Making Tracks: An American Rail Odyssey

by Terry Pindell
Hardcover: New York: Grode Weidenfeld, 1990. ISBN 0-8021-1279-X
Softcover: Henry Holt and Company, 1991.

This is the second of a series of three related reviews on Amtrak travelogue books. The first is on Zephyr and the third is on Booked on the Morning Train

Pindell's book, on the other hand, approaches the subject from a much more passenger-oriented point of view. He spent most of 1988 traveling on Amtrak after his father's death and a lost election for mayor, making circuits around the country from and to Springfield, Massachusetts, the closest major station to his home of Keene, New Hampshire. Although he did not travel the entire Amtrak route network, he's only a few hundred miles short and took a train on major portions of every route. It certainly was an ambitious undertaking, to:

"travel the entire country without ever eating in a fast-food restaurant, spending money in a mall, driving on an interestate, or waiting in an airport ... I wasn't looking for: the people who travel by train ... the decision to take the extra time to travel by train implies a certain set of worldviews and priorities ... here are two stories: one of the historical American landscape defined by the passenger rail routes that shaped it; the other of the people who travel these lines today."

And Pindell succeeds admirably in his task. A good high school textbook will mention the immigrant labor that built the roads, the railroad-sponsored settlement of the checkerboard government land grants, the formation of the trusts. Pindell crams his history with individual cases which bring these long-term trends to life. There's the battle between the Irish and Germans working on the Erie Railroad, clannish and brutal a la Gangs of New York. There is the history of the Harvey Houses, a great civilizing influence for the rough-and-tumble west and the forerunner's of today's chain restaurants. There is the oft-neglected story of the development of railroads in the South, culminating in the great Southern Railroad consolidated under JP Morgan's men. There's even a side stop to debunk the Civil War myth that Sherman lived off the land in his March to the Sea (in fact, he was kept well-supplied by rail the whole way).

His focus on the people traveling on Amtrak brings us in contact with all types of Americans: sports fans and Vietnam veterans, failures traveling to reconcile with their separated spouses and start a new life with a fresh business, the conductor Zeb Love who presides over the "Love Train," the drunkards, the couples meeting in sparks on the train, the actor who rides the train to study people. Foreigners and immigrants provide a unique perspective on America — from the Iranian exile who loves the tolerance of America and hasn't watched TV since he bumped upon an evangelical fundamentalist program which reminded him of the persecution in his homeland, to the young Austrian student who in her travels throughout America has encountered only "TV, loud music, impersonal sex, boasts, and bullshit." And there are also the sights and oddities along the way — as the train passes Omaha, home of the former Strategic Air Command, Pindell gives some background on the plan to develop a Soviet-style railroad nuclear launch system during the Reagan-era military buildup.

Pindell is knowledgeable about train operations, and there are some chats with train personnel, but not to the extent of Kisor's book. This is primarily a social study of the rails — observations of the people riding it and the sights out the window, contrasted with historical development and trends. He writes of all the personalities he encounters matter-of-factly and with an open mind, and the ups and downs of the people he meets combine with the ups and downs of Amtrak. But his travels on the rails leave him with one an optimistic view of the passenger railroad's role in American life. In the epilogue he writes of the "Amtrak miracle" which brought rail travel back into the minds of Americans, of the "necessity of community and generosity in a land of individualism and private opportunity."

The two-decades-old Amtrak plans that he lists provide an eye-opening experience to what can and cannot get done. The northeast corridor electrification has been extended to Boston, there are new cars and new locomotives, but Republican presidents still request shutdown-level budgets for Amtrak year after year, and the establishment of routes along heavily-traveled corridors has been offset by the dropping of many long-distance routes. But there is still long-distance passenger rail in America, and Making Tracks admirably succeeds in its goals, chronicling a mode of transport with spectacular views, colorful history, and the safety, comfort, and luxury of time to swap profound theories with total strangers.