What brought YOU to long distance train travel?

Had a few minutes to spare today and thought back to the first long distance train I and we travelled, and more important the reason for it. I thought it was a good general question for a thread here, so here goes...

What brought you to long Distance train travel?

I'll start this off

A way back I was facing a mid life crisis and needed a challenge, so decided to walk through various areas of France over 3 months. That was 3 months on my own carrying my own camping and other required bits and without any support except for 3 weeks out of 12 where my non athletic wife Rosie walked with me, her achievement was far greater than mine.

Ended at a small fishing seaside town Le Grau de Roi where at the lighthouse at the end of the quay that jutted into the Med Rosie and I opened a bottle of Champagne and shared it with a stranger.

We travelled back to the UK with first a bus to Marseilles then an overnight sleeper to Calais. Nothing remarkable you may say but Rosie and I were affected dramatically by the return trip each for our own reasons. She until recently taught 4-6 year olds and has the same wonder and approach to life as them, or as is possible for a grown woman. She found going to bed and being rocked to sleep, occasionally waking up when we stopped at stations with foreign names and then waking in full light in another type of world, northern France. To her this was an amazing feat almost beyond her imagination.

For me I had travelled at 3 mph for 12 weeks, no bursts of speed in anything mechanical except I rode a bicycle for 1/2 a day. I began to wonder during that walk at river barges passing me at maybe 10 mph if they were the larger powerful types, they increasingly appeared very fast to a walker.

Getting on the old country bus to Marseilles was astounding to me, we travelled at around 40 mph and this felt like the speed of light, I laughed a lot on that bus ride as I love speed and that felt FAST!

Then we boarded the train and the luxury of a real bed, fast gentle speed and sitting in a dining car on a seat to eat were amazing. Sitting at a table is not to be taken for granted after 12 weeks sitting or laying on the ground to eat or rest. We promised ourselves there and then we would travel by train a lot in the future but in particular on sleepers with dining cars, but life and stuff got in the way for more than 15 years.

Last year we managed our first sleeper since Marseilles - Calais, it was a now discontinued train Paris - Madrid. great cabin, crap beds, fabulous diner and a waiter that made our day.

Next up the Ghan and next Spring the first of two or three in the US, there's no stopping us now.

What's your story?

State of Maine Express from NY (GCT) to Portland, ME overnight in coach circa 1947 behind steam when I was about 5 years old. Chage trains in Portland for the Maine Central to Lewiston, where my mother's family lived. Visited with grandpa and grandma and lots and lots of French-Canadian uncles, aunts, and cousins.

Originally, it was because I was too heavy to fly in just one seat. Paying for two was expensive, so I took the train to visit my boyfriend in ABQ.

Now, said boyfriend lives with me, and while I don't need two seats anymore, he has horrible panic attacks whenever he gets near an airport, let alone on a plane. If we're traveling together, we take Amtrak. If it's just me, it depends on how much time I have. More time and a route I've never been on = Amtrak. Time crunch and/or a route I've seen several times = plane.

My first LD trip was from Georgia to Delaware when I was 11 years old. My dad had been transferred back to Delaware and I guess the train offered the best option for getting my mom, 2 of my siblings, a cat and a dog to Delaware. I have some vague memories of the trip. I'm guessing that put the bug in me though it took over 40 years before I finally got to take another LD train trip.

I had wanted my husband and I to take the Zephyr at some point, but it never happened. After his death, our oldest daughter got married and a year later moved to Utah. As soon as they left, I was on Amtrak's website booking a trip out there for Thanksgiving. Yes, we (other daughter) were invited for Thanksgiving. We took a regional to Washington then the CL and CZ. While researching for this trip, I found AU and now even more enamored with train travel. I've been to two Gatherings and am looking forward to taking 2 weeks vacation this year to travel to the Gathering by train in both directions...and on different trains each way. I'm especially excited to be seeing parts of the country I have never seen before. Before the trip to my daughter's, I had never been west of the Mississippi. Now I will be seeing the Pacific Ocean. As it turns out, our oldest daughter now lives near San Jose, so I will see them (including my 2 yr old grandson) on this trip.

Short story that involves a long background story first. In a nutshell, my dad was raised here in SE Washington, and my mom in central Illinois. Dad was stationed at Chanute AFB in Rantoul, IL, and met my mom on a blind date. They married in the mid '50's, and when my dad was discharged, they moved back to SE Washington. Every year, one family or the other would visit the other. My mom's brother is 11 1/2 years younger than her and so started visiting back and forth as a young lad with my grandparents.. And the chosen method of travel in those days was by train. Several years passed before I was on the scene, and I made two trips to Illinois by train, in 1963 via the North Coast Hiawatha and Abraham Lincoln, and in 1965 via the Empire Builder and Abraham Lincoln. I enjoyed those trips and from them got the bug to travel by train. Added to that was that one of my boyhood pals was the son of the Union Pacific depot agent in my microscopic town. From that, I developed a lifelong interest in trains. My uncle also developed a lifelong interest in trains, too. For a very long time, I never got to travel by train long-distance as the preferred method was by flying and I had no say in the matter. Same with my uncle. However, as my uncle grew up, especially after marrying, he began to travel out our way by train more. And hearing about his travels gave me the bug to travel by train again. That bug really became more pronounced in 1991, when my uncle first bought a video camera, and taped a journey he took with his then second wife out our way. Watching those videos (copies of which I still have; they've also been converted to DVD) and reading a book my uncle gave me, Rail Ventures, published by Altamont Press, really gave me the desire to travel by train. Unfortunately, between working for companies that got sold and having to restart the vacation clock, and losing a couple of jobs, :unsure: I never really accumulated the vacation time nor the money to travel by train. I had taken a few Amtrak trips from Champaign and/or Bloomington to Chicago and back to watch a few Cubs games when I'd fly back there, but nothing long-distance. It wasn't until 2004, when my uncle and I took the CZ from Chicago to Reno (well, Sparks, actually) that I took a long-distance train trip. I flew to Illinois, we took the CONO to Chicago, and then took the CZ. We were running very late, and as we both had reservations to fly back to our respective homes from Reno, we got off at Sparks instead and had a cab meet us there to take us to the airport as it was a shorter distance to the Reno airport from Sparks. And that started it! Since then we have taken a trip about every year, sometimes two a year, and since I've finally been with a company for 13 years that hasn't sold out to another, (after starting with the same place three years prior before IT was sold to the present owners) and since I've finally been able to make enough money and since I and my uncle both had the sense to sign up for AGR, these trips may become more frequent. I was married in 2001, but my wife passed away in 2003; I've been alone since. And my aunt is now is a nursing home following a long continous bout with MS and a debilitating stroke; she is in no way able to travel. So we get together to give us some diversion from living by ourselves. Just got back little over a week ago from another long trip and, I'm sure, going to start thinking about our next trips!!

My story goes back into the late 1940's. Living in Central Ohio, my family had a need to periodically visit Rochester, Minnesota. Pennsylvania Railroad's night train from Columbus, I rememeber it was called "The Union" and then "The Buckeye", but that may be off base for sure. Sleepers in the later years were a mixture of a car with modern Roomettes and Bedrooms and an old Pullman car of sections in half of the car and a nice lounge with the other half. (Remember as a child having a Ginger Ale while sitting in the Lounge part of the Pullman and thinking: I am really somebody!)

We connected with a Chicago and North Western train: Dakota 400 and then Rochester 400 to our destination. We had to use a transfer service from Union Station to the CNW station whose name I cannot recall tonight. Certainly long gone, now. One year, the PRR train was quite late and we missed the Dakota 400 and were boarded on the Twin Cities 400 in the Parlor Car to connect with our Rochester-bound train in Wyeville(?), Wisconsin, where the two trains briefly connected.

One Summer, my family traveled to Rapid City, South Dakota on the Rochester-Black Hills Special from Rochester. A Pullman was put on board the train at Rochester; coaches, and a diner-lounge made up of the consist, as I recall. I spent many hours at the Rochester station watching the action during those Summers.

I recall wonderful and scenic rail journeys, very pleasant crew and passengers, Dining Car Lunches and Dinners that were often better than what I have since experienced. (Why, I don't know. But the C&NW diners often served Lake Superior Whitefish and it was truly a SUPERIOR entree.)

Need anymore reasons why I enjoy LD train travel? I could come up with some more!

My moms dad, my grandfather, worked for the SPRR for over 40 years and they lived next to the tracks in various RR houses as she grew up!

I was born during WWII when Trains ( Freights and Passenger) were running 24/7 hauling supplies and troops for the War and Passenger Trains were still the preferred method of Transport!

My first LD Train trip, which I don't remember, was in 1944 when my dad was in B-29 School in Seattle and my mom and I rode a Steamer Mail Train to LA, then a couple of locals in Coach (seats were by priority and hard to get tickets!) up the Coast to visit him!

My next LD Trip, also before my first birthday, was to/from El Paso to Mcook Nebraska where my dad was undergoing Bombing Training before heading to the South Pacific! via the SP, Rock Island, Santa Fe and UP!

Through the years as I grew up we would ride the Local Steamer SP Trains in Coach from San Antonio to visit my grandparents in West Texas during the Summer and or @ Christmas! We also rode the Southern RR to Greenville, SC to visit my dads family and the Super Chief from CHI to ABQ when my dad was stationed there!

Finally I got to ride in my first Sleeping Car and eat in the Diner on the Sunset Ltd, needless to say it's one of the outstanding memories of my life!☺

I was hooked and since then have ridden Trains all over the World whenever I got the chance!

Now that I'm retired ( I'm a Million Mile Flyer due to work)passenger Trains are my hobby and thanks to AGR and the friends I've made by being an AU Member, Ive been able to travel all over the Country by Rail!

My most memorable Train rides are still my first time on the Sunset Ltd.,the Copper Canyon Train in Mexico, my first ride in FC Acela and the Canadian from Toronto to Vancouver!

The rest are tied for fifth place!☺

Not sure why my first reply did not post, so here is a duplicate reply. We first traveled long distance about 12 years ago, Los Angeles to Seattle on Coast Starlight. We loved it, but never did it again. TSA got so creepy that I absolutely quit flying in 2005, and since then I travel exclusively by train. We travel at least once a year from Los Angeles to Charleston, S. C. Also, have taken LD trains to some National Parks and take shorter Surfliner trips up the California Coast. Other than cruise ships, ocean liners or driving, it is the only civilized way to travel.

Durham57, what made you take that first trip?

In 1966 as a poor young man in Chicago I wanted to get home to Virginia for Christmas. I couldn't afford a plane so I took the B&O Capitol Ltd both ways.

To vv: Our first trip was actually recommended by a very nice car attendant on the Surfliner. I booked a sleeper bedroom for my husband and myself and a nice Seattle hotel, all for his birthday. We had a great three days!

I had always travelled from Tomah, WI to Holland, MI and wondered what was to the west on the Empire Builder. What fueled my desire more, was the feature on "Extreme Trains" on The History Channel. I wanted to see Glacier Nat'l Park for myself. The final factor and what pointed me towards Portland was the fact that I have a cousin and his family living there. I have made the TOH to PDX trip in both 2012 and 2013 and last month did a Kalamazoo to Portland on the Wolverine/EB, Portland to Sacramento on the CS, Sacramento to Chicago on the CZ and a bus back to Kalamazoo.

Back in 1998 I took the Crescent from New Orleans to DC and back. It was 27 hours each way in coach and it sucked pretty bad. But I did get to take a tour of the first class accommidations and was pretty impressed with what I saw. So, after graduating high school and college, and getting a job and money for travel, I started looking for excuses to take an overnight train like the Empire Builder. But, never living somewhere with an Amtrak stop, or cheap flights to meet a train, such a trip never made sense. Until that is early 2013 when I had a trip planned to visit Seattle and Sacramento, and thus the stars aligned and I booked the Coast Starlight with roomette. As you can imagine, it being the Coast Starlight, it was pretty awesome. The 15 years were well worth the wait. Before the end of the year I managed to also find an excuse to take the Sunset Limited, and just last month I went riding on the Capitol Limited just because I could. I live in Chicago now, but unknown for how long. So I'm continiously on the lookout for good deals on the eastern LD trains while I'm here.

My story is far less epic, a coworker and volunteer at the same cat shelfter I volunteer at suggested it as she and her husband are model railroad (and actual railroad) fans. Additionally my parents have been getting more into trains, and I should give some props to the excellent OBS of the cardinal.

As a kid whose dad was stationed in Europe, we got to take a train several times. But before we even went to Europe I can remember waving at the cabooses when my mom's car was stopped at crossings, wishing I could be on the train. I just always liked trains. Finally in 93 on a trip to Florida we decided to take the train to NOL and fly the rest of the way. That was in coach and I loved it - I was hooked (but now it's hard for me to imagine going any other way but by sleeper).

