chasfh Posted February 28 Author Share Posted February 28 Old, Canada! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasfh Posted March 26 Author Share Posted March 26 This is my hack at creating my first-ever map over at MapChart.net. This is a map of the most-named counties in the US and where they all are. You probably could have guess that Washington is the most common county name, with 32 different counties named that. There's a whole bunch of them centered around the states that came into the union in basically the 1800 to 1830 range, my guess being that the Revolution was still in living memory and honoring its heroes through naming rights was a top priority. As the nation pushed west, county naming imperatives apparently changed. California has only one county among the most common names, and Arizona and western Texas have none, probably because original Spanish geographical names survived. Anyhow, it was really fun to put together and took me only about an hour to learn how to do it and then create the map. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Cat Gentleman Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 besides the 12 counties named exactly Lake, there are also five with "Lake" as part of the name plus four more with French "Lac(s)" as part of the name. sorry for knowing this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Cat Gentleman Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 yup, counties get a lot bigger on average the farther west you go. sparse populations and probably kind of a "frontier" mentailty when the counties were formed where people didn't care as much about access to government services, as opposed to some counties east of the Rockies that I know were split because the county seat was too far from a vocal segment of the population. just for fun, AZ does have some dupes, just not in the list Chas made: Santa Cruz (CA), Yuma (CO), and Graham (KS, NC). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasfh Posted March 27 Author Share Posted March 27 Yes, although there is some overlap in the idea, my map is about only the most common names for counties, not every county name that is duplicated across the states. Basically, it's any county name that's in ten or more states. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hongbit Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 This thread is unavailable in Texas due to improper age verification. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMRivdogs Posted April 15 Share Posted April 15 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasfh Posted April 15 Author Share Posted April 15 3 hours ago, CMRivdogs said: What a fantastic map! A+! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casimir Posted April 15 Share Posted April 15 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motor City Sonics Posted April 15 Share Posted April 15 2 minutes ago, casimir said: I am going to guess Ohio or Pennsylvania here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Cat Gentleman Posted April 15 Share Posted April 15 it's not really "Rd St". that's just Google automatically abbreviating "Road St". (Hancock, MI) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Brian_K Posted April 16 Share Posted April 16 On 4/18/2023 at 3:23 PM, chasfh said: “Big Six” sports teams in the U.S. and Canada by media market You may notice the Nashville Predators are missing. Not sure of anyone else is. EDIT: Reviewing it in a little more depth, the thing that surprises me the most is the realization that London, ONT is a top 60 media market! We are missing the MLS portion of the pie....sad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMRivdogs Posted April 16 Share Posted April 16 I just found this while looking for something else, and a link from AXIOS Detroit. There some interesting maps at the parent site. https://www.detroit-neighborhoods.com https://detroitography.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasfh Posted April 16 Author Share Posted April 16 47 minutes ago, John_Brian_K said: We are missing the MLS portion of the pie....sad. My favorite part of the map is the reference to the NBL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigeraholic1 Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romad1 Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 53 minutes ago, Tigeraholic1 said: My understanding from working the freight rail and passenger rail security coordination gig back in the aughts was that Europe has most of its freight travel by truck and ship (easier with all that coastline) and the US relies on rail for freight. The rates that industry gets from freight are much more reliable therefore passenger rail is second class citizen except in the NE corridor. I love travelling to NY on rail from DC but having tried it from DC to Western North Carolina where the train had all sorts of stops and maintenance issues, i would be hard-pressed to recommend it. Big fan of European rail networks though. Riding the train from Scotland to London or from Brest to Bayeux is very evocative of the history and culture of those places. Train trips from the Saar area to Frankfurt or Munich were also very cool trips in my younger days. I don't mind seeing ugly factories so long as I get a castle or two as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oblong Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 Another thing I've read about the difficulty in using existing rail lines for passenger is speed. You can't just throw on a passenger train going 70 mph on those tracks because of the angles and turns you'll come across. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasfh Posted April 18 Author Share Posted April 18 I wonder what the US passenger train map looked like 100 years ago. Probably a lot closer to Europe today than the US today. There’s one big problem with taking passenger trains in the US. My wife and I decided to take the train from Chicago to LA, in a sleeper car. Supposed to take 44 hours. About halfway through, it’s 3am or so and all of a sudden the entire train is woken up. We have to get off the train and onto buses. We drive some six hours across the state of Kansas and end up in Dodge City, where we see another train and hundreds of people milling about. We who were on the buses all get on that train, and those people get on our buses. We soon learn that was the train going from LA to Chicago. Turns out there was a freight train derailment in the middle of Kansas and neither train could get through, so we had to swap trains via buses. We took their train back to LA to complete our trip, and they took our train back to Chicago to complete theirs. And that’s one reason we can’t have a robust passenger train system anymore: freight and passenger trains all share the same tracks. In Europe, they run on different tracks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMRivdogs Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 The fact that the freight lines own the tracks and the only the US has one federally financed passenger line. The map doesn't show the Chicago area commuter trains for example, and I see signs when traveling to North Carolina about train service but have not checked it out. It's nice to have Amtrak service from here to DC. So much easier to park in Richmond than to fight the interstate. Now if we can ever get service for the rest of the state. