Folk Train 2001

Passenger long-distance train travel has virtually died in the world -- airplanes have taken over that form of travel. But 64 folkies under the expert organizational and motivational leadership of Charlie Hunter and Alan Rowoth had the opportunity to take a train across Canada from Montreal to Vancouver February 9-13 2001.

The biggest misadventures occurred before getting on-board of the train in Toronto, the official starting point for the train. Alan Rowoth had a major auto accident that didn't hurt him but demolished his car. The flight Vic & Reba was scheduled to take from DC to Toronto was cancelled, an annoyance rather than a tragedy. The FT'ers who went early to Montreal to see the sites were ice bound to there hotels.

Saturday February 10

The FT'ers, many wearing the official Folk Train shirt and the FT pin, gathered at 8AM in the train station in Toronto. The train was on time and everybody dragged their bags aboard and found their rooms or coach seats. There were a surprising number of alternative accommodations, from a double sized room with private (miniature) commode to bare bones coach seats without sleeping quarters. There were two cars with vista-domes, domed cars with big windows and comfortable seats designed for observational purposes. The front center window in the first class dome unfortunately had been hit by a missive of some sort that cracked its surface into hundreds of shards, making visibility through it impossible. The other windows could have used a good cleaning but served there purpose. There were interesting sights from time to time that could be observed and photographed handily.


Charlie Hunter waiting for the train.	Reba also waiting. Her shirt says "On the Internet, nobody knows you are a dog"	Alan Rowoth with Annie Wenz, a major folkie booster and performer.


The dining car was beautiful but could only feed 40 at a time, requiring 3 shifts to feed everyone.	The train, from the domed car at the end, across the roof.	The farther west we got, the deeper the snow. This was taken in Western Ontario.

The most important part of the trip was greeting old friends and making new ones.


Rachel Bissex always has fun, bringing out the best in everyone around her.	Ginger Osborn enthralled by the scenery out the dome car	Alan with Rik Palieri

Hello to all my friends out there, this is Rachel reporting from Drawing Room A aboard the Folk train 2001. People are already talking about the trip to Jacksonville, and if we could ever have as nice a trip as this. There certainly wouldn't be as many trees!

I took the train from Montreal, but many folks started from further south, I think the earliest passengers were Suzi Wollenberg and John Lupton, boarding a different train in Delaware. From Pennsylvania and New Jersey there were other folks, among them Gregg Cagno, Christian Baumann, and our youngest traveler, Christian's daughter Kristina who is twelve. She's been busy writing post cards to her friends at home. There were about fifteen of us traveling from Montreal, and we spent the first night entertaining the other passengers with our silliness, and with songs. Rik Palieri led us in Al Grierson's song "The Dogs of Kiwanga" and Annie Wenz taught us a beautiful song she wrote for Al. As most of you know, Al was a rebel, a storyteller, a wonderful soul that was taken from us last year, swept away in a Texas flood. He had worked on one of these trains, originally from Saskatchewan, and we will be doing an Al tribute at one of our stops along the way.


Rachel star gazing.	David Broida playing a game with Kristina Baumann	The beautiful ice covered trees.

From Montreal to Toronto I was in Coach, affectionately known as "steerage" and didn't sleep a wink, so was extremely happy to get on the train in Toronto and move into a little roomette with its own sink, toilet, and fold-down bed. After the travelers were settled in, we gathered in the bullet car, playing train songs and generally goofing around (see Alan Rowoth's pictures - this was the point Annie Wenz and Eric Schwartz were having fun with headgear). The trees had a layer of ice on them, glorious with the sun behind.

I had two interesting meals, they seat you with whoever is there, and at lunch I was seated with Whitney Smith from Toronto, leader of an 18-piece big band, my friend David Broida, and new friend Howard, both from Pennsylvania. At dinner Whit, David and I all ended up eating at the same time, and we were joined by Jim from New York, where we had a very stimulating conversation about the state of Big Music Business. Eminem was thrashed as the greedy contrived guy that we (mostly) agreed he is, we bemoaned the mentality of the big record companies that just don't care about the garbage they're putting out as long as it's selling. We ended on a high note though, and we talked about our favorite artists.

