I think I have a comparison for SoDo to think about
I took over a Foreman job on a crew a few years ago. The Guy that had the job had retired. The men that where operating the equipment had been on the same job for 20+ years. They had their way of doing things. Of course everytime i suggested doing something a little different, they fought me tooth and nail every step of the way. Their reason was that they had been doing this same job for 20years and that was the only way it could be done. Problem was, I had been doing the same or similar job at other locations for just as long as they had, so I knew/thought I was doing it right just as well as they knew/thought they where right. Well Prove is in the pudding so to speak. Since i was in charge, it was going to be done the way I wanted it done, it was my job on the line if anything screwed up. When I first took over the job, the crew was always making overtime doing the same repairs over and over. From March to about Sept it was 7days a wk just keeping the railroad track in its roadbed. We started correcting the track defects, instead of just patching and having to keep going back to the same spots. The first year I was there and after several manhours of work, we had the track pretty much stabilized and overtime dropped considerablely. The next summer, we had to go back and do a little more adjusting, and the track pretty much started staying put. Mine you, the last few years has also seen record temperatures which has a very serious effect on railroad track staying put where its supposed to. In other words, just because the original crew had been maintaining that section of track the same way for 20+years, it didnt mean they where doing it correctly. By the second summer of my taking over the crew, maintenance requirements dropped significantly, overtime hours dropped the same amount. Train delays because of track defects became almost non exsistant. It took the old crew 20 years to create the situation that had became a maintenance nitemare. They thought they where doing everything right, and doing it wrong for all those years wasnt because they were'nt trying to do it right. They just had never had anybody teach them the correct way to do it. Currently, there are only a small handful of people with the experience necessary to to do this job correctly. Time has a way of retireing older employees and replacing them with younger less experienced people. It has been said "Take care of your older employees, for if you dont, they will leave you and you will be left with younger employees that lack the education and the experience to get the job done."
Now for anybody to say their welds have always held, never breaks and are good enough because they have been doing it the same way for 20-30 years, doesnt mean their welds are correct or as strong as they can be. It just means you have been extremely lucky Also when someone that knows better, offers help and suggestions, it might be best to listen to what they have to say. You just might find a better way to get the job done. I am not a professional welder, never claimed to be. I am a professional RailRoader with over 38 years of experience. I might not know welding, but if I dont know my railroad job, I have wasted a lifetime. Lots of welders here that have spent their entire lifes in the weldling profession. They come here to past along some of the wisdom they have learned over the course of their carreers. In the absents of having any formal training in the welding field, I think the hobbiest would do well to listen to the advice given by those professionals that spent a lifetime perfecting their craft and are willing to share what they have learned. Take care of these older professionals, or you could be left with folks like Sodo, that lack the education and experience, passing along bad information, and dont even know enought to know that they are wrong.
! Welding is a lot easier than taking pictures.
