My Memorable Train Rides

I was sent to San Francisco to attend a class in the fall of 1987 which provided the excuse for my wife and I to take the California Zephyr from Oakland to Denver as part of a vacation week that followed. (We flew back to Boston from Denver.) We were able to get a sleeper for the one overnight part of our trip. The train departed in the late afternoon and the overnight part of the trip was (roughly) from Reno to Salt Lake City.

The train arrived in SLC just before dawn and there we had a two hour layover while waiting for the arrival of the former Desert Wind. At the time, the two trains joined there for the duration of the trip to Chicago. My wife and I found a taxidriver outside the station who, upon inquiry, agreed to give us a one hour guided tour of spots around the city and get us back to the station in time to leave. Zoom - zoom!! And back on the train.

We loved the trip! The scenery was fantastic aided by brochures describing the historic and geologic sites that were outside our windows. We had never been in Nevada or Utah or Colorado before, so the terrain was eye-opening. Having been a history teacher, I was constantly thinking of what the pioneers went through on the journeys west.

It was after dark and a little late when the train got into Denver after passing through the famous Moffat Tunnel. Great trip, great service, great scenery, nice train - would love to do something like that again.

On my third trip to Japan, June 2007, I spent two weeks in Tokyo working with a great Japanese company, Disco Hi-Tec. On the weekend, I took the train to visit the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima, the site of the first detonation of an atomic bomb. I left from one of several major Tokyo train stations (Shinagawa) and arrived 4 hours later in Hiroshima, taking the Shinkansen (high speed express train). The train averaged 120 mph including seven station stops. It has a top speed of 167 mph; I don't know if this trip went that fast or not. When the train is under way, forget picture taking out the window. First of all, the train is moving too fast. Secondly, the rail bed is constructed such that it is either in a tunnel, on a bridge, or behind a high wall. Of course this is to minimize accidents.

I spent about five hours in Hiroshima, all of which was at the Peace Memorial. This site includes a large museum in a park with various monuments. In the picture at right, I am standing at one end of the park with the A-Bomb Dome behind me. This dome is all that's left of any building at the hypocenter of the atomic blast. The location of the park was originally a busy commercial and residential area; the blast leveled nearly everything. The many exhibits in the museum emphasize the pain and suffering of the blast along with the impact of years of radiation poisoning. I had many conflicted emotions.

The train ride back to Tokyo, although fast, was not fast enough. I was stuck next to the window such that it was hard to get up and move about, and it was quite hot and stuffy.

On a previous trip to Japan, I took the Shinkansen from Ueno (another major Tokyo station) to Niigata, the largest city on the Japan Sea. The train was not crowded and so it was pleasantly relaxing. Again, it surprised me how many tunnels the train went through. If you want to see the countryside, take local trains.