That's all for now, I went to sleep early last night but had a report that there was a terrific "getting to know you" song oval (this is linear travel) in one of the dining cars until the wee hours, there was rumor of sake consumption in the Dome car, and Christian Baumann came out of parent-retirement to sing the first two songs he's played in over a year. Welcome back Christian.

Sunday February 11

The train finally left Ontario, an enormous province. The land was pancake flat and had little to attract the eye. Every so often the train would pull off onto a spur to let an oncoming freight get by. We were amazed that the line was not double-tracked.. Much efficiency was lost by the train having to stop and start frequently.

What made the day interesting was an immense ground swell of activity in support of Alan to make up for his loss in the car crash. His 1994 Plymouth suffered about $2,000 damage when he slipped off the road at just 35mph. Annie Wenz and Eric Schwartz led a songwriting circle to come up with a timely song for Alan and Sonny Ochs took up a collection throughout the day. Sonny never seems happier than when she's organizing for some good cause.


Bob Smith (new manager for the Burns Sisters) and Becky McTech (fan from NJ).	Sonny, triumphant during the Alan songwriting, Annie Wenz and David Broida.	Alan with Sonny, immediately after the presentation.

After everyone had dinner (11pm!), Alan was herded to the Bullet Lounge at the rear of the train where everybody had gathered, singing Puff the Magic Dragon and Kumbaya as he came in -- it should have been a dead giveaway but it wasn't. Then the group sang Alan's song and Sonny made a presentation of about $1100. A very emotional event.

Hi, this is Rachel again. In the morning Sarah and Susan led an informal writing workshop. They introduced themselves, and then each told us that they had lied about their backgrounds, Sarah wasn't a frustrated opera singer and Susan hadn't spent time in a Dublin jail. Being the folkies we are we had all swallowed their stories hook line and sinker. So, our assignment was to write a story about ourselves, making it all up. We had five minutes to get started, then we read our pieces aloud. Lots of intriguing ideas came out of it. We were told to write more and come back the next morning.

We stopped in Winnipeg for an hour where there was a tourist trap, but we were happy to see a live singer at one end of the mall. Even though he was playing stuff I didn't care for I had to put a "Tooney" in his case. Twonies are the $2 coins and Loonies are the $1 coins (there's a picture of a Loon on the back).

After the big song and presentation of the collection to Alan, we traveled the many many cars back to the little cafe car they had designated as our "jam" car. The music went on there until 4am, although we got to turn our watches back another hour, so felt justified in staying up longer, fortified by tequila and the fact that we were rolling into Saskatoon. A Joni Mitchell fest ensued, which continued far beyond Saskatoon, for over an hour. Everyone else went to bed, but the die hard Joni fans ended the night with "You Turn me on, I'm a Radio" before calling it a night.

Monday February 12

This is the culminating day of the trip. We are moving from the Plains to the Rockies, stopping long enough in Jasper to hold a memorial service for Al Grierson.

Rachel reports: This morning Il dragged myself out of bed to go to the writing group, having written the rest of her story AFTER the Joni Fest, who knows what time that was. The group's stories were wonderful, each unique and surprising. The favorite had to be Kristina Baumann's "Professional Rubber Ducky Racing" story. For such a young person she has a masterful command of the language, a sense of humor, and a very creative mind. Terry MacNamara's dark piece impressed everyonel, and another discussion about the value of the "dark side" began, which went on for quite a while, different folks having different ideas about censorship, and the responsibility of each of us to stand behind what we present to the world. The meeting broke up and we continued the discussion, realizing they each had a very dark song they didn't play very often, and the wonderful David Broida ran to his berth to fetch his baby Taylor. Ronny Cox, Terry, Jan and I each did our most desperate songs - each of them were about murder.


Ronny Cox earns his living in movies but loves writing and performing folk music	The Canadian Rockies are gorgeous	Ditto.


At Jasper the FT'ers held a memorial service for Al Grierson	Rik Palieri and Annie Wentz led the group.	Several local youngsters were enthralled by the singing and playing.

This evening was the final jam session. The trip was magical in so many respects. Charlie and Alan earned their wings with this one.