I WAS A STUDENT AT SURFACE WARFARE SCHOOL IN CORONADO CA..FRIEND OF MINE WAS GOING TO FLY HONE TO CORPUS CHRISTY TX FOR A HOLIDAY BREAK
I SOLD HIM ON TAKING AMTRAK INSTEAD
HE WANTED TO KICK MY ASS AFTER THE HOLIDAY FUN WITH THE FAMILY
19
Whiny Vox soi boi.
14
Until you rode on a subway in NYC, SF, LA or some other democrat shithole, you haven’t been on a long train ride.
12
I once rode Amtrak from Albequerque to Los Angeles, and I’ve been on the London Underground. Can’t really say I recommend either one.
8
70 hours! Whoo! I’ve been stone cold awake longer than that.
It wasn’t fun, I was seeing goblins and faeries by the end, and I slept 24 hours after and never even got up to piss…
This dude is just a fag. There where Inaugurations that I didn’t go home for 32 days straight. Slept on the floor and washed my clothes in the slop sink. And don’t get me started on what real men did in the Military.
12
Yup! Chicago to:
– Seattle
– Memphis
– Santa Fe
– DC
– Grand Junction, CO
and a dozen times to NYC
6
Yes. Montreal, Quebec to Jasper, Alberta. In the middle of winter. It was fucking awful. The train was freezing, we stopped in remote shitholes in the middle of the night, train passengers were mainly aholes and the food was crap. On the plus side, I was 21 and on an adventure!
10
For the cost of a sleeper car, you could fly across country and stay in a five star hotel.
Every time I have looked up Amtrak trips, most of them are by bus. Layovers are also 7+ hours.
Benito: that is about the same reaction Bobby Troupe got for his song Route 66 after people drove it.
9
We once took our young kids on a dinner train in the Seattle area. It was really enjoyable. But a two hour trip was an hour more than I needed.
8
Rode on Union Pacific 8444 about 40 years ago.
4
Rode trains all over Europe growing up. The sights, smells and interesting people, some of the best memories I have.
14
Seattle to Whitefish or Shelby isn’t bad. But I don’t have a vehicle once I get there. Take a blanket and pillows for the kids and it’s a fun trip. If I’m shooting rockchucks during the week with friends, the kids can take AmTrak to Wenatchee and we can do kid activities or I can go shooting with the kids for the weekend before heading home.
The Covid scam made it all but unusable now though.
5
Pierre Thomas came in one of those mornings, stomping, fag-gesticulating, and loudly complained to the news mother that he had been to work 19 days in a row. The news mother glanced at me (I don’t remember her name, sadly. But she could glance like a scalpel, and was wholly capable, erudite, and calm in the face of anything), and glanced back at Pierre, and Pierre slunk (slanked?) back off to whatever reeking den he called an office.
The news mother then said to me, “I’m surprised his head fits through the door.”
I really am sorry I don’t remember her name… she asked me how I was doing the morning after Rich was killed in a car wreck. “How are you? You spent more time with him than he spent with his family.”
I don’t remember what I said, but I do remember what she said, “You should go home.”
Anyway, what was this about… 72 hours on a train. That’s nothing.
6
I was looking at Amtrak’s website a few days ago and pricing a trip to see my son in Upstate New York. It looked like it would be an expensive pain in the ass to travel that way. Maybe I’ll drive and see a few sights along the way.
7
LA to KC for Christmas, and then back about a week or so later. 3 days each way. The door stuck open in some cold part of the country and it made another passenger hack all night. No sleep, constant motion, hacking sound, and bitter cold. I hate trains and don’t even want to go on one again. I’d be ready to disembark after 15 minutes at best.
8
“Somebody asked for the cigars. We had talked long, and the conversation was beginning to languish; the tobacco smoke had got into the heavy curtains, the wine had got into those brains which were liable to become heavy, and it was already perfectly evident that, unless somebody did something to rouse our oppressed spirits, the meeting would soon come to its natural conclusion, and we, the guests, would speedily go home to bed, and most certainly to sleep. No one had said anything very remarkable; it may be that no one had anything very remarkable to say. Jones had given us every particular of his last hunting adventure in Yorkshire. Mr. Tompkins, of Boston, had explained at elaborate length those working principles, by the due and careful maintenance of which the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé Railroad not only extended its territory, increased its departmental influence, and transported live stock without starving them to death before the day of actual delivery, but, also, had for years succeeded in deceiving those passengers who bought its tickets into the fallacious belief that the corporation aforesaid was really able to transport human life without destroying it. Signor Tombola had endeavoured to persuade us, by arguments which we took no trouble to oppose, that the unity of his country in no way resembled the average modern torpedo, carefully planned, constructed with all the skill of the greatest European arsenals, but, when constructed, destined to be directed by feeble hands into a region where it must undoubtedly explode, unseen, unfeared, and unheard, into the illimitable wastes of political chaos.
