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All Aboard The Complete North American Train Travel Guide by Jim Loomis SC
All Aboard by Jim Loomis Soft Cover 1995 354 Pages THIRD EDITION 2011
When I was a youngster back in the late 1940s and early 1950s, my family would take an annual train trip from our home in Connecticut to either St. Louis or Florida, where grandparents would be waiting.
Those train rides were great adventures. I remember standing on the platform of the Hartford railroad station, waiting for the train to arrive. I would impatiently crane my neck for the first glimpse, being careful to keep behind the yellow warning line. According to my father (a master of hyperbole), anyone standing too close to the train as it rolled into the station ran the risk of being "sucked under the wheels."
The anticipation was almost unbearable. But finally, a rasping monotone would blare out over the PA system: "Your attention, please. Now arriving on track two . . ."
The platform came alive with that announcement; baggage carts rattled past, last-minute passengers ran up the stairs from the waiting room, and mothers anxiously corralled their kids. After the general confusion subsided, 30 or 40 people would be craning their necks. Still we saw nothing, just the tracks curving away beyond our line of sight.
Then, suddenly, a black steam locomotive materialized, bearing down on us, even appearing to accelerate as it loomed larger and larger. It always seemed so much bigger than I remembered-and noisier, although the locomotive's bell, clang-clanging slightly out of rhythm, was somehow clearly heard above the din as the train rumbled past.
A train ride is still a great adventure for me. I'm always anxious to board, always reluctant to get off. There is obvious irony, of course, in the fact that someone who loves rail travel has spent almost 50 years living in Hawaii, a place more than 2,000 miles from the nearest long-distance train. Strangely, it was for this very reason that my love of train travel was revived after so many years.
Back in the early '90s, a family reunion was being organized in Florida. While discussing plans to attend the event, I realized that neither my wife nor my daughter had ever really seen America. Both had been born and raised here in the Islands, and most of what they knew of "the mainland" was what they had seen from 30,000 feet. Neither had any real idea of how vast our country was.
Though I was not even sure it was possible, I suggested flying straight to Florida for the reunion but from there taking a train back to the West Coast. Then we would fly home to Honolulu. My wife, Paula, thought I was crazy and said so. Our daughter was six at the time, and Paula had visions of trying to occupy an active youngster in cramped quarters for hours on end. Eventually I worked out an itinerary that included overnight stops in Williamsburg, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; the Colorado Rockies; the California Sierras; and, finally, San Francisco. My wife still wasn't completely convinced, but she agreed to give Amtrak a try.
We had a wonderful trip. Williamsburg was charming; Washington was inspiring (and, thankfully, cool for June); the Rockies and the Sierras were spectacular. Just as important, our train experience was all I had hoped it would be.
Since then, the train has become the preferred means of long-distance travel for our family. My daughter, in particular, has become a train enthusiast. She's a grown woman with a family of her own now; but when she was about ten years old, we combined two of our passions into a wonderful three-week excursion. We logged several thousand miles on Amtrak as we followed the Boston Red Sox on one of their road trips, hitting Oakland, Seattle, Chicago, and finally "home" to Boston. Neither of us will ever forget it. We had a priceless opportunity for a special father-daughter time together, we saw magnificent scenery, we saw the Red Sox win six of seven games-and we did it all by train.
The idea for this book grew from those experiences. It was written for the person who is naturally inquisitive, who notices and finds delight in little things, and who knows that people in a hurry miss a lot. It is my hope that this book will significantly add to the experience of every train ride for such a person, and I take a great deal of pleasure in that thought.
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