Search results

Your comment made me chuckle a bit. There isn't much that is going to stop a locomotive in its tracks. But I think seat belts might still be mandated. OT, I think of the Cascades wreck in 2017 where the locomotive ended up on its side (I believe). I heard a quote of the engineer telling the...

Thanks for the tips, I will save them in my notes for Sydney! Using public transport is how I get to know a city. After I started to understand two bus routes in Bangkok I finally started to feel like it was "my" city. (Somehow using the SkyTrain didn't have the same impact.) Hopefully something...

I am going to be flying Billings-Quito-Lima then Santiago-Auckland-Fiji-Sydney starting in September, (knock on wood). Then taking the Indian Pacific Railroad to Perth and flying up to Denpasar from there. And then up to Thailand for a month or two. Every other route to Australia had some huge...

I fly from DC to Bangkok via Tokyo every couple years. 14 hours going from IAD to Narita, 13 hours coming back. Economy. I used to do a 2 hour layover and fly the same day from Narita to Bangkok. My last trip I broke up that travel day by staying in Tokyo for 3 days. That helped a lot. Tokyo is...

Dang. Is there a protected spot for the engineer to hunker down in when he sees that he is going to hit a truck like this? I always wonder if locomotive designers design the underside of the engineers "dashboard/workstation" with a padded/reinforced lining to protect the engineer in case of a...

Good news on the court decision. Not so good on the lack of financing options. This may be a bridge too far, but would BrightLine be considering taking this over? Are there other players that might be interested in getting a foothold in the North American passenger rail business? Like JR Group...

It would be cool if you could drive your car from Long Island etc. to Newark and pull into a secure auto carrier loading facility for an overnight autotrain trip to Florida. There are a few rather major obstacles but it is a nice thought exercise!

PVD, that is true, but when you talk to people in countries that tend not to have private cars, a large portion of the 20'somethings really would like to have one for themselves. When I travel it is pretty obvious that I am an American and since I am pretty outgoing when I travel (which is odd...

Exactly. The Napaway would, I believe, not be as workable as the twin bunks for two people in a Roomette even though it might be nearly as good for those traveling alone. But half or more of the Roomette passengers are singles so if you assign some of the singles to smaller, cheaper Napaways it...

I think that an Amtrak Roomette is 6.5'x3.5' or 22.75 sq ft and sleeps flat while a Napaway Butterfly Suite is 5'x3.3' or 16.5 sq ft. but it is a lay flat at an angle, which is a bit of an advantage for the Napaway on square footage and a bit of a negative on the lack of sleeping flat. But the...

This is so true! The Ukrainian Railways system ( I won't even try to spell its name in Ukrainian! ) has not only delivered the goods, they have delivered millions of Ukrainians from the war zone to safety, either to Western Ukraine or to Poland. The employees of Ukrainian Railways have a lot to...

🤞 😎

Hopefully these three years of La Nina will be followed by a year or two of El Niño which should bring more rain back to the SW. Hopefully… This Too Shall Pass is not just about kidney stones!

Well... Manchester. LOL! To be fair, I am in no position to throw stones. I live in a small burg in rural Maryland. But to fail to be moved by the Canadian Rockies? Wow.

Amtrak is in a relatively unique situation in which they don't have competition in their transportation niche, i.e. passenger rail. You either "fly Amtrak" or you drive or fly, there are no competing passenger railroads. So when a person has a really bad trip with Amtrak, they may be done with...

I live in southern Anne Arundel County and when I saw this I was surprised. I haven't heard one word about it. Then I saw that it was going to run down 5 to 301... I bet LaPlata is hoping to get an extension down the road. My little burg of Deale is too sparsely populated (and way out there...

Slightly OT, but Slidell is one of those stations I look out the railcar window at and want to get off and explore. Google maps is my substitute for in person touring. Papa's BBQ (Brisket and Rib Combo for $16!), Southside Cafe (Southern Fried Steak Dinner for $17), Keith's Seafood (Combo...

Amtrak is in a good position right now to remedy a lot of wrongs, they have a great short term supply of money and they need to try to figure out what will benefit the American train riding public the most. And buying pre-existing designs of sleeper cars may be one of the best short term...

The Milwaukee Road Museum in Harlowton Montana! Tons of memorabilia and excellent photos. Plus there is an exhibit/diorama built by a gentleman, James Hamre, who used to post regularly on this site...

15,000 feet is getting up there. I hiked over Thorong La Pass in Nepal and it is a touch higher at 17,000+ feet and I was feeling the pain in both my legs from the climb and my head from the altitude. The good thing is that when you start to descend the head ache and malaise disappear fairly...