It is unnecessary to go into further details. The conversation had assumed proportions which would have bored Prometheus on his rock, which would have driven Tantalus to distraction, and which would have impelled Ixion to seek relaxation in the simple but instructive dialogues of Herr Ollendorff, rather than submit to the greater evil of listening to our talk. We had sat at table for hours; we were bored, we were tired, and nobody showed signs of moving.
Somebody called for cigars. We all instinctively looked towards the speaker. Brisbane was a man of five-and-thirty years of age, and remarkable for those gifts which chiefly attract the attention of men. He was a strong man. The external proportions of his figure presented nothing extraordinary to the common eye, though his size was above the average. He was a little over six feet in height, and moderately broad in the shoulder; he did not appear to be stout, but, on the other hand, he was certainly not thin; his small head was supported by a strong and sinewy neck; his broad muscular hands appeared to possess a peculiar skill in breaking walnuts without the assistance of the ordinary cracker, and, seeing him in profile, one could not help remarking the extraordinary breadth of his sleeves, and the unusual thickness of his chest. He was one of those men who are commonly spoken of among men as deceptive; that is to say, that though he looked exceedingly strong he was in reality very much stronger than he looked. Of his features I need say little. His head is small, his hair is thin, his eyes are blue, his nose is large, he has a small moustache, and a square jaw. Everybody knows Brisbane, and when he asked for a cigar everybody looked at him.
“It is a very singular thing,” said Brisbane.”
The Upper Berth
F. Marion Crawford
6
I can remember when I was 4 or 5, my grandmother taking me on the New York Central from Buffalo to Schenectady to visit relatives. It was leisurely travel. The highlight was always a visit to the dining car. It was a different time then.
10
Yes, many within Germany and from there, many to Holland, Belgium and France. Also trains in Korea and Japan. One of my cherished memories is arriving at Gare du Nord terminal. The new terminal there has only recently been completed and it looks amazing, but the old one was magical. If you can’t take the time to drive all over Europe, trains are the best way to take in the sights. In Asia it’s best to take trains unless you know all the road signs and can drive like the natives.
When our child was young, she and I would take Amtrak from Seattle to Portland where Grandma and Papa would pick us up and drive the rest of the way to their house. It was always an enjoyable trip and not too long, at about three and half (or so) hours. I think it was more fun to not have the little one strapped into a car seat for the entire five hour drive.
Estaba en la playa con los UDT cross training/joint exercisesa en Coronado. 1966
Soy anciano!
4
I invented the diesel-generated electric train locomotive.
4
Ptld, OR to Denver when they still had a real dining car with menus and real plates.
Boston to VA
Boston to IN
Personally I like train travel.
Long trips have to at least be business class though
4
Naples to Rome and back a few times for concerts…
FJB
4
I took a long train trip across the Indian Ocean one time. Man, that was something else, watching the dolphins race alongside the tracks. Even saw a shark eat a guy who fell off the train.
10
If the Amtrack budget was expand by a factor of 100, it’d still lose money. After all, it’s ran by the government.
7
Get used to them when they artificially Carbon Tax & Luxury Tax Air Flight & force you on Trains for “Carbon Footprint reasons”
2
My husband and I took the Orient express from Paris to Venice. It was very nice and elegant. Only over 1 night. More recently, in 2016. we took Amtrak from Chicago to Los Angeles. We booked a sleeper room with a private bath which made it bearable for 2 nights. Even the Orient Express had only one shower at the end of the car. He loved train travel and I loved him.
8
I’ve told this story before – I took an overnight train from Suzhou to Beijing and back in 2007. The bathroom car toilets were just holes in the floor and you could see the track bed below as we rolled over it. There was a bar above to hold onto.
There is a saying – If you want to see the worst part of a city go there by train.
China truly is a shithole once you get a few blocks from the well maintained town center and commie buildings.
8
…when I think of long train trips, I think of a trip on one of the longest, the Trans-Siberian Railroad as recounted by P.J. O’Rourke in “”Holidays In Hell”.
He starts with,
“My wife asked, “Will the trip be fun?” The lady behind the counter said, with Russian poker face, “It will be long remembered.” ”
…and then the entire rest of the essay is about how memorable isn’t necessarily a GOOD thing.
…IDK, maybe it could be intetesting, but when I want to go somewhere, I want to be THERE by thr shortest possible route. I consider transportation to be means to an end, not an emd in itself, and act accordingly.
Except when the wife is involved. That’s how we end up on pointless river dinner cruises to nowhere.
And the occasional scenic steam train…
4
We use to take the train from Port Huron, Mi to Chicago with my grandparents to visit my great grandfather when I was very young. My grandfather worked for Grand Trunk Railroad so he and grandma were able to ride for free and I remember he would say something to the conductor and he’d just wave me and my sister along.
They always shook hands so now that I think about it I wonder if was union solidarity or if grandpa had something in his hand.
