There’s something inherently soothing about rail travel. Perhaps it’s the ever present thrum of motion, the gentle shudder of passing a join in the track, or possibly just the very notion that you’re being taken where you need to go without the possibility of deviation. It’s an opportunity to sit back and unwind, close eyes and drift off listening to a podcast awaiting delivery to destination…
Or, alternatively, if you’re feeling somewhat less romantically and generously inclined; it’s a usually overheated and tedious sweat-box of misery and inevitable delay that does nothing but make for an inherently boring and overlong journey to somewhere that, without fail, falls short of your ultimate destination.
I fall somewhere between these two mindsets. I’ve enjoyed/endured enough train travel in my life thus far to have experienced both ends of the spectrum. Which is precisely why, when given the opportunity, I leapt at the prospect of adding a little excitement to an otherwise tedious session on the tracks. A rare instance in which I could get railed on rails.