than half a century, as federally mandated four-stroke engines were taking over. (Buses would never be the same again, and I don't even miss them as much).
State Road was long gone from all schedules, and many stops and routes, such as the old US40 local from Philly to Washington, the US17 shortcut between Norfolk and Washington, and several Eastern Shore stops, and even the US60 route west of Richmond providing the sole service to my aunt's area, were also gone.
So being well into the age of the internet, I happen to find out that a huge mall had been built on what was blocks of flat parking space in the core of downtown Norfolk. (It was actually there for about 9 years already; I just never looked up anything about Norfolk online until then). Plus, everything else that had been built up since my single days, with construction ongoing everywhere (It was pretty desolated and depressing when I was in college). My long delayed "expansion" to Chicago (and cutting back through Canada between Detroit and Buffalo), finally occurred '04, on my spring vacation.
So a year later, in '05, I finally got down to Norfolk again, (and being older, had to stay the night in a hotel, where I used to go and come back in a day. I did do Chicago like that, however, and figured that was my last).
The "traditon" had become to go down via the mainland (since I used to stop off at and explore the other cities along the way), and return via the direct route via .
I was surprised with a new expressway in the Delaware portion of the route (DE 
) bypassing a chunk of the route of , including the steep St. George bridge over the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal* passing way above the sleepy colonial looking town it is named after. (The new expressway uses a new "cable-stayed" bridge, the only other one I had gone over being the one entering Savannah, GA during one of my Florida trips). The two highways do run right next to each other in places, however. However, instead of taking the new road to its interchange with at Christiana, we got off and back onto the at the town of Bear for that last highly commercial stretch through New Castle and Wilmington Manor. Trying to remember exactly where the Center was, I looked out for it, and could recognize it, next to the "colonial house" looking office building, and by now I could see it appeared to be turned into a furniture store.
More recently, with the wonders of Google Maps, including Street View (expanded into even rural areas), I could see that it was in fact a little shopping strip, anchored by the furniture store in front. The stores are mainly lesser chains, that can be found all over the east, but are unknown in New York. There's even a dance studio, now.
I'm not completely sure whether it's a new building or not, but the way it looks, it looks like it's simply the old one with a new fa็ade, and the platform enclosed into the other stores, with pretty much the same (though newly paved) roadway around the facility the buses used to use. When the buses used it, the north side was inbound, and the south side was outbound. Now, a sidewalk to the stores and grassy strips are where the south bays were, and the north side appears to be the loading area in the back of the stores, and the former bus entrance is now gated off. Also appearing the same, is the big parking lot behind the whole complex.
View Larger Map
View Larger Map
Looking it up online, I could not find ANYTHING about "Clemente's Travel Center" or even "State Road". Even searching the slogan "Where the Nation Meets and Eats", only turned up an old New York Magazine (Mar 3, 1969 "Tracking the Action to Bowie") on Google Books, briefly mentioning it in passing! On the physical site (at least from the photos), there is no sign that it was ever there.
So I knew I had to add this section dedicated to it.
I find that the name of the plaza is The Shoppes of New Castle http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/16443798/166-S-DuPont-Highway-New-Castle-DE/ You would think at least a page like that would mention it was the former Clemente travel center. They should have called it "Clemente Plaza" or at least "The Shoppes at State Road".
The last couple of years, the Maryland House is being rebuilt, so some Greyhound schedules list the nearly identical Chesapeake House, further up the road, past the Susquehanna, right before it empties out into the Chesapeake Bay (which can be seen from the bridge).
(Also by now, the combined Greyhound/Peter Pan operation has completely pulled out of the Baltimore Travel Plaza, but several "China buses" stop there instead. A New "Baltimore downtown" opened closer to the highways).
Even further up, near the Christiana interchange is the similar Delaware Welcome Center (which I see in the Wikipedia entry also called "Delaware House", which I thought of it as too. This probably by extension from the Maryland and Chesapeake "Houses" down the road).
I had wished a replacement for Clemente's would open in the wide grassy median of on the east side of where the two highways cross.
Using Paint, I cut out the existing bulding and pasted it into that space, and saw that it did in fact fit. (and most of the length of that building was the platform anyway). It would be two story, with the buses stopping on the ground floor and continuing into Wilmington, and the mainline / buses stopping on the upper level between the roadways, just like they do at the Maryland House. So it would once again be the "crossroads" of the two routes, "where the nation meets and eats", and yet still have the convenient median location for the mainline buses.
I sent a suggestion to Greyhound a while back. Perhaps I should have sent it to the state of Delaware, or found out who the owner was. Wikipedia says it was rebuilt in '09-10, and that would have been the opportunity to move it to where I suggested. (You would think that would have been the replacement for Clemente's, and with the via the Christiana Bypass not too far from it, it would have still been somewhat convenient for the new Delmarva route).
I don't have any pictures of the old Center, but here's another one of the new shopping plaza:
*Delmarva is actually, technically an island, as the Cheasepeake and Delaware Canal severs it completely from the mainland. On the south end of the stretch is the North Channel Bridge, which is a part of the Eastern Shore end of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel 
that steeply rises above the rest of the span for a ship channel. So on the other end, you had a similar steep narrow bridge, the St. Georges Bridge. The two always reminded me of each other, and they both can be seen as the actual entry/exit points to the Eastern shore! Also, visible from the bridges over the canal is the brightly glowing Delaware City Refinery. While New Jersey is full of these types of oil plants, this one in Delaware is all by itself, and I used to think of it as "Emerald City", as it resembles from a distance.
The new road would have been the logical 
, but that designation was picked up by Pennsylvania, for a highway in the western part of the state; completely out of the west-east order the interstate odd numbers run in. They could justify it by using the designation for both highways, by running the designation across I76 to the Philly area, where it would run with 95 to the Christiana interchange, and from there, down to Dover where the expressway currently ends.
Cognitive Confessions:Why am I so into this?: |
While others had stamp collections; I collected these colorful cake labels. It started when I went off to college in Virginia. I found that some of the cakes I was used to in NYC were missing. It was the Drake's, which I then find are primarily a northeastern product, and not national like archcompetitor Hostess. You would think they were national as popular a household name brand they are up here. Well, in Virginia, I find these same cakes with four different labels: the primary one was Beebo, distributed by their manufacturer Flowers Industries' own operations. I had never heard of this company, as the name was not printed on the Lady Linda labels, and they have no operations up here. But they are a big Southern company, however.
The cakes distributed by the Norfolk rival Mary Jane baker were labeled Aunt Hannah. Some of these labels were also carried by Operative, when they did not print their own Lady Linda Label for particular cakes. The ones distributed by Bon Ton potato chips were Mountain Farm. These could be found in NY by another distributor, Sheppard Baking Company, who also labeled some of the Flowers cakes with their own Betty Jane sticker.
Then, when Flowers cakes were distributed in other areas by the local Sunbeam bread franchise holder, there was a Sunbeam cake label as well. These I found on the Delmarva Peninsula, when my parents would be driving me back home for the summer, and I would have them stop in stores both to try to see where Drake's would start appearing (they only went as far as Delaware or DC), and to pick up fireworks for July 4th, since they were nearly impossible to get in NYC. I had also seen them in our day trips to the Delaware Water Gap.
Some of the Sunbeams, like most of the Beebo's, were sold in printed wrappers instead of using the paper labels. The Raspberry Luncheon Roll was in a funny looking almost all red label. I tried to bring home the wrapper from the one I had bought at the T's Corner stop near the MD-VA line, but it apparently got thrown out on the way. Afterwards, it was replaced by the standard paper label.
My friend who worked at the Flowers' thrift store near the campus, (and is now a regional manager), had been telling me about a simple Flowers branded cake label seen near Waynesboro (in western VA). It supposedy consisted of the Flowers logo in a diagonal ribbon, as appeared on the corners of both the Sunbeam bread wrappers and delivery trucks. (Curious as to why that would be used there, instead of Beebo, like everywhere else). But as Waynesboro was never in the way of any of my journeys, I never got to verify this, and never saw it anywhere else, either. So it was an elusive "easter egg" that I kept an eye out for, and made me really curious as to what a given area I passed through sold.
So I begin collecting samples of these labels.
(Distributor in mid-atlantic region is Schmidt Baking Company, and in the areas between there and NY was Maiers. Waldensian had eastern North Carolina, and in certain stores in Chesapeake for some reason they held the Sunbeam franchise instead of Flowers, who used an Aunt Hannah bread label for such an occasion, as they did in Fredericksburg where they overlapped with Schmidt's territory.
Reymond Baking company covered NYC and western New England, with the yellow "Pixies" label they printed themselves bought right on Lawrence @Willoughby in Brooklyn, which was the only place I could find them. The bread was still rare in the city, however. Pennsylvania-based Stroehmann (which bought out the Taystee operation) eventually picked up the franchise in the NYC area, bringing Sunbeam bread firmly to the area, but not the Flowers cakes, however).
