# Cross-Country Train Trip



## BillyJo (Aug 27, 2010)

We had taken the CL to Chicago back in 2008, and enjoyed it so much that we decided to take a cross country trip this summer. My wife and I were joined by our 12 y.o. daughter, and my 16 y.o. sister-in-law. It was the SIL’s first Amtrak trip. We bought our tickets back in October, and were able to get fairly low buckets for two roomettes on both the Lake Shore Limited and the Zephyr.

The LSL left NYP on August 17, and then after a one-night layover in Chicago, we took the Zephyr to EMY/SF on August 19. We would then spend about 4 days in SF before flying back to JFK on a red-eye. For those of you who have done this trek before, you will probably agree with me when I say that this trip was a truly memorable experience.

I’ll add thoughts and comments on both legs of this trip over the next day or so…


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## guest (Aug 27, 2010)

BillyJo said:


> We had taken the CL to Chicago back in 2008, and enjoyed it so much that we decided to take a cross country trip this summer. My wife and I were joined by our 12 y.o. daughter, and my 16 y.o. sister-in-law. It was the SIL’s first Amtrak trip. We bought our tickets back in October, and were able to get fairly low buckets for two roomettes on both the Lake Shore Limited and the Zephyr.
> 
> The LSL left NYP on August 17, and then after a one-night layover in Chicago, we took the Zephyr to EMY/SF on August 19. We would then spend about 4 days in SF before flying back to JFK on a red-eye. For those of you who have done this trek before, you will probably agree with me when I say that this trip was a truly memorable experience.
> 
> I’ll add thoughts and comments on both legs of this trip over the next day or so…


Glad you survived the red-eye. That is one terrible flight, esp. when on a crowded plane. Have done it several times and look forward to it like having a dental filling.


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## me_little_me (Aug 28, 2010)

guest said:


> BillyJo said:
> 
> 
> > We had taken the CL to Chicago back in 2008, and enjoyed it so much that we decided to take a cross country trip this summer. My wife and I were joined by our 12 y.o. daughter, and my 16 y.o. sister-in-law. It was the SIL's first Amtrak trip. We bought our tickets back in October, and were able to get fairly low buckets for two roomettes on both the Lake Shore Limited and the Zephyr.
> ...


I always arrange to take the plane trip first. Then the vacation always goes uphill from there. In addition, there is no feeling of dread that the horror is waiting for me.


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## BillyJo (Aug 28, 2010)

Yeah, trust me, the red-eye was no fun. On the trip west, we barely noticed the time changes. Three days after arriving back east, I'm still trying to adjust to the time change. I suppose not sleeping at all on the flight bay have something to do with it.


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## BillyJo (Aug 28, 2010)

*Part 1 - New Jersey to Chicago*

We got dropped off at our local NJ Transit station, and then took the NJCL in to Penn. Once we got there, we checked our larger bags, and headed over to the very crowded Club Acela. Fortunately, an Acela and one of the Silvers boarded soon after we got there, so we then had plenty of room to spread out. We headed down to the LSL around 3:20 or so, and were shown to our roomettes by Sharon, our attendant.

I’ve been living in the NY area for about 15 years, but this would be my first trip out of Penn heading north to Albany, so I made sure to grab the room on the left-hand side of the train (the two girls would be more interested in their Nintendo DS and other games…). As expected, the ride north was incredibly beautiful as we emerged from the tunnel in Manhattan and headed towards the Tappan Zee Bridge. The views got even better as we pushed father north, and went near the Catskills and other mountains.

They didn’t have dinner reservations, so it was served on a first come, first served basis. We got in there right before Albany, and this was my first experience in the single level dining car, which I believe was one of the old Heritage models?? Wife got the lamb, I got rainbow trout, SIL got chicken, and the little one got pizza. We didn’t have power in ALB, so that delayed dessert a bit. I took advantage of the delay to look at the new consist of the train – it was quite a bit longer than I was expecting

{If memory serves, working from the back forward, there was the baggage car, followed by the NY consist of 2 sleepers, diner, and 3 coaches, joined by the Boston dinette car, 3 more coaches, the BOS sleeper, and the engines)

We finished dessert as we pulled out of Albany, then retired to our rooms for a little while before heading to the lounge to play some cards. I think we went to bed around 10, but there were some long delays in Utica and Rochester that night. Sleep finally came, and I woke up the next morning around 7 or so, took a shower, then headed for breakfast. Service was once again good. We then spent the rest of the ride back in our rooms as we arrived in Chicago almost exactly on time.

It took a little while to get our bags, but they came soon enough. We then took a cab to our hotel on E. Ohio Street, had a pizza a Gino’s East (yum), then took the L to that afternoon’s battle between the Padres and Cubs.

This was a great leg of the trip. Sharon was helpful, the Viewliner roomettes were better than I expected, and the train was on-time. I was happy to get to experience the old Horizon dining car, with its “star” lighting on the ceiling. The service in the car was excellent. The dinette/lounge car wasn’t quite what I was expecting (I thought it would have kind of a single-level SSL arrangement), but it was fine for its purposes. From the outside, both the diner and the dinette looked very old among the Amfleet-2 and Viewliner cars.

One gripe - they didn't have those route guides in the sleepers or in any of the other cars, as far as I could see. I was quite disappointed, since I had been planning on reading this on the train to learn about some of the sites/towns we would be seeing.


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## hello (Aug 29, 2010)

Thank you, BillyJo, I'll be sure to print out route guides before we board the LSL in the fall!


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## BillyJo (Sep 11, 2010)

*Part 2A: Day in Chicago, then on to Denver*

At any rate, we had a full day in Chicago before we headed out to San Francisco. I managed to get Cubs tickets for below face-value on StubHub a few weeks before we left, so we all went to the game, but only after a trip to Genos East beforehand (wow, was that good). We left our hotel (the Doubletree in E. Ohio) around 10:00 the next morning, and took a cab back to Union Station to check our luggage and leave our carry-ons in the Metropolitan Lounge. We walked to the Chicago Public Library, which is a grand building to walk around in, then made it back to the Metropolitan Lounge by 1:00.

Once again, we had rooms right across from one another on what I suspect was a Superliner II car. Roy was our attendant for the trip. We got settled in to our rooms, and then headed to the sightseer lounge to watch suburban Chicago morph in to corn country. Since they didnt have reservations on the LSL, I was pleased that they were taking reservations for dinner, so we booked the 5:00 seating (IIRC) we didnt have lunch following a big breakfast, so we were quite hungry. Our timing was great, as our dinners were being served right as the train crossed the Mississippi, allowing me to brag to the wife that I got us dinner on the Mississippi River (she wasnt that impressed with my observation…).

There were a couple of smoke stops in Iowa, so this gave us a chance to walk around a bit, but I think we were all in bed by the time we entered Nebraska. I had the top bunk, and noticed that there was a LOT more space on the Viewliner than there was on a Superliner... We woke up early the next morning, and I managed to shower before breakfast, then we ate as we approached Denver. We were done by the time we got to Denver, so we got to walk around the station a bit before heading back on to the train for what would be the highlight of the entire trip.

Ill continue later with more on the Rockies, the Sierras, and all of the other wonderful views.


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## caravanman (Sep 12, 2010)

Hi,

Great report, have enjoyed reading it from the moment you boarded NJ transit. To me, you seem to have a "natural" style of prose which makes for very pleasant reading.

Looking forward to the Rockies section!

Ed


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