A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of serving as a judge at a high-school level robotics contest at the Pleasantville, NY campus of Pace University. A friend of mine was one of the organizers and roped me in since he knew that I was familiar with building electrical and mechanical gadgets.
I was not sure what to expect going in but it actually turned out to be tremendously enjoyable. The enthusiasm level of the kids was very high and I was very impressed by the robots. The kids had worked hard and come up with very innovative designs. The computer skills were also impressive. Judging was very hard because the teams were all very good.
On this forum, I have often heard people lament the lack of kids entering this hobby. This robotics contest however leads me to believe that there are, in fact, a lot of motivated kids out there with good skills in machinery, electronics and computer programming. We just need a way to figure out how to get them into model railroading.
I’m sure that if students were introduced to the modern control systems in the hobby they would be fascinated by the possibilities and probably would come up with some interesting applications and solutions that we older folks haven’t considered. Perhaps a type of competition centered around a railroad problem could be sponsored by an organization such as the NMRA could generate some interest.
The year is 1965. If a train leaves Chicago for New York at 5:00 am going 66 MPH and another train leaves New York for Chicago at 5:15am travelling at 57 MPH…
(1) Where will they have a cornfield meet?
(2) Where will they bury the survivors?
(#) Bonus Question: What is the probability of either train jumping the track first?
They won’t. They are on different tracks. But… One of them will nail an idiot in a Dodge Dart racing across the tracks after the gates went down. Somehow it will be the train’s fault according to the local press!
Probably in Chicago… There are a lot more survivors buried in Chicago (at least in the Winter) than in New York, usually.
(#) Bonus Question: Yes.
Don, since Amtrack wasn’t around in '65… (I got it! [;)][;)])
What is the Engineer’s name on the east bound train?
What is the Conductor’s name on the west bound train?
Are any of the cars heavyweights? (this will have big effect on crash dynamics)
And most importantly, is there anything of value in either express car?
As for the question of getting young people interested in the hobby, I will leave that to those of you who are more ambitious and optimistic about the future of our culture. I have already raised more than my quota with mixed results and am now happy to leave children to those younger than me who’s temperament calls them to such pursuits. Best of luck.
There is a book ‘Hackers’ by Steven Levy from 1985, which discusses the history of many people who became key players in the (then current) computer scene. The opening pages discuss how many engineering and science minded students at MIT during the 1960s got involved in the Tech Model Railroad Club because of the opportunities involved in the control and signalling system of the layout, which were state-of-art for their time: