# Trip Report - Amtrak Coast to Coast & Back Sept/Oct 2012



## Gemuser (Oct 6, 2013)

Trip Report - Amtrak Coast to Coast & Back

Part 1 San Francisco to Chicago, via Seattle

Arrival into San Francisco

In September & October 2012 my mate Rod and I did a seven week trip across the USA from San Francisco to San Francisco, about 4 weeks of it was on Amtrak. This is a report of that trip.
We left Sydney at 14:45 on Sunday 2 September 2012 on United Airlines flight UA870, arriving San Francisco at 11:32 am, the same day, about 30 minutes late. After taking an hour to
clear Immigration & Customs We picked up our luggage which was waiting for us.

Our exploration of the American rail system started immediately as we boarded BART for the Embarcadero station, where we transferred to Muni's F line to Fishermans Wharf, where
our hotel was. Mistake number one! We did not know that this was Labour Day weekend and the F Line and FW in general was packed with people, which made traveling with luggage an interesting task. After three days in San Francisco, riding all 3 cable car lines, a couple of Muni lines, some ferries and a visit to Amtrak’s Ferry Building Station to exchange our “Amtrak Exchange Voucher” for actual tickets it was time to move on and our first Amtrak train.

The Coast Starlight San Francisco to Seattle

At 9:10 pm on Wednesday 5/9/12 we caught Thruway Bus service 5014 to the Ferry Building and then Emeryville, arriving about 9:50 pm to board Train 14 – The Coast Starlight on
which we had reservations for Roomette 002 in Car 1432. At Emeryville we were informed that the CS was running about half an hour late. Emeryville is ok as a station but there not much to occupy you after 10:00 pm at night so we were happy to see the train about 10:35. It was our first sight of Amtrak’s Genesis Locos, very, very impressive as they are about twice as powerful as and much taller than any passenger locos we see in Sydney.

We quickly found our car and presented our tickets to the CSA at the door, were directed to the baggage racks and our roomette quickly and efficiently. Up the stairs, turn right and we
are the first roomette on the right. We settled in to our roomette and stowed our carry on and the train got underway at 10:45 pm, about 38 minutes late. Very shortly after we left our
CSA was back and briefed us on the roomette, car facilities and the dining car & PPC and made arrangement to come and set the bunks up. He was very friendly, efficient & nothing was too much trouble. Rod remarked that if all CSA were as good at their jobs as he was we were in for a very good trip. As it turned out, they were all very good, although he & the one on the LSL later in the month were the stand outs.

In due course the bunks were made up and we settled in for sleep. I was woken sometime later by the train motion, looked out the window to see us glide out of Sacramento Station, at
1:23 am on 6/9/12, an hour & twenty four minutes late! So back to sleep. We woke up about 6:00 am and looked out the window to see the magnificent bulk of Mt Shasta looming over the train. We watched the mountain for almost half an hour as the train twisted and turned along the track. We arrived into Klamath Falls about 8:45 am (20 min late) as we had breakfast in the PPC. For the rest of the day we ran down the mountains from Klamath Falls, along valleys alongside lakes/rivers or half way up the valley sides. A very pleasant day’s trip was had by all.

We arrived Portland Union Station about 15 min late at 3:55pm, where the cars were watered and engines refuelled/watered with despatch and we left Portland on time at 4:20 pm. We
were 6 mins late at Vancouver WA, 9 mins late at Kelso-Longview, 13 mins late at Centralia, 14 mins late at Tacoma, so we expected to be 15/20 mins late into Seattle. We were
surprised to be in Seattle’s King Street Station at 8:06 pm, 39 mins early! So we made up 53 mins in the 62 km between Tacoma & Seattle! That is some schedule padding! Fortunately
the friends we were visiting in Seattle were already at King St.

The Empire Builder Seattle to East Glacier

After 2 days in Seattle with our friends we left King Street on Train 8 The Empire Builder on time at 4:40 pm in Roomette 002, Car 0831. Another great CSA got us settled in and
explaine about dinner reservations. The first part of the trip north from King Street includes street running along the harbour front, then twisting along the Sound, across the bridge over
the Locks at Ballard and so up the shoreline north, sometimes as little as 1 m from the water. You definitely want to be on the left side of the train for this part.
We reached Everett on time and the sight of the very large US Navy CVN docked at the pier right outside the window was impressive! [What CVN is based in Everett? I didn’t get the name]. From Everett the line turns east and within a few kilometres starts to climb into the Cascade Mountains. The climb up the west side of Stevens Pass was very scenic and a joy to
follow. Unfortunately it was just about dark and we couldn’t see much after we emerged from the Stevens Pass tunnel except for a very large bush/forest fire somewhere around
Wenatchee. We left there at 8:55 pm running 13 minutes late. After about an hour of running thru darkness we got the bunks made up and went to sleep.

Next morning I wake to bright sun shine and the CSA tells me we are a few minutes from Whitefish MT. I slept thru all the switching in Spokane! I can’t complain about the comfort of
the Superliner roomette. We arrived into Whitefish at 7:10 am, sixteen minutes early. Our Whitefish stop is extended by 16 minutes to allow the timetable catch up with us, so we are out
of there at 7:46 am, on the dot. We now climb the west side of Marias Pass to the continental divide. The country side is more open than Stevens Pass with the mountains further away the train, still spectacular country side however. We make a flag stop at Essex, for the Izaak Walton Inn and I snap some of the rolling stock. After Essex we gather our day bags and bits and pieces and prepare to de-train at East Glacier, which we reach at 10:09, 15:00 minutes down.