4
I took a train ride from Omaha to Los Angeles when I was a lad, over 60 years ago. It was fun then. Fast forward to 1989 when I needed to do a test for the government. I took the Amtrak to Oakland from Omaha. Couldn’t reserve a compartment, so had to sit up all night, next to a very old woman whose breath smelled like cat food. Then almost got into a fist fight with some young punks who took a dislike to me. Sigh…I hate Amtrak.
4
Yes. ABQ to Victorville twice and ABQ to KC twice. Running time both ways is about the same as driving. Actual time not so much. Can be wildly late.
About eleven years ago New Mexico suffered forest fires in the right-of-way. We had tickets to go to Kansas City. Just prior to our travel day it rained heavily on the burn scars above the RR track. Down came the mud onto the track making it impassable. A track inspector hi-railing ahead of our train discovered the blockage shortly before our arrival to Ratón.
The brain-trust in the BNSF dispatcher’s office Ft. Worth (BNSF owns the track and its dispatchers control movements over that track) and Amtrak’s in Delaware decided to hold us there while Maintenance-of-Way cleared the track. After an unscheduled crew change and twelve hours it only took three attempts to climb the hill to the summit of the infamous Raton Pass on slimy rails. Twenty-nine hours later we arrived at the stunningly impressive and beautiful Kansas City Union Station.
A pleasant side note: After Raton had rolled up its sidewalks a grill/bar owner heard of our plight and reopened his establishment that was across the street from the depot to accommodate hungry Amtrak travelers. We really appreciated his hospitality.
The whole point of the trip was to spend time with our Amtrak conductor son. He waited at his away-from-home motel in Dodge City to work the train into KC. It was great to see him get on the train and even better to “get out of Dodge”. His normal shift was at night arriving into KC in the early morning but this trip was an all daylight run, a coveted prize on the railroad albeit twelve hours late.
I’m a retired ATSF/BNSF locomotive engineer and over a 38 year career I grew to expect delays. Many times those delays caused me to “die on the law” (maximum working time of 12 hours) only to be told to deadhead to my destination on a trailing locomotive.
All in all traveling on Amtrak can be enjoyable if one is prepared.
1. Don’t be in a hurry. The train will be late. If by a miracle it’s on time, that’s a plus.
2. If possible buy a room. All meals are included. Ride in the observation car to socialize and retreat to your room when the shenanigans of the traveling public begin to grate. The only downside to a room is that Amtrak builds their trains with the sleepers behind the baggage car which is behind the locomotive which beneath the horn and it is sounded for EVERY street crossing.
3. If a room is too expensive and if possible buy a seat on the lower level where the elderly and physically challenged ride. It’s quieter and there restrooms are on the same level. Bring a sheet and blanket (pillows are available but are tiny) to stretch out on the floor in the back. You’ll thank me for that.
4. Upper level chair car is the last option. Ask the brakeman ( assistant conductor) if there are two empty seats together and snag them. You can lay down there but your head will bumped several times by unsteady passersby.
5. Bring lots of bucks for food and snacks.
6. Did I say don’t be in a hurry?
6
When I was small kid back in the late 50’s we lived out in the Spokane valley just above where you could see the mainline railroad tracks from our house. I was fascinated seeing the last of big steam engine trains coming thru regularly just beyond our house and developed a lifelong love of trains from that. We took a train trip about 1960 when I was 7 from the old train depot in downtown Spokane (now Riverfront Park since EXPO 74) to Ontario, Oregon down thru the Tri Cities and thru Pendleton, Or. to Ontario to visit my mom’s parents who lived in the tiny town of Adrian, Or., nearby Ontario on the Snake River. My mom told me I was so excited by that train trip that I stayed awake most of that trip just watching everything go by on our way to visit my grandparents. The only other long train trip that I ever took was after my leave was over just after Christmas 1972, I rode Amtrak from Spokane to Seattle and down the coast thru Portland and Oregon and all of California to San Diego for 3 days to report to NAS Miramar, my first duty station just after New Years Day 1973. I enjoyed that trip. I still get a thrill seeing the great big, long lines of freight trains passing by on the mainline BNSF RR tracks in N. Idaho and Western Montana while out driving and making deliveries thru that whole area.
5
L.A. to Albuquerque and back pre-Amtrak and it was amazing.
2
Amtrak, a government agency. What more needs to be said?
1
I was gunna take te train to Hawaii, but I drove, instead …
3
Blah, blah, blah, moral outrage that the U.S. national government throws twenty-eightish times MOAR money at highwayz than trainz; but, butt, Douchy McDoucheFace never got around to comparing the cost of plane, train, and automobile travel from LA to NYC — nor did Sir Nozzle bother to explain why any rational person would choose either of the aforementioned endpoints.
