# First Run on the Texas Eagle - Part 1



## Texan Eagle (Sep 5, 2011)

*Tasting First Blood- Texas Eagle to San Antonio - Part 1 of 2*

*Dallas to San Antonio*

_Date: Sat Sept 03, 2011._

_Train: 21 Texas Eagle. Coach class._

It was my long cherished dream to ride a long distance Amtrak train and since this was the day it would be fulfilled, I was excited. More so because I decided to leave my car back home and do the trip by public transport all the way. Left home quite early, at 9.30am to catch a bus operated by Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) that connects to Parker Road station on DART's Red Line, from where I could get a direct train to Dallas Union Station. I reached the station by 11.15am in time for Texas Eagle's scheduled arrival time of 11.30am. I had checked the train status online before leaving home and it was running some two hours behind schedule so I was mentally prepared for a long wait. The Amtrak counter at the station had a board that stated "21/421 scheduled to arrive 1pm or later". This being quite ambiguous I asked the lady at the counter if she knew more specifics about the delay and in reply I was met by the often-talked-about Amtrak staff rudeness. She just said "I am not onboard the train to know more details" and went away. This is 2011, not 1930s. Being onboard isn't the best way to know a train status, I wanted to tell her but she was long gone from the counter.

Having more than two hours to kill I took a DART train (I had a Day Pass valid for unlimited rides) to downtown, had lunch and took a train back to Union Station by 1.00pm. By now impatient passengers had moved out to the platforms but no signs of Texas Eagle. Around 1.40pm a Union Pacific freight train passed by non-stop so I thought no chance of Texas Eagle showing up for another fifteen minutes or so, but in ten minutes without any warning the seven car long train consisting of double decker Superliners hauled by a single Amtrak P42 diesel locomotive pulled into platform 5. A staff member checked my ticket and asked me to proceed to a coach car and grab any vacant seat. When I boarded half the car was empty and I took my own time to select a good window seat. One thing I noticed is, different rows of seats have varying legroom, for example the seat I took up had tremendous legroom and my legs could barely reach the footrest, but the row just behind had so less legroom that I would have to bend my legs at the knees to put them on footrests. I have no idea what is the reason for this! Although the car was old, one good thing was that during rebuilding they have added standard 120V plug points for all coach seats. Departure from Dallas was quite interesting. The train was backed out on the track it was occupying and after moving for almost a mile in reverse, we were switched on to adjacent track, passed the Union Station once again without stopping and took a sharp left turn to cross the Trinity river and head towards Fort Worth. It is a double track section and I was surprised for a moment to see us travelling on the left side track, but the reason for this was revealed the next day. Just outside Fort Worth is a diamond crossing where double track Union Pacific mainline crosses double track BNSF mainline at grade. Coming from Dallas, the Fort Worth Amtrak station is on the right side but we took a left turn on to the BNSF line, went a little ahead, and then backed in all the way across the diamond into the station! This was quite an interesting type of reversal to see.

Immediately after our arrival, the other Texas Eagle- heading northbound to Chicago, also pulled into Frt Worth and both stood on either sides of the same platform. I had alighted and was on the platform when the northbound Eagle was arriving and I started walking towards the end of the platform to photograph the engines of both Eagles crossing each other but I was stopped by an Amtrak employee to go any further once I reached around the first car of our train. The P42 of the northbound Eagle had some problems, so it was removed and another P42 attached to it. While this entire exercise was going on, it was blocking fuel line to our train so we had to wait until they were done for our refueling. Finally after a 1 hour 15 minute halt we departed Fort Worth but right then Union Pacific decided to dispatch a freight, making us wait before the diamond crossing. Once on the move, I grabbed my camera, time table and GPS and headed to the Sightseer Lounge Car. With its large double windows it gives a panoramic view of the surrounding scenery but I was not much impressed with the seating arrangement. The single seats, I found, are a bit too far from the window and the glasses reflect too much interior to be able to take any good photos. By now the Dining Car attendant had come to take dinner reservations and was offering 5.30pm or 6pm slots. I asked him if there are any later slots since this is too early for my usual dinner time but he refused so I booked a 6pm slot.

