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For suggestion or comments contact Cy Martin via E-Mail
"The other half of a half-truth is a lie." -- Source unknown.
"Truth - which is a concept conforming to reason, experience and knowledge - is the breath of the poet, the vision of the artist, the quarry of the scientist, the haunted house of the fundamentalist, the bone of contention between bone headed contenders, the toy of the careless, the bete noire of the politician, the elixir of life to the sage and the embalming fluid for fools. It is the weapon of offense against ignorance, the offensive weapon of the prejudiced. Truth is the voice of God speaking to the inner ear of man." -- Rev. Myron Lewis Morley, "What is Truth," The Forum, Vol.78, p614, Oct 1927.
One of my daughters says: "All women should believe in something. I believe I'm going to go shopping."
Another one says: "I shop, therefore I am."
You should stare at your orange juice. It says "concentrate"!
Shin - A device for finding furniture in the dark.
"Electricity is nothing but smoke. When the smoke escapes from the component, or wire, or whatever, that is when there is trouble." Tom Slater from the Internet.
Locomotive Engineer J.M. "Hoot" Gibson works the daylight job at Browder Yard. Hoot called and told us that he too, has a problem with ear fungus from wearing ear plugs. He said when his ears start to bother him, he treats the fungus with a solution of half household bleach and half water. He puts it in his ears with an eye dropper for about 30 minutes at a time, then rinses his ears with plain water. We don't mean to endorse this method, since we are NOT medical authorities. We're just passing it along, since Hoot says it works for him.
"Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them." --James Baldwin
"...Each of us work for carriers that think we have no marketable skills; right up to the point they face shutdown because they're out of engineers; then their tune suddenly changes." -- Tom Frederick, Locomotive Engineer
"As far as new types of crossing protection mentioned in other posts, build it idiot-proof, and someone somewhere will build a better idiot." -- Gregory Lund (internet)
"You can hedge against Ignorance, Error, Blunder, Mischief and even Hubris, but the capacity for Stupidity is Infinite" -- Edward Wenk
"Anyone with an IQ above room temperature knows that smoking is bad for your health...." --Jim Arterbury
"... of all forms of tyranny, the least attractive and the most vulgar, is the tyranny of mere wealth, the tyranny of plutocracy." -- Theodore Roosevelt
There are so many people who substitute the horn for the brake. Wouldn't it be nice if some automotive engineer would design an apparatus that would be hooked up to the horn-button that would work like the PC or Power Cut-off on a locomotive. It would work so that any time you honked the horn, it would lock up the brakes and put the transmission in neutral for at least three minutes. After the guy behind you at a traffic light honked his horn the first time, two milliseconds before the light turned green, he'd never, ever do it again. His car would become inoperative for three minutes while he sat there with a red face and his "ears burning" and cussing his own stupidity. And, of course, knowing the same thing would happen to them, the people behind him wouldn't dare honk their horns. I'll admit this idea needs some refinements. For the more aggressive people, their device should also flood and kill the engine.
When crews fall asleep at meeting point, our response is, "we're going to do more testing...." Do the company and the FRA really believe increased testing of road crews on restricted speed, stop and ear plug rules is going to keep them awake ? These folks need rest, not more testing. One of our trains was stopped for seven hours, waiting to get in the yard recently. While the conductor used the opportunity to catch up on his paperwork, the engineer tried to catch up on his rest. He was caught napping and received a level two under our infamous UPGRADE policy. As overworked and under-rested as our road crews have been, you would think company policy would be to give them an understanding pat- on-the-back for taking advantage of the opportunity to get some rest. It just goes to show that people who make up rules that are stupid, have no idea whatsoever of the consequences. It's OK to twiddle your thumbs, but don't you dare read a newspaper or take a short nap while you are waiting....Duh!
If I had any say so about the Infamous UPGRADE Policy, the first thing I'd change is change the name of it. UPGRADE is an oxymoron. You can't upgrade a person by punishing them. Discipline policies are necessary but why associate our company's name with something with such a negative connotation? UP-grade...Yeesch!
When Don Ellison at the Diesel Shop heard of Lacy Hobbs retirement, he said, "Lacy always entered the golf tournamants, and always like to play on Superintendent Jim Riney's team. Before the game, Lacy would always say things like, 'My knees hur t;' 'My back's going out', or, 'I can't see very well.' The end result was always the same. He'd always win.
The Fairy Queen, a 26-tonne engine built in 1855 by a British firm, will operate in excursion service out of New Delhi, India in February, It is the oldest operating locomotive in the world.
Cy Martin is a locomotive engineer at Centennial Yard in Fort Worth, Texas.
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