First ever Amtrak Experience

[tomfuller]

Before 9/11/01 I bought a 30 day North America Rail Pass. I started riding a Northeast Regional starting at 3AM from WAS to NYP. I got on the Maple Leaf at NYP and that night I got to Toronto about 8PM. From NYP to Toronto I sat by a Mr. Earle who was the youngest stock broker (in Guinness) in the US.
Until 9/11 he worked in one of the twin towers. He was late to work that day. He later founded the company 1800GOTMOLD which he still runs.
We are still Facebook friends.

 

[Siegmund]

If 'first experience' means 'first ride', mine was my parents and I being driven from Idaho to Salt Lake City by my grandfather, to board the westbound CZ (when it still used the UP station.) I was disappointed I couldn't ride Pocatello-SLC first, but nobody else but the little boy wanted that enough to suffer an 18 hour layover in Salt Lake.

Departing Salt Lake required an odd reverse move, which resulted in us sitting in the street in front of the Rio Grande Station for several minutes. I looked out the window and thought "gee, how silly that we aren't using Rio Grande Station" -- and a year or two later, we were.

We were seated in the coach-baggage car, and by the next day we had learned to make a beeline for the coaches rather than the coach-baggages (which as-delivered had the seats several inches closer together.) I hardly slept a wink, peeking out the window at moonlit desert and being woken back up every time we passed a freight train if we dozed off.

Somewhere in middle-of-nowhere central Nevada the next morning we stopped to pick up a tour group of 20 or so. We were a little late already and were close to an hour late after that unscheduled stop was finished. Soon after had my first helping of dining car French toast, and first time in the Superliner lounge going up Donner Pass. I tried to take photos but mostly I got reflections of the inside of the glass.

If experiences includes things other than rides... the first time I SAW an Amtrak train was - truth is stranger than fiction - camping somewhere in western Montana when I was 3 or 4 years old. It was after dark, something had gone amiss with cooking dinner over the campfire, and my dad was trying to make popcorn, in one of those old electric pour-the-oil-in-first poppers, using the one electric outlet in the men's restroom for shaving. We heard a train going past and stepped outside to look; it was the NCH. It was dark but I could see the sides were shiny, see a couple lights on the outside of each car, a few ghostly-lit-up windows...

Some years later we chased a few nearly-Superliner-equipped CZs through eastern Utah on family trips to the southewestern national parks, and got to go inside an exhibition train that Amtrak parked in Salt Lake for some reason or another the same day we drove through town.

 

[Saddleshoes]

1973 I had to get from Bloomington IL to Chicago in a blizzard. The roads were closed but the train was running. My sister and I decided to try the train. Amtrak got us there late but we got there. It was not a good trip because it was a standing room only run. I sat on my suitcase the whole way. My sister did get a seat next to an old drunk that smelled of booze but slept the whole trip.

I didn't come to enjoy Amtrak travel, until later in life, went I could afford to travel in sleepers.

 

[Lenquixote66]

My first was in 1971 from Manhattan,NY to Toronto.

 

[John Santos]

The day after Thanksgiving, 1976, I took an MBTA commuter train from my parents house to Providence, then an Amtrak train to NYP (first Amtrak), a Metroliner to Princeton Junction, and then the little train to Princeton itself to visit friends who were attending grad school there. I was very impressed by the speed and smoothness of the Metroliner. On the way home on Sunday, I took the Turbotrain to Boston. I think it didn't stop at Princeton, so I took something else to New York, but don't really remember. I do remember appreciating the fact that we didn't have to wait 40 minutes in Scenic New Haven while they changed engines. Also, after Providence, enough people got off that I was able to move up to the raised seats behind the engineer and see forward. There was a sign displaying the speed, and I remember going 90 mph through Readville or Hyde Park or somewhere between 128 and Back Bay!

 

[Willbridge]

If 'first experience' means 'first ride', mine was my parents and I being driven from Idaho to Salt Lake City by my grandfather, to board the westbound CZ (when it still used the UP station.) I was disappointed I couldn't ride Pocatello-SLC first, but nobody else but the little boy wanted that enough to suffer an 18 hour layover in Salt Lake.

Departing Salt Lake required an odd reverse move, which resulted in us sitting in the street in front of the Rio Grande Station for several minutes. I looked out the window and thought "gee, how silly that we aren't using Rio Grande Station" -- and a year or two later, we were.

