I want to add the following. I'm an IT professional. In the course of my professional duties, I'm expected to…
Curbside Consult with Dr. Jayne 8/30/21
During the past couple of weeks, I have spent some quality time doing decidedly low-tech things. I know I’m going to be starting a big project soon and plan to be heads-down for many months, so I’ve been trying to get as much adventure on the calendar as I can.
Camping is one of my low-tech pastimes and sometimes it’s just good to get away from the hustle and bustle, although I did enjoy having the option of firing up the hotspot and getting a little work done while I was away. I can’t say I enjoyed the ridiculous humidity or the high number of spiders that wanted to join me in my tent, but overall, it was a good couple of days away.
I also had the opportunity to take an 80-year trip back in time. The Union Pacific “Big Boy” 4014 locomotive has been touring the US, delighting tens of thousands of fans as it carves a figure eight covering Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and Colorado. Having spent a good chunk of my career in healthcare IT, I’m a fan of complex systems. However, you haven’t seen a complex operation until you’ve seen what it takes to run an 80-year-old steam locomotive in the modern world. The Big Boy class of steam locomotives was the largest ever built, and they were originally used to haul freight over the Wasatch mountains. At the time, supporting infrastructure along the route would have included water tanks to keep the boiler full as well as maintenance facilities that could handle such a beast.
Needless to say, nothing like that exists in the US any more, so the train is accompanied by fuel trucks that can supply the recycled oil it runs on after being converted from coal. It also runs with multiple water cars to supply the 100 gallons it goes through each mile as well as a customized tool car that contains nearly everything it takes to keep it running. The train stops every couple of hours for maintenance and lubrication and is accompanied by a “helper” diesel engine to supply dynamic braking so that the antique doesn’t wear out its own brake shoes, since they have to be changed from below and nowhere on the tour has a roundhouse that can support a 1.2-million-pound locomotive. Stopping every couple of hours also allows people all over the US to come out and see it.
Just looking at all the piping, valves, gaskets, and hardware on the locomotive reminds me of the most complex and ancient IT systems I’ve worked with – those where any number of points of failure can bring the system to its knees and there are only a handful of people with the knowledge and skills to keep them running. During the stop I visited, I was able to see the Union Pacific “pit crew” in action getting the Big Boy ready to move out. In addition to replacing a gasket and refilling the water cars, they also performed some “percussive maintenance” on a couple of parts. and I think we can all sympathize with systems that we want to hit with a hammer at times, although the Union Pacific Steam Team gets to do it for real.
Seeing the Big Boy’s crew in action was also a great study in team dynamics. They clearly have made it to the performing stage of team development and were working in 100-degree heat with complete focus and dedication. The head of the team was spotted stabilizing a ladder for another crew member, which reminded me of some of the hospital administrators that I most enjoyed working with, those who weren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves and get to work when things got tough.
In between tasks, they were being peppered with questions from the crowd, which they always answered with a smile. Since they’re essentially rock stars of the railroading world, they were also being asked to autograph all kinds of memorabilia. Watching them interact with the children in attendance, many of whom were dressed like the crew, was priceless. One of the highlights was watching the team’s leader stand on the roof of the cab and capture video of the crowd. Seeing thousands of people come out to admire your work has to be a pretty big rush, I’d imagine.
I was also happy to learn about some of the problem solving that had to happen during the locomotive’s restoration. Much like our work in healthcare (and especially in healthcare IT) if the team didn’t have what they needed to get the job done, they had to figure out how to create it. Where they might be fabricating replacements for 80-year-old parts (as well as the tools to service them) we’re often creating solutions to problems that at times feel like they’re being randomly thrown in our direction. Since patient care is at stake, we don’t have the option of not solving them, so we have to get creative and sometimes cobble things together to get the job done. Those of us supporting legacy systems have to learn how to do things we never thought would be on our plate, and it was a good reminder that every day is a new adventure.
