I have to say I am disappointed that Trains Magazine decided to lead their current issue with an article about global warming. To me, that's a cop-out to the uniqueness of creativity and the fascinating subject of trains and railroading. Let's face it- climate change is an issue that does nothing but make people argue. It's out there-in layers- in every general news media. I doubt that there is anyone in our country who doesn't already have an opinion about it that they are not going to change their minds no matter how much someone argues with them. The fact that it's a lead article in a trains magazine suggest to me that the folks there have either gotten lazy or unimaginative, or they sold out to the kind of mainstream click-bait type material that will sell more magazines, whether the subject is related to trains or not. It's a slippery slope once you lower those standards. Giving the benefit of the doubt, maybe it's just that the fine folks at Trains Magazine have lost track of good ideas for new railroad related articles that we the readers would enjoy. There must be 100's of good articles out there that I'd enjoy reading. I'll start a list. Please feel free to add on-#1) An article about the backroom decisions about the new name for a merged railroad system. For example, who came up with BNSF and how did it win out over other suggestions?#2) An article about start-up shortlines that grew and evolved into bigger and better things.#3) An article about some of the things that ship by rail in big quantities that most would consider odd or never gave much thought to - the raw, main ingredient for cat litter for example (bentonite).What else?
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
I'd like to see an article on the 20 biggest bottlenecks in the US (besides Chicago - that is its own article), what it would take in terms of dollars and designs to alleviate them, and how service would be improved if they were fixed.
Maybe the editors have so thoroughly accepted the presumed scientific conclusions global warming that it does not occur to them that there is any disagreement or controversy.
I have not seen the article, but I am guessing that it never questions the premise that the manmade global warming / climate change theory stands as a proven fact. Does the article ever question that?
Euclid I have not seen the article, but I am guessing that it never questions the premise that the manmade global warming / climate change theory stands as a proven fact. Does the article ever question that?
Of course not. The author seems maybe a millenial.
https://twitter.com/jfranz88
Murphy Siding said it much more eloquently than I would have. Totally out of place article that appears to be pushing an agenda. Half way through the article I put the magazine down in disgust. That agenda is constantly being thrown in our face by the lame-stream media on a daily basis and gets very tiresome. I subscribe to get news about railroads, not Al Gore's personal crusade.
Norm
The climate argument is a repeat of the smoking argument. If you just keep screaming "it's not true", a surprising number of people will believe that the scientists have sold out to (insert your favorite villan here).
I wonder how soon this thread will get locked.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
I found the collection of articles in the latest issue to be quite interesting. TRAINS has always been something more than just a fan magazine and the articles and features bear this out. Lots of readers firmly believed that John G. Kneiling's column and articles were a waste of ink and paper but I found them to be thought-provoking.
I have noticed over the past few years that Trains Magazine has struggled to find quality articles about railroading. In their defense railroads today do not have the range of topics as in years past. Also todays social media passes on news about railroads much faster than a monthly publication is capable of. How many articles can you do on PTC, Tier 4 or commuter rail, etc? I would rather see an informative and entertaining bi-monthly all railroad issue than a watered down issue resorting to articles that may be loosely related to railroading. No longer subscribing to Trains Magazine, I now go to the book store to see if the current issue interests me. As Norm stated I want articles and informative news about railroads.
Let's face it - there is only so much variety in railroading today. There are only seven Class 1's. Shortlines and regionals are either expanding to the point that they are nearly Class 1's (albeit disconnected) or are getting folded into those that are growing.
Local business is disappearing (as has been noted numerous times) in favor of unit trains, with the resultant loss of the colorful "local."
Even the locomotives are getting boring. A significant part of the nation's locomotive fleet consists of just two or three models - and it's getting harder and harder to tell them apart. Run-through power is so common as to not evoke a reaction in most cases.
If there are no major events, there's precious little news. Even the news tends to be boring and repetitive. Kinda like the weather report on the South Pacific island I was on - partly cloudy, temp near 92 with a low around 80. Every. Single. Day. (Not complaining about that weather - just that giving a weather report on the radio station was pretty much useless.)
