For now, passenger rail service from Portland to Astoria appears to be back on track.

But for awhile it was on the skids, and I was steamed. I don’t mean to rail about the situation, but elimination of the long-awaited Lewis and Clark Explorer service would have been a train travesty.

I have not yet availed myself of the new service, but I look forward to it based on my experiences with other trains and my feelings about what they can mean for mass transit. I guess I’m a bit train insane, a bit loco about locomotives.

Just before the inauguration of the Lewis and Clark Explorer Train a couple of weeks ago, Amtrak almost blew the whistle. Its officials announced it would not lend support in staffing, insurance or ticket sales because of proposed cuts in state aid for other Amtrak lines, and a ban on establishing new service in light of its own financial struggles.

The project nearly derailed.

But state officials managed to reach an agreement with a private, regional operator, Portland and Western Railroad, to provide the service and insurance. Amtrak officials agreed to handle ticketing and reservations.

Thanks to championing by Rep. Betsy Johnson and others, key people took rolling stock of the situation and came to their senses.

Proponents are mindful of crowds coming to commemorate the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial. They see how the explorer train chugs into history. Of course it does not go back to the more fundamental methods of transit used by the Corps of Discovery, but at least the train taps into a treasured time when automobiles were not so ridiculously pervasive.

The 91-mile excursion from Portland, largely along the Columbia River, allows four hours for passengers to relax and take in the countryside. The activity is reminiscent of Clatsop County’s fabled “Daddy Train” which, until its use dwindled and disappeared in the 1950s, routinely reunited families in Portland and the North Coast.

For yours truly, the magic of traveling by train is a time-honored refrain of the brain. The sound of steel on rail echoes even in the regular “ca-thunk ca-thunk, ca-thunk ca-thunk” of the Astoria Riverfront Trolley, a comforting sound.

Comfort is important to accident-prone people like me. The first time I sampled the trolley, I tried to adjust the wooden seat as the car reversed direction and, in one of those absurd successions of uncoordinated movement I will never quite understand, I accidentally dismantled it. Fortunately I managed to fit it solidly back in place without getting too much black grease on my hands.

Tracking back further, I recall how last summer I took the scenic twilight train service from Portland’s Union Station to Seattle as a relaxing way to avoid the hassles of street traffic. I’ve taken trains in New York, Vermont, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

I’ve also had the good fortune of traveling by train in Europe – an immensely efficient and satisfying way to explore. I embarked on unforgettable rail adventures across parts of England, France, Germany and Italy.

Undoubtedly my affection for travel by rail began in childhood, as it probably does for many. The lonely call of freight trains in the night would make our dog, Smoky, howl.

My brother had an electric model train set with an old fashioned-looking black engine, complete with a little headlight and cow-catcher. Sometimes he let me take the controls.

He got one of those engineers’ hats with the blue and white stripes when our family took a trip to Durango, Colo., and traveled an Old West-style narrow gauge train along cliffs and across trestles to the former mines of Silverton. Instead of a hat I had saved my allowance for a water squirt-gun disguised as a camera, but I was just as enthusiastic about the trip.

Even a bit of cinder in my eye from the engine smoke (did I mention I was accident-prone?) failed to lessen the thrill. And the squirt gun came in handy for rinsing my face.

Understandably then, developments with the passenger rail service to Astoria will continue to hold my interest. On the whole situation, I plan to keep my mind open and my eyes trained.

Considering his crazy enthusiasm for trains, Brad Bolchunos, the south county reporter for The Daily Astorian, hopes his reasons for supporting the local service are not seen as entirely “loco” motives.