Someone, above, offered that we should not mourn the passing of the great passenger trains. I heard that same refrain from a late uncle, who was a freight agent for the Santa Fe in Texas. I was a train lover. I had just come to visit him, in 1953, on the San Francisco Chief from California. The railroads were losing their mail contracts to the airlines. Passenger service had to be subsidized by the freight business. The railroads wanted to dump passenger service. Enter AMTRAK.

It all sounds like the same song we heard when complaining about the loss of standards in broadcast news. The entertainment division was subsidizing the losing news side. So, now we have the best news that advertisers can influence.

What I miss is the pace of life of an earlier time. The railroad songs appealed to nostalgic longings for a time before airplanes, television and technology accelerated us beyond our ability to cope with what we've created. There was time to reflect and to dream before we had "instant" news and three hour jet rides supplanted three day rail trips. I really do miss what a lot of young people will never have the good fortune to know.