The Empire Builder East Glacier to Chicago

On 9/9/13 after two days in the park we re-join number 8 at East Glacier and depart on time at 9:54 am in Roomette 3/ Car0830. We now spend the next 7:15 running down the east
side of the Rockies and across the Great Plains to Wolf Point, the last station in daylight, which we left 5:09 pm some 36 minutes down. It’s easy to see why Montana uses the slogan
“Big Sky Country”. I reminded me of the more eastern part of the western slopes of my home state of New South Wales, Montana had more water however. Arrival in Minot was at 10:00 pm and departure at 10:18 pm, still 36 minutes down. At this point, after a hard day doing nothing except staring out the window we went to bed. I woke up the next day (12/9) to see St Cloud MN outside the window which we left at 6:17 am, 1:03 down. Still tired from the day before I rolled over and next thing I know I’m getting shaken by Rod and told to get my ass into gear if I wanted breakfast, it was after 9:00 am! I had completely slept thru the 45 minute stop in St Paul!

Breakfast completed we slid thru Winona MN at 10:35, only 24 minutes down. This mornings travel alongside the upper reaches of the Mississippi River was very scenic and interesting. We left La Crosse WI at 11:22 am 35 minutes down and went for our last meal in the EBs dining car. Leaving Milwaukee at 2:38, half an hour late we arrived at Chicago Union Station at 4:37, 42 minutes late. 42 minutes late on a 44:40 trip [sEA-CHI] that’s not too bad at all.

After arrival in Chicago we were doing other things [ including a weeks tour of Colorado's narrow gauge & historic rail lines] and would not set foot on Amtrak again for 10 days until 23/9 when we catch the LSL to NYP. That story I’ll pick up again in Part 2 of this report.

Thanks for reading


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## hello (Oct 6, 2013)

Thank you Gemuser, I enjoyed reading your report ... looking forward to part 2.


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## the_traveler (Oct 6, 2013)

Good report so far!

I enjoy reading how others view Amtrak and the US. I hope to get to your great country some time soon!


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## Bob Dylan (Oct 6, 2013)

:hi: Great Trip and Trip Report! Looking forward to Part Ii and hopefully ya'll enjoyed Touring the US as much as I did Australia! I'd like to go Back, its been 30 years!!! (Wish they had Trains to Australia but that Pacific Tunnel would be some Feat of Engineering eh!!!??  )


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## Barciur (Oct 9, 2013)

Great post! Can't wait for the second part of your report!


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## WhoozOn1st (Oct 10, 2013)

Fine report thus far. The CVN at Everett was likely the Nimitz (CVN-68).

http://www.public.navy.mil/surfor/ccsg11/Pages/NavyAnnouncesEverettasNimitzNewHomeport.aspx

It was designed and built for the specific purpose of keeping you Aussies in check, so watch it!

EDIT: A note on the Nimitz website says, "Site updates are limited due to the government shutdown."


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## Gemuser (Oct 12, 2013)

My thanks to hello, the_traveler, jimhudson and Barciur for your kind words. We really enjoyed our time in the USA and I am please to be able to share it with you.



WhoozOn1st said:


> Fine report thus far. The CVN at Everett was likely the Nimitz (CVN-68).
> 
> http://www.public.navy.mil/surfor/ccsg11/Pages/NavyAnnouncesEverettasNimitzNewHomeport.aspx
> 
> It was designed and built for the specific purpose of keeping you Aussies in check, so watch it!


Wouldn't be hard to do! Just sail it up Sydney Harbour and you would instantly bring the city to a standstill. Sydneysiders LOVE a BIG BOAT and have done so since the founding of the city in 1788.

