ex-BN,

Discussion groups, especially lightly moderated ones like this, are a lot like the railroad itself. Ya' gotta' have thick skin. Don't take the comments from armchair railroaders too seriously. Some of them, the more vocal ones especially, are a bunch of self-proclaimed know-it-alls whose intentions are good but are misguided by delusions of grandeur and the inability to accept the fact that railroading is a dangerous, unpredictable, and sometimes baffling world where inexplicable things sometimes happen.

Whether their theories are right or wrong doesn't matter. For when the facts finally do emerge, they will have moved on to other "hot topics" of immediate interest. Don't take it personally, that's just how it is and it's not unlike the railroad where the BS is at about a 80:20 ratio to reality.

If you want a moderated forum where things are a bit more civil, but there is less "free speech", try trainorders.com. But be prepared to pony up for an annual subscription. Some value the moderation, some don't, some despise it. But there are a lot of current and former rails there, especially from in and around California.