Brevity by Dan Thompson for August 19, 2012

OK, it’s a stretch that usually Susan would only dare to do. The degee of difficulty is off the charts, but here we go. While Monet was out standing in his field, these guys were Too Loose La Track…..

narrow gauge and wide gauge

Don’t worry. They’re only guide lines.

federally subsidized even then

No offense to,Dan but the older Brevities are just on a different level.

Varnes!!

How did you know??!!

I really WAS about to make a “Too Loose Le Track” joke…and you beat me to it!

The story of how this was really avoided is quite amazing.

@Varnes

Pun over the top (of the rails).

@simpsonfan2

More precious fossil fuels wasted. The same old story.

@briatollah

Another falsehood foisted on the unwashed masses.

Couldn’t they just tie one on?

The same guy went on to design the Hubble telescope.

Oh man, I thought we were using metric.

that’s how you gauge your success

And never the two shall meet “Too Loose Le Track” – Great guys

In May 1869, the railheads of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads finally met at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory. The ceremony to drive in the Last Spike was originally to be held on May 8, but was postponed two days because of bad weather and a labor dispute on the Union Pacific side.

On May 10, in anticipation of the ceremony, Union Pacific’s No. 119 and Central Pacific’s No. 60 (better known as the Jupiter) locomotives were drawn up face-to-face on Promontory Summit, separated only by the width of a single tie. It is unknown how many people attended the event; estimates run from as low as 500 to as many as 3,000 government and railroad officials and track workers who were present to witness the event. The Reverend John Todd was on hand to officiate at the ceremony. Three spikes were driven, one (and probably the most famous) was the gold spike, one was silver, and one was a mix of gold, silver, and iron.23 The gold spike used in the 1939 Cecil B. DeMille movie, “Union Pacific” depicting the event, was the same one used in 1869, on loan to DeMille by its curator, Stanford University.4

Obviously the government was involved.

There’s a rock formation along the original right of way that was called “Chinaman’s Arch.” They renamed it “Chinese Arch.”“Chinaman” is offensive, but “Englishman” is not. Go figure.

Off track!

China meets Russia/Mongolia. The Chinese actually built their tracks a different gauge than the USSR to make it hard for invasion by train. But it meant every passenger or cargo train had to have the cars moved by crane.