I was under the impression that since the tracks are owned by freight companies they must be giving priority to their freights over Amtrak trains resulting in regular delays, but BNSF proved me wrong as we made our way past no more than eight freights in a couple of hours without stopping even once to let a freight cross us on the single track section. Very nice hosts indeed! The first stop was at Cleburne which was very brief, less than a minute. I had my car GPS with me and had it turned on throughout the journey to track the route and the speed of the train and we mostly stayed around 60 mph, speeding up to 79 mph a few times. The next stop, McGregor was again a brief one. Here one of the young guys sitting in the Lounge Car was getting off and he said was going to propose his girlfriend who was coming to pick him at the station. True to his word, he did it right at the platform and the moment was captured by a couple of passengers on their cameras, although I missed it being on the other side of the car. By now it was 6.25pm, way beyond the 6pm slot I had reserved for dinner. I walked to the Dining Car where I was stopped by the attendant and he joked that I would have to pay double because I was late. People were still having their dinner at all but one tables in the Dining Car. He led me to that empty table where I was seated all by myself. I ordered the Vegetarian Lasagna which tasted good, nothing extraordinary, nothing to complain about, and it was accompanied by a small dish of salad which seemed fresh. By waiting in the Sightseer car a bit too long, I missed out on the opportunity of socializing at dinner since I ended up having dinner alone. On my way back I asked the attendant if he would be working on the train next day morning too, since I was going to be on the return trip as well, and he made some joke about banning me from entering the Dining Car and putting up my photo that said I was a terrorist. Now, he may be joking all along but I don't think that's the kind of jokes I would appreciate.

While I was having dinner we stopped at Temple which is a desginated smoke-stop meaning the train would halt longer than usual and passengers are allowed to deboard the train to stretch out and/or smoke. After Temple, we diverted from BNSF to Union Pacific hosted tracks and the rot in performance started rightaway. All the way from Temple to Taylor, we had to crawl at around 40-45 mph. I am not sure if this was due to freight congestion or bad quality of tracks, but its bad either ways. We pulled into Taylor after sunset and just as we were ready to depart, a freight was dispatched ahead of us. This host railroad should be rather called Union Pathetic. The speeds on this section were good, in the range of 70-75 mph but within half hour, we were again sidelined by Union Pathetic to let a freight pass. We finally reached Austin, the next smoke-stop around 8.45pm, more than two hours behind schedule. The run from Austin to San Marcos was uneventful and since it was dark outside I just spent time watching a couple of sitcoms on my laptop. After San Marcos I was curious to see what happens, since the time table assigns 2 hours 43 minutes for a 52 mile distance! Either the track and traffic would be extremely bad or there is too much slack time incorporated to reduce the delay seen in arrival at San Antonio. It turned out to be both. The last few miles out of San Antonio are quite a pain with dozens of grade crossings requiring constant honking and slow track speeds, resulting in us taking 1 hour 43 minutes to cover the 52 miles, arriving in San Antonio at 11.17pm, 1 hour 22 minutes behind schedule. The Sunset Limited from Los Angeles scheduled to arrive over an hour back had not arrived yet, so ours was the only train at the station when I deboarded, ending my first long distance Amtrak journey.

_The return journey from San Antonio to Dallas will be covered in Part 2._


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## Bob Dylan (Sep 5, 2011)

:hi: Pretty typical Eagle trip lately, especially the UP Freight delays! And one of our members, saxman, volunteers at the Dallas Station, I can assure you he's a friendly, helpful person!

(not bad for an Airline Pilot! :lol: ) The LSA "humor" makes me think you had George, at least you missed out on the infamous Drama Queen Miss Polly! :help: As to the dinner times, since the Food Service Crew gets off in San Antonio and turns in the morning on #22, they are always in a hurry to get to the Hotel since they have to be back so early the next morning! They used to get off in Austin, so supper had only one serving time, 5:00PM!

The padding in the schedule between AUS and SAS usually helps the Eagle make-up time but with the increasing UP Freight traffic, and the Looooooooong winding road around San Antonio, the OTP hasnt been too great lately!

As to the infamous Tower 55 in FTW, once the TRE lets Amtrak use their route through Irving to Dallas, the time wasted backing etc, should improve the OTP of the Eagles!

