Not telling me the time, exactly
The polite response to “I have a stupid question” has always been “There are no stupid questions; only stupid answers”. A lovely thought. Keep it close.
Instead, relish the stupid question you didn’t have to ask (publicly) because you managed to find an answer ON YOUR OWN. Believe me.
While watching some videos about rail travel in the Old Country, I was distracted by a common feature of the locomotives. Nothing obvious to the neophyte. Nothing that seemed to provide a core function. I’m referring to the neat little clock face on the front of each locomotive.
Notice the clock on the front of each locomotive. There it was; a way to bring time to the countryside. Except that I couldn’t get the practical side of placing one on the front, where only someone with a perfect vantage point would see it, and only for a fleeting instant. A clock that came into the train station didn’t mesh well with my own experience; train stations were the KEEPERS of standard time. Idly curious (not compulsive), I put the question out to Google, figuring that I could always write into one of the railfan forums to get a response if I didn’t find a reference. And, with only a few minutes of non-linear research, the answer appeared.
No clocks involved. These were handles, to close the maintenance hatch on the locomotive smokebox. Handles that locked away THIS.
Now I know. Now you know. In North America, cleaning the boiler was handled in another manner (and now I have to find that answer, too. I think it involved a big crescent wrench and elbow grease). But, I didn’t ask the stupid question. My name will not be attached to the sobriquet of the loco clock.