I've just always liked trains. My dad was shipping and warehouse manager, and they shipped some product via rail. We lived several blocks from the track and could hear the horns, so he'd tell me about those trains. I even had a toy train that ran on a track that he fastened to a sheet of plywood when I was very little. When I was playing with my dolls and tea sets, it was stored under the bed. My mom would also tell me how she used to catch the train in our little town and go shopping in Atlanta in years past.

Anyway, my husband and I and another couple traveled by train to Chattanooga and back just for fun when I was young. Then years later on a work related trip to Germany and a pleasure trip to Austria, our group traveled by train, including the ICE Besides being fun, it really was the best way to travel in those countries. Now I just prefer Amtrak over flying or driving when it is possible to take Amtrak, which for me is mostly to/from New Orleans. A friend and I recently took a four-train AGR trip through CHI just for the ride.

A desire to get to the Sunshine State for the first time was in 1982. I was a teenager, who had successfully convinced my parents to consider that option over flying, using colorful brochures, posters, and my incessant promise as to how wonderful it will be. Over the years in repeat vacations, they considered driving, but always did Amtrak. My Dad loves trains like me, my Mom has to tolerate it. But even with that, with declining health, they would never consider flying or driving at this point, especially with little perks like getting to know the same faces of the crew and service staff ("Hey! It's been a year already, how the heck are ya?"), and for us has become the something that stuck around while other things vanished or got destroyed. Sort of like a safe and powerful sheltered means of transport.

I grew up in Boston in the 50's and 60's so I don't remember my first trip(s). My mother wouldn't fly so we took the train everywhere. When I went of to school in Denver, I took the Denver Zephyr and the Twentieth Century/New England States Limited. When it was time to enter the Coast Guard in '66, I was in San Francisco and I had to "raise my hand" in Denver so I took my most memorable train trip. I took a roomette on the California Zephyr from Jack London Square to Denver and basked it the first class service. After I had been sworn in, the Coast Guard flew/bussed me to boot camp. One mile from where I got on the train in Oakland.

I didn't take a train after that trip until flying became such a hassle and so uncomfortable. In 2012 I repeated the California Zephyr trip to Denver and back in a roomette. It was not Pullman but was still great fun.

I have started taking one trip a year since then

Edited to add second paragraph

Loved trains as a kid, but never got to ride one until my dad & I rode B&O #17 from Akron on a short hop to Cleveland, and #18 back home that same day. Dad and I rode quite a few short-distance excursions, including one memorable ride through eastern Pennsylvania on a steam powered Reading RR Ramble.

I'm not sure what my first long distance trip was. I think it happened around 1965, and there are two trips that stick in my mind. These were all-coach trips, but I don't remember which was first.

On one trip, I went to Evansville, Indiana to cover a basketball game for my school newspaper. I rode in a friend's automobile from Akron to Evansville; but I came home by train. I caught the joint Louisville & Nashville/ Chicago & Eastern Illinois "Hummingbird" to Chicago and stayed for a couple days with family friends. At breakfast on the Hummingbird, I discovered a white cereal-looking substance next to my ham & eggs and asked the waiter what that stuff was. He looked like that was the strangest question he'd ever heard. "Them's grits!", he responded. Then he showed this naïve northern boy how to eat them. Then I'm pretty sure I came home from Chicago to Akron on the B&O. I suspect the B&O train was No. 8, the "Shenandoah".

The other trip was one of those "itchy feet" trips that you take just because you feel like you need to go somewhere. I left Akron on an evening Greyhound for Cleveland, and caught a New York Central train for Buffalo. Once in Buffalo, I had nothing to do but hang around the station, waiting for the early morning departure of the Pennsylvania Railroad's Baltimore Day Express. The PRR train consisted of a pair of E unit diesels, one or two head end cars, and two plain-Jane PRR P70 coaches. The water in the coaches was cold, but that's all the PRR offered by way of refreshment. At Williamsport, PA, box lunches were put aboard for those of us who had ordered them. This was one of the most scenic trips I have ever taken in the east. When the train got to Harrisburg, I talked my way into a coach seat on the all-reserved General, and had a fine meal in one of the PRR's twin-unit diners. Got to Pittsburgh in the middle of the night and I think I walked to the P&LE station, where I caught B&O's westbound No. 7, the Shenandoah, for an early morning arrival back in Akron.

Yes, I was much younger, and I was probably nuts.

