Re: (rshsdepot) Why Trains are Boring

["Don Dorflinger" <donnielee46_@_hotmail.com>]

Golf and fishing are boring...soccer is beyond boring...trains are what you make of them...and still carry excitement for me. Does anyone think that the management saga behind Apple computers or Microsoft is exciting???
(That should raise a few eyebrows...hehehehehe)

>From: Dherbert53_@_aol.com 
>Reply-To: rshsdepot_@_lists.railfan.net 
>To: rshsdepot_@_lists.railfan.net 
>Subject: (rshsdepot) Why Trains are Boring 
>Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 06:27:32 EDT 
> 
>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 Even the quaint little red caboose has been replaced by 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 
> 
>================================= 
>The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing 
>railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org 
> 
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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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