We were seated in the coach-baggage car, and by the next day we had learned to make a beeline for the coaches rather than the coach-baggages (which as-delivered had the seats several inches closer together.) I hardly slept a wink, peeking out the window at moonlit desert and being woken back up every time we passed a freight train if we dozed off.

Somewhere in middle-of-nowhere central Nevada the next morning we stopped to pick up a tour group of 20 or so. We were a little late already and were close to an hour late after that unscheduled stop was finished. Soon after had my first helping of dining car French toast, and first time in the Superliner lounge going up Donner Pass. I tried to take photos but mostly I got reflections of the inside of the glass.

If experiences includes things other than rides... the first time I SAW an Amtrak train was - truth is stranger than fiction - camping somewhere in western Montana when I was 3 or 4 years old. It was after dark, something had gone amiss with cooking dinner over the campfire, and my dad was trying to make popcorn, in one of those old electric pour-the-oil-in-first poppers, using the one electric outlet in the men's restroom for shaving. We heard a train going past and stepped outside to look; it was the NCH. It was dark but I could see the sides were shiny, see a couple lights on the outside of each car, a few ghostly-lit-up windows...

Some years later we chased a few nearly-Superliner-equipped CZs through eastern Utah on family trips to the southewestern national parks, and got to go inside an exhibition train that Amtrak parked in Salt Lake for some reason or another the same day we drove through town.

Your camping night memories remind me of church youth group evenings in the Columbia Gorge parks, eating campfire food as the Idahoan - Train 11 - passed by and wrapping things up as the Portland Rose - Train 18 - headed into the night. Sometimes we could see SP&S Train 4 - the Mainstreeter/Western Star on the other side.

The all-new Superliners were toured around the system. I don't have the date for your SLC visit but it was probably part of this same campaign.

 

[bms]

Sunday, November 28, 1999, I took the Pennsylvanian from Harrisburg to Cleveland. What a great schedule that was, you left Harrisburg at a reasonable time in the morning and arrived in Cleveland early in the evening. I wish that train still continued to Cleveland.

 

[flitcraft]

I don't remember my first Amtrak trip--I did a fair amount of train travel while in grad school to get to libraries and microfiche stashes in New York, Washington DC and Chicago. All in coach, and with varying degrees of enjoyment--sometimes a great trip with interesting 'counter-culture' vibes, sometimes having to fend off creepy guys with wandering hands while trying to get some sleep. It was cheap, though, and better than Greyhound by a long ways. I didn't do my first LD trip till 1998--taking my daughter off to college. We rode the Empire Builder from Seattle to Chicago, and then on to Harrisburg Pennsylvania--and it was my first time in a bedroom--what a change from my coach days! And the scenery was fantastic. I was so impressed that a couple of years later, when my husband and I needed to get to LA, I suggested that we take the Coach Starlight, and well, that was his introduction to Amtrak. He's from the UK and a railfan there in his younger days--especially steam trains. Now we both look forwards to LD trips whenever we can work them into my schedule. Come retirement, that will be easier!

 

[ehbowen]

It was the summer of 1979. I had unwillingly relocated with my family to California (Antelope Valley/Quartz Hill); being 16 at the time I had little say in the matter but I was quite pleased when the relocation turned out to be temporary. But for that summer I had planned a trip back to Houston (via Hughes Airwest) to visit high school friends, and I wanted to join my old Latin class for a trip to the national Latin convention...held that year in East Lansing, Michigan.

In those very early years of deregulation air fares from Houston to Lansing were stratospheric. I (reluctantly) looked into Greyhound, but it would take something like 55 hours including 18 hours worth of layovers. I wanted to take Amtrak, and I finally talked my parents and my by-then-college-age traveling companion into buying tickets.

The trip did not go off without a hitch. The convention was the last week of July; look up "Tropical Storm Claudette" for your edification and amusement. My friend's house took 18 inches of water. At that, the train probably was our best choice; also look up "1979 airline strike". In spite of the damage, the two of us got to the Washington Avenue Amtrak station for the 7:40 a.m. departure of the Lone Star. Two locomotives (SDP40s? Not sure.), baggage car, sleeper 2220, dining car, and Hi-Level coaches 9929 and 9959. We took seats on the fireman's side middle in the latter.

