Traveling Outside of Time
The original conversion was done for minimal cost more than seven years ago, and the cars have gotten some very hard wear in the interim. Amid Amtrak’s austerity budget and perennial financial uncertainty, Griffo has managed to find some money to recarpet the floor, paint the walls and restock the toy bins. Rosenwald’s torch has made it into the right hands.
As Griffo talks, the train slows and then stops. We had been on time as we pulled out of Klamath Falls earlier that morning, twenty-two hours into the northward journey. But now, about half way down the western slope of the Cascades, two hours from Eugene, our luck has apparently run out. There’s a freight a half mile ahead of us without the horsepower to make it up a hill. An extra engine is going to have to travel from Klamath Falls, connect to the front of the freight and pull it onto a siding so we can get past. This will delay us for maybe an hour and a half.
No one seems particularly upset. It’s not like we’re stuck in a cramped airplane cabin breathing stale air and staring at the tarmac. The train has stopped in a beautiful spot, the tracks cutting through a thick Douglas fir forest dotted with blazing red vine maple. It also helps that Jose keeps the Bloody Marys coming in the Parlour Car.