HOW IT ALL BEGAN - All Aboard: The Complete North American Train Travel Guide - page 21

cial dish in the dining car, or just their own peculiar élan . And,
of course, in that wonderful railroad tradition, the trains were all
given names. Some were clearly regional (Connecticut Yankee,
Southern Belle), while others touted destinations (Dixie Express,
Texas Eagle). Some trains were named for people, both real and
fictional (Commodore Vanderbilt, Pocahontas, Rip Van Winkle).
Some of the names were highly evocative (Black Diamond, Flying
Cloud, North Wind); some tried to be clever (Silent Knight) or
cute (Seven O'Klocker).
Many of us actually remember riding on some of those
trains, and they were wonderful, perhaps even as luxurious as we
remember them. Still, it's important to keep things in perspective.
The fact is that during all those “glory years” of rail travel, most
Americans rode on trains that were quite ordinary. They were
slow and probably neither clean nor comfortable. Then, as now,
luxury was for the fortunate few.
First It Rained, Then It Poured
When trouble came for the railroads, it came from many direc-
tions at once, and it wasn't pretty. Trucks by the hundreds of
thousands began hauling commodities of all kinds over a new
system of interstate highways. Mom, Dad, and their 2.5 kids
traveled wherever they wanted to go, coast-to-coast over that
same highway system in a family car that ran on gasoline cost-
ing 25 cents a gallon. Airplanes became larger and faster, which
meant they carried more people farther, faster, and cheaper than
ever. With all those fast new jets flying everywhere, the U.S. Post
Office decreed that all first-class mail would henceforth travel
by air. (Remember? We used to pay one rate for letters sent by
surface mail and a higher rate for airmail.) Revenue from first-
class mail carried on fast passenger trains had been an important
source of revenue for the railroads.