Gresley Fan

 

Every so often they send us of off into the wide world to learn something job related.  Last week is was a short trip to Skagway Alaska to tour the White Pass and Yukon Railroad.  Now, before you get all excited, I must tell you that the WP&YR is not one of the lines we are planning for the version currently under development.  But it is an awesome railroad, staffed by the nicest, most helpful bunch of people you could ever hope to meet.   If you want the train details, Rick beat me to them in his blog.

Wednesday - You know it’s going to be an adventure anytime you get to deal with flying commercial airlines and get to have multiple interactions with Customs/Immigration.  We left Seattle, got to Vancouver where we collected our checked luggage and passed thru Canadian Customs.  Our line lucked out. I got to the agent (who was surprising fresh faced and youthful looking)  he asked the usual “where are you going and why” questions.  So I told him.  He got down right excited at the idea of a new Train Simulator.  Gosh, another rail fan.  Hooray!  After Customs we gave our bags back to a handler to route to the next leg of the trip to White Horse.  The flight into White Horse was gorgeous, the scenery is stunning.  We got our luggage (again), got the rental cars, prepared to head out.  You *really* know you are in for an adventure when you open the glove box on the rental car to stash the rental agreement and you discover a roll of “complimentary” (?) toilet paper.   I decided not to ask…

We stopped for food across the street from the airport.  It was about 8:00 – 8:30 when we left the restaurant to drive to Skagway.  It was still light outside; I’m talking 3:00-in-the-afternnon-in-Seattle light. Headlights were not needed really at any point during the drive.  It’s about 2 hours maybe 2 hours 20 minutes from White Horse to Skagway.  The road is 2 lanes the whole way with a gravel stretch between the Customs outposts.   I was driving the 3^rd car in the convoy, so I have no idea what Rick and Jon had said, but as I roll down my window the Border Agent says “OK, let’s hear your version of the story”.  He bought it, he even chuckled when I said something about “we are a games team, we are all about fun”.   We arrived in Skagway, we registered at the hotel, we unloaded our bags.  It’s near 11:00 at night and still quiet light.  Several of us stroll around the town in the perpetual almost-twilight.  It is completely deserted.  No a soul to be seen.  Time for bed.

Thursday - I woke up early if not particularly bright.  We are meeting to go to the train shop at 8:30; it’s only 7:00.  I get up and stroll back around town.   At 8:00 sharp someone turns on the Tourist flow.  Sometime in the night 4 gigantic ships docked and 8:00 seems to be when the outbound people disembark.  There is a noticeable flow into town.  We go to the rail yard. 

Steam trains are big, heavy, and dirty.  I’m not being “girlie” about this.  Three different people warned combinations of us to watch out we were in danger of getting dirty.   We really did care, we were there to look at the locomotive.  The #73 was built near the end of the Steam Locomotive life cycle, and it has all the best in modern locomotive refinements, circa  1947. 

Trains are the only thing I’ve ever seen that have the driver’s compartment hosed down with orange cleaner, which, for the record makes metal wickedly slippery.  The loco was getting a fresh coat of exterior goo.  You don’t paint a steam loco, the paint would come off.  They get slathered with a mixture of creosote and some sort of secret sauce.    By 3:00, being good Seattleites, many of us need coffee or other forms of caffeine, so we head into town in search of a beverage.  At 4:00 the call of the wild tourist is sounded and they all flow back to the ships.  It really is very tidal in a humans-in-motion sort of way.

For dinner we selected the local Pizza/Mexican/Greek place.  Food was good, the cold Amber Ale better, and the faces on the workers outside were amazing.   While we had dinner, a crane crew was busy doing something.  The guy running the crane had the most wonderful craggy face and white flowing beard.  He looked like Santa’s younger brother.  When we left we discovered they were hanging flag.  Lots of them.  The crane guy put up maybe a dozen flags from various countries along the top of the restaurant.  It made a colorful sight.  It’s near 10:30 at night and I could have read a book had I had one with me at the moment.

Friday – I still can’t sleep well.  The hotel has good curtains but enough light is coming in around the top and sides to wake me early.  I get up, join the others for breakfast.  Today is “Train day”.  We are going up the mountain.  We got to the yard around 7:30 a.m.   There were about 6 WP&YR people swarming over the #73.  Now, let’s be clear, moving a steam loco means firing the boiler, creating smoke, and exhaust.  We are going out on a rail line thru rugged terrain.  The loco is going to get dirty.  Really dirty.  Still, these folks where polishing, wiping, shining the locomotive.  It’s really cool how the folks at WP&YR take care of these old beasts.  People really love their locos, I’d say (personal bias) especially the steam ones.

There is nothing quite like blowing safety valves for waking a body up in the morning.  Damn, those things are loud, and I had even bummed earplugs off Lisa.   We also got the oil and goo shower when the guys blew out the boiler.  They warned us to expect to get dirty, I thought it was funny.  Jim the engineer was very, very apologetic about it.  He didn’t seem to believe that we found it to be good fun.  But, if you want to really understand the steam experience you need to see the dirty with the romantic.

