Many, many, many
years ago at Boston University I took a course on Middle Eastern History with a
young professor who is now Professor Emeritus – foreign policy in the Middle
East. I am not really sure why I took
the course other than it was something totally new and different but I ended up
writing the final paper on the construction of the Berlin to Baghdad Railway. I
do remember enjoying the research. From
1899 to 1914 and eventually 1940 this immense project was fraught with
politics, finances, and confusion. The reasoning behind such an enormous and
long linking between two geographical areas was that Germany would get oil and
Turkey would trade for needed goods. Abdul Hamid ll was the last sultan to have
absolute control over the Ottoman Empire from 1876 to 1909 when he was deposed.
The alliance with Germany and Kaiser Wilhelm ll which included the Baghdad
Railway construction was unsuccessful. There is still discussion today as to
whether this undertaking helped bring about World War l.
Trains are back in
my life! I am now a frequent traveler to Philadelphia on Amtrak. As I travel I am always curious as to what
everyone is doing! Many have laptop
computers watching a movie, listening to music or checking email. Books,
tablets, and all manner of carryon entertainment abound. I watched a man check his laptop consistently
and report to his wife across the aisle what was happening to several of their
stocks on Wall Street. I see many people reading books on their tablets as well
as reading a real old fashion hardcover or paperback book! I watched a young woman check on her little
dog in a carry-on. She was very good about alerting any seatmate of the dog
because of allergies. I watched a woman knit a scarf and became mesmerized as
she did her “yarn overs” differently than I would! Train travel is interesting if you just look
around.
The best return
trip was my most recent one. The train
was crowded and I took an empty seat aside another empty seat that had a
sweater and a bag of books on the floor.
For several stations no one appeared and I began to wonder if the person
left the train and forgot the items! But no!
A woman about my age came from the café car and I first mentioned the
book she had “The Orchardist” by Amanda Coplin and away we went. She was in a book group and she loved “The
Orchardist” and we started comparing titles.
She was widowed and was moving to be nearer her daughter – a subject I
am pondering to be near my son. We
talked at length about making changes in our lives and she assured me I would
know when the time was right for change.
Then she told me how hard it was to get tickets to “Hamilton” playing in
New York! And to top it all off I told
her I had a house in Maine and her family does too on a lake near where my
brother lived! What a great train companion she was but she got off in
Stanford, Connecticut!
I do not know when
my next train trip will be! I decided to check our book collection on the
history of trains and train travel and found several interesting titles. “Grand
Central: How a Train Station Transformed America” by Sam Roberts (385.14 Rob),
“Orient Express: the Life and Times of the World’s Most Famous Train” by E.H.
Cookridge (385.22 Coo), “Ghost Train to the Eastern Star” by Paul Theroux (915
The), “To the Edge of the World “ – story of the trans-Siberian Express by Christian Wolmar (385 Wol), and “Nothing
Like it In the World – the Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad
1863-1869” by Stephen E. Ambrose (385.097 Amb).
However, if you
have no interest in the above titles I have listed you might enjoy the current
fiction bestseller “The Girl on the Train” by Paula Hawkins or perhaps the
mystery “Murder on the Orient Express” by Agatha Christie.