Shortly after departure the car attendant came through: "First call for breakfast! First call!" I nudged my friend, and told him to get up to go for breakfast. "You mean they serve food on this train?" Yes, I told him, two cars up in the diner. "You mean you can go between cars?"

Breakfast was excellent; I had the pancakes with bacon and my companion had fried eggs to order. Because of the airline strike the train was packed, and I mean really packed. We had sold the diner out of cold soda by Temple. Fortunately they were able to restock somewhat in Fort Worth. There the Dallas section joined us; another Hi-Level coach, a single-level coach, a full lounge car, and another sleeper and tail-end baggage. There was so much business north of Fort Worth that the conductor was assigning seating in the lounge car.

Unfortunately for the unlucky passengers, someone in Amtrak's maintenance department...probably several someones...screwed the pooch. For whatever reason...I suspect failure to fill the water tanks on the old steam-jet system cars...almost all of the single-level cars had their A/C go out on the way. July, summer, packed house...not fun. Fortunately the Hi-Levels had mechanical A/C driven by Diesel generators and they stayed cool. But you had to guard your seats with your life!

I hadn't really understood how Amtrak checked baggage worked; we checked our bags to Chicago, claimed them there, put them in a coin-operated locker (remember those?), then re-checked them to East Lansing on the Blue Water (which still offered checked bags in those days). A week later, we made the return trip, again in coach, again in the same trainset...although this time the A/C worked much better; Chicago maintenance apparently being more diligent than Texas.

Still, I was hooked. Still am!

 

[City of Miami]

Wow. A national latin convention. I never heard of such a thing and I minored in latin at ccny. Such wise choices were made at that age ha ha

 

[willem]

the national Latin convention

Was that the NJCL (National Junior Classical League) convention? I've not been to one of its meetings, but I've been to several ACL (American Classical League) Institutes, some by Amtrak.

 

[Deni]

Having grown up in suburban Atlanta, Amtrak was not on my radar as it was not anything my family did. My love of train riding probably began when the first MARTA line opened from downtown to the eastern suburbs close to me when I was 9-years-old. I started going to school in the city when I was 12 and rode MARTA there, and really got to explore the city by train by myself.

I moved to the Chicago suburbs my senior year of high school and was suddenly in a place where passenger trains were a thing. Took Metra a lot to get in to the city with friends.

I finally took my first Amtrak after starting college at WIU in Macomb. So my first ride was my first semester of college in 1989 when I rode home for a break. Back then it was only the once-daily IL Zephyr as there was no Carl Sandburg yet, so going home always required an ungodly-for-a-college-student departure of 7am.

Except for move-in and move-out day I always rode the IZ to/from Chicago and the Metra to/from the northwest burbs for my school breaks. Back then it was unreserved coach so I would buy a pack of 10 IZ tickets that saved me money over the single tickets (though I forget how much it saved me). I learned not to travel on the Friday or Saturday that break started because the train would be so full there would be people sitting in the aisles.

 

[Ziv]

My first Amtrak trip was in 1973 or 1974 on the Empire Builder from Glasgow Montana to Seattle. Talk about whiplash, I was so busy trying to soak in all the "famous" sights alongside the railroad tracks at the same time as I was studying the train, going from front to back, over and over. And the Builder sure seemed to have a LOT of cars at that time. But the Dome Car became my hangout pretty quickly. We ate pretty well at home but the Dining Car was an eye opener. I had Halibut, either coming or going, and it was so good I was simply amazed. The tiny little bedroom was so cool in the day and when I came back from the Dome Car it had magically transformed into its sleeping configuration. That was so cool!
My Father worked as a brakeman for Great Northern until it became Burlington Northern and knew most of the crew, at least in passing, so it was kind of cool to see my Dad in his element. He actually ended up working as a conductor later for Amtrak for several months while he recovered from a back injury. I had ridden freights with my Dad as a "stow away" both in the caboose and the locomotive between Glasgow and Williston and later to Minot (?), so I thought I was an old hand, but even though riding in the cupola with an Orange Crush was heaven, having a whole train to roam was even better. I rode in the locomotive just once but it was early on and I remember only bits and pieces, like the Playboy in the toilet area and being "asked" to blow the horn at crossings. If memory serves there was a hatch at the front of the toilet that led to a platform out front of the loco, which I thought was pretty amazing.
I doubt freight train crews are able to bring their kids along on trips nowadays. Understandable, but sad.
I wish Amtrak could bring back the Dining Car, it served such a fine meal back in the day. The Sight Seer Lounge isn't quite a Dome Car but it is pretty close, and I like the way the SSL seats are arranged.

