John Milton Binckley, June 1859 Travel Diary, Page 18

[John Milton Binckley, June 1859 Travel Diary, page 18. Many thanks to William Myers, Mary Davy, Sally Young and Sue Davis for their ongoing research collaboration; specifically to William for providing scans of the original document, and in turn many thanks to Peter Johnston Binckley and Patricia D'Arcy "Trish" Binckley (1951-2007), at the source. This is my rough transcription. Extra paragraph breaks inserted for easier reading.]

[continued] sleeping cars. I Enter the car, in which extra price is requisite for admission, but find all seats full up. Kiss goodnight to Mother & off to the other cars - they have night backs & are very comfortable. Having paid for a seat & berth in the sleeping car, besides those of Mother's, shall have the money returned I reckon.

Here I look through several cars, each view, a sort of picture framed by the one nearer me. It looks like a symbol of ratiocination.  

I ask. Talk with the conductor. Informs me that at daybreak we shall be at or near Grafton, the Parkersburg Junction.

Night frogs. Can't see, but hear, I pleasantly, notwithstanding that most hellish of clamors (except a gong, the most informal of all contrivances) the rattling to a passenger of a railroad train.

Speaking of a gong, if they had been kept scant and used only at camp meetings, to emphasize and intensify the damnation clauses, the methodist preachers would have converted mankind.

Here I see dimly against the sky, a mountain rising - we have about crossed the valley, and will soon [to be continued.]

[John Milton Binckley (1831-1878).
Mother =  Charlotte Stocker Binckley (1788-1877).
Railroad map closeup from: A Map of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and its Principal Connecting Lines Uniting All Parts of the East & West. Baltimore, Lith. by A. Hoen & Co. [1860]. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C.  Link here.]