Perhaps this board could have a volunteer or two that moderates the board by quickly deleting posts that are off topic/mean spirited/nonsense/overly political. I'd suggest starting by blocking those IP addresses that have done so in the past. Fair? Not completely. But better than the massive dilution that often occurs here.

Most of us don't want to hear this back and forth trash talking. Some political talk is part of railroading such as political supporters or enemies of Amtrak. That is fine but the rest can be tossed in the rubbish bin. Let's get back to railroading. Particularly the "Good old days" in my case. The recent discussion of early GEs selector switches was interesting to me in particular. I never ran one but was familiar with EMDs selector and transition levers.

I was drawn to TrainOrders.com years ago because of my interest in timetable and train order operation. It hardly was so I left. I've always returned to AP since its highly accessible and covers western railroading where I've spent 40 years drawing a RR paycheck.

As a final suggestion I'd ask that posters don't assume readers live in your area and know the name of every siding and spur. Include the state if its not obvious and better yet use the pre-merger line if known. With all the mergers over the years saying UP in California or BNSF in Washington covers a lot of track. A recent post mentioned the Fallbridge sub on the former BN in WA. I'm more familiar with older divisions and subs by number but that changes too. A brief description would have helped me understand the post better and isn't that the point? After looking it up I realize it is the former SP&S line along the Columbia River in Washington. Basically Pasco to Portland. This was inserted into a thread on the former NP line in Washington between Pasco and Auburn (Seattle). Even though I know this area well I was not up on the latest subdivision names.