www.railfan.com/departures


www.railfan.com FOUNDING PUBLISHER


HAROLD H. CARSTENS (1925-2009)


PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER HENRY R. CARSTENS VICE PRESIDENT


JOHN A. EARLEY EDITOR


E. STEVEN BARRY ASSOCIATE EDITORS


WALTER C. LANKENAU OTTO M. VONDRAK


CONTRIBUTING EDITORS


MICHAEL T. BURKHART JAMES D. PORTERFIELD


COLUMNISTS


ALEXANDER B. CRAGHEAD THOMAS KELCEC GREG MONROE


DELAWARE & HUDSON TRAIN 417 SKIRTS THE HARLEM RIVER AT MARBLE HILL, N.Y., ON APRIL 16 2004. “IMPERFECTIONS” ABOUND, FROM THE MISMATCHED CANADIAN PACIFIC DIESELS TO THE GRAFFITI ON THE BOXCARS. PHOTO BY OTTO M. VONDRAK


In search of perfection?


SO OFTEN IN THIS HOBBY WE PURSUE perfection as if obsessed by it. For example, I know some who make a record of every locomotive that they see, a practice known as “trainspotting” in the United Kingdom but that seems to have no definitive name here in North America. Many of these folks talk about “perfect” consists, which generally refers to some type of consistency or order. One holy grail: a brace of locomotives of the same class, ordered by their locomotive numbers sequentially, beginning with the lead unit of that class. For others — especially photographers —


it is more an aesthetic matter. It might be, for example, a consist of locomotives that re- flects what is typical of a specific railway line, or a train of cars that best evoke the re- gion. Green and black BNSF SD40-2s haul- ing grain through eastern Washington, for example, or a unit coal train in West Vir- ginia behind CSX AC6000s. Moreover, pho- tographers often talk about a “perfect” scene, or “perfect” light. This of course im- plies that most scenes and most light is less- than-perfect. After all, perfection must be rare, difficult, an achievement. Collectors are not immune. Slide collec-


tors are always looking for that one more slide to complete a collection, or even that one “perfect” image that has all the desired qualities of the distant past. Ephemera col- lectors want the “perfect” timetable, its pages still as crisp as new, its ink still smelling fresh from the printer, its paper surfaces unmarred by greasy fingerprints. For the steam railfan, there’s perfection


to be sought everywhere. The “perfect” ex- cursion becomes a mental map fantasy that is hard to ignore. The “perfect” experience combines just the right gradient and envi- ronmental factors to coax sound and fury from the locomotive. Yet perfection seems, in so many ways,


the antithesis of North American railroad- ing. Consider, for example, that many of the


4 MARCH 2014 • RAILFAN.COM


most beloved now-gone railways of the past were those with tragic ends. Consider the Pennsy and the New York Central obliterat- ed by a humiliating merger and bankruptcy; the Rock Island scattered to the prairie winds by financial failure; the Milwaukee Road’s Pacific Extension erased from the map. Consider, too, how much love there is for the scrappy short line, just a few carloads away from failure; or for the improbable sur- vival of some ancient pre-war diesel, still shuttling cars at a lonely grain elevator in Wisconsin or Manitoba. Outdated operating practices, anachronistic branch lines, throw-backs and comebacks and returns from the dead. It is all these, the imperfec- tions, that we love so much. But these spectacular arguments against perfection are insufficient. One cannot, after all, build a whole hobby around impending doom and decay. It is unreliable, unpre- dictable, and somewhat depressing. It also ignores a more important case to be made: to appreciate the everyday, and to embrace the imperfections as the unique marks of our hobby. As much as the spectacular enthralls us


all, so often the things that we remember most long after they are gone are the things we once found commonplace, everyday, mundane. The local that crept past the childhood back fence, the distant horn heard at night when sleep is difficult, the dull sil- ver Amtrak run that makes its often unpre- dictable stop in town day in and day out... Maybe none of these things are spectacular, and maybe none of them will ever make the perfect moment or the perfect photograph or what-have-you. But we don’t appreciate them enough. Isn’t it time to change that?


Alexander B. Craghead is a writer, photog- rapher, watercolorist, and self-described “transportation geek” from Portland, Ore. You can reach out to Alex on our web site at www.railfan.com/departures.


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