Golden Top and Griffin I found up in Springfield, MA in the stores around my Grandmother's house. I don't know who the distributor was up there. Morning Fresh was actually distributed in NY by Drake's, for the Pecan Spins and Honey Buns, before they eventually created their own label for them (And now, Hostess has recently replaced it with their label, as both companies are owned by Dolly Madison, and you also have Hostess "Zingers" labels!) The Vanilla Flip example displayed, however; I found somewhere else, (forget, and this vanilla creme version was very rare). Flowers' primary UPC manufacturer code was 72250. The other labels with 72359 were probably bought out from some other company. 71320 is the QBA Sunbeam franchise. (All of that brand watching also got me interested in the UPC code).
Later, Flowers introduces this new label called "Jubilee", and eventually replaces all of them with a new label, Blue Bird, which is their current first party brand. Another new brand, Mrs. Freshley, is now the third party distribution label replacing all the others. The paper labels were discontinued, and only printed wrappers are used now, so there are no examples of these in the image.
The French pastries were a funny looking oval shaped cake covered with chocolate, strawberry, or vanilla coconut icing. They had a thin layer of creme inside as well. These were among my favorites. I remember seeing the strawberry ones even way before college, when I used to visit an aunt in central Virginia. This was before the Beebo label had spread everywhere, so I vaguely remember them being the Sunbeam labels, which was also totally foreign to me. (Flowers holds the franchise in most of the areas it operates in. To me, Sunbeam was just an appliance brand). Picture quaint country stores, with these odd looking cakes and cake brands. It was always so different from home.
So I always wanted to create something with the labels, and now in the computer age, they came in handy for the Wikipedia article I created for the Flowers company (and someone since moved to a new article called "Flowers Foods"). This before I got the idea to create this page showcasing my images.
Also of worthy mention were the Shake Cakes of a company even further in the south I would not discover until I went into the Air Force. In Texas, there was a brand called "Break" cakes, by a baker called Campbell Taggart, whose bread brand was "Colonial" in that area, but "Rainbo" further out west, as I would find when I left basic training for the next level of training in Denver, and then finally a station in California.
The Shake Cakes were like Dolly "Zingers"; basically rectangular " fingers", with ribbed icing on top; but slightly longer, and came in chocolate, vanilla and strawberry, instead of chocolate, golden and raspberry frosted, like the Zingers. It was the cake and icing that were flavored; not just the icing! There was nothing else like these anywhere! In California, they were not where I was stationed, but I did find them at a rest stop on a trip I made between LA and San Francisco once. After returning home; I never saw them again.
A few years later, other Break products surprisingly turned up in NYC, replacing the Royal creme pies carried by Operative for a time! But the Shake Cakes were discontinued by then. Now, Campbell Taggart has changed its name to Earth Grains, and discontinued the Break Cake line and all brands but Earth Grains. They were then for a time one of the franchise holders of Taystee Bread, which was always the archcompetitor to Wonder here in NYC. While its parent company American Baking Company was bought out by IBC (Dolly Madison), and Taystee's southern counterpart, Merita, came under IBC ownership; Taystee here in NY was sold to Pennsylvania baker Stroehmann, who actually replaced the label with the Sunbeam franchise (which had never been strong here), and Taystee became a franchise label, much like Sunbeam, you can still find in midwest places like Chicago. Now, more recently, Stroehmann actually restored the Taystee label on the Pan Dorado bread (Spanish potato bread)!
Now, as was mentioned; IBC owns both Hostess and Drakes' as well as Merita. When Continental Baking Company (Hostess/Wonder) tried to buy out Drakes in the late 80's, it was somehow broken up as an unfair monopoly.
In the mean time, CBC was bought out by IBC, and now they were able to gain Drake's and keep it. You would think this would be good for Drake's to finally gain national distribution, and while this is being attempted, they also were apparently pulled out of most of Florida, the one remote southern state they could be found in. (Supposedly because kosher Jews brought them along or demanded them when they retired down there. They at one time were one of the few companies not to use beef tallow and lard (uggh!) as shortening. Hostess and others still have the tallow in most of the cakes).
Now that Drake's is owned by a company that has other brands there; perhaps they were not needed; they make their money from the popular Hostess and Dolly Madison. Generally, outside the northeast, they weren't really sold in corner stores in individual packs, but rather family packs in supermarkets. So naturally, they would not catch on much.
People not used to them find them too dry. But up here where we are used to them, I find them unique, as Hostess' devil food is too rich, and everyone else seemed to copy Hostess' style. On the Roadfood forum, people in various parts of the south claim they see some of them. But when I was in Orlando for my wife's NCCA (temperament) conference in 2005, they were gone (not even in the big Merita bakery thrift store, easily found because of its huge sign standing out before the city skyline; and where I was told that they had just been pulled a week before!), and I still don't see them in Virginia when I go. (More recently, a Roodfood poster from Orlando says they are there again).
What I would wish is that someone else would buy Hostess and Wonder; perhaps Kraft General Foods, or Frito Lay (national brands that seem to go along with Hostess and the main snack brands). IBC then would continue to have Drake's, and then buy out both Stroehmann and Earth Grains, and restore the Taystee label to New York, and resurrect the Shake Cakes, which would be Drakes in NY, and perhaps become an extension of the Dolly "Zinger" line elsewhere. Perhaps Drakes would also pick up the Zingers instead of Hostess, and would be "Drakes by Dolly" instead of "Drakes by Hostess". (Stroehmann, hwever, is now owned by the hugely expanding BIMBO company out of Latin America, along with Entenmann's, Thomas, Arnold's, Freihofer's, Mrs Baird's in Texas, etc. Another branch of Bimbo, based in Spain, is apparently separate, and owned by Sara Lee. I first started seeing the little Bimbo crackers with the mascot teddy bear on Operative shelves in bodegas in the 90's or before, and it looked like a ripoff of Beebo.
Now, in just over a decade, this company has practically taken over, with their own huge "Marinelas" stands in many bodegas, replacing either a separate Hostess or Drakes stand, which are now compacted together. Drakes and entenmann's did always seem to go together as NY baked sweets, so then it would be a matter of a Bimbo-IBC merger).
Taystee and Drake's would then be like Wonder and Hostess. Taystee and Drake's were never related, but it always seemed like they were, because they were CBC's main competitors for bread and cakes, respectively (ABC's cake label was Mickey, which was similar to Dolly Madison and Hostess, and gradually disappeared in the mergers). So elsewhere, it could be Dolly and Merita. Or Break and Colonial, Rainbo, etc. (though these have been discontinued already). They could either expand Drakes, or add its products to the other labels. In the south, perhaps rename "Yankee Doodles" to "Dixie Doodles" or something like that, to ensure they receive them. And restore the Shake Cakes (under whichever labels), and bring them to New York.
Also why not bring back the old Banana Dream I hear people talk about. This was an ABC west coast Langendorf product that was a cake cup (like the ones you fill with strawberries and creme), but made with spice cake, and filled with real banana creme. That sounded so good! It was at some point turned into a yellow cake "flip", identical with Flowers' version (but tasting much better), which is what I first saw of it. It like other Mickey products then took on the Dolly label which it can still be found under, but the original sure would be nice to have. Another thing I had really missed when I went to college were Drake's own imitation Twinkes, the "Shortcakes", but were filled with strawberry, banana, or chocolate creme, in addition to vanilla. The flavors were eventually eliminated, and the vanilla one changed to the name "Zoinks" (like Shaggy's exclamation on Scooby Doo; seemed silly to me), and then disappeared for good, two decades ago.
Little Debbie came out with Banana Pudding Rolls, which are really good, and then someone on the Roadfood forum said that Flowers' Banana Pudding cakes tasted a lot like the Banana Dream, and I finally got to taste those!
So if they did all of this, then the battle would be back on, with Drake's and Dolly Madison going against Hostess, this time nationally, hopefully. It's no fun with them all on the same racks, and delivered on the same trucks together! (and now, while Hostess got nice new label designs, the Drakes label only gets a "by Hostess" added to it! Wikipedia article now suspects it might be part of a phasing out of the Drake brand, though there is no source for it). IBC would also buy out Wise, which was the non-sweet snack that accompanied Drake's when they were both owned by Borden. Cracker Jacks as well, which was picked up by Frito Lay.
Shocking news for 2011 is the acquisition of Tastykake by Flowers Foods! I was surprised that Tastykake remained completely independent for so long. I had figured Hershey's should buy it, since the companies are from the same area, and Tastykake is mostly Chocolate products.
On the latest Norfolk trip (which have become very far apart by now), I got to taster the new Flowers banana pudding cupcakes, as just mentioned, as well as a new Red Velvet Bingles (as the fake Twinkies are still branded on the Blue Bird Label taking over from Beebo, though I got them in the Mrs. Freshley brand, where they are just called "cakes". I had seen or heard about them on the Flowers Foods site, and couldn't wait to try them out. I found them at the Wal-Mart near JANAF center, and they also had Drake's, but only the apple and cherry pies in the family packs. (Though oddly, the "By Hostess" logo doesn't appear). Still, I have finally, for the first time, after 27 years, seen Drakes' products sold in Norfolk! (So those southerners on the Roadfood forum weren't hallucinating after all!)
