{"id":727,"date":"2023-03-13T17:12:05","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T23:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/train.xeldom.net\/?page_id=727"},"modified":"2024-09-26T19:15:07","modified_gmt":"2024-09-27T00:15:07","slug":"about-me","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/train.xeldom.net\/?page_id=727","title":{"rendered":"About Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hi! I’m Tieplate.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Me! I keep my conductor skills sharp by volunteering occassionally at the Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum; this photo courtesy of them.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

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!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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).<\/p>\n\n\n

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Real Alaskan railroading: the ARR Anchorage yard is still shrouded in dusk at 08:53 AM local time. Personal photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

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<\/em> of railroading as the what<\/em> and the who<\/em>, 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!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/train.xeldom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/727"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/train.xeldom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/train.xeldom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/train.xeldom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/train.xeldom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=727"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/train.xeldom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":832,"href":"https:\/\/train.xeldom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/727\/revisions\/832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/train.xeldom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}