Card of the Day - 2022-05-05

This set was also issued anonymously as a general overseas issue. Presumably this was by British American Tobacco.

This card shows "an Electric Locomotive, U.S.A". and it tells us that “forty-two of the finest and most powerful electric locomotives in the world were built for the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway when its main line through the Rocky Mountains was electrified.” 

I cant imagine a bigger job than getting electric trains to do that task, unless it was constructing the lines, but it sure makes a sad comment on our still meagre take up of electric cars and the fiasco over the woefully inadequate public charging systems.

I don’t yet drive an electric car, but there is, to me, two big flaws with their acceptance.

The first is the resist factor – especially for those of us who drive classic, vintage, or just much loved cars, as we would way rather buy a reasonably priced electric conversion system so that we can still keep driving our beloved wheels, but doing so in a more Planet friendly manner.

The second is the scrap factor - for if all the current cars have to be replaced, where will they go, how will they be disposed of ethically, and what will come of the remains of those which cannot be tackled owing to overload, will they be buried in pits, leaching waste into the soil and the waterways? Or what? I have seen graveyards of aeroplanes and cars, and they are not an ethical solution. 

If you feel like doing an experiment, next time you walk anywhere in your area, see how many cars are over ten years old and would have to be removed and scrapped. And this is just in your locality. Amplify this by your city, your county, etc, and you can see the scale of what will have to be done. 

I am not sure if anyone in power reads this, but these are the things that should be sorted out, and quickly.