Hope your trip back is smoother and the crew friendlier, look forward to the Trip Report!


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## tonys96 (Sep 7, 2011)

Still haven't heard a lot about the TRE and Amtrak getting things together. Kinda on the back burner, s it seems. They (TRE) have finished most of the overhaed tracks through Irving now, and there is still a small amount of freight traffic on the old Rock Island track, so not sure when the TRE and Amtrak will make it work.

Some of the delay between DAL and FTW is in Grand Prairie, where a toll road (SH 161- President George Bush tollway) extention is being built. The deal TxDot has with UP is that the ENTIRE extention from Irving to I-20 has to be open and traffic running before opening at grade crossings on the service roads, AND the settlement of a lawsuit on this road requires the hiway to go UNDER the UP tracks, instead of over....so the construction of an underpass below existing tracks is slowing down both freight and pax traffic. They are having to move sections of both tracks to the north, and move a spur, then move them all back after constructing half of the tunnel....TxDot anticipates completion in 12/2012

To Texan Eagle: Look forward to the rest of your story! Missed you on the Flyer this weekend, hope you had a great trip on the Eagle. Curious as to what you did during the layover........

We take the Eagle from FTW to SAS every six months or so, to go see a concert at a great blues venue down in SA called Sam's Burger Joint.

Just FYI....I also take the Eagle eastbound to LVW a bit, to visit my birth-mother there, it is a good trip also, but during simmer months it runs WAY late....WAY late.....and this summer has been particularly odd, with several re-routings. But it was nice to see other parts of Texas than Terrell, Minneola, etc.


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## Texan Eagle (Sep 8, 2011)

*First Run on the Texas Eagle - Part 2 of 2*

 

*San Antonio to Dallas*

_Date: Sun Sept 04, 2011._

_Train: 422 Texas Eagle. Coach class._

Few days before the trip I had asked opinions from AU members about overnight options at San Antonio between the arrival of 21 and departure of 22 and accordingly I decided to head to the Riverwalk after alighting at San Antonio Amtrak Station around 11.15pm. I first thought of spending some time at the station to check out the trains etc but then thought it'd be better to start walking towards downtown while there is company in the form of other passengers from Texas Eagle, so did the short walk on Commerce past Marriott and reached the Riverwalk and walked about a bit, but then realized I was sticking out like a sore thumb due to my avatar- being in travel clothes and carrying a backpack isn't exactly Saturday night attire for Riverwalk! This got me a bit self-conscious and to add to it at three of four different locations, apparently homeless guys approached me and one asked if I had something to smoke, one asked if I was alone in town etc, so not feeling exactly comfortable I walked back on Commerce to the Denny's which was overflowing with people even at close to 1am. Ordered some snacks and spent an hour or so munching and talking to my girlfriend on phone and decided to head back to the station. By now the late-running Sunset Limited had arrived, its two cars that make up "Train 422" switched and put on a platform line, and the remaining train powered off, since that night Sunset Limited was being terminated in SAS due to hurricane warning in New Orleans. A couple of on-board staff members were talking by the platform so I went to them and told I have a ticket on #422 (not #22) so would they let me board and sleep in my coach seat? They refused, and one of them said they can't let me in because "there are no vacant seats in coach". I found this hard to believe- if I have a reserved ticket on #422 how come there is no seat for me onboard? Anyways after realising any more arguing with them is fruitless I walked into the small SAS station building where a dozen-odd other passengers were also waiting for boarding the morning train. The station has cushioned seats in long rows without armrests in between so I could use my backpack as a pillow and lie down flat for a not-so-comfortable attempt to sleep. The TV screen playing a movie on loud volume didn't help matters but I did manage to get two or three hours of sleep and woke up by the commotion of passengers arriving to check-in their bags around 5.30am for a 7am departure of the Texas Eagle. Woke up, freshened up at the washroom at station building and took a walk around the station, took a few photos and came back to the platform to be greeted by that same Dining Car attendant from previous day and he still continued his apparent "joke" stating he will ban me from entering the Diner today morning. This was not even funny anymore and I just ignored him and waited for boarding to begin. 