Now on with Part 2

Part 2 Chicago – New York Penn – Washington DC – New Orleans

The Lake Shore Limited Chicago- New York

On Sunday 23/9 we left Denver International Airport at 12:40 and arrived at Chicago O’Hare at about 4:00 pm and caught the Blue line to Clinton station and walked the two blocks to Chicago Union Station, arriving about 5:30 pm. Not bad going to de-board, collect luggage and walk to the Blue Line, travel to Clinton and then walk to CUS. The fact that it was a Sunday afternoon probably helped.
What follows is from memory as I have mislaid the detailed notes I took on the LSL so please excuse any minor inaccuracies
After a bit of searching we found the Metropolitan Lounge, checked our baggage in to their holding room and then sat and had a cup of coffee. After a while we went out into the station and found dinner, walked around a bit and returned to the lounge. Sometime between 8:00 & 8:30 pm we were escorted to the train and shown to Bedroom B in Car 4812, our first Viewliner!
A word about luggage in Viewliner sleepers, DON”T! I found all the advice about this on Amtrak’s web site confusing and assumed that with a bedroom we would be Ok. Not so. We each had a fair size suit case as we were away from home for 7 weeks. We managed to fit the smaller in the bedroom but the large was blocking everything in the bedroom. Our great CSA came to our rescue and put the bigger one in a hidey hole somewhere, much to our relief. In short, if it can’t be carried on to an airliner [in accordance with the rules] check it on a Viewliner. As we had two more Viewliner long distance trip that prove to be good advice.
Having dealt with the luggage we walked to the diner for the wine & cheese tasting. This was quite good and ALL the wines and cheeses, being American [North & South] were unfamiliar to us, so the experience was very pleasurable. During the tasting we left CUS, more or less on the scheduled time of 9:30pm. We wandered about out of Chicago, no idea where we were, just sat back and let the guys/girls up front worry about it. About 10:30 or we said good bye to our table companions and headed back to our sleeper.
The plan had been to wake about 6:30 am or so, my normal wake up time so we could see some of eastern Ohio & the western tip of Pennsylvania. Yeh, well that was the plan, neither of us woke before 8:00 am and we were well east of Erie PA, so breakfast was eaten as we approached Buffalo NY. I hadn’t realized how big western NY was, 500 km to Albany, then another almost 250 km into NYP.
So we spent until almost 3:00 pm running across a fairly flat western NY in to Albany. One funny moment was when I noticed we were approaching Syracuse NY when I accidentally said out loud that it didn’t look anything like the original! That got me some funny looks! We finished lunch before Schenectady NY and took a welcome stroll on the high level platform at Albany as the two sections were separated.
We left close to time and headed down the water level route. WOW. Makes me sad I never saw the New York Central at its peak. A most pleasant and scenic journey along the banks of the Hudson, sometimes literally within an arm’s length of the water. A short way south of Albany we saw a lock on the river that was marked “Loch E – Upper Hudson System”. We both burst into laughter. Why, you wonder? Because my son is named Lachlan, which in Australia is inevitably shortened to Lochey. Very funny, I texted him immediately and received a somewhat profane reply, partly because of the pun, but also because it was 4:00 am when the text arrived and woke him up! That made it even better.
So we spent a very enjoyable afternoon gliding down the east bank of the Hudson and so into the NYC metro area, crossing the Harlem River at Spuyten Duyvil, pass the GCT junction and so on to Manhattan and the old west side freight line, still basically following the river until we went underground and so into NYP, about 10 minutes late.
I must say that arriving into New York via Penn Station is MUCH, MUCH better than using any of the NYC airports. It was just off the train, up a set of escalators, around to left and up another set and out on to 33rd Street right at a taxi rank, into the second cab and straight up to our hotel on 57th Street between 9th & 10th Avenues.

NE Regional to Washington DC

So after 5 days in the Big Apple it’s back down to Penn Station and on to Amtrak again, this time on NE Regional.
We were booked on train number 195, a weekend service departing Boston MA at 6:40 am arriving Richmond VA at 5:05 pm. It was due at NYP at 10:50 am to depart at 11:05pm. It dully arrived a few minutes late, but before 11:00 am and we were out of the station by 11:10 am.
We found a seat, coming face to face again with Amtrak’s really, really strange seat reservation system where you get a seat reservation, but no assigned seat. Never, ever heard of that system and no mention of it on their web site but we coped and as this was out last seat reservation it would not be a future problem. [We first came in contact with this system the day before on our Long Island Adventure, but more about that in a later part.]
We moved fairly swiftly down the NE Corridor stopping at Newark, Metropark & Trenton NJ, Philadelphia PA, Wilmington DE and Baltimore, BWI & New Carrollton MD and so into Washington DC Union station at about 2:30 pm less than 5 minutes late. A quick cab ride to hotel and we settled into our hotel for three days until 2/10.

The Crescent Washington DC to New Orleans

About 10:00 am on 2/10 we made our way from our hotel to WUS. The plan was to do some more sightseeing, but the weather was so lousy, wet, windy & cold we cut that short. Rod decided to hole up most of the day in the ClubAcela, while I went to see my second most MUST see sight in DC, the National Archives Building (yeah a bit odd, but I was an archivist in a previous career) and I really wanted to see your Declaration of Independence and the original Constitution document. My first most MUST see sight in DC was the Air & Space Museum, which we saw the day before.
The Crescent arrived slightly late, we climbed aboard and claimed Roomette 002 in Car 1910, Viewline sleeper. Our first Viewliner roomette! We agreed that it was better laid out & more practical than the Superliner, except for the unenclosed loo. What were the designers thinking or what were they taking/smoking??? We agreed during the day we would use the nearest coach loos.
There is an electric to diesel power swap in WUS, which seemed to take a while, plus we heard later that there were two private cars being switched off the train. We departed at 7:08 pm, 28 minutes down. We were called to the diner shortly after Alexandria for dinner. After leaving Lynchburg at 10:40 pm, still 38 minutes down, we had the bunks made up and went to sleep, not waking until just before Atlanta.
The stop at Atlanta is scheduled for 20 minutes but we were longer than that, but still left dead on time at 8:38 am. We spent the rest of the days crossing western Georgia, Alabama & SE Mississippi. Nothing spectacular in the way of scenery, but very pleasant vistas of forest, farmland and urban landscapes. Unfortunately it was dark by the time we reached the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain so we miss the long trestle and arrival into New Orleans. We arrived at 8:40 pm, only 8 minutes late.
That completes Part 2 of this report. We take a break from Amtrak to explore more of the Old South. I’ll pick up this report in Part 3 two weeks further into the trip at Orlando.

Thanks for reading


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## NW cannonball (Oct 12, 2013)

> Thanks for reading


Thanks for posting. Looking forward to the next installment.


