Perspective on Trains

The new dark blue Sky Train cars are sleek and elegant, putting the Metro Vancouver commuter in mind of the Shinkansen or the TGV.

Lighted digital signs on the front show destinations, and lighted dots on the route maps inside reveal the precise location of the car.

Useful features for a drowsy traveler who suddenly wakes, unable either to see the station signs through the window or recognize the location by scenery and platform in time to decide whether to get off.

But what interests me most about trains is something elemental.

King George is the terminus station, and after the sleek machine slid alongside the opposite platform and disgorged its passengers, I watched it roll down the track, stop, reverse, and then flex like a snake and approach our platform.

Seeing in perspective the huge difference in size between the leading car and the last one, I remembered the magic of my first train ride between Edmonton and Jasper.

As the train climbed the foothills of the Rockies, I leaned out over the iron half door on the moving platform between cars, far enough to see the long train round the curve. I was amazed that while the last car looked distant and tiny, the car next to me loomed huge.

Like some events in our lives. One moment they seem large and important. Then they shrink with time and distance almost before we know it. Knowing that helps keep things in perspective.