What I Learned Today

On May 7, I headed down to Union Station to celebrate National Train Day. I rode the Gold Line Metro to Union Station, delighted not to have to tackle parking in downtown Los Angeles. I arrived just as the event started, in time to trail along behind a contingent of the USC Marching Band (!) that was proceeding with much fanfare through the station.

The festivities included a variety of fun sights and experiences. There was a large model train setup with three trains running at the same time, weaving their ways through miniature trees and houses. There were tons of booths giving out railroad safety stickers, brochures about how to get to San Diego (and many other places) on the train, and information on the railroad workers’ union. A particular highlight was a cooking demonstration by renowned chef Tom Douglas, who owns five restaurants in Seattle and has crafted recipes for Amtrak’s trains. He showed how to make a grilled salmon + cucumber salad dish using the kind of stove available on the train — and then everyone in the audience (100+ people) got to try it. It was fascinating to see a top chef fillet a 15-pound salmon up close! (See picture at left of Chef Douglas, with an angled mirror above him so you could watch him work.)

There were brochures and information of every stripe, except one. I asked around a few places for information on Amtrak’s USA Rail Pass. I’d read some information about it online, but I was sure at this event, of all places, there’d be more to learn. But I came up totally empty-handed. You could learn how to get to Fillmore, to shows in Anaheim, and even to the Grand Canyon, but no information on the 6-month rail pass. The best I could get was a suggestion to call an 800 number. Amtrak, what a huge missed opportunity! (Or do you not want people to take advantage of the rail pass for some reason?)

As time went on, the number of people at the event ballooned. Apparently this was THE place to be on a Saturday afternoon with your kids. I was glad I’d arrived when I did, since an hour later there was an hour-long wait just to walk past the booths with brochures and stickers. However, because I’d saved the “Train Equipment Tour” for last, I ended up not getting to see what it was all about — the line stretched almost all the way through the station, with waits even for people who’d requested timed tickets (I didn’t know you could do that :) ). So, perhaps another time!

In related news, I later got to visit Travel Town, a local railroad museum. It’s a yard full of old engines and cars, most of which you (sadly) cannot climb on or walk through. Some few are open for curious eyes and hands, though. It’s also fun just to walk around and work out how the wheels and brakes and other pieces on the outside must function. You can even rent out a rail car for birthday parties. I admit, I was tempted! It turns out that Travel Town, like so many other organizations, makes good use of volunteers; you can even volunteer to learn how to LAY TRACK! Oh, for more hours in the day.

I also recently watched “Unstoppable”, a movie about a runaway (uncrewed) train that is a dramatization of real events. It’s exciting and action-y and definitely a dramatization; but interestingly, the main setup and events really did happen. It is an awe-inspiring thing, to see a behemoth of mechanical energy loosed from human control and rampaging blindly through the countryside. How, how to stop it? Watch the movie and find out!

Could it make sense to take a one-way trip to Mars? This notion has been floating around for years, but it got some recent press when Drs. Schulze-Makuch and Davies published a paper titled “To Boldly Go: A One-Way Human Mission to Mars.” Their thesis is that this might be the solution to several of the barriers to a crewed mission, providing among other benefits a major reduction in mission cost (up to 80% reduction, which is pretty dramatic!). This can only be accomplished by shifting our perspective on what such a mission is: not a there-and-back-again jaunt like a trip to the Moon, but the establishment of a sustained presence on Mars, paving the way for future colonists and expeditions. Schulze-Makuch and Davies declare that:

“… to attain it would require not only major international cooperation, but a return to the exploration spirit and risk-taking ethos of the great period of Earth exploration, from Columbus to Amundsen, but which has nowadays been replaced with a culture of safety and political correctness.”

The initial reaction to a one-way trip concept is often one that assumes that the humans involved would immediately expire at the end of their mission. “One-way” sounds like “suicide”. But it’s not more of a “suicide” than inhabiting Earth, which is just as much of an ultimate death sentence — we just don’t think of it that way. Well supplied and informed, an expedition to Mars could survive for a long time, albeit in a harsh and demanding environment. They might not live as long as they would on Earth — or they might live longer; no one’s going to get hit by a car on Mars! And just think of the amazing accomplishments this group of 21st-century pioneers would attain, in technology and in science, and also in poetry and psychology: making Mars a human location, not just a light in the sky.

This short paper is definitely worth reading to see how Schulze-Makush and Davies set out the arguments for, and the conceptual design of, such a one-way mission. I was heartened to see their clear statement that “No base on the Moon is needed to launch a one-way human mission to Mars.” This is true of any mission to Mars, but has become somewhat lost in the various Constellation program discussions.