2
Diogenes
30 years ago they had a thing called EuroPass (I think). Foe $20.00 ou could ride anywhere in Europe for a monthT here were 2 Americans you’d hear in every “high class” bar, every hour:
Elvis, doing Elvis
A song written by Hank; either he sang or Tony B.
side note;
I corrupted my wonderfull wife! Before meeting me she did not dance or drink. Baptist!
4
I have, at least one redeemable, and important quality for having and keeping a transportation system that has already been available to us from East to West, and all over since the early beginnings of Our Country and its Rail Freight and Passenger transportation systems on land, which should continually be kept free from the sticky fingers of government(s), commercial greed and monopolies.
I left Ronald Reagan Airport in the very early morning and arrived at LaGuadia Airport at around 8:00 AM for a telecommunication company meeting later that day.
Needless to say, following the first Twin Tower hit, that meeting never took place, and, all modes of transportation in-and-out of Manhattan were generally cancelled until further notice, including any in or out-going phone usage, subway, jet travel, etc.
So, Hotel Management said if things got worse, they would let me stay additional days, including the next day or two, if I was not able to obtain a train ticket back to Washington, DC, as they were still awaiting a travel restart, and were experiencing massive booking cancellations.
I walked to Penn Station the next day in the morning. Stood in line for some three to four hours, to buy a one-way ticket back to DC, as everyone else did, all at the same time, it seemed. Any air travel was still shut down, and “maybe a week or longer”, as we were hearing. I mean, here is NYC now shut down with millions of people wandering among the shell-shocked, and with grocery food thinning out on the shelves, while travel in and out of Manhattan did not exist at this point.
I checked out of the hotel. Was going to say goodbye to my work buddies in our office building, which was across the street from the Empire State Building. But, that building, and all the other nearby buildings were also deemed an extreme hazard for fear that the (now emptying) Empire State Building was the next target!
The trip to Union Station from NYC, I believe, took around four very relieving short hours. Mostly, everything was a low, whispering (sometimes, a quietly-weeping). Other people were very quite except the mesmerizing, droning click-clacks of the train singing me to sleep, and trying to forget what all had passed by the last several days…as if trying to forget falling head-first for some 60 hours, and then, remembering with my eyes closed, only listening, listening…listening.…
The train trip transferred me at Union Station in DC to Reagan in Alexandria, VA. It was a nice sunny day. But, only a few security airport guards were seen inside the airport. Walked out from Reagan Airport and walked to the outdoor parking lot. No charge. I got in my car to drive home to Maryland, while noticing a faint smoldering, towering and massive black cloud rising out westward across the Potomac River and the District.
The train ride was the only touch of reality that made any sense of sanity, while the many jets were all still parked and grave-yarded…for how long, no one knew until much later. At least, Thank God, at this point, I was Home!
4
Am-not-on-trak
2
I railroaded all over Europe in 2000 during a semester abroad. Based out of Maastricht we could catch the trains west and south at Liege and points east at Cologne. It was a Spring Semester so we had a week of Carnaval at home base. Amsterdam, Florence, Paris were my favorites. I’d do it all again, but those days are behind me now, I’m afraid.
1
Does a number of trips Chicago to Carbondale and back count? The “City of New Orleans” and a few other trains that had names.
Arlo…
… Riding on the City of New Orleans
Illinois Central, Monday morning rail
15 cars and 15 restless riders
Three conductors, 25 sacks of mail
… All along the southbound odyssey
The train pulls out of Kankakee
Rolls along past houses, farms, and fields
Passing trains that have no name
An’ freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles
… Good morning, America, how are ya?
Said don’t you know me? I’m your native son
I’m the train they call the City of New Orleans
I’ll be gone 500 miles when the day is done
… Dealing card games with the old men in the club car
Penny a point, ain’t no one keeping score
Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
Feel the wheels rumbling ‘neath the floor
… And the sons of Pullman porters
And the sons of engineers
Ride their fathers’ magic carpets made of steel
Mothers with their babes asleep
Are rockin’ to the gentle beat
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel
… Good morning, America, how are ya?
Said don’t you know me? I’m your native son
I’m the train they call the City of New Orleans
I’ll be gone 500 miles when the day is done
… Nighttime on the City of New Orleans
Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee
Halfway home, we’ll be there by morning
Through the Mississippi darkness, rolling down to the sea
… But all the towns and people seem to fade into a bad dream
And the steel rail still ain’t heard the news
The conductor sings his songs again
The passengers will please refrain
This train got the disappearing railroad blues
… Good night, America, how are you?
Said don’t you know me? I’m your native son
I’m the train they call the City of New Orleans
I’ll be gone 500 miles when the day is done
Depending on which train with a short stop over in Champaign a collection would be taken up for the beer run to the liquor store near the station. Most times the runner made it there and back with the beer. Was a very large party when it was end of semester from SIU.
