Have any of you ever ridden on trains before, or plan to? This Saturday (March 6, 2022), I plan to go riding on a train at a railway museum, and I'm so excited for it! Each ride is approximately fifty minutes long, so I can ride about six times; however, there is a swap meet that day too, so I want to see what they have. I'm not sure if the trains will run all day or if it's limited rides because of the swap meet, but I'll find out when I go. I do want to go to Australia one day just to ride on Indian Pacific both ways, which would take seven days and six nights... if I'm not mistaken. I'm sure there are trains where I am that have dining cars, and it was recommended to new riders to start off small so the first ride won't kill off travelling by trains for them.

I've been on quite a few trains! Mostly only in Europe and the US and Canada though. I've never been on one in Central or South America and I only took one or two trips via train anywhere in Asia.

But I've never been on a museum train ride! Do they use older, currently-obsolete train engine models? Such that you get to ride the same type of train that was in use a century or more ago?

That could be really fun...

I've also never done the Indian Pacific at all.

But I've done multi-day train trips before. Which experience really depended upon who you ended up with in terms of the people around you -the workers as well as your fellow passengers.

I also found I preferred to bring my own food when possible; hot food you don't have to cook is available at the dining cars but the selections were not to my taste (I'm picky) so it was better for me to bring along my own. I think the longest train ride I've done was a 4-day trip (one-way).

I think we can ride trains from the olden days since we can ride on a trolley too! I do know they have a steam engine we can ride... or used to until it was time for its inspection. It needs money and new parts to get the train ready for riding once again. I don't know if they have any other steam engines we can ride.

From what I understand, you sometimes have to book a seat in the dining cart before you can even go, though food we can bring on our own is good, though I think that'd be limited to like... snack foods, right?

Well, I normally pack one piece of baggage that's food-related (for train trips lasting 1/2 day or longer):
one set of utensils (which I can wash up in the washrooms), a large lidded bowl to work from, one set of washable but not precious dining dishes (in case they break), a few napkins, a water bottle (usually there's drinking water available free to refill that), and then things like a selection of fresh fruit, cucumbers, a mini-wheel of smoked cheese (which doesn't need refrigeration the same way and is usually good for several days), bread, a head of lettuce, a tin of sardines, pre-washed radishes or carrots or the like, some tea, small packets of spices, a jar of mustard, perhaps a hard-boiled egg or two for breakfast (those also keep quite well so long as you don't peel them ahead of time).... bits and bobs and odds and ends such as those.

You can come up with a surprising number of quite delicious meals this way.

And if you have time to properly cook ahead of time, the possibilities are endless!
Pea soup tastes delicious cold and keeps amazingly well.
Potpies are also nice for eating cold, and they travel well.
Calzones, same thing.
I've brought in quiches and lasagna (cut up into meal-sized portions, naturally) and pizza slices and stir fries and all sorts of noodle dishes.
Patties are also useful because you can do things like bring in a small container of sauce and put them on lettuce for a fancy salad and then the next meal you can turn them into the basis for a sandwich, or crumble them into a soup to change the flavor and make it fresh again.

Really the options are endless.

What are Calzones and quiches? Sandwiches?

Potpies taste better when cooked, and I've never had pea soup. I think I'll keep to sandwiches and such... was unaware they'd let you carry those things onto trains, to be honest, but hey, the eggs sound nice. Do you put salt on them too? The fruits sound nice too, and it sounds like you can make salads too.

Well, of course you cook the potpies ahead of time. There's no way that I am aware of to actually cook on the train... so you cook them ahead and then pack them up to bring.

Calzones are... hm.
Roll out a piece of dough to a circle approximately the size of a tea plate.
Fill it with whatever filling best pleases you.
Fold it in half, to cover the filling.
Crimp the edges.
Brush the top with whatever glaze best pleases you.
Bake it.

And there you are, a calzone.

They're typically filled with the same sort of fillings that people use as pizza toppings (red sauce, cheese, spices, basil, etc.) but can be much more flexible than that.


Quiches are a sort of savory, dinner pie? They're typically made in dishes shallower than a pie pan, and the sides are usually more vertical. I've never had a quiche that didn't use egg in it. Typical quiches are things like zucchini and smoked salmon, or onion-and-spinach, or mushroom-and-leeks.
They do not have a dough covering, so they are open on top.

Sandwiches are portable meals which are made to be eaten by hand instead of requiring utensils; they are characterised by having some sort of filling between two slices of bread, but the filling can be anything, and there is a very large variety of them.
Typical examples: roast beef and horseradish sauce between rye bread, grilled onion and melted sharp cheddar cheese and honey-mustard sauce between sourdough bread, roasted portabella mushroom cap and avocado and black pepper between pumpernickel bread, sauteed bell pepper slices and strips of blackened chicken with lettuce slices in a baguette, fresh broccoli sprouts and thin slices of smoked turkey and gravy between whole wheat bread
the list goes on.
Again, it's very versatile.

Salt can be brought -I'm not a fan of salted eggs, though. I like to put small amounts of grated horseradish on my eggs instead. Spicy instead of salty. :)

Yes, salads are definitely an easy thing to bring and make on trains!

Huh, I think I've had one before. but they were called "hot pockets" or something... not sure... it's been ages ago.

I think I've had berry quiche before, and it had different kinds of berries in it.
I thought you just ate potpies frozen, and I was like "How can anyone do that?"

I prefer peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches with milk, or ham or turkey sandwiches... also chicken sandwiches... I sort of wanna go to burger king now and order a chicken sandwich with fries and a drink and get on a train with my lunch box... and then eat.

I've never had horse radish before, unless I was unaware I did, but I do like spicy. I need to build up my spicy resistance.

I've never actually tried freezing potpies before, wouldn't that change their texture a lot?

Horse radish is something that it's unlikely you'd forget -so you probably haven't had it. It grows easily in most places but then of course the downside to that is you have to keep after it or it will take over your garden -pots are handy, that way.
It has gorgeous, enormous leaves, which it loses every year. But the part you eat is the root -it's pretty hardy, so you can just dig it up and then cut off part of the root and then replant it, and it will heal up without trouble.

Then you wash the root really well and grate it, or grind it -but be careful to do it in a well-ventilated area, and make SURE you NEVER touch your eyes!!! It can be like getting tear-gassed if you aren't careful.
Then you preserve it in vinegar and you have a lovely spicy spread for eggs or sandwiches or whatever you want to use it with.

I think you can probably buy it, too, but I don't know what form it would come in.

Spicy is delicious! I'm with you on that one!

It would be super hard to eat too!
You know what? I think I had horse radish before, but I've never actually prepared it.

If you can trick someone else into preparing it for you, then you are definitely doing it right, ha ha ha ha. I always end up being the one to do it in my family because everyone knows my weaknesses and they all bribe really well.
>.<
But it is worth it!