It's gotta be tough trying to come up with enough material to fill the magazine - and it's smaller than it used to be.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
If that's the problem, they're not trying. The presentations and papers from the annual AREMA conference alone would fill the magazine for a year. Sure, lots are technical and way over the head of the average reader, but some are not - e.g., the new XYZ bridge or ABC intermodal yard - and those that are could be simplified (isn't that what editors are for ?).
There are many other organizations and events that could provide similar fodder. Progressive Railroading sponsors a security-oriented event soon. Heck, Trains itself sponsors the Wheel-Rail Interface conference - there must be something new, else why have it ? American Short Line RR Assn., Assoc. of RR Supts., Nat'l. RR Contractors Assn., Lexington Rail History Group, APTA, must be AAR Mechanical, Accounting, and HR groups, C&S groups, etc. See Murphy's current thread on weighing and scales - "Eyeballing it"- for another far-out example. I still haven't seen a step-by-step illustration of how the Iron Highway/ CP Expressway cars load and unload. How is a modern tamper/ liner contorlled and operated ? How about the gepotechnical guys who widen/ raise tunnels (Shannon & Wilson) ? What about environmental remediation of spills and old facilities like tie-treating plants ? What's life like for a bridge worker or inspector ? Interview the Ice Cold Express people who got screwed by BNSF. Go back over everything Railway Man/ 1435 mm, greyhounds, BaltACD - to name just a few - have posted to glean for ideas.
Otherwise, just print the old stuff and call it "Classic Trains II" (or Light, or Jr., etc.).
- Paul North.
The sad thing about this whole controversy is that it could have been avoided with one initial sentence, and all the points and discussion actually in the article presented essentially as they were.
Something like: "If we accept, (or "posit" as the logicians have it, but I wouldn't use that word in an actual article) that AGW is significant, and that anthropogenic response can make a meaningful difference -- THEN railroads have a significant role, will be affected in particular ways, may see increased or decreased traffic flows (etc.) ..." And you're off and running.
The topic is interesting, and makes for a good range of discussion leading, perhaps, to an increased or better set of prospective solutions.
But advocacy for the science behind claims of AGW isn't necessary, or in my opinion, particularly appropriate in a railroad magazine, in an article written by, and largely for, nonscientists. While I happen to think that IPCC-style activity is often reprehensibly nonscientific, that has no bearing either on the observable facts and models in the AGW/climate-change discussion, or on whether or not Trains Magazine can run an article on how railroads would change/respond to possible scenarii involving the phenomenon if, or how, it manifests itself.
(I also think there are more than enough potential topics for the magazine in a week's worth of Progressive Railroading articles, let alone all those sources we can observe -- yes, including those brought up in social media -- if we are interested in railroading and have reasonable Internet access. What we need are more people with DPM's attitude, or perhaps more authors; barring that, perhaps more of a process of asking readers what sort of stories they'd prefer to see in upcoming issues (I think this has been done) as well as finding or training more in-house staff to give the "Walter Lippmann" treatment to industry information to make it interesting to the general wide range of the magazine's readership.
I agree with Paul and RME that there is more than enough potential material to cover. But the issue of what gets covered depends on how Trains editors assess the readership market. There is a common belief these days that readers are not interested in content that is too technical. In my opinion, this had resulted in a trend of defining “too technical” downward and is turning into a belief that anything technical turns off the readers.
I think this underestimates the readers, narrows the range of potential content, and results in desperation to reach out to attract new readers with articles like the effect of global warming on railroading. Incidentally, this also raises the question of whether the editors realize that the topic is very polarizing and will drive readers away as well as attract them. I suspect they may not realize this. In any case, there are mountains of potential content if you include technical content.
Another area that Trains ignores is historical content. Their surveys show that readers are relatively uninterested in that. But it is possible that their lack of interest is due to the fact that the topic is hard to delve into on your own. So a survey indicating a lack of interest may be missing the point. What it may actually be indicating is a lack of insight that would lead to an interest. The magazine obviously sees itself as a vehicle to reflect readership interests, but it also can teach. Readers who are uninformed about certain topics are not going to demand coverage in a survey of their interests.
