by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow
As appearing in the Daily Sentinel

Who decided that the sound of a train whistle should be described as “lonesome?” I’ve been on a number of trains and in several stations, and there are plenty of people around. Yet the word “lonesome” has long been associated with train whistles.

Maybe it was because Jimmie Rodgers recorded “Waitin’ for a Train” and “I’m Lonely and Blue” on the same day in 1928. Hank Williams sang “I Heard That Lonesome Whistle Blow” on the Grand Ole Opry in 1951, and four years later Johnny Cash “let that lonesome whistle blow my blues away.” The same words were used by artists from Ricky Nelson to Bobby Darin, and when Dee Brown published his epic story of the trans-continental railroad, it was titled “Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow.” Today, “Lonesome Whistle” is the name of a farm in Oregon, a beer in Maine, and dozens of other businesses across America.

Despite such widespread nostalgia, it is remarkable how quickly Americans abandoned trains as a primary means of transportation as soon as there were other choices, especially cars and planes. Passenger trains dominated interstate travel from the Civil War through World War II, but despite free land and millions in subsidies, by the mid-1930s they were almost all unprofitable. By the late 1950s most passenger service in America was abandoned. Technology had consigned passenger trains to history, like covered wagons and steamboats. But politicians have been trying to save passenger trains ever since.