Running Journal, Thursday, 2006-11-16
Resting heart rate: 63 bpm (60 second test)
Weather: overcast, 2 m/s wind
Temp: 17.7 C (70 F)
Time: 13:00-17:00
Terrain: flat
Comments: Dawn and I visited the
California State Railroad Museum today. We learned what the slang term
gandy dancer means; that
two Golden Spikes were created for use at
Promontory, Utah (the Museum displays the "Lost" one, which was inscribed after May 10, 1869); and that the
Central Pacific Railroad company constructed over
37 miles of snow sheds to minimize snow on the tracks in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The construction of the
first Transcontinental Railroad represents a major human accomplishment of the 19th century. Prior to watching the Museum's movie "
Evidence of a Dream," we viewed Thomas Hill's dramatized oil painting, "
Driving the Last Spike." Dawn and I saw the
Southern Pacific No. 1, "C.P. Huntington," (their first train), the
Central Pacific Railroad No. 1, "Governor Stanford" (their first train), and the million pound cab-forward Central Pacific
No. 4294. A docent showed us the various controls to operate No. 4294, including the
fireman's lever to control the amount of water injected into the boiler, the
engineer's acceleration lever, whistle lever, brakes, and reverse lever. We also visited some of the passenger cars. The Museum's
Canadian National Railways Sleeping Car
No. 1683, the St. Hyacinthe, rocks gently back and forth while a "
soundtrack simulates the typical night sounds of a fast-traveling heavyweight passenger train: the rhythmic clicking of the wheels, the distant whistle of the locomotive, and the descending Doppler effect of passing crossing bells." I've traveled on trains across America, Eastern Europe, and Russia, and the combined effect
of blackened windows, soundtrack, and rocking motion is convincingly real. The docent inside shared with us that he hailed from Chicago. The next car we visited was the silver
AT&SF Railway's Dining Car
No. 1474, the Cochiti. This car exhibited many of the china ware collections that the Museum
sells. I enjoyed the
California Poppy the best. Dawn enjoyed the
Mimbreño. Very expensive. Last but not least we both climbed inside the Great Northern Railway's
Post Office Car No. 42. We chatted inside with the docent for 15 minutes as he showed us how to operate the hook to capture mailbags from station mail cranes. He explained that the mail operators stood on their feet in cramped, rocking conditions for eight hours at a time. We both felt overwhelmed at the amount of information available and didn't get a chance to read everything. After quickly looking through the Museum store and satisfying our desire to see
Chessie the Kitten, we exited the Museum and walked to
Steamers Cafe for coffee and a pumpkin muffin. I had water. We explored
Evangeline's, where Dawn found a very cute purple dragon.
Time: 240 minutes (4:00)
Goal Time: n/a
Distance: n/a
Total Distance For Year: stopped counting after first marathon
Weight (after run):
Any irregular feelings, aches, pains, heart rate, and so forth?: None. Left toe hurt a bit.
Foods eaten today: cereal with soy milk, bagels with Smart Balance and cinnamon-sugar, peppers with stuffing, pumpkin ale
