# Sunset Limited & Crescent TR



## Lawdude (Apr 18, 2012)

I'm mostly a lurker here, but I did take my first long trip on Amtrak in more than a decade, and I came away mostly impressed.

I was traveling from Los Angeles to Atlanta on the Sunset Limited and the Crescent. I was in coach on the Sunset-- didn't like the sleeper prices-- and in a roomette on the Crescent. I'm totally fine with Amtrak coach travel; have taken a number of long trips in coach over the years.

The Sunset was on time out of LA. I like desert scenery, so I enjoyed the scenery a lot more than most people do. The Salton Sea, the Pecos River bridge, Lake Amistad, and the various small towns and waterways of Southern Louisiana are all interesting to look at. I was aware of the Sunset's reputation for lateness, but the train was on time until we approached San Antonio. Then there was a freight breakdown ahead of us, some bad track that we had to be "walked" over, and after that, we were delayed behind a bunch of freight trains as we lost our priority. Still, we ended up 2 1/2 hours late; it could have been much worse.

I liked MOST of the dining car food. (I've had good experience with Amtrak long distance food in the past. But that was before SDS and the cutbacks.) The steak (dinner #1) was a strip loin and was completely delicious, with a bleu cheese flavored butter on top. Just amazingly good-- probably the best single meal I have ever had on a common carrier of any sort (it was even better than the meals I got on international first class from London to LA on United Airlines several years ago which I purchased as an upgrade with FF miles, and those meals were quite good). The french toast (breakfast #1) was exactly as I remembered it-- i.e., great. My only complaint is that I'm sorry, fake maple syrup sucks. It really does. Spicy macaroni & cheese (lunch #1) was terrible-- it tasted like a Stouffer's product, not fresh at all, and had off flavors as well. On the other hand, one of the people I met on the dining car loved it. Go figure. I ate dinner #2 late, and not much was still available. I decided not to take a chance on the cod (someone else had it and liked it at the table), instead trying the Asian beef. It was OK, but wasn't spicy enough. The beef tasted like stew meat; it wasn't a very high quality cut that they used. Scrambled eggs and grits with a croissant and bacon (breakfast #2)-- well, the eggs were fresh and tasty, the bacon tasted like bacon, and the grits grew on me (the first bite I was a little put off, but as I continued to eat it I came to like the flavor-- they definitely did not taste like authentic southern grits though). But the croissant had off flavors and tasted a bit stale. Finally, the turkey and provolone sandwich and potato chips (lunch #2) was very good-- it tasted like something you might get at Subway, and I don't mean that in a negative way-- I like Subway. I wonder what brand of potato chips Amtrak uses-- they are very good.

My coach seat was-- wait for this-- excellent. I sometimes think that Amtrak coach really gets a bad rap among some of the regular posters on rail message boards. Obviously, you get more privacy in a roomette or bedroom. But you actually have plenty of space in coach, and if you can sleep in business class on an airplane, then you can sleep on Amtrak. Just bring baby wipes and give yourself a sponge bath on a long trip-- you obviously don't get access to the shower in coach. You also can easily see both sides of the train (not true in a roomette) and can always go to the lounge car if you want more space. I actually liked certain aspects of my coach experience better than the roomette-- the coffee in the diner and the lounge was much tastier than the coffee I got on the Crescent sleeper, and Coach is much more social.

I don't mind the overnight layover in New Orleans AT ALL. The only cities in America that I can think of where an overnight layover would be more pleasant would be New York or Las Vegas. I had a lot of fun in the French Quarter.

I arrived at the station at 6:40 for the 7 a.m. departure of the Crescent, so I didn't get a chance to use the Magnolia Room. I'm not big on first class lounges anyway-- I don't use them when I fly either-- so it wasn't a big deal. I just got on the train.

My sleeping car attendant didn't give me the big orientation, which was fine with me. Most of what goes on in a roomette is actually self explanatory. I liked having the toilet in my room, but I suspect that if two people are using a roomette, they won't like it at all, because there's no possible privacy in the setup. Plus, when you have the lower bunk down (I slept much of this trip because of my carousing in New Orleans the night before), there's absolutely no room to maneuver to use the thing.

The roomette was comfortable and was just what the doctor ordered for sleeping-- I slept several hours on the upper bunk with the curtain drawn. I could have also slept in coach, of course, but the roomette was just $102 more with free meals.

On the Crescent, I had the sweet potato pancakes for breakfast, and these were GREAT! I skipped lunch to sleep, and had the flat iron steak for dinner. Unfortunately, this wasn't as good as the steak on the Sunset-- flat irons are chuck steaks and are more finicky, and this one was kind of tough and not tender. Plus, it was cooked rare despite that I wanted it medium rare. And no butter this time. It wasn't terrible, though-- it just didn't live up to the high expectations that were set by that great Sunset steak. Maybe no steak could.

The Crescent used a Heritage diner, and it's very impressive how these cars have held up. You would never guess from how well this thing is maintained that it is a 50 year old railcar.

I also purchased the cheese and cracker plate from the lounge. I remember this being great. Unfortunately, Amtrak has changed its supplier. The old one had laughing cow cheeses, brie cheese, and all sorts of delicious wheat, table water, and other gourmet crackers. The new version is a sampler of boring Wisconsin supermarket style cheeses-- cheddar, colby, and jack-- with 3 crackers. Obviously Amtrak got a lower bid, but it got a vastly inferior product. (They didn't even carry them on the Sunset, which I suppose is just as well.)

