Rick's Ramblings

17 November

A Thank You Note!

It is that time of the year, and I thought I might take the time and exercise my writer’s prerogative to thank all the people that have contributed to the virtual railroad community. This is not a rant for a change but a heart felt thanks to all of those who have contributed so much to the enjoyment of so many.

Now I know that most of have said unkind things about Mr. Gates, but we really have a lot to thank him for. So, thank you, Bill, for creating Microsoft Train Simulator - warts and all. The train-sim community has used it, abused it, cussed it, improved it, run it into the ground and enjoyed every minute of it. We owe you!

Of course, high on any list has to be our own Mr. Artim. He has provided us the wonderful playground called vNERR. I mean this guy is serious about his playing. He has provided the chalkboard for each of us to draw our own ideas at vNERR. No, he did not create vNERR single-handedly. He has had a great deal of help, but he remains the inspiration and guiding force at vNERR. Thanks Bob.

Yes, vNERR is a virtual railroad, but it is also so much more. It is a world wide community of like-minded individuals who enjoy railroading - virtual, model and real. There are several people that come to mind that I have become aware of in the past year or so since I discovered vNERR. These are not the only people involved. They are the ones that I have come into contact with. If I miss someone, please do not take offense because none was intended.

My first contact was with Dandy1 at WCN. Patience! That is the word that first comes to mind when I think about Dandy1. I must have made every mistake that it is possible to make as I worked my way thru WCN. You are an invaluable asset to vNERR. Thanks Dan!

Brian Element. This man is everywhere. I actually think he might be a clone, because I really do not see how any one person could have his hand in so many pies. He even creates new projects for himself - as if he did not have enough to do already. Brian, your organization and perseverance make you a tremendous benefit to vNERR. Your efforts are appreciated!

John Hodgkinson has been involved as HR Director of vNERR, but when he took over the newsletter, Roundhouse Ramblings, he really hit his stride. I am always surprised with the information he finds to share with us all. I truly do not believe that anyone could do a better job. Keep up the good work, John.

Now I don’t know who all the members of the Feasibility or F-Team are, but I know a good thing when I see it. You guys do a great job testing all of the routes and activities. I have enough problems without having to find and fix all of the little and annoying details that may have been overlooked when an activity is created. If they’ve tested it, you can rest assured that it can be done. Great work! Thanks guys!

Kip, you deserve a special thank you for all of the time that you have invested in upgrading routes. Thanks for working with others as they developed their routes. Thanks for creating Hoodoo Pass and then making it available for us here at vNERR. We are all the better for your efforts.

Thanks to everyone else that has created a route, work order or anything else for vNERR. This long list includes many names but the ones that I can think of include Jim Vaughn, RobertR, Taz, Mal Epstein, MR Roberts, Cedric, Dutchie, Kevin W-S, Claude, Voodude, Stumbl, AlanW, Paulos, Mike Martin, MRScotti, antoniomiranda, Firsty, and so many more. Many that came before me and many that work quietly, behind the scenes. vNERR would not be the wonderful place it is without a tremendous group effort.

THANK YOU!

PS: Of course you should remember to be thankful for loved ones, good health, and all of the blessings we each receive on a daily basis.

Rick Foss
Engineer Hostler #042
Certification 03-08-NERR042D
silvermeteor/OBSpecial

11 October 2004

Tolerance & Concern For Others vs Individual Rights

Have you noticed how easy it is to lose sight of the responsibilities associated with the right to freedom of expression? Sometimes we get so wound up in an individual right to express ourselves that we forget that the expression should not infringe on the rights of others.

Although not often, we have had incidents here at NERR, and they seem to be an every day occurrence at Train-Sim. It is not surprising that these things happen when you gather together a large number of individuals from different nationalities, ethnic groups, religions, education, etc.

That is precisely the reason that each of us has to strive especially hard not to let our right to individual expression put us into the position of thinking that our thoughts or opinions come before the general good of the group. There are rules, both written and unwritten, that we each should be willing to accept for the privilege of belonging to NERR and enjoying the company of a very diverse group of train enthusiasts.

Isn’t it amazing how an interest in trains seems to be a universal thing? We have members from the UK , Australia , USA , New Zealand , South Africa , New Zealand , Portugal , Croatia, and probably more that I have not noticed. (Please do not be offended it your country was not mentioned.)

Why should it be so hard to accept a few rules of conduct that are designed to keep us focused on the enjoyment of trains rather than allowing us to become sidetracked into discussions about race, religion, politics, etc? There are other and better suited forums designed for that type of expression. These forums are designed to discuss trains!

Even within the subject of trains, there seems to be plenty that we can disagree about. These discussions are interesting and enlightening, but they should also be kept civil. There should not be any tolerance for personally demeaning attacks here at NERR. Although it is impossible to avoid the occasional conflict of personalities, these conflicts should be minimized and, most importantly, resolved behind the scenes by the management using PMs, email, and even telephone conversation when a more personal touch is necessary.

