I didn't mean to take a strip off you, Rainer, so humble apologies. However,
as I'm speaking from the standpoint of one who fought in the trenches and
survived the evil empire ... sorry dude ... youse (sic) is a rail-nerd!!
Anybody who is a rail-fan, but who has never worked in the business where you
are actually involved with the movement of trains or maintenance of the place,
automatically qualifies as a rail-nerd and that's all there is to it. In your
case, you qualify also as a foamer. You not only pay attention to details, but
you can get into lively discussions about them. That's the qualifier that puts
you over the line and further defines you from a simple nerd. Youse is a nerd
AND a foamer!!
Now: Please don't feel that you are unkindly or maliciously branded. I too am
a foamer - of the first rank. I still don't know that I now qualify as a
rail-nerd because even though I'm no longer an active rail, I don't chase
trains or take photos of them or anything silly like that. I will have you
know that I stay well away from closets of all sorts.
As for the pride business: I didn't take the same type of pride in carknocking
that I did in putting out KETTLE VALLEY RAILWAY MILEBOARDS. I cared about my
job because I had to ... it was a matter of survival, literally. It wasn't
only paying the bills, but it was a matter of physical survival on the job.
Rail yards are by nature incredibly dangerous places. They are the sort of
place where it is easy to be lulled into complacency sometimes. Safety really
was my first priority on the job. It was a self-preservation thing on the job,
because too many people really didn't care - and that included supervisors too.
Most particularly in the early years, alcohol abuse was still a huge problem
and a very high percentage of the men I worked with were routinely in a
condition where they shouldn't have been on the job.
There was also an overall attitude issue: When I started in the North
Vancouver railyard, the yard masters and terminal supervisors would not allow
carmen to put up blue flags on the tracks we were servicing. They expected to
be able to switch into the track at the same time with the proviso that the
yard crews would be warned. Well, that ended for me the day that the yard crew
came into the track, the yard foreman saw me on hands and knees gauging a wheel
about ten cars down and made the joint anyway. The wheel hit me in the face
when the slack came in. That was the start of my union involvement. You
wouldn't believe the fight I had over that issue and it took some years before
a vice-president finally put out an edict that put the Terminal Supervisor in
his place once and for all. Even then, it took more years before the blue flag
rule was truly observed in that yard. Ironically, quite recently, a couple of
very senior men (dating from my time) still working in that yard, got
disciplined quite sharply for not using the blue flags.
So, in summary: Rainer ... this time I am taking a direct shot at you ...
you're a nerd and a foamer. Millions of wives will sadly agree that there is
no medication to cure the affliction. (Most will agree that it beats having a
bar-fly in the house.) If you're corresponding on this and other similar
lists, you are out of the closet and even if you weren't, most of the world is
still wise to ya anyway. If you get the feeling that the term 'nerd' implies
'weird and somewhat fanatic' ... well, you're right - it does. But I've
already told you, you can't be a real railroader if you aren't already at least
a little bit strange in the first place. So why be upset about this
terminology when you're simply manifesting a slightly different dementia than
that of the average rail-roader??? It's nothing to be ashamed of. After all,
this is a support group for nerds and foamers and your participation in this
support group is quite public.
(as is mine)
Joe Smuin
1. - "Joey, the secret to telling a good railway story is to always try to
stick just as close to the facts as possible." --- (the late) Cliff Inkster;
CPR Engineman, raconteur and philosopher.
2. - The secret to contacting Joe by email is to be sure to insert "Joe" or
"Smuin" into the main text portion of any message you send to him, and thus
your message should percolate through his spam filters.
