1. There was no 800 reservation number, no call center and each railroad had it's own passenger department and you had to dial on a rotary dial phone and wait for someone in the passenger department to pick up the actual phone or hang up so you would get a not busy signal to get through.
2. You had to pick up the tickets at the station because there wasn't an Internet and the tickets would be hand written complete with carbons and you almost needed to be a ticket PhD degree holder to understand the gibberish they wrote in some of the boxes on the ticket.
3. They locked the restrooms prior to entering large stations because the toilets emptied to the tracks. Sometimes the Conductor accidently locking a passenger in the restroom before their stop.
4. The Milwaukee Road Coaches with lineoleum tiled floors with some of the tiles loose sliding around.
5. Steam Heating and A/C
6. When they could just put reflectorized flags on the last coach instead of red lights.
7. Walking through a sleeper with only swaying curtains to seperate you from the sleeping passengers.
8. The Ho Chi Minh Trail type railroad track in some places that made standing in the aisle during car movement a real challenge / skill.
9. Red brick platforms?
10. Step stools are even now starting to fade away...
11. Sawdust logs to power the kitchen stoves and heat the water.
12. Ice Block cooled A/C on the age old Bluewater GT excursion cars.
13. No or faulty PA system between cars.
14. Ubiquitous oscillating or MARS headlight.
15. "AmClub" Amfleet cars.
A complex ticket allright, but only one ticket and one purchase even if you were going from Hudson Terminal near Wall Street, Manhattan, or Harrisom New York, or Green Farms or Stratford, Connecticut, to Chester, PA or Silver Spring, MD, instead of three seperate purchases needed as now.
Sleepiong car porters would shine your shoes left in the foot locker.
Opening the dutch door in the vestigule and enjoying fresh air and good photo opportunities, while against rules, was often permitted, and most of the time riding the rear vstibule was permitted.
The Rail Travel Card.
Many more stations and routes with passenger service.
More frequent service on routes operated by Amtrac, and more thru cars and thru trains.
The Broadway Limited, Super Chief and El Cap, Panama Limited, and Olympian Hiawatha
Creek Single Bedroom sleepers on the PRR. Sleepercoaches/Slumbercoaches.
In a dream world, we'd have the 1966 route map and the 2016 amenities.
1966 would be good; 1956 would be better.
Tom
Swivel parlor car seats on Metroliners.
Slumbercoaches.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
ACY1966 would be good; 1956 would be better. Tom
Have to agree - by 1966 the handwriting was on the wall in Bold and Italics. In 1956 the future had yet to come into full view.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
As a kid I remember my mother bitching about the S.P. all the time.
I think I was the only one who thought the Automat car was cool!
Let's not forget the smells coming from a warm diner on a cold mornings, or maybe trying to remember a diner period. Transferring not not only railroads but stations. Remember not only the Pullman company, but all Pullman trains. How bout Remembering choices, going south, seaboard or the coast line? Or maybe Remembering Metroliners being operated by the Penn Central not Amtrak.
Philly Amtrak Fan In a dream world, we'd have the 1966 route map and the 2016 amenities.
Hell, in a dream world they'd all be the 1938 edition of the 20th Century Limited!
In my opinion, I'd rather have a "bad" train than no train at all. My priority is a decent train from Philly to Chicago. The Three Rivers wasn't as good as the Broadway Limited. When it was first extended to Chicago, it had no sleepers and in its history never had a dining car. But I didn't care. I've never ridden in a sleeper car and rarely have eaten in the dining car. All the amenities are nice but I'd rather have a functioning car than none at all. Wait for the Viewliner II's before restarting the Three Rivers? Why not just have an all coach/cafe car first? Worked in the late 90's.
#16, Waukesha Enginator (sp) air conditioners or steam ejector air conditioning?
In a dream world, we'd have the 1966 amenities (such as they remained, here and there), too. The 2016 "amenities" don't hold a candle.
dakotafred The 2016 "amenities" don't hold a candle.
I'm super happy having a seat and wifi. Candle held for me.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
zugmann dakotafred The 2016 "amenities" don't hold a candle. I'm super happy having a seat and wifi. Candle held for me.
It's sure better than the nothing some on here would have us have. I too will take the remainders. As Faulkner said, "Between grief and nothing, I will take grief." Also, as a bourbon drinker, "Between Scotch and nothing, I will take Scotch."
Electroliner 1935 #16, Waukesha Enginator (sp) air conditioners or steam ejector air conditioning?
