Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for April 18, 2015

Honestly didn’t notice it until now, but I like Sam’s toothpick!

To The Book Depository!

Where are you, av09? I’m usually am only 1 comment ahead of you!

“Abe Ongo” is apparently another “Derby Dugan” reference.

Good morning guys!

Hiya, VistaBill!

Good morning Tracy fans. The library copy and/or the museum copy may be missing. Have an upbeat day everyone.

Abe Ongo?

http://cafepinfold.com/category/comics-writings-lectures/

There may be only four copies of the book but the idea has been use in fiction several times.

For example, the 1976 Clue Club cartoon used a variant of this very idea in “The Vanishing Train Caper”. The twist there was there were forward and back guard trains and the side line had been laid and then dismantled. The plan was to melt down the gold bars and pass the off as nuggets out of a nearby gold mine.

In another show (1960s I think) a special device was used to defeat the autobreaking system and the car in question was decoupled in the middle of the train and a decline was used to recouple the two parts of the train after the car was shifted to a sideline.

Point is the IDEA has been used in fiction and somebody bright enough could make it a reality.

So, our “mild-mannered” detectives are headed to the library. The idea may have been used several times, but we are looking here at an exact copy of the 1924 crime, which is apparently clearly road-mapped in that book.

Odd that the strip’s writers would put a fictional book in a museum that actually exists…

Good morning, group!

It’d be easy enough to cut the car off when the train is stopped and has the slack neutral or more bunched than stretched. All that would be needed would be to close the angle cock on the equipment that’s leaving, lift the pin, and bye-bye standing car, without the crew ever knowing. That’s how yard switching with standard equipment works; handbrake on what you’re leaving, close the angle on your side, lift the pin, and POP! You still have all the air on your side – it’s the standing car that goes into emergency because the angle cock wasn’t closed.

Side note: The wreck of train 173, the Federal Express, was caused by a poorly-designed relationship between the angle cock and the car body of the third car – normal bouncing around would knock the angle cock closed, leaving the rear 13 coaches’ brakes in whatever position they were in when the angle closed. The father of a fellow railroad retiree was the one who in the course of the investigation discovered why the angle cock on the third car closed by itself and resulted in the Federal only having air on the engine and the first three coaches, which wasn’t nearly enough to keep the train from crashing through and winding up with the engine in the basement of Washington DC Union Station. Maybe there was something deliberately bent to knock the car ahead of the gold car’s angle cock closed, making it that much easier to cut that car off undetected?

I live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin & I would love to see Joe & Mike send Dick & Sam to Green Bay in this strip. What athrill it would be. Maybe they could take a tour of Lambeaustadium while they are there. I guess I will have justimagine it for myself. Anyone else near here??

Today’s panels set in the train tunnel have a decidedly film noir-ish cast, which fits the puzzlement faced by the MCU. I hope they find a copy of Abe Ongo’s book and are able to trace what Jimmy Choo Shooz and his gang did (I think I’m safe in assuming that it was Jimmy who pulled off this gold car heist)….

Here is the link to the Banachek episode that JonahHex mentioned. Skip to the 1 hour 5 minute mark for the solution.

Happy National Library Week! (April 12-18, 2015) I went to the library and took out a volume of Little Orphan Annie strips.

I don’t know the policy in Tracy’s city, but all the public libraries I’ve ever used don’t keep records of who borrows what. If this library still uses the card-in-the-pocket system, they’re set. If checkout is electronic now, though, I think they have to hope the book is still checked out to the train robbers.

By the way my bride told me that it is called Stony Brook Farm not “creek”. My Brother in law Roger Cogar works for Peter K in North Salem (I got him that job back in 1997 I think) ((the year before the Mets played the Yankees in the WS)) (((I think it was just before the Mets & Moky Wilson, Strawberry, Doc Gooden, Ron Darlene, Gary Carter (catcher) killed Boston Red Socks))) and I will ask him what they call that business now a dazs. Back in around 2000 PK sold that business but still owns it (however that works??!?) Peter and his wife Jackie are getting older now but they (he) still works (if that is what the multimillionaires call it) and I do not know his financial situation is but he did have to go “back to work” for some reason. When I get low on money it means I have less than a hundred bucks (or less). but when those folks get low on money it means that they have less than one bazillion dollars (hypothetically speaking of course) I also mentioned Jack Manis yesterday and he owns a 12 story building two blocks from the Empire State building right downtown. I was at his building only one time. Jack M. is a real stinker and not a nice guy like Peter K.… anyway I said all of that to say I’ll find out some info to help with the fishing expedition..ole DT is looking dapper in panel one, wouldn’t you say?

Love the Derby Dugan books … Tom DeHaven is an excellent writer. Go to Amazon and purchase his books!!! You’ll thank me later. (sorry Mr. Monk)

I wonder if he meant AUTObiography.

@Maximara and RailScout: thanks for the good info. Be blest my friends.

Wait—doesn’t Owen’s owning one of only four copies of the book make him a suspect too? It wouldn’t be the first time a criminal tried to get close to the investigation…

The artwork is breathtaking. I love the glowing yellow in Tracy’s hat and coat.

Hey JPuzzleWhiz, thanks for that little refresher. Not too long ago I watched an ESPN, Bill Buckner interview and he told how that he had suffered because of that error. It was so sad but he did say that now days things are better. It had to have been in 1986 that I was referring to because we left New York in 1997.

Outstanding panels today. Even the blue highlights in Sam’s hair. Great job.

Some have asked avenger09, the reason he’s not here, right on time (?)Baseball is tiring - it’s Zzzzing time, so tomorrow - ‘perked up’, he may do his Rhyme (?)

While Tracy’s ‘cogitating’ up and down, now 4 days on a plan,Yet, if the story would run, the commentary canExamining rail lines and tunnels, while looking for ClewsBut gathering, only Coal dust - that dirty his shoesUnremarkable, tedious, and run of the millThrough rubble walls, by train rails, they’re ‘talking’ still . . .

Bringing back 2009 ‘blighting’ memories, of Mr. Pops - that ClownWeeks in a Circus Ring Tracy floundered, just standing - his ground

So bereft of informed views and clews they can’t findNo cigarettes, for calm, Sam thinking … Anodyne !

But Denton’s glasses do shine, in dark or at nightReflecting some ‘ideas’, that might solve their plightSo now, it’s off to the Library, to find a bookOn other train robbers (and a how) of the Gold they took ?But here’s a tip, a step ahead, a - new point of View …Look for a Man like the Trains, the ‘clues’ - Choo Choo !

I Love a library visit…even if I can Google most things i need to know…somebody robbed the Glendale train..

Did you win?

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3 zip Baby!!!Against the youth from church. Taught those whippersnappers a thing or two! Of course they’re not hurting as much as I am right now! LOL!

They could then consult the Library of Congress, who may have it on computer.

The whole point is that the book is not on computer. There are only four copies and none of them is really accessible to the criminal except the one in the local library. That’s what makes it a possible route of investigation.

Uh-oh! Youse guys who are maintaining the answer lies in one of the four identified books…… You just got bested by Stilldamatt and me! While researching the subject, SDM pulled out the instructions in his Lionel train set and there, written in English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Vietnamese, and German was a section titled “How To Couple and Uncouple The Cars”. So the list of possible culprits grows!

Just got back in town. Staton’s art has been awesome this week! Like that’s a big news flash or somepin.

@Sydney Phillips: a very good poem. Be well my friend.

Right…….they’d borrow the book under their own name. Smart enough to steal a billion in gold, but too dumb to steal a library book….what’s wrong with this picture, lol?

i am in a library right now.

this is cool