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Mr. Toy's Train Travel Tales
The Coast Starlight, May 2001
Page 4
Saturday May 26, 2001
Salem
Liz took me home via 12th Street, one of three major north south routes between south Salem and downtown. Boy it really looked bad. 12th Street was never a beautiful thoroughfare, but now it was making even Seaside look good. Many of the buildings were abandoned, including one grocery store and a couple of used car lots. Those that were still in business were looking pretty run down, too.
Saturday afternoon my mother and I went to see A.C.
Gilbert's Discovery Museum, which was built to honor the work of A.C. Gilbert,
the Salem native who invented the erector set, magic and chemistry sets,
and was the distributor of American Flyer trains. He was in the Toy business,
something I could appreciate! The museum consisted of three historic houses,
which contained exhibits, fun activities, classrooms and a gift shop. Between
the houses was a large and fascinating play area, with all sorts of things
to crawl through, climb upon, and just have a blast. Among other things there
was a music deck with several xylophones, a giant checkerboard with orange
and blue traffic cones for checkers, and at the rear of the property, a huge
three story 3-D maze to get lost in. The diverse sections of the play area
were linked by an elaborate network of walkways, bridges and platforms.
The Gilbert Village was at the north end of Salem's
new waterfront park. I lived in Salem from 1968 through 1984, and at that
time hardly anyone was conscious of the fact that the Willamette River ran
right past downtown. The waterfront was nothing more than a collection of
ugly warehouses which completely cut off any view of, or access to the river.
That has all changed. A broad walkway now runs along the river itself, and
huge area of open grass invites all sorts of activity. A small ampitheatre
and stage platform was built at the southern end, and nearby a new building
housing a carousel was about to open the following weekend. There was even
a small paddlewheeler boat which offered lunch and dinner cruises. Salem
now has a wonderful view of the river and a waterfront to be proud of.
My mother and I then went to get some bread for Sunday dinner. It was approaching 5:00pm and I thought that an Amtrak Cascades train was scheduled to arrive in downtown around 5:30, and I thought it would be fun to see and photograph it. So we went over to the station to see. It turned out the train left Portland at 5:30 and arrived in Salem at 6:37. I talked with the clerk about my late train, and he said the Starlight was about 5 hours late again today. He said if I wanted to photograph the Cascades, I should get back around 6:30, but he added it could be as much as 15 minutes late.
So I took my mother home, had a little snack, and
went back to the station. There was a pedestrian overpass just north of the
platform, and if offered a view around the curve as the train approached.
This would be a perfect vantage point. At the apex of the overpass I had
a terrific angle on the track. If I walked about 20 feet west I could see
farther around the curve and several blocks down to see when the train was
coming. The signal over the tracks would also alert me to its arrival.
I waited quite awhile, but finally at about 6:55 the signal turned yellow,
and I heard the horn in the distance. When the signal turned red I took my
preselected position and aimed my camera. The train came around the corner
and you see the result here. Being right above the train as it passed, the
horn was really loud!
When it stopped at the station I went to the other side of the overpass and
snapped one more photo, then went on down. Before I reached the north end
of the platform, the train was already pulling out.
Sunday May 25th, 2001
I woke up listening to an NPR story about Irish pubs. One pub owner was building pubs in the old style, rather than the modern, because the old pubs were intimate gathering places that "forced people to talk to each other." He believed people needed more social contact to enrich their lives. The description of the pub atmosphere reminded me of my experiences in Amtrak dining cars.
Today was the day my niece was to graduate from Linfield College in nearby McMinville. The ceremony was held outdoors in a grove of trees, so it was not too hot. The commencement speaker was William H. Gray III, a former Congressman. His speech included the familiar metaphor of life being like a journey on a train that never reaches its destination. It is the journey that is important, not the goal. It occurred to me that one could apply that thought quite literally to an actual train trip. As a counterpoint, however, one student speaker talked about the difficult challenges one faces in college, and he concluded that it wasn't the journey that was important, but the destination (graduation) that made it all worthwhile. I suppose its all a matter of perspective.
The rest of the day was spent with family events. I went out to a one hour photo shop to get my graduation photos developed for everyone to enjoy that evening. Before I left I went on-line and saw that the Coast Starlight, Train #11, would be arriving soon. I thought I could drop off the film, and head down to the station in time for another picture from the overpass. The train made good time, and I arrived at the station just as the signal down the tracks turned red. I had just enough time to park the car, jump out, and cross the tracks before the train came into view around the bend. But I got it!
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