If there really were an opportunity to volunteer for a one-way mission to Mars, where you’d live out your days in a “cave-centered biosphere”, exploring and discovering and serving as a pathfinder for future advances — I’d sign up in a heartbeat. It’s difficult to think of any more important and meaningful goal to which I could devote my life here on Earth. (I know some, or all, of you will disagree with me on this, which neither offends nor dissuades me in the least. :) )

I recently finished the delightful “Making Tracks: An American Rail Odyssey,” which is one man’s tale of his trek via Amtrak across the U.S. in the mid-80’s — a travelogue interspersed with absolutely fascinating railroad history. Here are a few of the bits that stuck with me:

• The first transcontinental line was laid across the Rockies, not because it was the best or cheapest or easiest route, but because of (get this) the Civil War. An easier southern route through New Mexico and Arizona was the most likely choice, but then war broke out and all of the South became distrusted. And yet the transcontinental railroad was seen as a unifying goal, critical to holding us together as one nation. And so the Union Pacific line through Denver, Cheyenne, and Salt Lake City was born. Politics can bend even iron, it seems! Trains were also used extensively to transport troops during the war, and track sabotage (and repair) was rampant.
• Apparently there was actually a plan to put ICBMs on trains, as a way to make them mobile and therefore harder to take out preemptively. Wow.
  

  “As of this writing, the final decision to place intercontinental ballistic missiles on railcars has not yet been made, but the plan is far enough along that the military already has designed a ‘Rail Garrison’ logo featuring a train superimposed on a missile, with an American flag, and two strands of Nebraska wheat with the inscription ‘Peacekeeper.’ The impetus for the plan is the fear of a possible enemy first strike that might disable the 1,054 missiles located in fixed concrete silos. […] When a launch order is received from the President, the train can stop in three minutes. It takes an additional five minutes to reorient the missile’s guidance system. During this time the car’s roof doors open and the missile is raised into firing position. With a blast of steam, the missile is ejected from its canister and then fires its engines above the train and begins its flight.”

• As late as the late 80’s (when the book was written), manual labor is/was used to adjust and repair track! A team can replace a tie in 7 minutes, which works out to 100 feet of track per day. A far cry from the 10 miles of track that Charles Crocker’s Chinese workers laid in 1869, but then that’s a record that’s never been surpassed.

And there’s so, so much more to read and enjoy in this book. Highly recommended!

Here is a great critical summary of the book, and my own review as well.

I get this question all the time on planes: “They let you bring your knitting needles onboard?”

Yes, despite the curious, tangled, and sometimes ridiculous state of TSA rules about what you can and cannot put in your carry-on luggage, it is perfectly acceptable to bring knitting needles. According to TSA rules:

Knitting needles are permitted in your carry-on baggage or checked baggage.

Items needed to pursue a Needlepoint project are permitted in your carry-on baggage or checked baggage with the exception of circular thread cutters or any cutter with a blade contained inside which cannot go through the checkpoint and must go in your checked baggage.

Apparently some knitters have taken to carrying this page as a printout with them to security lines, due to inconsistent knowledge of the rules on the part of TSA personnel. I’ve never had a problem with my knitting needles (bamboo or metal) nor the one-inch scissors I bring for snipping thread. (I forgot these scissors exactly once and spent 10 minutes on a plane gnawing through yarn to cut it. I had no idea how resilient yarn is to teeth!)

I think the curiosity about knitting needles arises from the general confusion about the logic behind TSA rules. What is it about 3 ounces of fluid that makes it suddenly safe? Why are matches permitted in carry-on luggage but banned from checked luggage? Why is a pair of 3-inch-long scissors permitted but a 2-inch Swiss Army knife banned?

Another outcome of these rules is that it gets people’s creative juices flowing. If my airplane seatmates are any sample, people who would never have thought to attack anyone with a knitting needle suddenly offer, “But you could stab someone’s eye out! You could get them in the throat!” And of course, since my current needles are bamboo, some immediately conceive of sticking them under fingernails for torture. A reality check reveals how ineffective such attacks would likely be due to the dull nature of knitting needle points, but ultimately it just reminds everyone how any household object could be used to inflict some kind of damage, if wielded by a sufficiently motivated human.

At what point do the TSA rules themselves become an instrument of terror?

I have a thing for trains, so it’s a real pleasure to try them out in a new city and discover a well run, clean, on-time, easy-to-use system. Sydney’s CityRail system certainly qualifies! I’ve ridden it a few times so far this trip and in addition to getting where I wanted to go, I observed some cool innovations.

First, the trains are double-decker. And who doesn’t enjoy being up high?

Second, the seat backs flip to face forward or backward on a central pivot, so it’s easy for any passenger to change the direction of the seating depending which way the train is going. These are designed to pivot (up/forward or down/backward) in place, without banging into adjoining seats. Very clever.

Most impressively, the escalators down to the subway level have adaptive speed. At first I thought I was imagining the fact that the escalators seemed to be running at different speeds at different times. Then I realized that it was moving faster when a person was on it and slower when unoccupied. I tested this a few times observationally, then went and got on it myself when it was in its slow state. Sure enough, it sped up when I stepped on. The speed transition is so smooth that I hadn’t noticed it the times I’d been on the escalator before! This is brilliant, and apparently saves a lot of energy. I get the impression that it may not be at all new — it’s just the first time I’ve encountered it!

Thank you, Sydney — and bring on more neat discoveries!