In merry Great Britain,
When folks went on a cruise…
They’d ride a train to the dock
To sail the oceans blue.
–
In the nineteen sixties-seventies,
New England had boat trains…
Taking scrap metal
To Boston on railroad mains…
–
All this bulk scrap metal
Was loaded into ships….
Bound as planned for Japan,
Becoming cars and paper clips!
–
While American car makers
Were poor reliability…
Japanese were the market shakers,
A higher quality product, you see.
–
Some folks always thought
Exporting scrap was fraught…
With such imposition
Helping competition,
With an automobile onslaught!
–
–Jonathan Caswell
(At least that’ how I remember it!)
Advertisements
I can’t believe you managed all that and rhymed, too! Boats, trains and automobiles. Sounds like a book…
Just economic memories…! 🙂
P.S.–If I ever get the track wired, I hope to simulate this on the layout. Just like there are seasons for grain traffic, seafood, fresh veggies, so generally in spring time all the big scrap yards would gear up to fill another “boat” (ship) in Boston wanting scrap metal. The Japanese were equipped with higher-efficiency electric furnaces, rather than the U.S. steel industry—largely stuck with older, less efficient blast furnaces and the like. 🙂
And—don’t forget the transportation history of two world-leading countries! 😀