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 April 2006 cover from CTC Board Railroads Illustrated.
Read
the cover story text that went with the a |
Ernest H. Robl: "Electronic clips"
Austria's Christmas glow: The warm glow of candlelight spreads across Austria, filling hearts with the "Light of Peace" from Bethlehem each Christmas
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Just as year-round, the railroads deliver passengers and freight, during Advent, they deliver something a little more special -- a light that comes from Bethlehem that many Austrians take into their homes as part of their observance of Christmas. Lit in Bethlehem and brought to Austria in a miner's lantern, much the way the Olympic flame is transported across oceans, this one flame is multiplied tens of thousands of times. Each successive lantern or candle is lit from a flame whose origins can always be traced back to that single flame that came from Bethlehem. ....
German Life, December 2006 / January 2007 issue
(Click for longer but still partial excerpt. You will need to scroll down.)Tracing the roots of Austrian Christmas traditions, including the footsteps of the authors of Silent Night, Holy Night. Related images are available by clicking here.
By ERNEST H. ROBL
Inside the Memorial Tunnel in West Virginia, the smoke was so thick that even the beams of the strong helmet-mounted and hand-held lights penetrated only a foot or two. Low air and motion detector alarms would occasionally bleat out their calls, mixed with the heavy breathing of men wearing full face masks and the scraping sounds of equipment being dragged along the tunnel floor.
But at that site, that was a perfectly normal situation.
The Memorial Tunnel, once part of the West Virginia Turnpike and abandoned when the highway was four-laned on a slightly different alignment, now has a new role, training emergency responders in subterranean search and rescue, and particularly response to mass casualty events in tunnels or other confined spaces. ....
HSToday (Homeland Security Today), November, 2005, issue
Description of joint training for civilian and military emergency responders for weapons of mass destruction events.
By ERNEST H. ROBL
Parked outside one of the portals of the 6.4 mile-long Arlberg Tunnel in western Austria, on the main rail route between Vienna and Zurich, is an expensive string of railcars that the Austrian Federal Railways hope they will never need.
It is one of the railroad's tunnel rescue trains, consisting of special low-profile cars (in case of a damaged tunnel ceiling) loaded with firefighting, breathing, and medical supplies, in addition to a wide range of rescue tools. In case of trouble, emergency responders and railroad workers would proceed into the tunnel on this train.
Meanwhile in rail yards throughout Austria, you will find tank cars painted bright red, with a special white "F" insignia. These are firefighting cars, kept filled with water and equipped with hose fittings compatible the equipment used by fire departments.
In an emergency, even if the local water supply fails, fire trucks can draw water from these reservoirs, either to be used directly or to feed into a foam unit. Though usually stationary, they are inspected periodically to ensure they can be moved not only within the yard but even out onto the main lines. ....
HSToday (Homeland Security Today), Sept., 2005, issue
Analytical piece looking at vulnerabilities in the railroad and rail transit sections and possible solutions. The publication targets an audience interested in national and homeland security issues.
By ERNEST H. ROBL
"BRUTAL," the engineer exclaimed. "Brutal," the fireman agreed.
The word is the same in both German and English, just pronounced slightly differently.
We were aboard a World War II-era class 50 2-10-0 steam locomotive running tender first on an interchange track between the Salzburger Lokalbahn (SLB) and the Austrian Federal Railway (Österreichische Bundesbahnen or ÖBB). Both the engineer and fireman were engineers from the ÖBB who had traded their clean, quiet, and warm electric engine cabs for the open cab of the historic steamer.
As we followed the curve of the track on a pre-Christmas winter evening that was quickly turning into night, we suddenly turned into a fierce head wind that began blowing snow from the top of the coal pile into the cab. At that point, even the heat from the firebox and all our layers of clothing didn't help. The sub-freezing wind filled with snow blasting our faces really was brutal. With the hood on my winter coat pulled snugly to my face, I was able to turn my back to the icy blast, but the crew had to keep watching for signals. ....
Railfan & Railroad, March, 2005, issue
This was a long sidebar within a main piece focusing on modern railroad operations of a railroad based in Salzburg, Austria. This publication is aimed mostly at railroad enthusiasts. To read the entire text and see matching images, click here.
By ERNEST H. ROBL
To Erik Stromberg, operating North Carolina's ports is all bout depth and credibility. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is supplying the depth—a project to deepen the Wilmington port's channel was to wrap up in early 2004. But the credibility part is up to Stromberg, chief executive officer of the State Ports Authority, and his management team.
Stromberg took the ports' job in 1995, following eight years as executive director of the American Association of Port Authorities, a trade and lobbying group. He knows that North Carolina's two ports, in Wilmington and Morehead City, don't simply serve as transportation gateways—they play a pivotal part in North Carolina's economy. To prove the point: They operate under the jurisdiction not of the state Department of Transportation, but of the Department of Commerce. ....
North Carolina Economic Development Guide (a special issue of Business North Carolina magazine), 2004
Business story looking at the economic role and future of the state ports. Stromberg has since moved to another position.
By ERNEST H. ROBL
Along a stretch of highway--perhaps on U.S. Highway 2 through the Northwestern states, or on U.S. 30 in southeastern Wyoming's flatlands, or along Interstate 40 in the Southwest--you hear the rumbling
On a railroad track parallel to the road, a set of three or four massive diesel-electric locomotives, each capable of generating 4,000 horsepower, lugs a long string of railcars cross-country. Over hilly terrain, the train may be struggling, with all the engines in a deep-throated roar; on downgrades, the dynamic brakes howl. On the flats, the train can pace you at 70 miles per hour--or even zoom right by. It might include more than 150 railcars.
