mikerowe Wrote:
===================================
> Bangs head on computer monitor
...
>
> Your first picture, Russ, makes my point exactly.
> We don't allow damn fools to negotiate the top of
> moving freight cars in rainy weather these days.
> OSHA would string both the employee and the
> railroad up by their thumbs. Back in the day,
> countless railroaders regularly died falling be-
> tween cars on moving trains. That little bit of
> historical purity is gone forever -- thank God!.
I agree 100%, Mike. I was pointing out to Tom that such dangerous practices lingered into the late 1960's - not that I wanted to see them replicated today.
> Let's suppose you completely repaint a couple
> of tenders, complete with correct Rio Grande
> lettering, for charter use
... And a bunch of
> foamers stand trackside and photograph a faux
>
Rio Grande freight train, then go home thinking,
> correctly or not, that they have captured the
> essence and purity of the Rio Grande as it was
> in the late 1960's and earlier. If that's what turns
> you on, so be it.
But you ain't fooling nobody,
>
no how. Oh, and the general public doesn't give
> a tinker's dam anyway.
Methinks thou preachest unto yon choir, my friend. IMHO, BY FAR the best replication of the D&RGW I have seen was the two-day trip with #315 in mid-September, 2009. A couple of simple, realistic (SFAIK) trains - no junk - and all but maybe just one or two riders were on the chase train, not the freight itself. (See [ngdiscussion.net] et seq, [ngdiscussion.net] et seq and [ngdiscussion.net].) Unfortunately, because of the expense of the separate chase train and transportation of the locomotive from Durango to Chama, the DRHS lost money overall.
>
The past is gone. Period. Today is here, with
> a different set of realities. A local example
: At
> the CRRM, we do not allow anyone on the roofs
> of any equipment except in the very controlled
> environment of the roundhouse, and then only
> with the use of modern ladders, high-elevation
> platforms, and additional buddy backup.
IIRC, there was a very serious, near-fatal accident in Silverton two or three years ago involving someone falling from the top of a boxcar ...
> We do not let anyone use the climbing irons on the
> sides and ends of the cars, the obvious reason being
> that they are attached to old wood of questionable
> integrity and strength.
We do not allow anyone
>
to climb on or off of moving equipment ...
See [ngdiscussion.net]!!
>
... nor to ride on locomotive & tender footboards --
> all switching is done from the ground -- the reason
> being the FRA, OSHA, and too many attorneys.
> Those activities are the relics of another age that
> will never come back.
>
> So the question before us is: Just how much of the
> past can be reasonably preserved in the modern
> environment? Please note the word "reasonably".
> The answer to that would probably take a half
> dozen posts. I think there are far greater issues
> -- like survival -- facing the C&TS to lose sleep
> over the color of a boiler jacket or the [slant of]
> lettering on the tender.
If the railroad goes
>
under, no amount of color or lettering is
>
going to matter! But we have had this dis-
> cussion, over and over, haven't we?
Ah-yup! And I've generally taken pretty much the same position that you have just stated. SFAIK, the first goal stated on the C&TS charter is "Economic Development" and the second goal is "Histöric Preservation". These are joined by the word "and", so they MAY be equally important, but according to the usual usage of the English language there's no way that the latter is more important than the former. Also, IMHO, it will be a tad difficult for us fan(atic)s to re-create the San Juan - even if only from Antonito to Chama - if there are no tracks to run it on!
> Look, I am a fourth-generation Coloradoan, and the
> C&TS means at least as much to me as it does to
> you [Wild-Eyed Foamers] in far-off California.
Quite possibly even a bit more, but please see the sentence below the photo on [ngdiscussion.net].
> [The C&TS] remains an important part of the tool-
> box for assisting a struggling part of my state while
> reasonably (there's that word again) preserving a part
> of our history. But I am not going to straightjacket
> the railroad in a literal preservationist ideology.
>
The C&TS needs to do what it needs to do to
>
survive. And forty years on, survival remains
>
the same question it has always been. All else
>
is secondary.
AMEN, Mike -
VERY WELL STATED!!!
- Russ
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2012 08:43PM by Russo Loco.
