When I was about 14 or 15, I got to steer a tugboat on the
Erie Canal. Much the same, I took a while to figure out the
steering. You have to reduce the turn of the steering wheel
well before you are pointed the direction you want. And, a
bit of reverse steer, to slow the nose of the tug from over
swinging.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"Greg O" wrote in message
...

" wrote in message
...

The older son of my sister-in-law's neighbor is a train
engineer for
the local railroad. He went through many months of class
room and on-
job training before he could drive a train. A lot more
complicated
than shown in the movies!

Paul

My dad worked for the Soo, (Soo Line fo the old timers
here!), for over 40
years. He started on the section crew, repairing rail, and
ended up as a
conductor at the end. I was fortunate as a child to go on
the "road" with
him from time to time, long before all the rules and regs
took over. I
remember a few times getting to run a train down the tracks.
Yep! A scrawny
ten year old kid, sitting in the engineer's seat running the
speeds and
braking on a mile long train! Of course the engineer was
looking over my
shoulder giving me recommendations on speeds and braking. It
is quite a
juggling act maintaining speed in hilly country, I never got
the hang of it!
You need to anticipate when the bulk of the train is coming
over the hill
top and heading down the grade and reduce speed accordingly.
Also the same
for going up a grade and trying to figure out when to
increase the speed
selector to maintain speed. I was always over or under the
recommended speed
for the track, never did figure out the seee-saw!
Greg O