Make-a-Wish Kid "Conductor" for CZ 6-20 SAC-RNO

[crescent2]

Huh?

I've read "in my prayers" on a good many threads here from different posters, and read requests for prayers in another AU forum. And I've posted that phrase several times, usually in regard to trespasser strikes, with nary a complaint. It's hardly a sermon.

If suggesting keeping a terminally ill child in one's prayers offends you, you are too sensitive imo. The Make a Wish Foundation serves children who are usually terminally ill. I'm very happy that he had a wonderful day, but he still has a serious health condition to deal with.

 

[Ryan]

http://www.kcra.com/news/dream-comes-true-for-8-year-old-boy/26597464

Very cool turn out!

Thanks for sharing this. There's all kind of dust in my eyes now. Good on Amtrak for making this happen.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Huh? I've read "in my prayers" on a good many threads here from different posters, and read requests for prayers in another AU forum. And I've posted that phrase several times, usually in regard to trespasser strikes, with nary a complaint. It's hardly a sermon. If suggesting keeping a terminally ill child in one's prayers offends you, you are too sensitive imo. The Make a Wish Foundation serves children who are usually terminally ill. I'm very happy that he had a wonderful day, but he still has a serious health condition to deal with.

If it were up to me I'd rather keep religion away from the bulk of the forum as much as possible since in my view it has nothing at all to do with Amtrak or with physical transportation of any type. As a result I have withheld commenting in dozens of other threads in order to avoid forcing the issue where it does not belong. Maybe instead of asking why I have not been more vocal in the past you could consider scaling back your commentary to something a bit less divisive in the future. It's entirely possible to indicate you're praying for the boy without implying that the rest of us agree or need to be a part of it. In my view the application of a spiritual explanation dilutes and devalues the work of hundreds of individual people who chose their own role for reasons only they could possibly know. I would not and could not claim to know better than they do why they participated and I find it unfortunate that others still imply they can.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

DA, I took her comment to be how the Make-a-Wish foundation made this possible for the boy. And that they do these things for kid's with terminal illnesses. I saw no evangelizing in her post or anything to imply that a higher being had anything to do with it.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

DA, I took her comment to be how the Make-a-Wish foundation made this possible for the boy. And that they do these things for kid's with terminal illnesses. I saw no evangelizing in her post or anything to imply that a higher being had anything to do with it.

Fair enough I removed the line about evangelizing.

 

[crescent2]

DA, AmtrakBlue interpreted my comment correctly. The reason the little guy got to be an engineer for a day is because he has a very serious, continuing medical condition. He has some very difficult times ahead with more surgeries. I believe I expressed appreciation to the organizations involved; reread my post. We're certainly not in disagreement about that and I don't understand why you think we are.

Perhaps instead of "Let's all keep him in our prayers..." I should have more properly said "Let's many of us keep..." I suppose I could have also added "or send positive thoughts his way" for those of that persuasion. That's about all the editing I'd be willing to do.

I don't consider a suggestion to keep a child with serious medical problems in one's prayers to be divisive.

I did not see the comment that you removed.

It was not my intention to offend you. Many, many posts (elder care, architecture, restaurants, dog breeds to name some recent ones--it's endless) in this forum have nothing to do with Amtrak, and the forum would be much less interesting if it were strictly limited to that. I also enjoy learning a little more about the posters here, and yes, that certainly includes you.

Occasionally I even agree with you and GML, and then I worry. *JK*

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I don't mind controversial topics in and of themselves. In fact I often join or create them out of my own volition. However, some controversial topics are "protected" from serious discussion in polite company. That's not necessarily a bad thing but being that's the case I believe it's important to avoid abusing such protections. Praying is your choice. It has absolutely nothing to do with me whatsoever. The part I don't agree with is when one person lays claim to the spiritual views and value systems of others. I'd feel the same way toward an atheist if they implied nobody involved with this story was doing so out of religious conviction. As humans we're simply not capable of knowing what everyone else is thinking or where they get their motivations and the more people I meet the more I realize that you really can't take any given view for granted no matter how obvious or common it may appear to us.

Anyway, back to the original topic...

Video clip from a bystander: http://youtu.be/c7H2wXofTH8

What I cannot help remembering is how once upon a time I was able to "operate" a locomotive in much the same manner minus the passengers and fanfare. It was just a switcher locomotive in a local freight yard but to a kid like me it was almost the same experience as a full sized mainline train. Did anyone else ever have a similar experience when they were a child? Was I the only kid who hung around rail yards in my spare time? Did anyone else have a go at operating a locomotive thanks to a friendly engineer or two?

 

[the_traveler]

I did back in the early 70's or late 60's.

I rode my bike 7 miles to do some railfanning at my local station of Ft Edward (FED). Next to FED was a (semi) large yard (at least to a kid) for the D&H. After talking to the employees some, I was allowed to go up and operate a switcher in the yard! What a thrill it was! A few years later, I was allowed to enter the cab portion of a MN DMU from NYG to POU!

 

[JayPea]

When I was a young lad I was good friends with a boy whose dad was the depot agent in the tiny town I lived in. This was on a branch line of the UP. On rare occasions, when the daily train had switching operations to do, we would get to ride in the cab while the engineer was going about his business. I don't recall if I ever actually operated any part of the engine, though. I do recall operating the horn on a few occasions.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Me too! My grandfather was a 40 yr SP hand and as a kid I got to operate Steamers several times (dressed like johnny with my engineer hat, red bandana and brakie gloves) in the freight yards during switching and when I was 12 got a ride in the cab of a Sunset Ltd diesel and the engineer let me actually engineer the train for several blocks! I actually rode on more freights than passenger trains as a kid!

I also had a conductor punch and several times conductors let me punch tickets on SP passenger trains but only the milk runs and mail trains, never on the Sunset Ltd Streamliners!

Another thrill was when the Station Master let me send Morris Code messages

And also hold the message stick when train orders were passed to the engineer when the train didn't stop @ the station!

Needless to say I hung around the Station and yards a lot as a kid! LOL

 

[FormerOBS]

For me, it was a B&O Alco switcher in the Upper Yard in Akron, Ohio around 1959. I was about 13 at the time. Then around the early 1970's, my nephew and I talked our way onto a Milwaukee GP40 at Bensenville, IL and both of us got a bit of throttle time. He's now an engineer. I couldn't go that route because of imperfect color vision.

 

[crescent2]

I don't mind controversial topics in and of themselves. In fact I often join or create them out of my own volition. However, some controversial topics are "protected" from serious discussion in polite company. That's not necessarily a bad thing but being that's the case I believe it's important to avoid abusing such protections. Praying is your choice. It has absolutely nothing to do with me whatsoever. The part I don't agree with is when one person lays claim to the spiritual views and value systems of others. I'd feel the same way toward an atheist if they implied nobody involved with this story was doing so out of religious conviction. As humans we're simply not capable of knowing what everyone else is thinking or where they get their motivations and the more people I meet the more I realize that you really can't take any given view for granted no matter how obvious or common it may appear to us.

DA, did you read my response to your post? As already explained, I in no way implied that Make a Wish, Amtrak, and God got together to provide the engineering experience for the child. I don't know why you continue to bring up motivations. I'm not "laying claim" to anything. I don't know how to clarify that any better than has already been done. And I simply do not consider a seven-word suggestion of keeping a child with serious medical problems in one's prayers to be a "serious discussion" about religion or anything else, nor inappropriate to the subject matter of the thread.

I think we just need to respectfully agree to disagree and be done with it.

Now returning to your regularly scheduled programming...