words to live by

Joseph Brennan
brennan@columbia.edu


May 2022

In response to a flood of questions, I want to assure the public that I am alive and well. I have not had that COVID thing that's all the rage, nor have I travelled to see All of any things. I did update the Subway Diagram in March. I always have ideas for more pages, and almost as often I don't get a round tuit. Have faith.


December 2020

The Atmospheric Road
Coverage of the South Devon Railway's atmospheric installation concludes with a page about Torquay. There are Extra pages about Pipes and Plymouth Railways.


November 2020

The Atmospheric Road
Coverage of the South Devon Railway's atmospheric installation continues with pages about Summer House, Newton Abbot, Dainton, Totnes, and Rattery.


October 2020

The Atmospheric Road
Coverage of the South Devon Railway's atmospheric installation continues with pages about Dawlish and Teignmouth.


September 2020

The Atmospheric Road
Coverage of the South Devon Railway's atmospheric installation continues with pages about Turf and Starcross.


August 2020

The Atmospheric Road
Coverage of the South Devon Railway's atmospheric installation begins with pages about Exeter St Davids and Exeter St Thomas and Countess Wear.


July 2020

The Atmospheric Road
Two new pages tell you the first half and the second half of the story of the Saint-Germain atmospheric railway.


June 2020

The Atmospheric Road
A new page tells you the rest of the story of the London and Croydon atmospheric railway. Coming next: The Saint-Germain atmosphérique.


May 2020

The Atmospheric Road
A new page tells you more about the London and Croydon atmospheric railway, down to Norwood.


May 2020

The Atmospheric Road
We now have a fourth page that starts to describe the London and Croydon atmospheric railway, as far as Forest Hill.


April 2020

The Atmospheric Road
We now have a third page about the truckway that was closely involved with the atmospheric railway to Dalkey.


March 2020

The Atmospheric Road
There are now two pages here and here on the atmospheric road in Ireland between Dún Laoghaire and Dalkey.


March 2020

The Atmospheric Road
A series of pages on the remains of atmospheric railways in Ireland, England, and France. What are atmospheric railways? Not just stage mist and subtle music cues. Look and see.


July 2019 — January 2020

All the Funiculars *
A series of pages on funicular railways in England and Wales, and some other cliff lifts and things.


May 2019

I finally rode the Second Avenue Subway. At track level it's pretty plain, isn't it? And the station name signs are not easy to see from inside the train. Oh what small pecks I make on the wall of New York transit construction. My main takeaway is being unable to see that huge EXCELSIOR in the 96th Street station, carved in stone or something like it, without mumbling its continuation YOU FATHEAD.


January 2019

A new subway station opened, called WTC-Cortlandt, on the site of the Cortlandt Street station we lost on September 11, 2001. It's on the subway diagram. So is the free transfer at the other Cortlandt Street station. Meanwhile, the 168th Street (1 train) station is now closed for a year, and the PATH tunnel to World Trade Center is closed every weekend for just as long, and the planned closing for even longer on the 14th Street subway (L train) has been retracted.


March 2017

I replaced the insanely large PDF maps in Pittsburgh Southern with just plain large JPG maps, so that people can see them with ordinary computers.


February 2017

Nothing new this month. I have ideas for two new sets of pages and cannot decide what to do.


January 2017

Against all odds the Arthur Kill station has been completed in just 3 years and 3 months. A platform on each side of the two tracks, on flat open ground, but with a massive overhead bridge between two towers with 28 artisanal glass panels. It's looking to be the most massive SIR station after St George. The Subway Diagram has been updated.


January 2017

I have completed the Pittsburgh material. I will now put this behind me and move on to other things. There are three insanely large PDF maps, a couple of other maps, and more words than anyone needs. Enjoy.


January 2017

Well, they promised to have the Second Avenue Subway open by the end of 2016, and they did it, on the 367th day of 2016, and all three stations too. Political note: The collector's item handout map now has Governor Cuomo's signature at the bottom, and says New York State MTA... just to make things clear who's in charge. My Subway Diagram has been updated accordingly.


December 2016

Will that little piece of Second Avenue open on January 1 or will there be one more delay risking the Wrath of Cuomo? I will update the Subway Diagram when it's a reality and not a day sooner. They've been working on this two mile stretch for 44 years. Let's not be hasty.


December 2016

I was in Pittsburgh for a few days last year and this year, and I became fascinated with the light rail system. I cannot explain these things. I just did. So I did some research and now I present parts of a work in progress that I like to call Pittsburgh Southern.


October 2016

New layout.

I made the Danbury Railways page five years ago, and then it got lost. How do these things happen? Anyway it is here at last. I'm calling it current because, as NBC said about re-runs of shows you didn't watch the first time, "it's new to you." Three large images and a torrent of words. I've never set foot in Danbury although I have driven through. It seemed like an interesting tangle of railway lines forced by geography to pass through one spot. That's all it takes for me. More like this is coming.

The Johnstown Incline page is very new, just done at the end of September. I was there two months ago and took some pictures and looked into its history. I hope you like it. The Pittsburgh inclines get more attention, because more cool people live there and visit there, but Johnstown needs a little love.

Beach Pneumatic has gone on vacation and reportedly is going for some kind of reconstructive surgery it didn't want to talk about. We'll see how that works out, in the fullness of time.

C U R R E N T

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Atmospheric Road

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All the Funiculars

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My Subway Diagram

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Johnstown Incline

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Gibb Songs

A R C H I V E S

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Abandoned Stations

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Dunderberg

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Danbury Railways

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Pittsburgh Southern

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Beatles Variations

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General Library


LINKS
NEW YORK: Forgotten NY (Kevin Walsh) | SEQUENTIAL ART CRIT: The Comics Curmudgeon | POLITICS: TPM (Talking Points Memo) | POLITICS: Daily Kos | SUBWAYS: NYCSubway (David Pirmann) | THE MUSIC BIZ: The Lefsetz Letter | TRANSIT: Human Transit

LINKS TO STRIPS
Wilde Life by Pascalle Lepas (Monday,Wednesday,Friday) | XKCD by Randall Munroe (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) | Gunnerkrigg Court by Tom Siddell (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) | Questionable Content by Jeph Jacques (Monday to Friday) | Ra Ruu Rien by Ann Maulina (Monday, Thursday) | Johnny Wander by Yuko Ota and Ananth Hirsh (Tuesday, Thursday) | How to Be a Werewolf by Shawn Lenore | Tom the Dancing Bug by Ruben Bolling (Thursday and Friday) | Cat and Girl by Dorothy Gambrell (Tuesday, Friday) | The Fusco Brothers by J. C. Duffy (every day)

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