If you could hearken back to a simpler time (technology wise)?

[ohio jones]

The top high speed rail trains in France and Japan exceed 300 mph.

Not quite. Try 320 km/h (200 mph).

[Ken]

The top high speed rail trains in France and Japan exceed 300 mph.

Not quite. Try 320 km/h (200 mph).

I was going by Wikipedia which says this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail

High-speed rail is the fastest ground-based method of commercial transportation. China has the fastest conventional high-speed rail in regular operation, with the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway reaching up to 350 km/h (217 mph). The Shanghai Maglev Train, opened in 2004, is the fastest commercial passenger maglev in operation, at 431 km/h (268 mph). In 2007, a Euroduplex TGV train broke a record of 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph), making it the fastest conventional wheeled train in the world.[7] The Chuo Shinkansen in Japan is a maglev line under construction from Tokyo to Osaka at commercial speeds of 505 km/h (314 mph), with operations due to start in 2027.

I guess you are right and they don't normally run at that speed but they have the capability and the new one in Japan that is not yet finished is designed to exceed it.

But I would still like to have experienced the world back in the old days during the golden age of rail. When life was more sedate and less frantic. When the morning newspaper was all the news you needed even though every bit of it was technically yesterday's news.

[Josh]

Of course, if trains were as popular as planes, then they'd have just as much security as airports too and they'd also be just as busy at train stations. You'd have to arrive an hour or two early for your train, and then sit around waiting if it's delayed (just like you do now with planes).

I had a great experience taking Amtrak overnight from Kansas City to western Kansas. Paid extra for a sleeper car and spent the 7 hour journey (which ended up taking 8) sleeping soundly, woke up, and then enjoyed a good quality breakfast in the dining car. It was definitely a lot nicer than driving approximately the same amount of hours, or flying, which would have been 4-5 hours with connections and cost more.

One issue is that we don't have enough railroads left in America. They're busy and full with freight (which is why you see so many trucks on the road, carrying some of the overflow). Given that American just printed 40% of the money we've ever printed, it sure would be nice if we'd spent some of that money on building better railroads.

[RZehr]

1990’s and I like where I am now. I don’t have a hankering to live through the recession again.

[Ken]

Of course, if trains were as popular as planes, then they'd have just as much security as airports too and they'd also be just as busy at train stations. You'd have to arrive an hour or two early for your train, and then sit around waiting if it's delayed (just like you do now with planes).

I had a great experience taking Amtrak overnight from Kansas City to western Kansas. Paid extra for a sleeper car and spent the 7 hour journey (which ended up taking 8) sleeping soundly, woke up, and then enjoyed a good quality breakfast in the dining car. It was definitely a lot nicer than driving approximately the same amount of hours, or flying, which would have been 4-5 hours with connections and cost more.

One issue is that we don't have enough railroads left in America. They're busy and full with freight (which is why you see so many trucks on the road, carrying some of the overflow). Given that American just printed 40% of the money we've ever printed, it sure would be nice if we'd spent some of that money on building better railroads.

Right, that's why I'd like to travel by train back in say 1948 or perhaps 1928 when the stations were grand and the trains world-class and you didn't have the hassles of today. And see America before the interstate highways ruined the urban and rural fabric. This is a nostalgia thread.

[Neto]

Speaking of air travel, and public transportation in general, I will compare the last two times I traveled to Oklahoma. In October of 2018 I drove, by myself. I didn't stop for night at a motel, partly because of the extra cost, but mostly because what if you rent a room, and then can't sleep? Or what if you get so sleepy way before you arrive at the area where you need to be as the right stopping place, where your reserved room is? So I drove until I got sleepy, stopped & slept how ever long I felt like. Sometimes I slept an hour, sometimes 3 or 4. Back on the road & keep going. Just tried to time the big cities, so that I went through at night, rather than at rush hour. Anyway, it's a bit over 900 miles between Berlin, Ohio & Collinsville, Oklahoma. Going & coming back took about 23 to 24 or 25 hours each way. Now, the airplane trip with my wife, flying out & back last December. The return trip took around 12 hours, because of airline delays and mess-ups. We were actually in the air a fraction of that time, and went way out of the way. Sure, I didn't have to watch the road, but public transportation stresses me. The loneliness is the worst part of driving alone. Otherwise, I a whole lot more prefer to keep my wheels on the ground. I traveled by bus once, in 1980 from Jamestown, New York back to Tulsa. Actually, my destination was Siloam Springs, Arkansas, but they routed me through Tulsa. So my dad came to the bus station & took me home until the next day, when I caught the next bus back east to Arkansas. Air travel is now like it was on the bus back then, getting hit up for donations, etc. Maybe air travel is worse now than the bus was then, 'cause even with all of the weird stuff you hear about going on on flights, the worst we ever saw was a woman who spent the whole flight talking about her precious little comfort dog, which needed a bath or something.

