New York

THE train expert from the New-York Historical Society took a seat in a restaurant that looks like a dining car on a train. It only looks like a dining car. There is no engine at one end and no caboose with an observation platform at the other, but like so many trains - the Twentieth Century Limited, the Rip Van Winkle, the Phoebe Snow or the Southerner, to name only four - this one is approaching the end of the line.

"Trains are like dinosaurs," said Mike Thornton, the historical society's assistant curator for material culture, who turned 39 last month. "No one's ever seen a live dinosaur, but they're still in our imaginations," he added. "But I've been on real trains, unlike most people of my generation."