Transportation: Riding Sweden´s slick rail system: An on-the-scene report reveals how this 11400 kilometer system is kept smoothly running

Ever since I was a kid of twelve, riding the old iron-horse-drawn Twentieth Century Limited (New York Central´s crack train between New York and Chicago), I´ve dreamed of riding up front in the locomotive cab. And the kid in me never grew up; the dream persisted ¿ unfulfilled. So, imagine the thrill of being ushered by my ASEA (the Swedish opposite number of General Electric) host into the cab of an SJ Rc 2 class mainline locomotive, hauling an express train from Stockholm to Uppsala. The driver tooted the typically European high-pitched whistle, and we glided silently ¿ without the jolt one expects in U.S. trains ¿ out of Stockholm´s Central Station. The 67-km-long ride was as different from the Penn Central´s lurch, jerk, stop, stagger, and start as day is from night.