1992_10_23 UP CNW Grand Jct Nevada IA GP7 4107 4183

First up is an eastbound UP stack train, mostly APL and Maersk with a couple of Interdom (IAIS-Maytag) containers. Next, the Eagle Grove job with GP38-2's heads into Ames yard. Then we see a local with two GP7's, 4107 & 4183 heading to Kansas City Junction to turn on the wye. Finally, a mixed freight goes by Kansas City Junction while the local is turning on the wye.

[@tommyhunter1817]

Mergers have destroyed the sport.

[@crosstiewalker803]

Railroads don't exist to make foamers foam. I'm glad I'm retired, so I don't have to deal with the crap that comes with being a railroad employee, and I don't have to see foamers being foamers.

[@tommyhunter1817]

@@crosstiewalker803 good for you. They still suck.

[@crosstiewalker803]

@@tommyhunter1817 Mergers have reduced the number of railroads for foamers/railfans to observe, but in this world of predatory capitalism, that's the way it is. I have two adult Sons with Masters Degrees, and I discouraged both of them from working for soul-sucking railroad companies, even in management positions. I was just a Union, operating department employee, and I'm glad I'm not a new hire in today's working environment. I'm old, and in a few years I'll be dead, and then my opinion will matter even less than it does now.

[@tommyhunter1817]

@@crosstiewalker803 I’m not real sure I know what a “foamer” is, but I do understand the economics of it all. I am an engineer myself (not the kind that drives trains-the kind that builds stuff) and a businessman. I get that mergers, consolidating routes, and abandoning lines, make sense to stockholder bottom lines. I hate the loss of variety, history, and competition. I know technologies improve safety and efficiency but I hate the loss of men with skills and a grit in their gut to make this job the thing that so many young men idolized when I was a kid. I may not be as old as you, but I am +50, so I’ve seen a thing or two. There is not one asset of the physical plant or the skills of the workers of railroading that isn’t fascinating.

[@crosstiewalker803]

@@tommyhunter1817 "Foamer" (foaming at the mouth) is a derisive term for "railfans". Many railfans are insulted when they get called foamers, but foamers/railfans don't get to choose the name that's assigned to them by railroaders. Most foamers/railfans appear to be harmless, but when railroad crew members see someone near, or on the right-of-way, the railroad crew members don't know if that person is "harmless". There are several jobs that look better from a naive perspective.