Re: Trains, who likes them?
How fast could a train go? They've got enough power they could go faster than we'd want them to. A couple years ago they supposedly upgraded the track southwest from Kalamazoo (toward Chicago) in order to handle 70 - 100 mph Amtrak. They had to physically remove many grade crossings (ie dig out roadway leading up to the tracks), and every remaining crossing had to have a drop-down gate. There were other changes required that I can't remember. The point is, the limiting factor is not the engine but the track and its environment. Think of a narrow channel by a busy port. A boat may be capable of 50 mph, but the environment makes it unsafe. Just think of that Amtrak accident by Chicago a week ago.
Christmas 1969 I took the train from college in Michigan to home in Minnesota. That was when the railroads were trying to discourage passenger traffic and made it all but unbearable. Taking the Burlington from Chicago to Winona MN, it made an unscheduled stop after midnight in some tiny west Illinois town. I had dozed off and woke from lack of motion and the cold -- we were without heat in -10* weather, no one saying why, no idea what was happening or when we might be under way again. For a while we watched through the window as some guy pulled big (mail?) sacks off a cart and dragged them 2 blocks to the train, then trudged back for the next and the next and the next. We wondered why he didn't just pull the cart up to the train. Shivering cold and miserable, just as the eastern sky was beginning to lighten, we felt the train jerk and off we went. Again, no warning or any indication the status was about to change. My parents had been waiting at the (unheated) train station for me for about 5 hours. The return trip was a little better, but still left much to be desired.
For a few years I lived in northern / northeastern Indiana that has lots of train traffic. The railroads wouldn't commit to maintaining grade crossings until one police chief (Mishawaka IN) parked a squad car across the tracks with its lights flashing and told the railroad he'd move it when the crossing was passable. The fire chief of Osceola IN published in the South Bend and Elkhart newspapers that the town's fire trucks would not be able to cross the tracks until grade crossings were repaired. Yes, a couple houses did burn to the ground.
Even though Indiana had a state law regulating how long a grade crossing could be blocked, it was never enforced. Shortly after we moved to Ft Wayne, one New Haven (Ft Wayne suburb) resident had his job, house, family, and his life threatened because he was trying to get the police to enforce the state law. After a small fire at his house, he just gave up and I never heard of him again.
Now in my mom's town there's a big hullabaloo about coal trains from Montana to the East going through Mankato MN. About the most cost-effective way to ship a very necessary fuel (and other goods). But mile-long trains struggling to pull tons of freight up steep hills out of the river valley would essentially cut the town in half and prevent emergency equipment from doing their job.
Yeah, guys are all enamored with big machinery and engines. We're fascinated by the mechanics and the travel. Railroads are good, but also present many problems. How to balance those? I don't know.
