The Joy of Riding the Rails

From the Transcontinental Railroad to the Orient Express, you may have read tales of thrilling and luxurious train journeys of the past. But for anyone who has even taken a New Jersey Transit train, it is hard to imagine a train ride being luxurious. Yet in parts of the United States and abroad in Europe and Japan, a train voyage can still be considered not just a means of getting to your destination, but a destination in itself.

How do you find a train journey that will be a joyful experience and not just a means of getting from point A to point B? One good way is to do some train travel research in the library. There are many resources at the Mercer County Library which will provide you with all the information you need to make your next rail adventure extraordinary.

As a college student, one of the best parts of my trip to Europe was watching the European landscape go by from the train windows. With the Eurail pass, you could literally hop on a train at the spur of the moment and go from nearly anywhere to nearly anywhere else in Western Europe. I remember taking the ultra-fast Intercity and TGV trains in Germany and France, as well as overnight trains through the Alps to Italy. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. One of the best ways to get familiar with Europe’s great rail destinations and stations is to use the book Europe by Eurail, which gives railway timetables, guides to the train stations and tourist information to nearly everywhere the Eurail pass reaches.

Long after I had my train experiences in Europe, I visited Japan and used the Japan Rail Pass to get around the country. Although I had experienced fast trains like the TGV using the Eurail pass, I had never been on anything like the Shinkansen super-express trains. They are super-fast and pleasant to ride. These trains are truly in a class by themselves. They can get you from Tokyo to the far south of the country in a remarkably short amount of time. And sometimes if you’re lucky, you can ride a specially- decorated Shinkansen, like the one I encountered which paid tribute to the famous anime character Hello Kitty. It even had a shopping car which sold merchandise. Not all types of Shinkansen are covered by the Japan Rail pass, but enough are to get you wherever you want to go. There is really no limit to what you can see in Japan with a rail pass. Japan by Rail tells you how to make the most of your rail pass with descriptions of the best destinations to go to and the trains that serve them.

If you’re in the mood for more exotic train trips, check out Ultimate Train Journeys. World. You can read about how to travel on the expensive Venice-Simplon Orient Express, which is the successor to the original Orient Express. You might also want to travel across the Swiss Alps on the Glacier Express.

If you want to experience the joy of train travel but don’t want to go abroad to do it, Tourist Trains Guidebook will show you how to find special train experiences in nearly every state as well as Canada. From old steam trains to scenic railroads and vintage train museums, this book has something for everyone.

I always find that one of the great joys of train travel is pulling in to a really great train station, like Santa Lucia in Venice or the Gare de l’Est in Paris. Some train stations are destinations in themselves, like the Tokyo station, with its beautiful main building and a plethora of shops underground. Train Stations of the World: from Spectacular Metropolises to Provincial Towns will introduce you to a wide variety of in all corners of the world, even in the United States.

Not all the great train stations of the past are still around. When you travel to New York by train from New Jersey, go through the tunnel, and arrive at Penn Station, you will likely find the experience underwhelming. The original Penn Station building was demolished in 1963, and replaced by the dingy underground station we know today. But the original Penn Station, drawing its inspiration from the Roman baths of Caracalla, must have left train passengers awestruck who saw it for the first time. You can read about construction of Penn Station and the railway tunnels that made it possible in Conquering Gotham: A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and its Tunnels.

So when you plan your next trip, don’t forget to plan a rail journey that will make your voyage, not just your destination, extraordinary.

- by Michael, West Windsor Branch