Ken just posted that this is a nostalgia thread. Well, I traveled back & forth to Bible college the same way, sleeping when I got tired. Back then a "rest stop" was a wide spot in the road, with a picnic table, an outhouse, and maybe a hand pump well. Never felt in danger, either.

[Ken]

Speaking of air travel, and public transportation in general, I will compare the last two times I traveled to Oklahoma. In October of 2018 I drove, by myself. I didn't stop for night at a motel, partly because of the extra cost, but mostly because what if you rent a room, and then can't sleep? Or what if you get so sleepy way before you arrive at the area where you need to be as the right stopping place, where your reserved room is? So I drove until I got sleepy, stopped & slept how ever long I felt like. Sometimes I slept an hour, sometimes 3 or 4. Back on the road & keep going. Just tried to time the big cities, so that I went through at night, rather than at rush hour. Anyway, it's a bit over 900 miles between Berlin, Ohio & Collinsville, Oklahoma. Going & coming back took about 23 to 24 or 25 hours each way. Now, the airplane trip with my wife, flying out & back last December. The return trip took around 12 hours, because of airline delays and mess-ups. We were actually in the air a fraction of that time, and went way out of the way. Sure, I didn't have to watch the road, but public transportation stresses me. The loneliness is the worst part of driving alone. Otherwise, I a whole lot more prefer to keep my wheels on the ground. I traveled by bus once, in 1980 from Jamestown, New York back to Tulsa. Actually, my destination was Siloam Springs, Arkansas, but they routed me through Tulsa. So my dad came to the bus station & took me home until the next day, when I caught the next bus back east to Arkansas. Air travel is now like it was on the bus back then, getting hit up for donations, etc. Maybe air travel is worse now than the bus was then, 'cause even with all of the weird stuff you hear about going on on flights, the worst we ever saw was a woman who spent the whole flight talking about her precious little comfort dog, which needed a bath or something.

Ken just posted that this is a nostalgia thread. Well, I traveled back & forth to Bible college the same way, sleeping when I got tired. Back then a "rest stop" was a wide spot in the road, with a picnic table, an outhouse, and maybe a hand pump well. Never felt in danger, either.

I grew up in Oregon and went to school in Indiana. This was the early 1980s but my car was a 1965 VW bug. I drove it across the country four times during college including once in the middle of winter for Christmas break when I caught freezing rain and blizzard snows from Iowa all the way to eastern Oregon. Never staying in hotels, just driving all the way through with some other poor student who was traveling the same direction and wanted a cheap ride. Those old bugs had 6 volt electrical systems and heaters which did not remotely put out enough heat to keep the car warm and the windshield defrosted. On the last winter trip the freezing rain in Iowa was so intense that the wipers froze to the windshield which thrashed the gear motor making them useless. I had to stop at a truck stop and buy some string to tie to each wiper and thread them through cracks in the windows on each side so that the other student sitting beside me could manually run the wipers by pulling on the strings while we had to stay bundled up with winter gear from driving in zero degree weather with the windows cracked open. We did that for at least 24 hours nonstop driving at maybe 40 mph and trying to follow big trucks who's wheels were clearing enough snow for us to not get stuck without snow tires. I think we did have tire chains but didn't use them. We traded off driving but couldn't sleep because someone had to keep running the wipers and it was to cold to sleep anyway.

I don't have nostalgia for those trips. Now that I'm a parent of college students I'm frankly shocked that my parents let us do that sort of crazy driving across the continent in mid-winter in a 20 year old very questionable car. Different times I guess.

[steve-in-kville]

I miss the days of *needing* a fire/police scanner to stay in touch with local activity. For years I always had a mobile unit installed in my work vehicle.

Anyone remember weather radios? Like the ones that had the alert feature when bad weather was headed your way? Now its all on a smartphone. And you get text alerts.

I still sleep with an old ham radio programmed with railroad frequencies under my pillow. I have that sweet-spot on the volume where I can hear it but my wife can't

[steve-in-kville]

As kind of a train buff, I'd like to go back to the time before the interstate highways and cars destroyed the landscape and train travel was at its peak. When one could travel between cities on named trains like the 20th Century Limited and Empire Builder and the stations were grand. But alas, that was before my time. None of the decades that I've actually lived through are calling to me in any great way.

I guess if my thread was gonna get jack-wagoned, I'm quite open to it going this direction

Our mainline (Norfolk Southern) hasn't seen regular passenger service since 1963. Every few years there is loose talk to start passenger service from Reading to Philly, but that'll most likely never happen

[justme]

I miss the days of *needing* a fire/police scanner to stay in touch with local activity.

same here