Heartland Corridor Project

[NW Mailing List]

"High design" like beautiful tunnel portals, handsome viaducts, architecturally attractive stations, isn't important since passenger service is gone. The RR's contributed mightily to fashionable design in the past. But their design objective nowadays is pure, low cost functionality. The stockholders I think expect that. Regrettably, remnants of the age of high design, if they survive at all, get "converted" brutally. It ain't pretty. Pure functionality, though, isn't necessarily ugly - it's just functional.

My impression is that our society has become a preferred alternative for a thoughtful manager when they are confronted with destroying or saving something. NS has been good about that. As a practical (and usually financial) matter, it's simple for us to be there when they are about to throw away a pile of books, but not so simple when they need to remove a building. At best, we can be their source on historic significance and perhaps delay demolition. Unfortunately, tunnel portals (and there are some beauties out there - Sand Patch comes to mind) aren't on many preservationist's lists.

Ted Goodman

-----Original Message-----
From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Wed, Jan 27, 2010 1:43 pm
Subject: Re: Heartland Corridor Project


I don't agree.  I think NS is doing what they should be doing as a business.  The tunnels needed to be altered because of change s in the NS traffic mix.  Also NS has done a great deal of preservation.  Consider all of what NS has donated to our archives and the space they let us use in the GOB in Roanoke.  If they weren't a successful railroad do you think they would do these things for the N&WHS!

John Rhodes


On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 1:14 PM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:

Mike,

I totally agree with what you say about the way the tunnels have been altered. I guess this is what photographs, movie films and memories are for. As you say the railroads, and in our case NS, are run as businesses and must be in a constant drive to improve, streamline, review, grow and so on and so forth.

Yes the corridor project is radically altering the look and aesthetics of the tunnels in question but there are other tunnels around the US especially abandoned ones which remain unaltered. It's just unfortunate that some of the 19th and early 20th century engineering works were so impressive and memorable that they have become something special in their own right and not just part of a transportation system built by businessmen to make a return on their investors' money.

Best regards,

Cameron Tyre

NS shareholder

Sent from my Norfolk Southern ThoroughbredBerry on O2-UK


________________________________________
NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org
To change your subscription go to
http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list
Browse the NW-Mailing-List archives at
http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/





________________________________________
W-Mailing-List at nwhs.org
o change your subscription go to
ttp://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list
rowse the NW-Mailing-List archives at
ttp://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20100127/a3313a5c/attachment-0001.html>