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## Bob Dylan (Oct 12, 2013)

:hi: Looking forward to Part III!! Hope ya'll enjoyed New Orleans, it's a "Whole 'Nother Country!!" :giggle:


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## ScottRu (Oct 15, 2013)

Very much enjoying your post. I have been on many of the trains you rode, so it also brings back fond memories. I hope the rest of your time the US is wonderful.


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## Gemuser (Oct 19, 2013)

Thanks for all you nice comments!

Part 3 below:

Part 3 Orlando-Washington DC-Chicago- Emeryville

Orlando to Washington DC - The Silver Meteor

Having spent two week on a bus tour getting from New Orleans to Orlando, we arrived late afternoon on 13/10. The next day just happened to be my 60th birthday so the question arose as to how to celebrate it appropriately? No problem at all! An all day excursion to Kennedy Space Centre on Cape Canaveral had been booked from home as soon as our dates became firm. That was a GREAT day. We spent 15/10 resting and preparing for the long, fast trek back to San Francisco to catch our flight home.

We were booked on Train 98 - The Silver Meteor from Orlando on 16/10 in roomette 002 in car 9811, scheduled from Orlando at 1:35 pm. So we have a late breakfast, check out at noon and get a taxi to the station, arriving about 12:45 pm, where we find No 98 is running half an hour late, at least! So we check our bags (remember no luggage space on Viewliners and my suite case has multiplied into two suitcases as I found an outlet mall in Orlando! I can’t believe how cheap clothes are in USA! You pay 20 to 50% of what we pay, you bet I stocked up). After dealing with the luggage we explored the station. What a fine old station with some TLC and sympathetic restoration it could be a magnificent station.

No 97 the south bound SM arrive just before 2:00 pm, running about an hour late. After smart station work it left just after 2:00 pm. No 98 arrived about 2:20 pm and we finally boarded our roomette. After more fast station work we left at 2:30 pm, 55 minutes late.

We met our very efficient and cheerful SCA, who is one of the most beautiful women I have ever met! What in h**l was she doing in such a job? Who knows but it was good for us as she certainly brightened up the car and not just her looks, she was bright, bubbly, very efficient and nothing was too much trouble. We were called to the diner almost as soon as we left Orlando.

We lost more time to Jacksonville arriving a full hour & eight minutes late. We made up some time during the station stop and left an hour late. I didn’t notice the Jesup GA stop so I don’t have timing, but I suspect we were late as we left Savannah 1:16 late. I suspect we were even later at Charleston as I was well asleep by that time.

The next morning we were up at six, had a shower (the Viewliner shower compartment are better designed than the Superliner ones). In to the dining car by 6:30, breakfast over just after 7:00 am we were ready to leave the train at DC. As it turned out we were 20 minutes late into WUS so we had plenty of time to get things together to de train.

After collecting out luggage we made a bee line for ClubAcela, checked in, had a coffee & pastry, and then did some rearranging in our luggage. We then put our day bag into the store room at the club and took our suitcase and checked them in for our afternoon departure to Chicago. That done we headed out by subway, bus & shuttle van to the Smithsonian’s Air & Space Museum Annex at Dulles, where a great time was had, especially the space shuttle Discovery. This was especially pleasing as Atlantis was not yet on display at Kennedy when we were there. We were back at Club Acela at WUS before 3:00 pm.

Washington DC –Chicago – The Capitol Limited

We were due out of DC for Chicago on the same day’s Capital Limited in Roomette 002 in car 2900 at 4:05 pm on 17/10. In fact boarding was called in the club around 3:30 pm and the train left at 4:04 pm by my watch.

The trip up the valley out of DC was quite scenic and interesting but as we lost the light about 2 hours into the trip I suspect there was some good scenery we did not see. We left Martinsburg 2 minutes early and were 17 minutes early out of Connellsville PA at 10:05 pm. After Connellsville I went to sleep and woke up between Waterloo & Elkhart IN. We left Elkhart on time and were 4 minutes late into South Bend IN. From South Bend we snaked thru the south side industrial suburbs and into CUS 20 minutes early.

We go straight to the Metropolitan Lounge and check our luggage, have a cup of coffee and are warned by lounge staff that lunch is not served on the CZ or any LD train out of Chicago. I decide to go for a walk to Michigan Avenue, so I come out on Adams Street and instantly learn why Chicago is called the “windy city”! God that was a cold wind, it had my nose dripping within a few minutes. I only get down to about Clarke Street before I find a coffee shop to hole up in and thaw out! Hey I come from the shores of the South Pacific, we get strong wind, but not anywhere near that cold, it must have been about 4 degrees C.

Having thawed somewhat & obtained a pack of tissues I brave the wind and head back to CUS. Where I met Rod who had only gotten 2 block before deciding it was too cold and we went and got lunch and then retired to the Lounge, which was by this time getting quite full, with the Texas Eagle due out at 1:45 pm, the CZ at 2:00 pm, the EB at 2:15 pm and the SWC at 3:00 pm.

Chicago – Emeryville

About 1:40 pm, after the TE crowd was gone, we were walked from the lounge to the train where we settled into Roomette 004 in Car 0532 for an on time departure from Chicago. We spent the afternoon rolling across the plains of the mid-west, nothing particularly notable until we crossed the Mississippi River into Burlington on time at 5:25 pm. We travelled on thru the dark, dinner in the diner, into Osceola (for Des Moines) about 10 minutes late. Fell asleep somewhere in western Iowa. Woke up around Fort Morgan CO running about 1 hour late, Rod said that we had spent about two hours stationary in the middle of the night and the CSA told him that a broken rail was found ahead of us and the delay was to fix it. This type of delay I fully approve of, the thought of those six cars hurtling off the tracks at 100 kph was unnerving! All credit to BNSF!

