“The restlessness and the longing, like the longing that is in the whistle of a faraway train. Except that the longing isn’t really in the whistle—it is in you.”
No question about it, winter is still here. The last few days were a ruse, a tease. Arctic cold is back again. My heat blasts constantly. I’m wearing a sweatshirt so well worn it is unfit for public view. I’ve added socks to my ensemble. They join flannel around the house pants and a t-shirt under my sweatshirt. It is not an attractive outfit.
When I was a kid, I wore pajamas to bed. I had slipper socks to keep my feet warm. Radiators spewed intermittent heat. The house would get hot and then cold. I could hear the steam from the radiator. It always sounded like a locomotive to me. It just needed a whistle.
When I was a kid, we’d take a bus from uptown to the subway station, Sullivan Square, and then ride the train, the MTA, to Boston. I remember kneeling on the seat and looking out the window. Before every ride we were quizzed about the rules: stay together, and if we get separated, go to the next station and wait. When I was older, my friends and I would take the train into Boston. I remember seeing Cleopatra at The Music Hall, now The Wang. Sometimes on a Saturday we’d go to Boston and just roam the city.
One of my favorite trains was in Ghana. I’d ride it as often as I could. I’d go from the Accra station to Tafo to visit my friends then continue on to Kumasi where the rails ended. I always went first class, a fairly cheap ticket, and usually had a compartment to myself. Once I rode from Kumasi to Takoradi on a sleeper train. It was my favorite ride of all.
On my trips to Europe, I took trains if I could. They were far more comfortable than buses, and the night trains meant I didn’t have to stay at a hotel. I’d look out the windows at people in their houses. I’d sometimes see families eating dinner at the table by the windows. I’d fall asleep to the click clack of the wheels.
If I were rich, I’d have a train car all my own, and I’d ride all over the country with my friends. The car would have a kitchen, comfortable bunks and a bar. The windows would be huge.
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
January 26, 2019 at 1:37 pm
Hi Kat,
When I lived in NYC getting around involved riding the subway. Parts of the system in the boroughs are elevated trains and spending my early years a block from the Broadway El in Brooklyn ignited my love of trains. When my father would take me on the train into Manhattan I would love to ride in the front car and look out the front window in the sliding door next to the motorman’s cab. I pretended to be driving the train. That train crossed over the East River on the Williamsburg bridge and then plunged into the tunnel when it reached Manhattan in the lower east side neighborhood. In those days the Brooklyn Navy Yard was next to the bridge and I could see aircraft carriers and destroyers being repaired in the yard. One of the reasons that the Brooklyn Navy Yard was abandoned was that the newer aircraft carriers were too tall to fit under the historic Brooklyn Bridge.
One of my surprises about the UK was that the trains also run on the same wrong side of the platform just like automobile traffic. I would look for the oncoming train as I would here and the train would come from the opposite direction. Even the escalators in the London Underground are backwards with the up escalator on the left and the down one on the right.
Here in the USA passenger trains are run by a government agency, Amtrak, and the service is considered average at best. I haven’t been on a cross country train trip since the 1950s. Every year my family would drive to NYC to visit the relatives. Flying in those days was prohibitively expensive. We usually went in June but this one year we went in December. Instead of driving we took the train. We had a Pullman compartment and the train was on the MKT (Missouri Kansas Texas) line from Dallas to St. Louis. Our car was then transferred to the Pennsylvania RR going to Penn Station in NYC. The trip took two nights and a day and it was an adventure. The first couple of cars on the train were for colored only and were very old and dilapidated coaches. I don’t think the colored section had a dinning car. When we got to St. Louis the colored only cars were removed from the train. The evils of segregation stick in my mind to this very day. I don’t understand nationalism, trade wars, racism and xenophobia in this interconnected world.
My dad had a friend who was a train fanatic who has his own rail car. His business has a siding where the car is stored and he contracts with Amtrak to pull the car to his destination. Once my dad went on the train down to Houston and back. It was just a one day fun jaunt and a continuos party.
Clear skies again today but cooler with a high predicted in the low 40s.
January 26, 2019 at 2:37 pm
Hi Bob,
My town had buses which connected us to the MTA. Mostly we went to Sullivan Square which had the MTA up top and buses underneath. I loved that station. It had a waiting room up top and had a stand selling candy and newspapers. I remember standing on the platform and the breeze as the train went by. My mother kept making us go further back on the platform. There was a white line which was as far as you could step.