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMRivdogs Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 30 minutes ago, chasfh said: I wonder what the US passenger train map looked like 100 years ago. Probably a lot closer to Europe today than the US today. There’s one big problem with taking passenger trains in the US. My wife and I decided to take the train from Chicago to LA, in a sleeper car. Supposed to take 44 hours. About halfway through, it’s 3am or so and all of a sudden the entire train is woken up. We have to get off the train and onto buses. We drive some six hours across the state of Kansas and end up in Dodge City, where we see another train and hundreds of people milling about. We who were on the buses all get on that train, and those people get on our buses. We soon learn that was the train going from LA to Chicago. Turns out there was a freight train derailment in the middle of Kansas and neither train could get through, so we had to swap trains via buses. We took their train back to LA to complete our trip, and they took our train back to Chicago to complete theirs. And that’s one reason we can’t have a robust passenger train system anymore: freight and passenger trains all share the same tracks. In Europe, they run on different tracks. Several years ago my son and I booked Amtrak from Chicago to Roanoke, Va. Roanoke was until the late 60s or early 70s the main office for Norfolk & Western. You would think with that heritage they would still have train service. Nope, they've just recently added a run to DC. 12 hours on a train to a small town about 40 miles from Roanoke, meaning someone needed to meet us, and then drive us back at the end of our visit. The Interstate System is probably just as much responsible as freight rail. Thanks Ike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Brian_K Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 I do not think that USA map is very inclusive. Also I think the time of rail is closing to an end so it make sense for the USA to wait until that next break through with travel. It is too late to spend billions on new rail lines IMO. MAYBE replace the current lines with bullet trains which would need new rail and cars etc, but a full on revamping of a way of travel that has been around for 200+ years? Seems like a huge waste. There is a next gen way of fast/convenient travel and I doubt it is on a rail line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casimir Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 I pass over a fairly busy rail line every day on the drive to and from work. Its a straight stretch in each distance and the commuter train which presumably is going to or from Chicago has to be doing 70 MPH through there. So, trains are to sound their horns when approaching these crossings. I oblige and honk back sometimes. It just seems the polite thing to do. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMRivdogs Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 (edited) 46 minutes ago, John_Brian_K said: I do not think that USA map is very inclusive. Also I think the time of rail is closing to an end so it make sense for the USA to wait until that next break through with travel. It is too late to spend billions on new rail lines IMO. MAYBE replace the current lines with bullet trains which would need new rail and cars etc, but a full on revamping of a way of travel that has been around for 200+ years? Seems like a huge waste. There is a next gen way of fast/convenient travel and I doubt it is on a rail line. I don't disagree but I still see rail as a viable alternative for short distance travel in some aspects. I'd never take Amtrak to Detroit for instance due to time and somewhat cost. At the same time flying is more efficient time wise, the cost can be close to prohibitive in terms of add ons. Parking or other airport transportation, rental cars at DTW, etc. Not to mention flying these days seems akin to traveling by Trailways or Greyhound in terms of the overall personalities of fellow travelers. I can go from Richmond to DC in about two hours, cheaper parking at the train station that you would find anywhere in the district and little or no issues with traffic. I feel the same way about DET to Chicago, except it might be a bit quicker to drive but the parking rates and having to deal with Chicago traffic would probably negate that for me. Now if I can just find a way to get to Durham on demand in less than 2 hours Edited April 18 by CMRivdogs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smr-nj Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 Doesn’t an enormous amount of goods still travel cross country on freight trains? Need to maintain and upgrade those systems, imo. While “people commuter” trains may be only reasonable in metro areas, (& mostly East coast), they’re important and will remain so. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romad1 Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 11 minutes ago, smr-nj said: Doesn’t an enormous amount of goods still travel cross country on freight trains? Need to maintain and upgrade those systems, imo. While “people commuter” trains may be only reasonable in metro areas, (& mostly East coast), they’re important and will remain so. There is a...according to some wag I taked to in the freight business a real increase in costs for goods in the part of Florida below Sanford (near Orlando) where the big freight lines stop due to the crappy conditions for rail south of there. I dunno if that is a real thing or just this guy talking. Freight is king. You do not want to get in between the freight rail companies and their stock prices or threaten to increase insurance costs. Particularly if you are warning them about the danger to moving hazmat through a built up area. They will fight that like mother bear protecting their cubs. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.