When my dad first went to work for GE, the first two things I recall the first day when moving to Schenectady in their '41 Chebbie was the mega monster GE plant, then driving down Erie Blvd (which was the site and now filled in Erie Canal) and past ALCO and seeing several brand new STEAM engines sitting ouside of their shops - which of course made my day as my grandfather was an engineer with Michigan Central. 40,000 plus worked at GE and another 16,000 at ALCO. There might be 3-4000 at GE now and ALCO is gone and Schenectady, "The City That Lights and Hauls the World" is a dump

Speaking of engines - this is one I worked on in Spain in 2004/5:

3-gas-turbine.jpg

This GT is only a small part of the project - add a generator, a steam turbine, and an HRSG(boiler), inlet and exhaust system along with train loads of other claptrap to make up a 3-400MW plant.

Sorry about the nostalgia trip, back to Nick's '32