Latest Arrow, convention comments

[NW Mailing List]

Will and Ed

 

All I can say in response to both of your comments is AMEN.

 

John Barnett

 

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From: nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org
[mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On Behalf Of NW Mailing List
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2007 10:51 AM
To: NW Mailing List
Subject: Re: Latest Arrow, convention comments

 

I agree with many of the comment posted regarding liabilites and
cancelled trips.  I know a lot of clubs had just spent a ton of money
freshening up their leased passenger cars before the plug was pulled.  

As far a people chasing more than riding and this causing a drop in
ticket sales, I heard more than one person say some trips were run on
such a regular basis ( up the Old Fort Loops comes to mind ) that some
of the excitement wore off and you could always chase or ride 'next
time'.  

As far as where I am coming from, Ed, I think it was simple.  I frankly
thought the reasoning given at the convention was borderline bunk and I
still think that.  I have always felt that the higher powers at that
time were looking for a reason to get rid of the program and were, in a
sense, chomping at the bit when the pig train got shoved into the
passenger cars.  Of course, if Sauders had saved one of every engine, as
you implied, ............     :)

 

Will

NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:

	Will - I don't know where you're coming from, here, but I
strongly suspect you're thinking something like "if I keep beating this
dead horse, maybe he'll get up and run again".

	 

	Hindsight is always 20-20.  Saunders may suffer more at the
hands of history than he should (nothing was going to stop the GP9s and
RS-11s from coming no matter who was President, and are you saying that
he should have saved at least one of every locomotive class, or
something like that?), but Goode's decision was sound from the
standpoint of the corporate welfare of NS.  His method might not be
above criticism, but his decision was.

	 

	It frustrates me that although I rode 611's cab on her last 100
miles on that excursion in 1959, I'll never get another chance.  The
1218 situation, personally, is even more frustrating.  But even with all
that said, I can't fault NS's decision to cease a policy that was
growing ever more costly, and which was never going to get any less so.

	 

	These decisions are always easier to criticize if you're not the
one responsible for the dollars.

	 

	Wick Moorman is as conscious of the history of N&W and the
Southern as anybody in this organization or in the SRHA.  I, personally,
am delighted that this is so, and that he has seen fit to gather
together as attractive a set of F-units as exists.  You probably don't
like F-units any better than I do, because I loved the Southern steamers
they displaced and I watched them do it.  

	 

	But that's why we have an N&WHS and an SRHA, so that we can
remember the way it was.  

	 

	Ed KIng    

		----- Original Message ----- 

		From: NW Mailing List <mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>


		To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 

		Sent: Friday, September 14, 2007 5:41 PM

		Subject: Latest Arrow, convention comments

		 

		I may be opening a big can of worms here, but I can't
help but have some feelings and emotions about the convention news in
the latest issue of the Arrow.  First, I find it curious as to why Goode
had to give prior consent to be asked about his shutting down of the
steam program.  He is not a senator or high ranking government official
disclosing top secret information.  I can't help but wonder if it gave
him some time to think of a creative answer.  His response, by the way,
was quite interesting in itself.  I just can't understand why a company
that moves the millions of tons of freight a year or runs the number of
trains they do a year can't think of a possible way to keep school kids
'off the tracks'.  As far as I know, in the 28 years of the program,
there was never an incident involving the injury of any school kids.
Quite frankly, I would rather him just say he was more concerned with
the bottom line of the company, irregardless of the historical or
educational value of the steam program or the emotional ties that
thousands had to it and that from the day he took over, he was looking
for a way to get rid of it.  

		 

		Secondly, I do stuggle with why the N&W Historical
Society gave him an award when he is the one that did more, in my
opinion, to squash the importance of history since Stuart Saunders.  I
still chuckle about the historic walking trail in Roanoke that has him
name on it.  Somebody like the Claytor brothers deserve to be honored by
the society ( and may have been in the past ) instead of someone that
erased all of the brothers' hard work with one quick decision.  Why
didn't anyone ask him why he couldn't have scaled back on the schedule
or even perhaps shut down the program for a couple of years instead of
doing it the way that he did?

		 

		Again, I know I am on a soapbox and may be overstepping
my bounds, but to be honest, it still bothers me the way everything went
down.  History, even outside of the railroads, is very important.  I
frustrates me that my children won't get the experience the same type of
mainline excursions behind big steam that I grew up riding and working
on.  It truly is a shame. 

		 

		Will Sadler

		
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