So I'm not a Doctor Who fan at all, but lately have become intrigued (I know a couple fanatics and it feels like it's about time to see what that's all about). I recently learned about the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space), Doctor Who's spacecraft/time machine thing.
It's perhaps a stretch to consider the TARDIS a mode of travel, but, hey, I've seen mobility folks talk about traveling via the mind and imagination as if that doesn't involve some suspension of disbelief and a sprinkling of magic. I'd actually consider the TARDIS more legit than that even, as it is getting Doctor Who from point A to point B. It's really just one small step below mobility topics like canoeing ethnographies, the movement of SARS germs, or the locomotive as a phallic representation. (Mobilities is a broad, broad concept if that isn't apparent.) In any case, I became much more interested in the world of Doctor Who after watching this great video by a German woman who built a TARDIS from scratch.
This really has nothing to do with travel, transportation, or mobility, but it was such a delight to watch. (Her videos on teaching are also wonderful.)
National Train Day is coming up on Saturday, May 11. There are events happening at different places across the country. In Los Angeles, Union Station is hosting what sounds like a fun day for kids and adults:
The National Train Day event at Los Angeles Union
Station will feature free kids’ activities sponsored by Chuggington,
interactive and educational exhibits, model train displays and giveaways. Visitors will have the chance to tour private luxury railcars, freight
and commuter trains, as well as current Amtrak equipment.
I really want to go since luxury railcars are like tiny houses on wheels (and I love tiny houses!). I also want to know if Chuggington is a sentient being, an anthropomorphic train, or an abstract marketing concept. I also suspect there will be lots of train enthusiasts at this event, and it would be fun to chat those folks up. Someone once told me I was obsessed with people who are obsessed and I think that's quite accurate. I don't have the attention span to be a true obsessor (at the moment, I'm simultaneously into knitting, fly fishing, and banjoes - I like to call myself a serial hobbyist) and so I live vicariously through those who can devote themselves without reservation. Train people are like that. In fact, hardcore train fans are called "foamers." On a related topic, John McPhee had a great two-part article about coal trains in a 2005 issue of the New Yorker. Update: I'm apparently very out of the kids' television programming loop - Chuggington is an animated talking train show.
