I've always loved trains but objected to New South Wales Railways announcers telling the passengers, as we approached the terminal station of a journey, that we were reaching our "final destination". I had understood that was the cemetery.
Wonderful, as you slipped in and out of memories, I found myself doing the same--finding myself on different trains, but the same track. This made me want to write them all down. As a Los Angeles native, I'm surprised how many I have enjoyed (a Eurail pass in the late 1960s greatly expanded my train experiences)!
My husband did an extensive Eurail trip in the 1970s. It was inexpensive and he had great memories. If young people have these opportunities it really expands their world view.
I envy your train rides to places I haven't been to, but your vivid snapshot descriptions made it almost possible for me to 'relive' those journeys. What I love about train travel is the extraordinary mental transformation that takes place on a moving train, which I once wrote about for 3 Quarks Daily: https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2015/03/the-longest-tracking-shot-ever.html
It was! I realize that I wrote about it as if you both had seen the piece I posted on it on Substack — one forgets sometimes who has read what. It’s not as lyrical as either of your lovely pieces, just a write-up that I did for friends and family at the time, and I mostly posted it as an addendum to a my essay Milosz in California, which refers to the trip as well.
I had read your marvelous essay on Milosz in Bolinas several months ago, but not the separate journal about the train ride. There is something about the slow approach to one's past, via the rails rather than so quickly by air, that makes arriving almost a surprise event rather than an assumption. That is why I traveled on transatlantic ships for as long as I could, to prolong the anticipation of that other world I would soon be occupying.
That's lovely, and agreed, though I would never associate it with tracking shots. When I did the long trip from Boston to CA by train I brought literally dozens of books (both real and downloaded for the trip) but in the end read almost nothing, though I did jot down notes from time to time.
This is one of my favourite essays. Thank you. Do come to Australia sometime and ride the Indian-Pacific from west to east, and the Ghan from south to north. Both magical trips.
I agree, James, when they work well they are great. I still aim to use GWR when I'm back in England, but it always feels like a bit of a risk, as you suggest. It saddens me.
One night, after night duty (nursing) a colleague got on a train from London to her home in Milton Keynes. Unfortunately, she fell asleep and missed her stop. After Milton Keynes the next stop was Edinburgh, Scotland!
What a transformational gorgeous essay on train journeys around the world. Is there one train line or country you are still looking forward to travel in by train? Love the end and particularly enjoyed your experience in the journeys. There's a beautiful train museum in York, with the Japanese Bullet train and some antique royal carriages. Great for imaginative journeys.
Thank you for your kind words! I'd like to visit the museum in York some day. There are plenty of rail journeys here in Japan I'd like to go on. And perhaps I'd like to travel by train in the US some day… How about you?
Orient express and the trans siberian railway, Darjeeling himalayan railway and would love to try a train in Japan... these come to mind... but not sure how these will happen. It's more of a romantic dream. I love the Plymouth - St Ives route, especially the Dawlish area and been on a steamer train from Whitby. Yes, the York museum is great especially if you have kids who love trains, then you can have more fun with the trains. But this was a lovely read. Spoke to me. Love train journeys.
The route between Exeter and Newton Abbot is a favourite of mine, which I’ve taken many times. The views are great—the two estuaries and the open sea seen from Dawlish.
Looking to catch up, I knew immediately I had to start here. "All change" -- what a resonant phrase for a terminal announcement. Puts me in mind of T. S. Eliot's "Hurry up please it's time."
Thank you, Jay. Nice link to the Eliot. Which makes me think also of “last orders, please” which Graham Swift used in his 1996 novel (made into a good film in 2001).
I've seen the film of Last Orders, haven't read the novel. I did, though, speaking of Swift, used to teach his Waterland in a Memoir-autofiction lit class, contrasting autobiographical fiction with fictional autobiography. Splendid novel with an odd, uninspired ending made into a terrible film.
Of the three, I think "All change" the richest in meaning. Love it.
Such an enjoyable read, Jeffrey. I felt a sort of reverence or nostalgia laden in the way you talked about your many train journeys, which just made the whole thing very compelling :)
Thank you, Michael! It takes an elaborate system and great attention to detail to make a railway network run consistently well. So when that happens, there's a kind of reverence, yes.
I loved this post too. I guess by now trains evoke a certain nostalgia that we’re all enjoying too.
