I Suck With Remembering Dates…and Names…and Everything, But I Heard That It Was @semisolidmind‘s

emmet brings up safety checks quite a bit. do you happen to know what those involve doing?

Yes! I can speak to it more now that I've actually driven a locomotive once.

When operating a train, you're in constant communication with the rest of the crew, and you have to be intensely aware of your surroundings. The locomotive I've worked with, Strasburg #90, weighs 212,000 pounds. That's 106 tons of steel. And that's not factoring in her tender! 90 could get up to 50 mph in her days hauling freight in Colorado (and probably still could if she was allowed to at Strasburg, since they take such great care of her).

So imagine this. You've got something that weighs 106 tons going at 50 mph. Behind it are a bunch of cars laden with goods (in 90's case, she pulled sugar beet trains). You are NOT going to be able to stop on a dime. That's why trains require constant communication with both the entire crew and signalpeople and dispatchers along the line - to make sure traffic flow is kept clear and to warn of any incidents well in advance that would require the engineer to stop the train. Stopping #90 was a multi-step process - I first had to close her throttle down, and then I had to ease on her brake until she came to a stop. It wasn't instantaneous, like it would have been in a car. We came to a rolling stop. No matter how modern or efficient your train is, you're not going to be able to jam on the brakes that way.

I wasn't allowed to take any photos in the cab (safety, again), but here's two shots of me driving her backwards:

Note that I am a) verrrry focused on what I'm doing and extremely serious about it and b) leaning out the cab window for increased visibility. The door in the front of 90's cab was open, too, which helped me see further out the front, but when it comes to going backwards, I had to lean out the cab window. Steam locomotives actually usually have cushioned arm rests in the windows because engineers have to lean out the window going forward and backward.

Staying in communication has gotten a lot easier with modern technology. Although she was built in 1924, 90 has a radio installed, so the engineer overseeing me driving and a conductor were in constant communication, with the conductor reporting distances in terms of car lengths so those of us in the cab knew when to cut the speed. He was an extra pair of eyes on the back of the train. On longer trains, you'll usually have a team of people working under the head conductor to do this, including brakemen, who historically would use flag and lantern signals to send information up to the head conductor and engineer. Nowadays, we have radios, but on heritage railways, these signals survive in places. I try to learn Strasburg's hand signals whenever I'm there, just in case I need them. They're helpful, especially since steam locomotives are quite loud!

These days, trains usually have something called Positive Train Control, which basically sends the train information about where it can travel safely, how fast it can do so, etc. If you see a steam locomotive doing a mainline excursion and it has a diesel behind it, the diesel is likely providing Positive Train Control for the train (as well as power to air conditioning for passenger cars, etc.). In terms of pulling the train, the steam locomotive won't need the diesel's help - it's significantly more powerful. But in terms of staying in touch, that's where it comes in handy. Union Pacific Big Boy 4014 has actually been fitted with PTC, because Ed Dickens is a fucking steam god and I want to be as cool as he is someday.

Before you take off, you need to go through and make sure everything's in working order, too. The system of pointing and calling is an effective way to do this, and it helps improve your muscle memory, to boot. By verbally stating each task as you go through it and check to make sure each step is done in the right order and everything is functioning, you don't miss them or skip over things, you don't rush, and you're more likely to notice if something isn't right. In the NYC Subway, we have these things called zebra signs (or should that be Zebstrika signs?) at each station above the platform. They mark the specific spot on each platform that the train needs to stop at. When the train stops, the engineer should have it lined up so that the car the conductor is in is lined up with the sign, and the conductor confirms this by opening their window and pointing at the sign in acknowledgement. Once you know they're doing it you can start watching for them doing it, or, you know, stand under the sign and hold up funny signs for them that they're legally required to point at.

So Emmet bringing this up isn’t just an off-handed thing. This is a legitimate and extremely important aspect of his job, especially since he and his brother work with moving passengers in a densely populated city. There’s a lot of extra safety things to be concerned with regarding passengers - their safety needs to be ensured if there’s an emergency, the train gets stuck in a tunnel and they have to be evacuated, etc. You have to know exactly how to handle those situations, and you have to be prepared if they do come up, but you also shouldn’t usually get to that point because you already made sure the passengers were kept safe because you followed signals and scheduling.

A quick, tl;dr version would be something like this:

Before you even get into the train, check the locomotive and cars to make sure they’re serviceable (on steam locomotives, this involves the engineer oiling the wheels, etc.)

Once in the cab of the locomotive, go through the operating procedure to start driving

Do NOT start driving without signaling that you’re going to move. Usually that’s two short whistles if you’re going forward or three short whistles if you’re going backwards. This gives people time to get out of the way. You’ll also ring the bell when you start moving, too.

Stay in constant communication with the crew and keep an eye on your surroundings.

At a crossing, you have to whistle AND ring the bell to give cars and pedestrians a clear warning that you’re coming (whistle pattern is long-long-short-long). Repeat as necessary until you hit the crossing.

GIVE YOURSELF TIME TO STOP. This one’s crucial. You can’t stop right away, you’re moving too much weight to do so.

