Conference yukon::christian_v7

768.0. "Thoughts from the past" by CIVPR1::STOCK () Tue Aug 08 1995 10:39

    Santa Claus brought me (and my dad? :^) a set of electric trains the
    Christmas I was 2-1/2, and the small boy deep inside me still loves
    trains.  
    
    One of the things that has interested me as an adult is how American
    railroads as an industry are integrated; how they work as a whole.  I
    have in my "collection" (read: Junk box) two copies of a 3-1/2 inch by
    5 inch by 3/4 inch deep book titled "RULES for the Government of the
    OPERATING DEPARTMENT".  Both are dog-eared and stained from many years
    "on the footplate" (operating department employees are required to
    report for work with copies of the Rulebook and Employees' Timetable in
    their possession.) 
    
    The question of an obscure signalling aspect came up a while ago.  I
    dug out a copy of the Rulebook to look it up, and noticed again the
    hand-written notes inside the front and back covers - notes that I had
    ignored before because they were so difficult to read, not only from
    the years of hard use the book had seen, but also because the penmanship
    was difficult in itself.  I'm glad now that I took the time to decipher
    it, for what I read was: 
    
         Know them well sir and use the last two senses
         that some men have - Common and Horse. 
         
         Remember the Boss gets a paycheck like you.  
         
         Reach down and help your fellow men.  You both
         will get to the top in better shape.
         
         
         HOW TO RUN A RAILROAD ENGINE		
         					
         An excuse is the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie. 
         
         Don't be 100%, no Company Can pay the wages your worth. 
         
         Know the Rules so well that you'll know how to get out
         of trouble when you get in, otherwise don't break a rule.
         
         Man's rules and laws can be broken and changed every hour.  
         God's Law cannot be broken or changed for there is none better.  
         
         Therefore read the book of rules and also the Bible
         and railroading will be a pleasure. 
    
    
    The thing that fascinated me about this is the date of issue of this
    copy of the Rulebook - October 29, 1961, just a little over thirty
    years ago!  I would not have been at all surprized to find such
    thoughts written into work-a-day manuals of the nineteenth century, but
    finding them so recently written struck me that we have lost so much in
    just a generation.  
    
    We are, indeed, ripe for revival!

 Amen, John, Amen