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Why so few SD.80 MACS?
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Eric: The Siskiyou -- one of my favorite railroads. I spent a happy time there in the late '80s taking photos, getting lineups from Don or Eric in the Eugene office every morning at 5 a.m. I've walked the whole east side of the big hill, a remarkable piece of William Hood "follow the contours" engineering. You can really tell the difference between 2% and 3% when you're walking up hill. <br /> <br />The POTB I've not ridden -- I'd like to, though. I've seen the old photos in the books of Baldwin Creek and Wolf Creek. Very cool. <br /> <br />Those numbers you cite on idling fuel consumption on P&W are frightening. I've listened to people tell me for years that fuel really matters. Now I'm convinced. <br /> <br />Most of my train rides I have to first convince the crew I'm not there to turn them in. Then it's fun. I've yet to have a bad ride, except one night when I was a dispatcher riding a train in DTC territory. The dispatcher on that console knew the running times quite well, and was anticipating the OS points so he could give a following train more track. He'd call just about the moment the block sign came into view. The conductor sitting in front of me was all to happy to oblige him, even though our rear was 8000 feet back in the block we legally had just given up! And the engineer let him do it! <br /> <br />At the end of the trip, I asked the conductor what he was going to do when we went into emergency with occupying the block behind us, and a closely following train. He just shrugged and said, "I dunno." I got pretty mad then and told him if I ever saw him do that again, I'd turn him in on the spot. I was still a new-hire at the time, and I probably could have pleaded stupidity and only gotten a few days. But what if we'd killed the following crew? <br /> <br />But you know, ever since then I've had only good crews. By luck? Because most crews are good crews? I think it's the latter, because it's their *** on the line. I've watched an old head hammer 17,500 tons through a vicious rainstorm in the Ozarks, dropping that train into each speed restriction at the last second, me sure he's going to blow it, and him hitting exactly at the right speed. I've listened to a third-generation hogger on the Golden State name every dry wash, every abandoned homestead, every place an old Indian trail crossed. It's been fun, especially because I'm not the one who gets called to work the next morning at 4 a.m. (Another reason I went dispatching -- better hours.) <br /> <br />This whole discussion has illustrated some things to me: <br />--fuel cost is a bigger issue than I thought <br />--figuring out what's actually going on in the field is tough <br />--we need an article on the subject of fuel. <br />
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