Follow any light signals you receive, as they’re a good well-in-advance warning of any issues, and make sure your radio is working all the time. If you lose that communication, you’re in trouble.

Don’t be this guy. (Okay, this one is a joke, it’s a VHS I grew up with as a little kid. But seriously, don’t be this guy.)

Hopefully this makes some sense, anon!

when you wanna practice drawing Scrungly and Blorbo from your Games so you dig up that AU post you made a week ago and reference from it.

anyway i'm gonna watch that Pokemon Direct this weekend for any sign of DLC for a game that came out One Month Ago.

Cells at work spoilers Chap 10 part 1

Can we just discuss chapter ten of the Manga? (Photos are from the manga)

It started with the usual husbando saving his waifu- I mean wbc (white blood cell) killing the germ that rbc (red blood cell) encounter.

This picture right here is my favorite cause in this three panel you could see rbc being aware of her flaw might get someone hurt. Wbc in the other hand even though he was hurt he didn’t stop to help rbc being lost.

The next page is me screaming on the top of my lungs cause one how determine rbc is to not get lost, two how understanding or respectful wbc is to her passion and lastly he immediately came when he heard rbc screams. Also i love how rbc caught the CO2 box.

CAN I JUST SAY WBC AND RBC ARE JUST COUPLE GOALS OR SOMETHING? Wbc was worried so he followed her but in secret cause he didn’t want to disrespect her wishes to do it herself. Plus when rbc was yelled at wbc flinches, its like he felt what rbc was feeling ( or just cringes)

Could i just have a wbc in real life, i mean an actual humanize version of wbc cause dang i need someone to be that supportive in my life. Look! He is encouranging her from afar, even though it looked weird from the others (other rbc)

Lowkey protecting her is just.. MY HEART CAN’T TAKE IT! Rbc remembering where wbc first saved her (total bs cause that was not the first *winks*) and blushing just killed me.

I’m as proud as wbc is proud for rbc. I’M PROUD FOR BOTH OF THEM! Lets appreciate how he gave a speech like dialogue to killer t cell about how awesome his waifu- i mean rbc was?

Rbc crying tears of joy made me tear up a little, i love this blood cell.

Someone should draw the submas twins in a bouncy house. That’d end in chaos and I’m 100% here for it

sorry

he's just sleeping.

Unintentionally Derailed Hype Train?

In the wake of the Curious Tea Party PokeMas event being announced and including Submas, I thought I’d compile some things that might hint at why he was chosen to be included in PLA and what sort of went wrong with that. I’d been thinking about creating this kind of post for a while now and was doing some research (I do not like to go off pure speculation with these posts), but the event being announced last night gave me a few more ideas to work with.

Also I’m not interested in debating, headcanons, etc. You’re free to disagree with my opinions but I don’t want to argue over things. My primary goal here is to provide reassurance to people who are upset over being left hanging by the way PLA currently is. Please respect this. bl*nkshippers dni–I will block you

Keep reading

Writing Submas? Here’s Our Local Trains.

I’ve been seeing some posts in the Submas tags that have made me think this might help some people, so here goes:

In the greater NYC metropolitan area, we have a few different rail agencies. I grew up here as a Weird Train Kid (read: undiagnosed autistic girl), so I’ve spent a fair deal of time around all of them and know them very verrrry well as a result. These are the essentials that will help you write Submas more authentically!

A few abbreviations to be aware of before we depart:

MTA: Metropolitan Transit Authority

NJT: New Jersey Transit

LIRR: Long Island Railroad

NYC: in the context of the city, New York City - but in the context of railroads, New York Central

PRR: Pennsylvania Railroad

CNJ: Central Railroad of New Jersey

DL&W: Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad

That said, let’s get into the meat of this.

Let’s Talk MTA For A Second…

The MTA in New York City actually oversees more than the subway system. It covers buses, the subway, two car tunnels, several car bridges, the LIRR, Metro-North, and a light rail on Staten Island. For an in-depth look at the subway system, you can read my Submas primer here, where I covered it. The subway will obviously be the one element you need to be the most concerned with here (and I’m happy to answer questions on it anytime!), but it’s important to know that the LIRR and Metro-North are also under the MTA’s jurisdiction. Metro-North operates commuter rail north of NYC, with any west-of-Hudson rails being operated by NJT under contract with the MTA, and the LIRR moves people around on Long Island. The LIRR is actually the busiest commuter rail line in the United States, followed by NJT and Metro-North. We like our trains here.

Culturally, you should know that the LIRR is notorious for having what are known as “drunk trains,” which are trains filled late at night with passengers returning to the suburbs after partying in the city all night. Nobody likes being stuck on the drunk train with these people except cultural anthropologists. It apparently even made it into an episode of How I Met Your Mother.

You have two major stations in Midtown. Which one is Gear Station supposed to be?

I am fairly positive that Gear Station is an amalgamation of Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal. Architecturally from the outside, the building resembles Grand Central more, given what happened to Penn Station:

Compare Grand Central, right down to the green roof:

Once you get inside Gear Station, though, you notice that a lot of it is actually underground. Both Grand Central and Penn Station have significant below-ground portions, with Penn Station being entirely underground nowadays. (Those of you who have been here for a while may have seen me draw Ingo complaining about Penn Station. He’d have his reasons to, believe me.)