 

[trainman74]

Was that the NJCL (National Junior Classical League) convention? I've not been to one of its meetings, but I've been to several ACL (American Classical League) Institutes, some by Amtrak.

I'll admit it: when I was in high school, circa 1991, I went to the Florida state Latin convention, which was under the auspices of the NJCL. I competed in the "Mottoes and Abbreviations" category. Didn't get to the national level, though.

On topic for this thread: as far as I can recall, my first Amtrak trip was in the summer of 1983, when I was about 8½ years old -- my family went to visit relatives in New Jersey, and flew up there, but took the train from New York Penn Station back to Tampa -- the Silver Meteor, if I recall correctly. (This was back when both Florida trains had separate Tampa/St. Petersburg and Miami sections.) We went in coach, and I really didn't get much sleep -- I've never really been able to sleep sitting up, and I've never been in coach overnight on Amtrak since!

 

[fdaley]

My first Amtrak trip was one of these, but I'm not sure exactly when one of them occurred:

1. Sometime between the fall of '73 and spring of '75, when I was barely a teenager, I got to spend the night at the NYC apartment of my big brother (10 years older and just out of college), who had caught the train bug as a kid riding the Lackawanna Railroad and was in the process of communicating this interest to me. He decided we should take a nighttime run on the Northeast Corridor, so we left Penn Station on a clocker service train (10 p.m.?) to Philadelphia. The train was nearly empty, and we switched from one side of the coach to the other, cupping our hands to the windows to see what we could see in the dark (often not much) as the train sped across NJ. After a tour of 30th Street Station, we caught the Night Owl back to New York. The coaches on that train were jammed, so we each took aisle seats a few rows apart and dosed our way back to NYP, eventually getting back to the apartment about 3 a.m.

2. At Christmastime in 1974, I traveled with my mother and brother to visit family in Florida for the holiday. Because the trip was arranged late in the game, we couldn't get through seats on the trip south, so my mother and I rode a corridor train from New York to Washington, then took a bus to Richmond. The bus stop in Richmond was along some four-lane road nowhere near downtown, but eventually we made our way to the old Broad Street station, which was in its death throes, and my brother met us there. We continued south on the Silver Star to Tampa, following the old Seaboard route through Henderson NC. On the return trip we rode the Champion via the ACL route from Tampa to NYP. We must have eaten something on a trip of that length, but I honestly have no recollection of the dining or lounge cars. It was a coach trip all the way; our mother was undoubtedly paying for the trip, and in those years she likely would have considered sleeper rooms and diner meals to be outrageously expensive.

I do remember that the coach on the Champion had a capacious men's lounge area adjacent to the restroom. Somewhere north of Savannah, I met another kid about my age, and we sat on the chairs in that lounge and talked about all sorts of adolescent topics -- until his mom poked her head in and told us that the entire car could hear us and that people were trying to sleep.

 

[ehbowen]

Was that the NJCL (National Junior Classical League) convention? I've not been to one of its meetings, but I've been to several ACL (American Classical League) Institutes, some by Amtrak.

Yes, the National Junior Classical League. My high school was in the top three (usually the top one!) in the Texas State Junior Classical League for essentially the entire tenure of my former high school teacher, Richard Golenko (now retired).

Edit To Add: My area of specialty was Roman History. I may not be able to conjugate many verbs, but I can tell you why Hannibal lost the big one!

 

[mlanoue]

I finally took my first Amtrak after starting college at WIU in Macomb. So my first ride was my first semester of college in 1989 when I rode home for a break. Back then it was only the once-daily IL Zephyr as there was no Carl Sandburg yet, so going home always required an ungodly-for-a-college-student departure of 7am.

Yes, that once-a-day train was faster than the bus from Macomb, but way too early! I took it in '90 through '92 and it was packed every time.

