Train stories; why I love train travel

I love train travel so much. When I was growing up in Ellsworth, a freight train passed a few blocks from our house on a regular basis. The train whistles went off at precisely 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. I thought that was a very cool sound and developed a very romantic notion of train travel.

My first train experience was a couchette in France, which is a sleeping car with six bunk beds in it. On a school-sponsored trip to France over April vacation, we took an overnight train from Paris to the south, were down there about a week, then took another night train back. I remember my couchettes having some of my travel mates and some strangers. Back then we took that for granted. Now I wonder if couchettes even exist any more. I can't imagine that sharing a room with strangers would ever fly nowadays. What I learned from my couchette experience in France is #1, it's so cool and relaxing just to sit back and watch the countryside roll by, and #2, I sleep great on a train. The subtle motion of a train just zones me right out.

My next train experience was in 2001. That detail is important. My brother out in California invited me to come out for Christmas. He never came our and said so, but I suspect he thought it might be a tough holiday that year. This was three months post-September 11 and absolutely nobody was flying. And Amtrak service came to Maine for the first time on December 15. So I researched Amtrak schedules online and decided on a train adventure. The most direct route from Boston to Chicago (as noted, the train I'm on as I write this) was sold out. So my route was Portland to Boston, get from North Station to South Station, Boston to Washington, D.C., D.C. to Chicago, and Chicago to the San Francisco Bay Area. -- I repeat, if you're thinking this sounds like a cool idea, which it is, note that the Downeaster goes to Boston North Station and trains to anywhere else leave from Boston South Station. Your options for getting from North to South Stations include a 25-minute walk, the subway (called the T in Boston), or a cab.

All of Amtrak's lines have romantic names. For the ones I took on this maiden voyage, Portland to Boston is the Downeaster (actually, that's Brunswick to Boston now), Boston to D.C. is the Northeast Corridor, D.C. to Chicago is the Capitol Limited, and the fabulous two-day trip from Chicago to Emeryville, California is the California Zephyr. (Zephyr, for those who don't know, was the west wind in ancient mythology.)

So on December 22, 2001, off I went. My first impression boarding the train was how easy it was. No security screening, just walk onto the platform, get on the train, and take a seat. And no seat belts on the seats. And they were spacious and comfortable. Very auspicious start.

Then came a landmark moment. The conductors came around to take tickets. At this point, the Amtrak Downeaster had been in service for one week. As my ticket was taken, the conductor asked, "Traveling to Boston today?" and I replied that I was headed a lot farther than that. Two conductors told me that they believed I was the person to do that. So I am (unofficially) the first person ever to travel from Maine to California on Amtrak.

I had the Lord of the Rings books with me since the movies were coming out about that time. So I wrote a travel journal in Tolkien style. I still have it. When I get home, I'll post excerpts on here.

The first very memorable moment came as we were approaching NYC. Reminder: this was three months after 9/11. There is a moment on the Northeast Corridor train when it rounds a turn coming into NYC and the whole of Manhattan appears as a panorama. On this date, at that moment, the whole train car fell completely silent. For many or most passengers, including me, this was the first time seeing NYC without the towers. It was eerily quiet. Some people were tearful. And it stayed that way probably until we got to Penn Station.

The next memorable moment was watching the sun set in the mountains of West Virginia. Just beautiful. Up to that moment, West Virginia was the only state east of the Mississippi that I'd never been to.

Then there was the moment in Nebraska when I saw someone I knew on the train. It was a woman with whom I had worked at L.L. Bean that fall. She told me she had left her husband a few days ago and was heading out to make a new life for herself somewhere else. I never heard from or about her again.

Throughout the course of the trip, I realized that I was seeing everything the United States had to offer. The Atlantic Ocean. Big cities. The Appalachians. The Great Lakes. The prairies. The Rocky Mountains. We went through a mountain. Not around it, through it. We were in a tunnel for ten minutes and were told in no uncertain terms not to change cars while we were in the tunnel. We stopped in Salt Lake City in the middle of the night and I saw the big temple all lit up. I slept through Denver. The Sierra Nevada was snow-covered and beautiful. And we pulled into Emeryville, CA in the Bay Area on Christmas Day.

