Milestones

I've been working on the design of a new 13.7-mile railway line for the past three years and today we had our first major design submittal since deciding on a preferred route about a year and a half ago. The design package consisted of 358 drawing sheets! I'm the lead designer on this project so I've had a hand in creating every single one of those drawing sheets. It is nice to see, after all this time and late nights in the cubicle, what was just an idea and a line on a map turn into a full set of plans that could start construction later this summer and be complete for January 2008 at a cost of $62 million. There's still some design work to do, however, so the final design submittal next month might approach 400 (!) pages. That's a hefty planset.

Also at work today, my employer's National Director of Railway Engineering was in town for a visit and took me out for a long overdue steak dinner to celebrate my obtaining my PE license a little over a year ago. To mark the occasion he presented me with a 1900-printing of the classic 1887 text "The Economic Theory of the Location of Railways" by AM Wellington. Although the book is over one hundred years old, and railway technology has advanced considerably, the basic theory and concepts presented by Wellinton hold true today and were considered when laying out the alignment of the rail line mentioned above. I'm now the fourth railway civil engineer to posess this particular text as it has been passed down over time from senior engineers nearing the end of their career to younger ones starting out. I'm proud to have been entrusted with it for this generation. It's things like this that make the railway engineering profession seem like a small community or club tasked with maintaining the tradition and works of the great railway builders before us and not just another job or career. There is a great responsibility that comes along with being what Kipling called the "Sons of Martha" in 1907.
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The Sons of Martha

The sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited that good part;
But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother of the careful soul and the troubled heart.
And because she lost her temper once, and because she was rude to the Lord her Guest,
Her Sons must wait upon Mary's Sons, world without end, reprieve, or rest.
It is their care in all the ages to take the buffet and cushion the shock.
It is their care that the gear engages; it is their care that the switches lock.
It is their care that the wheels run truly; it is their care to embark and entrain,
Tally, transport, and deliver duly the Sons of Mary by land and main.

They say to mountains, "Be ye removed." They say to the lesser floods, "Be dry."
Under their rods are the rocks reproved-they are not afraid of that which is high.
Then do the hill-tops shake to the summit-then is the bed of the deep laid bare,
That the Sons of Mary may overcome it, pleasantly sleeping and unaware.
They finger death at their gloves' end where they piece and repiece the living wires.
He rears against the gates they tend: they feed him hungry behind their fires.
Early at dawn, ere men see clear, they stumble into his terrible stall,
And hale him forth a haltered steer, and goad and turn him till evenfall.
To these from birth is Belief forbidden; from these till death is Relief afar.
They are concerned with matters hidden - under the earthline their altars are-
The secret fountains to follow up, waters withdrawn to restore to the mouth,
And gather the floods as in a cup, and pour them again at a city's drouth.

They do not preach that their God will rouse them a little before the nuts work loose.
They do not teach that His Pity allows them to drop their job when they dam'-well choose.
As in the thronged and the lighted ways, so in the dark and the desert they stand,
Wary and watchful all their days that their brethren's day may be long in the land.

Raise ye the stone or cleave the wood to make a path more fair or flat -
Lo, it is black already with blood some Son of Martha spilled for that!
Not as a ladder from earth to Heaven, not as a witness to any creed,
But simple service simply given to his own kind in their common need.

And the Sons of Mary smile and are blessed - they know the Angels are on their side.
They know in them is the Grace confessed, and for them are the Mercies multiplied.
They sit at the Feet - they hear the Word - they see how truly the Promise runs.
They have cast their burden upon the Lord, and - the Lord He lays it on Martha's Sons!
-Rudyard Kipling, 1907