Then it ended when I finally could afford a car and keep it on campus. Anything told of SIU being a party school in the 60’s should be multiplied by ten. Finishing school for alcoholism and the beginnings of black-out drinking. But I digress off Train Topic
I WAS A STUDENT AT SURFACE WARFARE SCHOOL IN CORONADO CA..FRIEND OF MINE WAS GOING TO FLY HONE TO CORPUS CHRISTY TX FOR A HOLIDAY BREAK
I SOLD HIM ON TAKING AMTRAK INSTEAD
HE WANTED TO KICK MY ASS AFTER THE HOLIDAY FUN WITH THE FAMILY
Whiny Vox soi boi.
Until you rode on a subway in NYC, SF, LA or some other democrat shithole, you haven’t been on a long train ride.
I once rode Amtrak from Albequerque to Los Angeles, and I’ve been on the London Underground. Can’t really say I recommend either one.
70 hours! Whoo! I’ve been stone cold awake longer than that.
It wasn’t fun, I was seeing goblins and faeries by the end, and I slept 24 hours after and never even got up to piss…
This dude is just a fag. There where Inaugurations that I didn’t go home for 32 days straight. Slept on the floor and washed my clothes in the slop sink. And don’t get me started on what real men did in the Military.
Yup! Chicago to:
– Seattle
– Memphis
– Santa Fe
– DC
– Grand Junction, CO
and a dozen times to NYC
Yes. Montreal, Quebec to Jasper, Alberta. In the middle of winter. It was fucking awful. The train was freezing, we stopped in remote shitholes in the middle of the night, train passengers were mainly aholes and the food was crap. On the plus side, I was 21 and on an adventure!
For the cost of a sleeper car, you could fly across country and stay in a five star hotel.
Every time I have looked up Amtrak trips, most of them are by bus. Layovers are also 7+ hours.
Benito: that is about the same reaction Bobby Troupe got for his song Route 66 after people drove it.
We once took our young kids on a dinner train in the Seattle area. It was really enjoyable. But a two hour trip was an hour more than I needed.
Rode on Union Pacific 8444 about 40 years ago.
Rode trains all over Europe growing up. The sights, smells and interesting people, some of the best memories I have.
Seattle to Whitefish or Shelby isn’t bad. But I don’t have a vehicle once I get there. Take a blanket and pillows for the kids and it’s a fun trip. If I’m shooting rockchucks during the week with friends, the kids can take AmTrak to Wenatchee and we can do kid activities or I can go shooting with the kids for the weekend before heading home.
The Covid scam made it all but unusable now though.
Pierre Thomas came in one of those mornings, stomping, fag-gesticulating, and loudly complained to the news mother that he had been to work 19 days in a row. The news mother glanced at me (I don’t remember her name, sadly. But she could glance like a scalpel, and was wholly capable, erudite, and calm in the face of anything), and glanced back at Pierre, and Pierre slunk (slanked?) back off to whatever reeking den he called an office.
The news mother then said to me, “I’m surprised his head fits through the door.”
I really am sorry I don’t remember her name… she asked me how I was doing the morning after Rich was killed in a car wreck. “How are you? You spent more time with him than he spent with his family.”
I don’t remember what I said, but I do remember what she said, “You should go home.”
Anyway, what was this about… 72 hours on a train. That’s nothing.
I was looking at Amtrak’s website a few days ago and pricing a trip to see my son in Upstate New York. It looked like it would be an expensive pain in the ass to travel that way. Maybe I’ll drive and see a few sights along the way.
LA to KC for Christmas, and then back about a week or so later. 3 days each way. The door stuck open in some cold part of the country and it made another passenger hack all night. No sleep, constant motion, hacking sound, and bitter cold. I hate trains and don’t even want to go on one again. I’d be ready to disembark after 15 minutes at best.
“Somebody asked for the cigars. We had talked long, and the conversation was beginning to languish; the tobacco smoke had got into the heavy curtains, the wine had got into those brains which were liable to become heavy, and it was already perfectly evident that, unless somebody did something to rouse our oppressed spirits, the meeting would soon come to its natural conclusion, and we, the guests, would speedily go home to bed, and most certainly to sleep. No one had said anything very remarkable; it may be that no one had anything very remarkable to say. Jones had given us every particular of his last hunting adventure in Yorkshire. Mr. Tompkins, of Boston, had explained at elaborate length those working principles, by the due and careful maintenance of which the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé Railroad not only extended its territory, increased its departmental influence, and transported live stock without starving them to death before the day of actual delivery, but, also, had for years succeeded in deceiving those passengers who bought its tickets into the fallacious belief that the corporation aforesaid was really able to transport human life without destroying it. Signor Tombola had endeavoured to persuade us, by arguments which we took no trouble to oppose, that the unity of his country in no way resembled the average modern torpedo, carefully planned, constructed with all the skill of the greatest European arsenals, but, when constructed, destined to be directed by feeble hands into a region where it must undoubtedly explode, unseen, unfeared, and unheard, into the illimitable wastes of political chaos.
