"Galisteo" by Burl Ives
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Looking out my door, about a quarter to four / I wave when the Chief goes by / and though it’s just a train, I never could explain / why a tear comes to my eye.
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No need for an RPi scraper for me. I live in that village, and hear the (Southwest) Chief's whistle/horn in both directions. Long live the analog!
Glad to hear about your train-loving family. We need more!
There’s something magical about certain machines that make some people emotional.
Concorde was another one for me.
Killed by bean counters, as so much is.
And I can’t go without two of my favorites:
Had no idea steam engines could move like that!!!
And in return I give you:
Consider the feature scheduled!
I hop on at Lamy, either to Raton or LAX, depending on the trip. If only there were still a stop in Folsom, I'd walk to family place up there...
Lamy is an interesting place to wait on the train; George R2 Martin (Game of Thrones author) sponsors a special excursion train that comes up there from Santa Fe. They do fun bits, wine tasting tours, mystery role-playing dinners, art shows. The train is painted like a huge dragon.
A strange juxtaposition with authentic tumbleweeds and abandoned adobe remnants of a whistle stop village that's faded away.
Lots to keep you entertained for the extra three hours it will take for the Amtrak train to actually arrive. They do crew change, cleaning, restocking food, and often address any operational issues with the trains at the Albuquerque station. Seems to be one of the few places where that's done, because Northbound quite often hours behind schedule at Lamy.
It's my favorite way to travel anyway.
It was just the local Caltrain commuter (and some freight trains) but I remember my 2yo commenting that we were so lucky to live close to a train crossing so we could hear the horns and the trains go by.
Cool link, thanks! It would be awesome if Amtrak could have a webcam or two on board their trains so that you could ride along and enjoy the vistas.. (Yes, I know, connectivity, bandwidth, costs, something something... :-( )
My wife an I met in the Pacific Surfliner's dining car, and our 2 year old is obsessed with trains of any type, so you could say we're becoming a train family.
I'm currently building a raspberry-pi based "train coming!" / "dina-a-ling!" machine for my son which scrapes the real-time location of trains from the above site. The response to this thread is inspiring me to write about it!