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trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida
@trainsfan.bsky.social
510 followers 280 following 2.4K posts
The self-proclained Midwest Urbanist https://www.youtube.com/@Midwest_Urbanist streets.mn person Long-Distance train enjoyer 🚆 Battery bus hater Master of Physics and puller of string theory
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trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 4h
I open the page, I do the thing I'm there to do and I close it

Sometimes I'll have 20+ open for a research project but again, when I'm done I close them
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trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 5h
I still think we should give the bus drivers garage clickers they can use to change the lights
taylordahlin.com
taylr @taylordahlin.com · 5h
need a minneapolis mayoral candidate to ride the slow nicollet mall buses and talk about how we can improve their speed in ways the city hasn't tried yet. need a minneapolis mayoral candidate to ride transit in general and talk to transit riders!
zohrankmamdani.bsky.social
Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 5h
I'm on the slowest bus line in the city with the slowest buses in the nation to talk to New Yorkers about what it would mean for their lives if we made them fast and free.
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trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 5h
In the same way that every American government agency has cops budding off of it, so too do private companies and banks (and also sometimes cops)
blindeke.bsky.social
Bill Lindeke @blindeke.bsky.social · 5h
"Airlines are now little more than flying banks, given that they make more money from selling frequent-flyer points to credit card companies than they do flying passengers." jacobin.com/2025/10/bank...
Everything Is Becoming a Bank
Most major corporations — from airlines to social media platforms — now aspire to become unregulated banks. Bankification today accounts for the highest profit margins in the US economy, crippling pro...
jacobin.com
trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 17h
Arg, that's Coffee creek, not arrow creek. I even got it right at the start!
trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 18h
My idea was to take one and put it on a slumbercoach so you get the big dome and the funny windows
Former NP Loch Ness, a 24-8 slumbercoach. Like 2/3 of the car has staggered windows that defy convention. They're too high
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trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 18h
yep whoops
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trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 18h
and don't come at me for copying the Wikipedia page I wrote most of it
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trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 18h
So start pinching your pennies folks, when he passes you might just be able to own one of the most unique and striking railcars to grace the high iron.

fin
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trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 18h
the idea was to graft them onto some other junk passenger cars but trains are not like automobiles, the cheap ones are actually really expensive

actually wait...
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trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 18h
Now, the owner of the EL&S has a large private collection and is known for hating railfans. There's a good chance this car still exists in some shape, but we won't really know until he finally passes. All we know is they probably aren't stored next to the sharks
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trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 18h
Coon Rapids just kinda... disappeared. It also entered private ownership and was briefly used in excursion service on the EL&S. Supposedly it was seized by the owner due to money owed. It was last spotted around 1980.
Coon Rapids in 1979, looking run down. There's bright yellow text that says "@DO NOT COPY OR REPOST@ at the bottom Interior of Coon Rapids during an excursion in 1974
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trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 19h
where tf do you put the doors
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trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 19h
What about the other 2 lounges? (I'm skipping Cedar Rapids)

Dell Rapids was sold to the Root family. After "Chappie" Root's death, his entire collection including the car was donated to the Daytona Beach Museum of Arts and Sciences, where it resides today.

But this is where things get interesting
Dell Rapids next to Silver Holley with some sort of event set up on the platform between the cars. It's a shit angle I know
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trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 19h
The last one, Arrow Creek, has bumped around in private ownership and various states of rehab since it was sold by CN. Currently, the Aberdeen, Carolina and Western is planning to add it to their business train. They bought it from the Iowa Pacific bankruptcy.
That same photo of Arrow Creek from the start of the thread
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trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 19h
The restauraunt later went bankrupt and now parts of them are at a museum in Montevideo, MN. Could make for a fun life-sized kitbashing project eh @interurbanera.bsky.social ?
Solariums of Marble and Arrow Creek, with parts of the rest of the cars behind
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trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 19h
Amtrak didn't take much MILW equipment as it was almost all home-built. The 6 sleepers ended up with CN. They lasted about as long there, before finally being sold off in 1977. Of those, 2 were scrapped by CN, 1 by a private owner(!?), 2 ended up on a floating restaurant, and 1 is still in-tact.
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trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 19h
The sleepers left the railroad in 1961 with the Olympian Hiawatha, but the first car actually scrapped was the Priest Rapids in 8/1970. This ironically may have helped save the other cars, as the below images found their way into Trains Mag and stirred outrage.
burnt husk of Priest Rapids, slightly sagging Interior view post-fire. It's fucked.
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trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 19h
The lounges had room for 12 in the solarium and 24 in single seats on either side, plus a 5 person drawing room. The Sleepers had 8 double bedrooms (sleeps 16) and 19 seats in the solarium.
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trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 19h
If you didn't know, the Skytops were observation cars built by the Milwaukee Road and Pullman Standard in the late 1940s. 4 were parlour-lounges, while 6 were sleeper-lounges. The key spotting feature is the extra row of windows in the solarium that the sleepers had but parlours didn't.
Close-up of Cedar Rapids, solarium ends in a straight line to at the left Historical image of Coffee Creek, additional row of windows behind where the lounges end, with the lowest one sloped forward
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trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 19h
Trainspotters in Minnesota are probably aware of the Cedar Rapids, the famous Milwaukee Road "Skytop Lounge", now owned and operated by the Friends of the 261.

BUT! That's not the only one still around. Join me for a story of history and mystery, as not all are accounted for... 🧵
Cedar Rapids, 3/4 rear shot at SPUD train days a number of years ago Coffee Creek, under renovation by Aberdeen, Carolina, and Western painted 1/3 white with lower 2/3 red Coon Rapids in the UP scheme on the Michigan Northern, ca. 1980 close up of Dell Rapids gold embossed lettering
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trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 1d
Took me a while to figure out if this was the Minneapolis k Mart or the St Paul one
trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 1d
Got to ride the big train yesterday
Peeking out the side of the train, looking forward, going around a slight curve. The MILW 261 is out front about to go over a crossing where the photo line has gathered 261 stopped. Rods down, a wisp of black smoke, and overcast. Reversing to the photo runby. Brief wheelslip provides plenty of smoke. Red mars and green class lights are also lit. Low angle 3/4 shot of the 261. Rods up and forward, wisp of black smoke wrapping around behind it.
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trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 1d
Ah, not how I've understood it. I've always heard "modelling" or "weighting" in the context of poll aggregates where they tip the results artificially based on past pollster accuracy (dubious) or just straight up vibes (bad). Their RCV calculations based on past years voting stinks of the former.
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trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 1d
Almost, but they distribute "unsure" evenly and I'd rather they treat those as exhausted.

I'd love to run the numbers myself but I don't have time right now
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trainsfan.bsky.social
Ian Gaida @trainsfan.bsky.social · 1d
No? Unless we're operating under different definitions of modeling. I'm talking about pollsters interjecting the data with "well we *think* people will actually do this".
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