It is unnecessary to go into further details. The conversation had assumed proportions which would have bored Prometheus on his rock, which would have driven Tantalus to distraction, and which would have impelled Ixion to seek relaxation in the simple but instructive dialogues of Herr Ollendorff, rather than submit to the greater evil of listening to our talk. We had sat at table for hours; we were bored, we were tired, and nobody showed signs of moving.
Somebody called for cigars. We all instinctively looked towards the speaker. Brisbane was a man of five-and-thirty years of age, and remarkable for those gifts which chiefly attract the attention of men. He was a strong man. The external proportions of his figure presented nothing extraordinary to the common eye, though his size was above the average. He was a little over six feet in height, and moderately broad in the shoulder; he did not appear to be stout, but, on the other hand, he was certainly not thin; his small head was supported by a strong and sinewy neck; his broad muscular hands appeared to possess a peculiar skill in breaking walnuts without the assistance of the ordinary cracker, and, seeing him in profile, one could not help remarking the extraordinary breadth of his sleeves, and the unusual thickness of his chest. He was one of those men who are commonly spoken of among men as deceptive; that is to say, that though he looked exceedingly strong he was in reality very much stronger than he looked. Of his features I need say little. His head is small, his hair is thin, his eyes are blue, his nose is large, he has a small moustache, and a square jaw. Everybody knows Brisbane, and when he asked for a cigar everybody looked at him.
“It is a very singular thing,” said Brisbane.”
The Upper Berth
F. Marion Crawford
I can remember when I was 4 or 5, my grandmother taking me on the New York Central from Buffalo to Schenectady to visit relatives. It was leisurely travel. The highlight was always a visit to the dining car. It was a different time then.
Yes, many within Germany and from there, many to Holland, Belgium and France. Also trains in Korea and Japan. One of my cherished memories is arriving at Gare du Nord terminal. The new terminal there has only recently been completed and it looks amazing, but the old one was magical. If you can’t take the time to drive all over Europe, trains are the best way to take in the sights. In Asia it’s best to take trains unless you know all the road signs and can drive like the natives.
When our child was young, she and I would take Amtrak from Seattle to Portland where Grandma and Papa would pick us up and drive the rest of the way to their house. It was always an enjoyable trip and not too long, at about three and half (or so) hours. I think it was more fun to not have the little one strapped into a car seat for the entire five hour drive.
https://azimut4brutal.wordpress.com/2023/08/12/lonesome-chewie/
Benito
Estaba en la playa con los UDT cross training/joint exercisesa en Coronado. 1966
Soy anciano!
I invented the diesel-generated electric train locomotive.
Ptld, OR to Denver when they still had a real dining car with menus and real plates.
Boston to VA
Boston to IN
Personally I like train travel.
Long trips have to at least be business class though
Naples to Rome and back a few times for concerts…
FJB
I took a long train trip across the Indian Ocean one time. Man, that was something else, watching the dolphins race alongside the tracks. Even saw a shark eat a guy who fell off the train.
If the Amtrack budget was expand by a factor of 100, it’d still lose money. After all, it’s ran by the government.
Get used to them when they artificially Carbon Tax & Luxury Tax Air Flight & force you on Trains for “Carbon Footprint reasons”
My husband and I took the Orient express from Paris to Venice. It was very nice and elegant. Only over 1 night. More recently, in 2016. we took Amtrak from Chicago to Los Angeles. We booked a sleeper room with a private bath which made it bearable for 2 nights. Even the Orient Express had only one shower at the end of the car. He loved train travel and I loved him.
I’ve told this story before – I took an overnight train from Suzhou to Beijing and back in 2007. The bathroom car toilets were just holes in the floor and you could see the track bed below as we rolled over it. There was a bar above to hold onto.
There is a saying – If you want to see the worst part of a city go there by train.
China truly is a shithole once you get a few blocks from the well maintained town center and commie buildings.
…when I think of long train trips, I think of a trip on one of the longest, the Trans-Siberian Railroad as recounted by P.J. O’Rourke in “”Holidays In Hell”.
He starts with,
“My wife asked, “Will the trip be fun?” The lady behind the counter said, with Russian poker face, “It will be long remembered.” ”
…and then the entire rest of the essay is about how memorable isn’t necessarily a GOOD thing.
…IDK, maybe it could be intetesting, but when I want to go somewhere, I want to be THERE by thr shortest possible route. I consider transportation to be means to an end, not an emd in itself, and act accordingly.
Except when the wife is involved. That’s how we end up on pointless river dinner cruises to nowhere.
And the occasional scenic steam train…
We use to take the train from Port Huron, Mi to Chicago with my grandparents to visit my great grandfather when I was very young. My grandfather worked for Grand Trunk Railroad so he and grandma were able to ride for free and I remember he would say something to the conductor and he’d just wave me and my sister along.
They always shook hands so now that I think about it I wonder if was union solidarity or if grandpa had something in his hand.
