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After reading the article, Geoff, I wonder if one could invoke instances which involved both the most pleasant and least pleasant waits for a passenger train.
Probably the least pleasant, for me, was a wait after getting off a train. I detrained at the depot in Gallop, New Mexico, back in the mid 1960's. I had taken the San Francisco Chief from Stockton, CA to Gallop. There was a bit of a wait, in Gallop, before friends picked me up. I don't know what it's like now, but Gallop, NM was a real arm pit of a town. Not a pleasant experience.
For the two most pleasant waits for a train: One would be waiting for the westbound Burlington-Northern passenger train, around 1970, at the depot in East Glacier. The other one would be, in the 1970's, waiting for the westbound Canadian at the station in Banff. The Canadian was 2-3 hrs late, but it was a beautiful, warm and balmy summer evening. I still remember the thrill of first seeing the locomotive headlights in the distance.
Richard
Geoff Mayo Member # 153
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Good idea Richard. I can't personally recall any memorable delays waiting for the train, but plenty while on the train - and even those were more of a case of "a late train just gets later" rather than a multi-hour stop in one place.
One image I do recall more recently was when I wasn't catching the train, just happened to be nearby at the scheduled departure time so hung around to watch. It was at Victorville about 9:30pm when the Southwest Chief has completed its assault on Cajon Pass and is gently meandering its way downhill to Barstow and thence Chicago. Anyway, a pleasant night, not balmy hot like the Mojave nights can be, but not cold either. I was the sole person on the platform though there were a few cars in the dusty parking lot. Eventually a light shines off the canyon walls just to the north of the station and the train rounds the corner. Suddenly the platform comes alive with people dragging pillows, blankets, baggage, and sleepy but excited children from those cars previously thought to be empty. Soon a line of maybe a dozen people is formed at the one coach car entryway. No sleeping car passengers this night: that takes a double stop due to the short length of the platform) and slowly they get their seat assignments and trickle indoors to the air conditioned comfort of the coach car. Five minutes later the train tootles its way out of town and I'm left alone in the peaceful darkness again with just my wishes of being one of those passengers tonight.
palmland Member # 4344
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Nice description, Geoff. Reminds me of a long ago short story in Trains magazine by noted former editor David P Morgan. It was titled 'Past Midnight'. Excerpt a couple sentences to give you the idea:
" The waiting room is agreeably warm and completely bare of all entertainment past midnight. Only the hiss of the steam radiators and occasional clatter of the typewriter beyond the bars of the ticket window serve to relieve the dull silence.... Finally it comes. A thick blast of the whistle and the heavy Hudson goes rolling by, her fireman half way down the steps to grab a set of green flimsies".....
For me, any wait for the start of a long train trip is pleasant, but preferably not 'past midnight'.
yukon11 Member # 2997
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I had to look up the meaning of "green flimsies". I thought a "green flimsy" was something from Victoria's Secret.
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