He knew the entire train schedule for every train coming and going out of Prague's Franz Josef I railway station. When he wasn't composing or at a concert, he was out trainspotting. He loved to go and talk with the engineers, study timetables and learn the function of every component on the locomotive. He compared the putting together of all the components to make a locomotive like a symphony. He once said that he would give up all his symphonies for inventing the locomotive.
When he visited New York's Grand Central Station, he was disappointed to find that he could not watch the trains come and go, but his ocean voyage sparked additional interest in shipping as well.
He loved trains right up until the end. In his sixties, while working on his opera Armida, and in some pain, he still managed to go down the train station, where "he caught a chill and never recovered". That was in 1904.
His love of trains did influence his music. He is said to have composed the opening movement of his 7th symphony while waiting for a festival train in Prague.
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