R Johnson
Train Attendant
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2010
- Messages
- 25
Hi everyone, Randy Johnson from Connersville, Indiana.
It was time to start planning what I was going to do with the two weeks of vacation I get each year and it occurred to me that I had never taken a real train trip. I was originally planning on September, but as the enthusiasm started to take hold I moved the train vacation forward to June. I'll do my hiking vacation in September.
I feel the tug of the tracks used by Amtrak in this part of the country almost every day. Although they are five or six miles as the crow flies from where I live, on summer evenings I can hear the engines and wheels of the many freight trains, and the whistle as they approach the crossing by the electrical substation west of town. My woodworking shop in the little crossroads gathering of houses called Springersville, east of Connersville, is even closer. When I’m there I can hear the engines, four as a general rule, strain as they make the long climb out of Connersville heading toward points east and south pulling mile long trains. When the train is westbound I usually first hear it as the whistle blows coming into the crossing west of Brownsville. I am constantly crossing the tracks during the course of my day working for a natural gas supplier. They are a bit curvy east of Connersville. On a pretty much straight road from Springersville to Liberty, IN, a distance of eight or nine miles, the tracks cross the road four times.
I’ve looked at the tracks for years, wondering what one might see and where one might go if they were followed. I plan to finally find an answer for at least some of it.
The trip I have planned is from Connersville, to Staunton, VA. Once there, I will rent a car and revisit some old haunts from over thirty years ago when I hiked most of the Appalachian Trail. I will return on the train heading west at the end of the week.
It may be my first and last trip. Although I enjoy the idea of train travel, I have found in the planning of this trip that the places you can visit by train are woefully few. In addition, those that do have service often require a ridiculously circuitous route to reach. An example for me, is Pittsburg, PA.
I’ve never been to Pittsburg, nor have I ever really wanted to. But if I did, and I wanted to go by rail, I would have to go to Chicago, across northern Ohio, and down. Or. Take the train I’ll be on to D.C., layover almost 24 hours, and then head west. Were I to simply drive to Pittsburg I could do it in around five hours, about the same time or less that a drive to Chicago would take.
I really hope (but doubt) that eventually there will be more destinations available. I’m sure looking forward to my first one.
Rest assured there will be some questions down the line.
It was time to start planning what I was going to do with the two weeks of vacation I get each year and it occurred to me that I had never taken a real train trip. I was originally planning on September, but as the enthusiasm started to take hold I moved the train vacation forward to June. I'll do my hiking vacation in September.
I feel the tug of the tracks used by Amtrak in this part of the country almost every day. Although they are five or six miles as the crow flies from where I live, on summer evenings I can hear the engines and wheels of the many freight trains, and the whistle as they approach the crossing by the electrical substation west of town. My woodworking shop in the little crossroads gathering of houses called Springersville, east of Connersville, is even closer. When I’m there I can hear the engines, four as a general rule, strain as they make the long climb out of Connersville heading toward points east and south pulling mile long trains. When the train is westbound I usually first hear it as the whistle blows coming into the crossing west of Brownsville. I am constantly crossing the tracks during the course of my day working for a natural gas supplier. They are a bit curvy east of Connersville. On a pretty much straight road from Springersville to Liberty, IN, a distance of eight or nine miles, the tracks cross the road four times.
I’ve looked at the tracks for years, wondering what one might see and where one might go if they were followed. I plan to finally find an answer for at least some of it.
The trip I have planned is from Connersville, to Staunton, VA. Once there, I will rent a car and revisit some old haunts from over thirty years ago when I hiked most of the Appalachian Trail. I will return on the train heading west at the end of the week.
It may be my first and last trip. Although I enjoy the idea of train travel, I have found in the planning of this trip that the places you can visit by train are woefully few. In addition, those that do have service often require a ridiculously circuitous route to reach. An example for me, is Pittsburg, PA.
I’ve never been to Pittsburg, nor have I ever really wanted to. But if I did, and I wanted to go by rail, I would have to go to Chicago, across northern Ohio, and down. Or. Take the train I’ll be on to D.C., layover almost 24 hours, and then head west. Were I to simply drive to Pittsburg I could do it in around five hours, about the same time or less that a drive to Chicago would take.
I really hope (but doubt) that eventually there will be more destinations available. I’m sure looking forward to my first one.
Rest assured there will be some questions down the line.
