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Coal in the steam era

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Posted by BaltACD on Tuesday, November 20, 2018 11:28 AM

Ulrich
Yup, and that's what makes me nervous about flying lately too. A combination of cavalier attitude.. watching the uniformed kids on the flight deck as I board.. recalling how little I paid for the flight and wondering what portion of that pittance is allocated to safety..  

Remember - when you get to our age - anyone that is actually working is a kid.  Even though that kid might be 50 years old with 30 years exprerience in their profession.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by SD70Dude on Tuesday, November 20, 2018 12:00 PM

BaltACD
Ulrich
Yup, and that's what makes me nervous about flying lately too. A combination of cavalier attitude.. watching the uniformed kids on the flight deck as I board.. recalling how little I paid for the flight and wondering what portion of that pittance is allocated to safety..  

Remember - when you get to our age - anyone that is actually working is a kid.  Even though that kid might be 50 years old with 30 years exprerience in their profession.

It's not just about age and experience, it's about one's level of intelligence and knowledge about their profession.

At work we have some specific 20-something engineers and conductors who are far smarter and safer than some of their retirement-aged co-workers.  

The various cost-cutting in an attempt to undercut each other's fares is a legitimate concern, one can only cut so much before safety starts to be compromised.

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

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Posted by timz on Tuesday, November 20, 2018 12:22 PM

That painting of the sinking Lusitania is by Ken Marschall. If you see a book of his paintings, grab it.

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Posted by Ulrich on Tuesday, November 20, 2018 12:34 PM

SD70Dude

 

 

 

 
BaltACD
Ulrich
Yup, and that's what makes me nervous about flying lately too. A combination of cavalier attitude.. watching the uniformed kids on the flight deck as I board.. recalling how little I paid for the flight and wondering what portion of that pittance is allocated to safety..  

Remember - when you get to our age - anyone that is actually working is a kid.  Even though that kid might be 50 years old with 30 years exprerience in their profession.

 

 

It's not just about age and experience, it's about one's level of intelligence and knowledge about their profession.

At work we have some specific 20-something engineers and conductors who are far smarter and safer than some of their retirement-aged co-workers.  

The various cost-cutting in an attempt to undercut each other's fares is a legitimate concern, one can only cut so much before safety starts to be compromised.

 

 

 

True enough, and I do remember my own youth.. showing up at a loading dock with a T/T and getting asked for my licence.  (I'm told) I looked 15 or maybe 16 when I was 19.. Nobody makes that mistake anymore.. Sad  

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Posted by Overmod on Tuesday, November 20, 2018 4:08 PM

SD70Dude
RE: Britannic, wasn't it all the open portholes on the lower decks that allowed water to flood more compartments even after the watertight doors were closed?

That certainly didn't help.  But note all the 'sinking' that had to occur in a fraction of 15 minutes to put the first row of portholes below water ... you wouldn't get this only from mine damage to the bow.

The other thing to remember about Britannic, and the 'lessons learned' from Titanic, was the death toll.  Of sick and injured, with no advance warning. 

The man who owned Soldier's Fortune, about which I commented in another thread, was a good friend of Bruce Ismay.  He understood quite a bit more about the situation with IMM and White Star than most of the critics seem to have done.  I have to confess now that I had relegated Ismay to the place most of his critics love to put him.  (Much as Aaron Burr seems to have been relegated, for even less actual cause, but that's another story...)  It appears that in many respects, I was mistaken if not in fact prejudicedly wrong. 

Pride in a job well done is quite a different thing from hubris.  On the other hand, rubbing one's hands at successfully monetizing steerage while permitting high perceived luxury, which really is a marketing triumph, might be inviting karma to an extent.

I don't think it is fair to blame 'covering up' a minor bunkerage fire, or the New York incident, on excessive pride, no matter how much fun popular contemporary songwriters or their modern-day equivalents may have had with the themes.  And there is this continuing drumbeat of enthusiasm for the idea that Ismay ordered high speed 'to try for the Blue Riband' ... in a ship obviously constructed (with quad-expansion engines and a vacuum turbine only turning one way) for high efficiency at medium speed. 

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Wednesday, November 21, 2018 2:28 AM

Wow,

.

You guys over here in the Trains message boards sure get way off topic easily.

.

I did learn a lot about steam ships. 

.

-Kevin

.

Living the dream.

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Posted by creepycrank on Wednesday, November 21, 2018 5:49 AM

Getting back to a railroad theme, for a period I rode on the Eire-Lackawanna ferries that all except one was steam powered with some poor guy with a shovel in the boiler room making all that noise while the engine was realatively quiet. At that time,1959 to 1964 all the railroads in New York harbor had large fleets of steam tugboats as well as ferries. 

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Posted by Jones1945 on Wednesday, November 21, 2018 6:40 AM

Pennsy's steamer "Virginia Lee".

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Posted by 54light15 on Thursday, November 22, 2018 10:18 AM

SeeYou190- yes, this is a train forum but anything that burns coal seems to be welcome here. What's not to like about a steam powered anything? I well recall the various railroad tugboat and car float fleets in New York when I was a kid. I recall there being real "steam" shovels on construction sites in Manhattan in the early 70s. In the 90s there was a steam powered dredge in the Hudson river at Poughkeepsie. I saw the plumes of steam coming out of a narrow stack whenever it raised its bucket. I wish I could have gotten aboard but it was near the middle of the river. I wonder if it still operates? It's American Thanksgving today and if I'm thankful for anything, it's steam! 

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Posted by csxns on Thursday, November 22, 2018 11:13 AM

54light15
this is a train forum

Begining to wonderOops

Russell

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, November 22, 2018 11:42 AM

csxns

 

 
54light15
this is a train forum

 

Begining to wonderOops

Yeah - but sometimes one learns something new, and that's not all bad.

 

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
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Posted by Ulrich on Thursday, November 22, 2018 3:19 PM

Great discussion.. off topic a little is fine I think so long as it doesn't get political.. 

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Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, November 22, 2018 9:18 PM

csxns
 
54light15
this is a train forum 

Begining to wonderOops

It is a internet forum for crying out loud!  Threads go where the go!  Deal with it.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Friday, November 23, 2018 7:20 AM

csxns

 

 
54light15
this is a train forum

 

Begining to wonderOops

 

 



      Internet forum conversations are not a lot different than face to face conversations, in that they wander. If conversations didn't wander, once you got off the weather and the price of gas most people would have to stop talking.

      Some weather we've been having....

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

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Posted by BaltACD on Friday, November 23, 2018 11:52 AM

Murphy Siding
      Some weather we've been having....

The price of gas has been dropping recently.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Friday, November 23, 2018 12:53 PM

BaltACD
 
Murphy Siding
      Some weather we've been having....

 

The price of gas has been dropping recently.

 
The price of beans has gone down.
The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
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Posted by csxns on Friday, November 23, 2018 1:02 PM

CSSHEGEWISCH
The price of gas has been dropping recently.   The price of beans has gone down.

Also the price of Coal is droppingBow.

Russell

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