With both content reservoirs of technical and historical, there is endless content that readers would find interesting. The challenge is for the magazine to open these areas up to the readers in a way that is interesting, creative, and understandable.
For instance, I would like to see an article on investigating derailments. Who does this work? What are their methods, and what do they look for? Where do they start? Is this done by railroad personnel or independent specialists?
I have no problem with magazine articles about climate change. I just see it as a cop-out in a magazine about railroading when there is so much more that could be written about that is railroad related.
I wish my copy of the January issue would arrive so I would be able to read it. Currently, I must depend upon other readers to know what is in it.
Johnny
Thanks Murphy, and everyone for the feedback. We appreciate that some of you question the validity of climate change, and you disagree with its placement as a cover topic. If you read the climate change story, you'll learn that the big class I railroads, Amtrak, and major commuter railroads are taking steps to prepare for more servere weather related to climate change. How do we know this? We did our job and talked to them.
Trains will always be looking to write about the biggest issues related to railroading for its cover topics. Next month we'll look at the newest and longest tunnel in the world and one of the most challenging tunnel projects ever in the heart of the nation's capitol. Then we'll be onto the elephant in the room: Now that coal has fizzled, where does the industry go from here. Later, we'll explore a serious preservation topic: Did we save too much?
A couple of specific replies as to suggested content: We covered major bottlenecks around the nation in the March 2016 issue, and our look at the NTSB and how the agency conducts investigations was a part of the Train Wrecks special magaizne, which is still available in digital form. Historical topics are part of the mix of stories we will continue to run.
Thanks again for the feedback, and have a great day! Jim
Jim Wrinn Thanks Murphy, and everyone for the feedback. We appreciate that some of you question the validity of climate change, and you disagree with its placement as a cover topic. If you read the climate change story, you'll learn that the big class I railroads, Amtrak, and major commuter railroads are taking steps to prepare for more servere weather related to climate change. How do we know this? We did our job and talked to them. Trains will always be looking to write about the biggest issues related to railroading for its cover topics. Next month we'll look at the newest and longest tunnel in the world and one of the most challenging tunnel projects ever in the heart of the nation's capitol. Then we'll be onto the elephant in the room: Now that coal has fizzled, where does the industry go from here. Later, we'll explore a serious preservation topic: Did we save too much? A couple of specific replies as to suggested content: We covered major bottlenecks around the nation in the March 2016 issue, and our look at the NTSB and how the agency conducts investigations was a part of the Train Wrecks special magaizne, which is still available in digital form. Historical topics are part of the mix of stories we will continue to run. Thanks again for the feedback, and have a great day! Jim
OK Jim, here's an idea: more in depth interviews with the movers and shakers in the industry. Yes you have your current 1 page interviews, I'm thinking of say multi page articles with insiders from past and present, say Rose and Gunn?
Modeling the Cleveland and Pittsburgh during the PennCentral era starting on the Cleveland lakefront and ending in Mingo junction
When you consider the latest actions from the future inhabitant of the Executive Mansion, getting a corporate executive to talk to journalists might be quite difficult.
Jim - already mentioned is output from AREMA and WRI gatherings - perhaps a treatment of a technical topic in less technical terms. I believe you may have done so about roadbed and have touched on wheels in the past.
Of course, sometimes I think articles in the magazine come almost directly from the pages of this forum...
ruderunnerI'm thinking of say multi page articles with insiders from past and present, say Rose and Gunn?
I want to see interviews with the likes of Ackman, Anschutz and the Reichmanns. And on the good side, Warren Buffett on anything proactive about BNSF going forward. The real 'insiders' in the railroading business.
PTC
We hear from the main stream media how the believe railroads have been 'dragging their feet' and fighting the installation of PTC across their properties.
The reality is far from that assertion. The general population thinks you go to the nearest 'Railroad Best Buy' an buy PTC and have the Geek Squad install it an you will have opeating PTC tomorrow.