I took a train ride from Omaha to Los Angeles when I was a lad, over 60 years ago. It was fun then. Fast forward to 1989 when I needed to do a test for the government. I took the Amtrak to Oakland from Omaha. Couldn’t reserve a compartment, so had to sit up all night, next to a very old woman whose breath smelled like cat food. Then almost got into a fist fight with some young punks who took a dislike to me. Sigh…I hate Amtrak.
Yes. ABQ to Victorville twice and ABQ to KC twice. Running time both ways is about the same as driving. Actual time not so much. Can be wildly late.
About eleven years ago New Mexico suffered forest fires in the right-of-way. We had tickets to go to Kansas City. Just prior to our travel day it rained heavily on the burn scars above the RR track. Down came the mud onto the track making it impassable. A track inspector hi-railing ahead of our train discovered the blockage shortly before our arrival to Ratón.
The brain-trust in the BNSF dispatcher’s office Ft. Worth (BNSF owns the track and its dispatchers control movements over that track) and Amtrak’s in Delaware decided to hold us there while Maintenance-of-Way cleared the track. After an unscheduled crew change and twelve hours it only took three attempts to climb the hill to the summit of the infamous Raton Pass on slimy rails. Twenty-nine hours later we arrived at the stunningly impressive and beautiful Kansas City Union Station.
A pleasant side note: After Raton had rolled up its sidewalks a grill/bar owner heard of our plight and reopened his establishment that was across the street from the depot to accommodate hungry Amtrak travelers. We really appreciated his hospitality.
The whole point of the trip was to spend time with our Amtrak conductor son. He waited at his away-from-home motel in Dodge City to work the train into KC. It was great to see him get on the train and even better to “get out of Dodge”. His normal shift was at night arriving into KC in the early morning but this trip was an all daylight run, a coveted prize on the railroad albeit twelve hours late.
I’m a retired ATSF/BNSF locomotive engineer and over a 38 year career I grew to expect delays. Many times those delays caused me to “die on the law” (maximum working time of 12 hours) only to be told to deadhead to my destination on a trailing locomotive.
All in all traveling on Amtrak can be enjoyable if one is prepared.
1. Don’t be in a hurry. The train will be late. If by a miracle it’s on time, that’s a plus.
2. If possible buy a room. All meals are included. Ride in the observation car to socialize and retreat to your room when the shenanigans of the traveling public begin to grate. The only downside to a room is that Amtrak builds their trains with the sleepers behind the baggage car which is behind the locomotive which beneath the horn and it is sounded for EVERY street crossing.
3. If a room is too expensive and if possible buy a seat on the lower level where the elderly and physically challenged ride. It’s quieter and there restrooms are on the same level. Bring a sheet and blanket (pillows are available but are tiny) to stretch out on the floor in the back. You’ll thank me for that.
4. Upper level chair car is the last option. Ask the brakeman ( assistant conductor) if there are two empty seats together and snag them. You can lay down there but your head will bumped several times by unsteady passersby.
5. Bring lots of bucks for food and snacks.
6. Did I say don’t be in a hurry?
When I was small kid back in the late 50’s we lived out in the Spokane valley just above where you could see the mainline railroad tracks from our house. I was fascinated seeing the last of big steam engine trains coming thru regularly just beyond our house and developed a lifelong love of trains from that. We took a train trip about 1960 when I was 7 from the old train depot in downtown Spokane (now Riverfront Park since EXPO 74) to Ontario, Oregon down thru the Tri Cities and thru Pendleton, Or. to Ontario to visit my mom’s parents who lived in the tiny town of Adrian, Or., nearby Ontario on the Snake River. My mom told me I was so excited by that train trip that I stayed awake most of that trip just watching everything go by on our way to visit my grandparents. The only other long train trip that I ever took was after my leave was over just after Christmas 1972, I rode Amtrak from Spokane to Seattle and down the coast thru Portland and Oregon and all of California to San Diego for 3 days to report to NAS Miramar, my first duty station just after New Years Day 1973. I enjoyed that trip. I still get a thrill seeing the great big, long lines of freight trains passing by on the mainline BNSF RR tracks in N. Idaho and Western Montana while out driving and making deliveries thru that whole area.
L.A. to Albuquerque and back pre-Amtrak and it was amazing.
Amtrak, a government agency. What more needs to be said?
I was gunna take te train to Hawaii, but I drove, instead …
Blah, blah, blah, moral outrage that the U.S. national government throws twenty-eightish times MOAR money at highwayz than trainz; but, butt, Douchy McDoucheFace never got around to comparing the cost of plane, train, and automobile travel from LA to NYC — nor did Sir Nozzle bother to explain why any rational person would choose either of the aforementioned endpoints.
