Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Choo Choo!

I love trains.  They are fascinating machines; loud and lumbering giants; whirligigs of fantastic motion and noise that represent the ingenuity of man's ability to problem solve.  The first "locomotive" was invented by a giant in his own right, Richard Trevithick of Tregajorran, Cornwall, and his steam powered "Puffing Devil", in the Year of Our Lord, 1801, hauled several men through a few English villages, probably scaring the bee-geebers out of the local populace, before they crashed through a gulley and the machine burned up.  I wonder if alcohol consumption had anything to do with it?

Move forward to modern times and we find that trains are as ubiquitous as doughnut holes and meat goat farms, ignored and maligned, but the usefulness of a train, is still and without question, irreplaceable.  How else can you move millions of tons of goods from one end of the country to the other for such a low cost value?  Answer is:  you can't.

Over the years, there have been many a colossal confrontation:  Roe v. Wade,  Kramer v. Kramer,  Tyson v. Holyfield,  Man v. Food.  But never, Train v. Tornado, until now.

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