When I place a post on the forums, I try to read it over at least three times before I press the Send button. It is amazing how many times I will change a word, reword a sentence, or just plain delete a thought that might be offensive to others that seemed good when I originally wrote it. Remember the people reading that post cannot see your face. Is your statement made in anger or in jest? Use smilies when you can to help convey your emotion.

Finally, these forums are the private property of Mr. Artim. They are his lock, stock and barrel and he has decided, after talking with other members of his Admin group, that this is not the place for political, national or defamatory statements. That is his personal right, which he has chosen to exercise and which each of us accepts when we request permission to belong to NERR and enjoy playing with trains and exchanging ideas with a great group of traintastic individuals.

So let us all go into the world with a greater respect for the rights of others and not be overly impressed with our own individual rights. Let us discuss the color that looks best on a locomotive without going to blows over whether that color should contain one more or less drop of yellow to make it exactly right. Let us share an interest in railroads that unites us across all sorts of physical, spiritual and emotional boundaries.

Most of all - let us have FUN!

17 September 2004

Mind Over Matter

One would think that with my mind it really doesn't matter but here I am anyway.

All right! I admit it! I made a mistake. I know that it doesn't happen often but sometimes . . . . There are you happy now?

"What the heck is this idiot talking about." you ask yourself? Well, I'm talking about this column. My mistake was to write the first one. You see, I was feeling down about the hurricane that we had just experienced and thought that I would unburden myself of some deep dark hidden secrets about my questionable behavior during Hurricane Hugo a number of years ago. Don't know what I'm talking about? Only way to solve that is to read the first article.

Anyway, the mistakes just kept on coming. A person, whose name will go unmentioned, published it in this newsletter. Then a discussion arose about the name, and someone else, whose name will be lost to historians, suggested the column be named Rick's Rantz. I can only believe that it was in honor of my sterling character and less than acerbic tongue. Right? Oh well! (Actually, it was because both words start with 'R', as in Railroad. Sorry, Rick! J)

Oh yes, we were talking about mistakes.

Then we proceeded to receive the attention of two more hurricanes, not to mention over eleven inches of rain in four days. That must have been a mistake too, but it was not the most recent mistake in this unprecedented string of unlikelihoods. Next, our fearless editor has had the temerity to suggest that I write yet another installment. Utter foolishness! But, as one who stands near the head of the class of fools, I said why not?

Problem was that I had absolutely no idea what I could rant about this month, and then it came to me. Why not discuss BrianE's recent guidelines for activities. So here goes.

The first item on the list seems to be the one that has sparked the most interest.

1. Keep them within approximately 2 hours.

My mother always tried to teach me that I should not complain about something unless I was prepared to offer a solution. So hang in there for a few minutes, because I think this can be addressed to everyone's satisfaction with a little "Mind over Matter". But first, let's review the different opinions presented in the thread.

"The two hour limit has to be broken occasionally if you want to have a good switching activity or are simply doing a long pull across a large route." (by: Buttercup)

"I personally stay away from most work orders that are much over an hour." (by: mmartin51)

"The average time slip submitted for August was 1.8 hours . . " (by: JohnH)

Now we all know that in the real world there is a precedent for almost anything and everything. So what do we have to work with here? Many engineers prefer to run work orders of 2 hours or less. The average work order length would seem to support that. It would seem that, at least on some occasions, a work order will require a length of more than two hours.

Everything we have said is true. So what does this tell us and what can we do about it. The answer, at least to me, is quite simple!

There are restrictions in the real world. One of the most important is that if you are on duty for more than twelve hours everything comes to a screeching halt ... Period!

Why not assume that the two hour limit implemented by BrianE, and seemingly embraced by many engineers, is equivalent to a twelve hour shift? In the real world, many runs are not a full eight hour shift and many runs are in excess of eight hours. However, when you reach the magic twelve hour limit you are supposed to park the train wherever you are, within reason, and wait for a replacement crew.

Now I know that it is hard for activity creators to control the length of time that an activity runs. In fact, I am currently working with Intelvet to create an activity for the Blue Ridge & Tidewater that runs the length of Hoodoo Pass. Total time for this run is over four hours. This activity was begun prior to BrianE's new guidelines and may have to remain as it is. I have asked Jim to see if it is possible to bring it into compliance with the new guidelines. It may not be worth the effort. The point is that there is a perfectly acceptable precedent for stopping anywhere and breaking an activity into multiple pieces.

Here is my proposal. Keeping in mind that this is virtual railroading and that we are free, as long as our wives will allow it (L), to exercise our "Mind over Matter" we should be able to establish the following guidelines:

• Every ten minutes run on vNERR is equal to one hour in the real world.

• Every hour run on vNERR is equal to six hours in the real world.

• At the end of two hours run (approximately) on vNERR you have reached the twelve hour real world shift limit and the crew must be changed.

If we are all willing to embrace this concept, it would seem to me that the concerns of everyone will have been addressed.

