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All Aboard With E.M. Frimbo
by Rogers E. M. Whitaker

Rogers E. M. Whitaker was a man who loved trains and train travel and, starting in 1945 and continuing until his death in 1981, he chronicled his nearly 3,000,000 (that's three million!) miles of rail travel in a weekly column in the New Yorker. Under the fictional name of E. M. Frimbo, Whitaker wrote of his rail journeys, which involved a large part of twentieth century railroad history and the expanded edition of "All Aboard with E. M. Frimbo" will give you, the reader, the opportunity to also experience those journeys.

Whitaker writes of the final run of the "Twentieth Century Limited," between New York and Chicago, the new (at that time) "Metroliner" and taking the "Sunset Limited" to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Frimbo ruminates on what he calls the "chicanery of the railroads" and discusses the dreadful shape of American transportation (writing in 1962!). Included in this edition is Frimbo's sad piece about the looming desecration and destruction of Grand Central Station, a story with a very happy ending.

Frimbo does not confine himself to writing about the interstate and cross-country rail lines, but writes about trains, and other modes of public transport, wherever they exist. His column entitled "We Shall Overcome" includes the following passage:

"If there wasn't a railway train to wherever I wanted to go, there was a ferry or a trolley car. New Bedford offered expresses by two routes to Boston; trolley in every direction for miles and miles; a night steamer to New York; and a ferry, owned by the New Haven, across the harbor to Fairhaven - whence, from a one-platform station, New Haven locals wandered out onto Cape Cod."

Nor did Frimbo neglect the railroads of the world. He wrote about taking "The Taj Express" in India, a dining car on the "Trans-Siberian", Polish, Swiss and South African rail trips. And he lets us in on some of his travels with a mysterious traveling companion, The Contessa.

Whitaker's co-author and editor in the new edition is Tony Hiss, who was a colleague of Whitaker's at the New Yorker. Hiss contributed a new preface to the book and included a number of his columns about Frimbo, as well as some jointly written columns.

This book would be a wonderful companion for your summer (or winter, fall or spring) travels. Not only will it fill you with a sense of the ghosts of railroads past, but will suggest to you many journeys that are still possible. If you have the train travel spirit, this book will certainly nourish it.

"All Aboard with E. M. Frimbo" is available Amazon.

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