Diogenes
30 years ago they had a thing called EuroPass (I think). Foe $20.00 ou could ride anywhere in Europe for a monthT here were 2 Americans you’d hear in every “high class” bar, every hour:
Elvis, doing Elvis
A song written by Hank; either he sang or Tony B.
side note;
I corrupted my wonderfull wife! Before meeting me she did not dance or drink. Baptist!
I have, at least one redeemable, and important quality for having and keeping a transportation system that has already been available to us from East to West, and all over since the early beginnings of Our Country and its Rail Freight and Passenger transportation systems on land, which should continually be kept free from the sticky fingers of government(s), commercial greed and monopolies.
I left Ronald Reagan Airport in the very early morning and arrived at LaGuadia Airport at around 8:00 AM for a telecommunication company meeting later that day.
Needless to say, following the first Twin Tower hit, that meeting never took place, and, all modes of transportation in-and-out of Manhattan were generally cancelled until further notice, including any in or out-going phone usage, subway, jet travel, etc.
So, Hotel Management said if things got worse, they would let me stay additional days, including the next day or two, if I was not able to obtain a train ticket back to Washington, DC, as they were still awaiting a travel restart, and were experiencing massive booking cancellations.
I walked to Penn Station the next day in the morning. Stood in line for some three to four hours, to buy a one-way ticket back to DC, as everyone else did, all at the same time, it seemed. Any air travel was still shut down, and “maybe a week or longer”, as we were hearing. I mean, here is NYC now shut down with millions of people wandering among the shell-shocked, and with grocery food thinning out on the shelves, while travel in and out of Manhattan did not exist at this point.
I checked out of the hotel. Was going to say goodbye to my work buddies in our office building, which was across the street from the Empire State Building. But, that building, and all the other nearby buildings were also deemed an extreme hazard for fear that the (now emptying) Empire State Building was the next target!
The trip to Union Station from NYC, I believe, took around four very relieving short hours. Mostly, everything was a low, whispering (sometimes, a quietly-weeping). Other people were very quite except the mesmerizing, droning click-clacks of the train singing me to sleep, and trying to forget what all had passed by the last several days…as if trying to forget falling head-first for some 60 hours, and then, remembering with my eyes closed, only listening, listening…listening.…
The train trip transferred me at Union Station in DC to Reagan in Alexandria, VA. It was a nice sunny day. But, only a few security airport guards were seen inside the airport. Walked out from Reagan Airport and walked to the outdoor parking lot. No charge. I got in my car to drive home to Maryland, while noticing a faint smoldering, towering and massive black cloud rising out westward across the Potomac River and the District.
The train ride was the only touch of reality that made any sense of sanity, while the many jets were all still parked and grave-yarded…for how long, no one knew until much later. At least, Thank God, at this point, I was Home!
Am-not-on-trak
I railroaded all over Europe in 2000 during a semester abroad. Based out of Maastricht we could catch the trains west and south at Liege and points east at Cologne. It was a Spring Semester so we had a week of Carnaval at home base. Amsterdam, Florence, Paris were my favorites. I’d do it all again, but those days are behind me now, I’m afraid.
Does a number of trips Chicago to Carbondale and back count? The “City of New Orleans” and a few other trains that had names.
Arlo…
… Riding on the City of New Orleans
Illinois Central, Monday morning rail
15 cars and 15 restless riders
Three conductors, 25 sacks of mail
… All along the southbound odyssey
The train pulls out of Kankakee
Rolls along past houses, farms, and fields
Passing trains that have no name
An’ freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles
… Good morning, America, how are ya?
Said don’t you know me? I’m your native son
I’m the train they call the City of New Orleans
I’ll be gone 500 miles when the day is done
… Dealing card games with the old men in the club car
Penny a point, ain’t no one keeping score
Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
Feel the wheels rumbling ‘neath the floor
… And the sons of Pullman porters
And the sons of engineers
Ride their fathers’ magic carpets made of steel
Mothers with their babes asleep
Are rockin’ to the gentle beat
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel
… Good morning, America, how are ya?
Said don’t you know me? I’m your native son
I’m the train they call the City of New Orleans
I’ll be gone 500 miles when the day is done
… Nighttime on the City of New Orleans
Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee
Halfway home, we’ll be there by morning
Through the Mississippi darkness, rolling down to the sea
… But all the towns and people seem to fade into a bad dream
And the steel rail still ain’t heard the news
The conductor sings his songs again
The passengers will please refrain
This train got the disappearing railroad blues
… Good night, America, how are you?
Said don’t you know me? I’m your native son
I’m the train they call the City of New Orleans
I’ll be gone 500 miles when the day is done
Depending on which train with a short stop over in Champaign a collection would be taken up for the beer run to the liquor store near the station. Most times the runner made it there and back with the beer. Was a very large party when it was end of semester from SIU.
Then it ended when I finally could afford a car and keep it on campus. Anything told of SIU being a party school in the 60’s should be multiplied by ten. Finishing school for alcoholism and the beginnings of black-out drinking. But I digress off Train Topic