If I had my way
John E. Peterson, Special to The Gazette
Originally published 02:01 p.m., May 15, 2008
Updated 02:01 p.m., May 15, 2008
THERE IS much talk and publicity these days about increasing train transportation. Wichita is trying to get Amtrak to serve it again. Topeka has an Amtrak train going through it in each direction once a day. They would like to get more trains coming through. And then we read about the increasing use of trains all over the nation.
Such publicity makes me think about how wonderful train travel is and it brings back many of my train experiences. I would tell you about them, if I had my way. There have been so many, however, and they were such marvelous experiences that I doubt if I can get them all in. I certainly will tell you about some of them.
Let us start with Emporia. Trains used to come through here in the 1970s. Merle and I took the train to Santa Fe about three times. We would spend a couple of days there and then take it back home. It is interesting that the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad never actually went into Santa Fe. We had to get off about 15 miles out and we rented a car to get into town. Ah, well! Always a great trip anyway.
We also went to Chicago by train several times. We got on here in Emporia late at night, went to bed right away, got up rather late in the morning, had breakfast and there we soon were in Chicago! We drove to Chicago often, but taking that train was a great experience.
Let us now jump to Canada. One summer back in the ’60s at the University of Missouri I decided to gather soil samples — from which to isolate my myxobacteria — in northern Canada. We would drive from east to west on the most northerly roads and end up in the mountains.
We decided to have our two widowed mothers fly up and meet us in Calgary. Then we would visit those lovely Canadian parks in the mountains and meander home via the Black Hills and such places. My mother insisted she was going to get to Calgary by train. Why? Because she could see the country so much better than in a plane. We agreed and met one mother at the airport, the other at the railroad depot.
The start of that Canadian summer was in the Canadian east for Merle and me. We wanted to go clear up north to Churchill on Hudson Bay. There was no road for the last few hundred miles, but there was a train. So we left the car in the little town where the road ended and took the train. We flew back down.
My mother, of course, was right. You see lots more from the train. Indian villages with the people out to wave and talk. The change in the landscape from forest to nearly tundra. You also met people on the train. We met a wife of a military officer in Churchill and they had us to dinner when we got there.
And you have experiences on trains. We were in the club car on the train one evening after dinner having drinks and chatting. After midnight, all had left the club car for bed except me and the bartender. I was sitting facing the west and I said to him that finally the sun had gone. He told me to turn around and look toward the east. Indeed, the sun was beginning to glow there. That happens in the far north in the summer.
Though I drove the full thousand miles of Sweden to gather my soil samples, we did take the train a couple of times from Lund in the south, where I was at the university there, to Stockholm. A great ride. And once we drove over to Oslo, Norway, and took the train from there to Bergen. An absolutely stunning ride through the mountains.
I have a vivid memory of the train in Costa Rica. There is no road from San Jose, the capital city in the center, to Limon on the Caribbean Sea to the east. The railroad is like the highway. Villages all along it, we stopped at most of them. A most enjoyable trip through the rain forest and the mountains. We fly back.
Though I did much driving all over Australia to gather my soil samples, we took three great train trips. One was to Perth, on the west coast, on the all-across-Australia train which has the longest straight track in the world. It is some 300 miles without a curve and no hills. We were also on a train up to Alice Springs in the middle of Australia and another way up in the northeast corner. Great trips!
That reminds me that I had a 10-day leave in Sydney, Australia, way back in WW II days. After flying into northern Australia, we took a train south to Sydney. Actually, it was two trains because back then each state had tracks of different size. We had to get out and walk to another train when we hit the state line. They have changed that now.
There have been lots more train adventures in my life. From Chihuahua over to the mountains to the ocean in Mexico. Johannesburg to Cape Town in South Africa a couple of times. Copenhagen to Amsterdam in Europe, so we could get on a ship for home. Lots of trains in the United States, but those in Colorado really stick in my memories. Really thrilling experiences.
No room left to tell you about more of my train experiences. They go way back to my boyhood in DeKalb, Illinois, in the 1920s. The trains went right through the center of town. They were with us all the time.
I do hope our train transportation in the U.S. will be expanded. It would be good for us. It would definitely happen, if I had my way.
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Posted by ralpheatsbeef (anonymous) on May 15, 2008 at 7:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Sorry, John, but it's not going to happen.
Posted by dml (anonymous) on May 15, 2008 at 11:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I remember my grandmother taking a bus from Rockford to Chicago to catch a train to come down to Emporia every spring and fall to see me until it no longer stopped in Emporia. After that, I may have gone 2 or 3 years without seeing her. One time, she did fly down to Wichita to come visit, but she also much preferred the train. It seems like the train would come through about 4 or 5 am so we had to set an alarm to get us up to go meet her or to send her back off to home. I think it would be fun to take some train rides to see the country. I would not have to worry about falling asleep at the wheel then!
Posted by neighbor (anonymous) on May 16, 2008 at 12:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The Peterson's have travelled to places most can only dream of seeing, yet he often writes his column about his joyous trips about Kansas to eat in small town diners and to see what most Kansans fail to appreciate in our own State. Tip of the hat you John, I appreciate reading about your trips, do tell more about your worldly travels.
About the Amtrak train; My mother-in-law came to help my wife and I when our first was born. Her husband drove her up to see the baby, but he had to return home to work a day or so later. A week later, I took her to the Depot to catch the train for her return trip home. The train arrived at 3:45am, 15 minutes late. She was the only one getting on, three ladies got off. At that time of the morning, the Depot was abandoned, and the area was less than appealing. The ladies who got off the train were obviously expecting much more than they found there. I stayed until the train began to pull out, then headed to the car to go back home to bed. I overheard the ladies talking about the payphone not working, and loudly(fearfully) discussing what they were going to do. They were cussing their travel agent for putting them in that kind of situation. I came dressed in a pair of bib overalls and flip flops, wearing a cap to hide my bed head, I looked like Jethro Bodine or an extra on Deliverence I'm sure. They asked me if there was bus stop nearby of if cabs came to the depot when the train stopped? I told them neither would happen. I offered to call them a cab or give them a ride. They were hesitant to take my offer, I couldn't blame them. There was no way I would leave them there alone. A beat up junk looking car drove by real slow staring at them while we were talking. When a gunshot went off in the neighborhood South of the depot, the three ladies got in my car so fast, they left their luggage out on the sidewalk. I loaded their bags in the trunk and took them to the motel the travel agent had reserved for them. I told them on the trip across town about being a recent new Daddy and how I had brought the M.I.L. in to get on the train to go back home. They tried to give me money for the ride and carrying in their bags to the motel lobby but I refused. The next morning, I discovered a $50 bill in my back seat with a note that said "For the Baby". One of the two women who rode in the backseat had left it there evidently expecting me to refuse money.
Posted by create (anonymous) on May 16, 2008 at 12:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Neat story, Neighbor. I hope you write that down somewhere in a journal or something; I enjoyed reading about the ladies, the gunshot, and the $50 "for the baby."
I did not grow up in Emporia and must confess I was afraid of trains because we have no crossings in Hawaii like here; I would often have nightmares of getting hit by a train when I first moved to the mainland. Later, however, I was saddened to see the depot razed.
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