An article or series of articles detailing how PTC had to be invented, pulling various technologies together in forms they have never worked together in the past. Creating a system that will have interoperatability on all Carriers required to have it. The construction projects that had to take place to begin field installations of the equipment. Installing the required equipment on locomotives. Developing the 'back office' computer programing to tie all the bits of data captured from field, headquarters and dispatching data systems to issue real time instructions to trains moving. Training all personnel involved in the use of the systems. Validating the operations of the systems in the real world.
PTC has been a gargantuian undertaking done with private funding by the carriers.
My carrier currently has 28 subdivisions operating under PTC as part of the roll out and validiation process. Every month more subdivisions are added.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Jim. Iwould like to see some articles on what the various railroad shops are doing. Specifically, Amtraks' Wilmington, Hialeah, Beach Grove; NS Altoona, and I don't know where the others are. And how about whats happening in Rochelle with Nippon Sharyo and their order for new Amtrak cars. You are probably facing corporate stonewalling on the latter.
Jim. I would like to see some articles on what the various railroad shops are doing. Specifically, Amtraks' Wilmington, Hialeah, Beach Grove; NS Altoona, and I don't know where the others are. And how about whats happening in Rochelle with Nippon Sharyo and their order for new Amtrak cars. You are probably facing corporate stonewalling on the latter.
Jim,
I'm going to be short and too the point. I buy and read Trains for news about trains. Over the last few years I've bought 50-75% of the issues per year. There were some classics on Intermodal, Crescent Corridor, Oil, Auto Traffic all well written with broad detail. They are what draws me to your publication.
The Global Warming story had nothing on trains in it of any value. The warning about harsh weather had me laughing since I know of the history of weather and the railroads. There is a picture of an ocean tender sitting across the tracks of the NH shore line main line after a Hurricane hit the NE in the 1930's is just one example. I magine how high the waves had to be for that.
Please just publish useful information about trains in the future and we all should be happy.
Scott G
I would like to see an article about equipping tank cars with ECP brakes as required by the mandate to have ECP brakes on oil trains by a certain date. Specifically, how much work has been done so far, and what is expectation that railroads will meet the deadline? What are the technical details of this ECP brake installation? Are they expected to be the same for all participating railroads?
Global warming is real. Those who profess to understand its genesis and relative impact from the various factors are blowing smoke up people's backsides. Modeling is fine, but once you pronounce/announce widely that you have the problem sorted out, you have abandoned science and are attempting to further your career. I know to look askance at claims that "X is the cause of A, and everyone who argues is just a denier," especially with something as complex as the atmosphere and how it reacts to various changes.
My personal approach to this very serious and divisive problem aside:
If the littoral continues to cede surface to the seas, and it's looking pretty solid that it will happen broadly over the next 100 years or so, people will have to move inland. It could be that some railroads will come under pressure to give up/sell some of their property. Will that be good or bad?
I don't read Trains for conventional wisdom, or 'settled science,' about climate change. If climate is warming, good. (Better than the Ice Age foreseen by some Russian scientists.) That man is influencing it by his piddling addition to CO2 and other gases produced by nature is disputed by MANY climatologists.
(Climatologists -- not scientists from other disciplines who are easily persuaded, usually by their political predilections, to sign petitions.)
To the point, the inflammatory (heh, heh) illustration warned me that I didn't need to read the article. The rest of the magazine was, unfortunately, a bore, the usual monthly hour of skimming.
In the old days, David M. would fill news gaps with the kind of articles that have now been pre-empted by Classic Trains. I sympathize with Wrinn to the extent that this option is largely closed to him. For the rest: Where are the letters from readers that used to enliven Trains' pages? The book reviews? The sharp opinion pieces? (And don't give me the present lame, repetitive old columnists.)
A subscriber, with a single gap of about 10 years, since the 1960s, I stick with Trains as I would an old club that has slipped as I grew older (and no doubt slipped myself). They'd have to do worse than the climate-change BS to drive me away.
But I'm not fooled. If Trains wants to outlast old sentimentalists like me, it had better -- in the wonderful old phrase often used by John Kneiling -- pull up its socks.
