You're watching TV or a movie and you hear a train horn but its the wrong pattern for a crossing!
Regards - Steve
You are happy to get stopped at crossings.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
SD70Dude You are happy to get stopped at crossings.
When you want to punch an acquaintance in the mouth when he asks you, in a voice usually reserved for speaking to children, if you are still in love "with the choo-choos."
When you cringe when your local news reporter refers to any passenger train as a "commuter train." The Empire Builder can derail in the middle of nowhere in Montana, and it's a commuter train crash.
When you cringe when someone in the media, when obviously referring to the engineer, instead calls them "conductor" or "driver".
When your skin crawls and your blood pressure rises (Especially if you're a steam freak) when a TV reporter says "The train sounded its whistle..." referring to an accident or incident on a contemporary rail line.
It's not a whistle. It's a HORN. H-O-R-N. Blasphemy!
adkrr64 When you cringe when someone in the media, when obviously referring to the engineer, instead calls them "conductor" or "driver".
That's a big one with me as well.
You know its bad when you watch the local ATCS monitor and you question why the dispatcher is alighning switches a certain way, that at the time doesn't make sense. Only to realize later that the dispatcher knew what they were doing after all!
steve-in-kville adkrr64 When you cringe when someone in the media, when obviously referring to the engineer, instead calls them "conductor" or "driver". That's a big one with me as well. You know its bad when you watch the local ATCS monitor and you question why the dispatcher is alighning switches a certain way, that at the time doesn't make sense. Only to realize later that the dispatcher knew what they were doing after all!
Thus the problem of Engineers dispatching the railroad they are operating on from behind their control stand, and they don't have the view that even ATCS has.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
When a train blowing for a crossing a mile from your house distracts you from a conversation you're in the middle of...
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
Flintlock76 When your skin crawls and your blood pressure rises (Especially if you're a steam freak) when a TV reporter says "The train sounded its whistle..." referring to an accident or incident on a contemporary rail line. It's not a whistle. It's a HORN. H-O-R-N. Blasphemy!
Yet we call them whistle posts, and they have a W on them...
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...
BaltACDThus the problem of Engineers dispatching the railroad they are operating on from behind their control stand, and they don't have the view that even ATCS has.
Almost as bad as dispatchers trying to run trains from behind their computer screen: "I need you to give me a good move!".
"I have 30 cars, and am shoving into a 10mph restricted industrial track - that not how that works!!!"
I've been on both sides.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
...you have to take your spouse with you to places like the Post Office, so you don't lose your place in line when you run out to check a passing train after announcing to the whole lobby (well, kind of), "That's not a scoot!"
...your two-year-old daughter corrects a well-meaning elderly lady, "That's not a choo-choo, it's a freight!" (I only wish it had been a scoot--she knew that, too!)
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
tree68 Flintlock76 When your skin crawls and your blood pressure rises (Especially if you're a steam freak) when a TV reporter says "The train sounded its whistle..." referring to an accident or incident on a contemporary rail line. It's not a whistle. It's a HORN. H-O-R-N. Blasphemy! Yet we call them whistle posts, and they have a W on them...
That's different. Remember "Fiddler On The Roof" and what Tevye says?
"Tradition!"
I once got held up at a crossing for about half an hour. I waited and waited and finally gave up and crossed the tracks when nothing came by.
_____________
"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
Yeah, I can relate to that one.
BaltACD steve-in-kville adkrr64 When you cringe when someone in the media, when obviously referring to the engineer, instead calls them "conductor" or "driver". That's a big one with me as well. You know its bad when you watch the local ATCS monitor and you question why the dispatcher is alighning switches a certain way, that at the time doesn't make sense. Only to realize later that the dispatcher knew what they were doing after all! Thus the problem of Engineers dispatching the railroad they are operating on from behind their control stand, and they don't have the view that even ATCS has.
You know it's a good move when the dispatcher comes on and tells you, "This wasn't my idea, but here's what we're going to do..."
Jeff
CShaveRR ...your two-year-old daughter corrects a well-meaning elderly lady, "That's not a choo-choo, it's a freight!" (I only wish it had been a scoot--she knew that, too!)
I don't remember it, but my parents have told me that I used to do this when I was a small child.
...you thought you had died and gone to heaven the first time you were invited by an engineer into the cab of his locomotive, let alone go for a ride!
Paul of Covington SD70Dude You are happy to get stopped at crossings. I once got held up at a crossing for about half an hour. I waited and waited and finally gave up and crossed the tracks when nothing came by.
Funny!
If when you're on a road trip, and it's time to pull over and have some lunch from your cooler, you ALWAYS find a location next to railroad tracks. If necessary, even ones with full-fledged trees growing between the rails.
You might be a railfan if....
The head-end power looks light and just know there has to be mid-train power.
You hear the "squawk box" 9 miles to the west and know exactly how much time you have 'til the train rolls past your "spot."
From the time the train rolls past your spot, you know you have exactly 2.5 to 3 minutes until you hear the box to the east.
Yeah... its pretty bad!
You might just be a railfan if you are very nearly involved in a head-on collision after veering left of center because you were focused on the darn train tracks running alongside the road instead of on your driving.
I am ashamed to have to admit that I did that once. Lucky for me there was no accident. The guy in the oncoming car really laid on his horn. He was not very happy with me. :)
-FMC
You think the current meal selection on an Amtrak train is perfectly fine and delicious.
You grouse about the current meal selection on an Amtrak train, prominently associating the word "Anderson" with various more or less profane terms, whether you would find it 'perfectly fine and delicious' on any other train.
Lithonia OperatorIf when you're on a road trip, and it's time to pull over and have some lunch from your cooler, you ALWAYS find a location next to railroad tracks.
Been there, done that! When I was working and covering Richmond's West End I used to take my lunch break in a mall parking lot right next to the CSX (ex-RF&P) mainline. And I wasn't the only one doing so! I saw a fair amount of "regulars" over the years.
But not during the summer. There was no shade and summers here can be brutal!
Best show in town, and it was free! And in this age of run-through power you never knew what might come through.
if your daughter and her boyfriend (now husband) still kid you about the time you drove into a train station depot parking lot while on vacation with them without any rhyme or reason because you knew it was the time Amtrak was due and the boyfriend was completely mystified as to why anyone would do that.
Flintlock76Best show in town, and it was free!
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