The structure in the middle reminds me a lot of the information desk at Grand Central:

And the general darkness is more like Penn Station.

Penn Station once had beautiful natural light. In 1963 they stole that from us and New York has not forgiven them.

We could have had it aaaaaallllllll…

Grand Central was built by the New York Central, and Pennsylvania Station was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad. In the late 1960s both the NYC and PRR weren’t doing very well and they merged into Penn Central. We don’t talk about Penn Central.

New Jersey Transit?

Right, NJT, the bane of my existence. We’ve had a love-hate relationship for the majority of my adult life. NJT does not know this, but I do.

NJT operates commuter trains on lines once owned by railroad giants like the Erie, the DL&W, and the CNJ. Despite being the second-busiest commuter line in the entire country, New Jerseyans are frequently found complaining about them because we need to get places and they’re delayed because they saw a snowflake or something.

In all seriousness, NJT isn’t horrible and they do what they set out to do, but as a regular commuter myself I understand the complaints. It’s frustrating.

If you look at the composition of Ingo and Emmet’s team, a large portion of them can be found on the “Jersey side” of Unova (especially the Chargestone Cave area), which implies to me that they either are straight-up from New Jersey or spent frequent time in the area building their team, so they absolutely would be familiar with NJT and how to use it. I don’t usually get into headcanons in these posts because they can be very personal, but I’ve often thought it would be funny and cute if they spent time as kids looking for the remains of Penn Station in the Meadowlands, because when Penn Station was demolished for some reason a lot of the rubble was thrown into the marshlands.

As a personal note, no, I haven’t found any pieces of Penn Station yet myself. Yet.

You were a “weird train kid,” you said. Where’d you get your fix growing up?

Besides the above transit agencies, I actually went with my family to the Strasburg Rail Road a lot as a kid out in Strasburg, Pennsylvania. One of the oldest operating railroads in the United States, Strasburg runs heritage trains pulled by historic steam locomotives - it’s only a couple of hours away from where I grew up in New Jersey, so it’s not a difficult stretch to say that if the boys grew up in NJ or NYC, they’d have been able to go there as kids, too. Pennsylvania in general is teeming with heritage railways and train history (thank you, PRR and DL&W, and a lot of other long-gone railroads) so if you’re like me and you like railroad history there’s a ton of places to visit. I actually did a recent swing through the state with my dad (that Submas came with me on in spirit via plush form because I wanted to take funny photos), and in less than two weeks I’ll be on the footplate driving Strasburg #90, my first crack at driving a steam locomotive. I am either really cool or a massive nerd, you decide.

What if I have more specific questions?

Ask me! My inbox is always open and I am always SO happy to talk about train shit or go and get you photos or footage of specific stations/locations/trains/etc. I’m riding the rails underneath NYC all the time, so I’m more than happy to provide anything you might need!

I come bearing 28 shitpost submas prompts

Thank god tumblr implemented the shorter posts or else I would’ve been ashamed of making this post so long

shitpost generator here!

Here’s a list.

What’s it for? yeah.

Ingo Confirmed Canon Information - Bad at facial expressions but good as vocal expressions (his face looks very neutral even when he sounds excited) - Speaks very loudly, has no indoor voice - While this is more obvious in the Japanese games, Ingo speaks in a overly polite/formal way - Yells “BRAVO” when anything smth he finds exciting happens - Left handed Manga Depiction - Appears to be easily frustrated when losing battles - Emmet’s impulse control through brute force, will simply grab and remove Emmet when he’s being too abrasive - Repeats the name of the trains destinations in the speaker after Emmet does the first announcement. Maybe this is just a thing trains do but it’s important to me. - More expressive than in the games (not by a large margin) Pokemon Masters - Seems to have an overbearing sense of responsibility(?) - Hisui is not the first time he’s been transported into a different universe for unexplained reasons. - Does not seem to be aware that his face doesn’t show the emotions he’s feeling. - Most of his conversations are about trains and rail systems. Emmet Confirmed Canon Information - His face is always very expressive but he speaks in a monotone way ( he will look very excited and yet talk in a very neutral way) - While this is more obvious in the Japanese games, Emmet speaks in a more informal way than his brother - Gets very serious while battling - Right handed - Starts the majority of his sentences with “I am Emmet” - Says “very” as “verrrry” - Likes winning more than anything else - Prefers double battles

Manga - Will loudly announce he is going to eavesdrop on your conversation as he walks towards you - This depiction of Emmet appears to generally be louder and more energetic - Does this weird stiff walk a lot - Mainly does the location announcements on the train speakers. Idk how you call them.

Pokemon Masters - Really looks up to Ingo - Prefers the rules of a double battle - Puts a great deal of importance on safety - Seems to have a thing with combinations; he states multiple times that he loves combinations when it comes to pokemon battles and takes great interest in the sync pairs system. - Mentions Ingo a lot - Considers him and Ingo as “each other’s closest rivals”