What you are experiencing is Jim Wrinn trying to play both sides of the fence. He is too afraid he might upset someone and not get a cab ride next time he shows up on the property. That is why there are no tough pieces in the magazine any more. I'm in the industry and frankly want to throw up when I read the puff pieces that have been put out in recent years. I was very happy to let my subscription expire a few years ago. And no, I'm not an angry T&ES guy...I'm a manager.

In my opinion, the only decent magazine left is Railpace. While you can usually find several errors in each issue or someone who jumped the gun on reporting internet rumor (which we all saw a month ago), the publication is about as close to railfan journalism as you'll find.

Flip the coin to industry publications, and we are mostly left to what the Class 1 public relations folks will tell us, of course, after extreme vetting by the legal department.

It's nice that [i]Trains[i] tries to bridge that gap, but Jim Wrinn might as well do his Newswire updates wearing a slime green safety vest trying to say "Hey, I'm one of you, too!" to the industry people. He's doing no more than any fan-- hanging out trackside hoping to talk to a crew or even better yet, get an invite up to the cab.