Alt fuels was Re: [AT] Gasoline $

[Ralph Goff]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cecil Monson" <cmonson at hvc.rr.com>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2005 8:31 AM
Subject: Re: Alt fuels was Re: [AT] Gasoline $


> One thing is such a shame that it has bothered me for years.
> At one time we had the finest railroad system in the world and we have
> allowed it to be almost totally dismantled except for mainline freight
> and high speed rail commuter networks. Instead of one or two locomotives
> pulling 150 cars of freight, we now have 150 trucks, each with it's own
> diesel engine, pulling one truck apiece.

My thoughts exactly Cecil. I wondered when somebody would mention the 
railways. When I was a kid it was a rarity to see a big semi hauling 
anything. Trains were the way everything was moved. With a well developed 
rail system serving all the small towns and cities we moved people and 
commodities efficiently and didn't clog up the highways with big trucks.
Surely it must take less diesel fuel to move a train of multiple grain cars 
on the railway than to have hundreds (thousands?) of tractor trailer units 
each hauling a thousand bushels or so.
Our local rail line has not seen a train pass by in several years and is 
scheduled for closure and eventual removal. The wooden grain elevators are 
all gone. No need for the trains to stop by anymore.

Ralph in Sask.
http://lgoff.sasktelwebsite.net/