I have always had a "thing" for trains. Any kind of trains. Steam engines were my big thing, but if it runs on parallel steel rails I love it. I have watched a Union Pacific "Big Boy" actually hauling freight at speed. Awesome sight. When I was a kid we used to plan family vacations based on maps of the Colorado narrow gauge railroads.
My father and I spent years building a railroad empire in the basement and named it the Saline and Western Hemisphere Railroad. We were not small thinkers. Our cat Freddy would sit watching a tunnel entrance for long periods, so motionless that he became part of the scenery, and when a train came out he would go straight up in the air and flee in panic. He never learned to expect that.
So when I read Paul Krugman today I just had to smile.
We have a Big Boy on the Pomona Fairgrounds that is in pretty good condition. Very impressive just static, wow that you wer able to see one in action.
ReplyDeleteHigh speed rail is not the thing to do right now, it is not economical and not appropriate for the US geography and demographics.
"Big Boy" is absolutely awesome!
ReplyDeleteKrugman definitely has a point - I remember riding "real trains" when I was young - lots of fun. Except maybe the trip from New Mexico to Baltimore (changing stations in Chicago) at the age of 18. But then, I was on my way to a commitment to the great unknown US Navy, which distracted from the scenery. Jayhawk probably doesn't remember much about living in a real railroad town (he is a fair amount younger than I am), where his (our) father was the railroad doctor. Probably the inspiration for the S&WH RR.