MOVING POSTS AND SPLITTING THREADS
From time to time a thread may take a clear tangent in another direction from the original post. Such outgrowth is natural. Sometimes the thread self-corrects within one or two posts. If a separate discussion emerges, it might be a good idea to split the thread into a new topic. If the discussion is outside the forum topic, you might even want to move the thread somewhere more appropriate.
Here's an example, let's say it's in the New York State Forum...
Date: May 31, 2007
From: FuriousYellow
Subject: When did passenger service on the Harlem Division end?
When did passenger service on the Harlem Division end?
Date: May 31, 2007
From: MayorOfNickville
Subject: When did passenger service on the Harlem Division end?
There is still passenger service on the Harlem Division- Metro-North runs trains from Grand Central to Wassaic. Maybe you meant the Upper Harlem? I think that was 1971 with the start of Amtrak.
Date: May 31, 2007
From: FuriousYellow
Subject: When did passenger service on the Harlem Division end?
Hi Mayor-
Yeah, I did mean the Upper Harlem, thanks. When did they start running trains to Wassaic? I thought the end of the line was Dover Plains?
Date: May 31, 2007
From: Mayor of Nickville
Subject: When did passenger service on the Harlem Division end?
They extended service from Dover Plains to Wassaic in 2001.
Date: May 31, 2007
From: Warbucks
Subject: When did passenger service on the Harlem Division end?
Service on the Upper Harlem from Dover Plains to Chatham ended in 1972. The train was operated by Penn Central, and was not part of the MTA funding at the time. A grassroots group kept the train running through 1971 and 1972, but a Federal Judge decided that PC should not be forced to operate the train at a loss, and orded the service shut down. People who took the train to work that day had to find another way home past Dover Plains!
Date: May 31, 2007
From: MayorofNickville
Subject: When did passenger service on the Harlem Division end?
Thanks, Warbucks, I thought it had something to do with Amtrak because it was a considered a long distance route. I wish I could have ridden that train. When I was a kid, teh Dover Plains shuttle was a single Budd RDC.
Date: May 31, 2007
From: Jeff Kurzrock
Subject: When did passenger service on the Harlem Division end?
When Penn Central was running trains on the Harlem, were they still running that RDC from Pittsfield to Danbury on the paralel Housatonic line?
Date: May 31, 2007
From: FuriousYellow
Subject: When did passenger service on the Harlem Division end?
There were passenger trains on the Housatonic? I thought they were a freight railroad?
Date: May 31, 2007
From: MayorOfNickville
Subject: When did passenger service on the Harlem Division end?
Today's Housatonic Railroad is a freight hauler. They originally started as a tourist operation out of Cannan, CT. I think Jeff is asking about the line from Pittsfield to Danbury, which I think was called the Berkshire Line.
Date: May 31, 2007
From: Warbucks
Subject: When did passenger service on the Harlem Division end?
Yes, Penn Central was running a single RDC from Danbury to Pittsfield over the Berkshire route. You would make your connection to a Danbury branch train to South Norwalk, and then another train to New York. Even with all the changes, it was still popular with the weekend crowd. The train was cut in 1972.
Okay, so we went discussing passenger service on the Harlem Division to discussing another train on the Berkshire route in Connecticut. Someone looking for Harlem info won't really care about the Berkshire info. And someone looking for Berkshire info wouldn't be looking for it in a Harlem Division thread, let alone the New York State forum. So you have a few options..
1) Split the thread at the first Berkshire post and title it "Penn Central RDC service on the Berkshire route" or something like that.
2) Move it to the New England Railfan Forum.
3) Move it to the Penn Central Forum (which may be too broad)
4) Move it to the New Haven Forum (even though the service discussed was after NH was merged in 1969, the Berkshire is known as a NH route)
Whatever you decide, a note should be made in the new topic that you split off from the old.
Date: May 31, 2007
From: Otto Vondrak
Subject: Penn Central Berskhire Route RDC service
[split from the "End of Passenger Service on the Harlem Division" thread, moved into New England Railfan Forum- ov]
They are not all this simple, and not all threads require such surgery. However, realizing when another separate discussion is developing is a good way to keep the forums organized and easy to use for everyone.
-otto-
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