relativity and railroads

[MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu]

I hesitated to answer Julius R.'s question because he specifically directs it 
at polymaths a-and well, you know, who would be presumptuous enough
 actually to say, "Polymath? Hey, that's me!  Better get right onit." er, well, at least .  .  . 

.But I seem to recall Bertrand Russell's book on Relativity (read alas 
many yrs ago) using examples of parallel trains,
 in contrast to Einstein's single train.  Good book for idiot
 non-scientists like me (is there any other kind of non-scientist?). 
 One thing I recall was the great, Russellian acidity in the observation
 he makes that many people blithely say *everything's relative*
 but of course this is nonsense, sez Bertie, for if it were so,
 what would it be relative TO?

A thought that's kinda like mittelwerk strapped to the long axis
 of Gardner's bike moving parallel
 (but IN OPPOSITE DIRECTION) to a train
 driven by a crazed polymath.

johnny polygrip
************************
JR asks for polymaths

>> 	This is a question for all the polymaths out there on the  P-list:
>> Is there a place where Einstein uses two trains traveling on parallel
>> tracks as a metaphor explaining relativity--

A-and gets one!
>
>Einstein wrote a book on Special Relativity which conducts a thought
>experiment employing a single train, a stationary observer (stationary
>relative to the tracks, that is) and a flashlight. You may be
>recalling this book.
>
>
>Andrew Dinn
>-----------