Number 90 posted:...The institutional knowledge of how to descend steep grades using only air brakes went out the door with the retirement of Engineers and Road Foremen who had done it.
AMEN.
Railroads don't teach people to run trains the way they did when you and I railroaded, Tom. Mention the term "stretch braking" to a modern railroader and he'll think you are from Mars. Mention "cycle braking" and you'll get the same look. They only teach them what they need to know to get over the road when everything is working properly. So what happens when the DB craps out as you are half-way down a long mountain grade? Somebody bring a truck full of knuckles...or worse.
It's all computerized now, and Lord help us if something goes wrong with the computer! The days of truly understanding your locomotive, thinking on your feet and patchin' 'er up to get over the road and home if you have to, are long gone. Today the mantra is to just be a mind-numbed robot and do what you're told. Don't think.
We are seeing the same kind of thing in aviation. I watched an American Airlines training video the other day entitled "Children of the Magenta Line." (The course line in aircraft Flight Management Systems appears magenta in color on the Multi-Function Display screen.) The whole point of the training session was to train pilots to get their heads out of the computer and just FLY THE PLANE! There is an entire generation of pilots whose first inclination whenever something changes the plan is to start banging keys on the computer. The Aisiana Air crash in San Francisco is a PERFECT example of that. The pilot didn't want to fly the aircraft, (he didn't know how to fly the aircraft, but that's another story...) he wanted the computer to do it. But he didn't even know how to properly program the computer! People died.
While younger railroaders may point to us "old heads" and think we are dinosaurs trying to re-live our glory days from the past, there is strong evidence that useful and important institutional knowledge is rapidly disappearing from the railroad industry. And that is NOT good.
