An emotional plea
Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2013 11:49 amFriends, gents and fans:
I know in advance that this concern is meaningless, because if it truly were a problem to be addressed, someone would be fixing it.
But darn it. If you are a fan of the C&T and all it represents, it’s an emotional investment as well as an intellectual idea.
So consider this merely an emotional response. When a K-36 is left out for nights on end, I realize not much bad is happening to it. It’s a being of strength and resilience. That faith in its durability might even be true now that the weather has turned cold and snow blankets the Chama yard.
But leaving a solitary engine sitting outside in the snow bothers me. Really bothers me. It’s a signal that it does not make any difference.
But for some of us who are the right age, seeing lines of steam engines linked outside in rail yards as they waited to head to scrap remains a painful, aching memory. Their forlorn, untouched presence in those yards was a symbol that they had no value to anyone or anything beyond their monetary value as spare metal.
Those engines of my youth still haunt me. I still feel the loss of them and the indifference they suffered. What was done to aging steam engines was a mistake we all still live with.
So when I see a beautiful engine sitting outside in the snow, it summons bad memories, and it makes me feel sad in helpless, empty way I’d rather not feel.
Thanks for listening.
David
I know in advance that this concern is meaningless, because if it truly were a problem to be addressed, someone would be fixing it.
But darn it. If you are a fan of the C&T and all it represents, it’s an emotional investment as well as an intellectual idea.
So consider this merely an emotional response. When a K-36 is left out for nights on end, I realize not much bad is happening to it. It’s a being of strength and resilience. That faith in its durability might even be true now that the weather has turned cold and snow blankets the Chama yard.
But leaving a solitary engine sitting outside in the snow bothers me. Really bothers me. It’s a signal that it does not make any difference.
But for some of us who are the right age, seeing lines of steam engines linked outside in rail yards as they waited to head to scrap remains a painful, aching memory. Their forlorn, untouched presence in those yards was a symbol that they had no value to anyone or anything beyond their monetary value as spare metal.
Those engines of my youth still haunt me. I still feel the loss of them and the indifference they suffered. What was done to aging steam engines was a mistake we all still live with.
So when I see a beautiful engine sitting outside in the snow, it summons bad memories, and it makes me feel sad in helpless, empty way I’d rather not feel.
Thanks for listening.
David