The ride up to Frazer on the White Pass & Yukon Railroad it magnificent.  The scenery is big, the light is pretty.  And the drop offs are steep.  OK, I am a tester.  In my non-MS life I still think about all the things that can go wrong.  I had a few tough moments on the ride.  There is a section where a retaining wall is holding the railroad in place, and there is a visually stunning trestle bridge which you cross.   I find I am wondering “who inspected this retain wall?  This trestle?  Do they know what they are doing?  How long ago did they last inspect it?”   Deep breathing is your friend.

Up in the meadow section of the line one of the conductors spotted and pointed out 3 caribou.  They are beige and don’t standout much in that environment.  I could not get the lens on ‘em, but I did see them.  At Frazer we took on more water and got out passports checked by a Canadian Customs agent. 

I can’t even begin to tell you how much fun it was getting to be in the cab for part of the trip down.  It is really a blast, even while trying not to get toasted by the fire when it shoots out the bottom of the box.   You also begin to appreciate the amount of motion in a steam locomotive cab. 

After we got down and the WP&YR guys started to put the train away for the night, John spotted a black bear.  Apparently it’s been a big year for black bears; they are very populous this season.  We found out later that the bear had taken off toward the local baseball field where the game was eventually called on account of Bear.

Saturday – Time to head home.  Back thru Frazer.  The same agent was on duty and she did not remember us at all, even if we did remember her.   Lather, rinse, repeat on the whole Customs/Immigration and baggage experience.   Good to come back to a place that gets dark at night.  Now I understand why (with apologies to Robert Service)  “…strange things are done in the midnight sun, by the men who moil for gold”.    

First off, I need to do a bit of housekeeping.  I appreciate the interest folks are showing in the new product.  Unfortunately, I am the wrong source to seek advanced information from.   I know you all have lots of questions about "when?" and "what will be in it?" and "hey, what about [my favorite feature]...?"  but I've been sworn to secrecy, and I can't tell.   So, please don't think I'm ignoring you when I don't answer those types of questions.      Sorry.

 

On the more entertaining topic of field trips, the TS team had a chance to go see a pair of historic locomotives which were touring our area back in May.  I know, we saw them in May and I am only now updating the blog, sorry.  Anyway, the Union Pacific company has a collection of historic engines and rolling stock.  Engine #844 (sometimes know as #8444 to distingush from an 800 series diesel) was in town along with the last surviving Southern Pacific GS - 4, the 4449.   Needlss to say, yours truly and many of the other TS folk decided a road trip was in order to go see these magnificent machines.  Rather than type about how pretty they were, or how impressive they are under steam, I thought I'd just share some of the photos I took instead.

 

I apologize for the partial shot of someone's shoulder, but the loco looked good, so I uploaded the photo anyway.

 

Hello, I like to introduce myself.  I'm Tam Williams, I am the Test/QA lead for Train Sim.  I have been at Microsoft much longer than I'd care to admit, and I have been on Train Sim since early in the process for this new version. 

 

When I interviewed with the team, a was asked a number of variations on the question "why do you want this job?"  I admit, there aren't a ton of female train enthusiasts that I've come across, and I can see why it was an important question to ask.  I thought you all might wonder that same thing, so let me share a little of my background.

 

Trains and railroads have always been part of the fabric of my life.  My Dad grew up in Hyndman Pennsylvania, which as some of you know is on the Sandpatch grade.  I spent summers with my grandparents.  My cousins and I would spend hours playing near and often on the rails.  We spent hours walking the rails like a tightrope.  We would dare each other to walk across the open tie bridge where you could look down between ties and see the creek below.  Whole gangs of kids would hang out along the creek and make the "pull the horn" motion at passing trains, and it made our day when the engineer did.

 

At night we kids would eat dinner in the kitchen.  On the wall behind the table was a 4 foot by 5 foot black and white photo my Uncle had blown up and mounted as a present for Granddad.  The photo shows 2 steam engines (I believe they are Mallets, but have yet to confirm) coming around  curve.  Baltimore & Ohio #7610 and #7620, #7620 is slightly "behind", the trains look like they are racing.  You can see the black smoke as they come up the grade.   A smaller version of that photo is hanging here in my office.  I have fond memories of summers at Gramma's, where the railroad was a backdrop for our adventures. 

 

I married a man who was a major rail fan in his youth.  He still likes trains but as he got older he discovered aviation and vintage planes.  I mention this because when we took our honeymoon in Britain and he asked "want to go to a train museum?" I said "sure".  We spent a wonderful day at the National Rail Museum in York.  I also have photos from that trip in my office.  It was in York that I first saw the Mallard.  I'll bore you all with a nice long post on the Mallard at some future date.   But let me just say it was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley, and from that fact you will understand my blogger tag.  The visit to York has been the direct cause of the purchase of large number of books on the history of the British Railroads.  I confess, I am less interested in the modern stuff, I just love the romance of a steam engine.

 

Trains are big, noisy, powerful things.  They are fun to photograph, they are fun to ride.  The engineering on a locomotive is amazing.  The understanding of how to manage the energy/momentum to haul freight across passes in say, the Rockies, is astounding.  I love learning new things, and I am very jazzed about getting to spend the next phase on my working life learning all about trains.  I also enjoy reading recommendations if you have a favorite railroading book.