▲ 332 r/Fotv+1 crossposts

First glimpse of the Ghoul on set (Pomona Theater)

u/dmreif — 10 days ago
▲ 72 r/cta

Closed stations that should be rebuilt

We've seen in recent years the rebuilding of several stations that the CTA had closed decades ago to better serve riders in those areas. This is especially the case on the Green Line, with the opening of Morgan in 2012, Cermak-McCormick Place in 2015, and Damen in 2024.

But I'm sure there are many other stations that have been shuttered that really ought to be rebuilt.

If I could reopen/rebuild demolished stations, they'd be:

  • The three stations on the Congress branch of the Blue Line that closed in the 1970s. Central will be getting reopened thanks to funding from the recently passed NITA Act, but there's probably arguments for reopening California and Kostner as well.
  • The Englewood branch of the Green Line has some long gaps as the result of many of its stations being closed well before the 1994 refurb. The NITA Act will be restoring service to Racine. If I had to pick other stops to rebuild, it'd be the stops that were closed in 1992, those being 63rd/Harvard and Wentworth. 63rd/Harvard would probably be rebuilt with a transfer to the Red Line's stop in the Dan Ryan, as had actually been planned during the Green Line refurbishment of 1994 but never happened due to them not getting the funding needed. And Wentworth should be rebuilt because right now, if you live around there, you have to go a half-mile north or south to reach the Red Line stops at Garfield and 63rd. Rebuilding Wentworth for the Englewood Branch would be pretty easy, especially since opening a Red Line stop here would require removal of a pocket track.
  • 58th on the South Side Elevated, again because of the big gap between stations that exists because of its absence. I'd also maybe open a stop at 31st, as the CTA had considered building this stop to replace 35th-Bronzeville-IIT during the Green Line refurb.
  • Rebuilding the Jackson Park branch to Stony Island Avenue, and reopening the demolished stations at University, Dorchester (for connections to the Metra Electric) and Stony Island. The CTA had planned to rebuild the line to Dorchester during the 1994 refurb, but this got scuttled by community pushback. Nowadays, I think such a project would be ideal as Stony Island would provide 'L' service to the Obama Presidential Center.
  • I think there's two stations on the Skokie Swift that closed in 1948 that'd be ideal for rebuilding. The first would be Crawford-East Prairie, to provide a passenger station for those who work at the CTA's Skokie Shops. The other would probably be Dodge.
  • Madison on the Paulina Connector section of the Pink Line. This stop closed when the Milwaukee-Dearborn Subway opened in 1951 and Logan Square branch trains were rerouted into the subway. And there've been talks in recent years of rebuilding this station to provide a closer 'L' station to United Center as part of other developments in the area (the new Damen/Lake station right now fills that role, as does the Damen entrance to Illinois Medical District on the Blue Line, but those are still a bit of a walk).
u/dmreif — 14 days ago

Dude, did you not see me?

Taken last week on the New Jersey Turnpike as I pass through Exit 6.

u/dmreif — 14 days ago

My first visit to [Dorney Park]

Since I live in Lewisburg, Knoebels is my home park. But as a change of pace (and partly because riding Diamondback and The Voyage during my July road trip gave me a confidence boost with big coasters), I decided to drive two hours to Dorney Park today instead.

My main reason for going was because I really wanted to ride Steel Force. So I started there and got two front row rides. Then I went over to Thunderhawk and did two rides there. I followed this with a drive on Road Rally, which I have to admit is a little too short compared to Knoebels' antique cars or Kings Island's Kings Mills autos. And then I did a third lap on Steel Force.

I initially intended to get lunch at Coasters, but the line was a bit slow so I went to White Water Tavern for tenders and fries as lunch. I followed lunch with a ride on Wild Mouse, then ventured back down the hill for a fourth and final lap on Steel Force (this time in the third row of the second car), and finished the day off with a ride on the Zephyr.

u/dmreif — 16 days ago
▲ 32 r/cta

What would the 'L' look like if the Metropolitan's old branches weren't demolished?

In this context, I'm referring specifically to the Humboldt Park and Westchester branches, since the Blue Line replaced the Logan Square and Garfield Park branches, while the Douglas branch is now the Pink Line.