This Wal-Mart is where in my '05 trip, I had seen Schmidt, Maiers, and even Stroehmann bread sold! Like the entire trip home on one shelf! (Though none of that stuff was there this time; however Schmidt products have oddly become a somewhat regular feature in NY's Duane Reade chain for several years now!) I did see Stroehmann trucks all up the Eastern Shore route, and a Natures' Own (Flowers' specialty bread) truck in front of one of the Wal-Marts there.
As the old Flowers labels had all disappeared, Schmidt began producing its own labels for the Flowers' products I would see, usually at T's Corner, one of only two stores I can still get out at and enter since I no longer have the car ride. Now, Tastykake is what you primarily see on the Eastern Shore (and an occasional Mrs Freshley's). Funny, I didn't see them in the stores there before, even though this was right on the middle of Tastykake's domain, but that is what dominates now.
And a Royal Farms convenience store chain seems to be the hottest new thing on Delmarva. (One was the rest stop in Bridgeville, DE. Before, it was pretty much all the "Shore Stop" chain). Great fried chicken, and Lakeview Farms Cookies & Creme Dessert parfait was one of the best things I've ever tasted.
I grew up with a Royal Farms supermarket which in the late 70's became Consumer's Food, and then in the 90's most of them became Big R (the one I grew up with was taken by C-Town first, and remained with that chain to the present), and now seems to have been completely absorbed into the Bogopa "Food Bazaar" chain. The Delmarva chain says it goes back to 1959. So I wonder if there was any connection in the past.
Now, Food Lion can be seen all the way up to New Castle (near State Road, and even into Wilmington). A prominent fixture in the "southside" (the new term for "Tidewater"), and the rest of Virginia and the south; you previously didn't see them in the trip until you got to the southside. When I first arrived down there, they were just finishing up the conversion of the chain from Food Town (which we have up here in NY; though I'm not sure if the chains were ever connected. For one thing, our "Foodtown" is one word). Seemed like a silly name to me, but it is based on the foreign company that purchased the chain.
Other changes in "The New Norfolk" (as it promotes itself as)
So it's clear I would not be as homesick in Norfolk as 25 years ago. They have built up a lot, and have even added a rail system (on the track right near the campus, which I had heard back then they were thinking of converting to light rail), which is what I went down there to see this time. As the portion near NSU is elevated, rather than using a completely concrete trackbed, wooden track panels are placed on top of the structure like on the old big city "els". That certainly seemed like home. (The structure is still the typical modern white concrete guideway, however. The rest of it used the standard concrete ties in private ROW, or embedded rails in streets). The pair of chimes before an announcement (which are more modern on the LIRR/MNRR "M7" cars and only a single chime on NYCTA New Tech trains) sound a lot like the R44-68 door chimes.
I was surprised in the '05 trip to find a Jimmy Jazz store in Military Circle. (Wasn't even listed on their website. I had watched this grow from a Brooklyn neighborhood store I would see passing by on the train on Knickerbocker and Graham Avenues over the years). I then heard they were getting an ⓈⓃⒹ SND Underground as well, and now that is there in the mall, right around the corner from Jimmy Jazz. And even a CONWAY's right in the middle of the JANAF strip across VA Beach Blvd. That to me had been the store that appeared in the old "Martin's" space across the street from the A&S flagship store in Brooklyn, and then stread around the city.
And what I had been waiting for since college, the macy*s, which in around '07 bought out the company that took over Thalheimer's, which was the anchor of Military Circle when I was in school. When I first arrived down there, my Christmas nostalgia was kicking into full swing, and since Macy's was one of the main elements of this, because of the Herald Square flagship, I had wished that there was one down there, and that it wouldn't be subsidiaries Bamberger's (mid-atlantic) or Davidson's (further south). California and Texas (and I believe Florida) had their own divisions of the main Macy's. But now those other companies have all been folded into the Macy's name, plus other companies bought out, bringing Macy's basically everywhere.
The NSU campus has changed (even since the '05 trip!) to the point of being largely unrecognizeable. (In that last trip, it was night when I got to the campus, and also, spring break, as I didn't realize until too late, so it was totally desolate and a bit spooky, and I just looked at the stadium and left). They added new buildings or extensions of buildings to what had been open grassy space, several buildings replaced, and the campus extended eastward (almost to the next rail station, Ballentine/Broad Creek), with not only the Spartans football stadium (which I first saw in '05), but also many new dorms, and even their own little mini-mall, replacing the old "Godwin" Student union center. This even has a bridge connecting buildings.
I already knew this from online, but The CBBT now has E-ZPass, which is very rare down there. Also, back in the 80's, the $9 toll seemed ridiculously expensive compared to everywhere else (it was such a special route, after all), but now, the price has only gone up slightly, while NYC's basic tolls have just passed right by their's!
Cognitive Confessions:Why am I so into this stuff; isn't this weird and meaningless?: |
"The Ridgewood Rant": Suggestions for better transit
Near the very geographical center of the city, the entire Ridgewood-Bushwick-Maspeth-Glendale area flanking Queens and Brooklyn is one of the most isolated areas in the city; much like an outskirt! Think of the NYC Subway system as shaped like a giant "K". You have lines running straight north-south, from the northwest Bronx, to Coney Island Brooklyn. Then, you have branches going off into Queens, and southestern Brooklyn, and southeastern Bronx. You can get on any train on these lines, and it will take you at least through the city's Central Business Districts in Midtown Manhattan. Some will take you downtown, too.
But inbetween the upper and lower legs of this K, straight out to the right, is a "factory/cemetary belt" that lied between the original city of Brooklyn, and the towns of Queens. So this area has always been light on transportation. We have the L train that cuts through this area, but it deads end in an area between midtown and downtown Manhattan. To get to those areas, you have to transfer to one of the uptown-downtown "mainline" trunks. Some of these transfers are simple, but others are more of a nuisance, including either long passages (which I had to to get to my jobs working the 7th Avenue line) or multiple stairs. Also, while trains may be held for across the platform connections, they are not held for lines on another level. The other line that serves the area is the J and especially the M. But these go downtown only. We used to have the Myrtle Avenue el that ran all the way to downtown Brooklyn, but they discontinued it mainly for a MetroTech project that would not even begin to be built for decades afterward. So to get downtown, it was incredibly slow buses down narrow streets. The traffic lights all favor the intersecting north-south streets through Bushwick and Bedford Stuyvesant, making traffic ever slower, even on Myrtle Ave itself, and even if you are in a car! You eventually had the addition of weekend express service on the A, but of course you still had to use the L to get to it. Buses connecting Ridgewood with other Queens neighborhoods such as Long Island City, Elmhurst and Flushing or Jamaica are very long and winding, and some of them very infrequent. Other close and busy areas such as Jackson Heights and Forest Hills/Kew Gardens, we are virtually cut off from! (when taking into consideration number of transfers, waiting time, etc). This practically wrecked my courtship, as I spent all day, an hour and a half each way traveling the relatively short distance from Roosevelt Island (in the river between Manhattan and Queens) where I was still living with my parents, to Ridgewood. By either bus, or by train through Manhattan (when the B was still the weekend 63rd St line, requiring three trains to get to the L and four to get to the M which is only a shuttle to Bushwick off hours), it would take an hour and a half. (It has gotten a little better to Roosevelt Island with the local F running there now. But I don't travel between the two places regularly anymore). Now, living over here, and reporting to Subway terminals or yards in various parts of the city, it is still often difficult. My wife and I stopped going to places in Queens, because she really can't stand all of that hassle. And if you don't live close to the L, which is slightly faster than the M, that is another transfer from the M or a bus. It is a tough decision for me looking to move. The closer to the L the junkier looking it is. The nicer it gets, the further from the L you are. Some others from around here on Sub Chat and other boards also testify as to how difficult it is.
So over the years, I came up with some suggestions to improve access. Part of the problem was that western Queens was served by mostly private bus carriers, subsidized by the city DOT. These have now been taken over by MTA, with some small improvements made. Rumors of an "18 month waiting period" following the takeover of the last company; after which more major changed could be made, floated around. This would have been around late 2007. Smaller changes continue to be made, but I'm hoping larger changes I have sent in will be considered. The major ones:
Q38, which begins and ends a few blocks apart in Rego Park, but loops over to the Metropolitan Avenue M station and back. A nice shortcut through Middle Village, but requires either the train, or bus transfer to get the rest of the way to Ridgewood. So the northern half, which goes straight across Eliot Avenue (a 20 minute ride from Metropolitan) would be discontinued. It would now end at a loop Mt. Olivet Crescent, Eliot, Fresh Pond and Metropolitan, (to serve those on this side of the cemetery who would be more likely to need access to the Metropolitan station than those further out on Eliot. Those on the other side of the cemetery would still have the Q67 or whatever might replace it on 69th St.) This would be replaced by either the Q58, rerouted off of the busy Grand Avenue and replaced by something else, or another line, perhaps an extended Q88, which goes along the LIE from the east, to Queens Blvd. The 58 is an incredibly long winding route, on traffic packed Grand Avenue and the meandering Corona Avenue, and often suffers from large gaps due to bunching (because of all the riders). Riding one end to the other from Flushing to Ridgewood feels like getting off a Greyhound from another state! This should either be straightened (and let the Grand Ave. riders have their own route), or at least give us another line across Eliot to Queens Blvd. where the mall is. Exending the 88 might also lure some riders away from the busy Queens Blv. subway to the less used M!
