[PRCo] Re: train travel

[Schneider Fred]

Was there not a book the title of which was "To Hell in a Day  
Coach?"   Several thoughts come to mind ... the all day ride on the  
Virginian from Norfolk to Roanoke in a coach without food service, or  
on the Best and Only from Pittsburgh to Wheeling, Parkersburg and  
Kenova, also without food service.
I just had lunch with Kurt Bell, the archivest of the state railroad  
museum in Strasburg.   The conversation was principally about how  
fans, be they antique auto types or railfans or whatever divorce  
their hobby from reality.   The AACA museum in Hershey shows antique  
cars but their members know nada about the development of highways.  
Trolley museums show trolleys but we don't know why people quit  
riding them.   And several weeks ago I was privy to a sit in on a PRR  
Historical and Technical Society Meeting where the curator of the  
state railroad museum had to tell those people the truth that the  
state wasn't going to get all the Pennsy locomotives even  
costmetically restored in the next 50 years ... those who didn't like  
what he said rudely got up and walked out.    And are transportation  
types alone?   No, the grand dames that run the home of President  
Buchanan in Lancaster refuse to tell anyone that he was gay and in  
love with a senator from Alabama because that isn't want they want to  
convey.   So much for reality checks.


On Nov 3, 2008, at 2:10 PM, galtfd at comcast.net wrote:

> And, as I final reality check, the delights of a ride on one of  
> those local or branch line trains which vanished between 1930 and  
> 1947 are vastly enhanced by nostalgia, and the real thing didn't  
> always equate to a pleasant afternoon trip on a preserved railway.
>