On Saturday November 22, a group of rail scholars ventured forth from Maryland to visit the Pennsylvania Railtroad Museum and to ride in the adjacent Strasburg Steam Railway. This trip was the culmination of a course on the history of railroads in Baltimore and surrounding areas. Although the trip was in a rival state and showcased the much feared/hated/admired Pennsylvania Railroad, it highlighted much of what we had discussed in the course concerning the rise and fall of railroading as a mode of transportation and a way of life.
As I went through the museum and rode the pleasant, but clearly rudimentary steam railroad, I was thinking of how surprising it would be to the inventors and riders of these marvelous engines which were so cental to American life that they would soon be relegated to museums to providing deliberately slowed rides to nostalgic fans. I wonder if our automobiles and airplanes will ever meet the same fate?