# City of New Orleans - My newbie review



## scutterbear (Jan 23, 2010)

The second leg of the trip was from Chicago to Memphis via the City of New Orleans.

I found that the sleeper car was about the same as the empire Builder. Though on this leg i was upstairs as opposed to downstairs on the empire builder. I think having been in both, I actually like being downstairs better for some reason. A little more private I think.

Our car attendant was a gal by the name of Trachelle, I believe it was. She was fairly new and it showed, but overall I thought she did a good job being a newbie herself. She was great to let me know about the smoke breaks, even the 1:30am one, when I knew that we her time to be off duty. So kudos to her for going above the call of duty on that one. She also made sure that I was awake by 6am so I could make sure I got off the train in memphis, which was a good thing because I was sleeping like a baby.

The food, well..................not so impressed. I ordered the steak dinner, which on the EB was terrific. On the CONO, it failed in comparison. The steak was tiny. Kind of a piece........of a piece........of steak. And it was tough as leather. I also got some green beans that were pretty much raw. So that was a let down.

We were a bit late leaving out of chicago, but the train made up the time and we actually arrived about 30 minutes early in memphis.

The only drawback on that particular trip was that it was at night so I didnt really get to see anything. Going towards chicago, the trip is in the day so if I take that again, I will get the see the scenery I missed.

So overall, it wasn't too bad.

I am kinda hooked on train travel now though. :lol:

I will most definitely recommend it to anyone as it was much better than flying in my book.


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## manchacrr (Jan 23, 2010)

scutterbear said:


> The only drawback on that particular trip was that it was at night so I didnt really get to see anything. Going towards chicago, the trip is in the day so if I take that again, I will get the see the scenery I missed.


Actually, the northbound trip is also at night. The only daylight northbound is the last couple of hours from Champaign/Urbana to Chicago. The only way to see all the scenery in Illinois in the daytime is to take the Illini or Saluki from Chicago to Carbondale. On the CONO all of Tennessee, Kentucky, and southern Illinois is at night both ways.


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## AlanB (Jan 23, 2010)

Thanks for the report Scutterbear! 

I'm going to move this one, along with the other report however over to our special forum for trip reports.


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## Long Train Runnin' (Jan 23, 2010)

I enjoyed the report. I am riding the CONO in July I hope the food improves by then :lol:


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## AAARGH! (Jan 25, 2010)

trainman668 said:


> Actually, the northbound trip is also at night. The only daylight northbound is the last couple of hours from Champaign/Urbana to Chicago. The only way to see all the scenery in Illinois in the daytime is to take the Illini or Saluki from Chicago to Carbondale. On the CONO all of Tennessee, Kentucky, and southern Illinois is at night both ways.


Illinois: Hmmmm....

Corn, soybean, corn, soybean, corn, corn, soybean, soybean, house, road, soybean, corn, soybean, corn, corn, soybean, soybean, Chicago!


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