Dan and his Model Set
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Dear Taiwan Railfans,
I am very happy that Mr. Hung gave me the oppertunity to write
to the railfans of Taiwan about my love for trains.
I have loved trains for as long as I can remember. I remember
visiting to my grandparents farm in central Minnesota when I was 5
years old. Whenever I would hear a train wistle for the nearby
crossing, I would run down the driveway to see the beautiful white,
red, and black engines of the Soo Line Railroad. I would wave to the
engineer, and they would wave back! A few years later, my grandpa and I
would walk down the railroad track to collect spikes and other railroad
memorabilia. I would play with them in the sand box. I had so many
railroad spikes, that my grandpa would say that there were so many
railroad spikes in that sand pile that it would throw off airplane
piolets' compasses!! Now that I am older, my grandpa tells me about
what is was like when the primary mode of transportation in this country
was by rail. You could see the breath-taking scenery of the United States,
and enjoy first class service on the train. You had the millions of
destinations to choose from. If you wanted to travel to a near by town,
or across the country, you could do so via rail. Today only about 500
active passenger stations are left of the massive rail empire of the US
The 1960's rolled around and the people of the US decided that
it would be better to pave over the scenic landscape with roads, rather
than to enjoy it on the train. An American Journalist, by the of Charles
Karault (sp?) once said, "Now, thanks to the interstate highway system,
you can travel from one end of the country to the other without seeing a
thing" Mr. Karalt has a very good point. When roads are built,
thousands of trees are cut down, machines level and pave the landscape,
what is left is a permanent scar on the landscape, where breathtaking
scenery once was.
Trains are far more fuel efficient and safe than cars and even
airplanes. In fact a train uses less than half the fuel of an airplane
Still many people in the US would rather drive or fly than ride the train.
Imagine how much cleaner our atmosphere would be if everyone took the
train instead of flying or driving. In the late 1960's and early 1970's
mAny railroad companies went bankrupt because people did not want to ride
the rails. In 1970, the Fedral Government created Amtrak to carry on
the tradition of first class rail service.Rail service continued to decline
until the mid 1980's when coal became a hot comodity. Shortly after,the
intermodal industry took off. Intermodal transportation is an exellent
idea!! It uses trains for long distance travel, ships for overseas
transportation and trucks are limited to local service. I really like
the idea of getting semi trailers off the roads and putting them on
trains. It is truely amazing the way that they put semi trailers on rail
cars. A building, that I used to work in, overlooks the BN (now BNSF)
Midway Intermodal Terminal in St Paul, Minnesota. When things were slow
at work, or I was on break, I would watch as the semi truck would pull up
along side the rail cars and a massive crane would lift the trailer off
the tractor. The tractor would pull away and the crane would place the
trailer on the railcar, back up and on to the next rail car, where the
trailer was there waiting for it. This whole process took less than a
minute and a half!
Every year, my family spends a week seeing the United States on
Amtrak. Riding the train is the ONLY way to travel. I have been
fortunate enough to have taken several transcontental train rides.
During January of 1996, huge blizards dumped a few feet of snow on the
Eastern US. This region usually only sees a few inches of snow.
Airports, highways, and even cities were closed, but the trains still
ran. My dad and I took the train from Minneapolis, MN to our nation's
capitol of Washington DC one day after the snow storm. Nothing could
compair to the extreem beauty of the newly fallen snow, and the only way
to go was by train. A few years ago, I had the oppertunity to ride on
Amtrak's Southwest Cheif, which runs between Chicago and Los Angeles CA
over the tracks of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad.The train
traveled through the Desert Southwest at speeds of 79 to 89 miles per
hour. I loved seeing the desert by the full moon reflecting off the
inch of snow on the desert floor, also the sight of Santa Fe
"Warbonnets"flashing by on the other track.
I always like to listen to my scanner radio, when riding the
train. I like to hear the dispatcher communicating and giving orders to
the train, also "talking" defect detectors, which scan the train for hot
boxes, sticky brakes, and dragging equiptment. After the train passes a
"talking" detector, the detector will report any equiptment defects to
the train's crew, If nothing is detected, it will say "no defects."
Perhaps the most impressive transmission that I recieve on my radio, is
when the conductor is ready to leave a station, he will the engine a
"Highball!" The term "highball" dates back to the earliest form of
trackside signals. A ball was suspended on a pole with a rope allowing
the dispatcher or tower operator to raise or lower the ball. The ball
in the low position ment stop and the "highball" ment "full speed ahead!"
Today the "highball" is not only used by the passenger railroads, but
also by the freight trains!
If you come to the USA, I highly recomend riding Amtrak in the
US and/or Via Rail in Canada. They are truely American treasures!
Unfortunatly the governments in both countries don't realize the
importance of rail transportation, so they continue to cut funding for
the trains. Amtrak and Via Rail are both endangered species and without
proper funding, they could become extinct.
The ONLY way to travel is by rail.
Sincerly,
Dan Kelly