If you agree/disagree put your comment in the thread that started all this.

Article #1 - 14 August 2004

Hurricane Humor

I am just about ready to leave the house and go to a motel to wait out hurricane Charlie. I just wrote down some of my experiences during hurricane Hugo. I don’t know if you think that this is interesting enough or not. I will not be offended if you decide it is not appropriate or not interesting enough but I thought that I would send it. The decision is yours. It is unsolicited and there will be no hard feelings either way.

As Bonnie passes us by after leaving us 2-3 inches of rain and we get ready to spend our Saturday hosting Hurricane Charlie, I thought that it might be nice to share some hurricane humor.

In 1989 Hurricane Hugo came to visit us here in South Carolina. Hugo was a category three hurricane with gusts as high a 130 mph. Those of us living in a mobile home, such as we do, or living in low lying areas were advised to move inland to a safer location.

That is how my wife, our 18 year son and I found ourselves in a motel for the evening. It seems like 90% of the storms arrive at night so you cannot see what is going on. We had brought my pick up and my wife's car, and they were parked outside the room.

You should also know that I am from Florida and was quite blasé about hurricanes. My father, who worked as a cable splicer for Southern Bell Telephone, always slept through the storms because he would be called out as soon as the storm had passed to begin the repairs. As a result I was somewhat used to hurricanes. But this was a large one, and my family’s safety dictated the motel.

It is about midnight, and my wife and son are huddled in the motel bathroom as the wind howls outside. Being the man of the house, I was relaxing on the bed next to the bathroom. The eye of the storm is approaching and is going to pass directly over our location. Suddenly there is a tremendous crash, and our poured concrete motel trembles. ...And then there is another even louder crash.

I have got to tell you that it is almost impossible to maintain your cool as you frantically scramble towards the bathroom to join your sensible wife and son.

Some time later I gathered enough courage to look out the motel room window. All electricity was off, and I was confronted by a confounding scene. Outside our room there was a dim light, and it was impossible to see what may have happened.

When the eye of the storm arrived, several of us ventured outside, and the situation became clear. A very large pine tree on the other side of the parking lot had simply snapped off and fallen towards the motel. The first crash and shudder was when the tree hit the second floor roof, and the entire top of the tree snapped off. The second crash occurred as the rest of the trunk landed just outside our room. The trunk ran from the tailgate up the bed and down the middle of the cab of my truck. The mysterious light turned out to be the dome light which came on as the doors were sprung outward.

After the storm the tree trunk was cut off at both ends of the truck, and it sat there for several days as a mute testament to nature's force.

We live in a very small community, and electricity was off for the next three weeks. Our water is pumped up into one of those large water tanks and is gravity fed, so we had water for the next few days. When the water finally ran out, my wife asked how we were going to be able to answer natures call. Being the man of the house, despite my tarnished macho image, I came up with a workable solution. We all would do #1 in the woods and use one toilet for #2. When required, we would drive the six miles to the Santee river and retrieve a five gallon bucket of water which I would pour into the toilet to flush it into our septic tank.

Near the end of the first day, my son and I took the drive up to the river. We soon returned with the bucket of water and poured it into the toilet which obediently flushed. Feeling rather smug and secure in the fact that I had recovered some of my macho image, I walked over to the back door and looked out over our pond.

As I stood there it slowly began to dawn on me that my macho image had slipped yet again. Why had we just driven six miles one way to get a bucket of water from the rive when I had a pond that was overflowing ten feet outside our back door?

I can assure you that I will not be driving to the river for water to flush the toilet if Charlie leaves us without water and electricity tomorrow. Who knows, maybe we will be lucky.

Footnote after the hurricane has passed:

The wife and I are safe, and our "mobile" home, darn thing hasn't been mobile for 20 years, is still standing. The storm made its way out of here about 11:00 am this morning, Saturday.

We did not have electricity when I first got to the house around 11:15, but when I returned with the wife around 12:00, it had already been restored.

No serious damage at our home. We got lucky and dodged a bullet this time. The wife and I have just spent the last several hours cleaning up our large lawn. I have noticed that the yard seem to grow larger in proportion to my advancing age.

Anyway, I told the wife that I was not going to spend hours bending down and picking up all of the twigs, etc. that were strewn around the yard. She asked what I planned to do? I told her to watch.

I went outside and started piling the larger stuff into piles and leaving the smaller debris behind. Then I got a large plastic woven tarp and piled a large quantity of debris onto it. Finally I got the riding lawn mower and tied a rope to the end of the tarp and pulled it to I pile we plan to burn later this winter.

After I had picked up all of the piles I started mowing the rest of the debris. When I stopped one time, my wife asked if that procedure would not ruin the three blades on the mower. I told her it most probably would, but that $25 for a new set of blades, it was a lot cheaper that a doctor's visit and calmly went back to mowing.

My yard is the only clean one in town at the moment. Everyone else is still trying to figure out what they are going to do.