Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 22, 1994 TAG: 9405150121
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by MARIE S. BEAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Whatever your intention in taking a train trip, it is a journey of dreams and reality, of imagination and perception, of heroes and yeomen. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish one from the other, and that is part of the joy."
So writes veteran journalist and railfan Henry Kisor in this memoir that will surely gladden the heart of any reader who has ever thrilled at the sound of a train whistle.
Amtrak has been running America's passenger trains with mixed success since October, 20, 1970, when Richard Nixon signed the act incorporating the National Railroad Passenger Corporation. "Zephyr" provides a surprising perspective on train travel for those whose experience has consisted of "viewing the rusting industrial backside of America through the dirty windows of ramshackle sleepers." It is also a vision of what travel can be like apart from the infuriating frustrations of airlines and strangulated interstate traffic.
Kisor's enthusiasm is infectious as he takes us with him on a trip from Chicago to Oakland, California, aboard the California Zephyr, a 51-hour run. The pre-Amtrak Zephyr was one of the last and best of the nation's celebrated luxury trains. Today, he says, it is the most representative and one of the most popular of Amtrak's long-distance trains. Each month it carries more than 70,000 passengers in its 18 cars. Sleepers are sold out three months in advance.
No other American train traverses such a variety of terrain, and Kisor helps us see it all with a new appreciation: the aforementioned "industrial backside" of Chicago, the high plains and towering Rockies of Colorado, the intermoutain desert of the Great Basin of Utah and Nevada, the Rio Grande's "Tunnel District" where the Zephyr threads 17 tunnels in something like 11 minutes. He also recalls for us the country of the Donner Party and Butch Cassidy, of 19th-century Chinese laborers diligently chipping away through Sierra granite, using only hand tools.
Very little escapes Kisor's probing mind and journalist's eye, be it history, terrain, geography or the inner workings of a passenger train. We are rewarded with a book, easily readable, enriched by his graphic descriptions and insightful obserations. His open and generous spirit and his genuine interest in people whosever they are set this book apart.
There are maps delineating the route of the Zephyr, a few black and white photographs and a helpful index. The books deserves to be a best seller among the many readers whose lives have been touched in memorable ways by the American railroad.
Marie S. Bean is a retired college chaplain.
by CNB