Q39 and Q67. These are the winding routes connecting the area with Long Island City. There was speculation they would be combined somehow, or one discontinued. Since the 39 is the one that comes closest to here, that is the one I suggest straightening out. The 67 could continue to focus on all the little residential pockets dotting the factory belt, and pick up some that would be abandoned by the 39 in my suggestions.
Northbound, the Q39 after Metropolitan would take a shortcut across Andrews Ave. and 59th Pl. (northbound) or 60th St. (southbound) to 59th Dr. and then Rust St. to 48th St.; then along Borden Avenue to Van Dam, where it would take Queens Blvd. to QBP, and then start and end at the Courthouse Sq. 7 station, (perhaps via 21st St.) instead of swinging by there (out of the way) enroute. The current route along Fresh Pond gets caught in traffic, and then along Greenpoint Ave. and 58th St to the BQE is very long and indirect. 48th St, segment can also be slow sometimes, and taking Thompson and swinging by Courthouse Sq. also adds more time. All of this adds up to a very long trip, for the moderate distance actually being traveled. The Q67 could pick up the Thompson/Van Dam/48Av./48St./BQE/58th St. route, and then continue, as current, beyond 58th St.
2011 update. Not only are they not even thinkign of makign the 39 more direct, but they're makign it more indirect, by taking it off of 58th St. in one direction, where thr street is being made one way. So now it will go up Maurice avenue, and cut across to the current route. Like it's not long, slow and winding enough!
Then, I would create a more direct route between Ridgewood to the busy Jackson Heights, Roosevelt Avenue hub (or lat least the LIRR Woodside area). This would involve extending either the Q18 or Q45, (and straightening them out while at it). A DOT consultant had suggested extending the 18 down 69th St. to Metropolitan Ave. station to replace the 67, which they suggested reducing to rush hours only. So then I got the idea to just extend it all the way into Ridgewood, somehow. Latest plans have been to extend it to the new Atlas Park Mall (a nice grassy shopping center that looks reminds me of something you would see in Orlando's International Drive, or California), but area residents have been opposing it. (Meanwhile, it is a different through route that does get rerouted out of the way there!)
Also, the area's only express bus to Manhattan, QM24, takes the LIE way out to Rego Park before coming back towards Fresh Pond on Eliot Ave. This I would have leave the LIE at the Maurice Ave. exit, and take 64th St. to Flushing Avenue, and then Fresh Pond, then the rest of the route. Manhattan-bound, they would take 61st St. to Borden Ave. east to 69th, to Queens Blvd. One of the other express routes, such as the QM10 could be extended along the Eliot portion of the line to 69th St. Or, one of them could serve Eliot first, using the same exit at Maurice Avenue, and follow the QM24 to Eliot Avenue at Fresh Pond Rd. and turn East on Eliot. Since this would draw many of the QM24 riders to the other line, the QM24 could be extended via Myrtle to the Union Tpke/Metropolitan Ave/Woodhaven loop (and maybe also the Yellowstone stretch) currently served by the QM12, giving those riders an alternative to the busy Rego Park routing.
Also, the extension of the Q55 from stopping just short of Jamaica in Richmond Hills to continuing all the way into Jamaica, or at least to the Van Wyck E station. Now, the Q54 is the lifeline to Jamaica (accessible by the M or 58, otherwise, other trains with transfers), and that too is slow with traffic during the day. Not only that, the one fast stretch, through a little cemetary (where John Gotti was buried not too long ago) they have eliminated to make it swing over to a new mall on Cooper Avenue. More turns, traffic and narrow streets! It's just amazing how the one line that goes straight to Ridgewood cuts back, and even the other ones they make slower. It almost seems deliberate!
One thing that I used to wish for, but thought they could never really do; yet they have announced, is B38 Limited service! It would be hard for a bus skipping stops to pass another bus on narrow streets such as DeKalb Avenue, so I don't know how well it will work. But it's nice they are thinking about us. One idea I had was to run such a limited or express along Park Av (Brooklyn, that is) which is big and wide and also relatively clear. So take that all the way to Bway, then to Myrtle, and then pick up DeKalb from there. Or maybe even stay on Myrtle to Gates, and then Seneca. I'm also glad that the Catalpa branch gets the limited. It always seemed like the other branch (running away from the heart of Ridgewood, to an almost desolated area in the factory belt) got more service; whenever we would be waiting for Catalpa, and the other one shows up first; another frequent annoyance of traveling to this neighborhood. This used to be our lifeline to the rest of Brooklyn, (in our courtship and early marriage) but now I basically avoid that like the plague, for the L to the A or even the M to Manhattan (to come back into Brooklyn! That's how ridiculous this area is!) Now let's see if they can really make the 38 faster with this!
As for trains, the biggest hope for improvement is a long forgotten connection between the J and M's Essex St. and 6th Avenue's Broadway-Lafayette. This is known as the "outer Chrystie St connector" and was used by the old K train (not the late 80's one that was a renaming of the old AA. The inner connection is the one used by B and D connecting the Manhattan Bridge to the station and including the Grand st station).
This would allow a one seat ride from Bushwick and possibly Ridgewood, to the 6th avenue trunk line and Midtown Manhattan. However, since 63rd st has been completed, eliminating the former terminals at 21st St Queensbridge or the K's old 57th St/6th ave, there is no longer any place to terminate such a line. Other railfans and residents over here on the internet suggest combining the M with the V. But there seemed to be several problems with that. For one thing, as discussed at Car History, the M has restrictions to both the 75 foot cars, and 600 ft trains used by the V. So a V extended along the M line now would be restricted to the shorter trains with shorter cars. People argue that the V has not attracted the riders it was supposed to, and has lots of room compared to the other lines, so it could take the reduction in capacity. But Transit still hopes ridership will catch on, and I can't see them taking a chance of ridership increasing. Plus, it would limit car assignments at the busy Jamaica Yard.
Also, the most natural place for the V to be extended to beyond the current 2nd Avenue terminal is Church Avenue in Brooklyn along the F line, which would then be allowed to run express from Jay St. To Church. (the G would also be extended there). That would be good for the F, as it is a long, winding local in Brooklyn. It would even benefit J and M riders as the V would stop at Delancey St. for the transfer to Essex, instead of us having to wait for the F.
I would only suggest implementing a V/M combo in the event of an emergency, where the Nassau St. Line past Essex street becomes impassible for some reason.
I have just thought out an idea for a V/M combo on weekends, instead. To avoid having to keep equipment for it at Jamaica, I fixed it so it could be run entirely out of the East. And in the process, eliminate duplicate shuttle and through service! It would take about 3 hours to make the entire round trip from Met to Continental, and if at let's say, 10 minute headways, then requiring about 18 trains. Or if 12 minutes, then 15, etc. Sometime in the mornings, some through trains would start out from Met. Then, some would also start out at ENY Yard or borrow the J's stored at Canarsie even, if necessary, run light to Myrtle middle, then go in service towards Met, and then head off to Manhattan.
Not only would this provide the necessary staging (since Fresh Pond Yd cannot hold 18 trains), but it would also provide the northound service to Met when the Manhattan bound trains are leaving and not returning yet, AND maintain the reverse "peak" shuttle, since the through trains from Manhattan to Met would not be needed earlier on. (and you wouldn't even have the alternate shuttle and through trains you have during the brief weekday transition from shuttle to Manhattan service!)
The first train would complete its round trip, around the time the putins would cease.
Of course, the evening transition back to the shuttle would be the reverse.
In case not that much service is not needed, then there is always the possibility of using short trains. Eventually it will all be 160's, so just cut some into the five car units and take those out. (This might also raise the question of making it OPTO, and that might be attractive to them, as it is less staff, but then that would be an awful long line for OPTO).
For evenings, I always thought it would be nice to have the midtown service as well, but the V is still running, and you have less time to stage the service like that. Plus, I'm sure they will not want to take the chance of confusing the Jamaica based equipment with the ENY based equipment if you had both services overlapping like that. (Like if there's a delay in the last Jamaica V of R46's, and it gets down to Bway-Laf. and Essex forgets to check, thinks it's an ENY R160 or whatever, and then brings it into Essex).
The best solution would have come when the first section of the new Second Avenue Subway opens. It will connect with the 63rd St line, and the very next stop after the junction will be 72nd Street, which was to have an extra track in the middle. This would have been someplace a new "K" could terminate. However, it was suddenly dropped from the plans, infavor of a simple two track station with one island platform, and a simpler junction with 63rd St. So the trains would have to run all the way up to 96th or 125th, and once the line below 63rd opens, the capacity would be filled.
