Lost in plain sight...

John West Wrote:
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> There is a lot of the railroad business, past and
> present, that rarely gets talked about.

John,

I'll pile on your comment.

Take as an example the difference in the kind of information working railroaders consider important and what the enthusiast crowd tends to focus on. A conversation in the yard office will likely be over seniority, job equity, work practices, the rule book, and the assignment of various jobs. Ultimately it's about what it takes to make the railroad function as planned within the confines of regulation, union agreements, and human nature (the last being the most entertaining). Most operating employees could care less who built the engine or if it was equipped with a particular doo-dad, they're focused on keeping the supervision satisfied and achieving their "early quit" safely and efficiently.

Very rarely do we see work in the hobby press that sheds light on such abstractions as seniority districts, operating plans, hand signals, especially the back-office side of what makes the actual business tick. Seems like many folks are perfectly content counting rivets. As exhibit 'A', I submit YouTube. In a casual survey of videos featuring switching operations, most focus on the movements of the locomotive, with the crew out of view or overlooked. I'd much rather watch the interaction of the folks doing the work - let me see the switchman climb off, flop the derail, line the switch, and give hand signals to the hoghead.

Railroading is fundamentally a human phenomenon. That's where the greatest stories are found. After all, people make the equipment come to life.

$.02,
-Jeff
(a part-time rivet counter)