Amtrak Patrons Offered Free eBooks, eMagazines

Barnes and Noble and publisher HarperCollins are offering free eBooks and eMagazines to Amtrak customers during Amtrak Trains Days through November.

Amtrak passengers will be able to access the free eBook and eMagazine content by downloading the Free NOOK Reading App on a smartphone or tablet.

Once a selection is made, the customer will be provided an access code, redeemable at http://nookoffers.com/amtrak/.

Customers can also learn more about NOOK’s participation in Amtrak Train Days by liking NOOK on Facebook and following NOOK on Twitter and Instagram.

The offerings will include bestselling eBooks from HarperCollins, in addition to other classics and popular self-published titles from NOOK Press.^®

This will include romance, mystery, thrillers, children’s and business titles. The selections will change  throughout Amtrak Train Days.

The initial offerings will include such titles as Spy Catcher by Matthew Dunn and This Will Change Everything by Jared Diamond, as well as NOOK Press favorites including On a Night Like This by Barbara Freethy and The Wedding Gift by Lucy Kevin.

Available single issue eMagazines will include Cosmopolitan, Vanity Fair, Wired and Seventeen.

Customers can install the Free NOOK Reading App on their Android or iOS device by visiting www.NOOKapp.com.

Amtrak Train Days kicked off at Chicago Union Station on May 9 and will include events being held in various communities nationwide. For more information, visitwww.amtraktraindays.com.

Northeast Ohio Train Day Activities Set for May 9

A full slate of activities, including equipment displays, art displays and model railroad layouts, will highlight the May 9 Northeast Ohio Train Day.

Carrying the theme “a day of celebrating railroads past, present and future,” the activities will be spread over venues in Cleveland, Sebring and Alliance.

The event is part of the Amtrak Train Days national event being celebrated across the country.

At the Cleveland Amtrak Station (200 Cleveland Memorial Shoreway), there will be displays of railroad freight equipment from CSX, Norfolk Southern and the Cleveland Harbor Belt.

Displays inside the station will include Amtrak travel information and timetables along with book authors and other displays of railroadiana.

Also having displays will be All Aboard Ohio, the National Association of Railroad Passengers and the Midwest High Speed Rail Association.

At the former Cleveland Union Terminal, now known as Tower City Center, there will be activities for children, tours of the onetime train station and views from the observation deck ($5).

The Midwest Railway Preservation Society will host a night photo session on Saturday (May 9) at the former Baltimore & Ohio roundhouse at 2800 W. Third St. in Cleveland.

The photo session will be held from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.  Admission is $20 in advance and $25 at the gate.

The Sebring Model Railroad Club, 135 E. Vermont, will have an open house at its layout housed in the former Pennsylvania Railroad station.

Train watching and other activities are planned for the Alliance Amtrak Station at 820 E. Main St.

For additional info contact David Mangold at davemangold@hotmail.com or at atdcleveland@neo.rr.com. A website devoted to Northeast Ohio Train Day has been established at www.neotraindayCleveland.com

To find out about other train day events, visit the Amtrak Trains Days website at: www.amtraktraindays.com

Amtrak Tweaks Plans for National Train Day

Amtrak plans to tweak its annual National Train Day observance by making it a series of events held throughout the year.

Previously, Amtrak conducted a National Train Day on the second Saturday in May, although some communities held their own celebrations a week earlier.

Now Amtrak says it will expand from multiple events on a single day to individual events over the course of spring, summer and fall.

To be called Amtrak Train Days, the events are designed to celebrate with local communities why trains matter and reasons to ride.

Events will focus on reaching current and new audiences across America to reinforce the importance, benefits and value of passenger train travel.

The program will begin on May 9 in Chicago and include more than 20 events through the end of October. Locations and dates have yet to be announced.

Amtrak said events will feature a combination of outreach tools, including the Amtrak Exhibit Train in select markets, interactive displays at events sponsored by community organizations, Amtrak employee guest speakers, media and event promotions, and a toolkit to support local community activities.

Communities from across the nation are invited to join in the celebration of passenger train travel by hosting their own Amtrak Train Days events during 2015.

The National Association of Railroad Passengers commented that although the additional focus on local events will be welcome—and will help organizers better allocate limited resources—it remains to be seen whether a dispersed series of events can generate the same level of excitement as a national event.

Additional information is available online at Amtraktraindays.com.