So for evenings in the time being, it would be better to use 2nd Av. Instead of those last Broad St. runs, they would head up there, and by the time the first one returns, it can be adjusted to fall right behind the last train from Bay Pkwy.
This would still overlap with the V, but at least it would be a separate line, and less likely to be confused with the V by Essex. (Call letters would have different line and starting terminal).
2008, they were actually proposing to extend M service to Chambers on weekends! Yet this was the first to go in the sudden turnaround budget crunch, where they proposed a buch of radical cuts, including cutting service south of Broad altogether! I would add, if nothing else, to Essex Street middle track. That would give us at least the transfer from the F. The line is finally getting some attention, as in this NYTimes article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/29/realestate/29comm.html
Luckily, they had already extended it to Broad later in the evenings, in the first round of improvements that went through before the crunch.
All of the attention in this area was going to the L, which has gained heavy ridership. (A total reversal from it being feared decades ago, as this completely desolate line). A new K might help draw many of the riders who live near both lines off of the L. What I once suggested was to connect a spur between 6th and 8th Avenues to 6th Avenue, so that trains can drop out at 6th, and then return without having to use the two track terminal at 8th Avenue. It often gets backed up there, making it hard to add more service. The idea was rejected on the basis that they did not want to have to add platform conductors at 6th Avenue to make sure no passengers are left on for the relay move. But since they are still talking about adding even more service than has already been added, that is really no reason to not take that measure to increase capacity. They could also shortline some service at Myrtle, so the additional service might not be needed past there, and the Canarsie terminal gets backed up as well. So have a L shortline from Myrtle to 6th.
News Flash! In an amazing and surprising development, MTA has actually instituted this service as part of a mass of service cuts due to the budget problems. Originally, the M would be completely eliminated, and the new V pick up the line from Essex to Metropolitan, but only on weekdays. Riders on the line, upon hearing "the M would be eliminated" finally spoke up, and to quell their fears, then renamed the entire combo line a new "orange M", and had to print up new signs and reprogram the trains' digital programs. (see also, Line History) I also got to work on the line three days a week, going through 'the cut' for the first time since the early 80's, when D's used to be sent there due to delays on the Manhattan Bridge.
They had been apparently considering Church Avenue for the V when the Culver (Gowanus) viaduct reconstruction is complete, and this new change might endanger that by creating a demand that was not there before. I had thought they were deliberately hiding knowledge of the connection for that reason!
Other Suggestions:
I also support the consultant's idea of expanding the DOT style express route designations (QM, BM, BxM instead of "X" for all boroughs) to NYCT.
I also support the DOT consultants idea of the Q7 via Conduit to Green acres.
Many people agree that the Q60 needs articulated (60ft, bending in the middle) buses, and Limited Stop service; and the Q10 as well. (Others say the Q11).
One idea I've always had for my old stomping ground in Brooklyn, is to allow all the express routes to access one block of Ocean Parkway (both directions) and cut across Beverley Rd. all the way to Ocean or Flatbush Aves. (or Coney Is. Ave for the X29); instead of the slow, jammed zigzag route along McDonald Avenue, Church Avenue, Coney Is. Avenue, and the narrow, busy Cortelyou Rd. This should speed up service incredibly, as a lot of time is lost in that section. Cortelyou Rd. is narrow, and not only are both Cortelyou Rd. and Church Ave. traffic-filled commercial corridors; but they also intersect other streets at sharp angled corners (due to the north/south slant of Church Av. and Cortelyou Rd.) while Beverley cuts across due east/west. (And is close to Cortelyou at Flatbush, but far from it yet close to Church Avenue and the entrance to the expressway by the time you get to Ocean Pkwy.) Both roads have a station on the Q line, so the transfers would not be lost.
The DOT also had a bunch of tangent feeder bus lines that connected to other lines but otherwise not sharing any part of the route, yet using the same number (distinguished only with a letter at the end)! This caused me to miss my only chance to see veteran animator Chuck Jones at the Museum of Moving image. Instead of the regular Q101 which goes by there, my wife and I end up on the 101R, heading to Rikers Island prison, down a totally different street that went nowhere near the museum! We end up aborting the trip, and he was never there again, and eventually died. Beginning in 2007, the MTA began changing them, with the Q65A becoming Q64, Q9A to the Q 89; Q19A to the Q 69; Q19B to the Q 49; Q101R to the Q100 (too late for me!).
Other fascinating things that occupy my thinking a lot are RGB LED's. When a child, I always loved switching around the colored C7 bulbs on the Christmas tree. The standard colors were usually red, orange, green and blue. There was white also, but eventually, we only used that for the star. Yet, when I would see other decorations and windows elsewhere, (including pine garland, wreaths, etc.) with all white lights, it looked kind of nice too. (And I once had all white 2.5v bulbs in my bedroom window, and later years would put both that string on the tree with the regular colored C7 strings, and saw it lit by itself; and it was nice). Or white and red. Or the Christmas colors red and green, of course. Or even red and blue. Or all blue. Or all red. Or all green, or green and white. I also wondered what a "cool" white (non-yellow, fluorescent or mercury vapor style, now made possible by LED's!) would look like in a tree or other decoration. And then mixing that with other colors. Just about any color or color combination! I wanted them all!
All grown up now, when I saw that LED's offered the possibility of color changing bulbs (whenever they would have them with all three primary chips); the first thing I envisioned for them was color changing Subway end route signs. The R110A test train came equipped with a new LED sign in which each LED had both red and green dies. So it could instantly change from (2) to (4) (red, for the Seventh Avenue line, to green for the Lexington Avenue line). By mixing both colors, you would get yellow. The yellow line was on the BMT, where this IRT car would not be running. Still, it was nice to be able to change from red to green. If the 2 is rerouted down Lexington, as often happens, you could make it green, helping alert people of the change. It was this sign, plus other similar ones appearing with text inside stores and waiting rooms, and even larger ones with graphics on the outside of buildings at the time, that really sparked my interest in LED's.
The missing color, of course, was blue; which would complete the primaries, allowing full color, like a TV screen. The test train for the BMT/IND, which has the blue coded 8th Avenue line, got an old fashioned roller curtain sign, as blue was not out yet.
Still several years before the Internet; it was very hard to find information on it. But I did hear it was in development. Finally, in the late 90's, they begin slowly appearing individually in Radio Shack bins. (I still did not know what the color looked like when lit at that time). Then, as indicator lights, on the then still emerging DVD players. Then, finally, display signs, perhaps the oldest being the triangle paneled "Bud" sign on 1 Times Square, which had a tipping bottle. This I first noticed in early 1998, and since removed and replaced by newer full color signs. The following year, was the globe-shaped outside of the Panasonic Theater auditorium in the new NBC Style Store. Finally, that fall, the new Good Morning America marquees in Times Square (which have recently been redone with even finer resolution. I was there the first day, and managed to get in somebody's picture of new tennis star Serena Williams, posing inside the window).
Afterwards, full color signs like these, using separate red, green and blue LED's (SRGB) completely took over all of Times Square, replacing nearly all Neons and incandescents, even!
In all of these displays, the green was also richer and less yellow than the previous.
So the full color age had finally come upon us, and entering the new milennium, white and full color RGB LED's (with all three colors in one LED) would eventually appear. This even appeared on the backs of many subway entrances, but were after awhile replaced by improved and now larger LCD's, because of some thermal issue where the three chip LED's cannot be too close together, requiring a wide pitch (space between rows and columns), and limiting visual resolution and thus, usefulness on small close range signs. Hence why they are not seen as much as SRGB or RyG, still).
As for the trains, because of the cost, and probably also visibility concerns, they have gone with all red on the new front signs (and amber for the sides). I have been suggesting a white LED letter, and making the circle or diamond only RGB (below). Buses in other cities, and our own Grey Line double decker tours are using SRGB however. Side-mounted (below the windows) ad signs using RGB's did appear on a few of our articulated buses in Manhattan, however. They are flat enough to not stick out much further than the old framed ad signs used before stickers became the norm. 
The second thing I envisioned, and which would be more personally useful, could be called "mood Christmas lights". A string of lights using the full color LED's with each bulb being individually addressable. You could change the color of any or all lights with a push of a button. So maybe there's too much of one color, and not enough of another color on this part of the tree; you can change it without having to be screwing bulbs in or out.
The first LED Christmas lights were battery operated little strings of bare red, orange, amber and yellow-green LED's, you could find at K-Mart. This was before blue and the new "pure green" LED's (both based on Gallium Nitride technology, and white being made also from the blue) were widely available.
Then, a company called Forever Bright came out with sets that added blue, and encased the lights in C6 sized faceted plastic bulbs (slightly smaller than the standard C7, and were push-ins, rather than screw based). Soon, white strings, and pure green color, and brighter bulbs were added.
