Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
I thought the article was great- I learned something! I'd been wondering why there were so many cars going by with Kaolin in them (heavy stencils on the side marked "Kaolin" was the clue.) Turns out they are headed to MeadeWestVaCo for use in their coated boards division. <br /> <br />Mark asked a good question about Trains losing "steam". I love watching steam locomotives run- they are fascinating machines with lots of moving parts doing something- but I wonder what skills and trades disappeared with the dieselization of the railroads. Everyone knows about Dale McCormick and the SP Daylight out in Seattle... but who is his fireman? How does UP qualify someone to run their Challenger? Outside of some shipyards and power plants, who really knows how to be a boilermaker? Who can still "decorate the tops" of a freight train with something other than bunting? There's a lot of technology from steam locomotives still in use today- stuff like roller bearings, air brakes, electrically powered headlights to name a couple of examples. Does a modern day wheelwright in a shop have any notion of how to balance a locomotive driver wheel? Mark's column made me ask myself what else got lost in the way of technology when diesels took over. More to the point, what mistakes did the railroads make in the past that should be avoided today? How often does some whiz kid "reinvent the wheel" that an "old head" would know from common sense? <br /> <br />Erik
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag