The Hi-Level was a bilevel intercity railroad passenger car used in the
United States. The Budd Company designed it in the 1950s for the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway for use on the El Capitan, a
coach-only streamliner which ran daily between Los Angeles and Chicago.
The design was inspired by the dome car, employed in intercity routes in
the Western United States, and by bilevel commuter cars operating in the
Chicago area. Budd built 73 Hi-Level cars between 1952 and 1964. Car
types included coaches, dining cars, and lounge cars. Most passenger
spaces were on the upper level, which featured a row of windows on both
sides. Boarding was on the lower level; passengers climbed up a center
stairwell to access the upper level. Vestibules on the upper level
permitted passengers to walk between cars. Amtrak inherited the fleet in
1971 and continued to use the cars until their retirement in 2018. The
Superliner, based on the Hi-Level concept, entered service in 1979 and
remains in service.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi-Level>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1758:
French and Indian War: French forces defeated the British at
Fort Carillon on the shore of Lake Champlain in the British colony of
New York.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Carillon>
1962:
Following student protests at Rangoon University, Burmese
general Ne Win ordered the demolition of the historic students' union
building.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1962_Rangoon_University_protests>
2014:
In response to the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli
teenagers, Israel launched a military operation into the Hamas-ruled
Gaza Strip.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Israel%E2%80%93Gaza_conflict>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
pessimize:
1. (transitive) To take a pessimistic view of; to speak of in a negative
or pessimistic way.
2. (transitive) To make (something) pessimal or the worst; (in a weaker
sense) to make (something, such as a computer program) less efficient.
3. (intransitive) To think like a pessimist; to believe the worst.
4. (intransitive) To become pessimal or the worst.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pessimize>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The ground on which we’ll unite as Americans is the higher
ground of moral repair. Not Left or Right, or even Democrats or
Republicans. We’ll unite as Americans, having come to realize that
aligning public policy with the goodness in our hearts is our best and
only path forward.
--Marianne Williamson
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marianne_Williamson>