We eventually arrived Denver with its time consuming back up move. We left Denver at 9:10 am, 1:05 late and began the climb up the Front Range to the Moffat Tunnel. This took about 2 hours thru very spectacular scenery. Leaving Denver we pass thru the North West suburbs, many industrial. We start climbing almost immediately winding up passed the Rocky Flats industrial branch we soon come to the Big Ten Curve, an almost 400 degrees of curves with a “train” of open hoppers filled with rock & sand which are welded to the rails to provide a wind break.

From Big 10 we head up hill around Eldorado Mountain and on in to the valley of South Bolder Creek and thru the twenty odd tunnels of the “Tunnel District”, passing Gross Dam and continuing up the Creek valley. The scenery around the track is specular, but looking back east you see Denver getting smaller and lower as we climb the mountains and you appreciate the term “high plains”.

Continuing upwards we pass Rollinsville, along the Creek, pass the site of Tolland and so on to East Portal and the Big One – the Moffat Tunnel. We plunge into the 10 km long tunnel, very, very black (of course) soon gets boring! As we are in the last sleeper I head to the Railfans window, the window of the connecting car door at the very end of the train. From there I do get a shot of the West Portal of the tunnel, from there we slide into Fraser-Winter Park at 11:16 am, 1:09 late.

The rest of the day was spent gliding along the river and thru the various canyons of the upper Colorado River system. What a wonderful days ride! With only two stops during the day who cares about times? We slide into Grand Junction CO about 5:05 pm, 55 minutes late.

After Grand Junction the terrain rapidly becomes more desert like with specular cliffs, mesas and brightly colouerd rock formations. We were out of Green River UT at 6:52 pm and pretty well lost the light there. We speed along in the dark for the rest of the evening and I was asleep before Provo.

Just before 8:00 am the next morning I encounter our CSA who advises that we were a few minutes from Reno NV, which means we have made up a considerable time over night. We are in the diner as the train comes to stand in “the trench” in Reno. The trench is literally that as the track was sunk below street level, with the station above. Makes for a boring vista during breakfast!

We leave Reno exactly on time at 8:36 am and headed up into the Sierra Nevada Mountains following the Truckee River into California and up to the town of Truckee. After the station stop we leave Truckee on time and head up Cold Creek to a horseshoe curve and we head back towards Truckee, at a much higher level, around the bluff and keep climbing above Donner Lake, heading towards the legendary Donner Pass.

High above the lake we enter a long tunnel, a couple of kilometers long, coming out passed a number of ski resorts and across the Pass, thru magnificent scenery and into the valley of the South Yuba River and downhill into Colfax, which we leave on time at 11:48 am. Continuing downhill we leave Roseville on time at 12:57 pm. Roseville is the last stop at which train 5 will pick up passengers.

We arrive into Sacramento early for a long stop, but we are ready to leave at 1:30 pm, 43 minutes early, as we don’t pick up here, off we go. We leave Davis at 1:48 pm and head across the river flats to the Carquinez Strait and into Martinez. Leaving Martinez at 2:30 pm we head along the shoreline of the various bays and inlets that form the northern end of SF Bay. From Point Pinole we turn south through Richmond, making a quick stop, leaving at 2:56 pm.

Arriving at Emeryville at 3:05 pm, 1:05 early, our Amtrak odyssey comes to end, with our USA odyssey almost at an end. All that remains is to catch the bus into San Francisco, a night’s sleep, on something not moving, and a BART ride to San Francisco International to catch our plane home.

Summary of our Amtrak Experience

In a word – “BRILLIANT”!

We had a great time, all CSA were very, very good, most Diner/Cafe staff was also and all customer service staff at all the stations we used were great. Amtrak you have EXCELLENT staff, they should be cherished and encouraged in every way possible.

The equipment was very good; Superliner roomettes while small were more than adequate, although an easier way into the upper berth would be appreciated by us oldies. The Viewliner sleepers were even better, except for the open loo, which I understand has gone from ViewlinerII. The eastern Heritage Diners must be difficult for staff to work in and are a bit worn which is understandable as some of them are as old as I am! Roll on the ViewlinerII diners.

Time keeping was more problematic, but overall not bad. Our latest arrival was 42 minutes into Chicago on No 8 and 40 minutes into New Orleans on No19. The earliest we were was 1:05 into Emeryville on No 5.

Food service was generally good, but quite variable. Towards the end of the trip it was getting a bit boring. More variation would be good.

To sum up, we each spent nearly $A3,000 with Amtrak and consider it money well spent. We both had an excellent trip and while it was not as exciting as our 2010 Trans Serbian Railway trip, it was a damn sight more comfortable, safer and at considerably less cost.

There is one more part to come. It will cover “A Railfans Bus Tour of the Colorado Narrow Gauge” and “A One Way Long Island Railroad Adventure”.

Thanks for reading.


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## NW cannonball (Oct 19, 2013)

About Chicago being cold and windy



> We go straight to the Metropolitan Lounge and check our luggage, have a cup of coffee and are warned by lounge staff that lunch is not served on the CZ or any LD train out of Chicago. I decide to go for a walk to Michigan Avenue, so I come out on Adams Street and instantly learn why Chicago is called the “windy city”! God that was a cold wind, it had my nose dripping within a few minutes. I only get down to about Clarke Street before I find a coffee shop to hole up in and thaw out! Hey I come from the shores of the South Pacific, we get strong wind, but not anywhere near that cold, it must have been about 4 degrees C.


