On my way to steal yo gpic.twitter.com/E409kj8TFN
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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!)
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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. (!!!!!)
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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
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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
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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
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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.)
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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
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(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
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Museums are great. https://twitter.com/darkgreendesk/status/1020673013866467328 …
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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 …Show this thread
End of conversation
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