%Thomas The Tank Engine

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

You know the subject is getting old when folks bring the democrat and
republican parties into the fold. I vote the subject be dropped. How
many golf courses and train watching sites are there in Strasburg?:)

Regards,

Todd Arnett

-----Original Message-----
From: nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org
[mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On Behalf Of
nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Sent: Friday, July 08, 2005 4:22 PM
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Subject: Re: %Thomas The Tank Engine


Just want Bill Sellers to know that there are liberals of the FDR school
who looked up to railroaders as kids too (1950's, Milwaukee Road).  I've
never heard the Dems blamed/credited for Thomas before.  You put the
magic of children and trains far more eloquently than I could.  But I
don't think you are giving the kids enough credit.  Surely the Thomas
phenomenon can only increase the number of kids that graduate to
interest in the real thing.  And increasing the level of interest among
the young can only help the railroad industry, by increasing the size
and quality of the worker pool interested in a railroading career,
right?

Ben, keep us posted on your progress with the sign!  If there's ever any
problem with the zoning board, put me down as a contributor to the "Ben
Blevins RR crossing Legal Defense Fund". If the GOP controls the board,
put me down for X; if it's them pointy-headed liberals, $10X.

Tom Leuthner

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Sent: Friday, July 08, 2005 11:16 AM
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Subject: [BULK] NW-Mailing-List Digest, Vol 17, Issue 15
Importance: Low


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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: %Thomas The Tank Engine (nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)
   2. Re: Potomac Yard clearance limitation,	or was it the
      Baltimore tunnels? (nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2005 03:45:30 -0700 (PDT)
From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Subject: Re: %Thomas The Tank Engine
To: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Message-ID: <20050708104530.74063.qmail at web51912.mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

I'll only say this once.  Folks who know me know this already...
 
If my children are not welcome somewhere, I won't go.
If anyone thinks that I love trains more than my family, they've got
another thing comin'! If someone wants me to put anything ahead of my
kids, I'll tell them were to get off the train!
 
Nothing is more important than my family.  I see it like this, when I'm
dead and gone my tombstone will have my name on it.  Folks will say "he
loved his family", or they'll say, "he loved trains..."  The latter
sounds awfully shallow to me.
 
Lets don't make this personal. 

Ben Blevins


nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org wrote:
So, it has come down to this, has it? "This" meaning Thomas The Tank
Engine. It's not enough that today's government schools are filling kids
heads with politically correct liberal garbage instead of the truth. We
have to demean the railroad industry by putting a stupid face on the
front of a steam locomotive to bring the subject down to the level of a
child. That is utter nonsense! I started railfanning during the
depression 30's around an all steam original Norfolk Southern Railroad,
and Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. I was to begin the job of locomotive
fireman in 1941 with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad out of Rocky
Mount, N.C. on the south end of the Richmond District between Rocky
Mount and Florence, S.C., with rights also on the Wilmington District.
When I was a kid, nobody tried to bring the railroad down to my simple
level. The very thing that had appeal was the fact that a railroad was a
no nonsense "grown-up" mechanical marvel that moved freight and
passengers with the skill of special craftsmen who seemed born to work
at their jobs as they appeared to me to be having a good time and
actually getting paid for it! For one of them to take time to look down
and talk to me made the likes of Babe Ruth look like a nobody. I gained
respect for the railroads, not because they looked down at me, but
because I looked up to them as a mechanical marvel of sights, sounds,
smells, and the ability to tingle my spine by just doing their job, rain
or shine, hot or cold. I was drawn to trackside just as a moth is
attracted to an open light. True, steam has gone, but to watch a local
freight come into town and pick up and set out a few cars, has the same
facination today that it had 50 years ago, and as a bonus today you have
the added convenience of listening to the engineer and brakeman talking
to each other on a scanner. No, we don't need funny faces on
locomotives. You only need an appreciation for a flanged wheel on a
steel rail, and the sounds associated with them, even down to a flat
wheel or a flange squealing in a tight curve. If those sounds have no
appeal to you, then you are in the wrong hobby. Bill Sellers, Norfolk
Southern Railway ( Ret.) Gainesville, Ga. 

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Message: 2
Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2005 08:08:58 EDT
From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Subject: Re: Potomac Yard clearance limitation,	or was it the
	Baltimore tunnels?
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Message-ID: <36.763b3f4b.2fffc6da at aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

As mentioned by Jim Foley, the controlling structure on the  Washington
Division (now NS's Piedmont Division) was at MP 112.2, in
Charlottesville.  
This
is an overhead bridge that carries U.S. 250 (Main Street) across the
tracks. Because the structure is an ARCH, not all tracks would  clear
TTX cars 
exceeding
17'9".  NO fully enclosed auto racks would clear.  Clearance was  so
critical 
that
Southern had installed a detector at Proffit, six miles or so north of
the  
structure.
(I don't know where the detector was for movements approaching from the

south).
As a train approached the detector, it would project a beam across the
main  
line.
If an excessive dimension car broke the beam, it would set into motion  
measures
to stop the train before it passed beneath the Main Street arch.
 
Clearance on the St. Thomas Division was so critical that auto racks
moving Windsor-Fort Erie were equipped with 33" wheels, not 36" wheels.
GM  had an assembly plant at Talbottville, Ontario which required such
equipment.
                                                                  Harry
Bundy
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