On Board Train Number One, The Sunset Limited

The east Texas sky is lead grey this morning, the land is flat, dull brown with dormant scrub this and scrub that, prickly pear and mesquite trees that might be about to leaf out.  Hawks or maybe eagles soar above, looking for their breakfast. I just had mine, a bowl of grits, yogurt, half a grapefruit, cranberry juice, hot coffee, and don't forget the bacon. I guess I was hungry. Amtrak does a real good job in the dining car, and all the food is included if you are in a sleeper. It can be a really good deal if you reserve in advance, especially off season. 

Do you know the theory that when something goes really wrong there has usually been a cascade of events? Our departure from beautiful New Orleans was exactly on time, at 11:55 am. In the compartment next to me was a New Orleans native, going home to Houston, after having spent three weeks caring for her 94 year old mother.  She was exhausted but funny and very chatty, and clearly anxious to get home to her husband, a Houston surgeon. They live around the corner from George and Barbara Bush (very, very nice people, just like you and me).  She was on the train due to a long string of bad incidents flying, that had induced in her extreme fear. I'm not talking tarmac delays or skirmishes regarding space in the overhead bin. Think more landing gear that refused to deploy, or turbulence so violent that the plane had to circle JFK for 45 minutes, seated next to a Texan yelling yippee at every plunge till the winds calmed down enough to land; and my favorite, a gun wielding man disturbed by something, someone or perhaps just disturbed, running up and down the aisle, threatening to kill everyone on board. The flight was on Continental from Newark to Houston, pre 9/11. She said the gun came out early in the flight, unbelievably the pilots did not divert, but soldiered on to Houston, where police boarded and subdued the man. No shots were fired, but Good Lord, can you imagine the fear?

Fast forward (backward?) to last night. We were to arrive Beaumont at 6:43 pm, the first scheduled Texas stop on our 1,000 mile trek across its vast breadth.  Shortly before arrival at Beaumont the train ground to a halt, eventually an announcement was made, Union Pacific track crew working late on the road bed ahead, we'll be cleared by 7:30, which came and went. At 8:30 an announcement that the repair equipment had broken down, and it would be who knows how long till they could clear it, but it would get cleared.  Dinner was very good, tender NY cut steak, baked potato and vegetables, time passed fairly quickly. I ate with my new friend from Houston and a talkative  Amtrak veteran traveller from San Diego. He and I were both fine with the delay, we're on all the way to LA, plenty of time to make up a bit of time. The lady from Houston was so near yet so far from the home front that she was practically in tears, on and off the phone with her husband, !0 pm arrival, no 11, who knows when.  For all her worries and fears she did stay in good humor.

The conductors and engineers timed out at 10 pm but fortunately the fresh crew was waiting in Beaumont, and fortunately (for us anyway) there was a road nearby, so the replacements were brought to the train, the track cleared and we did get underway about 10:30 pm.  We all knocked on wood that would be it. On into Beaumont where I stepped off the train, to see the station. It's so sad, there was a station, but they tore it down and left the concrete pad, surrounded by gravel, the headlights of two parked cars illuminating the sorry scene. Not even a bench was there. I do have a Beaumont story from long ago, by the way, remind me and I'll get to it.

Here's where the story gets bad. Two very stupid young men either saw the train coming, or maybe raced it out of town, got out of their vehicle, and on to the track to moon (yes moon-on the track) the oncoming train. One of the young men dove off in time, the other did not; we hit him at 70 miles per hour. At that speed it takes  a fair bit to stop and the engineer wasn't even sure that he hit anyone. The Amtrak staff was quite forthcoming with details, if asked, as they became known. Most on the train were already sleeping, the man from San Diego and I were in the lounge car at the time and saw it all unfold.  It was just very sad, watching all the flashing lights, waiting for the coroner and all that. As a matter of course they brought in a new engine crew from Houston, an hour and a half to the west. Again, it was just very sad. We were there for three hours. I keep thinking of the burden the kid who made it off the track will carry forward, the grief of the families involved, still ignorant of their tragedy.  You know...      The lady from Houston was inconsolable for a while.  I watched her as she got off in Houston, into the arms of her husband, finally at 2 am, their only child is a 23 year old son.  She just kept saying those stupid stupid boys. In spite of all this I did sleep well last night. When I awoke in San Antonio this morning there was that feeling of waking from a bad dream, but of course this was not the case. That lead grey sky seemed just right.