I had to go out to Harrows in Long Island at first, for these. This started a tradition of travelling through that area to see all the decorations on the homes. (And it's fun to find homes and even whole yards increasingly done in LED lighting! One gem I found out there was, basically, their own "Rockefeller Center"; a little plaza and skating rink in front of one of those "mirror glass" faced office buildings, called "EAB Plaza", now "Rexcorp Plaza"; which had a tree bigger than Rockefeller Center's!)
The next step was individual RGB bulbs that cannot be controlled. They just cycle through red, green, blue, yellow (R+G), cyan (B+G), magenta (R+B), white (R+G+B); but each bulb cycles at slightly different rates, so they are almost always different colors. The first ones appeared single, as night lights that could be bought in K-Mart, or other stores under different brands. Soon, there were similar bulbs made specifically for Christmas decoration manufactured by Carpenter Decorating, and called "Intellishine" (they also have single color bulbs). These are only 6 volts, and about $6 each, so I got an extra 6 light string from my mother's model railroad Christmas villages, and hooked it up to a 6V transformer.
So eventually, fully addressable RGB strings finally start appearing! But these were not consumer Christmas tree lights, but rather high-end display sign pixels, that basically cost $10 per light. So a string of 50 is $500! Then, the DMX controllers and software would push it up into the thousands!
The first one I discover is Color Kinetics' (Now Philips Solid State Lighting) iColorFlex (http://www.colorkinetics.com/ls/rgb/flex. These are the strings of color changing lights that line the ceiling of the FAO Schwartz store in Manhattan. The cost is of course out of reach. (Also, it uses a 619nm orange as the primary red, throwing some of the colors off).
But the following year (2005) I find a similar product, LED Effects' DingDotz. These are the lights on that colorful panel that forms the background of the Sony sign on the lower level of the Toys R Us in Times Square. A string of 50 is basically the same price as the iColor Flex, but they also offered a "Demo Kit" of 10 lights with a preprogrammed chip, for $100! That was in reach, and I squeezed and got it! It is a facinating display of vivid LED colors. It even simulates incandescent color! (LED Effects also had a showroom right on 23rd St. so I got to see them before buying, plus all of their other products, including some nice incandecent white only LED's, made by adding some red to the yellow phosphor coating the blue LED chip. These are just now starting to be sold by others).
The following year, As the Fall approached, and I began looking for the latest lights, I found Triklits, which were an even better deal, at 24 lights for $100. And not only that, but you can choose between dozens of preset displays (color combinations, chase patterns, etc). But as soon As I had the money, and sat down to order them, they were pulled due to some defects, and have never come back. :-( So 2007, the options were to go for more DingDotz (individual lights can be added on for $11 a piece). There is also now a new updated version called CoolDotz (You can see all of them here: LED Dotz;now they're all called "X8 Dotz" or "X16 Dotz") Demo Kit for same price, and they have an advanced chip with a higher Color Bit Depth, Gamma Correction, and color adjustability (for down the line when colors start to fade).
Another option was a controller and software so I can make my own color combinations and light show. But I'd have to get a new string, as the Demo is not designed to be expanded.
Here's a tree with fully controllable lights:
The only new products I had found for 2007 was the Color Stream String Light. But this is an OEM (Original Electronics Manufacturer) product, and not a consumer item yet. I was told it would be released to consumers 2008 by one of the LED brands, as a string of 30 for under $50! But it has yet to show. (Also, since Philips owns ColorKinetics now, and Philips has been selling LED strings for a few years now, you would think they would come out with a marketable product based on the iColorFlex. The merger is still recent, so I was told maybe 2008, they will merge their product line).
Also, late in the game, appeared a bunch of strings and prelit trees by Cosmo Lighting. http://www.cosmo-lighting.co.uk/shop...se?shop_param= I saw them in the window of a deli at the north end of Rockefeller Plaza. It was closed, but then I find that the distributor has set up shop on the second floor of the Manhattan Mall. In the window; I had seen what looked like pale cyan LED's on one of the trees, and you could see that there were actually the three primary color dies lit. It was steady at that color, and the deli was closed so I couldn't ask about them. Instead, in Manhattan Mall, and I see a store with all these LED decorations inside, and I go in, and it is the same trees! They also have the strings by themselves! (very thin. Those might be more of those Shenzhen strings I used to see on alibaba.com! The picture looks just like it).
There is a control knob that allows it to do 8 different patterns. $30 for a string of 144 color changing (the string used on the smaller tree), and $60 for 264 (used on a larger tree). The tres themselves are $hundreds! The single color lights, including the ribbon encased ones, are less.
I was tempted to try to get it, but I don't know. The colors are poor (that dull cyan is apparently supposed to be "white"). Nothing like the DingDotz! The 8 patterns don't look like much, some chases and I think different color combinations, but it's hard to tell. The colors seem to be mostly blues and greens. The red is in there, but you don't see it much by itself, and you don't seem to see any yellows or true white either.
Then, I saw passing by a Grand Central Terminal salon, a prelit tree, incandescent based fiber optic with 7-color changing LED plastic flower lights, and a six pointed star on top with the color changing LED's in the points. Most of the lights used the standard "pure" 525 as the primary green, but a few of them used the 565 yellow green! (actually, the first rgb's using yellow green I have ever seen. I knew they they existed (Ledtronics has had them for sale as long as rgb's have been out). One color I saw some of them making was a very good imitation 2700 incandescent. I don't know if that was simply the "white" of the ones with the yellow green, or it was a specially mixed color). These I eventually find are sold by Michael's, a chain we don't usually hear about, but has a store in Queens. (It might be by Polytree of Hong Kong, which distributes most of Michael's trees).
What's of special interest, is that this tree has some sort of remote controller. I didn't want to bug the sales person so much on the phone, which is why I was trying to find out the manufacturer; so I could see what patterns and stuff can be done on that one.
I use all of these lights in the windows, BTW. The white Foreverbrights when behind the blinds at night, make it look like a snowy daylight outside. Nice when playing Johnny Mathis' or Manhattan Transfer's version of "Let It Snow" or "Snowfall"!
I also found a rare seven color RGB belt buckle. Problem is, it eats up the 2032 Lithium button cells in a half hour. There are rechargeable Lithium Ion cells, but these are 3.6V instead of 3 Volts, so I don't know if that would be harmful to them. There are others sold online that have USB connection to the PC, and can display more then one color at the same time as well as graphics. But these are on Chinese wholesale sites like alibaba.com. They also have RGB strings on there as well. I have no idea how to get that stuff. (One of the Chinese LED light companies; Shenzhen Viss, which had a dome-lensed string nearly identical to one of the iColor Flex options, has just begun distributing it through the US company Wiedamark. I found this out too late for 2007).
A must see is the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, with its 3D CGI animation sequence of Santa flying in from the north pole (through the 3D effect snowfall), lighting the Rockefeller Center tree across the street, and then landing at the hall, and later giving a tour of the area leading to Central Park and finally Times Square. The screen this is shown on is a huge RGB display that forms the back wall of the stage. It was also used for the backgrounds of the show's segments (such as a continuation of the props used on stage into the distance), and it often looked so real! I had never seen CGI animation on an RGB LED screen before, and with the higher resolution of using single RGB units, instead of SRGB arrays like most other signs, it was truly like nothing else you see. I wonder when movie theaters will begin using them. And if Radio City itself uses that screen whenever movies are shown there.
And wondering when the Rockefeller Center tree would ever go LED, I was surprised when its conversion was also announced for 2007 (also its 75th anniversary) just a few days before the lighting! It now has six colors (up from 5) with both orange and amber (in addition to red, green, blue and white). The white is 3500K. This is inbetween "soft" and "cool" white; roughly the color of the original Philips "earth light" compact fluorescents when they first tried to emulate incandescent color, and called it "warm white". When the color was finally improved to a truly incandescent "soft white" at 2700K, it kept the name "warm" white. Now, the new inbetween color is spreading, both in CFL's and LED's though again, LED Effects had the more incandescent looking 2700K LED's for a few years now.
The tree was the first large multicolor decoration I have seen to use the new "warm white" facsimiles. So the tree does not have that sharp "icy" kick to it that other trees and decorations with more bluish white LED's have. It actually looks quite natural. It's not as bright as with the incandescents. It has almost no glare, and you can't even tell it's on from around the corner. But of course, it is so much more colorful. There was always just too much white before, and the tree was always overall pale, though bright. Now, the white is not overwhelming everything else. The bulbs are C9 faceted.
The smaller trees lining the plaza, (including the small pines beneath the tree, and in the walkway exposing the tree to 5th Ave), which have always had smaller white incandescent bulbs, got white "raspberry" shaped LED's, as well. (either the 3500K, or slightly less yellow, probably in the 4000's K). A small replica of the tree (with the same color LED's) and surrounding buildings was constructed as an exhibit in the concourse space directly below the tree (between the windows to the rink), showing the new solar panels on the roof powering the tree. Also, there weren't as many blues on the side of the tree facing the building (away from the rink). Never seen the colors out of balance before. That section of the tree with less blues kind of resembled the overall color of the tree with incandescents. The incandescent blues were always not as bright, and being not as saturated, were not as prominent. Now, blue was dominant. When you moved your eyes, so that the colors all blur together, the overall color looks like the same pale fluorescent electric blue or periwinkle as other multicolor LED trees.