Westchester branch

In the case of the Westchester branch, things are pretty straightforward. What killed that branch was, well, the Great Depression. Between the Depression and World War II, a lot of the development that might've sprung up around the line and generated the ridership to convince the CTA to keep the line open never materialized until it was too late. I think with this"what if", things are pretty straightforward: the Westchester branch would be incorporated into the Blue Line. So the Blue Line would be "22nd & Mannheim to O'Hare via downtown".

Humboldt Park branch

With the Humboldt Park branch, things are a bit different. This branch might've developed the ridership needed to survive if it had been extended across the Milwaukee District North/West Lines and continued all the way to Harlem Avenue as originally intended. In addition, it's worth noting that before the CTA was formed, the Milwaukee-Dearborn Subway wasn't going to replace the elevated tracks along Paulina at all. Rather, it would supplement the old tracks, not unlike how the State Street Subway supplements the North Side Main Line between Armitage and the Loop.

So let's say that the Humboldt Park branch was built out to Elmwood Park, and the CTA didn't close the elevated tracks south of Damen. The Logan Square branch still gets rerouted into the subway, and in 1958 is connected to the Congress Line to form the initial part of what is now the Blue Line, and that line gets its extensions to Jefferson Park in 1970, to Rosemont in 1983, and O'Hare in 1984. For the Humboldt Park branch meanwhile, well, I think it's safe to say that once the Garfield Park elevated was replaced with the Congress Line, new track connections would be built at Lake Street Transfer to allow Humboldt Park trains to use the Lake Street Elevated to access the Loop, as was the case for Douglas trains during the Congress's construction and for Pink Line trains today.

This would probably have a knock-on effect with other routes down the line.

  • I think the Douglas Line would still be connected to the Congress Line, resulting in the Blue Line's 1958-2008 O'Hare-Congress/Douglas service pattern still being formed.
  • Humboldt Park trains would run with Lake Street trains into the Loop. Come 1969 when the Dan Ryan Line opened, the West-South Line would be known effectively as the Lake/Humboldt Park-Dan Ryan Line upon the through-routing of Lake trains to the Dan Ryan. Similar to how things were with the Blue and Red Lines before 1993, the skip-stop patterns would probably result in 'A' trains being all routed via the Lake Street Elevated while 'B' trains would be routed via Humboldt Park.
  • That in turn would have a knock-on effect with the swapping of the South Side lines in 1993 that was done to balance out ridership levels and free up capacity for the Orange Line. Because of the South Side Elevated splitting into the Englewood and Jackson Park branches, I think each branch would've been paired to just one of the West Side elevated branches and each given its own color identity (Lake-Englewood being the Green Line, while Humboldt Park-Jackson Park forms what I'll call the 'Teal Line'; they not only differ in their outer branches).
  • I wonder whether or not the CTA would've still separated the Douglas Branch from the Blue Line to form the Pink Line as is in 2006. My guess is that they probably would in order to add additional capacity on Lake Street and the Inner Loop.
  • The differing ridership levels would certainly impact the design of the CTA's various orders for new trains during these years, particularly with the 2200 series and beyond. More cars would probably get built for what we know as the 2200, 2400, 2600, and 3200 series (which would all have slightly different names).
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u/dmreif — 17 days ago

[Cedar Point] from Huron

Taken yesterday evening. I can make out Millennium Force, Top Thrill 2, Valravn, Raptor, GateKeeper, Magnum XL-200 and Steel Vengeance walking toward the old lighthouse on Huron's pier.

u/dmreif — 28 days ago

[Holiday World] 07/17-18

After my Monday trip to Kings Island and a few days with my grandfather in Cincinnati, I moved on to Holiday World to spend two days at this park.

I'd previously visited this park almost exactly 13 years ago, when I spent a few weeks in Bloomington as part of a CIP program, and we had an outing here.

Friday 07/17:

Drove straight to Holiday World from Cincinnati, only stopping at a Wawa in Clarksville for a bathroom break. I ended up getting to the park just after 11:00 or so, and the place was already somewhat crowded. I managed to get two rides each on The Legend and The Voyage before needing to stop for lunch. These were uneventful rides save for me getting sprinkles on my first Legend ride.

