Scenery

[JayPea]

While not Amtrak, when taking the train to Mexico City in the mid eighties, I was transcended by the absolute squalor and poverty-stricken neighborhoods that the train passed through. A fellow passenger stated, "It's like National Geographic (WAY before the TV channel, the magazine), except we are THERE".

That pretty sums up rail travel for me, "It's like National Geographic, except you are THERE". In it. Part of it. At least for the moment. No filters. No images on an LCD screen. YOU are THERE. No one can edit your images or try to persuade you into seeing something OTHER than what you ARE SEEING. Perfect.

This just about sums it up for me too. I'm a still a novice to train travel compared to many people, but even in my Amtrak travels, the variety of things and places I've seen is beyond what I could have imagined as a child, when I first discovered the World Book encyclopedia and started reading about and seeing so many different places in this country and had a desire to see places and things far beyond my own little corner of the world. And speaking of Mexico, at the point where the Sunset Limited passes to within 30 feet of the US-Mexico border, just west of El Paso, one can see close-up the village of Puerto de Aranpa, Chihuahua. And see the huts crammed right next to each other with the dirt floors, no windows, no doors. Just for that instance, it's a look into another world. One that traveling by Amtrak provides.

 

[NETrainfan]

Correction: Johns Hopkins Hospital looms over the projects in Baltimore. Thanks, Hamilton.

 

[Gingee]

Last year as we were coming from Vancouver to Seattle along the water, some guy mooned us. My husband never saw it.

 

[TimePeace]

I'm liking this thread very much.

I never wish for the scenery to be anything but exactly what it is. I don't love garbage and graffiti, but it's there. It's real, as has been mentioned.

It reminds me - you know when people say, "in a perfect world... etc etc" - well in my opinion, it IS a perfect world (albeit inhabited by an imperfect dominant species).

And passing through that world on a train is a lovely way to observe it. As it is.

 

[Steel City Don]

I enjoy the scenery coming into Chicago and PGH, Only bad thing about Chicago was the rocks that was thrown at our train..lol.