I didn't return from California to Maine that year by train, though. Flights were super-cheap because no one was flying. So the prospect of saving $$$ overrode any anxiety about flying.

Another of the many cool features of long-distance train travel is the people. Everyone has a story. The way people meet is at meals and in the lounge car. At meals, they just seat you at tables of four in the order you come in. So you are seated with random people. And almost everyone wants to chat and swap stories; it's that kind of vibe. On this 2001 trip, I hit it off with a family of five. The kids ranged from about 17 to about 9. Their name was Hopkins or Hawkins and they were from Pittsburgh. They were also headed to California to spend Christmas with family. The oldest child had her clarinet with her because she was practicing for auditions to major in music at college. So we had a lot to talk about. I had every intention of getting their address to keep in touch, but we got separated on the platform and they were gone. From time to time, I've thought about trying to find them online somehow just to say hi and find out how they've been doing.

I did learn that it's worth it on the long trips to reserve a spot in a sleeper car. I found that I just couldn't sleep in the seats. And I had lots of company on the second night of the California Zephyr sleeping on benches in the lounge car. Be advised, it's significantly more expensive. But three generous and good-quality meals a day are included. I've never had a bad meal on a train. Au contraire, I've had some very good ones. Plus, if you compare the cost of a sleeper car to the cost of driving, which includes gas, tolls, meals, and lodging, you come out about even, plus you get to your destination sooner than you would driving because the train goes through the night.

And just as the boarding process is super-easy, so is the disembarkation. The train stops, you take your bags, and you walk off the train and away. No taxi-ing to the gate, no waiting for the doors to open, almost no waiting for other passengers since there are multiple exits instead of just one, and no baggage claim.

Since my inaugural transcontinental trip, I've been to Boston on the Downeaster countless times. I've taken the Acela Express from Boston to NYC and Washington, D.C. for conferences. I've taken the Silver Star from NY to Orlando and plan on doing that again in February 2015.  And I've taken the Lake Shore Limited from Boston to Toledo and back with a bus connection in Dearborn, MI. As noted twice, at the risk of repeating myself, I am on the Lake Shore Limited westbound as I write this.

On all of those trips I've seen beautiful views of all parts of the country and met neat people. I think the common thread among us trainiacs is that we don't want to deal with the stress of flying, we are laid back and appreciate the slower pace, and we enjoy the view of the countryside. My dinner companions last night were a retired high school science teacher from St. Louis, his wife who was a retired children's librarian, and the production manager from the Ensemble Studio Theater off-Broadway. We did not lack for topics of conversation!

The one thing to be aware of is that with long-distance train travel, as with car travel, things happen and arrival times are approximate. So you need to be aware of that and plan accordingly. It's part of the laid-back nature of train travel. It definitely beats dealing with stressed-out people at airports!

Update: Greetings from another romantically named train, the Wolverine. I'm adding 6 extra train hours to the trip back to Maine so as not to be hanging out in the Toledo bus station from 11:30 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. Here's another hint about regional trains: like on European trains which have first and second class, it's not that much more expensive to go first class (Amtrak calls it business and coach instead of first and second), and you get a bigger seat and more space. Plus a free newspaper and bottle of water. Here's a photo of business class on the Wolverine.

And I'm in the back row. These are single seats on the left. So it's a pretty small cozy environment in business class.

Update to the update: I'm eastbound for home now, or will be once the Lake Shore Limited departs for Boston any minute now. Here are some photos of a "roomette" sleeper car for 1-2 people.

- standing in the door looking left

- standing in the door looking right

Yes, that's a toilet under the brown lid. And yes, all the windows and doors to the roomette have a privacy curtain. Sleeper car passengers who want nothing to do with the in-room toilet just walk to a regular car. There's also one shower for the whole sleeper car.

