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Re: Education level & behavior of railfans improving
Author: SD70M
Date: 09-27-2016 - 14:55
A bizarre post, but what the hell, I will respond anyway.
I would argue the opposite is happening with railroading smarts, and railfans young and old are falling victim just the same. What I'm talking about is using one's brain to make certain inferences based on what you see, what you hear on the radio, and so on and so forth. Nowadays, railfans expect someone else to do all thinking for them and post that information to one of the various railroad sites like this one.
I recently went trackside to see an unscheduled passenger excursion on a single track CTC railroad. Maybe ten of us were standing around, just chatting, when the dispatcher referred to the "non-clearing eastbound" that just passed us. Ahead of the non-clearing eastbound was two more eastbounds. The westbound passenger special was still a hundred miles out, would need to meet all three eastbounds, and could be following other westbounds -- we just didn't know yet. To have the train dispatcher spend a minute or two conversing outloud about where to put everybody should be sounding alarm bells in everyone's heads, yet it wasn't. I uttered an expletive or two and asked if anybody knew what time the passenger crew went on duty. (They had been on-duty for 9 hours at that point.) Seconds later, the dispatcher called a westbound ahead of our passenger special. I used other expletives and told everybody we were screwed. We had about two hours of sunlight left. There's no way our train would arrive in daylight.
I received blank stares from everybody. Not one other person connected the dots to realize it was about to become a parking lot with the non-clearing eastbound screwing everything up. If any photographs were to be had, it was time to jump in the car ASAP and drive east.
By no means am I the smartest railfan out there. Not even close. All I know is the railfans of decades past were more operations minded because there was no other option. Deciphering every word spoken over the radio was absolutely necessary at all times. I guess those days are behind us and it saddens me. I keep thinking the number of true railfans still out there, those genuinely interested in railroads, is fading rather quickly. Good or bad, the people replacing them are only railfans insofar as their own photography or videography is concerned. Railroads are just a subject to point their lenses at.
I would argue the opposite is happening with railroading smarts, and railfans young and old are falling victim just the same. What I'm talking about is using one's brain to make certain inferences based on what you see, what you hear on the radio, and so on and so forth. Nowadays, railfans expect someone else to do all thinking for them and post that information to one of the various railroad sites like this one.
I recently went trackside to see an unscheduled passenger excursion on a single track CTC railroad. Maybe ten of us were standing around, just chatting, when the dispatcher referred to the "non-clearing eastbound" that just passed us. Ahead of the non-clearing eastbound was two more eastbounds. The westbound passenger special was still a hundred miles out, would need to meet all three eastbounds, and could be following other westbounds -- we just didn't know yet. To have the train dispatcher spend a minute or two conversing outloud about where to put everybody should be sounding alarm bells in everyone's heads, yet it wasn't. I uttered an expletive or two and asked if anybody knew what time the passenger crew went on duty. (They had been on-duty for 9 hours at that point.) Seconds later, the dispatcher called a westbound ahead of our passenger special. I used other expletives and told everybody we were screwed. We had about two hours of sunlight left. There's no way our train would arrive in daylight.
I received blank stares from everybody. Not one other person connected the dots to realize it was about to become a parking lot with the non-clearing eastbound screwing everything up. If any photographs were to be had, it was time to jump in the car ASAP and drive east.
By no means am I the smartest railfan out there. Not even close. All I know is the railfans of decades past were more operations minded because there was no other option. Deciphering every word spoken over the radio was absolutely necessary at all times. I guess those days are behind us and it saddens me. I keep thinking the number of true railfans still out there, those genuinely interested in railroads, is fading rather quickly. Good or bad, the people replacing them are only railfans insofar as their own photography or videography is concerned. Railroads are just a subject to point their lenses at.
