Christmas came early for “avid trainspotter” Sir Patrick Stewart this year, with Santa Claus fulfilling P Stew’s one request for his book tour: riding in trains!
“As I wrote my memoir, I so enjoyed remembering the thrill of spotting trains with my brother Trevor and friend Bryan as Yorkshire boys (read and learn all about it in Chapter One of Making It So),” Stewart said in a video on TikTok earlier this month about riding Amtrak’s flagship high-speed passenger service, the Acela Train “from NYC ➡️ PHL ➡️ DC!”
In the TikTok video “Day in the Life: Riding the Train for My Book Tour,” which is set to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” P Stew is seen excitedly awaiting to board the Acela passenger train in New York City, reading a newspaper in business class, and generally charming the Amtrak employees.
“All I wanted for my book tour was to travel by TRAIN,” Stewart wrote in captions over the video image. “I loved looking out at all the towns and landscapes along the way and reading The New York Times.”
He continues to say that it was “a pleasure to meet the Amtrak staff,” adding that he has “loved trains since he was a boy,” even writing about it in his long-awaited autobiography Making It So: A Memoir, out now from Simon & Schuster. Stewart has always been a fan of filming on the Star Trek ships, especially ones with carpet on the bridge, and I feel like I finally get why.
For a few lucky fans, Stewart stopped by a bookstore at an Amtrak station to sign copies of his book. I’m unsure if the station depicted is NYC, PHL, or DC, but his memoir is next to author Robert Greene’s “banned books” about strategy, power, and seduction. For some reason, I find it entertaining that Stewart’s memoir is next to Greene’s books, but maybe that’s just me.
(featured image: Amanda Edwards/Getty Images)
