John,

Hmmm..... I'd write myself in, but how can I be impartial there ;)
Sorry Kelly, but I have to go with John (if the vote will work correctly!).
But I have a better question. What do Huggies have to do with railroading professionals?

Hey, Randy...the voting is rigged, what is up with that? This thing is not working for many of us. Can you help us?

I just looked the profile Kelly has on LinkedIn. My picture is cooler, I should get a point for that. Speaking of......how many of you are LinkedIn?

I think the Pampers thing had some funny meaning, I would love to laugh at it if it is a direct joke toward me.....I just don't understand. Maybe that is the joke.....that I don't understand it?

Frisco 1522 and the entire Frisco crew get cool votes from me. In fact, anybody who has the guts to stick with steam railroading is a cool vote from me!

Kindly,

JohnE.

"Not understanding the joke" = "not cool".

I am not the technical guy, so I do not have the slightest idea why voting doesn't' work... but considering the number of "write in" answers it may not be relevant... or maybe we are moving the headquarters of RYPN to Florida where such is common...

Additionally, I am biased... go team DeWitt....

Randy, your friendly moderator who is enjoying the current silliness...

Sorry you didn't get the joke. I'll try to clarify:

....AND THE WINNER OF OUR POLL IS:

Laughing out loud is what I did when I saw that! Very good!

That took some time to cut and paste my face like that....good work!

Well, the height of that kid is about right for me. I have a bit more hair in certain areas and my weight is a bit more than shown on the package.

OK.....so the Moderator can't (or won't) fix the polling so it is rigged. Chris D gets more write in votes than I got by poll. And Kelly got more votes in the thread.....(I think) than I did.

So.....the winner really is;

Chris D
Kelly A
All of the rest of the write in votes
John E. Dead last.

There was another thread about Movie Train Crashes where one poster asked why we were discussing it. The truth is, it was a cool thread and I thought it was relevant. "The Train" is by far the best and indeed, could not have been done in color. At any rate, we need discussions like this and others that remind us that we are all people, who love life, who love trains and that can have fun and enjoy each others company.

In early November, I was at TRAIN in Canada. My booth was directly across from Strasburg. When we had no people around our displays, Kelly, Rick and I sat and chatted about all sorts of things. I learned things about Kelly that I never knew and I thought I knew him (somewhat) well. You could say that many of us contractors compete....but the reality is; This industry is too small to have too many enemies. We all have a few people who do not like us (me or any other contractor) and that is normal. However, when you take the hand full of professionals that are on this forum and place them in a room (ESC or ASME for example) we normally get a long fine, we enjoy evening meals together and for the most part, we value each other.

I have always maintained and I always will, people are more important than contracts. I value Kelly, Chris D, Dave Griner, Ross and all the rest for the individual contribution they make to the community as a whole.

I think we would be better off if we could extend a thought or word of kindness from now and then. This forum gets taken way to serious too often. This forum is a place to share ideas and it is OK if we don't all share the same ideas, methods or approaches. I have always liked the saying; "It takes all types to run a circus" and indeed, in this thread we have proven that to be true!

Thanks for the great laughs and the fun, this has been entertaining.

Kindly yours,

JohnE.

I think you lost by asking the question. Cool isn't asking if you are cool. It's not caring because you KNOW........

dave

Well said John. Dave is correct about "Cool". Sometimes you just got to know it and be happy that at least you know your cool! HA. Best fishes, John.

Far be it from me to be an "armchair preservationist" but I would think that if I were an invidual or organization that had $$ to spend to hire a steam contractor, and the final choices were either John or Kelly, "coolness" would not be on the list of consideration.

Things like knowledge, quality of work, experience, results, budget, timetable, and skills are all things I'd consider. I would also poke around on the internet to see what said contractor has said, and how it reflects on their profession. Spending three plus pages on a forum devoted to railway preservation to determining who is "cooler" is not a good reflection of one self, and probably often serves no good purpose when it comes to advertisting. Even if I didn't, I imainge sources of funding, cranky old board members and the like may do a similar search.

The internet provides a wonderful platform to share knowledge and information. Since nothing ever dies on the internet, one should be careful about what they post and how they want to present themselves. I do not doubt that both John and Kelly take their profession seriously, but the evidence seems to point that one may take it a bit less seriously if he's worrying about whether he is "cool."

David M. Wilkins
Not Cool at All, MO

Lighten up, Dave.

Life is too short as it is.

Kelly Anderson?... if we're talking Strasburg, I think Sparkee (Andrea) is WAAAAY cooler!

John Rimmasch?... if we're talking "out west", I think the young lady (Rikki) in the below video is WAAAAY cooler!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWMUH4NhuRo

Some of these "steam girls"--quite a few of them are into steam traction engines--have had signs made up like the old TRIX commerical... "Silly Boys Steam Engines Are For Girls"!

Seriously, it's great to see young folks--of both genders--being into steam preservation and/or railway preservation. This old machinery will outlive us all, so it's nice to know it'll be in good hands in the future.

Regards,
Jim Robinson