The Weekly Ramble

Time for this week's ramble and buy is it ever a ramble. Only a few little things of note have happened in the world of rail vehicles in the past week, at least things that interest me. There was a T-Alert (well, more of a banner headline on the MBTA website) to the effect of bustitution on the Blue Line due to a disabled train at Orient Heights. Funny, the real situation is more often called a 'track problem' by the (T). Hint to the MBTA: Disabled Train ≠ Derailed Train. Yes, that's right, there was a derailment on the Blue Line. Not sure why, but it was an out of service train (going through a switch I believe) coming in from the Orient Heights yard. Caused some delays, probably put more strain on the Silver Lie for all the people going to the airport. Like I was, but not by train. On a side note, Terminal A is really nice, but creepy when it's really empty. Anyway, in national news everyone's favorite National Railroad Passenger Corporation has ad-wrapped a train again. With an ad for the TLC show "Cake Boss". Yeah, great, except for one huge problem. It's an Acela, and they wrapped the windows too. So, you now have a 5% chance of getting an Acela at standard price that features obscured windows. Some would argue that most Acela passengers are businesspeople who are not interested in the view, and that Amtrak needs the money. Maybe so, but some people, even businesspeople, appreciate either a nice view, or just a great amount of natural light. Instead, they get the microwave door effect, if they can see out at all. Amtrak has a bunch of Amfleets, or better yet Horizons, which can be wrapped, with windows so small that they wouldn't need covering. Instead, they tarnish their premier train and brand by covering with an ad that I think would be hard to read at 150 mph. Or maybe that's just me. Not very much else to discuss at this point in the week, saw a few trains, saw a few kinda cool planes. Anyway, that's it for now, be seeing you.

And so it goes, another week riding forever 'neath the streets of boston.