Have you seen Wes Anderson’s Darjeeling Limited? There are scenes in different train cabins that go by horizontally as the train passes, like an unspooling bit of film. It’s a lovely effect. (I’m sure he wasn’t the first to do that.)
Very interesting and wide-ranging. Presumably you like Michael Portillo's train journey programmes? I disagree with your view on privatisation. nI remember British Rail well, esspecially the dismal sandwiches with curled up edges, and the rather unfirtunate slogan, "We're getting there". With only one exception, I've found the privatised services to be superior, and am dreading the return to the dark ages.
Thank you, Terry! I didn't see the Portillo programme. I will never willingly watch any politican of any stripe talking about anything. Even former ones. And I'm glad the privatised railways are working well for you.
Oh, I loved this essay, Jeffrey. So evocative of both train and view from window. I've been on double decker trains in China - from HK to Guangzhou, where the loo was just a hole over the track...and the view seemed to be just one massive concrete factory after another, the environment clothed in grey dust. So many good 'train' films - Strangers on a Train, The Train, Battle of the Rails, (...)Orient Express (obvs), Titfield Thunderbolt....
A wonderful read Jeffrey, you remind me of a long forgotten but non-stop exciting 19 hours I spent on a train from Hua Hin to Kuala Lumpur, thank you, maybe I will even write about it! 🙏🏼
I've always loved trains but objected to New South Wales Railways announcers telling the passengers, as we approached the terminal station of a journey, that we were reaching our "final destination". I had understood that was the cemetery.
Indeed! Very doom laden. Thank you for commenting!
Wonderful, as you slipped in and out of memories, I found myself doing the same--finding myself on different trains, but the same track. This made me want to write them all down. As a Los Angeles native, I'm surprised how many I have enjoyed (a Eurail pass in the late 1960s greatly expanded my train experiences)!
Thank you, Leslie. I'm happy to have helped bring back those memories!
My husband did an extensive Eurail trip in the 1970s. It was inexpensive and he had great memories. If young people have these opportunities it really expands their world view.
I envy your train rides to places I haven't been to, but your vivid snapshot descriptions made it almost possible for me to 'relive' those journeys. What I love about train travel is the extraordinary mental transformation that takes place on a moving train, which I once wrote about for 3 Quarks Daily: https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2015/03/the-longest-tracking-shot-ever.html
Thank you, Brooks! I look forward to reading your essay. And “extraordinary mental transformation” seems about right to me.
It was! I realize that I wrote about it as if you both had seen the piece I posted on it on Substack — one forgets sometimes who has read what. It’s not as lyrical as either of your lovely pieces, just a write-up that I did for friends and family at the time, and I mostly posted it as an addendum to a my essay Milosz in California, which refers to the trip as well.
The Milosz essay is here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/notesfromlinnesby/p/milosz-in-california?r=2u2cxe&utm_medium=ios
Thank you, Maria. I'm looking forward to reading that essay on Milosz.
Thank you for reading and sharing!
I had read your marvelous essay on Milosz in Bolinas several months ago, but not the separate journal about the train ride. There is something about the slow approach to one's past, via the rails rather than so quickly by air, that makes arriving almost a surprise event rather than an assumption. That is why I traveled on transatlantic ships for as long as I could, to prolong the anticipation of that other world I would soon be occupying.
Oh, wow! I’ve never done that — don’t do well on boats — but it must be wonderful to change continents gradually in that same way.
That's lovely, and agreed, though I would never associate it with tracking shots. When I did the long trip from Boston to CA by train I brought literally dozens of books (both real and downloaded for the trip) but in the end read almost nothing, though I did jot down notes from time to time.
That sounds like a great trip!
This is one of my favourite essays. Thank you. Do come to Australia sometime and ride the Indian-Pacific from west to east, and the Ghan from south to north. Both magical trips.
Thank you so much, Kate! Those trips sound very tempting!
When the train leaves Paddington and I can sit down with a cup of tea, knowing I'll wake up at Tiverton Parkway, then I can relax.
Unfortunately, overcrowding and delays make this a rare occurrence, let alone the horrific prices.
When they work well, they are great.
I agree, James, when they work well they are great. I still aim to use GWR when I'm back in England, but it always feels like a bit of a risk, as you suggest. It saddens me.
One night, after night duty (nursing) a colleague got on a train from London to her home in Milton Keynes. Unfortunately, she fell asleep and missed her stop. After Milton Keynes the next stop was Edinburgh, Scotland!
