We had a young guy at the club I used to belong to, thought he knew it all about trains. Had a bad habit of riding cars on the track that went past our club building - train speed was around 10mph through there but still.. One of our members was a locomotive engineer on the PBNE (Bethlehem Steel was not fully shut down yet at that time - coke works was still oeprating, which was what most of the traisn were, coal in, coke out, and various flats/gons hauling all sorts of interesting steel shapes out to clean out the remains of the plant), and he would often remark at this young guy's lack of sense. The one day the young guy comes in and announces he had apllied for and been accepted to work on the R&N. PBNE guy later remarked that the kid will either learn real quick not to be stupid, or he'll be dead.
Amazes me how many times I see supposed 'experts' step on the rails when crossing tracks. I expect that from those who don't know any better. Maybe they need to show the Operation Lifesaver cartoon, the one with the bird and the fox, more often to young kids - my oldest saw that, and 6 months later when I had him at Strasburg, he marched up to this lady and told her to tell her kids to not put pennies on the track, it was dangerous. She ignored him (well, he was about 4 1/2, talking to a New York mother of teens), so he came back to me and made me move so we weren't sitting anywhere near where these kids put their coins. He remembered that from the movie.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
ATLANTIC CENTRALI know life time railroad men who know little about some of the engineering and technical stuff I listed above....... Sheldon
Sheldon, I fully agree. All I needed to know was:
Triple A Lumber & Home Improvement.
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I could careless if those boxcars was PS,SIECO or FMC or type of door they have but, since I was a brakeman I was taught coupler knuckles and air hoses was the same for any make of car and how to install knuckles and air hoses..
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"