Reading some of these posts, it's easy to see how railroads got replaced by air and auto: when it takes almost 60 hours to cross the country, reducing that by 90% becomes a big win.
But nobody will ever be nostalgic for the days of the flying bus, TSA, and surly flight attendants. Take be right back to 32F, Jack!
Given my love of railroads, I have bookmarked this and added it to my RSS feeds.
ReplyDeleteI'll be reading more, but I will quibble about the time savings of air being a "big win".
ReplyDeleteMrsZ and I traveled most of the way across the country via rail a couple years ago, and it was by far the most pleasant and relaxing portion of our trip. I can absolutely see where air travel makes more sense when time is money, but for comfort and actually seeing the US, it's tough to beat the train. I have vague plans to do it again, maybe by a southern route this time.
Die-hard railfan here, Borepatch. Thanks for the link!
ReplyDeleteOh man! A favorite group! That Ray Benson, that boy can sing! Try looking up "Boot Scootin Boogie" by Asleep at the Wheel.
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff!
Did a lot of very ~non-nostalgic~ train rides growing up in India: big-ass steamers, diesels, and the occasional electric. Everything covered in soot and dirt and stinking of sweat and creosote and piss and poo everywhere on the tracks, and the hot stinking garlicky/curry crush of so many people on the platform massing to board, people jammed together like a rock concert but without a band or the anticipation of music and without the common use of anti-antiperspirant or deodorant (it was India, after all).
ReplyDeleteSo no, I have no nostalgia for it mainly because the conditions were as bad as the TSA could make them without even getting into the petty-bureaucrats running the whole operation, Indian National Railways.
And while the Euro-trains I traveled on were smart and civilized and on-time and not exactly cheap either - but the best part about them was the Service carts coming down the aisle with beer and wine and weird Euro-snacks. German railway toilet paper was like the brown paper-bags we took our lunch to school, and the French stuff was insoluable like waxed paper - but each was better than the one-holer on Indian trains...
What I miss is Pan-Am circa 1968, the Golden Age of air-travel. And JAL stewardesses were pretty hot too - hell back when that job was hot and sexy - before the tawdry 70's and creepiness set-in...
I like train travel and use Amtrak whenever feasible, but I remember my dad saying how miserable the World War II-era troop trains were. (There is a sanitized version of them in one of the last Thin Man movies.) I wonder if the troop-train experience soured his generation on train travel to some extent, helping in their decline in the 1950s-1960s.
ReplyDelete