new world – RobinCravey

Stations along the route

Austin station is an insult to train riders. This is what you get from a city that gives endless lip service to public transit, but does very little about it. It’s on the edge of downtown, but it’s hidden away up a hard-to find dead-end street behind the YMCA. The station itself is underwhelming, with a small inside waiting room and not even the most basic food services.

As we roll north, the conductor announces the stops. Most are quick. At some, through-passengers are allowed to get off, stretch their legs, and breathe fresh air or have a smoke. The conductor offers a wry caution, “When all aboard is called, enter the train. If you are not on the train when the train leaves the station, you will be left. That’s all right, you can catch the next train tomorrow.”

At Dallas Union Station, I get off to stretch my legs. The trainside walkways are pretty nice, red brick edged by that yellow bumpy caution strip. Little canopies are spaced down the middle. There are several sets of double tracks. If I walk down a way, I can get a look at the station building, brick painted while. A walkway crosses all the tracks and leads to the station, but I don’t want to leave trainside.

At St. Louis Union Station I get off again. The trainside platform is bare concrete with the yellow edge, but it’s clean. The tracks are out in the open air, under the sky. A hulking skyway rises from the platform and crosses other tracks, crosses car traffic, ducks under a raised highway, and disappears.

Boarding platform outside train station. — Dallas Union Station beside the tracks.

Train beside platform — Dallas Union Station beside the tracks.

Second Day on the Texas Eagle

In the morning, about 5:30, I head down to the diner. Walt has an urn of coffee made at a little station by the stairs, and I draw some into a paper cup as I pass. The kitchen won’t be open until 6:30.

In the diner, I sit down at a table to read the news. Out the windows to the east, the sun is rising over the Mississippi. The sky glows a soft orange.

Breakfast comes. I have an omelet, home fries, and sausage links. Not bad.

Todd and I talk about the state of the railroad and the way it got this way. For the first time in decades, there is hope. Amtrak Joe pumped a tank of billions into the system. A lot of deferred maintenance will be done, but more difficult is the restoration of a train industry in the U.S. after decades of underfunding.

Lately, during the pandemic, Amtrak cut operations way back. Then their parts suppliers went out of business. So now there are no parts to repair the trains. That’s no way to run a railroad.

After breakfast I retire for a respite in the room. I make some notes. I nap a little. I read a little. Soon I pick up the macbook and head for the diner.

In the diner, I find the table with my room number on a slip of paper and sit down. I have at least an hour until lunch. I open the macbook and start drafting.

Lunch was forgettable.

Amtrak took all the full-service diners off the trains during the pandemic. After the pandemic, Amtrak did not have enough cars to restore full dining to all trains. The Texas Eagle was one of the losers.

One thing, the food is plentiful. You won’t lose weight eating in first class.

Soon after I’m done, I have to vacate the table for the next hungry seating.

Back in my room from lunch, I read a little. Then I turn myself to organizing and packing for the train change.

I listen to crew members chat as they pack up their rooms. We’re near the end of the trip. Everyone on the crew is thinking of the chores they must do to shut down the train. Their paid time stops when the train stops. If they’re not finished with their chores, they will finish on their own time.

Goodbye again.

Watching sunrise over breakfast. — Sunrise over the water, looking out the diner window.

Luggage waits to be pulled into action. — Sunrise over the water, looking out the diner window.

So close…

So close. I was so close to finishing the manuscript. Then my world shifted. It seems to do that. But, now I’m ready to return to it.

I had the photos printed on the pages. A few photos were too dark, so I had to work on those.

Then, suddenly, I got notice from my office building management that I would have to move my law office, and move it in a hurry. My lease was expired. They had decided to lease out the entire floor. All the small offices had to go.

I dropped everything and mobilized. In just under 30 days I had found a new office and moved into it. For the past two weeks I’ve been trying to get the place organized. There’s still a lot to do, but at last I can spare some attention for the manuscript.

So, here I go again.

I have lived with this manuscript for more than a year. And before that, I lived with an urge for more than a year. This project represents a turning point, both personally and poetically. (Is there a difference?). Seeing the other side is like looking from an old world into a new one.