.SP Index
Note: The portion in green below originally appeared onWx4's front page in July, 2023. The update in brown appeared the following April. Staff trusts this satisfactorily settles this divisive matter.
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 Critical info for the informed SP fan!
HELD OVER! Further (artificial) Intelligence Upon
a Pressing (to some) Matter
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Dateline 4-30-24: Last summer, we revealed SP's official pronouncement upon was seems to be one of the more pressing matters in SP fan circles: Is "station" or "depot" the proper term for the structure where passengers await trains?
Staff has learned that since this appeared on Wx4, the subject came up as a topic in an online discussion group that inexplicaby(!) failed to consult Wx4's good offices in the process of arriving at a correct resolution. Since, as a matter of course, we don tinfoil helmets to shield ourselves from the brain-mushing F-rays that invariably emanate from social media sites, we have not addressed the discussion group's lamentably errant conclusions directly, but instead pray that the conversation did not degenerate into personal observations in regard to the moral turpitude of participants' sisters and mothers. |
Station or Depot? You make the call
Our own attentions are turned towards the
more pressing matter of impending happy hour.
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Wx4 staff fully admits that we have, since infancy, used the terms 'station' and 'depot' interchangeably when referencing passenger shelters. This, even after retiring from careers in railroading. In our experience, our fellow employees overwhelmingly did likewise.
In its earlier years, SP bigwigs likewise did not seem to care much about this, to the extent that no definitions section even appeared in its book of rules until 1907. That year employees finally learned just what a station was: A place designated on the timetable by name...and blah blah blah. "Depot", on the other hand, remained forever shunned in the rule book.
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| Apparently at least one person DID care, as evidenced by the above insertion into a 1916 "Southern Pacific Bulletin". We suspect that it was merely one of those typical cases of a high-on official getting his shorts in a bunch over, again, something that nobody else cared about (late edit: save railfan discussion groups) - think Donald J. Russell and his fixation with hats.
Regarding the article, whomever was behind this thinly disguised tiraid certainly was in a huff., eh? "Antiquated", and YIKES, "French" - pretty strong stuff for a house organ whose seeming mission was to make SP appear as controversial as melba toast.
So, Southern Pacific clearly took a stand on the issue, but as far as Staff is concerned, we prefer to sit… with Manhattan, rather than hat, in hand.
- EO, 7-2-23
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| Since the above was penned, it has occured to us that this is the 21st Century, and perhaps we should avail ourselves of the wonders of modern technology to arrive at an answer more in keeping with current prejudices:
Thus, we have turned to artificial intelligence to divine an answer from the collective wisdom of the Internet:
Mindful that ChatGPT on several occasions has given Staff follow-up answers that began with, "Sorry, I erred in the previous answer," we nevertheless conclude based up the above that AI and Staff are of one accord on the matter: If asked to take a stand, we prefer to sit.
- EO, 4-30-24
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