I think Amtrak is a great experience. The only thing is, you have to be forgiving of its faults. The Sunset Limited is a lot of fun if you are prepared (I brought 4 books, 2 magazines, and my cell phone which can tether for 4G internet access). But if you don't come prepared, or you need the train to be on time, you are in trouble. It's very hard for a 3 day a week, often late train to serve as reliable transportation for people. Dining car food is obviously expensive if you are in coach, and while most of it is good, a bad meal is possible (like the spicy mac and cheese). Some cars are old and some things are broken. (My reading light didn't work on the Sunset. I read in the lounge car.)

I suspect the real long term challenge for Amtrak, when you get past all the politics and the unrealistic debates about profitability, is that for long distance trains to attract anyone other than the forgiving, the schedules have to be more reliable, the frequency needs to be better, and the trainsets need to be newer with fewer things going out. Indeed, I suspect those things are much more important to the average traveler than the diners and sleepers that railfans love. As is often observed, most of the people on these trains are riding in coach and are riding shorter distances (by far, the most traveled part of the Sunset I was on was LA-Tucson, and the second most traveled part was San Antonio-Houston (despite it being an overnight trip!)). While there are a finite number of railfans and pleasure travelers, I can only imagine how many more coach travelers Amtrak could generate if the service was more reliable.

But as long as we have long distance trains, I will take an occasional ride on them, and this was a great experience for me.


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## thully (Apr 19, 2012)

Nice to hear about your trip - I did the Sunset Limited (as well as the Southwest Chief and City of New Orleans) back a few months ago - all in coach. Sounds like you enjoyed it as much as I did - while I do like having a sleeper (and have done it twice - both on the LSL when I was arriving early-morning and planned to work the same day), most of the time I've gone with coach because it is much less expensive for a solo traveller.

My train was actually early into NOL - not sure I ever heard that the SL was chronically late, at least currently. Good thing for me - I was going to the Sugar Bowl that night, and didn't want to miss the game (I could have flown, but given the SL's decent OTP and the 5 hrs or so between the scheduled arrival and game I figured it was worth the small risk to experience the SL).I also have used my smartphone/laptop/iPad for 3G/4G service a lot on my trips - it is really nice to have, though it does go out from time to time (I even had my phone pick up a Mexican tower on the SL for a short period of time).

I will say that I think the SWC had better scenery than the SL, though the service/atmosphere on the SL was great (except for some noisy periods in coach around Tucson and leaving SAS). I'm definitely looking forward to doing another LD trip - I have a short (barely-qualifying as LD) TOL-WAS trip on the CL scheduled, but I do think I'll likely give the SWC another go (or maybe the CS+EB combo instead) - probably in a sleeper at least one way (banking AGR points for that).


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## MrEd (Apr 19, 2012)

thanks for the report.


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## ColdRain&Snow (Apr 19, 2012)

Thank you for posting your recent experiences out on the rails. I enjoyed reading your trip report. Question -- I will be passing through New Orleans in a few weeks and wondered about the Magnolia Room. I've been to NOL a few times this year and found the MR to be papered over for remodeling. Did you happen to notice whether it was reopened when you were in the station? The seats in NOL are dreadful, so it would be nice to see the lounge back in business.


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## Lawdude (Apr 19, 2012)

ColdRain&Snow said:


> Thank you for posting your recent experiences out on the rails. I enjoyed reading your trip report. Question -- I will be passing through New Orleans in a few weeks and wondered about the Magnolia Room. I've been to NOL a few times this year and found the MR to be papered over for remodeling. Did you happen to notice whether it was reopened when you were in the station? The seats in NOL are dreadful, so it would be nice to see the lounge back in business.


I don't know. I timed my arrival for just before the train was to leave, so when I looked over there, there was nobody there. It certainly had some paper up on the windows, but they still might have been using it. I would recommend calling Union Station in New Orleans and asking-- they would know.


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## Railroad Bill (Apr 26, 2012)

ColdRain&Snow said:


> Thank you for posting your recent experiences out on the rails. I enjoyed reading your trip report. Question -- I will be passing through New Orleans in a few weeks and wondered about the Magnolia Room. I've been to NOL a few times this year and found the MR to be papered over for remodeling. Did you happen to notice whether it was reopened when you were in the station? The seats in NOL are dreadful, so it would be nice to see the lounge back in business.



We left NOL last Friday PM and the Magnolia Room is still being remodeled. The agent did not know when it would be finished. Was rather interesting that the sleeper passengers seemed to congregate in the seats near the lounge while the coach passengers sat closer to the middle of the station??. Also interesting that Amtrak police allowed all of us on sleepers to pass without delay while many coach passengers were stopped and asked for ID. I guess we old retirees riding sleeper didn't look much like terrorists :giggle:


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## ColdRain&Snow (Apr 26, 2012)

Railroad Bill said:


> ColdRain&Snow said:
> 
> 
> > Thank you for posting your recent experiences out on the rails. I enjoyed reading your trip report. Question -- I will be passing through New Orleans in a few weeks and wondered about the Magnolia Room. I've been to NOL a few times this year and found the MR to be papered over for remodeling. Did you happen to notice whether it was reopened when you were in the station? The seats in NOL are dreadful, so it would be nice to see the lounge back in business.
> ...


Thanks for the on-the-ground update. Sounds like summer visitors may be the first beneficiaries of the new and improved Magnolia Room. Too hot for me in the summer, so I usually route myself north during those months. That's interesting about the AmPolice. They always make a full presence at the doors in NOL which is curious; perhaps the revelers sometimes keep the party going right into their outbound departure on Amtrak? I've met some hard core partiers in the Big Easy over the years!


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