When you take a train ride – whether one of Amtrak’s long-distance trains or one of the short haul routes – you soon become aware of the whistle. On many routes, it seems as though it’s blown constantly. I had taken several train rides before I noticed that the engineer was using different whistle patterns. …
About a dozen years ago, I was on my way to Florida and relaxing with three or four other passengers in the lounge car on Amtrak’s Silver Star. We were just north of Savannah, Georgia, when suddenly I felt the train braking hard. Four or five seconds later, there was a jolt and the train…
Engineer Bob Kolkman was constantly tugging at a lever that blows the whistle. Even though this was a rural area, there were a lot of grade crossings, some paved, but mostly dirt roads crossing the tracks. He blew the whistle — the traditional long-long-short-long — at each and every one even though, from our elevated…