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When my wife and I repainted our kitchen a few years ago, we made a point to save all the marks and notations on one of the door facings where we had measured and recorded our kids' heights as they were growing up. Oddly enough, as we looked over the marks with their names and dates, we could recall their comments at the time --- talk about instant replay ... .
Fort Worth Area's transit authority known as "The T" recently authorized the purchase of four locomotives and 16 coaches.
The T will take possession of the locomotives and two coaches in June of this year. Possession of the other coaches will be take place in March of next year.
On the internet a Locomotive Engineer said, "I carry an extra reverser in my grip because of the engineers who when they swap ends don't want to walk back and discover there is not one there. So, so they take the one they are using with them and now there are two on the rear unit and none on the other when I get on. I thought this would be solved when the railroads went to plastic reversers . . ."
We did too. Now every yardmaster or manager has a desk drawer full them. The little things lurk on top of the vending machines and window ledges in the crew rooms. I think they breed and propagate when nobody is around.
I even think I might have seen one out of the corner of my eye, in the glove compartment of my car -- or was it on my bedside table at home?
It seems that these little fellows just have an aversion to being left alone on locomotives. (Do you suppose it is the atmosphere of smelly toilets, dust, diesel smoke, un-abated noise, or un-moderated heat and cold?)
Someone suggested that the company buy reversers "on stalks", the way old-time grocery stores used to get bananas from the wholesale house. The stalk could be hung near the door of the crew room, and we could just twist off a couple of them as we go out the door to our train.
The New London School Explosion occurred at 3:00 p.m. on March 18, 1937 -- 60 years ago. The disaster was due to undetected natural gas that had seeped into the school basement.
After the disaster, laws were passed to require the addition of mercaptan to all natural gas to give it an offensive odor. Prior to that time, the addition of mercaptan was voluntary. Thank God, for government regulations.
While we were putting this epistle together, I had to smile as I typed up the Page One item on Conductor John Steele's 55 years with the railroad. I remember being in the yard office at Mineola once when someone once said of John, "He's a conductor's conductor."
An engineer interjected, "No, John's an engineeer's conductor."
Why is that you wake up some mornings and find that not just one, but several light bulbs have burned out? This morning I replaced five of them.
Thomas A. Edison, inventor of the incandescent lamp would not put it the market until he developed a filament that would last 1000 hours. I'd bet that if any of today's manufacturers found that one of their bulbs lasted 1000 hours, somebody's "head would roll" in the Quality Control department.
Texas Attorney General Danny Morales, in reference to finger pointing by defendents in a case in which one of them admitted wrongdoing and bargained a reduced settlement:
"Not only are the rats fleeing a sinking ship, but now the rats are beginning to bite one another."
"Having an education is like believing in God. If you believe in God and it turns out there isn't one, you'll neverknow if you lost anything, but if you don't believe in God and there is one, you're out of luck."
--words of an old gambler.
"If I'm going to raise money for someone, it's going to be the Salvation Army. Votes are supposed to be free."
--Cindy Craine, President of Tarrant County League of Women Voters.
The law places certain restrictions on borrowing money on your home. You can borrow money on it to purchase it or to remodel it for instance.
One of these ads whines, "... you can't borrow money on your home to send your kids to college." I may sound like an uncaring Scrouge, but I think a person would have to be bonkers to hock his home so Junior could go to college.
If you've raised a young Einstein, he or she can always get a scholarship. If they're not potential rocket scientists or brain surgeons, they can still go to a state supported school and live at home.
There's plenty of creative financing plans where a person can sell their home and lease it back. But, what is wrong with a kid working to help himself through college?
The proponents of repeal of this law are probably banks, credit card companies and collection agencies. Outfits that charged the interest rates these people charge today, would be called "loan sharks" a decade or so ago. They created the large number of deadbeats in our present society by making credit too easily obtainable. Think not? How many new credit card offers did you receive this week?
They claim that Texas is the only state with a Homestead Law. I don't know, but the smae bunch lied to us and said Texas was the only state with a Usury Law when they were trying to get rid of the 10% cap on interest rates.
In Cincinatti, a 63-year-old grandmother was handcuffed, arrested and fined $500 for feeding money into other people's parking meters.
It is things like this you would expect to happen in a banana republic or the Peoples Republic of China.
Cy is a Locomotive Engineer in Fort Worth.
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