Training Day, p. 4
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Later that evening, back in Reno, Tom and I had dinner and discussed our careers, trains, our mutual friends, romances past and future, trains, and Nevada environmental policies. We also talked about trains. The Union Pacific crosses right through the middle of downtown Reno’s main boulevards, not hidden away in a tunnel or relegated to the corridor bordering the wrong side of the city. Although The Biggest Little City in the World is planning in the next few years to lower the rails into a trench, until then the cars and pedestrians of Reno stop their activities when the diesels of the UP lumber through. I may be the only person in Reno who slows down when he hears the sound of an approaching train whistle, hoping to be the first in line at the closed crossing gate.

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The locomotive horns punctuate the traffic noises of the city day and night. Living in the city center I’ve become sensitive to the nuances of the Union Pacific engineers’ ideosyncratic musical efforts. Some of the them simply play the bland perfuntory four-note sequence full bore as they approach each of the downtown grade crossings. Others have developed a more delicate hand on the whistle cord, massaging it to achieve modulated throaty tones with subtle pitch changes, minor chords of late night poetry. Eventually I’ll record one of these “songs” and make it available here.
I used to be envious of one of my Peoria colleagues because he had an extensive model railroad in his basement. Unable to convince either of my daughters when they were young that model trains could be as much fun as dolls, I thought that I too would eventually build a train layout in MY basement. Here in Reno, as an apartment-dweller I don't even HAVE a basement. But now I have a friend who owns a railroad.


Tom Gray
If you've read this far, you're probably a train fan yourself. If so, and if you're a broadbanded train fan, you may wish to have a look at this "virtual reality contact sheet" (350 KB) which shows some of the old rolling stock in the Portola Railroad Museum. You can zoom in on individual photos. Click on the image at right.