I had just finished posting my last comment on the Castle Gate thread, and feeling as dispondant as the posting suggests, when I was reminded I had to take a short walk oiutdors for a meeting elsehwere on the Yeshiva's campus. Jerusalem evenings can be cool in summer, and as I put on my surplus Israeli Army field jacket, I spotted my Market Street Railay Association patch on the left shoulder.
Just think, there were four streetcar tracks down the length of Market Street. then sadly reduced to two, but now there are actually six electric railway tracks on the main portion of Market, two streetcar on the surface, two in the MUNI-Metro light rail subway, and two for BART's trains at the bottom. One really has to hand it to SF for some heroic preservation work. Sure. even there much has been lost, but the electric railrway network is expanding, tracks are being used on Thrid Street where they were ripped up, the cable cars present a kalaidascope of color, with all historic schemes represented by the different cars, a fine PCC, Milan Peter-Witt, and important historic cars all operational. IN New York, friends enjoyed a weekend of smaply several historic trains brought out for the pleasure of fans, including gate cars, steel BMT standards, a D-type Triplex articulated, R1-9s, and a collection of early postwar cars of different types.
Then of cours we still have some steam narrow gauge in magnificent scenery, the NS and UP steam programs -- so generally I realize I should be thnkful for what is preserved and what is available.
I guess nobody is going to blow up Niagra Falls, the Royal Giorge, or the Grand Canyon.
Yes...lets hope they don't fill in the falls or the canyon for condo's!
What we have preserved is quite remarkable. I do fear that once the boomers are gone there is little in the way of people who experienced much of it firsthand. Historic artifacts from well before our time are preserved but we have little or no real connection with these things before our time. We tend to look on it with bemusement and move on.
Hopefully the next generations will continue to run some steam. Not sure how many members of a "Milwaukee Road" or a "Wabash" historical society there will be in 100 years from now. Will the NYC be remembered at all...certainly records will exist but enthusiasts will be few and far between. So it is.
Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon will be there and that wil be the connection.
Mind you ...there is a farm/buisness in SW Ontario that specializes in Jousting. They give lessons and folks from all over come to watch and participate in tournaments. So if someone is willing to keep that alive from medieval times then I'm certain someone will want to maintain and look after steam locomotives.
Yes, Miningman, and in the U.S. -- probably in Canada, as well -- thousands of "buckskinners" and "black powder" people keep alive, in their encampments, the fur-trading era of the 18th and 19th centuries.
When something, including steam locomotion, is compelling enough, it reaches across the decades and sometimes centuries to command new devotees. I note in the Wall Street Journal that a compilation of new translations of Greek tragic plays (from the 400 B.C.s) is hitting the market.
I live in the upper Northern Saskatchewan...fur business is really big up here...every single one of my students families have trap lines, always have, and we have a very real trading post...there are furs always being brought in, traded for groceriies, tobacco, cash and credit. Totally normal activity up here.
It's an interesting phenomenon I've notice in the past few decades. It seems the more "techno" our society gets, the more some people want to retreat into the past.
Buckskinning, Revolutionary and Civil War re-enacting (I understand Napoleonic War re-enacting is very popular in Europe), restoring muscle cars, restoring steam engines, hey there's even something called "Steampunk," which as I understand involves pretending electronics were never invented and takes Victorian era steam technology to another level.
Like it or not, we're all stuck in this era we live in, but it sure seems like some folks are looking for an escape to a (supposedly) simpler time.
Me? I'm waiting for the "Digital Titanic" to happen.
Miningman I live in the upper Northern Saskatchewan...fur business is really big up here...every single one of my students families have trap lines, always have, and we have a very real trading post...there are furs always being brought in, traded for groceriies, tobacco, cash and credit. Totally normal activity up here.
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