Today, we can send people into outer space and back. We can fly from the West coast to New York in just four hours. So, you think, what's so amazing about train travel? You may commute to work every day on train trips of two hours or more each way. Just that slow boring trip when you read the paper, have some coffee or perhaps just take a nap to make up for the sleep you missed in order to catch the train on time.
Train trips are more than just a relatively slow mode of transportation. Today's modern trains are sleek, bullet shaped, uniform cars we ride without excitement, quietly and without personality whizzing down the tracks, depositing us at our destination without fanfare. We disembark to a crowded station where it's every man for himself, rushing off to work. There's simply nothing remarkable about train trips to work. Now, people who can afford it are lining up to pay $20 million to fly into space. That's remarkable indeed.
Before these impersonal conveyances we now use for train trips to work, there were bulky iron giants which ran on steam. They were neither sleek nor impersonal.
When they pulled into the station, passengers were treated to that interesting and now nostalgic smell that was the train. Somehow, both the smell and the billowing steam and smoke signaled the moment you'd been waiting for, looking forward to for days, especially if you were a kid. Your excitement spilled over and gained momentum as you waited for the train to screech to a complete stop.
Each application of the brakes on the heavy iron wheels produced a loud and high pitched scraping noise that varied in pitch as the train slowed. You knew it was almost time to board when you heard that final high pitched screech. The smell was almost overwhelming, but somehow nice nonetheless.
Then the conductor, in his distinctive outfit, would appear at the open door of the car, straddling the iron steps and hanging on to the rail. He was a happy fellow, clearly enjoying his position. Clutching your overnight bag, you couldn't wait to board.
In those days, train trips were adventures.
The days of the famed Orient Express made train trips more than an adventure. A train trip on the Orient Express was an exercise in elegance and comfort, traveling through exotic landscapes with velvet-draped windows and linen covered dining tables set with silver and crystal.
Those days are long gone, but the nostalgic memories remain. Next time you're taking that long train trip to work, let your imagination go to work and try to capture some of that excitement through a child's eyes of long ago.
