Hi! I’m Tieplate.

I’m the person behind this blog, The Iron Horse, as well as Railhead Productions on Youtube and Twitch. I spend most of my time working at my 40-hour-a-week job in central Alabama, where I’ve lived off and on since 2005; when I’m not doing that or working on this blog, I’m usually drinking strong Guatemalan coffee, playing sci-fi, mil-sim, or train-sim games, or working on my sci-fi novel about lesbian space pirates–excerpt coming soon!

I’ve always loved trains. My first words were “choo choo,” so when I got the chance to work for the Alaska Railroad in 2022, I jumped at it. I earned my FRA conductor’s license in May of that year, and though I decided to move on, my time as a railroader was a tremendously valuable and memorable experience. I’m also a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where I worked part-time as a Research Assistant for the RailTEC research program, under the mentorship of the brilliant Dr. C. Tyler Dick. I credit him, and my time at UIUC, with the depth of my understanding of rail operations and theory (which I was able to put into practice in Alaska).

This blog is my platform to discuss the intricacies of American railroading, including the technical and functional aspects but also the political and sociological. Railroading has long been a very conservative industry, in both the political and literal sense, and I aim to provide a left-wing perspective to help balance the conversation. While I am of course a Rail Fan, I’m just as interested in the why of railroading as the what and the who, and I try my best to account for the material realities of the railroad industry, and the world at large. So welcome on board, and keep your tickets handy; the Iron Horse is now departing!