Ever since I was a little kid, I have always loved trains of any kind. Small, large, passenger, freight; you name the type of train and I could watch it all day long. My "love affair" with trains has never brought me so far as to know the first type of train ever made, nor the different types of locomotives, their names, or for that matter, their history. I have just always been enamored by the idea of trains, the notion that you can hop on in one location, plop yourself in a seat, and stare out the window as you travel somewhere, anywhere. When I was little, I never cared so much for their efficiency at moving people and cargo between two different points. The root of what draws me to trains is partly their size, partly the fascination of watching or traveling on them as they move swiftly down two steel rails, and their ability to connect far reaching places with simplicity. It is only more recently that I have come to love trains, in addition to the aforementioned reasons, for their efficiency. There are few other modes of transportation that can whisk either people or cargo at high speeds across large distances for relatively little energy. Sure, one locomotive needs a fair amount of it, but all told, its efficiency far surpasses that of the automobile or the airplane. (The only advantage to air travel is that it is quicker and can travel over large expanses of water). But enough about efficiency, and back to what made me fall in love with trains in the first place. I don't know exactly what sparked my fascination with trains, but I do remember a number of instances being on trains that cemented that love for them in me forever. One of the earliest memories I have of being on a train was in Chattanooga Tennessee on a smaller version of on old steam locomotive. It didn't travel very far, rather, it was more for the entertainment of families and to get a taste of what it was like in the olden days. There was the slow lumbering lurch as the steam powered pistons began the forward movement of the train. There was the steam release, the clanking of the connections between cars, and the smell of coal being thrown into the fire box. For some reason, all those sounds, smells, and movements appealed to me, along with the scenery that drifted by as we sat in the car being towed along two steel rails. And that was just the beginning.
Despite not having been on that many steam powered trains, the idea of them, the notion of traveling down those steel rails, has always been exciting. Every time my parents and I would hop on a train to New York City, I would always want to be in the first or last car so I could look out the door at where we were headed, or where we were coming from. Regardless of which direction I looked, as far as the eye could see were a set of rails, straight, narrow, and seemingly endless leading off into the horizon. I could never see the end no matter how hard I tried and lets not even mention the excitement I felt when there would be a curve in the tracks. I would wait and wait for the train to make it around the corner to see the rails continue on. When I stood in the front of the train, it was mesmerizing watching the rail road ties fly underneath the train, moving so fast you couldn't even count them. My affair with trains didn't stop at traveling on them, I wanted to play with toy trains when I was little, create large expanses of track, and move them around like I imagined they moved around in real life. I had the Brio trains when I was under the age of ten, those trains that had wooden tracks you could connect in any configuration you could think of including bridges, side rails, cross overs, etc. I still have a picture somewhere of a track configuration I made that took up close to a quarter of my parents living room. I believe my parents still have those trains in their attic, which at the appropriate time I will pass on to our son for his enjoyment. Once I got a little older, I became fascinated with the Lego trains. Now those were the cool trains where you could build the cars completely out of Lego's, once again create whatever kind of track configuration you wanted to, and even move the cars through a control you hooked up to the metal rails. Every Christmas for years I would set it up around the Christmas tree, multiple trains on multiple tracks, switches and all. It was a fun past time of mine and while the days of playing with toy trains has past, there is part of me that can't wait for my son to get older so I can play with trains again.
I still have dreams of traveling on various trains around the world, the scenic ones that wind their way through mountain ranges, along sheer cliff faces, or through open expanses of land. One trip I want to take is a cross country train trip; from New York to the West Coast. I just think it would be fascinating to see the country from the vantage point of a train, wending its way through plains, mountain ranges, and finally to the Pacific Ocean. I almost took that trip one time, and then for either monetary reasons or time constraints, I didn't. Such is life. There is also a trip I want to take through Canada, although that one will have to wait as well. Right now, I just dream of trains and look forward to every trip I take down into New York City. While the Metro North trains don't travel through open expanses of land or through mountain ranges, there is still that rocking motion that you get on almost every train and the endless stream of scenery, some of the beautiful, some of it stark and dreary, that flies by. I don't really mind the stark and dreary scenery for there is a different kind of beauty to be found there. It is more of a utilitarian or perhaps an industrial beauty that while built by man, also shows how man's stamp on the earth is never permanent. Many buildings built for the rail lines are decrepit and falling apart, some covered with ivy or grafiti or both. All of it is tantalizing, dredging up thoughts of a past era, one in which trains were king and offered perhaps the best option for travel around. I still think they offer the best option for travel, yet many now would prefer to be in the comfort of their own cars, seemingly in control of where they are going and what they are doing. Trains allow you to forget all that and simply relax, read a book, or just be. My love affair with trains will never end, it will just change with me as I get older.
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