At around 6.30am, the conductor announced coach boarding and after checking my ticket one of the staff members directed me to the second coach behind the Sightseer Lounge, which I remembered from previous run, was actually a part of train #22, although I had booked my ticket on #422. So those attendants saying there was no room on the coach of #422 might be true! We departed exactly at 7.00am and once again the departure from San Antonio is quite amusing- the train is backed out for almost two miles and after reaching a junction with some other tracks, it is switched over and continues its journey forward. I don't know is this is a daily phenomenon. Also, realised from my GPS and from the scenes outside that we were taking a different route out of SAS than the one we took yesterday night into the city. The first call for breakfast was announced right after departure and this time I did not want to lose out on socializing so went straight to the Diner right away. I was seated with three other people- an 18 year old guy going to San Marcos to meet his girlfriend, a 67 year old lady heading to Oklahoma City and a 62 year old Japanese man who could not speak English. I ordered Vegetable and cheese omelet that came with orange juice, grits, cinnamon raisin bread, and coffee. I found the omelet rather bland, maybe because I am used to "spicing up" my omelets at home with peppers and salt, and the remaining breakfast was just okay. Midway through the breakfast the Japanese gentleman took out a small booklet which had his itinerary written in Japanese and English and showed it to me. Turns out he was travelling from Los Angeles to Chicago on Texas Eagle, then taking Lake Shore Limited to Boston, Northeast Regional to New York, Adriondack to Montreal and from there flying to Los angeles and onwards to Tokyo! He also showed his older itineraries- he had done California Zephyr end to end in 2008 and Southwest Chief end to end in 2009 and this was his third visit to USA to ride trains! He managed to speak one sentence in English where he said something like "I love trains, so I come". I was simply amazed by his passion- travelling in an alien country without being able to speak the language to ride its trains is marvelous! 



The run was quite ordinary but extraordinary in Amtrak terms because we were reaching and departing from every station on-time or at the worst only 10 or 15 minutes late! I got off for a while at Austin during the smoke-break and also at Temple and took a few photos but apart from that I just spent time lazing at my window seat or in the Sightseer Lounge and kept seeing in pleasant surprise how we were departing from every station on time! We reached Fort Worth around 1.55pm and surprise! surprise! the southbound Texas Eagle was already at the station! How did this happen?! For it to be in FTW before 1.50pm, it would have departed Dallas no later than 12.30pm- quite a rare event considering how bad its OTP has been off late. We departed from FTW around 2.10pm and I took out my DART schedules to check what time I can get a Red Line train from DAL that would connect to the bus at Parker Road station to take me home and realised I need to take the 3.29pm train, else wait for an hour and take the 4.29pm train. We completed the rather inconvenient back out from FTW and started the run towards DAL by 2.20pm and my one eye was firmly on my watch and the other on my GPS to see how fast we are going and how far have we reached! The start was rather slow so I gave up hope, more so after UP made us wait for a freight, then made us switch tracks wasting even more time, but then we gained speed to 59 mph and continued for some time so I got a bit optimistic of making it there before 3.29pm, then we slowed again and I gave up hope, but then again we got a clear line and we were crossing the Trinity river bridge by 3.20pm. I packed up my stuff and walked down to the exit and told the attendant I have a quick connection to make and requested if I could stand right by the door. She refused and asked me to stand near the lower level coach seats. We slowly pulled into Platform 5 at Dallas at 3.23pm, I immediately got off, crossed the tracks to Platform 3, purchased a ticket from the kiosk, crossed to Platform 1 and within two minutes the Red Line DART train pulled in! I just grabbed a seat and took a nap all the way to the last stop- Parker Road! Quite a dramatic end to my first long distance Amtrak trip!



= = = 



If you reached all the way down here, thanks for your patience! I will be uploading the photos on Flickr soon and will provide the link.


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## had8ley (Sep 8, 2011)

Great report...gives us a better insight into what Jim Hudson has been experiencing. His Taylor trips can turn into nightmares quicly! :help:


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## Texan Eagle (Sep 8, 2011)

jimhudson said:


> The LSA "humor" makes me think you had George, at least you missed out on the infamous Drama Queen Miss Polly! :help:


He introduced himself as "Tony" so I am not sure if it was the same guy you are talking about, but he was rather annoying, especially continuing his "joke" over and over everytime he saw me in the two journeys.




