MG tower on endangered species list

[randgust]

I've walked up the hill back in the Conrail era when you could get away with it....  but with the modeling interest in it it looks like it will be going, going, gone shortly.

https://www.altoonamirror.com/news/local-news/2020/06/not-for-long-mg-tower-on-mainline-west-of-horseshoe-curve-to-be-razed/

[peteski]

Yes, this sad fact has been mentioned in Josh's MG interlocking T-TRAK module thread.

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=49374.msg668673#msg668673

[John]

As much as we would want to keep everything railroad ever built, sometimes you just need to clean out the junk .. MG is probably one of those ..

[dem34]

As much as we would want to keep everything railroad ever built, sometimes you just need to clean out the junk .. MG is probably one of those ..

This is why we railfan. Just have to accept that eventually, by the laws of the cosmos; eventually all the stuff we foam over is going to disappear forever one day. But at least we'll have oodles of pictures of said tower that will live on just a bit longer.

[Mark5]

Some of us make models to preserve these memories.

Hate to see it go, but I understand the decision that NS is facing.

[randgust]

I think it was 1982 when a railfan friend and I walked from the curve all the way up to MG, on the 'vacant' track alignment.   But the crossovers were still all there at MG even if it was nothing more than an overgrown signal box.

But the scary part that I'll never forget is that as we were walking back - just down from the crossover switches, the wind was blowing uphill, and a downhill train came up behind us ABSOLUTELY SILENTLY and the engineer just lightly warned us with the horn when he was about 200' away.   I never heard it.  Scared the crap out of me.  Lifetime lesson on just how quiet a big train on welded rail even with full dynamic could be.   We stayed on the empty track ROW at all times, but I was still pretty jumpy.   A year earlier I'd had a similar episode out on ATSF near Lamont west of Chicago, where I was with a group of railfans waiting for the westbound afternoon rush out of Corwith and an eastbound snuck up behind us at 79mph - and ran over the cooler that one of the guys was sitting on between the rails - he jumped out of the way just in time.    I wasn't sitting in the gauge, but he was.  Ever see a Coleman cooler full of stuff get run over by a 79mph train?

[Tristan Ashcroft]

Legend has it there are enginemen who know the railroad well enough that they can basically nap, wake up at just the right to see the next signal, then go right back to napping...

AnywY, what was I talking about?...  Oh right, a good rule to never break, stay the heck out of the gauge.

[nkalanaga]

Tristan:  Not a legend, and it's worse than it sounds.  It's possible to run a train, or drive a car, on a familiar route, while sleeping.  No waking up involved, one can sleep with open eyes, and respond to routine input.  The problem is that, since the conscious brain is turned off, anything unexpected will be ignored.  Studies on one of the Canadian railroads years ago showed that engineers could run just fine, and look alert, while sleeping.  They could even call signals, well enough to fool the conductor.  But a red block, where they usually have green, would be missed.

Since the same goes for driving, it makes drowsy drivers especially dangerous near home or work, as that's where one is most likely to drive "on autopilot".

[John]

Tristan:  Not a legend, and it's worse than it sounds.  It's possible to run a train, or drive a car, on a familiar route, while sleeping.  No waking up involved, one can sleep with open eyes, and respond to routine input.  The problem is that, since the conscious brain is turned off, anything unexpected will be ignored.  Studies on one of the Canadian railroads years ago showed that engineers could run just fine, and look alert, while sleeping.  They could even call signals, well enough to fool the conductor.  But a red block, where they usually have green, would be missed.

Since the same goes for driving, it makes drowsy drivers especially dangerous near home or work, as that's where one is most likely to drive "on autopilot".

Thats a good case for PTC then .. I've had that happen to me when I worked overnights years ago .. some days I don't remember how I got home ..