> Train tracks are normally not precise to within 4mm anyway
Yes they are. Of course practical tolerances including allowances for wear and there are large enough that things can be made to work, but in terms of nominal construction tolerances for example, 4 mm can easily eat up all your construction tolerances or even exceed them.
I obviously don't have a in depth knowledge of Finnish rail, but have you ever looked at rail in the US? I can show you tracks with completely missing ties. Tracks that move vertically by a foot when the train goes over them. Tracks that visually snake all over the place. The difference is made by slowing down the train. Derailment at 3 mph rarely matters. The biggest risk is the conductor doesn't know it happened & continues to drag the car along the tracks
My dad, his parents and all his siblings were in the grandstands but escaped uninjured. He was 7 years old. Mltiple decades later he would become emotionnal and angry if we, as adolescents, would mention dead bodies in a very casual manner, for exemple while commenting on a video game.
I knew about this accident and them being close to be hit by some of those parts that day but it took me years to make the connection between this and how his reaction. This must have been a huge war scene.
I'm playing roulette with Mother Nature today. She's a wily player.
The "Stay open at all costs" mentality is dangerous to employees. All but one restaurant was closed today that I could find. Their workers have personal nneeds, too. Such as waiting in lines for hours, boarding up their home, filling sandbags, packing up, and running away, all of which I did, too. Except waiting in lines for hours for sandbags. Nonetheless, that one diner, Recipe Box, was slammed, 'cuz we all wanna eat on the run. I don't know what the right answer is.
As others have noted, they have teams of people they bring in to staff the place in case of disaster. They are, as far as I can tell, very good to their employees, who are mostly low-skill workers dealing with an often drunk and raucous clientele. But if you want to get paid in cash every week, they will do it.
Waffle House isn't a great meal, even for a cheap diner, and it's not meant to be. It's hot and freshly cooked, though, and in the middle of a disaster that's something you might not be able to get at home (cf. the Mellow Mushroom owner in Asheville giving out pizza a couple of days after Helene - people like the pizza, but the quotes were all saying "it was just so nice to eat something hot"). And it's always open.
People starting companies who want to build loyalty: look at them. And learn. There's no southerner who doesn't know that you can get a cheap, fresh, and adequate meal from WH when everyone else is closed. You don't have to wonder if it's a 24-hour location: they all are. You see the sign, you can go.
Can confirm; Waffle House is almost never what I want, but damned if I’m not excited every time I go because it’s 3am, I’m drunk, and I don’t have to eat Taco Bell.
The reliability really is a thing. I don’t even look for hours on a Waffle House, I just assume that if I can drive there they’re open.
You are leaving out a major part. Such as that there were not nearly enough. Adopting a "new & shiny" is a long way from all the troops actually having it. My father was in WWII; he was drilling with 2x4s, because they didn't have rifles. The entire division only had two Sherman tanks. A lot of our overwhelming production was 1943 and later.
