Just back from a jaunt to Seattle amazed anew by the fun of taking the train. The stations are beautiful, it’s calm and quiet. You can walk around. You don’t have to wear a seat belt or be strip-searched before getting on. You arrive and discover you aren’t stressed or harassed. It’s American. It’s nice.
Our station here in Salem has been restored and is splendid, even on a rainy morning:
You feel like you’ve stepped back in time 50 years, so that must be why I look only 14 in this photo:
You pass through Portland and various points north, including Centralia,
eventually arriving in Seattle where you discover they are still using an old iron baggage cart (now pulled by a little motorized rig):
Well there were a few “issues” today coming home (a derailment up north) so the business class got to ride in a wonderful car that they usually only use on the Canadian-bound trains–but they can’t go to Canada today so we got it instead. Here we are nearing Portland–kind of like a travelogue!
You make me want to ride the train! Thanks for the taste of travel by rail.
Trains! Hoorah! If only we could take the trains everywhere. And they should put the vista-car on all the trains – it looks like great fun. I think they just restored the Seattle station, yes?