Re: (erielack) Portage Bridge & common Sense

[Dlw1el2_@_aol.com]

Schuyler
I can see this going off topic real quick, so this is the last posting I  
will submit on this, but YOU are the one that is not aware of the whole  
scenario. Your nimby mentality on this with the thoughts that  the RR has a moral 
obligation to take into consideration trust  passers just isn't realistic. After 
riding the rails for 30 years on  roughly 900 miles of RR  I will RESTATE that 
the railroads can't  and shouldn't start posting speed restrictions at every 
place where trust  passers have been known to exist on a regular basis. I do 
not have to have been  to the Portage Bridge to state this. Trust passers 
actually exist  everywhere, but I can name you dozens of places that railfans, 
fisherman, short  cutters, drunks, lovers and Sunday afternoon strollers frequent,  
but the RR can't start slowing trains down 24 Hours a day, 365 days a year  
because trust passers may or may not be around the bend.  THAT'S common  sense! 
 We are NOT the ruthless killers with no regard to  human life you are 
implying we are if we hit them because we should have  known that they  may or may 
not be there.  Common Sense or  the LACK there of, always lies with those who 
go onto active RR tracks, let  alone a single track bridge. Be it Adults, kids, 
baby's, paraplegics,  orphans, refugees, in the day, night, 100% solar 
eclipses, ice storms, 36  inch snow falls or any other circumstance you feel the RR 
should  ALWAYS  take into account. Oh we forgot  to mention   ( the old stand 
by  ) a crossing near by that a school bus also goes over twice a day.
 
 Sooooo, my one and only post here ( when things started to become a  little 
unrealistic ) was to find out the actual reason for the 10 MPH,  which I 
suspected  all along was 100% because of the bridge and NOT because  of the other 
illogical things that started to creep into the thread.  Since the alignment 
hasn't changed in the last 100 years, it has  nothing to do with curves nor is 
it that one of the largest RR  company's in the world has a couple of thousand 
middle and upper management  employees that are all without one stitch of 
common sense. As John Doe RRers me  and my colleges often concur with that latter 
statement, but NOT in this  case.  I think it's the entire NS and before that 
CR Engineering  Dept from the VP down to the local inspectors that know the 
structural integrity  of the bridge. Obviously the size and magnitude of 
replacing such a bridge  is a VERY, VERY big project ( investment ), that they have 
been putting off and  simply living with the 10 MPH restriction. The bridge  
will inevitable get replaced.  I think if it was a rebuild  situation it would 
have been done a long time ago. Although I have no  inside information that 
tells me so, I think replace is probable what's on  the drawing boards. End of 
story!
 
Bob Bahrs  
 
PS  I don't ever remember a speed restriction at the west end of  Starrucca 
viaduct, but I bet engineers have  had to do a LOT of  horn blowing there over 
the years.
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 8/19/2008 12:40:54 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
schuyler.larrabee_@_verizon.net writes:

Have you  been there Bob?  Your remark makes me think not.  It's not a matter 
 of "occasionally."
It's a matter of every day, early morning to late at  night, adults, kids, 
LITTLE kids . . you're
ready to blow them away,  because the railroad doesn't have to worry about it?

"that never brings  with it speed restrictions, nor should it."

Common sense, Bob, common  sense.






**************It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your travel 
deal here.      
(http://information.travel.aol.com/deals?ncid=aoltrv00050000000047)


	The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List
	http://EL-List.railfan.net/
	To Unsubscribe: http://Lists.Railfan.net/erielackunsub.html

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