Should I write to Amtrak about his comments, will it result in anything positive?



> The padding in the schedule between AUS and SAS usually helps the Eagle make-up time but with the increasing UP Freight traffic, and the Looooooooong winding road around San Antonio, the OTP hasnt been too great lately!


Ohh yeah, that route around San Antonio is quite something! Does the Eagle always follow this same route- approaching from the north, taking a big eastward turn around the city and entering the station from the south?


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## Texan Eagle (Sep 8, 2011)

tonys96 said:


> Some of the delay between DAL and FTW is in Grand Prairie, where a toll road (SH 161- President George Bush tollway) extention is being built. The deal TxDot has with UP is that the ENTIRE extention from Irving to I-20 has to be open and traffic running before opening at grade crossings on the service roads, AND the settlement of a lawsuit on this road requires the hiway to go UNDER the UP tracks, instead of over....so the construction of an underpass below existing tracks is slowing down both freight and pax traffic. They are having to move sections of both tracks to the north, and move a spur, then move them all back after constructing half of the tunnel....TxDot anticipates completion in 12/2012


Thanks for this info. I didn't know this so missed out on watching out for any such construction. Now that I know it, I think a DAL-FTW trip needs to be made for curiosity.. need just an excuse to ride trains, don't we?







> To Texan Eagle: Look forward to the rest of your story! Missed you on the Flyer this weekend, hope you had a great trip on the Eagle. Curious as to what you did during the layover........


I am glad you remembered me talking about taking the Flyer. Who knows, we might find each other taking that train, or some other, sometime soon





I have posted the "story" of my layover and return journey in *Part 2 *in this thread now. I hope you read it without dozing off due to boredom!


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## Jean (Sep 9, 2011)

Thanks for taking the time to recount your trip. We (in Australia) now have direct flights Sydney - Dallas, so Amtrak routes in that part of the US are of interest to some Australians. I agree that dinner companions add to the interest of a trip, pity the Japanese gentleman spoke little English, you could have recommended AU to him. How did you find out his age?

Jean


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## Steve4031 (Sep 10, 2011)

Call customer service and report him. And write a letter. You won't get compensation. But they do track complaints against emplyees and crews.

I would have politely told jim that his comments are not appreciated.


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## Bob Dylan (Sep 10, 2011)

Steve4031 said:


> Call customer service and report him. And write a letter. You won't get compensation. But they do track complaints against emplyees and crews.
> 
> I would have politely told jim that his comments are not appreciated.


:hi: Hey, I wasnt working the CCC that trip, I'm innocent!  Actually "Tony" isnt all that funny, you should have told him you didnt appreciate the remarks! Do let Amtrak know, these people need retraining or another profession!!! Jim

And at least you didnt have Miss Polly as your waitperson!


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## OlympianHiawatha (Sep 10, 2011)

Is "Miss Polly" an older woman who has been with Amtrak for about 30 years? If so, I remember her from a couple years back, and while she is a bit slow, she does get the food out and when I asked her about past trains she worked on, she became very chatty and friendly. I do not remember her fussing with staff, but then at that time the LSA was a guy.


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## Bob Dylan (Sep 10, 2011)

OlympianHiawatha said:


> Is "Miss Polly" an older woman who has been with Amtrak for about 30 years? If so, I remember her from a couple years back, and while she is a bit slow, she does get the food out and when I asked her about past trains she worked on, she became very chatty and friendly. I do not remember her fussing with staff, but then at that time the LSA was a guy.


Miss Polly has had problems with several of our members when they rode the Eagles. She seems to resent other Females, especially when they are the LSA! I have ridden with her probably 50 times and you never know when youll get a "Drama Queen" performance, or just a regular waitperson that does a competent job and is occasionally even friendly! She has been reported numerous times, dont know her current status,I havent seen her the last few times I rode the Eagle! Im riding the Eagle the first week of Oct. on the way to the Gathering, Ill check with my friends that work that Route and see what the latest is on her?


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## Steve4031 (Sep 10, 2011)

I'm riding the Eagle in October from St. Louis to Chicago in October in the sleeper. Let me assure you, the drama queen does not want to see me. If she starts off the wrong way, I will definitely not back down. I will let her know that I will write another letter.


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