Why not do a article on major juncture points & crossings of 2 railroads at grade like as a example Rochelle or Colton? There are some real good hot spots out their such as [8D][8D][8D]
Daggett
Belen
Riverside
No. Portland
Ogden
Granger
Just to name a few.
spbed
trains used to do hot spots in the magazines. go to the trains magazine link on the top of the page. in the left colum you will see a section called hot spots with detailed articles and maps you can print out.
stay safe
Joe
Thanks I go back more then 30 years with Trains magazine & I do not recollect the places I mentioned ever being featured. [8D]
spbed,
Interesting suggestion. Please conact me offline so we can flesh it out a little, and I’ll pass your idea on.
Kathi
Kathi Kube
Managing Editor
TRAINS Magazine
21027 Crossroads Circle
Waukesha, WI 53186
Phone: (262) 796-8776, Ext. 464
Fax: (262) 798-6468
kkube@trains.com
While we are on suggestions I have a few of my own. I originaly posted these on a tv show topic but I would really like to see in depth articles in Trains magazine.
An article on coal. Where it comes from. How it is mined, processed and loaded into trains. How the railroad transports it to the power plants. How it is unloaded, and what is done with it at the power plants to generate electricity. Also the coal used for other things like steel processing. How it is handeled differently. what it is used for in those industries.
An article on grain trains. What crops are produced and what regions they are grown in. How the crops get to the loading silos. What factors determine where and when the grain is shipped. What ways are the loads handled (unit train or blocks of cars) and where it goes. Who buys it and how they process it into what goods. How grain is exported and at what ports does this happen and how is it x-loaded into oceanliners. Where is it exported to and why.
An article on land bridging. How the railroads haul goods between Europe and Asia and vise-versa. Why it is economical to do this. What goods are shipped this way. How cargo is transfered to railroads at the ports. How the drayage operations work when the port and railyards are not in the same location. The logistics of moving the doublestacks over our rail network, and what ports this traffic goes to and comes from. What routes are used for this and why. Mabee even a side take on security issues. And what this bussiness means to the railroads.
An article on domestic intermodial. Why this is an important componet to freight transportation. How it fits into freight companys systems for transporting goods. How it keeps immense amounts of truck traffic off of the interstates/highways. How the trailer yards work. What happens to the trailers on the trains. What logistics are involved. What are the key intermodial lanes. Who are the big users of TOFC. And what this bussiness means to the rail
Thank U. Please send me a Email to spbed@yahoo.com of how you wish me to contact you.
Ooops sorry see you Email address. I will send you a Email now.
I can tell you all you want to know about domestic or international intermodal when I see you in Aug. [:D]
Trains did a coal issue some time ago. [:o)]
I also think they did a grain one [:o)][:o)]
They did Chemicals/Plastic Nov 04[:o)]
[quote]
Originally posted by chad thomas
[
Spbed,
I somehow missed the chem/plastic one. I’ll have to pick that one up.
Have you considered writing some articles yourself. The worst that could happen is they reject them. You might make a few bucks if they accept.
You have my Email address. Send me a address where to send as you are lucky I got that month [:o)][:o)][:o)]
H’mm somebody on this board took issue with my ability to write & I believe he is somehow connected to Trains magazine. I did send them a report I guess you can call it of the my experience of watching the UPRR bullet train go by in Marana AZ but it was not printed [:(]
Someone on this board always has some issue with everything. Don’t let that stop you from trying if you desire to.
Well this guy is sought of powerhouse. He was rather snippy & since I know he is connected to Trains I would certainly doubt that he would want me to contribue since he says I cannot write. If I was asked & given guidelines I would try. Actually I would do it just for the love of train fanning. I am really hoping that my son has the web site set up so I can share my pix of my upcoming WY/UT/ID trip. Now I think I am going to go also to Gibbons/Omaha/Fremont as those are supposed to be UPRR hot spots also. Once I get all the info I will make a decision [:o)][8)]
[quote]
Originally posted by chad thomas
[
I don’t work for TRAINS, so can’t speak for them. I also don’t have a problem with what you write on the Forum.
That said - I think there are guidelines for submissions somewhere on the Trains site.
We’ve had some rather heated discussions about spelling and grammar here before. I think the consensus is that you are perceived as how you write. That may or may not be an accurate picture of who you are, but it’s all we have to work with, unless we’ve had the opportunity to meet you. The biggest problems we’ve run into are those folks who are not only bad at spelling and grammar, but are also confrontational to boot.
Of course, there are an esteemed few whose wisdom and experience transcend their sometimes fractured use of the mother tongue. We can live with that.
With regard to submissions - Pretty good chance you’ve got a hurdle or two to jump. It’s no different at any magazine.
First, you’ve got to be presenting something that the magazine can use. That can be subjective on the part of the editorial staff. Something that sounds really important to a submitter may not be interesting to the staff. Or maybe just not right now. That issue is planned for a year from now.
You’ve got to present something useable with regard to its content. If I’m an editor and I’m looking at something I’ll have to spend a lot of time fixing spelling and grammar before I can use it, I’ll probably just dump it in the trash, unless it’s pretty compelling.
You also have to consider editorial styles. As much as we’d like to think that personalities don’t matter, if your writing style is at odds with what the editors want, you won’t have much success.
So do a little research, have someone else read your submission before you send it in, and good luck!