Try it in January -- :wacko: -

Seriously, persons from milder climates should be warned that north central US is nearly Siberian climate. 4 degrees C with wind chill is typical of late fall and early spring. In winter, Chicago is relatively mild in the winter months , account of the lake effect, seldom colder than -5 degrees C, but windy. West and North from Chi-town to the coast -- much colder. Like -20 with wind.

Thanks for the trip report -- well written and very welcome.


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## caravanman (Oct 20, 2013)

Thanks for the trip report, glad you had a good time.

Ed


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## AlanB (Nov 13, 2013)

Gemuser said:


> A word about luggage in Viewliner sleepers, DON”T! I found all the advice about this on Amtrak’s web site confusing and assumed that with a bedroom we would be Ok. Not so. We each had a fair size suit case as we were away from home for 7 weeks. We managed to fit the smaller in the bedroom but the large was blocking everything in the bedroom. Our great CSA came to our rescue and put the bigger one in a hidey hole somewhere, much to our relief. In short, if it can’t be carried on to an airliner [in accordance with the rules] check it on a Viewliner. As we had two more Viewliner long distance trip that prove to be good advice.


While I'm a bit late to the party here, I agree that in general if one is in a Viewliner Roomette, one seriously needs to consider just how much luggage you are carrying onto the train.

However, in your case being in one of the Bedrooms, luggage isn't an issue at all. A Viewliner Bedroom has more space for luggage than any other room on an Amtrak train. In addition to the cubbyhole above the hallway that all Viewliner rooms have, one can place luggage on top of the toilet/sink/vanity unit. One can easily put 2 footlockers up there and still have room for a regular suitcase. There isn't another room on an Amtrak train that can easily accommodate more luggage than a Viewliner Bedroom.


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## SarahZ (Nov 13, 2013)

This is a great report! I'm glad you enjoyed your trip. It sounds wonderful.


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## Gemuser (Nov 16, 2013)

However, in your case being in one of the Bedrooms, luggage isn't an issue at all. A Viewliner Bedroom has more space for luggage than any other room on an Amtrak train. In addition to the cubbyhole above the hallway that all Viewliner rooms have, one can place luggage on top of the toilet/sink/vanity unit. One can easily put 2 footlockers up there and still have room for a regular suitcase. There isn't another room on an Amtrak train that can easily accommodate more luggage than a Viewliner Bedroom.
There is NO way either of our suit cases would have fitted on top of the toilet unit, they were too deep. One fitted in the cubby hole, the CSA took care of the other but one would not want to count on that. The big problem is that they don't have luggage rack like the Superliners do.

PS: What is a "footlocker"?


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## Gemuser (Nov 16, 2013)

A Railfans Bus Tour of the Colorado Narrow Gauge

One of the major things I wanted to do on this trip was to explore what remains of the Colorado Narrow Gauge Railways. Very early research showed that we would have to drive to reach the various points we wished to see. Not On! You people drive on the wrong side of the road, which I haven’t done since 2001 and didn’t like it then, and 12 years later it was a no, no. As well there is the problem of driving across the Rockies, at least twice and the distance of course. I just was not up to that amount & type of driving and Rod was of no use as he lost his driver’s licence more than 20 years ago due to poor vision, he has to wear both glasses and hard contact lenses to function normally.

Very depressed, I kept looking, while planning this trip and I came across the web site of Vacation By Rail, (www.vacationsbyrail.com) who had tour called “Colorado Rail Adventure”, an eight day tour of various NG sites. After some stuffing around as they do not have a representative in Australia we were able to get a quote and make a booking. This is a report on this bus tour.

Having arrived Chicago on the Empire Builder on 12/9/12 (only 42 minutes late!) we left on Saturday 15/9/12 we headed out to O’Hare to catch a United Airlines flight UA276 to Denver at 10:01 am. We duly arrived at Denver at 11:52 am, (10 minutes late). Taxi to the hotel and an afternoon in downtown Denver, the tour starts on 16/9/12.

*Sunday, 16/9/12:* Up early to breakfast at 7:00 am, meeting with the tour guide, Nancy, at 7:30 am and on to the bus at 7:45 am and off to our first stop, the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden CO. A very good museum with many interesting narrow & standard gauge exhibits. The highlight for me was Navajo the bob tail observation car from the Original Super Chief and the Galloping Goose. The only problem was today just happened to be “Thomas the Tank Engine Day”! This meant about half a million ankle-biters running loose around the place.

From Golden we proceeded to Georgetown for lunch, & some shopping. I can recommend Railroad Art by Scotty (http://www.railroadart.com). I got some brilliant prints of various fallen flags and some good enamel badges.

After lunch we drove to the Devils Gate Station to join our train for a trip on the Georgetown Loop Railroad. First time I had actually seen a geared steam loco, very interesting. We were on the last trip of the up the valley to Silver Plume and return by Shay! After the train trip it was back on the bus and down to Colorado Springs for the night.

