From the Editor
Dear readers, First off, a big thank you to you all for your support and patronage over my almost 18-year tenure as editor. You helped me to become the second-longest serving Trains editor in history, following the magnificent David P. Morgan.
Secondly, thank you for giving me my dream job. I grew up reading Trains. It inspired me and opened new doors to a kid in an isolated part of Western North Carolina. It made me curious about railroading way beyond my field of vision. It taught me to write, to read, to ask good questions. It taught me history, business, economics, technology, geography, and so many other areas. It has introduced me to so many fine people, many of whom I now call friends, and even my railroad-loving wife, Cate Kratville-Wrinn. It has prompted me to travel across the U.S. and across the world. It has taken me to places of great scenic beauty and grimy industrial sites. Can you think of another interest that is so rich or so versatile? I cannot.
Railroading is an amazing business that can be studied in so many ways. It is endlessly fascinating, and you can come at it with so many perspectives. How many businesses do you know that have a profit-and-loss portion to them, as well as an artistic side? How many songs do you know about Microsoft or Adobe? Not many. But railroading ... plenty!
Over the years, you’ve been great to me and the staff, cheering us on when we’ve made good calls and forgiving us when we’ve erred. We’ve seen a major upheaval in how news and entertainment are shared. When I arrived in fall 2004, the print product still reigned supreme and the online News Wire was a hobby. Today, the print product is still important but Trains.com and our slice of it are the focus. The times are a-changing, indeed! I don’t fight the change. You, the reader, are the only one who decides how you want to consume media. In the early 2000s, the web was still a novelty. Today, it’s the primary way we share information.
I’ve been honored to have served as editor. It was the job to which I aspired as a college freshman, and it turned out to be much better than I could have ever imagined.
It is now time to part. Like friends standing in vestibule ends of passenger cars about to be separated, so that one section can go one way and one the other, I bid you a safe journey, good scenery, and great companions. It has been a great journey. And now we journey onward. We’ll meet again down the tracks.