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Recent Field Trips: M200 and Barry Lyndon

M200

I schlepped the family out to Sunol to ride the Niles Canyon’s M200 railcar. A railcar is a bus on rails instead of asphalt. The M200 was built in 1926, and was one of the early “skunk trains” named for the aromatic fuel it burned in its original gasoline engine, ferrying lumberjacks to their work sites from up in Willits. Later on it served as a school bus. When the Niles Canyon folks got ahold of it, they swapped in a diesel engine. I got to ride up front, next to the box that houses the diesel engine, taking in the heady aroma. I smiled to see that the rear view was a modern aftermarket backup camera system, and the speedometer looked like an old smart phone showing a GPS-derived speed estimate.

A happy coincidence: I wore my Wente t-shirt on the day we rode the M200. Wente Scout Reservation shares the skunk branding with the nearby railroad.

We rode East from Sunol along the original Transcontinental line from Sacramento to San Francisco, which used to run across the Dunbarton Bridge to connect with the now-Caltrain line up to San Francisco. The tracks had been pulled up long ago, but the volunteers have been laying “new” tracks East toward Pleasanton, which is as far as they own the Right-of-Way. The “new” tracks are old tracks that Caltrain replaced as part of the electrification upgrades. They may not be suitable for California’s future bullet train system but they’re plenty handy for a heritage railway running a motorcar at a top speed of 10 mph. The original line went up to 40 mph, explained our host.

Barry Lyndon

Of even more obscure appeal than a hundred year old railcar is a fifty year old Kubrick film. In July I took the Caltrain up to San Francisco and a Muni bus over to The Roxie. I left the family behind because I’m not a sadist. I had a burrito for dinner at Pacho Villa’s and because I’m an old-fashioned cheapskate who eschews online convenience fees, I had to wait in the standby line because it was a “full show.” After the train ride and the burrito, the standby line just added to the sense of adventure: maybe I wouldn’t get in!? The standby line self-selected down to four folks and we all made it in just fine. I sat mid-way near the aisle, behind a large afro that enforced good posture on my part and next to an autistic fellow who managed to unobtrusively stim during the more emotional scenes. I drank two cans of beer from the concession stand.

The movie was magnificent on the big screen. Worth the trek. A prideful young Irishman finds himself living an adventurous life in the 18th century. He learns to be wiley and shrewd and ultimately marries into Class, where that self-centered wily shrewdness renders him an insufferable Jerk. Rise and Fall. A good story with duels. If you like the musical “Hamilton” you might also enjoy the story of Barry Lyndon.