As dark as some of my healthcare days have been over the past year and a half, seeing the crowd at the display event gave me a lot of hope. The Big Boy brought out people of all ages, from newborns in carriers to a woman who was 99 years old, as well as different social, economic, and cultural groups. Despite a mix of masked and unmasked attendees at the outdoor event (although masks were required for those entering the actual railcars) and despite the heat and the fairly crowded conditions, I didn’t hear a single negative word about anything. People were so intent on just experiencing the wonder of the situation that everything else was secondary. When people were inadvertently jostled or bumped, apologies were given from both sides, which is seemingly rare in these days. Union Pacific kept the crowd well supplied with ice water and places to rest in the shade and provided golf carts for those who needed assistance. There was no jockeying for places to take pictures, everyone waited their turn, and it was just a pleasant time to experience a taste of the past. Best of all it was free, so kudos to Union Pacific for an outstanding public relations event that gave a lot of people great joy.
I’ll definitely go into this week with a new appreciation of the concept of hard work, as well as a boost in my mood based on my encounter with the Big Boy and all of its fans. Here’s to better times where everyone can rally around something that unites us and puts a smile on all our faces.
Have you ever heard a steam whistle that rings right through to your soul? Leave a comment or email me.
Email Dr. Jayne.
Hi!
I grew up living three doors down from the main north/south line of the Norfolk & Western railroad. Remember when the used to put the mail bag on a hook beside the track for the postmaster to pick up for later distribution.
Saw our share of train wrecks too!
This is a more literal steam whistle moment, but it’s part of my upbringing that inspired my interests in understanding how things really work and probably had some influence in where I landed in health care IT.
One of my earliest memories; the late 70s northern Ohio, chasing live steam and the general pursuit of rail fan footage. A Saab 900 and Subaru DL tear down a country road in Portage County, racing to intersect the B&O line and on par to make it to the next crossing before the Nickel Plate 4-6-4 steam engine on a vanity dash through Ohio and Pennsylvania runs through it. My father is behind the wheel of the Saab, my mother in the passenger seat is changing the cart on her Beaulieu Super 8mm camera. Moments earlier, they’d gotten some terrific close-in footage of the engine at 55mph on a stretch of road that ran parallel to the railroad tracks. Mom eggs Dad on- faster, faster; they want to document it all. There’s a sort of enthusiastic, joyful mania they share in that moment that my five-year-old mind observes and takes note of, but doesn’t really comprehend until decades later. I’m in the back seat, dividing my attention between the chatter of my parents and my newly autographed book, Tikki Tikki Tembo. A week before, I’d met Arlene Mosel and she signed my book and confided in me and me alone that she had originally wanted to give Tikki Tikki Tembo an even longer name: Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sa Rembo Chari Bari Ruchi Pip Peri Pembo Kiki Kiki Pom Pom Michi Mi Yagi. The Subaru moves to overtake us and I make eye contact with the driver, our friend Dave, and I see he is possessed in the same way as my parents. Dave works at Rockwell, something to do with Space Shuttle heat tiles. He always gets a kick out of my sci-fi drawings and encourages my artistic efforts.
Near the PA border and with 500 ft of film in the can, the gang decides they’ve had their fill of steam and decides to head back west, towards the steel mills of Cleveland. The sun has set at this point, so it’s a great time to get footage of the molten glows, flames, and showers of sparks that accompany the bottle cars and slag cars of the steel mills. I’m there with them on foot, I don’t know how we can get so close to the tracks and the furnaces, but to me it’s as if we’re inside the forge itself, surrounded by flames and smoke, and a rumble that feels as though it’s consuming me. I’m scared and awestruck. What is this all for? What is it’s purpose? “This is a foundry of the modern era” Dad pontificates, “it’ll make more sense when you’re older, just try to remember how you’re feeling in this moment” is roughly what I remembered him saying. Fair enough, I was also thinking about waffles. We stopped at a diner near the mills around midnight and I got my waffles. Tikki Tikki Tembo may not have aged as well.
Your Union Pacific experience takes me back to the numerous model train shows and experiences my father often took our family to while we were growing up. He has always been a model train enthusiast, and was always building and tinkering with the giant model railroad that took up most of our basement in every house we lived in. I can still remember how fun it was, as a child, to run those trains through the mountain tunnels and over the bridges he had painstakingly built. As an adult, my favorite train experience has been traveling on Amtrak from Atlanta to New Orleans on the Crescent line. There’s just nothing like traveling by rail – scenic views, white table cloths and fantastic food in the dining car. Who knew?!