What a transformational gorgeous essay on train journeys around the world. Is there one train line or country you are still looking forward to travel in by train? Love the end and particularly enjoyed your experience in the journeys. There's a beautiful train museum in York, with the Japanese Bullet train and some antique royal carriages. Great for imaginative journeys.
Thank you for your kind words! I'd like to visit the museum in York some day. There are plenty of rail journeys here in Japan I'd like to go on. And perhaps I'd like to travel by train in the US some day… How about you?
Orient express and the trans siberian railway, Darjeeling himalayan railway and would love to try a train in Japan... these come to mind... but not sure how these will happen. It's more of a romantic dream. I love the Plymouth - St Ives route, especially the Dawlish area and been on a steamer train from Whitby. Yes, the York museum is great especially if you have kids who love trains, then you can have more fun with the trains. But this was a lovely read. Spoke to me. Love train journeys.
The route between Exeter and Newton Abbot is a favourite of mine, which I’ve taken many times. The views are great—the two estuaries and the open sea seen from Dawlish.
Hadn't realised there are two estuaries....And the Carbis Bay route is fab too.
Looking to catch up, I knew immediately I had to start here. "All change" -- what a resonant phrase for a terminal announcement. Puts me in mind of T. S. Eliot's "Hurry up please it's time."
Thank you, Jay. Nice link to the Eliot. Which makes me think also of “last orders, please” which Graham Swift used in his 1996 novel (made into a good film in 2001).
I've seen the film of Last Orders, haven't read the novel. I did, though, speaking of Swift, used to teach his Waterland in a Memoir-autofiction lit class, contrasting autobiographical fiction with fictional autobiography. Splendid novel with an odd, uninspired ending made into a terrible film.
Of the three, I think "All change" the richest in meaning. Love it.
'Mind the gap' between Britain's railways and pretty much everywhere else
😊
Such an enjoyable read, Jeffrey. I felt a sort of reverence or nostalgia laden in the way you talked about your many train journeys, which just made the whole thing very compelling :)
Thank you, Michael! It takes an elaborate system and great attention to detail to make a railway network run consistently well. So when that happens, there's a kind of reverence, yes.
I loved this post too. I guess by now trains evoke a certain nostalgia that we’re all enjoying too.
Have you seen Wes Anderson’s Darjeeling Limited? There are scenes in different train cabins that go by horizontally as the train passes, like an unspooling bit of film. It’s a lovely effect. (I’m sure he wasn’t the first to do that.)
Thank you, Victoria! Yes, I've seen the Anderson film. A beauty!
What a great homage! Trains are part of so many of my stories and I loved reading this!
Thank you, Priya!
Very interesting and wide-ranging. Presumably you like Michael Portillo's train journey programmes? I disagree with your view on privatisation. nI remember British Rail well, esspecially the dismal sandwiches with curled up edges, and the rather unfirtunate slogan, "We're getting there". With only one exception, I've found the privatised services to be superior, and am dreading the return to the dark ages.
Thank you, Terry! I didn't see the Portillo programme. I will never willingly watch any politican of any stripe talking about anything. Even former ones. And I'm glad the privatised railways are working well for you.
The romance of a train journey! I still love it (though modern noise-cancelling earphones are a boon). Thanks for this lovely piece.
Thank you for your kind words, Ann. And I agree about the earphones 😊
Oh, I loved this essay, Jeffrey. So evocative of both train and view from window. I've been on double decker trains in China - from HK to Guangzhou, where the loo was just a hole over the track...and the view seemed to be just one massive concrete factory after another, the environment clothed in grey dust. So many good 'train' films - Strangers on a Train, The Train, Battle of the Rails, (...)Orient Express (obvs), Titfield Thunderbolt....
Thank you for your kind words and for sharing your own memories, June! And yes, all those films... I'd add Caught on a Train to the list.
The trip to Iwate through blossoming peach orchards sounds just about as magical as it gets. What a brilliant assortment of train journeys!
It was pretty special and basically unplanned (not the trip, but that experience). A lucky moment.
A wonderful read Jeffrey, you remind me of a long forgotten but non-stop exciting 19 hours I spent on a train from Hua Hin to Kuala Lumpur, thank you, maybe I will even write about it! 🙏🏼
Thank you, Susie. I look forward to reading about that trip!