I love long-distance train travel. When I was a kid, we took an overnight train trip every Easter, with roomettes. I’d lie awake and listen to the rattle of the train, see the dimly-lit little stations that we stopped at at 2am, 3am, one or two people got on or off then rattle rattle off we went again. You could see the far-off yard lights of isolated farms, close to the track but far from any major road. Breakfast in the dining car!
We went from the wilds of northern Ontario to Toronto, to see the big department stores’ fancy Easter windows. Stayed at a reasonable hotel, with a big lobby the way old-fashioned hotels have, big sofas, an enormous crystal chandelier overhead. Ate at restaurants, of which my small town had none. The Grill didn’t count, it was just a diner. Whatever the opposite of glorified is, it was that kind of diner. So real city restaurants were a revelation, and an education.
I grew up on stories of how difficult it was to put the original train track through northern Ontario. The land is mostly swamp – muskeg, in local parlance – and kept swallowing locomotives. It cost more per mile to put in that track than through the Rockies.
When I first left home for university, back onto the overnight train, this time no sleeper and with a big trunk of all my stuff, to last me until next spring. During 2nd year I was old enough to go to the bar car. You have not lived until you’ve been on a Canadian National Railway bar car at Christmas or spring break.
I keep wanting to take the train up and down the coast here in California but haven’t yet. The stations are in weird places (relative to my house, anyhow) and from what I can tell by breaking my brain over Amtrak’s horrible website, the connection times aren’t very obliging. The ideal would be to sit down in your comfy seat in early morning and stay there all day, gazing out at the glorious scenery. One day.
Where have you been by train? Was it great? What about trains in foreign lands? Any hair-raising adventures?
p.s. as if you couldn’t tell, I’ve been reading Paul Theroux’s books about his many long-distance train trips. Most, but not all, of them are here: http://bit.ly/ql9xjR
