No argument HRMO.......I gave up on professional athletics and now am happy to watch the local little league play for free at the city park a couple blocks from my house. Those kids do it for enjoyment and (apart from some parents) display good sportsmanship and the games are interesting to watch. None have yet been involved in drug deals or murders of their pregnant girlfriends either.

I live in a region where collegiate athletics are a religion and provide more support to their host institutions than any academic pursuit. This picture isn't too pleasing either.

Home teams aren't home teams any more. How many teams are composed of athletes who grew up in the town they play for now? Their level of commitment is no deeper than the deals their agents negotiate for them. If we are stupid enough to flood their team owners with huge quantities of money shame on us.

Maybe we need a biker gang called Hells Accountants?

Dave

irondave@bellsouth.net

There are i think two reasons that we are failing to do justice to that part of history that deals with transportation of all sorts.

People for the most part do not travel in anything but cars today. I have a friend visiting from Victoria, BC. He just rode up the coast from San Diego aboard the Coast Starlight (Amtrak) really enjoyed the trip. He had to fight with a professional travel agent to book the trip. She wanted him to fly to Dallas/Fort Worth and Salt Lake City to get to San Francisco,

In the "old days" there were several trains that you could take; there were coastal steamers. There might have been Interurbans.

People today do not want to travel, they want to get to where ever there is in the shortest possible time.

The other reason that industrial archaeology (trains) are the great unknown is that in so many places they don't exist. When I interact with the visitors at the Western Railway Museum, a lot of them are riding a train for the first time! Not just an Interurban electric vehicle such as we operate; but any sort of train at all! It's no wonder that the visitors who ride PCC street cars on the F Line in San Francisco are amazed by how quiet they are compared to the Diesel buses that comprise most of the Public Transit people ride today.

ted_miles@nps.gov

Natasha;

You are more than welcome. The North Texas Chapter of NRHS, the Trinity Valley Railroad Historical Association, and the TSRR did a great job on that event. From the moment my wife responded to the initial e-mail on Railspot as a surprise for us, to Nicholas and I to leaving Rusk depot with the sounds of 201 making it's way through the woods back to the enginehouse, it was well planned and well executed.

> Funny what I remember most is the RAIN!
> Eating in the shed was the only place we
> could get everyone together under one roof.
> In retrospect the shed was MUCH more
> memorable than eating on the lawn.

Yes. Another memorable moment to me was the shed in Palestine roaring with the sounds of the TSRR RS-1 pushing out 610. It almost seemed like 610 was making it as difficult as it could for that poor diesel suffering the indignity of pushing out a steam locomotive!

The cold is what I remember most. A cold front has come through on Friday, and we were out in rain and low-50 degree weather with just sweaters and shirts on. It was COLD!

Nicholas asked just recently when are we going back. A visit is long overdue....

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a

Surviving World Steam Locomotives
james1@pernet.net

Ted,

I have to disagree with you somehwat on the idea that people hate to travel and want to get there as fast as they can. I don't think it's that people hate to travel, it's just that, well, transportation today sucks. People take airlines because air travel sucks, but you don't have to put up with it for very long. Trains afford the scenery that many enjoy, but the passenger system is so screwed up that it's hard to have a pleasant trip. Nobody talks about Greyhound anymore, but it used to be fantastic way back when. Cars are the main choice because they really have no competition anymore. They're as quick as trains, you can do what you want, and go everywhere. Course you have to tolerate all the "pleasures" of the road, but they're pretty much the best we've got. If the love of travel is to be rekindled, they're gonna have to make some hellashious improvements to public transportation. Just my two cents.

Thanks, Taylor

Sumpter Valley Railway
thrush@smt-net.com

Taylor,

There is no way to make any form of travel as opulant and sophisticated as first class rail travel "used to be". Why? No one, or at least no where near enough, would PAY for it.

It "used to be" that gasoline jocks would clean your windshield, check your oil and tires, and pump your gas, all while you wait...today we seem to prefer the in-convenince store where you have to do everything yourself just to save 5c a gallon
It "used to be" (in towns) that you could call the green-grocer, the butcher, the fish-monger with your order, and their boy would deliver it later that day. Today you have to drive to the supermarket and do all of it yourself. Another great technical improvement that wastes more time just to save a few shekels.

Think about it.

Remember the bike club called the "Captialist Tools"? Used to see them around parts of NJ. Started by Malcolm S. Forbes, of the magazine fame. And yes, they drove Harleys.

> No argument HRMO.......I gave up on
> professional athletics and now am happy to
> watch the local little league play for free
> at the city park a couple blocks from my
> house. Those kids do it for enjoyment and
> (apart from some parents) display good
> sportsmanship and the games are interesting
> to watch. None have yet been involved in
> drug deals or murders of their pregnant
> girlfriends either.

> I live in a region where collegiate
> athletics are a religion and provide more
> support to their host institutions than any
> academic pursuit. This picture isn't too
> pleasing either.

> Home teams aren't home teams any more. How
> many teams are composed of athletes who grew
> up in the town they play for now? Their
> level of commitment is no deeper than the
> deals their agents negotiate for them. If we
> are stupid enough to flood their team owners
> with huge quantities of money shame on us.

> Maybe we need a biker gang called Hells
> Accountants?

> Dave