This is the room with the top bunk pulled down. I know it's hard to see much, but that's the best I can get with a narrow hallway and tiny door. I always just throw my stuff up there. There is a place at the end of the car to leave luggage, but since there's just one of me, I keep everything here. When I'm in the dining car or just walking around, or stepping off the train which is allowed if there is at least a five-minute stop and if they tell you it's o.k., I take my purse and iPad with me. But there's an attendant in the car and it has always felt safe.

And here is what the roomette looks like when it's not made up for sleeping; two seats like this facing each other.

The only downside is that you can't open the train windows. So those five-minute fresh air breaks (most of the attendants call them "smoke breaks") are most welcome.

Update Thursday 8/14/2014, 9:15 a.m.: Good morning from the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. Going back to what I said about the need to be very flexible about time, the train is a little over two hours behind schedule. The scheduled arrival in Boston is 9:10 a.m. The last bus to Portland is at 11:15 p.m.  At Albany there is about a 30-minute stop while this loooooooong train (about 18 cars) splits in two with half going to Boston and half to NYC. When I see what time we leave Albany, I'll know whether I have to plan on a night in a Boston hotel. Obviously I'd rather not have the extra expense, but I'm very grateful that I can afford not to stay in South Station in the wee hours untl the first bus at 5:45 a.m. - although if we get very far behind, which happens very occasionally, and I would only be at South Station for an hour or two, I could manage that. - And while I'm on the subject of gratitude for having options, when I walked through six coach cars a while back to get to breakfast, I saw a whole bunch of people who looked very weary. Clearly they were experienced coach sleepers as they had brought pillows and blankets, and some folks were curled up on two seats. So I'm grateful for having slept great in the roomette, a lot better than I would have in a seat.

I wish I could post photos of all the cool countryside views, but photos out the train windows don't come out. Too bad, especially not to be able to share things like a beautiful sunrise over Lake Erie on the trip out, a stunning sunset last night over fields in southwest Michigan, and a just-beginning-to-wane moon over the city of Chicago as we departed last night.

Update a week after returning: I heard from a lunch companion who had been taking the Lake Shore Limited for 20 years that it is almost always significantly late. Good to know for the future.

My dinner companions very late the evening of Thursday 8/14 were another collection of colorful characters, all about my age. Across from me was a man who claimed to have been to 65 countries and seemed to have the photos on his phone and the stories in his head to validate that claim, but was very vague about the circumstances that took him to all those countries. Plus, he said he only speaks English.  Next to me was an olive and milk farmer (interesting combination) from near Chico in northern California. He farms with his four sons ages 21 to 15, and with several Mexicans whom he pays well and treats well because he wants them to have a good life. His wife left him in an amicable divorce because she was "tired of living in a house that smells like cow shit." At the next table across the aisle from me was a very pleasant gentleman who had been along for the whole trip and who was wearing a pretty gold necklace, a woman's blouse, and a nice denim skirt. (Yes, I'm sure it was a guy due to the male pattern baldness, Adam's apple, and voice.) His male companion was kind of crotchety, but the guy dressed in women's clothing was very nice. And the best one of all was the woman kitty-corner from me. She was born and raised in Lewiston, Maine, spoke French before she spoke English, and was in her 80's (didn't look it). She said her maiden name was Charlotte Gélinas (I wouldn't forget that detail, my mom's name was Charlotte) and that her mother's family was Philippon. She lives in Chicago now where she does stand-up comedy. Her favorite routine, which she performed part of for us, was about the word "fuck." The gist of her routine: why does a word for a pleasant activity get used in unpleasant ways? "Fuck you." "I don't give a fuck." "I really fucked that up." When I got home, I Googled "Charlotte comedy Chicago" hoping to find a video or article or something. No luck. Too bad; there was something about a very elderly woman dropping F-bombs all over the place that was hilarious.

For discussion: do you have any train stories to share? If you've never been on a train, where would you like to go? Want to travel with me sometime? :)