Recent content by Rasputin

I will second the suggestion of the Powell - Hyde cable car line. It has been quite a while since I boarded at Powell St. and I can't recall how long the wait can be there. Be aware that the wait at Fisherman's Wharf can be long and tedious, up to a couple hours in my experience so factor that...

There is no traditional dining on the Texas Eagle (except west of San Antonio) unless it has been miraculously restored. I assume that Aramark has a facility in San Antonio which might help if Amtrak cared to ask. Probably Sysco also.

According to a post on the RPA hotline which I saw after my initial post, National Train Day was started by Amtrak in 2008 and continued each year until about 2015 when it was dropped from Amtrak's official marketing budget. It is still celebrated by a number of organizations but is not...

Happy National Train Day! Some may remember it. It usually took place on or around May 10th.

Back in the day, pre-Amtrak and pre-VIA, and in the early days of those entities, it was customary for the conductor, usually accompanied by a trainman, to set up shop in a set of seats in one of the coaches and they took care of their paperwork there. The other benefit is that they tended to...

As I recall, Amtrak grits are plain grits but are often served with a big glob of butter in the middle of them which I like since I fortunately don't have allergies to butter. I assume you can request grits with no butter added. Hopefully some of the grits experts in this group can provide...

We are told in discussions on the NEC that many people, especially in Europe, don't seem to mind riding backwards. I doubt this would go over well on the Ocean.

As late as 1987, if I recall the date correctly, the Ocean was turned, car by car, on a turntable near the VIA station in Halifax. This was a tedious process and I believe it was discontinued when the loop track at the container terminal became available.

This must be Amtrak's version of "Chutes and Ladders" if I can recall the name of the game correctly. At least Amtrak is providing passengers with "alternative transportation" right back to where you started just as if you never left. A true time machine.

There is an Amtrak Alert concerning the Southwest Chief: "Service Disruption: As of 2:54 PM MT, due to a freight derailment, Train 3 will terminate in Albuquerque. Customers due to travel past ABQ should deboard in Lamy and board Train 4 back to their original destination."

In looking at a few Amtrak menus in my collection it appears that grits probably disappeared from the Lake Shore menu when the Diner Lite service was started. This is what I gather from looking at a 10/2017 Lake Shore diner-lite menu. Menus from a few years earlier when the heritage dining...

In traditional dining, pre-Covid, grits appeared to be a standard item on all long distance Amtrak trains and I have also had them on the Empire Builder and the Lake Shore, probably on the Coast Starlight as well. I am not sure when they became a standard item on the Amtrak breakfast menu. I...

That is very true but it would be nice to know that you can obtain things because they are on the menu and not at the whim (or non-whim) of the particular crew.

Pre-Covid, Grits were available and included in most breakfast selections but they are now available only with the continental breakfast. They should be included with all breakfast selections as before. I miss them.

We have a four-car train which operates from Chicago, with a metro population of around 8 or 9 million to San Antonio which has a metro population of two and a half million and somehow the cafe car/diner cannot maintain a sufficient supply of hamburgers and cheeseburgers, which are probably the...