Toledo – the busy, half-abandoned station

Toledo – the busy, half-abandoned station

Just about twelve years ago I hopped on a plane bound for Brazil to spend a year as a foreign exchange student. I lived in smaller city named Toledo – in the south-west of the country, not too far from the borders of Argentina and Paraguay, and the famed Iguaçu Falls. It was a nice place – think quaint Appalachian mining town with a little of White Plains mixed in – but hardly a city that would get significant numbers of tourists. While I lived there I had a host brother that was some years older than me, and he...

Taking a break from the Hudson… see ya next month!

Taking a break from the Hudson… see ya next month!

Photo of the Hudson Line, with Pollepel Island and Bannerman Castle in the background. Taken from the Breakneck Ridge station. Taken last weekend, as I’ve been touring the Hudson Line. Hey everyone… I’m taking a little break from touring the Hudson line and heading out west… I’ll be visiting Minneapolis and Chicago, and riding part of the Empire Builder and the Lake Shore Limited. Most likely, you won’t even know I’m gone – there are several posts in the queue that will be posting themselves, including the Tuesday Tour. If you comment or email, however, I may not be able...

Chatham: Revisited

I’m not exactly sure why, but I have a strange affinity for the village of Chatham. Although it is an adorable place, rather quaint, I wonder what exactly it was like when the railroads ran through here. You might see a freight train, or a passing Lake Shore Limited, but none of them stop. Chatham once serviced the New York & Harlem Railroad, the Boston & Albany, and the Rutland – all of which are long gone. And thus the place is a little bit of a curiosity to me. The many suburbs along the Harlem – Bronxville, Hartsdale, Scarsdale,...

Friday’s From the Historical Archive: Wartime Magazine Advertisements

Friday’s From the Historical Archive: Wartime Magazine Advertisements

I don’t want to be an ass in saying this comment, but really, I wonder how trains function in the United States. Commuter trains and subways, like the ones in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Chicago, and other places across the country make sense to me. They are practical, and they don’t take too long. By the time I was twenty, I had been to the city a million times, all by train. We never drove. Driving took probably around the same time as the train, and you didn’t have to worry about parking, and tolls, and traffic. Taking the...