For some people, trains are little more than an inconvenience, a noisy nuisance that severs sleep and blocks passage at rail crossings--sometimes for an agonizingly long time. But for railfans, trains make a landscape complete. Railfans love the company of trains so much that they not only like living close railroad tracks, they will travel far to vacation along favorite railroad routes, seeking hotels and motels well off the beaten path because of their railroad vistas. ....
The History Channel Magazine, March/April 2004
An illustrated look at why so many people are fascinated with railroads and at some of America's key historic sites related to railroads. To view the opening picture spread for this article, click here.
By ERNEST H. ROBL
You've already seen the Great Smoky Mountains Railway; you probably just don't realize it.
If mention of this picturesque line, tucked away in the twisting valleys of far western North Carolina doesn't ring your locomotive bell, consider this hint: You were there with Harrison Ford, Sandra Bullock, and Jack Lemmon, among others.
That's right, the railroad scenes in such diverse movies as The Fugitive (the memorable crash between the prison bus and a freight train), Forces of Nature, and My Fellow Americans were all filmed on this versatile short line that, when not busy hauling thousands of tourists or a handful of freight cars, will also deliver Hollywood glamour, many miles from Tinseltown. ....
Railfan & Railroad, July 2000
Travel story describing a visit to a tourist railroad, including what it's like to ride its trains.
By ERNEST H. ROBL
"The world is too much with us," wrote the poet Wordsworth. With railroads, the past is too much with us.
Have you been to a railroad museum lately? I don't mean a museum of railroad history that showcases equipment from 50 or more years ago. I mean a museum that informs visitors about current operations, as well as the future of railroading.
Chances are you haven't. Almost all institutions claiming to be railroad museums are really repositories of railroad history. While many excel at presenting what has come before, most also wrongly convey the impression that railroads are part of the past.
If you've never pondered this, consider that there are museums of art history, as well as of contemporary art, each with quite different exhibits.
Unfortunately, museums are only part of a pattern of activity that associates railroads with the past. ....
Trains, Sept. 1999
Commentary on why modern railroads have such problems marketing themselves.
This is from a long time back, but still one of my favorite stories. It is only one of a number of civil rights related stories that I covered while working for the news service United Press International (UPI) in several cities as a very young reporter.
By ERNEST H. ROBL
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (UPI)--They came to sing his song.
And slowly, to its mournful cadence, the congregation rocked back and forth, black and white with their hands joined.
In the hot, stuffy 16th Street Baptist Church--where four children had once died because of its part in the civil rights movement--the packed crowd was singing "We Shall Overcome."
In the past, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had often come to the same church to lead the same song.
This time they were singing it for him. And this time it wasn't the stirring battle hymn of the civil rights movement.
It was slow and somber.
It was a dirge.
Later, on the steps of the county courthouse, they eulogized King "not as a Negro leader, but as the greatest American leader."
To the throng at the courthouse, they talked of "Dr. King."
But, to the 3,000 packed into the 16th Street church, they talked about "Martin" and that they had come to sing his song--"his song, your song, our song ... the song of the movement, the song that has given us courage," as one minister put it. ....
UPI news wire, April 7, 1968
This story was intended as a sidebar to a national wrap-up story on responses to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The story ran in a number of major national newspapers.
Be sure to also look at the full text of two travel features available on this site:
[View
double-page opening spread of feature for The History Channel
Magazine]
[Travel photo sampler]
Please note: I plan to add additional links to currently available material by me that can be found on other sites. However, that material is available at the discretion of the publications. They may chose to remove that material or to move it to a password protected section of their site that is only available to subscribers. Please let me know if one of the links below no longer works.
Mixed-Use Rail: Adding commuter rail to freight rail lines not as simple as it looks
An examination of the complex issues affecting operating commuter rail on freight rail lines.
A lengthy sidebar looks specifically at North Carolina.
Mass Transit, June 2008
Where Rail Succeeds and Where It Doesn't
A comparison of two North Carolina rail transit projects, one in Charlotte and the other in the Research Triangle area (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) looks at why the Charlotte Lynx system got built and the Triangle project did not.
Metro magazine, July 2007
Rail modernization: It's not your father's rail vehicle
A detailed look at technical changes in rail vehicle technology.
Mass Transit, June 2006
Gifted Travel (Web site)
Written specifically for Web use, this 'link-heavy' piece provides an introduction to North Carolina's museums and historic, natural, and cultural sites for a Web site, Gifted Travel, that focuses on educational family travel. This site also contains introductory pieces by me on Austria and Train Travel.
Sample articles written for HSToday (Homeland Security Today)
I've written a number of articles for the trade magazine, HSToday, with many of these pieces focusing on transportation and related technology. These are links to some of my articles on the magazine's Web site.
Access to these articles may require free registration on the magazine's site.
Germany’s THW: A different way to do disaster response
HSToday, December 2006
Germany's disaster response agency is often held up as an example of how to do disaster response right. The article looks a how the agency is built on completely different principles from FEMA in the U.S.
Old World Rails, New World Lessons
HSToday, September 2005
As Americans grapple with their rail system’s vulnerabilities, some European solutions could help make people and commerce safer. A look at what Europe's rail systems have done to prepare for everything from disaster to terrorist attacks.
The Lost Lessons of Hurricane Camille
HSToday, October 2005
In 1969, Hurricane Camille, the worst storm to strike the United States until that time, devastated the Gulf coast of Mississippi. On that occasion, though, disaster recovery was swift and effective. One of the first responders there looks back on that disaster and reflects on the lessons that were learned then—and apparently forgotten since. (I went into Gulfport, Miss., with the first U.S. military troops after Camille struck.)
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