185 MPH and traveling backwards

[lawandorder]

I think our country gave up on passenger rail service nationwide.....

.......too early.

Best memory from childhood, parents and I boarded a Frisco passenger train in the small Ozarks town where we lived. Quite an adventure for a youngster. Arrived at Kansas City's Union Station late that night and transfered to the Santa Fe's El Capitain and headed west. Dodge City and many other towns and places whose names were so familiar from the daily dose of television westerns that I grew up on.
All too soon the magnificent train trip ended at LA's Union Station. Kids don't know about architecture and the appearances of structures but I remember being stricken with how unique and impressive the station was.

In early adult life decided to ride Amtrax to Texas to visit my Sister. Boarded at a small town in NE Arkansas at 4:00 AM ,where I once picked up my load of Memphis Press Scimitar papers to deliver by bike.
The experience of the train trip to San Antonio was by no means as magical at the one with the parents but it was still very enjoyable and would do it again someday but might opt for a longer journey and chose a sleeper compartment.

Didn't meet or see any strange or questionable folks but I am sure there are some on Amtrax from time to time. Probably not as many as fly the friendly skies if the news reports are true.

Train travel in my opinion is a very relaxing ,civilized means of travel.
Wish it was still available across our country.

 

[jeffrefrig]

We used to hop trains when I was in Jr. High, just from form New Brighton over to Beaver Falls. Then my friend Willy slipped & lost his foot under a wheel. Pretty disgusting from what I hear. One event I'm happy to have missed. I really would like to take that loco trip up in the mountains before I die.

 

[Greyman50]

Robert, hope you and wife have a great time. Will be waiting to hear all about it at our next dinner.

 

[paplinker]

Hope both of you are having a great time. Been watching Shirlyn's posts about the trip!

I am unable to ride in anything backwards. About ten minutes in I start getting iffy.

 

[Kinman]

We used to move cross country by train when I was a kid. We would stay in a Pullman car with a small bathroom. It was a true adventure and I loved it, we did that all before I started first grade, then settled down. It wasn't until I got stationed in Germany that I started taking the train again, loved it. It was so much convenient that using about any other method and the schedules were on the money. I've thought of taking a train trip, staying in a private sleeping car, etc. Thats as far as I've got, if your a reader, trains are terrific ways to travel. The new Pullman cars are much smaller, yet still private, prices are higher than flying unless you like 1st class which I vow will be the only way they get me in another cramped airliner.

 

[LVSteve]

I am unable to ride in anything backwards. About ten minutes in I start getting iffy.

You must be related to my late mother. She always needed to "face the engine". Consequently, I either rode backwards or had to sit next to my mother, and what self-respecting young man of nine or ten wants to do that?

Being a smart-alec young boy I pointed out that on many of the electric and diesel multiple unit trains we rode, there were engines all over the place. Yeah, that made me popular.

 

[ACORN]

We used to hop trains when I was in Jr. High, just from form New Brighton over to Beaver Falls. Then my friend Willy slipped & lost his foot under a wheel. Pretty disgusting from what I hear. One event I'm happy to have missed. I really would like to take that loco trip up in the mountains before I die.

We had a young local girl did the same years back. Unfortunately she lost a leg.

 

[SMSgt]

Brightline, a commuter rail between Miami and West Palm Bch, began service past Friday to Orlando after repeated delays pushed back the start date several weeks. A pedestrian was promptly struck and killed in Delray bringing the total number of deaths in Palm Beach Co. alone to 28 since it's inaugural run Jan. '18.
$158 one way saves 30 minutes drive time.

Unless the train hits someone and has to sit for the investigation or until another train is sent to pick up the passengers. I think the "buzz" will wear off in a few years and then it will just be a continuous money drain to prop it up.

 

[CalifEd]

In early adult life decided to ride Amtrax to Texas to visit my Sister. Boarded at a small town in NE Arkansas at 4:00 AM ,where I once picked up my load of Memphis Press Scimitar papers to deliver by bike.
The experience of the train trip to San Antonio was by no means as magical at the one with the parents but it was still very enjoyable and would do it again someday but might opt for a longer journey and chose a sleeper compartment.

Train travel in my opinion is a very relaxing ,civilized means of travel.
Wish it was still available across our country.

I took an overnight Amtrak trip from California to New Mexico before COVID hit.
Was the worst trip imaginable. I suffered a minor whiplash on the train.
The tracks were in such disrepair they had to reduce speed in some sections, if they didn't, the sleeper car would whip sideways so violently that you were forced into a wall if walking or rolled out of bed. No way could you sleep on the upper deck.
The ONLY bright spot was the dinner I had. To say the steak dinner was fantastic is to damn it with faint praise. (eating and drinking in the Dining Car was another roller coaster event though)

 

[soFlaNative]

a continuous money drain to prop it up.

Unless there's a huge cultural shift south Floridians will never give up their cars to the half-assed attempts at mass transit foisted upon us for the past 40 years.

 

[CalifEd]

Unless there's a huge cultural shift south Floridians will never give up their cars to the half-assed attempts at mass transit foisted upon us for the past 40 years.

Part of the reason for that is due to the Californian's fleeing this crazy place and taking their cars with them.
Californian's will never willing give up their cars no matter what the AQMD or Urban Planners decree nor the resulting travel time due to mass traffic jams.

 

[LVSteve]

Unless there's a huge cultural shift south Floridians will never give up their cars to the half-assed attempts at mass transit foisted upon us for the past 40 years.

That's the problem right there. Most mass transit plans in the US are half-baked.

They built a monorail in Vegas servicing the Strip that was perfectly aligned to go direct to the airport. That clearly got nixed by the taxi companies, car rental companies, and even the hotel/casinos on the Strip. The last one may come as a shocker, but in the 80s-90s the casinos had a totally hostile attitude to anything that made movement easier.

Perfect example. For a while when the county widened Las Vegas Boulevard to the maximum allowed by the easement, several hotels refused to have sidewalks or pedestrian bridges on their property. Sidewalks and bridges meant it was easier for people to leave the property, and the casinos wanted nothing to do with that. It was only the threat of eminent domain action that made the casinos acquiesce, albeit begrudgingly. Perhaps the quid pro quo was that the county agreed never to approve a monorail extension to the airport.