rock slide detectors

[NW Mailing List]

Some of you may enjoy this little story about slide fences..

Several years ago, when I was an engineer trainee, we happened to have a 
conductor trainee with us as well.  We were running across the V line, 
from Roanoke to Hurt, and the CT noticed the rock slide fences.  At 
least on the territory I've seen, they're supported by old rails driven 
vertically into the ground.  He asked why the rails were there...

The engineer (a man whom I consider far too smart to work for the 
railroad, and one heck of an engineer) explained that that's how the 
railroad stores rails.  Whenever a rail is needed out in the field, he 
said, the track gang just comes along with their crane, pulls one up and 
lays it.  That way they don't have to carry rails out of Roanoke, which 
would require a special rail train because the rails are so much longer 
than their trucks.  While the conductor and I stifled our laughter, the 
trainee just nodded and said, "Hmm, that makes sense.  I'd never thought 
about how they get rails out here in the middle of nowhere."

Ken Rickman

-- 
Kenneth Rickman
Salisbury, NC
"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber." - Plato