Tom

Always loved trains: my brother just retired as a freight engineer after 35 years and many members of my family worked on the railroad in the early 20th century. But never rode a passenger train until an excursion Amtrak trip to Cincinnati in the 1980s. After my wife and I retired we wanted to ride Amtrak and found AU on the Internet and we were hooked.

Our first trip was LSL Cleveland to Chicago and Empire Builder to Portland, OR. Loved the trip even though our restrooms went out in the car and the train was delayed and we did not get to see Glacier NP. After an enjoyable trip down the Oregon and California coasts, we re-boarded on the CZ in Sacramento. Another beautiful ride with a less than stellar dining car crew. But the scenery made up for their malfeasance and we were still hooked on train travel. After 60,000 miles in the last 7 years, we have been on most of the routes and still enjoy the ride.

We have been fortunate to have many more good crews than bad. Food is pretty good and we are usually not in a hurry to get anywhere, so OTP is not a major factor. I guess you could say we act as Amtrak apologists at times, which is getting more difficult to do in recent years.

Meeting all the great people in AU has been one of the major pluses in riding Amtrak. And now its time to get to bed since our next excursion behind a P-42 starts tomorrow

v v said:

What brought you to long Distance train travel?

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I swore off flying at the end of 2007, after(1) several years of dealing with TSA and "homeland security" bullcrap: starting with the threatening men with automatic rifles standing around the airport making us less safe the week after 9/11; and ending with being unable to take my toothpaste on board due to idiotic "X ounce container" rules (which were invented overnight, so no "minitoothpastes" were available for my brand yet)

(2) circling above Yuma for an hour;

(3) my fiancee being unable to move at the end of that last airplane flight and having to be bodily lifted from her seat (she has severe arthritis in the knees)

I then had to travel from Ithaca to Minneapolis, with my fiancee, who did not feel comfortable doing the highway driving. While I have done this by car repeatedly, it's a bad enough drive if you can change drivers; it's a completely intolerable drive for one person.

So I said "dammit, I'm taking the train this time, I don't care how slow Amtrak is". So I did, in 2008. Haven't looked back since.

(I have always preferentially taken urban rail, subways, streetcars, and short-distance intercity rail, so trains were something I understood and liked. My first Amtrak trip was a San Diego - San Juan Capistrano trip on the San Diegan, somewhere around 8; my first subway trip was much younger, at the age of 4, on the Boston Red and Green lines. But this story is why I started taking the overnight trains.)

I liked trains when I was a little kid (and other big machines in general). My grandfather and I built an HO model train set from scratch, and I enjoyed playing with it for several years (until the moisture in my basement caused the tracks to corrode).

My family and I took the Auto Train to Disney World when I was eight. That was my first Amtrak trip. When I went to Europe in the summer of 2012, we took the Eurostar, and the night train from Paris-Milan.

Last August, I was looking for cheap ways to get from Cincinnati (where my mom lives) to NOVA (where my dad lives) so I could start college. I had a lot of stuff to take, so flying wasn't really an option. Neither was driving, since the school year for my mom (she's a teacher) had already started. I remembered that my grandfather had told me once that there was a train that ran through Cincinnati three-days a week, and I had seen signs for the station whenever I visited Cincinnati Union Terminal/Museum Center.

I went to Amtrak's website and searched for a potential itinerary. I was greeted with a ticket for $65, in coach, on the Cardinal. I decided to take it, despite the early departure time (0300). I couldn't pass up the cheap ticket, and I had a desire to see what train travel in the US was like. The Cardinal (50) was late, as usual, but I really enjoyed the trip. I started to make use of Amtrak to go to my dad's house from my school in Fredericksburg, VA (UMW) occasionally. Come Christmas time, I decided that I wanted to take the Cardinal again to go home to Cincinnati to visit my mother. This time, however, I booked a Viewliner Roomette. The experience that I had pretty much sealed the deal.

I'm glad that I rediscovered Amtrak as a viable, and enjoyable way for me to travel. I'm very loyal to Delta Airlines when it comes to flying (my dad says that I'm in love with them, haha), but I will take Amtrak whenever it fits with my schedule (unlike many others around here, I still quite enjoy flying). I actually don't take the Cardinal as much anymore. The departure/arrival times into Cincinnati, plus the OTP (I was 8-hours late one time) has dampened my enthusiasm for it, but I'll still take it to connect to other trains in Chicago, or one-way to go east (I'm OK with getting on a train early in the morning, but I don't like having to wake up to get off one late at night).