The sister tree in Long Island, which went on two days later still had incandescents, with the pale white dominated mix with the old transparent stained red, green, blue and orange. In 2005, however, there were a couple of Foreverbright type C6 strings near the bottom of the tree, (which could be noticed from across the parking lots, almost to Hempstead Tpk!) so it in a way had actually gotten the jump on the Rockefeller Center tree, though this was no where near enough to change the overall appearance of the tree.
2007 is also the year that the New Years Eve ball went completely LED! It too has graphic light patterns on it, with the triangle panels being able to change to different colors from one another. I saw it on display at Macy's weeks before its first New Years! White LED's also line the lines making up the triangles. Nicer than I would have ever thought; doing similar color combination displays as the ones I have envisioned for RGB light strings. (red/green; blue/orange, etc.) For '08/9, they have also made the ball even bigger, and it stays up and lit all year round! (I also found that it is visible from sections of the Williamsburg Bridge, between the buildings of midtown!)
Other big LED news at this same time was the conversion of a NYC bus interior lighting to LED! (Flyer DLF40 #870, out of the Jackie Gleason Depot in Brooklyn).
Here's a photo and link to post with several pictures and video.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...1206055132.jpg
I wondered when this would happen. Now all of a sudden, here it is! Eventually, new buses in Long Island, and a test being done on one set of R160A2's use LED's behind an opaque [translucent, actually] cover, which diffuses it so much you can't even see the individual "dots" of light. (The fluorescents were using ribbed transparent covers). So it's hard to tell (except that there seems to be a slightly bluer "atmosphere" on the bus or train), but if you can see in the crack where two covers meet, then you can see an individual LED. Since the LED's are said to not emit UV, hopefully, the covers will no longer yellow over time, and it will look like new.
Another big story, that the Brooklyn Bridge is going to get LED bulbs! At first, the reports mentioned "more environmentally friendly", or something like that; the term we had just heard about regarding the Rockefeller Center tree's recent conversion. But I didn't think it could mean LED bulbs, because I didn't think they were bright enough for that yet. These are those bright mercury's outlining the span they are replacing. But afterwards, the reports said it would be LED's. I imagine these must be some expensive high end ones for them to be bright enough to actually replace HID's, and on such a landmark structure, of all things. (I did recently see LED replacements for HID's under the overpasses of the bridge approach over Cadman Plaza East).
New blue LED emergency alarm lights continue to be tested on parts of the 8th Avenue line, and now a section of while LED bulbs (~5-6000K) are being tested in the tunnel near Hoyt-Schermerhorn. (In the old incandescent fixtures).
For the 2008 Rockefeller tree, there would be more whites, creating an overal brighter and less bluish appearance (even when you move your eyes). So it looks even more natural, and a bit closer to the old incandescent lighting. A slight blue deficit would now be located toward the bottom of the tree. The white lights on the trees lining the plaza are now notably dimmer for some reason. At the same time, the Rexcorp tree finally followed suit with LED, consisting entirely of Foreverbright type faceted C6's in red, orange, yellow, green and blue. Since these strings do not mix the colors with white bulbs, there were now no whites in the tree! (Except for the star, which uses the familiar pure white LED's). So it was even dimmer than the Rockefeller tree was the previous year, and from a distance, the colors blend into an almost ghostly violet glow (and without even having to move your eyes). You can barely see it through the trees in the parking lot.
2009, The trees lining Rockefeller Center continued to get dimmer. I saw the little trees on the rink level directly beneath the big tree using "cooler", 6000K white before the tree was lit, but then with the warm white again after it was lit. The glass elevator sheds, which were lined with small incandescent clear "globe" bulbs now got the same-shaped opaque cool white LED bulbs (which can also be seen on the LOFT store in Times Square). I was wondering when those would make the transition, and what they would be replaced with. The only incandescents left in the plaza now are the lights on the angels. The tree itself now seems to have a slight greenish prominence, which could even be detected on TV. The green bulbs appear to be brighter.
Many of the other white-only decorations in the area made the switch to LED, including many of the fixed trees (with no leaves in the winter) around the buildings across Sixth Ave; which now have a very bright warm white. (A few are still incandescent). You also started to see 2700K in places. In decorations, these kind of have a more "golden tan" look than the warm white.
I decided to take Macy's up on their 24 hour opening two days before Christmas, arriving at 2:47AM. The LED's on the garland lining the central aisle on the first floor was warm white LED's. (But only on the 6th Ave. side). There were also a lot of bright warm white LED spotlights. (Which are sold at Home Depot for $69).
And outside, on the marquee of a sealed up exit was a large tree of 7 color cycle RGB's (with blinking whites thrown in as well). It's the first large RGB tree I have seen. I always wondered how that would look, and if it would be too "wild" or something. It actually looks quite like any fixed [multi-]color LED tree at first glance, except that you see this twinkling going on all over it. When you get closer and take a good look, you'll see that each light is changing colors. (Some of the twinkling was also from blinking white only lights scattered throughout).
So I wonder when Rockefeller and Rexcorp will make the jump to this. 40,000 RGB's are probably still way too expensive. (Wonder how long it will take for them to get the fully controllable DMX ones. THAT will sure be something! The tree would become a graphic and video display in its own right!)
I also then ran over to Rockefeller Center to find that the tree is turned off at night. The entire plaza is closed off, and guarded.
The Long Island tree now got the same type of lights as Rockefeller Center (with the six colors), except that the white is the typical "pure/cool" 6000K type. This to me looks nicer; like a modern LED display should look. So now, from a distance, it is a whiter, brighter purplish glow. I got to see the lighting this year (which is usually on Saturdays, and I don't get out of work early enough), because they decided to go "low key", after 2008's big, broadcasted celebrity performance bash (a lเ Rockefeller Center), and have a small celebration in the middle of the week (when I'm off), with just some area high school singers and orchestra (who played inside the indoor atrium with the tree as the backdrop), and I could be right next to the tree when it was turned on, with basically no crowds at all. (The skating rink was supposed to be open, but appeared to be closed. Perhaps it was because of the heavy rainstorm earlier in the day; but that had pretty much dried up by then, and it was actually a nice, mild evening). Nice alternative to camping out all day and being corralled like cattle in the crowds for the Rockefeller tree.
I had also heard that the number in the year was going LED that year as well. Going to look at it New Year's Day at night, it does look different; same color, but more like CFL than soft white LED, which again has more of a yellow tint to it. Perhaps it went CFL, or it was just said to be going "green" (energy efficient), and I assumed LED's? (2011, a news clip said they were LED, and a closeup shot in fact revealed the ribbed heat sink base characteristic of LED bulbs!)
This was overshadowed by the news of the all new ball, with more patterns. (I thought the previous ball was nice enough, and would be the final one for awhile). A brilliant text sign with [individually flashing] cool white LED's in red neon outline appeared on the car wash at Fulton @ Pennsylvania Av. in Brooklyn. That could have easily been used to light the year sign.
In November '09, the first small RGB signs, and the first using yellow-green as the primary [I've seen anywhere], began appearing on corner store Lotto machines, advertising the jackpot amount. These are Adaptive Micro System "BetaBrite Prism" signs.
Because of the yellow-green, the colors are off, with the "white" as a sort of lavender. (Between the "S" or "E" and the flag stars and stripes in the example; which do have a pinkish tint, these colors might be distorted by the photography and computer screen. And the "A" is the real-life looking primary green). This off-white is the result of adding blue to the reddened "amber" (the "O") made by shining the red and green at full intensity (FFFF00). White is made by adding blue to pure yellow (FFFF + FF), and pure yellow on signs using yellow green is made by adding red at half intensity (80 + FF), so then white is obtained by turning the red down. I don't know if these signs will have half-intensity capabilities. (For a total of 26 colors plus black; 3ณ). Many RyG signs like this didn't, and thus only had red, amber and green, and no orange (FF + 8000) or pure yellow.
The lousy phone camera video quality totally distorts all the colors. (Though notice, all the opaque object colors look fine!) I really don't even know which is which there. I know I saw the three primary colors, red (635 or more nm), yellow-green (565), blue (470?), and then magenta, lavender, amber and a pale cyan. It was probably supposed to be the basic 7 colors RGB's often display: RyGcBmw, though again, the white is lavender and the yellow is amber. In this video, lavender, magenta, cyan and blue all look like the same cyan shade, and I'm not sure whether or not the green is also one of them, or the paler amber. The deeper orange has to be the red!
Looking at one again, it does seem there are two ambers; one more reddish and another less so, as well as orange (Yeah; I did notice the orange before. Forgot). So this sign does have half-intensity capability, and the less reddish amber is supposed to be the "pure" yellow. Some RyG signs were like that. It might be a stronger red or weaker green. So when this yellow mixes with the blue, it just makes a whiter looking lavender. So unless other units of these signs have the red and green calibrated differently, you won't see a true white on them. (which would be something like 40FFFF or maybe 60FFFF). The colors also seem to display randomly, so it was hard to count how many it displays.
