Ock! Please help! Private Rail Cars.

[ChriswUfGator]

My great granddad had a private railcar, either my dad or my uncle have pictures of it somewhere. One of my Dad's friends also has one now, his father was a train nut. Actually that guy had enough rolling stock to make a whole train, he reminds me of what Ocklawaha's house must look like, but he died and donated most of it the museum of arts and sciences back where I'm from. The private car they kept and it's still in their family, they take it to football games. Don't know whatever happened to the other one, the railroads were precursors to CSX, they must have done something with it when they bought them.

When my grandfather was a kid, they had a custom lincoln zephyr convertible with extra metal wheels on it that would extend down from the undercarriage onto the rails so he could drive it between Atlanta and Tampa/Sarasota on the railroad, the alternatives back in those days to get into Florida were US-1 and US-301 and they had ten million stoplights and took forever, so this cut the trip time by like 2/3'rds. The car had a radio in it for dispatch, so they could clear the track. It apparently rusted into the ground next to his place over there, Zephyr Crest. I heard they finally hauled it off when they were turning the old main house into what's now the Longboat Key Bath & Tennis Club.

It's a shame speed of travel has supplanted quality of travel in our modern society. We get groped and looked at through naked xray machines for the privilege of cramming ourselved into little tin cans anytime we need to go anywhere now. Definitely have forgotten the whole "it's not just where you're going, it's how you get there" idea. Travel is so uniformly unpleasant now that it takes much of the fun out of it.

[Lunican]

It's also funny that people need to rocket themselves through the air at 600mph because they don't have time to travel but then spend 34 hours watching TV per week.

[CS Foltz]

+1.5

[Timkin]

It's also funny that people need to rocket themselves through the air at 600mph because they don't have time to travel but then spend 34 hours watching TV per week.

Air travel is my least favorite way to go.  I am told statistically it is the safest way (and it well may be)  But I personally do not trust planes so much.  Not much in the way of choices if one needs to get from point A to point B , 1000 miles away , in a matter of hours , instead of days.

If rail , to all destinations in the Country were as readily available,  I would be inclined to use rail.  Several times commuting to Winter Park and back , I used it simply because I did not feel like driving and was in no hurry.. It was great !

[johnnyroadglide]

+1

[Ocklawaha]

How many times have I gone to the station, boarded a train before dinner, sat down to a real 4-5 star dining experience (with changing views) and gone to bed in nice fresh hotel quality linen? In the morning I wake up to polished shoes, free OJ and a morning paper, walk to the diner and have a 5 star breakfast, around lunch I'm in ANY TOWN in the northeast corridor. Ready to hit the ballast and wander off care free...

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MEANWHILE:

A duffus friend slept fitfully after his fast food meal the night before. He finally get's some shuteye, but has to be at the airport 1-2 hours before flight time for an early bird departure. He lands in DCA looking like he went through a meat grinder and runs down the concourse looking for real food. Seems a peanut breakfast wasn't enough. He runs to bag claim but by now his bags have been removed and he spent another hour trying to find them. When he blows into the office the guy is spent and the day is still young.  Damn he got this deal for only $265 and I could have bailed in Hamlet, North Carolina for $35! But DC set me back $124.

No sweat man, look at the time he saved!

OCKLAWAHA

[mtraininjax]

Looking to take the train from Jax to FTL, looked at the pricing later this summer. Under 100 bucks RT. It would cost me that alone in gas plus the parking at the airport and I can take my time, relax and enjoy the trip on Amtrak. Life is too short to be hurried!

[Timkin]

agree