Dear Jim Wrinn:
First of all, Thanks for 'getting down in the swamp' and mingling with us alligator wrasslers. I came late to this Thread, so I had a chance to read some of the other poster's comments. Start with Paul North's several suggestions, then follow along with RME's comments and Euclid's as well. And any number of other posters comments...
Paul_D_North_Jr If that's the problem, they're not trying. The presentations and papers from the annual AREMA conference alone would fill the magazine for a year. Sure, lots are technical and way over the head of the average reader, but some are not - e.g., the new XYZ bridge or ABC intermodal yard - and those that are could be simplified (isn't that what editors are for ?). There are many other organizations and events that could provide similar fodder. Progressive Railroading sponsors a security-oriented event soon. Heck, Trains itself sponsors the Wheel-Rail Interface conference - there must be something new, else why have it ? American Short Line RR Assn., Assoc. of RR Supts., Nat'l. RR Contractors Assn., Lexington Rail History Group, APTA, must be AAR Mechanical, Accounting, and HR groups, C&S groups, etc. See Murphy's current thread on weighing and scales - "Eyeballing it"- for another far-out example. I still haven't seen a step-by-step illustration of how the Iron Highway/ CP Expressway cars load and unload. How is a modern tamper/ liner contorlled and operated ? How about the gepotechnical guys who widen/ raise tunnels (Shannon & Wilson) ? What about environmental remediation of spills and old facilities like tie-treating plants ? What's life like for a bridge worker or inspector ? Interview the Ice Cold Express people who got screwed by BNSF. Go back over everything Railway Man/ 1435 mm, greyhounds, BaltACD - to name just a few - have posted to glean for ideas. Otherwise, just print the old stuff and call it "Classic Trains II" (or Light, or Jr., etc.). - Paul North.
I would not be surprised to learn that some of the birdseed salesmen have sold enough to pay enormous sums for the electricity they use.
Phoebe Vet The climate argument is a repeat of the smoking argument. If you just keep screaming "it's not true", a surprising number of people will believe that the scientists have sold out to (insert your favorite villan here).
A few differences between the smoking argument and climate change argument.
With smoking, the "sample size" was tens of millions, so it was relatively easy to get good statistics on the correlation on smoking with cancer and heart disease. A precendence for the link was the much higher risks of chimney sweeps getting scrotal cancer. Contrast this with the elsuive connection between EMF exposure and cancer and lack of any clear mechanism for causation.
With global warming, the "sample size" is one, so we don't have much in the way of statistics on causes of climate change (i.e. how much is natural and how much is human induced). The science on the amount of radiative forcing results from doubling CO2 is fairly well settled assuming that water vapor content doesn't change. With no feedback mechanisms, radiative heat balance suggests a 1.2C warming for a global average - which means that some areas will warm less and some will warm more. What is far from settled is the effects of feedback mechanisms, primarily water vapor - and clouds.
Yet another problem with global warming studies is the lack of validated climate models. There are a lot of simplifying assumptions made in the models to allow them to run in a reasonable timeframe on very large computers. One is a large grid size that doesn't directly handle cloud and thunderstorm formation. In addition, the models are incredibly sensitive to initial conditions, a difference of a few trillionths of a degree results in very different weather tracks with just one month of modeled time.
There's also a poorly answered question about what is the ideal concentraion of CO2. If we go much lower than the pre-industrial concentration of 280ppm, we'd be running the danger of dramatic reduction in agricultural productivity and stand a good chance of sliding into another global glaciation (AKA ice age) event. The current 400ppm appears to be causing a global greening as plants need less water to grow.
I do see local warming due to urban heat island effects as a problem. I'm also one who is frustrated with the amount of night time light pollution - remembering being able to see the Milky Way in southern California.
I also agree with Balt in that much of the "extreme weather" mentioned in the article is nothing new. The east coast has been hit by many huge storms over the centuries, Hurricane Sandy actually caused fewer deaths than the 1938 hurricane that hit Long Island and Connecticut (and featured in a Trains article on testing a New Haven EF-4). California has had century long droughts a thousand years ago.
The real disaster that few are talking about is the next big Cascadia earthquake and associated tsunami.
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