The pitch is a little bit smaller than other RGB's, but still a bit wider than other LED signs.
For 2010, I finally got my next LED Christmas light; Engineering Solutions' RGB Nodes (http://response-box.com/rgb. These are the ones in the "Feliz Navidad" video, above. I was so astounded by that. It was exactly what I was looking for.
Here are a bunch of them on a house:
And once they were released for sale, the prices were a total steal compared to everything else. Designed as Christmas lights (unlike the Dotz, iColorFlex and the rest of those types of strings), they sold at $105 for a string of 42 (basically a quarter or more of the value of the others; that was basically the price of the DingDotz ten light demo!) plus, they sold the controller for $185, and a third party power adapter for $24. I also had to buy a DMX interface to hook it up to the computer. The cheapest one I found was the Enttec Open DMX, for $60! The more deluxe "DMX Pro" was $150. I was of course trying to spend as little as possible; and was also in a rush.
It is incredibly hard to find these DMX interfaces in stores. Not even Sam Ash and other such stores had them. so I had to call the sites listed by Enttec as "dealers", and found a store in the city that sold both, but had run out of the Pro. It was actually the Tribeca Lighting outlet on Canal st, which was now sharing the space with Lites On NY, from whom I had years ago gotten my first close glimpse of the iColorFlex, back when they were still up on Third Ave. (So I had been to this new location a couple of years ago, as well).
So I took the chance and went over there and got it. Total cost (minus shipping): $374! Still sounds like a lot, but then this is for everything, where just the lights themselves usually cost more than that, and you still have to get the other stuff.
I then had to find the software to even be able to light them, and then teach myself DMX technology (I was trying to avoid anything DMX, figuring it was expensive, and that someone would eventually come up with a self-contained programmable string. But now five years after the DingDotz, I could no longer wait for that).
I first tried LightShowPro (60 day free trial, take me right up to New Years), but I could only use eight channels, and hence, light no more than the first eight lights. So I found Vixen, which is completely free. Each LED light (the diffused, 10mm "jumbos" in fact!) is three sub-channels, called "tracks", since they consist of red, green and blue dies, which are essentially separate lighting units. So I had to set it to 126 channels. With them, I can mix any color and any pattern I like.
The show I'm starting with is the one that has floated in my mind for years: different combinations of the basic colors (red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, magenta, and soft and cool white), and a few other colors, such as powder-puff pink, wintergreen, baby blue and lavender.
I do not know where the person who did the video got those C7 covers from. The manufacturer doesn't make or sell them. But with the translucent bases which glow along with the LED, they look almost like full bulbs anyway.
The red is a bit orange, but it seems all RGB strings are that way, for the increased brightness (many SRGB modules use two reds to compensate the lack of brightness).
Engineering Solutions' site also has videos of other customers, who have used multiple strngs to decorate the whole house! (Think "Deck the Halls" movie!) Can't wait to run into this somewhere. I wonder if any of these people is in the NY area!
Here are more of them, on a tree, and as the outline of a house (seems these purchasers are all in Australia!):
In 2010, LED's continue to take over cars, including headlights (some consist of lines of individual white LED's). You can also see more appearing at Home Depot. (both bulbs and spotlights). Many have ribbed metal heat sinks on the sides, making them heavy for a bulb. you would think LED's would be cooler, but since the electricity is not being converted to heat the way tit was for incandescents, all that extra energy has to be dispersed. A lot of interesting LED devices (including RGB strips and varieties of bulbs) are appearing in other light bulb stores (like the ones in Chinatown).
Also, a lot of RGB and SRGB strips continue to appear in store windows, basically replacing neons.
While I'm getting my new string, the GE Color Effect string appears on the market, but I didn't know about it. I see a string of faceted color changing C9's in the window of a store on 6th Ave near 34th St. It seems to consist of preset patterns. They tell me they got them from the K-Mart in the area (Penn Station). When I check the discussion I started on Candlepowerforums about the RGB Nodes, someone then posts a link to where someone took this new GE string and engineered it to be completely controllable like the RGB Nodes (by adding a controller of their own).
I find it is all sold out at all the stores that were listed as carrying it, except for one tree-shaped sculpture version with crystal shaped bulbs left at Lowe's.
So this is similar to Triklits or the strips used in windows, with 8 or 14 different patterns you can select from a built in controller. Since I've already "surpassed" this with a fully controllable unit, this would just make a nice side addition to my collection somewhere.
Also for 2010, the 2700K soft-whites have finally caught on, and I got my first set (K-Mart "Trim-a-Home" lights shaped like the old 2.5v incandescents, with the little ball-point, and you see this shape in other places, like the ones sold by Duane Reade), and you see the color a lot elsehwere. Like the pine decorations in front of Lord & Taylor, and it is hard to tell them from incandescents. Inside, they have soft white faceted C6's in the ice designs on the columns. A few of the off-whites in the Rockefeller Center tree appear to be more soft white as well. The elevator sheds now got new faceted globe shaped cool whites (replacing the translucent ones from last year), and these look crisp and bright, as a better replacement for the old incandescents. (If only now they'll ever replace the other trees, that still have the ever-dimming raspberries from 2007).
The Trump Tower has both cool of soft white LED's in large bands on the lower front over 5th Avenue. (Next to the whites, the soft white looked yellowish). A building further down 5th Ave. has even lower color temperature LED's, that look "copper"-ish, and resemble the color of the high pressure sodiums.
The nice cool-white LED decorations in the area of Grand Central no longer appear. (They seem to have gone back to plain incandescents).
The color changing LED tree on top of the marquee at Macy's was also replaced by all white LED's in the soft white color (seem to have a bit of a greenish tint, but this is probably from them being brighter LED's, an in the green tree). The inside decorations on the first floor (both ends of the building now) are using those inbetween whites that are almost cool, but still with a tint of warm white. (The Men's Dept. on the 7th Ave side adds red LED's to this as well). The LED spotlights remain on the 3rd and 8th floors near the 7th ave elevator bank. Remodeled Stop & Shops used these bright four-LED soft white spotlights in the ceiling over their fruits sections.
Looking out for color changing lights on houses (RGB Nodes; Color Effects, or otherwise) I saw one DMX-style color decoration on a house; off of Old Country Road between Roosevelt Field and Mineola. It seemed to be displaying some sort of text message.
In a last ditch effort to light a new small tree we got; I got my first purple (magenta) LED's in a GE ribbed C4 string of red, amber, blue, green, purple.
2011, the small trees around Rockefeller Center finally got the old faded 2007 warm whites relaced by new crisp, cool white (6000K?) raspberries (same color the elevators got the year before). Now that's the way the rink area is supposed to look. Crisp and cool!
Across 6th from the plaza, almost all the trees now have soft whites. There are a few cool whites visible blocks away.
The Macy's marquee got the same warm white tree again, but I did see one single (!?) 7 color cycle RGB on the west side of the tree, midway up!
GE Color Effects are appearing everywhere! May get a set of these sometime. Perhaps they'll become cheaper and even more flexible. I did get a set of glistening clear (not faceted or frosted) Philips cool white C9's. And left them bundled up to light, for the middle of one of the windows. (These also come in multicolor)
So it looks like RGB is finally catching on! I just wish Transit would catch on to them!
See also Color mixing and perception; Math & Science page.
Cognitive Confessions:Why I'm so into this?: |
This is a scan of a rare map showing both buses and trains in the area of the Williamsburg Bridge back when it was closed in 1999. It shows both buses and trains at the same time, where the NYC Subway maps have never showed the bus lines, as it was feared they would clutter the map. But here is a good example of them fitting nicely onto the map. For more dense areas like Midtown and Downtown Manhattan, insets could be used, or perhaps the other side of the map, which is currently used for the area commuter railroad system. (I would make that a separate map folder, as it originally started out as).
See also KICK DESIGN map, main page, "Other Interesting things from the Web"
This was an idea I came up with on how to have all 26 letters (and both capitals and lowercase for most!) on the 7 segment LED or plasma display modules. Some letters are simple, but others are very difficult, so the 7 segments aren't usually used for alphabetic text. Those that are are usually with very easy words, like "door" or "done" on drying machines, "CLoSed" on some cash registers, "End" on microwaves, and "boot" on the cable box. Those letters are easy except for the lower case "t", which is basically an upside down "F". When alphabetic characters are needed, they'll usually use a display with more segments; particularly with diagonal ones, for several letters. But I looked at each letter and envisioned how they might be displayed on the simple 7 segment module. These are the two common types of this display. Green are the simple ones which make clear sense. (Dark green are where lowercase glyphs are identical to capitals). Yellow are the more iffy ones. And red are the most difficult, particularly the K, M, V, and W, that may be illegible (I probably should make "X", which is reduced to what would basically be a backslash, red too). A display using these might have to have a character key next to it to identify them. One of the W's is basically two "u"s; one sitting on top of the other, rather than next to each other. The best you can do with that kind of letter.