http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRrdjjncJv4
This is still my favorite “good reporting idea gone not quite as expected…”
Trains are a LOT quieter than when I was a kid, too. As kids we walked along the tracks - OK - by today’s standards we were dumb, but in those days everybody did it - and you could hear a train coming from miles away. Today, with diseasels, roller bearings, welded track, super smooth trackage, and all the rest, a high speed commuter can be on top of you before you know it.
Back then, in Johnny Cash’s words: “Trains were big n’ black n’ smokin’, louder 'n July four…”*
*From Texas 1947, my personal favourite train song. 