When he retired in 1966 my grandparents moved to Florida and every Easter mom and I traveled by train (always Seaboard) down to West Palm Beach. My grandfathers last gift to me before he died was Amtrak's first nationwide Schedule Eff: 5/1/71 - my grandfather passed away the same month.

To this day Im partial toward the Pennsylvania and Seaboard (SAL/SCL) when it comes to railroad books and video's. Im glad for that experience since the SAL/SCL was very pro-passenger.

There is a feeling of adventure and uncertainty about train travel (and its onboard service, lateness, and even existence). The hypnotic sounds can be addictive. Trains represent our history and growth as a nation. Depots have rich histories of personal comings and goings.

My mother preferred the Seaboard, but we made some ACL trips too, especially after the revival of the "Florida Special" in the mid-1960s.

I was always interested in the operation, but was more a "rail romantic" than a railfan, until I became best friends with a hard-core fan in 10th grade. He got me interested in the details of railroading (he collected engine numbers and was a modeler as well).

At the time, my father worked (briefly) for the AAR in Washington, DC, so I had access to their (then wonderful, since dispersed) library. I also could travel on passes.

I consider myself to be more of a rail customer, and rail advocate, but for many of the reasons M190 describes as a "fan". It is comfortable, relaxing, and personally enriching. It is also an economical way to travel and see the country at the same time.

I enjoy train travel and appreciate its value as a basic mode of transportation. My experience with Amtrak goes back to 1974, (my only pre-Amtrak train trip was in 1962, when I was 3) but I didn't get passionately involved in rail advocacy until a few years ago. That was when I started researching the political side of Amtrak and got furiously angry with the way Congress has throughly bungled rail transportation policy.

That's not to say I have no interest in the technical side of railroading, but I don't go out of my way looking for that stuff. Most of what I know in that regard I learned while en route to looking up other things.

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Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth.
-Mr. Toy

I like the feeling of motion on a train. That is #1. Not just the forward motion but especially the rock and roll.

I like the look, sound and smells of a train (except for the rest rooms!)

the scenery whether it is nature or industrial.

I like to be away from the cellphone and email.

I like the fact that it is thousands of tons of steel moving like a dancer across the land.

I LOVE to read on the train.

I like to step off in the middle of NYC rather than 45 minutes outside of the city.

For actual travel, when I actually have to be somewhere, I am lucky to live on the NE corridor. it is fast, safe and convenient......usually.

Romance with the rails does live in me. It is a throw back to a more relaxed time.

No security.

I can show up 2 minutes before the train and if it is tight buy my ticket on board.

The breakfast sandwiches. (the new bagel egg cheese is really good) The cheese platter.

Being forced to relax.

I like to hop the train from RHI to NYP, then step into the terminal and right on another train home as an activity for a day off.

It is always an adventure of some kind.

And I could go on....

JMA

1) Feeling the momentum of thousands of pounds of steel rocking gently back and forth and joining it in a journey across the country- it's like you become a part of it.

2) The relaxing atmosphere of it all. It's not like flying where everything is rushed- racing to the airport (and gosh I've flown more times than I can count), waiting in long lines, rushing over to find your gate, sitting in a seat that's too small and not being able to move around much. On the train it's easygoing, relaxing, a "no cares in the world" type of feeling. And even though the train's running late- having that freedom to feel "when we get there, we get there, so enjoy the moment" type feeling.

3)Although i'm sure it's not like this on the acela(maybe- i dunno), a feeling of nostalgia like you're back in time when rail travel was the way to go (remember the movies of the 2 lovers where one gets on the train and looks out as the train starts up down the tracks and they gaze at one another...) I guess you could call it a feeling of romanticism.

First, i am hardly from a family that had any interest or affiliation whatever in railroads; rail travel was something to be avoided, no doubt owing to WWII experiences. In fact, I can recall being sent off on a canoe trip in Canada during 1956 when my mother simply said "why do you want a camera; why do you want to take pictures of steam engines, didn;t they get rid of those things?".

When I signed up back in 1958 for a lifetime subscription to TRAINS for $60, I was met with "well you sure threw $60 away, but oh well, it's YOUR money". I wish every stock I have picked over the years was so successful as an investment.

