@Professor Chaos posted:For reals?
A few seconds of search would show you that "this Mr. Quimby" (to quote HW) graduated from West Point with an engineering degree, trained as an Army Ranger, worked for BNSF, and was at the NTSB doing railroad accident investigations for over 20 years.
But hey, the Times should have consulted with some guys who hang out on a toy train board instead - they're the ones who know their stuff! OMG Journalism is Dead!!!
I get your point, but you know that Rich and Hot Water run real locomotives, right? I think Rich runs the 765 if I am not mistaken. Not just the little ones that run on the three rail track. So you get a percentage of folks here who are, as you have characterized them, and then a couple of professionals who basically take the view let's see what the evidence shows before we start attributing derailments to climate change.
It is a shame that even accident investigations get politicized. What has made our aviation industry the safest in the world is that we don't run around attributing airliner crashes to our pre-existing guesses or views on issues. Professional examine and study what actually went wrong, and then changes are made to minimize the likelihood of such failures going forward. Doing that over the history of our commercial aviation industry has made our airlines the safest in the world. We need to take that rational, less prejudgment approach in more areas to avoid nonsensical arguments.
Have a good day. Always admired your screen name.
