A nice tribute to trains from Joel Achenbach. An excerpt:
It was a dark morning, rainy, and Trenton is not a town that looks better when wet. The New Jersey Transit commuter train sat on Track 4, hissing. The station had the full array of sound effects, of humming electrical wires, squeaky brakes, bells, whistles, the shouts of conductors, and indecipherable intercom announcements. Those of delicate sensitivities might have found the place grubby. But I wouldn’t trade it for the cleanest airport concourse. Planes are just buses now, and you starve, and there’s no leg room, and you never know if you’re going to get where you’re going or will wind up stranded in a terminal for 8 hours, sleeping on your luggage.
This one’s for you Jon.