There appears to be a rail travel theme in the newly found manuscript of Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird - anyone around here graduate from HS without having read it?), Go Set A Watchman. The description of life in a Roomette appears accurate, and the book's cover has a depiction of an Alco PA.
Read the first chapter, or if too lazy, actress Reese Witherspoon will do it for you:
Since Atlanta, she had looked out the dining-car window with a delight almost physical. Over her breakfast coffee, she watched the last of Georgia’s hills recede and the red earth appear, and with it tin-roofed houses set in the middle of swept yards, and in the yards the inevitable verbena grew, surrounded by whitewashed tires. She grinned when she saw her first TV antenna atop an unpainted Negro house; as they multiplied, her joy rose.
Jean Louise Finch always made this journey by air, but she decided to go by train from New York to Maycomb Junction on her fifth annual trip home. For one thing, she had the life scared out of her the last time she was on a plane: the pilot elected to fly through a tornado. For another thing, flying home meant her father rising at three in the morning, driving a hundred miles to meet her in Mobile, and doing a full day’s work afterwards: he was seventy-two now and this was no longer fair.
She was glad she had decided to go by train. Trains had changed since her childhood, and the novelty of the experience amused her: a fat genie of a porter materialized when she pressed a button on a wall; at her bidding a stainless steel washbasin popped out of another wall, and there was a john one could prop one’s feet on.
Either Ms. Lee actually had a darned good researcher (unlike the one David Baldacci had for Christmas Train) or actually rode trains herself.
Let's see, what train "Ms. Scout Finch" was riding? In To Kill a Mockingbird, "Maycomb Junction" was in "Abbott County" Alabama and North of Meridian MS (maybe Gadsden in real life?). Since "The Southerner" was not about to stop there, she must have been on "The Pelican".
Otherwise, defer to Messrs. Harris and Palmland on that point.
Posted by George Harris (Member # 2077) on :
Unless she was changing trains, if she went through Atlanta, she had to be on either the Southerner, the Crescent or the Piedmont Limited. Well, if changing she could also have been on Seaboard's Silver Comet. If on the Crescent or Piedmont she would have been going through West Point, Montgomery, and Mobile. This does not get you through any point north of Meridian or anywhere close to Mobile, plus Meridian is something like 138 miles north of Mobile, so the 100 mile each way round trip to Mobile from Maycomb Jct. does not compute. There is some flexibility in the geography here. Or, maybe the 100 miles is more to the east of Meridian. That would put you close to Montgomery which makes the Crescent or Piedmont more logical. However, unless that is somewhat south of east of Meridian you are still over 100 miles from Mobile.
The Piedmont would have put her going through south Alabama in the middle of the night, so unless Daddy is still getting up in the middle of the night, she would be on the Crescent. Still, a short drive with going back to bed after only being up about an hour would be better tha the four hours plus that a hundred mile each way round trip to Mobile would take.
Posted by palmland (Member # 4344) on :
Good tease, my wife and I both enjoyed Chapter 1. We'll be at our local bookstore as soon as it arrives. Pretty clear she is on the Crescent. She stretches her legs in stop in Montgomery. and stop before hers is Evergreen, small town a few miles north of Flomaton I well remember from my last trip on the Humming Bird.
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
OK, it is noted the now-adult Scout is riding The (Pre Amtrak) Crescent. As Mr. Palmland notes, 100 miles from Mobile on the L&N would be Evergreen, at which The Crescent did make a flag stop - at least during 1964. So that would be "Maycomb Junction". "Maycomb" would be Monroeville, which is 20 highway miles from Evergreen.
Even though Watchman was written before Mockingbird, it is set some 20 years later. Just trying to explain why Scout is now an adult.
Posted by George Harris (Member # 2077) on :
Definitely the Crescent, which was in the late 50's early 60's, "No coaches Charlotte to Atlanta"
Have no idea where any description of location realtive to Meridian MS came from.
Posted by TBlack (Member # 181) on :
Actually, to take the mystery out of it, she mentions later on in the chapter that Mr. Norman has cited that the train is, indeed, the Crescent. Too bad that the quote didn't include the part where she gets folded up in the berth! Can that really happen?
Posted by Geoff Mayo (Member # 153) on :
quote:Originally posted by Gilbert B Norman: Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird - anyone around here graduate from HS without having read it?)
I can confirm this is a staple of British high schools as well. I enjoyed it so much I have read it twice more since school. I'll certainly be looking to read "Go Set a Watchman".
"Raising Steam" by the late Sir Terry Pratchett is another good one, though I've not finished it yet.
Posted by Ocala Mike (Member # 4657) on :
Spoiler alert:
From all the reports covering this work, it would appear that the Atticus Finch in "Watchman" bears as little resemblance to the Atticus Finch we all studied as dining on Amtrak today does to dining on, say, the AT&SF of yesteryear.
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
Hardly such, Mike. Reviews out there already have pointed out that racist Atticus is hardly the character of Mockingbird. This could well be a reason "Nells" Lee did not wish Watchman to be found, let alone published. For even down there in 60's Monroville/"Maycomb" she believed in racial equality.
I'll likely be up at B&N tomorrow.
Here is The Times review of the work published front page "above the fold" in Saturday's Times:
The depiction of Atticus in “Watchman” makes for disturbing reading, and for “Mockingbird” fans, it’s especially disorienting. Scout is shocked to find, during her trip home, that her beloved father, who taught her everything she knows about fairness and compassion, has been affiliating with raving anti-integration, anti-black crazies, and the reader shares her horror and confusion.
Of interest, Comcast has raised the rental price of Mockingbird to $29.95; we call that supply and demand. I'll pay the $27.95, if its available, to B&N and make my 74 year old mind work reading it.
Posted by sojourner (Member # 3134) on :
I have no plans to read it. I'll stick with Gregory Peck.
Posted by CHATTER (Member # 1185) on :
It was actually an interesting opening to the novel. Ralifans would enjoy chapter one, which was awash in detailed train description.