You can learn a lot from trains

Trains are an apt metaphor for many things in life. I'll spare you the obvious ones.

I was at the Helenelund train station today watching trains go by and was noticing how the wire that contacts the pantograph goes left to right and right to left from pole to pole. As I mentioned in the "pantograph" post, this is so that the contacts wear evenly and last longer. But the analogy with politics came to mind. It seems we need to wave left to right and right to left to prevent wear patterns and preserve the contact with the government.

There's more. The insulators that separate deadly amperage from the ground are made of polished and glazed ceramic. The smooth surface is chosen to prevent dirt, grime, and dust from clinging to it, especially when it's wet. I don't know what happens when it's raining and the whole thing is wet. I suppose the electrical shorts arc and cause it to dry until it gets wet enough to cause the next short? If you look at the insulators, they look like stacked bowls with about an inch of air between each one. This is to increase the distance the arc would have to go since the current flows on the surface of the insulator (easily explained with Maxwell's equations). My colleague R. told me all this and pointed out that it takes about 100,000 volts to arc one centimeter so when you see static sparks from carpet, there's a lot of volts involved. But volts don't kill. Amps kill; amps= current. So the insulators for the trains must have a heck of a lot of current. So what metaphor could one derive from this?

Here's the thing. I probably wouldn't have noticed the structure of the insulators or even wonder had R. not pointed it out. Yet they are so common. We see similar familiar things in people but often stop to understand why they are the way they are. It makes since when all the facts are out.

The train station was pretty quiet today because most Swedes had left the city as part of the Mid-Summer tradition. This triggered a little melancholy which reminded me of Bob Dylan's classic song "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry".


Well, I ride on a mail train, babe
Can't buy a thrill
Well, I've been up all night
Leanin' on the window sill
Well, if I die
On top of the hill
And if I don't make it
You know my baby will.

Don't the moon look good, mama
Shinin' through the trees ?
Don't the brakeman look good, mama
Ragging down the "Double E" ?
Don't the sun look good
Goin' down over the sea ?
Don't my gal look fine
When she's comin' after me ?

Now the wintertime is coming
The windows are filled with frost
I went to tell everybody
But I could not get across
Well, I wanna be your lover, baby
I don't wanna be your boss
Don't say I never warned you
When your train gets lost.


I suspect he'd have sang something about pantographs and insulators except he mostly saw diesel power or coal powered trains that had lonesome whistles that make you want to cry. Funny thing, though, after reading this over, it makes me laugh so maybe Bob was wrong, it doesn't take a lot to laugh.