I’m a third of the way through my return to the West Coast, currently on a one-day stop in La Plata, Missouri. This small town is the site of what is planned to be an impressive and extensive railroad-themed facility called the Silver Rails Resort. More about that later after I’ve had a chance to…
I’m leaving here tomorrow and will be en route to Washington, DC, for the annual director’s meeting of NARP, the National Association of Railroad Passengers. The first leg is the worst: an eight-hour red-eye flight to Dallas and a connecting flight to New Orleans. Once I hit the French Quarter, however, things start to turn…
As you travel around the country on Amtrak, you begin to notice the “train nuts” … the guys standing alongside the tracks as you pass. (And, yes, 99 percent are guys.) Many have cameras and some carry notebooks for recording locomotive numbers. But all are fascinated by trains and are drawn to various vantage points…