Posted on 03/06/2019 2:36:06 PM PST by Texan4Life
I like the way you think——a big picture person.:-)
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LOL! You and my mother. Nostalgia is great, but reality is quite different sometimes.
Of course you are correct, in the big picture. It also was full of graft and fraud. Doc Durant was a full on crook and con-man. I live near the Truckee area and the cut/tunneling that was done to cross the Sierra’s was an awesome feat of engineering and a testament to what 10,000 Chinaman could do with hand labor.
#30 All the uppers and downers and alcohol aged her.
I remember in Stephen Ambrose’s “Nothing Like It in the World” that the railroad companies used cheap cottonwood ties, no preservatives, and poor ballast. It was all in the name of laying the most miles to win the biggest government dollars. There was no interest in building an enduring, reliable road. The cottonwood ties rotten away in short order.
True story. Also in the plains they didn’t complete several river crossing bridges until well into the project. They unloaded the freight etc and ferried it across the river(s) and reloaded it.
We old ladies have loooooong memories.
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Yeah, I saw 4018 being moved from Fair Park in Dallas up to the new railroad museum in Frisco, Texas - around five years ago. I've seen the UP Challenger locomotive under steam; it's hard to believe they built anything bigger - but there it was. I think the Frisco museum is planning a cosmetic restoration, but I'd love to see it go through the UP Steam Shop when 4014 is complete.
But when I watched that video, it really touched some chord in my mind. I had never thought of it before, but...being a former sailor, I have always felt natural referring to naval vessels as "She", in the feminine.
And the thought had never occurred to me before...what are trains referred to as...a He or a She?
When I think of a warship as "She" it seems both natural and fitting to me. They are beautiful. I admire their looks. They may look rakish, like a woman wearing a severe dress, they sometimes look matronly, but...they are always a "She". Men both hate and love them the same way there are men who hate and love women.
So, when I began thinking of this, something that had never occurred to me before in my entire life...it suddenly seemed very important to know...I don't know why, but it did!
As I was thinking about it, it felt to me that Steam Locomotives (or, I guess, any locomotive) were essentially...masculine.
As I watched the video, they seemed muscular. Hard working. Dirty. Oily. Doing grunt work. As they went up a hill, they chugged like a man, and they smoked like a man who is grunting.
So I did a Google search, and the results were inconclusive.
But I did see one anonymous wag posting on some unknown thread on the Internet: "...Pretty obvious. The train is male, the tunnel is female..."
That was it. Fellini was right!
I have ridden on that train from Palestine to Rusk several times. The kids loved it especially in the open air cars.
Your 20th Century is showing. Today the big trains are “Xi.”
I would rather be a dinosaur.
Great post-———and a lovely conclusion was reached.:-)
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It tickled me, because I wasn’t expecting it when I read it. I see a lot of things on FR that have that same effect on me...I didn’t have the mental ‘flexibility’ to see some witticism in advance!
(Which makes it funnier!)
Here’s more steam, this time from Colorado in the snow, the Durango & Silverton Mine Train...
I rode this train as a side trip in the summer of 1974, when I was visiting the Mesa Verde National Park.
Oops, I should have said number 611 not 610.
There is a steamer buried in the mud of Village Creek between Arlington and Ft. Worth. http://www.texaspacificrailway.org/news/the-ft-worth-star-telegram-gaining-steam-train-engine-lost-in-1885-crash-in-arlington-sought-for-hotel-lobby-18.html
I Like Trains~ Fred Eaglesmith
https://youtu.be/jd34Ioye5v4
Here’s a steam train video that I watched part of today. I love the sound of the engine and the whistle.
This 4K video posted by Neil Dahl from Nov. 8th, 2019 is a whistle blowing masterpiece!
He paces theUP Bog Boy #4014 beside Hwy 2154 from Navasota to College Station, Texas, with the UP George Bush engine #4141 running with it.
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