Nick Chillianis posted:Hermetically sealed Amtrak train. Aside from the scenery, what's the big attraction? No cinders in the teeth. No wind blowing through where my hair used to be. Nothing. PASS.
Many of us join you in lamenting the loss of the sound, smell, and air of open dutch doors, but it's subjective repeat of our fathers' generation finding the fun gone from railroading when dieselization occurred. We have lived long enough to experience change on the railroad.
Personally, I have never ridden the New River Train, either steam or diesel, because it's a long way from where I live. However, if I can get away this year, I'll ride:
- to support the train operation and to experience West Virginia, and
- to ride the former Chesapeake & Ohio, which I never did ride before Amtrak, except for a Pere Marquette train from Lansing to Detroit, which is not the traditional C&O.
- Perhaps I can morph it into a longer trip and take some Appalachian railroad photos.
The deciding factor for me is going to be the time. We have two week-long trips and a trip to England and Scotland booked during this October, so it will have to run at just the right time or I will have to pass this one up.
The time when we could say, "Maybe next year," with any certainty is gone.
