Return to David P. Morgan Article Awards
 Linda Grant Niemann, photo by Valerie Dibble |
Linda Grant Niemann, a professor at Kennesaw (Georgia) State University, received the David P. Morgan Article Award for 2012 for “The Lost Arts” which appeared in Railfan and Railroad magazine in April 2011. The award is named for the former editor of Trains magazine.Niemann, who has a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of California, Berkeley, worked for the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific for 20 years. She left railroading in 1999 to become a professor. In her article, she describes what it was like to be part of a three-person crew switching a small yard in San Jose, California. She argues that one person controlling the entire switching operation with a belt pack “is less efficient and more dangerous than switching with a traditional crew as in the past.” The committee felt that while this article is controversial, it dealt with a serious contemporary issue that deserves to be explored, wrote Lyle Key, Nashville, Tennessee, in the award citation. He is a member of the article awards committee.The announcement appeared in Railroad History, Spring-Summer 2013. |