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It does make sense to withhold comment and speculation about transportation accidents until the NTSB has issued its final ruling, but we are human beings and want answers right away. In my opinion it's OK to speculate about causes, so long as we are all aware that it's just speculation and that...

Amtrak employees: Is it true (as I was once told by a former OBS crew) that the IRS expects that train attendants must report a certain tip income on their returns?

The absolute worst dinner companions are the ones who attempt to convert you to their religion before dessert is served and the ones who try to get you to agree to vote their way. Occasionally they are one and the same, and it is very difficult not to get up from the table and stomp out without...

This sounds like a case of acute trainspotting. This terminal disease takes many forms. Railfanning is one. Another is birding. I suffer from both.

Seriously, I truly enjoy meeting people in the diner. The most recent was a Canadian theatrical actor from Toronto who was on his way to L.A. for a screen test. His whole conversation, spurred by some remarks about Amish families in the lounge car, was about growing up Amish on the plains of...

A very good way to clear everyone else away from your table is to hunch over your food with one arm around the plate and mutter, "I just got out of prison last week and . . . " It also helps if you have some stick-on jailhouse tats on your forearms. :P

I'm highly educated, cultured, genteel and wear a Timex watch. Nobody's perfect.

I like to play a certain game in the diner. I have been profoundly deaf since childhood and have the typical deaf person's soft mumble. I'm a pretty fair lipreader, so can hold up my end of the conversation. Sometimes when I sit down I don't say anything about my deafness just to see how my...

I was sick as a dog coming back on the SWC from LA to Chicago last year and Vincent took care of me like a nurse. It's rare that one sees a service person of any kind like this fellow. Isaac Heath (TALL guy) is another stellar SCA.

On the Zephyr I don't think it makes much difference. So long as the trains are on time, you'll see the Rockies and Sierras by daylight and will cross the Great Basin desert and the Great Plains at night. Probably the same thing so far as the Chief is concerned.

We have only ourselves to blame for Amtrak's no-pets policy: we have allowed ourselves to become the most litigious country in the world. Of course Amtrak will cite reasons such as no kennel cars because of the possibility of overheating during the summer or freezing during the winter, but the...

One bad experience and it's put you off other sleeper passengers forever? Please, please give it another try. The law of averages being what it is, you are bound to encounter mopes and dopes across the dining table now and then. I have, but for every unpleasant dining partner there are dozens of...

Let's see. 72, short, fat, bald and bespectacled. Political progressive, old-fogey cultural conservative (tats and piercings appall me). Retired newsie. Still write books. (Shameless promotion: "Zephyr: Tracking a Dream Across America," now out as an updated ebook.) Contributor to Trainweb.org...

Thank you very much for the kind and encouraging words. For those undecided about acquiring "Zephyr," I have posted a page with the entire introduction to the book on my freshly refurbished web site, henrykisor.com.

It would be the ultimate Asperger's-foamer website.

Right. The pros propose, the pols dispose.

October 21, 2012, is Harold Camping's latest date for the End of the World. He hasn't been right yet. I'd go ahead and make plans to take the train.

Agreed. If the WiFi isn't working at the station, in the Starbucks, in the tavern that advertises it, anywhere there's spozed to be free WiFi—speak up, for Pete's sake! Ninety-nine per cent of the time, a router reset is all that's needed. Sometimes so many people are playing their pooters on...

I believe both 421 and 422 (one coach and one sleeper) are tacked onto the rear of 1 and 2. If I remember right from a 2010 trip, Chicago-LA passengers had to walk through four coaches and the Sightseer Lounge to get to the dining car. It was OK by me; the long hike from the last car helped whet...

It's hard to have sympathy for smokers who can't have a gasper on their personal schedules.