Remembering old Days of Strength
The days long past - those were days of strength. The winds blew the grasses of Montana plains and hot winds raced down the rain shadows of the Rockies in those days. Overhead the skies were blue to the horizons or clouded over with the power of racing summer storms. Between the heavens and the earth were the unbroken wires that made America's last Transcontinental Railroad unique in the lexicon of US transportation. The hum of traction motors could be heard rolling tonnage west to the Continental Divide in those days. Alongside the Northern Pacific and the Jefferson River it chased the grade laid out for it decades before. These were days of strength: days when steel wheels rolled over the steel rails and the thought of weakness awaiting at the door seemed like something impossible. How could the end of strength come? How could the overhead power that supplied 5000Hp Little Joes ever grow cold? How could a Thunderhawk no longer run,...