As my signature shows, I've taken a lot more trips since last year, and intend to take many more in the future.

Here's my upcoming trip in January that I'm taking with my best friend (it will be his first ever train trip):

Jan 5 CIN-CHI Cardinal (51) Roomette

Jan 5 CHI-PDX Empire Builder(27) Bedroom

Jan 7 PDX-LAX Coast Starlight(11) Bedroom

We have to fly back, due to time constraints, and the fact that I don't have another 40,000 points to spend, haha.

He's flying back to Cincy. I'm flying to JFK in JetBlue's new Mint class, and then taking a regional jet back to DC.

In my case, it was a booking accident. I was heading down to Florida (I take the train down there with great regularity). As with most folks over the last few decades, I looked into flying first...but instead of checking Orlando's airport, I checked Daytona Beach's airport and got the typical small-to-midsize airport ripoff fares. I asked my grandmother (who I lived with at the time) if she minded me checking Amtrak to see if they went there. They did, I booked a ticket to Deland and back in coach...and it was awesome. I say this in spite of trying to sleep in coach in a linen suit (my grandmother having helped me plan the trip, we ended up operating on the travel standards of the 1950s) and having only modest success. In the end, breakfast in the diner (coffee, french toast, bacon) is what made it all worthwhile.

I still have the return ticket from that trip, btw; we found it when cleaning out my room, and it's with a pack of paper ticket stubs I have as old mementos.

But...so much of my life at this point can probably trace back to that one trip.

I had my first long distance train trip from Joliet, Illinois to Council Bluffs, Iowa on the Rocky Mountain Rocket in August, 1948 when I was less than a month old. My parents took me to visit my Grandmother. My Dad worked for the Peoria and Eastern Division of the New York Central System in Peoria. When I was growing up in the 1950s and 60s, my family always traveled by train. Train travel was a given....there wasn't any other mode for any trip over 20 miles. It was the question of what railroad and what trains. My parents has their preferences and they were different. In the 1960s when I was in high school and college, trains were starting to disappear. I made it a mission to write letters, attend "train off" hearings and most of all ride trains that were endangered. I loved to make connections in small towns like Howe, OK where you could change from the trains of the Choctaw division to the Rock Island to the Kansas City Southern and vv. I was so sad when Amtrak happened and there were massive train offs. Now Amtrak's long distance trains are on their last legs.....very sad.

What brought me to LD train travel? I usually ride in an auto to the station. hboy:


Joking aside, the idea of this thread was genius! Talk about a way to get a bunch of old foamers to talk about memories of their first foam!


I grew up in a family that loved trains and my Grandmother on my father's side did a lot of train travel. We would have her over to dinner when I was a child, with my Mom and I picking her up at her apartment after I got out of elementary school for the day. My Grandmother generally did not like children, but she liked me because I would sit at the dining room table transfixed by her stories of riding the rails, while my Mom was in the kitchen cooking - and listening as well. The stories were pre-Amtrak. How I wish I had tape recordings of those stories now! One story I distinclty remember is of taking the Super Chief in the mid '60s, with the moon rising as they headed east down Raton Pass.

My first LD trip was r/t Washington to Chicago on the B&O's Cap. Ltd. with my Dad in the summer of 1968. He knew the days of the railroads running passenger service were numbered and wanted me to have the experience. We rode coach on the way out because my Dad figured correctly that we would spend most of that leg of the trip in the dome. I recall getting coach seats downstairs in the dome, having excellent service and eating excellent food off of B&O China in the dining car, and arriving/departing from the now gone Grand Central Terminal in Chicago.

However the highlight of the trip was on our return ride. We only spent the day in Chicago, catching the Cap back the same day we arrived. My Dad got us a slumbercoach (IIRC), and due to the almost complete lack of sleep the night before, I slumbered most of the night, awaking finally to us sitting still in the yards just east of Cumberland. There had been a frieght derailment ahead of us and we sat there for hours before it was decided to put us on the Western Maryland to get around the wreck! What a ride that was! The highlight of this highlight was getting out on a trestle over the Potomac (near Little Orleans, MD - IIRC) and stopping because there was concern the curve in the bridge was too sharp for our long passenger cars! We sat there for a while before slowly inching forward. Sure wish I could go back in time and relive that trip!