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Day 3 (continued) Had planned to stay in the dome until we got out of the Rockies, but we got held at the end of two main track at the Snaring River Bridge and they were stopping seating at 1:30. With no signs of movement, or appearance of opposing train, I went down to the diner at around 1:15...

It's one drink per dinner service. That is always how it has been done on the western trains, anyway.

Sitting in Kamloops, BC, their base, with the rest of their fleet for the winter. I seriously doubt RMR has any interest in leasing their equipment. They've actually got quite a few spares and they all live in Kamloops.

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Day 3 In New York now. Intended to catch things up on the Maple Leaf yesterday but I needed to conserve my phone battery and had the phone shut off for most of the trip. Woke up around Valemont after a bad night's sleep. I don't really even try for dome space over Yellowhead Pass any more...

Yes. As of the PRIIA Act of 2008 which amended the original Rail Passenger Act of 1970. This is the way things have worked for the last 16 years, so it is not exactly news. Everything under 750 miles is state responsibility except the NEC. You are correct that 2 daily San Diegans and a third...

Not Amtrak, but SCRRA and NCTD, the track owners and operators of commuter rail on the line (ownership changes at the county line south of San Clemente). A tunnel avoiding the unstable Del Mar bluffs is in the planning stages. That's going to happen. A tunnel solution is under consideration for...

Business Class seating on the Cascades is 2+1 on both the Talgos and Horizons. The primary difference is capacity, with Horizons having very few BC seats in half the cafe and the Talgos having many more in two cars. Like any other Business Class outside the Northeast Corridor, you cannot select...

Most roomettes are upper level, 9 upper, 4 lower. To get a specific level and location in a car, call. As to which side, standard sleepers run either end forward and do. They'll be oriented whichever way they were facing when switched into the consist. However, transition-dormitory cars run...

Haven't gotten there yet in main narrative, that's Day 3 of the trip, but the Canadian is making the normal Jasper stop again.

Day 2 (continued) Had to cut it short because they called my 2nd dinner seating (into Winnipeg) and it took several tries to upload photos with cell service going in and out. We were nearly 90 minutes early into Winnipeg, btw. More on that later. Anyway... No more shots of Day 2 worth posting...

Day 2 I have a small, collapsible duffle that I carry onboard the Canadian, since there is very little room in their roomettes and no common storage rack. So I pulled it out and spent a good part of the morning was reorganizing and repacking, making sure I'll have onboard what I need onboard...

Day 1 (11/3/2024) Got to Everett Station at about 8:30 am for the Cascades 516 at 9:21. I wanted to check my big bag and needed to fill out the long term (free) parking form needed for any stay over 72 hours. Since the BC seat count on railsforless.us indicated a Talgo, I did a coupon upgrade...

Sanderson was an SP (actually T&NO) division point. Palm Springs was a swap for Indio, IIRC. Bad decision, Indio didn't have a problem with sand derailing trains.

Speaking from the depths of Gardner's deep technical expertise...🙄 VIA's Budd fleet has 69 years on them and plans to get 10 more. Then again, they're Budds and pretty scrupulously maintained.

There is something wrong with the way connections are set up in ARROW. They have an 8-448 connection in the system, but not 8-48. I don't think there is any logic behind it, it's almost certainly just a mistake in setting up city pairs. That has to be done manually. I am virtually certain you...

Just snacks, maybe some fruit. In the station there's a food court up on the mezzanine level with several options. Cannot really comment on them since I haven't used any since my favorite there, Gold Coast Dogs, closed up some years ago. Outside, there's Lou Mitchell's a half block west on...

Yeah, I wasn't counting deadheads. Those are fairly common on the Builder these days, shuttling Horizons for the Cascades.

As of 1 am 11/2, the Starlight has continued to lose time. It has not made it to Oxnard yet. The Sunset left LA on time and has just left Palm Springs at 12:58 am. I do wonder how things worked out for @jazzharris and how Amtrak protected the 11-2 connection. If he had gone San Jose Dirdion...

Pretty much agree with that as a matter of routine operation. However, I think building the capability into the plant to be able to do it if they have to is wise, just for the sake of flexibility. If some platform tracks/leads go OOS temporarily, which has been known to happen at Penn, having...