I had hot dogs and fries at Santa's Merry Marketplace. I ventured out to do a ride on Raven before a thundershower came through. So I sheltered back at the marketplace and had some ice cream there. After the skies cleared, I took a lap around the Lewis and Clark Trail, and then ventured back down the hill to Thanksgiving to ride Good Gravy and one third and final ride on Voyage. Then I decided to leave to get to my hotel in Huntingburg.

Saturday 07/18:

I got there at opening time, and being a Saturday, the park was crowded (and probably moreso with the Great Ohio Coaster Club having an event here). I got two rides on The Legend and one on The Voyage in the first two hours, then I decided to take a spin on Gobbler Getaway (and got a score of 1,650). Then I ventured up to Frightful Falls, and eventually got on after a pretty tenuous wait.

After lunch, again at the Marketplace, I went back to two more rides on The Legend, where the queue had largely emptied out as many were gravitating down the hill to Splashin' Safari to seek respite from the heat. I then ventured back down to Thanksgiving for one last Voyage ride. After stopping for ice cream at the marketplace, I decided to snag a ride on Raven before leaving the park for the evening (Raven was a walk-on by this point).

u/dmreif — 1 month ago
▲ 59 r/KingsIsland+1 crossposts

Visit today at [Kings Island] (07/13/2026)

While on a road trip through the Midwest, I made a visit to Kings Island, much as I did when I passed through Cincinnati last year. This time, my goal was to hit some different attractions.

I started out with a pair of rides on The Beast. The ride was a few minutes late opening, but it was running pretty smoothly.

I followed this up with a pair of rides on Diamondback, both around mid-train. This is actually my first time riding a B&M in any capacity, and I think this replaced The Beast as my favorite coaster at Kings Island.

I intended to go to Mystic Timbers afterwards, as that was nearby, but it had gone down (and was on and off throughout the day). So I crossed the park and worked my way from Action Zone to the Juke Box Diner, making rides on The Bat, Adventure Express, and one on each side of Racer (Red Racer rode a bit smoother than Blue).

After lunch, I drove around the Kings Mills antique cars before schlepping across to Mystic Timbers. I guess the ride was still having trouble, since we got stuck on the first part of the brake run for several minutes. The heat was starting to get to me, so after going up the Eiffel Tower to take some photos and video, I did one last ride on Diamondback before leaving, getting the outer left seat in the front car.

Total coaster count:

  • 3x Diamondback
  • 2x The Beast
  • 2x Racer (1 each side)
  • 1x The Bat
  • 1x Adventure Express
  • 1x Mystic Timbers
u/dmreif — 1 month ago

What if the Ghoul had better communicated with Lucy at the hospital? [2x02]

I can't help but feel like the whole situation with Lucy getting caught by the Legion, and Cooper having to rescue her, could've all been avoided if Cooper had taken five minutes to properly explain to Lucy why she shouldn't help the wounded slaves at the hospital.

Let's say everything is the same up until Lucy and the Ghoul walk by the abandoned hospital and hear the cries for help. Lucy insists on going in to help, and the Ghoul reluctantly follows her in. They enter the hospital and find the slaves in the kitchen. But once he recognizes the two wounded people as Legion slaves, the Ghoul decides to be more upfront with Lucy, because he cares about her (even if he doesn’t want to admit it), he needs her to be intact so he can use her as a bargaining chip with her dad (which she doesn't know), and he knows how much danger a woman like her is in when in Legion territory, as she's a Vault dweller with intact reproductive organs.

So the conversation goes like this:

>The Ghoul: “Tunics. [to the woman] You awful far west, ain’t you?”
Lucy: “Ignore him. I got one stimpak left, okay?”
The Ghoul: “That would be a profound misallocation of resources. Folks in them outfits don’t deserve savin’.”
Lucy: “What are you talking about? These people are hurt. Everyone deserves savin'.”
The Ghoul: “Not these people, vaultie. These are members of Caesar's Legion. Helping them would be the stupidest thing you can do."
Lucy: "And why's that?"
The Ghoul: "They’re assholes trying to bring Ancient Rome to the Wasteland. If you’re not with them, they'll beat you and enslave you or string you to a cross. And if you're a woman, well, you're only useful to them for making more babies.”

If I had to take a guess, Lucy would probably still insist on helping the slaves in the same way she took time to free the captured ghouls in the Super Duper Mart. So she'd probably still give her last stimpak to the female slave, and maybe ask the slave to bring her to her camp so she can find medical supplies and make an attempt to free them. And in her attempt to liberate the slaves without resorting to violence, she still gets captured and has to be rescued.

