In the meantime, I’m familiarizing myself with the UI of this little draisine here. (I’m somewhat astonished the name of this thing was still in my memory since my childhood.)pic.twitter.com/9XElvnBEpC
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The long-long-short-long horn you heard was Morse for Q, apparently done at crossings because that’s what they did in England back in the 19th century to alert people when the Queen was arriving? Please nobody verify this, because I like that story.
Going backward (“long hood forward”) is scary since you only have mirrors to guide you. Admittedly, the mirrors are pretty big, but the perspective makes it feel everything moves really slow when going back. Compare the mirror and its outside here:pic.twitter.com/WrJntgbCq1
You have to watch for people and deer, but also make sure the switches are in the right position – like the 1 here – so you don’t end up careening into another stationary locomotive or consist. (I feel pretty proud of using “consist” just like that.)pic.twitter.com/Vxrw3uDH9o
Stopping is really tricky to get right. The curve is weird – the locomotive doesn’t seem to be doing much for a while, and then stops way too quickly. Only on my 8th run I managed to stop right next to “Malfunction Junction” sign and I felt pretty good about that.pic.twitter.com/pCiUXZANP7
I’ve been told stopping precisely is probably the hardest part of doing all this. You need to be delicate with cars or otherwise you can damage the cargo, not to mention endanger the people (called brakemen?) doing the coupling and decoupling.
BTW The Wikipedia page on train coupler designs is, somewhat unsurprisingly, very exhaustive: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_coupling …
Going forward is easier, although it feels really precarious, with the locomotive feeling rather wobbly? Maybe that disappears if you go faster. This one tops out at 90mph, which I’m told makes it relatively benevolent.pic.twitter.com/EJ0x80dSWQ
Oh, yeah, if you stop too fast you can literally flatten the wheel, which makes your boss very unhappy. (I’ve heard a lot about unhappy bosses today!)
You probably already noticed it is REALLY LOUD inside a locomotive. This here is actually in the engine compartment, which is even worse, and this is with the engine just idling. Also, no, that place wasn’t scary at all.pic.twitter.com/EYYBxwWbZv
And this is Bill doing the parking with me observing from the passenger seat. A lot of the locomotives we’re passing are also operational!pic.twitter.com/l1bvjBBoZJ
This is passenger view, another look at the main UI, and finally one thing I could somewhat relate to: a row of buttons!pic.twitter.com/rtEeGOexn4
Speaking of which, here’s a funny thing. When I was volunteering at the Computer History Museum a decade or so ago, I got certified to operate Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine No. 2. (Here’s an old photo.) It was a 5-ton calculating machine that felt unlike any other.pic.twitter.com/lk6P9XIbzE
But today I know exactly what it feels like, and it’s mind blowing to me, and I feel lucky to be able to have had both these experiences to compare them. Babbage’s Engine is a calculator that feels like a locomotive. (!!!!!)
Oh, yeah, of course there were keyboards also: one on a typewriter for some local paperwork, and another on a teletype connected to the outside world in the pre-internet age.pic.twitter.com/6mGuoprqG5
That’s it! Check it out if you have a chance – it’s a Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola, CA. (Wish I could talk to my grandpa Kazimierz about all of this.)pic.twitter.com/d7Bn0ltWaz – at Western Pacific Railroad Museum
Oh, wait! I just saw Bill filmed more things, like this exact sequence of events needed to happen before you start running. This is by the end, where I had it all memorized:pic.twitter.com/eaj8JsURG6
Warning bell on Direction switch forward Horn signal two short Check mirrors Throttle from idle to 1 Release brake Warning bell off Throttle to 2 (Write it down somewhere, you know, just in case.)
This was otherwise an unexpected coda to a day that started with me just wanting to hike around some beautiful lakes in a place recommended by a complete random stranger some time back. Morals of the story, I guess: Stop and visit a local museum! And… erm… talk to strangers?pic.twitter.com/qku1OX3QSu
(My next goal is to find a railway museum where a tour guide could explain all of the strange markings and words on train cars and locomotives, and the stories behind them.)pic.twitter.com/ljdO9GurWW – at Western Pacific Railroad Museum
Museums are great. https://twitter.com/darkgreendesk/status/1020673013866467328 …
Oh, wow, @ForeverAgile tells me those coloured bars are called KarTrak, and are an abandoned scheme for train barcodes… aaaaand of course @ShortFormErnie already wrote about it at some point:https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qv38wp/how-the-railroad-industry-invented-then-immediately-discarded-the-barcode …
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