![]() ![]() Every project has stakeholders with needs that must be identified and addressed if the project is to be successful. The railway engineer of today must take a systems approach to any design task. With but a casual browsing of the topics covered in this book, one is struck by the interrelationships that exist between the various disciplines that make up railway engineering. Along that journey, you will meet and collaborate with talented, dedicated people, who will be more than happy to share their knowledge - just as we have in our journey to put together this guide. You don’t need to know it all at once, you just need to know that our industry has so much to offer and that the learning journey is challenging and rewarding. There is so much you can learn about railroading. I don’t believe you will find another book quite like it. Even with all their expertise, they all drew from the knowledge and experience of so many more of their mentors and peers. But, it really was the collective efforts of the committee and friends of the committee, fifty people representing well over 1200 years of railroad experience contributed to this book. Without Joe’s determination, I don’t think this monumental task would have ever been completed. We know how hard he works and felt that we should at least contribute a fraction of his efforts. The names you see that have contributed to each and every chapter in this comprehensive book got the job done because they believed in the project and they didn’t want to let Joe down. Joe has made the Practical Guide to Railway Engineering possible by using his most effective managerial tool - GUILT. The good leadership continued when Joe Riley became our Committee 24 Chairman. We wanted to help you get started on the right foot - you be the judge. As you can see by the size, you would need big pockets. Our first thought was a short manual as an introduction to the railroad industry, sort of a pocketbook. We knew that there was so much good information that we would need to put it in a book of some sort. All the stakeholders had something that they held to dearly and thought was too important to cut. Trimming is not an easy task by a committee. You see the challenge was not finding enough information, but to decide all the information that we would cut out so as to not overwhelm the participants. We then met in Chicago and revisited our outline. We then met in Calgary and detailed the outline. ![]() How do we ramp up young talent in today’s environment that doesn’t 1 ©2003 AREMA® I N T R O D U C T I O N allow for the long on the job training orientation into railway engineering that most of us received from our mentors? We met in Kansas and formed an outline for a course. We wanted to address the lack of mentoring available for those young civil engineers who were finding employment in the industry through consultants. How could our committee address the problem created by railway downsizing that has reduced the large engineering departments, allowing the consultants to fill the void. We agreed the future was strong, but it had changed since we hired on. You see, a few years ago, we as a committee were musing about the future of the railway industry that we all love so much. It was Charley that convinced us that the industry needed a “Railroad 101” course. ![]() This project has been Charley’s dream for years. It started with Charley Chambers, our past committee chairman and visionary of this project. What separates an ineffective committee and this one is leadership. We sometimes spin our wheels, but we more than make up the time by burning the midnight oil to get the job done. I can assure you, this is not the case here. There is the thought, sometimes deserved, that if you wish to accomplish nothing, form a committee. It has been a pleasure to serve on Committee 24 and be associated with such an extraordinary group of railroaders. It is much less bothersome to assign somebody something if they do not have the opportunity to say no. I made the suggestion and I wasn’t at the meeting to defend myself. You see, if you are a member of this committee, it is quite likely that if you come up with an idea or suggest something, you may be tagged with that task. I suggested that we include some acknowledgements in the introduction. Among other things, we discussed how we would acknowledge the hard work of all the people that made this book possible. ![]() I was unable to attend the meeting in New Orleans, so they called to check up on me and to clarify a minor point or maybe it was to gloat about the good time they were having, good friends can be that way. It was AREMA Committee 24, Education and Training, the group responsible for this book. I N T R O D U C T I O N Practical Guide to Railway Engineering Introduction I was at work when I answered my phone to hear an enthusiastic chorus talking into the speakerphone. ![]()
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