I must note that being in the industry 1970-81 did not enhance one's desire to be a fan. That of course is hardly saying railroad employment was "just a job".

After leaving the industry at the end of 1981, it simply appeared to be a case of "take the train' only if convenient. that meant METRA/BN(SF) into Chi or "out East' traveling in the Corridor; also meant that if I was routing a scheduled trip to Florida via Wash, I would use the Auto Train, which by the way is the most "non-fan" LD train on the system.

I did make a 1991 "bumper to bumper post" trip on #4; this was simply brought about because I had friends on the West Coast, and booked a discounted air ticket to go out and visit. However, I quickly learned that friends "move on", no one's fault, but I was 'stuck' with a trip, save one visit, that would have included some three days of "dead" time. Rather than "stare at four walls" in a hotel, I inquired of Amtrak if there was any space available on #4; there was, Std (then Economy) #1 no less. At least I had something to do, even though I was less than happy about being without shower (S-I's had not yet been retrofitted with Amtrak's greatest innovation to LD travel)for two days.

There were subsequent possibilities for LD travel to go somewhere for a purpose (as distinct from "travel for travel's sake"). One was a seminar at "The Meadows'(my second career as a CPA in private practice), but now-deceased girlfriend (who already had her bags packed one month in advance) didn't want to hear of wasting all that #$%^&*@ time and money, so it was off to ORD (as was the case with any other trips with her).

Quite honestly, the rekindling of railfan interest came with the internet, when, after going on-line during May 1999, I "stumbled into' this and the other major message boards. I am not in the least interested in imaging or recording, even though I acknowledge I take walks along a public street adjacent to the BNSF and usually about the time #3-4-5-6 are scheduled to pass.

Even though I do remember going to the train station to watch the trains take on water when I was very young, I think my first memory of trains being a mode of transportation must have been while growing up in a small South Carolina town during WWII and observing many young soldiers traveling to or from training camps. I would go to the train station and sell my bags of boiled peanuts, 10 cents a bag, to those soldiers. I must have kept a schedule of the train arrivals even at that young age. Other youth would sell sandwiches, candy, other munchies, or newspapers. I guess those young soldiers were gullible, thinking that their military pay, being more money than they could make in factories or in the fields, was more than they would need. Some may have thought they were off to war and would not need it much longer.

My first train ride was after WWII. I recall a family member taking me to the next town, 15 miles away, and allowing me to ride the train home. In the late 1940’s and early ‘50’s, while living in Dayton, Ohio, I recall going to the closest railroad tracks and hopping trains on a regular basis. I recall riding all the way to the repair yard and watching the engines being turned around on a “turntable”, at least that’s what we called it.

The next recollection I have about trains was when my best friend and I, during the summer break from our first year at college in 1956, observed a train passing by the same station we had watched WWII troops pass by. We admired the people who were traveling on those trains with such apparent leisure. The next day we joined joined the Army. Our leisure was over for awhile. After basic training I was able to take a train from Greenville, SC to Boston, Ma. for my first military assignment. After that I made two other train trips before AMTRAK. After my tour in SE Asia, and a flight from Manila to Sfran, I took the train to South Carolina. That trip was pretty close to the CZ route of today into Chi. The next trip was from SC to Norfolk, VA. Those pre-AMTRAK trips were probably the last of the “romantic rails”.

My wife, not having the same love of rail travel, did agree to make an AMTRAK vacation with me. We travelled from Charlotte to Wash to Montreal, rented a car, spent a week in Quebec Province, then made the return rail trip.

I continue to look at this website with interest and enjoy the excitement that others have with their rail trips. I hope to make an LD trip this spring.

Thanks for asking this question, I have enjoyed reflecting on my rail interest.

From the time I was born our family would visit my maternal grandparents in No. Idaho every summer, which in the early days, was accomplished by taking the train from Boston to Spokane. This was a great adventure and fun to be out visiting my grandparents. So early on I've associated train travel with good times. Today, I like the train for the same reasons that many of you have already mentioned: meeting people, reading, watching the scenery, the smells (not the WC), being away from the phone, etc.