You’ve never seen America until you’ve seen it by train. Observations of the landscape viewed from the large windows of each car let’s you see the beauty of this country frame by frame. The settings of the mountains, meadows, rivers, and farmlands with rolls of grain open eyes to a simpler life. Reality in secluded places not accessible by any means, other than the trains, exposes a style of living seldom experienced by those in the city or suburbia.
The narrow gauge trains of the west journey through much of the country’s most majestic places. Slowly the trains wind their way around curves, embracing the hills and mountains as they travel through some of the most beautiful unseen topography. The view is a picture of the wonders of nature, worthy of any canvas or digital photograph. As these trains trek over the terrain, they take you to the next mountain that’s just as majestic as the last.
On most trips in the west, you could cross bridges that are a football field long with an eight hundred foot drop. The scenery over these tassels guarantees to leave you breathless as your aerial view outlines the beauty of places seen only from a train. Imagine trying to see a hundred foot waterfalls off well-defined mountains from an airplane.
These trips are great adventures to enjoy with your children or grandkids, giving all involved memories for a lifetime. From seeing the animals, both wild and domestic, as they feed near the forest edge, or watching them track across the fields. You can view all this from a coach with wide windows and air-conditioned comfort or from an open coach where the wind blows through your hair. Some caution here regarding the insects you may encounter at high speeds. On less commercial train trips, you can enjoy the reenactments of an old west with train holdups, guns fights, and banjo playing.
Of all the trains that have ever existed, I prefer the steam engines. To me the steam engines have a spirit. A breathe of steam from these locomotives exhales, and drives the pistols that turn the wheels through the landscape of unblemished lands, makes my heart flutter. The train accepts its momentum with each breath as it rocks me into a serene comfort, while it chases the rails down the road.
The large gauge trains travel the regular rail lines in the eastern part of the Unites States. Many of the trains of yesterday have disappeared. If it were not for a small group of dedicated people, who volunteer to keep these trains running, we would lose a piece of history. I’m thankful for these volunteers, who maintain the narrow gauge, and what is left of the wide gauge trains, because they do so for the love of these majesty iron horses.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Leaving a Voice
Blog Archive
About Me
- Ayna's Collections
- New to the writing world, I live with my husband of twenty years in Chicago, Illinois. I have been retired from the work force for fifteen years doing small jobs to earn money and keep constructively busy. I love to garden and have been painting and drawing all of my life. Although challenged with the English language, I found comfort when writing came into my life in the form of rhyming verses. Poetry was an outlet for emotions I needed to express, and because I am dyslexic, this form was easy for me. Later, after 17 years of research, I wrote and published my first book called People of Difference, which is a paternal genealogy study. It was after writing People of Difference that I decide to try my hand at actually writing a short fictional novel. In 1983, I wrote and published Moments of Feelings – a fictional story about a young girl starting life on her own. I received so much pleasure from writing Moments of Feelings that I decided to learn the trade of writing. Although I haven’t written a lot of poetry since I’ve started my ‘late in life endeavor,’ I am hoping the world will keep me on my toes in developing the skills of writing.