ALL ABOUT THE NAMES OF TRAINS, PRESIDENT OBAMA'S DREAMS, AND THE FUTURE OF PASSENGER TRAINS IN AMERICA, By Robert L. Huffstutter

ALL ABOUT THE NAMES OF TRAINS, PRESIDENT OBAMA'S DREAMS, AND THE FUTURE OF PASSENGER TRAINS IN AMERICA, By Robert L. Huffstutter, a photo by roberthuffstutter on Flickr.

ALL ABOUT THE NAMES OF TRAINS, PRESIDENT OBAMA'S DREAMS, AND THE FUTURE OF PASSENGER TRAINS IN AMERICA, By Robert L. Huffstutter

Drumhead logos like those above were used frequently to advertise the train wearing the logo, usually at the end where the clubcar was stationed. "There goes the 'The Southern Belle'," the enthusiastic onlookers would shout as the passenger train zipped by and was soon out of sight.

Photographers with forethought must have taken thousands of snapshots of the various drumhead logos. Where are they today? Most likely sold in old boxes never even opened by relatives in estate sales when the "loved one" passed on. But I hesitate here, relatives would certainly have opened every box and envelope, seeking the deceased's stock-certificates and other valuables. Whatever, where in the hell are the photos of these trains?

When I realize how many snapshots of passing trains I could have taken in my youth, I could be filled with regret (oh', yes, just another island of remorse in a sea of regret), so I will get it out of my mind.

Yet, I can still hear the sound of a train as it roars past and speeds down the rails past my line of vision. Wondering where it would call its destination, I used my imagination.

"Someday," I said to myself, "when I am rich and have nothing to do, I think I shall try and ride on every passenger train I can--and go to as many cities as I can, spending very little time in the city itself, but more in the clubcars and the elevated observation cars of the different trains." No, I didn't say it quite that way, but you get my drift if you are an adult reading this text.

We had so many dreams in youth, too many. There was no way they could all materialize, right? Sometimes I wonder if, as Americans, we create too many goals and dreams for ourselves, concentrating on one goal and then another, filling our minds with ambitions that would take several lifetimes to fulfill.

Well, not all of us do this. When one thinks about a junior Senator from Illinois who is suddenly whisked into the highest office of the land, one might wonder what his formula for success of such a magnitude was.

Someday, I do hope President Obama will write a book of this nature, going into fine-print details about how he planned his goal so well that it became a reality. There was never a question about the vote--he won it fairly and squarely. And whom among us did not feel proud on that November evening when it was announced he had won the Presidency of the United States. I felt a very new and different emotion about my nation.

Suddenly, I realized that America being the land of opportunity would no longer be a trite and hollow statement--those were words full of truth. Yes, Mr. President, please write the book on success someday.

There were so many different railroads back when my mind was full of trains, in the early 50s, I could not remember them all then. But I knew I would be a passenger on the New York Central, the Santa Fe, the Burlington, the Great Northern, the Milwaukee, the Santa Fe, the Southern Pacific, the Rock Island Line, the Illinois Central and my list went on and on.

Strange how many of the ones I never traveled I can no longer remember. And as the years passed and my days as a boy ended, I rode on almost every train mentioned. The Santa Fe was the last "real train" I rode, back in the late 60s.

Now, we have Amtrak. To get to Florida from Los Angeles I must go to Kansas City and take a train to Chicago and then on to Chicago and catch a train to somewhere in New Jersey and then connect with one headed south toward Florida. How simple it would have been to take a train from San Diego along the old southern route of the Santa Fe and go directly into Pensacola and then on down the Florida pennisula.

Oh', well, wish me well. It might just be too complex, and maybe a plane would be a better way. Isn't that what put the railroads out of business anyway?

So, we spend a lifetime going around in circles. Yet, the trains are always booked to almost the maximum. Add more trains? Yes, that would be a great idea. Perhaps we will have a network of trains going everywhere at all hours like we did back in the 1940s, like almost every nation in the world now has. Mr. President, would you try and make this possible?

Think of how much energy we would save, and how much fun Americans could have once again, riding passenger trains home from college, home for the holidays, home on leave or furlough, riding from coast to coast for the joy of seeing this great land we call the United States of America.

By Robert L. Huffstutter
17 July 2011