scilover-- You should have been able to but a ride in a classic dome car is still pretty good, especially late late at night watching the signals turn and the stars above. Always interesting when you turn and the moon sweeps across the car, disappears and reappears. Usually no one up there late late and it's very peaceful and quite remarkable really.
You can't beat train travel.
A train is a place going someplace, and so is an ocean liner or cruise ship. Everything else is just transportation.
BaltACDClosest is Waffle House! Of course I haven't seen many located close to the railroad, let alone Amtrak operated railroad.
I LOVE Waffle House!
How can you NOT love a place where you have to show a pack of cigarettes to get in?
daveklepper A train is a place going someplace, and so is an ocean liner or cruise ship. Everything else is just transportation.
David, I think you just nailed what a passenger train is better than anyone I've seen yet!
I think it was L. Beebe that said it first.
Too bad the boss of Marriott isn't a railfan. Could be some day, though. Hope it isn't too late.
Anyone know him, to give him (or her?) the chance to save an imortant component of North American Civilization?
daveklepper I think it was L. Beebe that said it first. Too bad the boss of Marriott isn't a railfan. Could be some day, though. Hope it isn't too late. Anyone know him, to give him (or her?) the chance to save an imortant component of North American Civilization?
Well, Warren Buffett's a railfan, supposedly he owns a king-sized O gauge layout as well. His being a railfan probably had a lot to do with him buying BNSF.
However, he's a "hands-off" owner, leaving his various companies alone as long as they're making money, so I can't see him being interested in a recusitation of the American passenger train. He's shown no evidence of the same yet.
Regarding comments about 1954 ... not that long ago and yet it seems a different age and culture. I recollect Phila. Chapter of NRHS excursions that my father took me upon when I was just a kid - on the B&O out of their Philly station (that had a great HO layout of the Magnolia Cut-off region complete with color CPLs) - and on PRR up the Schuylkill Valley, to Horseshoe, et al. Then there were Reading's Iron Horse Rambles, the best being the autumn trips upstate. The rhythm of riding a passenger train became embedded in one's psyche.
The inevitable decline in passenger service was essentially over when Amtrak delivered the coup de gras with sharply reduced frequencies and service trended toward uniform mediocrity. Moreover, without pancakes and eggs served in a real dining car, or an open dutch door in the vestibule, I don't know why anyone would care to ride a passenger train. I like fresh air and the breeze.
Well, it's not coming back so all nostalgia aside from commuter systems; themselves seemingly on a downward trajectory in some cases. Long distance frequency at one train each way daily is insufficient to the convenience of travelers and perhaps a bit too generic, to say nothing of time-keeping. There are too many alternatives and I cannot imagine climbing onboard Amtrak for any reason. Still I sorely miss those passenger trains from long ago (now) that evinced a degree of class, the ingrained atmosphere of hustle that was part of the passenger-era railroad culture and the unforgettable cadence of wheels over the railjoints.
Well, the streetcar was supposed to dead. And Jerusalem Light Rail, with pre-Coronavirus 140,00/weekday. showed an operating profit in 2019.
PennsyBoomer Regarding comments about 1954 ... not that long ago and yet it seems a different age and culture. I recollect Phila. Chapter of NRHS excursions that my father took me upon when I was just a kid - on the B&O out of their Philly station (that had a great HO layout of the Magnolia Cut-off region complete with color CPLs) - and on PRR up the Schuylkill Valley, to Horseshoe, et al. Then there were Reading's Iron Horse Rambles, the best being the autumn trips upstate. The rhythm of riding a passenger train became embedded in one's psyche.
I believe the HO layout was actually from the B&O Museum - it was made to be transported around the B&O property and put on display at various stations.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
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