train – Page 2 – The Implausi.blog

Takes on a Train 11 – Boundaries

Soon after entering the plains of Manitoba

“Where the great plains begin”, as the song goes, so I must have hit the 100th Meridian.

It snuck up quicker than I thought. Oh there were some signs: the vegetation got thinner, the trees shorter, fewer lakes around every turn of the tracks, and then all of a sudden…

not?

You were someplace different, and if you blinked you’d miss it. Teleportation. Suddenly you’re awake in a different time, a different place.

The scrub of the untamed prairies. Small dotted farms at the edge of the forest, peeking through. The dividing line intermingled enough that you can’t tell which side is winning.

But in the distance, the horizon expands to fill your view, and you know you’re headed someplace different. Something new, something exciting.

Takes on a Train 10 – The Sprint

Quick stop at Sioux Lookout, 15 minutes tops. Enough time to sprint to the gas station and overpay for some munchies. Should be set for the next couple days though.

And by quick, I mean quick. enough time to get back, snap a couple pics, and board back up. An extended smoke break, really.

Almost left without one, as we were locked up and he was knocking on the outside. They relented enough to let him back in, so he could continue to Vancouver. A near thing though, kinda like the cruise ships departing the dock.

Large machines move to a schedule, with inertia.

There is a lesson there, with regards to not only trains and boats, old unsexy tech of yesteryear, but the new soon-to-be-unsexy tech of the 21st century. Because who really finds a warehouse or a datacenter sexy, honestly? But while we’ve grown accustomed to thinking of modern tech as the personal, catering to our individual selves, the tech behind the scenes, is big, impersonal, and moves with the inertia of the train I’m sitting on.

Takes on a Train 9 – Relentless

There’s a lot of trees.

Really all there is to say. We drove through the night – forests surrounding us, and throughout the last 6 (waking) hours, and the relentless stretch of trees, of all shapes and sizes, of all colours and varieties, at once both close and far away, surrounding us like a tunnel, or laying like a dense fabric on the opposite shore when we pass alongside a body of water.

(Of which there are a lot of too. If you miss a lake that came into your view, wait approximately 2 minutes, and you’ll pass another.)

Beautiful country

Relentless though.

Takes on a Train 8 – The Dome

An external shot of the rolling community centre.

The Dome has turned into a community centre, self-organizing, where the people come together to char and view the countryside. It is multi-lingual, multi-cultural, multi-denominational, and communal. French and English commingle, and people dine in the galley below.

In Northern Ontario, during a 15-hour stretch of no cell service, the entertainment consists of looking at the trees out the window, and sharing tales of where they’re from.

Near the end, unoccupied. (A rare occasion).

This community springing up out of nowhere shouldn’t surprise. In an era bemoaning the lack of third spaces, having this rolling third space readily available brings home how necessary having the room is. And while claiming the dome / diner car counts as a third place may seem like a stretch, I think the case can be made.

Here, the Dome is apart from “home” (the seats, or the berth and or cabin for the other class of the train) and the “work” (also the seats, or the business car if available), and so represents that place apart. A place to chat, or chill, or find out who your neighbours are.

Takes on a Train 7 – Backcountry Backrooms

The vibe is weird in the middle of the night. Everyone is asleep, mostly, but looking out the window is a trip.

Fleeting glimpses on the rail line every so often. Small town. Railside work camp. Uncontrolled crossing. Lights of something in the distance.

Punctuated by stops, waiting for the trains going frantically in the other direction, always hauling some heavy load. Must be something going on, eagerly needing all that the land can provide.

And every now and then the flash of red from the track lights, casting an eerie glow throughout the cabin.

It’s giving a backrooms vibe, that office /shopping mall creepy pasta floating around the internet of endless rooms and mostly unoccupied offices.

Like the monorail introductions to the various Half-Lifes, scenes from an ongoing story glimpsed through the window, though more creepy for being real.

Or is it? It’s mediated after all, caught only in glances through the window, continually almost seen, as the attention is diverted elsewhere.