Couldn’t help but repost this when I ran across it this morning:

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That’s an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that’s the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the US railroads.

Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that’s the gauge they used.

Why did ‘they’ use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that’s the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England) for their legions. The roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore, the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever.

So the next time you are handed a specification/procedure/process and wonder ‘What horse’s ass came up with it?’, you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horse’s asses.)

Now, the twist to the story: When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRB’s. The SRB’s are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRB’s would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRB’s had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site.

The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRB’s had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses’ behinds.

So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world’s most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse’s ass. And you thought being a horse’s ass wasn’t important? Ancient horse’s asses control almost everything… and CURRENT Horses Asses are controlling everything else.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

OK, so since the cab stories are kind of captivating, let’s take a look at a couple of my passengers this past weekend. Truthfully, only one was a passenger – but that’s getting ahead of the story.

First up is a guy I nicknamed (privately, in my mind) Pirate Steve. Why did I nickname him that? When he got in, he dropped his cellphone on the floor of the car. He said, and I quote, “Arrr! I dropped me cell phone!”

I wish I could make this stuff up – then I could write best-selling fiction and be rich. I asked him where he needed to go – he said “I be needing to get to the theater (pronounced thee-A-tur) afore the moving picture starts!” When we pulled up in front of the theater, he said “Ay, I be thankin’ ye for a safe journey! Keep the change, ya scurvy landlubber!”

Apparently, pirates tip well. The meter was about $9, and he handed me $15. Decent sort for a pirate.

The second person was a real case. She was standing on the northwest corner of 75th Avenue and Thomas Road. I was sitting in the left turn lane on Thomas to turn north on 75th Avenue, so she was to my left. She looked at her watch and waved at me, so I rolled my window down. She yelled, “Can you take a fare?” and looked at her watch. I said “Sure thing! Jump in!”

She got the walk signal, and started across. She kept looking at her watch, as she continued straight across Thomas and continued walking south. The only thing I can figure is that she was in a hurry – to be late.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

You know what to do!

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

I was going to do an update today, but then I’ve been involved in the migration of the Black Canyon Railroad Museum site to a WordPress platform, and decided to go ahead and finish up some little projects over there (big thanks to Bushwack over at American And Proud for the moral support in getting a second wordpress blog going!). I was driving a cab yesterday, had a good shift with a minimum of weirdos. I’ve also been thinking of restarting my BTR show, with an emphasis on interesting web sites and cab stories. What do you think?

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

I know, I’ve used that title before. But really, I think I am. Let’s take a look at this week already, shall we?

Sunday was church – with all the activity that entails. Consider that I am a Deacon, I sing on the praise team and I help with communion, and you get an idea of how busy I stay just on Sunday. Sunday afternoon was spent trying to get some more configuring done on the new computer. Sunday evening I placed the third week’s worth of stuff on eBay for a friend – he’s selling off his life-long collection of models, collectibles, and excess HO scale railroad stuff. (by the way, the keyboard on this laptop is slightly difficult to get used to – couple that with my occasional bouts of dyslexia and my typing really slows down.) Sunday night, I finally got a chance to sit down and watch “Taking Chance” – which, if you haven’t done yet, you should. It was very well done, and Kevin Bacon really nailed his role.

Monday, besides being laundry and dishes day, I also revamped the railroad’s website – The Black Canyon Model Railroad Museum, Inc. I moved it off the cobbled-together site I had built and onto a WordPress platform. I like how it turned out, why don’t you swing over there and take a look? Let me know what you think.

Today I’ll be going over to my friend’s house to help box up, label, and ship the items that sold from last week. If you are interested in seeing what kind of stuff he collected over the years, take a look here.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!