Trip to the Past

Amtrak advertises the Coast Starlight, which runs from Seattle to Los Angeles, as its “hottest with the coolest scenery.” Not long ago I rode as far as Paso Robles.

I’m becoming a grouchy old man who is feeling harassed to distraction by our Internet dot.com, Nasdaq-obsessed society. The old-fashioned train with its semi-fouled-up arrivals and departures and overall tone of another time was a comfort and a great solace to my ragged nerves.

At stops I got off and walked the platform, looking at the cars and the locomotives, and all I saw were names of an older and industrial America: wheel assemblies by Buckeye Steel Castings, Timken bearings, GE engines.

Unless you suffer from time pressure, the train is the way to go. You are treated well. The staff is friendly and talkative. Airplane travel is being cramped in a steel tube for several hours, scared half to death most of the time.

STEVE SANGER

Bellingham, Wash.