*On Monday 17/9/12 we travel to Manitou Springs to board the Manitou Springs & Pike’s Peak Cog Railway. Great, if exhausting, ride up to the summit of Pike’s Peak. At 4,300 m Pike’s Peak is almost exactly TWICE the height of the tallest mountain in Australia, Mt Kosciuszko, 2,228 m, and we live at about 30 m above sea level!* *Shortly after we arrive the Swiss built cog fitted 2 car diesel multiple unit arrives and it’s “all aboard”. We head up a creek valley at a very steep angle thru forest, gorges and cliffs. At Minnehaha Falls we meet a MOW train. After this we pass the site of Ruxton Park and thru Hells Gate, a natural passage in the canyon. This section is on a lesser grade and the countryside is more open, passing thru an area known as “Deer Park” (no deer today).* *At about the 5 mile point the grade steepens again and we pop out above the timberline. Quickly the country becomes bare of vegetation and we wind our way across wind swept plains, thru cuts and over ridges. We soon pass the old Windy Point stone section house, not a great place to live from the look of it.* *We soon arrive at the summit with its lookout, coffee shop & shop. Very quickly I was suffering greatly from altitude problems, I’ve lived almost all my life below 30 m above sea level 4250 m was a shock! After a very quick look at the lookouts, which was poor due to low cloud I adjourned to the coffee shop for coffee & donuts, a quick look at the shop and its time to return.* *We start back down on time, and I’m very glad! Once we get below the tree line I start to recover and by the time we get back to the depot I am well again.* *We spend the rest of the day on tourist stuff at Garden of the Gods and return to our hotel in Colorado Springs.* *Tuesday 18/9/12 we travel across the Rockies! Getting out of Colorado Spring pretty early we head first for Royal Gorge Suspension Bridge & Park. This park has a number of attractions such as zip lines and gondola rides out over the George, but for me the pick was the funicular down into the George. It comes out on a platform just east of the famous hanging bridge. You can see the bridge but not (legally) get to it. You can get down off the platform to track side. The first trip down of the day (on this day anyway) was timed to meet the early departure of the Royal George Scenic train. Got some good photos. After an hour & half we were on our way again, straight thru to Durango with a quick fast food lunch stop. Arriving Durango we all walked down to the depot for a quick look around before settling down for the night.* *Wednesday 19/9/12. Our day on the Silverton train! We departed on the 9:00 am train for Silverton. For the first 30 minutes or so we follow the river thru farm land, then into the San Juan National Forrest. After passing thru Hermosa the train leaves the road and heads deep into the Animas River Gorge. Spectacular is the only word for the scenery with the river soon 100s of meters below the train. The line is on such steep curves that it is easy to take photos of the engine out the carriage window. I stage a lightning raid on the concession car adding to stash of train DVD & other stuff I had start at the Museum in Golden on Monday.* *In due course we leave the canyon and head across flatter ground and into Silverton, crossing Mineral creek and into the township. We do not stop at the depot but continue on into East 12th street and detrain in the middle of the street.* We returned to Durango by the tour bus. *Thursday 20/9/12. We are up early and leave our hotel at 6:30 am to head for Chama NM for our single longest day of the tour. Back along Highway 160 to Pagosa Springs for a brief coffee break then right on to Highway 84 and down into New Mexico and along to the junction with Highway 17 where we make a left turn to Chama. We arrive at the depot a bit after 9:00 am. While Nancy, our tour leader goes to take care of ticketing we poke around the yard looking at engines and rolling stock and buildings etc including the impressive coal stage.* *We end up at the head end taking pictures of the two Class K36 NG Mikado steam engines on point. In due course Nancy gathers us together and issues tickets and we board the train which storms out of Chama just after 10:00 am and with two Mikados’ on point it is really storming out of town. * *Fairly shortly we come to Lobato Trestle, high above Wolfe Creek. The problem is that it cannot support two K36s at once, so the lead engine is cut off and traverses the trestle alone and stops in the clear on the far side. The rest of the train then proceeds across the trestle and re coupled to the lead K36 and we are off again climbing up the steepening grade to Cumbres Pass.* *We reach Cumbres Pass station, the summit of the line in the highest railroad pass in North America, where one of the K36s is cut off to return to Chama. It’s basically downhill from here. See the railroad web site for more details of the line: http://www.cumbrestoltec.com* *After about 2 hours the train arrives at Osier, the crossing point of the east & west bound trains and the lunch stop. They do a good job of feeding two full train loads of passenger in the one hour stop and food is pretty good too. After Osier the train starts a long decent thru Toltec Gorge into the vast San Luis Valley. This part of the line crosses the Colorado New Mexico border 10 times in the 32 miles between Osier and Hangman’s trestle 5 miles from Antonito. * As much as I love riding preserved railways I must admit I was very happy when we made it to Antonito and transferred to our hotel Alamosa for the night.*Friday 21/9/12*. This was a somewhat stuffed up day. This morning we were supposed to take the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad from Alamosa up over La Veta pass to the town of La Veta. [This was the RGW standard gauge outlet from the narrow gauge system after the track was converted from narrow to standard gauge. Alamosa to Antonito was mixed gauge until the end of the narrow gauge system]. For some reason the morning train was cancelled by the railroad, instead we were offered a dinner train, in a full length dome diner from Alamosa to Antonito.

So instead we visited the Great Sand Dunes National Park this morning instead of this afternoon, then travelled over La Veta pass by bus and had lunch in town. We then returned to our hotel for a few hours.

