[PRCo] Re: train travel

[Ken and Tracie]

The book resides twenty five feet away from this keyboard, Fred. The book 
raises good points, but again, the profits were in freight, the railroads 
where heavily regulated (and of course, they resented that) while auto and 
air travel was heavily subsidized with taxes. I can understand the 
railroads' desire to get out from under the burden of long distance, 
regional and commuter rail.

K.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Schneider Fred" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Monday, November 03, 2008 11:26 AM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: train travel


> 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.
>>
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