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Re: Attn: OneMarketPlaza
Author: OneMarketPlaza
Date: 06-16-2021 - 19:22
As a retired professional railroader—-from craft and management—-and stockholder in various transportation concerns, I’m the guy that enjoys seeing wheels turn. I dislike unnecessary risk, inefficiency, and enjoy completely being in the way of Foamers getting pictures.
Railroading interests me more as a culture than does the crap that’s on the rails, it’s a family. For me, it was a form of setting the next guy up to make his or her job easier, making the weed weasels wonder, following rules to the letter. The stories are more important than the equipment or rolling stock. A locomotive is a capital investment and a means to an end. Rolling stock is just that, equipment engineered to transport goods, and people in limited circumstances.
Steam and history is cool, but if one can’t respect the machine or the limitations of what it can do, there’s no point in having it: it’s garbage, scrap metal, something to remember in books but not to keep. UP should have followed NS in ridding themselves of garbage that impacts customers, safety and the bottom line. Steam is a risk. Look at the former lady that paid the highest price with her life at a crossing for a damn picture. Hell with this crap! Scrap it, it’s NOT worth risking life and limb. Besides, foamers love to @#$%& about how something isn’t accurate or that’s not how they used to do it. Such thinking is dangerous and change must happen.
Old houses have lead: have small children eat paint chips. What do you have then? An event that causes irreversible damage to a person, an event fully predictable and preventable. In the context of modern steam: diesels must be there. Steam can blow up, can cause delays, can injure and can kill. It’s a dangerous walk between public relations and safety. The risks outweigh the value of such a program.
Railroads need to evolve to be competitive with trucks and other modes of freight transport. Innovation that steam and history shows that when technology reaches the zenith, move forward. Save the history in a museum, as Indiana Jones would have said.
Railroading interests me more as a culture than does the crap that’s on the rails, it’s a family. For me, it was a form of setting the next guy up to make his or her job easier, making the weed weasels wonder, following rules to the letter. The stories are more important than the equipment or rolling stock. A locomotive is a capital investment and a means to an end. Rolling stock is just that, equipment engineered to transport goods, and people in limited circumstances.
Steam and history is cool, but if one can’t respect the machine or the limitations of what it can do, there’s no point in having it: it’s garbage, scrap metal, something to remember in books but not to keep. UP should have followed NS in ridding themselves of garbage that impacts customers, safety and the bottom line. Steam is a risk. Look at the former lady that paid the highest price with her life at a crossing for a damn picture. Hell with this crap! Scrap it, it’s NOT worth risking life and limb. Besides, foamers love to @#$%& about how something isn’t accurate or that’s not how they used to do it. Such thinking is dangerous and change must happen.
Old houses have lead: have small children eat paint chips. What do you have then? An event that causes irreversible damage to a person, an event fully predictable and preventable. In the context of modern steam: diesels must be there. Steam can blow up, can cause delays, can injure and can kill. It’s a dangerous walk between public relations and safety. The risks outweigh the value of such a program.
Railroads need to evolve to be competitive with trucks and other modes of freight transport. Innovation that steam and history shows that when technology reaches the zenith, move forward. Save the history in a museum, as Indiana Jones would have said.
