| Private Car ride on the Empire Builder | |||
| On the trip home from the NRHS Convention in Portland, I lucked into a ride aboard the J. Pinckney Henderson, a private car owned by the Landcaster & Chester RR (for more on the car, see this.) The car was chartered by Mr. Burton Eisenberg and his wife Janet who were attending the NRHS Convention as a gift to his father-in-law, Mr. William Eilberg, an aging and ailing WWII veteran. A survivor of the Pacific Campaign in WWII, Mr. Eilberg returned on a troop train back to his home in New Jersey from disembarkation at San Fransico in 1945, kissing the ground like many GIs as he stepped off the ship. His one wish some 60 years later was to relive his rail route home from the War. Since health concerns limited his ablilty to climb the stairs in a Superliner sleeper, the chartered car was the only option for Mr. Eilberg. I spent 2 nights in an unused room on that car in complete luxury, with meals cooked from scratch, riding through some of the most beautiful country in the world, and getting to know Mr. Eilberg, his family, and his incredible story of survival, all the way to my home in Wisconsin on the tail end of Amtrak 8. There were no cars behind ours up the Columbia River Gorge all the way to Wisconsin. It is amazing the bonds you make with total strangers over the course of a railroad journey. To this day Mr. Eilberg thanks President Truman for saving his life. POSTSCRIPT: Sad to report that in 2006 Mr. Eilberg passed away of complications from long term health issues. What a pleasure it was to know him for even a short time and share the experience we did. | |||
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