Train of Thought

How I enjoyed Susan Spano’s rueful account of her train ride on the American Orient Express (“On Different Tracks: The Rockies,” Sept. 10).

It brought back such wonderful memories of a cross-country train journey I took as a kid some years before Amtrak took over and gave us by default or design the all-American mall on wheels.

And I, like Spano, felt more than a twinge of pain contemplating how “a blissful railroad experience” has nearly vanished, of how quietly and distinctly enchanting a train trip once could be.

DAVID LEWIS

Piedmont