Though there's also the chance that she makes a different decision, and thus she and Cooper are able to avoid the Legion entirely. Or they both get captured and have to work together to escape.

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u/dmreif — 2 months ago
🔥 Hot ▲ 7.5k r/Fallout

Season 3 has begun filming!

Group photo of Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Dave Register, Moises Arias, and Annabel O’Hagan from Register’s Instagram circa 06/27.

u/dmreif — 2 months ago

I wonder what the EMTs and mortician are thinking 😂

And what Patricia said to convince them to let her escort the corpse at gunpoint all the way to the oven. 😂

u/dmreif — 2 months ago
▲ 20 r/Fotv

Fallout's Walton Goggins Breaks Down His Process for Becoming the Ghoul (Exclusive)

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u/dmreif — 2 months ago
▲ 65 r/Fotv

Ella Purnell Reveals SURPRISING Hopes for Fallout Season 3 and Yellowjackets' Finale (Exclusive)

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u/dmreif — 2 months ago
▲ 66 r/Fotv

Walton Goggins on battling Radscorpions and whether the Ghoul deserves a happy ending

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u/dmreif — 2 months ago
▲ 0 r/Fotv

What if Lucy and the Ghoul fought the Deathclaws? [2x05]

It's thanks to luck and there being an opening in the gate that Lucy and the Ghoul are able to escape from the Deathclaws and get into Freeside.

Maybe it's just me, but I feel this was too anticlimactic after the ending to episode 4 made it seem like this would be a bigger fight. Which makes me wonder, what would happen if Lucy and the Ghoul weren't able to escape in time? Say, Lucy was a bit slower, and so one of the Deathclaws caught her before she could slip under the gate, necessitating that she fight them and the Ghoul have to come back to assist her.

Personally, I think they'd successfully kill the three that were present, but not without both of them sustaining serious injuries since neither of them has power armor or energy weapons as is the case when the Ghoul and Maximus fight them in episode 7.

u/dmreif — 2 months ago
▲ 14 r/Fotv

Do you think Lucy will get a new outfit in season 3?

Considering how season 2 ended, and us having to wait for season 3 to start filming so we can get set leaks, it's hard to say whether we'll see Lucy adapt a new outfit or she'll stick to her Vault 33 jumpsuit.

And she could go either way at this point.

On the one hand, Lucy could take on a new outfit to show she's shed her identity as a Vault dweller. She might do so because her views of Vault 33 are tainted by everything she's learned about her dad. And it might be a smart idea seeing as wearing a Vault jumpsuit could get her in trouble down the line.

But on the other hand, maybe she'll want to keep possession of her suit. After all, the last we saw of it was when she was looking herself in the mirror after changing into the yellow dress, so I think she intended to change back to the suit after her last dinner with Hank. And even with the last scene being her wearing the yellow dress while with Maximus inside the Lucky 38 penthouse, she'll likely still want to scour the management vault for information about her dad's work for the Enclave.

https://preview.redd.it/hg5z5nzlks2h1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=8a1f0e5a2ddd869a0ffe425560284335e178105a

And keeping Lucy in the Vault suit might also keep her thematically tied to Cooper. Cooper's cowboy costume inspired the color scheme of the Vault suits, after all, and he still wears that costume all these years later under his duster. With the duster symbolically being a sort of armor he wears to mask his pain. I could see Lucy keeping the Vault 33 jumpsuit but accessorizing it with a similar article of clothing on top of it, which could come in handy if/when she ever goes off in pursuit of Cooper (as we know she'll want answers regarding what her dad was up to, regarding the people he worked for, House needs someone to be his foot soldier, and she likely wants closure regarding Cooper coming back to save her after having betrayed her to her dad). Lucy wearing such a getup when confronting the Enclave might even be appropriate since Vault dwellers have always been their biggest thorns in their side.

Plus I'm not sure if Lucy wants to wear any sort of NCR apparel. I think after she made that "matching jackets" remark in 2x04 regarding the soldiers who nursed her back to health, she might balk at the idea of taking any of their clothing (even if that's a bit hypocritical of her, considering that Vault jumpsuits are a different kind of "matching jacket").

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u/dmreif — 3 months ago