I took a lot of trains in England, but I took far more in Ireland. I had an Irish rail pass which was even good on the bus to the airport. Europe was wonderful for train travel. The most amazing train ride was from Quito to Guayaquil Ecuador. It is called the autobus.
I know Amtrak having taken trains to New York and Washington. South Station in Boston is where you pick up Amtrak. The station went through a total renovation and is beautiful. There is also a bus station there where the buses from the cape stop. I envy you that train ride you took as a kid. I would have loved to sleep on a train when I was a kid. My town still had freight trains then, and I’d always watch them when I could. Segregation was a blot on our country.
I would like everything that friend of your father’s had. That’s what I meant y my own train car.
We’ll be in the 30’s today.
January 26, 2019 at 4:03 pm
There are several tourist trains such as the Texas State Railroad which goes through the East Texas piney woods powered by a steam locomotive. It’s a 25 mile trip from Rusk to Palestine. A couple of tourist trains are running in Colorado and might be fun to ride when you visit your sister in Denver. One interesting train trip would be the Trans Canada rail trip from Toronto to Vancouver.
Sadly freight trains no longer have a caboose.
January 26, 2019 at 5:16 pm
I think there are steak trains around here as well. I never knew about the ones in Colorado. Thanks for the info and for helping to plainly next trip!
January 26, 2019 at 2:08 pm
Hi Kat,
I love trains. If I were rich, I’d have the personal train car, too. A friend and I took the Acela down to DC a few years ago. We went down First Class and came back Business Class. So much more relaxing than driving or flying.
When I was very young my parents took me to Boston on what was probably one of the last steam trains running on that line. I think they took me to the circus. I don’t remember the circus but I do remember the train. It was big and loud and belching steam.
In high school, I think I spent almost every weekend night in Boston at my favorite coffee house. We’d take the train in, stay until 5 minutes to midnight and then run like hell to make it North Station for the 12:05 back home. A few times we’d be running down the platform right at 12:05 and the conductor would be hanging off the steps holding the train and yelling at us to hurry up.
It’s cold here today and the wind is blowing pretty good which makes it colder. The sun is shining brightly and that makes it a little better as long as I’m not outside.
Enjoy the day.
January 26, 2019 at 3:15 pm
Hi Caryn,
I took the train to Washington a long time back. It was before Acela. We took what was then business class and also had a few drinks in the observation car. Yup, I need my own train.
I never rode on as team engine when I was a kid. That would have been amazing. It was the subway trains which gave me a love of trains. I have ridden them in Africa, South America and Europe. Whenever I could, I went by train. Sadly, Ghana has only one spur line left. Poor maintenance did in the train line. There are murmurings about rebuilding. I hope they do.
I went to Boston a few times when I was in college, even to a coffee house. It was in what must have once been a cellar. I went to Merrimack which wasn’t on a direct route to Boston. We’d have to find a way to the center of Andover especially when coming home.
It is also cold here but no wind. The afternoon got cloudy. I have been in polishing frenzy. The dining room is next. I’m on a break.
Have a great day!
January 27, 2019 at 12:32 am
The wind roars outside my cottage from time to time, the say we’ll have a huge snow storm over the entire southern Sweden. I do hope they are as wrong as they usually are since I must drive to Gothenburg tomorrow. I did actually think of taking the train even though Nova might have a big surgery but it is often just enough to think of snow flakes to make those trains stop 🙂 🙂 🙂 I can’t remember that happening when I was a kid, the trains back then never had any problems going if the weather was tough.
Have a great day!
Christer.
January 27, 2019 at 11:25 pm
Christer,
I love the roar of the wind. It was blowing the other day, and the trees were bending so much I thought they’d break, but they survived. Pine trees have shallow roots, and my backyard is filled with pine trees.
Surgery is enough but so horrible if you have to add snow. You don’t need to worry about getting there and then worry about the surgery.
I didn’t live near trains so I don’t remember what happened in the snow.
Have great day!
January 27, 2019 at 9:25 pm
😉 “In a lonely shack by a railway track, he spent his younger days. And I guess the sound of the outward bound, made him a slave to his wandering ways.”
January 27, 2019 at 11:29 pm
61cqr,
This is a great song, and I have always associated it with Gogi Grant. I understand the pull of the outward bound. When I was 11, I vowed to travel the world.