(rshsdepot) Why Trains are Boring

[Dherbert53_@_aol.com]

Talking about conspiracies,  I think the worst of them was a secret pact made 
between the big railroads about a generation ago.  Meeting in one of the 
dark, subterrainean chambers of Grand Central Terminal in the fall of 1969, 
the heads of the Class 1 railroads signed an agreement which would become 
known as the Railroad Unformity Treaty, or RUT for short. The purpose of the 
RUT was to make railroading uniform, efficient and operating outside of 
public scrutiny.  

But,  had the purpose of the RUT been to make railroading as boring as 
possible for the next generation, it could not have been more successful.

Over the next thirty years,  the railroads managed to combine or eliminate 
most of the nation's smaller lines and changed colorful names like the 
Chesapeake and Ohio Railrway into tasteless anagrams like the CSX 
corporation. Passenger trains were eagerly turned over to the federal 
government and the few remaining ones have limped out a meager existence ever 
since.  Turn of the century depots and other railroad structures became 
vacant lots or parking for fast food restaurants.  Pretty maroon Norfolk & 
Western steam train excursions were cancelled and railfans ordered to vacate 
corporate property.  Even the quaint little red caboose has been replaced by 
a blinking red light haphazardly placed on the back of the last freight car.

Financially,  the RUT was a great success;  railroads have become lean, mean, 
efficient and profitable.  But at the same time,  as far as the general 
public is concerned, railroading has become incredibly boring,  insipid,  
dull, lackluster or whatever you want to call it...and the railroads seem to 
like it that way.

As our numbers continue to dwindle,  railfans need a new Joshua Lionel Cowan 
to market our hobby to the new generation,  but that is impossible without 
the cooperation of the railroads themselves.   
  
The RUT that I have talked about may be a legend, a figment of railfanning 
paranoia,  but the truth is,  railroading is certainly in a rut, and there 
doesn't appear to be an easy way out of it.

Dean   

Dean Carroll

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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