Found this one in a box marked "free" in San Francisco.

I found this book in a free box outside of a used bookstore in San francisco. I finally pick it up to read it December 2008, shortly after taking a train trip to San Luis Obispo, which was kinda fun, as this book was about a train trip at Christmas. However, I feel that the motivation to write this book was this: the author took a train trip, or talked to some Amtrak employees, discovered that Amtrak has too little funding, and decided to write a book about the fun and foibles of train riding, in order to get more people interested in trains again. It's is a tepid story. However, I LOVE train trips. More people should ride the train.