Recent content by JonMyrlennBailey

I usually just have the lineside cam follow a train while Trainzwatching.

Mr. John, my condolences regarding your sister and your dog. My puppy is a little devil with his teeth but I love him to death. It has been since 2015 since I have been a member here. 10 years, a decade, of Trainz route building this year and counting. Since, I got my new Sheppie boy, he's been...

I took a round trip from central Iowa (Des Moines metro) to Richmond, Kentucky this early June to pick up a new German Shepherd puppy. It was about 1500 miles of driving in my automobile. I went through Illinois, Indiana, a corner of Ohio out of Cincinnati. I stuck to Interstate routes as much...

Taking the Amtrak California Zephyr round trip from/to Oakland, CA to Denver, CO in the summer of 1986. There were mixed feelings. Two FP40H locomotives pulled the train. The GM/EMD plate on one engine said it was built in 1977. There was a privately-owned old passenger car on back of the train...

Suffice is to say, and whatever the reasons, trains are still slow and sometimes late in America. If you need to get from LA to Denver in a hurry, there are jet airplanes. Unless the TSA jerks will slow you down. I still prefer my automobile for Interstate travel.

This is something I have come to realize after riding the California Zephyr ("Amwreck') through the Rocky Mountains and having played a number of Trainz routes based on various mountain roads of the American West. This includes Mojave Subdivision, West of Denver and Milwaukee Road Avery-Drexel...

I have seen and heard trains from Europe and elsewhere, but none warm my heart like classic American trains. English steam locomotives looked so toy like.

I am a Boomer. My notions of American train sounds come from having grown up in coastal northern California. They come from Southern Pacific of old. They come from CalTrain. They come from GP7/9. They come from SW-1500. They come from The Skunks on the California Western Railroad, a Baldwin...

steam locomotive: a steam whistle with a "chuff" flute tone; generally in the low to mid treble range; often three or more notes form a musical chord, usually a dark/eerie diminished or diminished 7th chord; might be vocalized as "WOO, WOO!" diesel electric locomotive horn: has the loud...

The car is still more convenient for me and more personal and private. Are service dogs allowed on Amtrak? I have one now. Here he is:

I prefer to travel in my own automobile via interstate than by Amwrek. <iframe width="953" height="536" src="" title="Washington Amtrak Crash Raises Train Safety Concerns | NBC Nightly News" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope...

Traveling through American mountains is very slow due to tight curves on standard gauge track. Taking the California Zephyr from Salt Lake City to Denver is cumbersome. Much of American track was laid during steam locomotive days. If American mountains were tunneled through extensively in...

Is it true that European and Asian freight trains and intercity passenger trains tend to travel at higher speeds than those in America? How do Australian trains compare in speed to the rest of the world? How about Latin America and Canada? I don't think America takes rail transportation...

Likely then, a woman with a baby carriage and two bags in Al Capone's time would have used the elevator instead of the staircase to get to and from her train. Unless, maybe, she had porter assistance. Hollywood, indeed, had to use the stairs scene for the ultimate drama. The baby boy is in much...

You might think the woman with the baby carriage should have had a porter's assistance.