jokerman
Vital Football Hero
My wife and I took the grandchildren (girl 4, boy 3) on the pumpkin train yesterday. Ten mile round trip up the north shore of Lake Superior on the local heritage railway to a pumpkin "patch" where the kids select pumpkins to take home for carving. (Non-rail buffs/enthusiasts look away now). It's a five or six car rake with a diesel electric loco at each end to obviate the need for run-arounds and couplings, although they've got the loops to do that if they want to. (Back to the story). Well, we go to pick up the tickets and a former student of mine is on duty. He's an excellent Political Science major, but when I asked him why he wanted to come to UMD back at the start of his career, he straight out said he wanted to volunteer on the railroad. Hi Prof, he says, wanna ride in the cab? (Americans talk like that). Rather, I said (English talk like that). My wife thought the grand kids might be scared, but that was a chance I was prepared to take. So up the ladders the four of us climb and sit with the engineer in the front of an air-break chuffing, two tone horn honking, 3600 diesel horsepower generating 2600 Kw 1966 General Motors locomotive. It was absolutely brilliant. I was amazed at the protocols the crew go through for switches/points and stopping all under the control of the conductor -a young woman in full uniform who looked about 22. The kids had a great time -first ever train ride and they're up in the cab. Perfect day!
Here she is
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Northern_400
Here she is
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Northern_400