At 5:00 pm we left for Alamosa station to join the RG Scenic Dinner train. The train has a number of full length domes and a bob tailed Pullman Observation car on the head end, unfortunately! Pulled by a gorgeous F7.

We headed down towards Antonito, with a full railfan’s run by at La Jara. Yes the whole bit, run into the depot, drop the railfan’s off, back the train up a couple of kilometres, then come screaming back at full track speed passed the photo line! Brilliant!

After this run by diner in the dinner is served as we proceeded towards Antonito. The meal is excellent and progresses in hearty companionship and much fine American wine.

At Antonito the F7 is wyed and we head back to Alamosa, this time with the bob tailed observation car on the rear, unfortunately it was too dark for a another run by. I got a few photos of it back at Alamosa. We headed back to our hotel.

*Saturday 22/9/12*. We head out early for Canon City to the Royal Gorge Route Railway. We arrive in plenty of time and watch the early trip return from the Gorge, then stage a SERIOUS raid on the gift shop’s DVD section. After that we watch the railway make up our lunch train and soon it is time to board.

Today it’s lunch in the full dome diner. The lunch was superb but the scenery was better! Running alongside the river we soon enter the gorge with cliffs towering above. The train runs down thru the gorge over the hanging bridge and into the station below the suspension bridge where we reverse direction and head back to Canon City. We reboard the bus and head into Denver for the night. A mild depression settles on the group as we all realise that we have just completed our last train ride of the tour.

The next morning Nancy arranges for the bus to do a run to Denver airport for people leaving by air.

*A One Way Long Island Railroad Adventure*

For no discernible reason I have been very interested in the Long Island Railroad for many years. While NYC is not my favourite city, it is Rod’s so it HAD to be included in our trip, so I took advantage of it to see a fair bit of the LIRR.

On Friday 28/9/12 we left NYP on the 9:14 am departure to Ronkonkoma, with a connection to Greenport. The train left on time, thru the East River tunnels on to Long Island and up to the surface for the run out to Jamaica. Being a counter peak flow train it was not very crowded, I’d guess about half full leaving Jamaica. A suburban train ride out of a city usually gives you a very different view of a city and this was true of NYC, especially after Manhattan. After 21 minutes we arrive at Jamaica, no change required, left a minute later and headed out further on to LI.

So we continue out along the Ronkonkoma branch with the urban areas get further apart, some scrubby trees and open fields. About an hour later we reach Ronkonkoma station where we have 5 minutes to change train. More than enough time as the diesel, bi-level train is waiting at the outward (or down) end of the same platform. We head down the Greenport branch; we are really out into the country side now. About an hour twenty five later at 12:07 we pull into Greenport. From Greenport we need to catch the S92 bus to Orient Point. Nobody seems to know where the bus stop was. We eventually found it, several blocks from the station. We waited about 45 minutes for the bus to arrive and were soon off to Orient Point, where we arrived in time to make the 1:30 pm ferry to New London, Connecticut.

The ferry is basically a car ferry and an accommodation for foot passengers is fairly basic, but adequate for a 1:20 ferry ride. By the time we got to New London the rain which had been threatening all day finally arrived and it was a fairly mesirable, if fairly short walk of 100 m or so to the Amtrak station. We were able to book seats on NE Regional train No 137 departing at 3:14 for NYP. My first ride on an Amfleet car! The train was running about 10 minutes late as it pulled into New London. Now we came face to face with Amtraks strange seat reservation method. You get a seat reservation, but not a seat allocation, which has to be just about an oxymoron! Still once the conductor or car attendant explained it we were able to find two seats. So we headed out of New London along the north shore of Long Island Sound getting to NYP 10 minutes late at 6:10 pm. 

So ended out Long Island Railroad adventure.

This ends our 2012 adventure! We both had a great time met dozens & dozens of very nice people, saw some interesting and even iconic items & places.

Thank you America!


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## Railroad Bill (Nov 16, 2013)

Really enjoyed your trip reports. Both of these trips (narrow gauge railroads) and a ride on the Long Island RR are on our bucket lists. Thanks for the detailed descriptions of each and glad you had a good time in the US.


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## Bob Dylan (Nov 16, 2013)

Fantastic Trip! Thanks for Sharing and Glad ya'll liked your time in the US!! :hi:


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## caravanman (Nov 18, 2013)

Hi,

Thanks for the update with the Colorado narrow guage. I was interested to see you had been to Canon City... A few years back my Amtrak railpass tour got messed up, so next day I hired a car and drove from Chicago to San Francisco and back. I drove my hire car on this former rail track:

[SIZE=12pt]Phantom Canyon Road… Cañon City to Cripple Creek, Colorado[/SIZE]	[SIZE=10pt]Phantom Canyon Road follows the old path of the Florence and Cripple Creek railroad, which, in 1894, connected the mining towns of Victor and Cripple Creek with the outside world.[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt]There are a few pics I found at this website, : http://www.takemytrip.com/colo/76a.htm[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]Sometimes roads have an phantom echo of trains too![/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]Ed  [/SIZE]


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## chezndave (Feb 1, 2014)

sounds like you had a fantastic time..


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## Gemuser (Feb 1, 2014)

chezndave said:


> sounds like you had a fantastic time..


We most certainly did! I loved the Superliners, so high! ALL Amtrak staff were very efficient and most very friendly, the system worked well for us and the scenery, especially between Denver and Grand Junction and Seattle and Glacier NP was simply breathtaking.

Have a great trip.


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