goutal@parrot.DEC (07/25/84)
Anybody out here but me feel like there's a conspiracy going on? Perhaps it's only that my awareness of railroad things has been higher since around January when I (once again) became interested in model railroading. I've never been what's called a railfan, but I've always been something of a railroad booster. Whenever I've had the opportunity, I've taken the train to get someplace. It's just that most of the time, I don't go very much of anywhere, and when I do, the railroads don't happen to provide service there. Be that as it may, it seems to me that there has been an incredible rise in the number of railroad accidents in 1984, and rising expo- nentially. I haven't been keeping a very accurate count, but just this month we've had four Amtrak passenger-train accidents, two of them in the past two days, one of them major. Locally, the coal train to the Bow, NH, power plant has derailed twice this month, and at least once in the month or two previous. Also this month was some fairly serious to-do in Vermont. Now, I realize that none of this would be news if it were as common as the carnage and general destruction on the public highways. Still, if one wanted to quash the railroads once and for all, this is the way to do it at the present time. I suppose it's really just coincidence, or as I suggested earlier, just that I'm noticing it more this year. Or is it...? -- Kenn Goutal ...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-parrot!goutal (? -- can't keep track) Wed 25-Jul-1984 00:19 EDST