Freight trains have lost their charm, in that they’re not as attractive as they used to be, with graffiti chipping paint on their sides. I’ll give him that, considering that he seems to be from the era of wood-burning 4-4-0s and wooden equipment that would fall apart if it weren’t painted.
Or perhaps he is just what I have thought him to be for several years now…a decrepit, over-the-hill, angry with everything old poop (word used in substitution for what I really wanted to say but couldn’t since my Madonna comment caused the entire thread to be removed by our loving censors) who needs (oh, please let it be) to have his eyebrows trimmed by an equally angry barber.
I suspect those wooden passenger cars 100 years ago were better maintainted and in much better condition than the typical Amtrak car of today. [:)]
I think there’s more than a little over-reacting going on here, basing a view of someone who’s lived 80+ years on one offhand comment he made once.
Jeff and Carl touch on an intersting point. The American public, as many of us have often said here, was and is in love with the passenger train! Doesn’t matter what the business says, what the highway lobby says, what government says. Americans like passenger trains. Thus Rooney’s comment is reflective of that point.
And he is not a railfan, so what do you want. As a railfan myself, I find a lot to be interested in and charmed by a freight train, old or new. Yesterday I caught from the back of a line of cars the hind end of a northbound Vermont RR freight at the RT 11 grade crossing in Chester, VT. Missed the engine, but was intrigued by the grain hoppers loping along this rural track on its way from somewhere to somewhere else. Also can be entranced by 20 to 25 platform cars with over 100 containers and trailers stretched out over a mile at 50 or 60 per or a 100 car coal train trundling along any track anywhere. Miss the old mixed merchandise hotshots of yesterday, yes. But still find a lot in today’s trains. But I will have to agree with Rooney in that the make up of most frieght trains today is a predictable and preformed as an email, header and all!
If you are a Monet fan and get the chance to visit Paris, look up the Musee Marmottan. It is a former mansion dedicated to Monet. If I remember correctly it has 87 original Monets on display, including the one that gave its name to the Impressionist movement. It is located in the far west of the city, a short distance from the Peripheral road around Paris.
Jack
Go to Google Images, type in Monet Railway and you’ll soon see that Monet must have been a railfan!
Dave Nelson