Johnny
dakotafred zugmann dakotafred The 2016 "amenities" don't hold a candle. I'm super happy having a seat and wifi. Candle held for me. It's sure better than the nothing some on here would have us have. I too will take the remainders. As Faulkner said, "Between grief and nothing, I will take grief." Also, as a bourbon drinker, "Between Scotch and nothing, I will take Scotch."
dakotafred: Obviously you have not drunk a fine scotch! You'll have to let me buy you one the next time you're in Cuyahoga County.
One joke I like has this as its (paraphrased) punch line: If you ever get the chance to breathe God's breath, inhale deeply; what you're smelling is Glenlivet.
[quote user="NKP guy"]
dakotafred
It's sure better than the nothing some on here would have us have. I too will take the remainders. As Faulkner said, "Between grief and nothing, I will take grief." Also, as a bourbon drinker. One joke I like has this as its (paraphrased) punch line: If you ever get the chance to breathe God's breath, inhale deeply; what you're smelling is Glenlivet.
NKP guy dakotafred zugmann dakotafred The 2016 "amenities" don't hold a candle. I'm super happy having a seat and wifi. Candle held for me. It's sure better than the nothing some on here would have us have. I too will take the remainders. As Faulkner said, "Between grief and nothing, I will take grief." Also, as a bourbon drinker, "Between Scotch and nothing, I will take Scotch." dakotafred: Obviously you have not drunk a fine scotch! You'll have to let me buy you one the next time you're in Cuyahoga County. One joke I like has this as its (paraphrased) punch line: If you ever get the chance to breathe God's breath, inhale deeply; what you're smelling is Glenlivet.
Hi, NKP:
I musn't (thru my lack of clarity) take credit for the line about Scotch. That was also Faulkner's line, when asked about his drinking preferences at West Point one time. It wittily takes off on the concluding line of his novel, "The Wild Palms."
I too enjoy Scotch, to the extent I indulge liquor anymore. (Good craft beer makes a better fit with my declining stamina.)
dakotafred: Thank goodness we cleared that up and that you do drink scotch. I was beginning to get worried about you!
Cheap liquor (King George IV or Old Rotgut bourbon) is probably like a cheap train (without sleepers and a diner): It can put you off the real and better thing for years!
Even worse than Old Rotgot bourbon is Horserasp Whiskey--you feel its effect all over your mouth.
At 84, certain ploeasures of youth have to be curtailed. 20 or 30 years ago, two glasses of wine, or a class of wiskeyor bourbon with an evening meal was/were oerfectly OK heathwise. I could also indulge in eating as much icecream or chocolate cake as my apatite suggested. But today I have to limit myself. But I heve learned something. The pleasure afforded by these indulgences in not proportional to the amount consumed. I can enjoy just a 1/5th or 1/4th glass of wiskey or bourbon and exercise self-control to not consume more, and still have almost as much pleasure as a full glass. Similarly with icecream, chocolate cake, and wine. Rather extreme moderation does not prevent enjoying some of life's finer physical pleasures.
Of course, any of these pleasures are best enjoyed while watching great scenerfy from a train, comfortably seated in a lounge or dining car, or even on an observation platform. Never did try it looking out front in the "railfan's seat" in an Electroliner or other interurban. Maybe I can help create the environmen and infrastructure here to make it possible?
Remember....
trainmen who graduated from Penn Central Charm School?
NKP guyNKP guy wrote the following post 3 hours ago: dakotafred: Thank goodness we cleared that up and that you do drink scotch. I was beginning to get worried about you!
Well, all three of us share a love of scotch, preferably certain single malts.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
The mention of Scotch reminded me of a wonderful quote from Lucius Beebe. I've spent the past hour looking for it, to no avail, so I'll have to paraphrase.
Beebe considered Brandy to be a true gentleman's drink, and often mentioned his love of fine Champagne. He said Whisky for Americans ought to be the kind of thing that, if you spill it, will burn holes in the carpet. He always considered Scotch a bit effeminate, unless it was being drunk by an Englishman. As for beer, he had high praise for Bass Ale. I don't recall that he mentioned any other brews.
I'm confident that his private car, the Virginia City, was always well stocked.
daveklepperOf course, any of these pleasures are best enjoyed while watching great scenerfy from a train, comfortably seated in a lounge or dining car, or even on an observation platform.
Or in a Budd Dome car.
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