1st that you very much for what you wrote. I appreciate the words of wisdom. [:o)]
To judge somebody by there writings talents is extremely unfair IMHO as you never know what is behind it. [:(]
If you watch the TV show the Apprentice you will see that the non college graduates are staying right up there with the college graduates. I am sure most felt the college grads would whomp the non college grads. [8D]
My position is if Trains feels I have anything to offer the magazine they will contact me as I sense they monitor thiis forum. [8D]
If they want me to write for the I would enlist the services of my 2 sons whose english/grammar would be up magazine standards. One of my sons is a Wharton grad the other has a degree in labor relations from Rutgers [8D]
From what I have been reading on this board since I became active I believe that I have many experiences that make me qualified to post on this board. While you do not know me you can take my word that I am a very well rounded person when it comes to RRs/Trucking or Steamship. I choose at this time not to say more since I want at this time to keep my ID private but one thing for sure everybody that hits the keyboard to post something on this board has something to contribute either + or - or they would not have taken the time to sit down & pound the k./board. To just presume someone is silly because there grammar is not up to yours is actually quite silly IMHO. [:p]
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by tree68
I don’t work for TRAINS, so can’t speak for them. I also don’t have a problem with what you write on the Forum.
That said - I think there are guidelines for submissions somewhere on the Trains site.
We’ve had some rather heated discussions about spelling and grammar here before. I think the consensus is that you are perceived as how you write. That may or may not be an accurate picture of who you are, but it’s all we have to work wit
The Jeff Foxworthy factor tends to kick in… And like I said, the folks who seem to be the worst offenders are often the same ones who have the least to say, say it in the most words, and take near belligerent offense if anyone dares challenge them.
As I said, I have no problem with your posts, thus have no reason to question your experience or abilities. Common misspellings and “ham handed” mistakes are very common here. I try not to let them by, but they happen.
And we’ve gotten way off topic here. My fault, too…
OK thanks I sure if the person monitoring the forum reads the posts he knows who he is. I do feel sorry though if anybody including myslef is judge by others soley based on grammar. I though this was a Trains forum not a english forum. [:p]
Larry, You make some good points. Spbed, I agree, judging people based on there gramer & spelling is silly. But it’s hard not to sometimes. I fall into the catagory of bad speller. I try to do my best though.
I don’t really care if people make spelling mistakes. But if you combine that with grammer mistakes and being heavy handed on the keyboard then some posts get downright unreadable. And that gets anoying. It dose not take much time to read through your post before you submit, and correct obvious errors but some people don’t take the time. So I don’t waste my time trying to figure out what they are trying to say. I just skip to the next post or bail out of the topic. I wont let someone waste my time because they can’t take the time to clean up there posts.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t expect perfection. I just expect to see readable posts.
[soapbox] [8D]
spbed
In line with your and Larry’s posts above about submissions.
I do not work for Kalmbach, either, but do have some contacts within their organization with persons both past and present. I would like to add to your comments and Larry’s also.
Concerning the Forum – Yes, they do monitor it but usually not with an eye to looking for magazine article authors. This sometimes does occurr, but usually in areas where the author shows expertise in his subject and decent writing talents.
Larry mentioned some of the “lively discussions” about language usage that have been here in the past. I also have a “usage” problem in that I am dyslexic and will turn word and phrases insideout, leaving out leters or putting in extra letters. Also, if it were not for bad spelling, I would have no spelling at all. The computer word processor is a god-send to me.
What I do with ALL of my notes on this Forum, is to re-read, slowly and carefully, the note, looking at the spelling of each word and how it managed to come to be where it is in the note, and make corrections. Sometimes two or three times. Even to rewriting entire paragraphs. I consider how you construct your sentences and paragraphs as quite good.
About the magazine contacting you? I notice that you do not have the “Contact via E-mail” icon activated. They will not try to contact you through this forum by posting a message to you in order to have you write something for them. But they will contact you “on the side” through your E-mail address. My suggestion is that you edit your profile to include that icon. It works by blind forwarding through the TRAINS servers so you can reveal your address only to those you wish.
Having said the above, I also note that Kathi did contact you using the contact method almost never used. Be very sure to follow up on this, as I detect that she sees something of value to the magazine. You already have a “leg up” here. Also
Well that is why there are erasers on pencils. As humans we tend to make errors. Hey even a computer is dumb until it is programed right? The point is to get what you are trying to say is short understandable posts whenever possible as that the reader of the post does not get bored reading the contents of a very long post. But I cannot go along that somebody should be judges on just spelling or grammar. Hey for all we know Bobby Fischer could not spell or grammarize properly but he was hell of a chess player Right? How about guys playing pro sports? Just examples never judge the cover until you see inside the book. [:o)]
[quote]
Originally posted by chad thomas
Wow what a long post! [;)]
It was somebody elses idea that I write for Trains. If they want me there are I am sure people on this board that can put in the good words. [;)]
I do try to edit my posts but errors occur that is why there are erasers on pencils… [;)]
With my writing style I would think I am 1 of 10 on this board[:(]
My Email address is spbed@yahoo.com. When I write you back it will come up as trainfan[:p]
If I missed anything please let me know. [:)]
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by kenneo
spbed
In line with your and Larry’s posts above about submissions.
I do not work for Kalmbach, either, but do have some contacts within their organization with persons both past and present. I would like to add to your comments and Larry’s also.
Concerning the Forum – Yes, they do monitor it but usually not with an eye to looking for magazine article authors. This sometimes does occurr, but usually in areas where the author shows expertise in his subject and decent writing talents.
Larry mentioned some of the “lively discussions” about language usage that have been here in the past. I also have a “usage” problem in that I am dyslexic and will turn word and phrases insideout, leaving out leters or putting in extra letters. Also, if it were not for bad spelling, I would have no spelling at all. The computer word processor is a god-send to me.
What I do with ALL of my notes on this Forum, is to re-read, slowly and carefully, the note, looking at the spelling of each word and how it managed to come to be where it is in the note, and make corrections. Sometimes two or three times. Even to rewriting entire paragraphs. I consider how you construct your sentences and paragraphs as quite good.
About the magazine contacting you? I notice that you do not have the “Contact via E-mail” icon activated. They will not try to conta