Train Spotting

Written by chattykerry
Santa Fe Depot, San Diego

Underneath my superficially normal appearance lurks a train geek. I thought I loved trains in the UK but trains in America are way cooler! I just need to hear a train whistle to get excited; I must be one of very few of the millions of people who live in the Houston area that gets stuck waiting for a concrete train to pass for 20 minutes and doesn’t mind.

Bright Red Trolley

As I walked towards the water from the Gaslamp area in San Diego my heart skipped a beat when I saw this fabulous old Santa Fe depot.  It was built in Spanish colonial revival style in 1915. The hub combines access to Amtrak trains and the San Diego trolley system, buses and the San Diego Coaster, a commuter service. Although we are surrounded by trains in Houston and all over Texas, very few are accessible to people. Most ship goods from our frenetically busy port of Houston to all over North America.

Only 2000 plus miles to New York

There is a silly Subaru advert on TV about living an alternative lifestyle that is clearly better than everyone else’s but I do like the one where the girl with the turned-up nose looks longingly at an open train that drifters might ride on. Here is a link to what we call a SMUGAROO
advert – just casting a little shade…😈 Teddy and I argued endlessly about it the girl. I thought her nose looked like mine but Teddy was adamant that my nose was much nicer. We still keep arguing about it!

The coolest ticket station!

It is my dream to travel on the Amtrak train from Houston to California but the price is not right. Train travel is a luxury these days. Still I can dream.

I really admired the way San Diego had managed to blend the old with the new in a vibrant city.

Old and new architecture

35 thoughts on “Train Spotting”

    1. Doesn’t it? Sometimes the advertisers just miss the mark and all you can remember was an image. Right now we are having Volvo adverts filmed in Sweden that no-one can understand. They seem to refer to some kind of angst which makes me never want to go in a Volvo. 😁

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  4. I love trains as well. I used to have an impressive train set and all the other stuff to replicate an entire city. I used to love setting everything up. I used to do as lot of traveling by train. Great way to see the countryside.
    Gary

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    1. My husband still has a complete train set from the early 1960’s. We used to put it around the Christmas tree and the cats would play with it! My fave trip was from Vienna to Budapest on the train, 😍

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  6. I’m joining the crowds of closet train lovers … I adore them. As for the Smugaroo .. let me ride that iron horse like a hobo any day. I just loved this. And your nose does resemble the girl, very much indeed 😉

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      1. Sweetie! Aren’t they adorable in what they see. And let’s face facts – you can’t best Helen of T … the most beautiful woman of all time, I rather thing 😉 xx

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  7. I live only about 500 feet from train tracks, and there’s a perfect view of the tops of the trains from my front door when they whiz by and shake everything to the foundations…

    About the only thing entertaining about getting stopped by trains is watching all of the interesting graffiti as the box cars go by. The day me and my Dad were stopped and watched a crude “cock and balls” drawing go by on a train was one we never forgot…

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  8. I have a train geek forever. My first trip was on via rail from vancouver bc Canada to Toronto Ontario when I about 12. Trains are in the blood. My grandpa from the Ukraine worked on the trains when he arrived in Canada and was there decades. My dad was a yardmaster and even used morse code

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  9. We’ll just call you Boxcar Kerry then. It’s sad that the great days of rail travel are mainly behind us. We’re left with great memories of their heyday, or at least lots of celluloid dreams. I guess Casey Jones has stopped a-steamin’ and a-rollin’ at this stage.

    I love old railway architecture, stations that remain, bridges, traces of long-forgotten lines. I have clear memories of the West Cork Railway (which closed in 1961) and there are still plenty of signs of Jersey’s two lines which closed in 1929 & 1935.

    Lovely post, thank you.

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    1. I might get a t-shirt with Boxcar Kerry on it! It always surprises me which posts are most popular – who knew there were so many train lovers. One of my youngest memories was going in a steam train to the seaside from St Enoch’s station in Glasgow which no longer exists.

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  12. I’ve ridden a train one time a couple of years ago and had a blast!! It was during the Fall so the colorful trees when riding through the mountains was unreal. The video is nice but when your hubby says your nose is nicer, you might want to agree with him!

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    1. Trains in the states are just so COOL! All those old names summon up memories of old movies and Westerns. There is a great rail line from New York to Miami – not so far away but don’t watch “Girl on a Train”. 😀🚂

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