The reason I was so determined to ride the train, however, was because I so enjoyed my first trip on Amtrak back in '81. There must have been a 10th anniversary deal going on that year, because my dad booked our family vacation on the San Francisco Zephyr from Chicago, and the Southwest Limited back, with a stopover in Flagstaff. Saw lots of great things in California, but remembered the train rides most of all. I was 9 and we rode coach the whole way there and back. I probably should have hated it, but I thought it was great! (I think my mom might have hated it.)

 

[Dakota 400]

the National Junior Classical League.

It's interesting to me that a few of us who participate on this Forum studied Latin and must have studied it well enough to engage in competitions. I studied Latin for all 4 years in high school. Never heard anything about the National Junior Classical League. All 3 of my Latin teachers were experienced in the subject, one having taught the subject for 30 years. All were excellent teachers and I really enjoyed studying the language. It has helped me with my vocabulary, my enjoyment of reading some of the Classics as well as learning history, and made learning another foreign language in college easier.

 

[Bob Dylan]

It's interesting to me that a few of us who participate on this Forum studied Latin and must have studied it well enough to engage in competitions. I studied Latin for all 4 years in high school. Never heard anything about the National Junior Classical League. All 3 of my Latin teachers were experienced in the subject, one having taught the subject for 30 years. All were excellent teachers and I really enjoyed studying the language. It has helped me with my vocabulary, my enjoyment of reading some of the Classics as well as learning history, and made learning another foreign language in college easier.

For those of a certain age that were Catholic( before Vatican II), Latin was the Language of the Mass, and the Missals all had English Translations on the opposite Page so you picked up some Latin that way.

If you went to Catholic School, Latin was required in most Schools, and @ Catholic Universities IINM, Latin was a required subject.

Since I was raised as a Catholic, the Latin exposure helped me when I took French and Spanish in School and College, as was said.

 

[Willbridge]

Was that the NJCL (National Junior Classical League) convention? I've not been to one of its meetings, but I've been to several ACL (American Classical League) Institutes, some by Amtrak.

My big high school had a Latin program and also produced the Oregon statewide Latin newsletter monthly. I got a copy from a Latin learning friend and showed it to my dad, a career news circulation man. His comment: "Not much of a market for that..." and then he added "...except the [Catholic] University of Portland bookstore."

Back to the thread: it's interesting to note the use of rail travel for attending conferences. When dining cars existed for coach passengers I often met people who were traveling for that purpose. It's not often a separate category for surveys.

 

[Deni]

Yes, that once-a-day train was faster than the bus from Macomb, but way too early! I took it in '90 through '92 and it was packed every time.

The reason I was so determined to ride the train, however, was because I so enjoyed my first trip on Amtrak back in '81. There must have been a 10th anniversary deal going on that year, because my dad booked our family vacation on the San Francisco Zephyr from Chicago, and the Southwest Limited back, with a stopover in Flagstaff. Saw lots of great things in California, but remembered the train rides most of all. I was 9 and we rode coach the whole way there and back. I probably should have hated it, but I thought it was great! (I think my mom might have hated it.)

You can't even catch a bus from Macomb to anywhere now. No intercity bus service at all. I still go to Macomb on a fairly regular basis (one of my best friends was a theatre professor there until he retired a few years ago) and being able to catch evening trains both ways is so nice now. And the business class section makes the trip so much better too.

 

[Seaboard92]

I can think of several schools in West Virginia that have used the Cardinal for field trips to Washington, DC because I was there steward for a few years. We would take two private cars and an Amfleet II Coach and use it for them. When I was back in high school our journalism classes (Newspaper and Yearbook) were invited to New York, NY for a scholastic press convention. I tried hard to get them to chose 92 and 91 to get there. But the graveyard times out of our area tanked it for most people. It would have worked however for our group. I still took the train I'm not doing a bus ride of over 10 hours if I can take a train in similar time on the route.

When I was in college we had a program in Washington, DC for the Inauguration that we took Amtrak too. The rest of the class was in coach and I upgraded myself into the sleepers. My professor was a bit shocked but I had Rewards Points to Burn and I don't like sleeping in coach on 98.

 

[3rdRRU_PhuBai]

Amtrak, WAS-CHI, 1975, I used my AMEX card in the diner for meals. I don't recall the train(s?) I rode nor the reason I took Amtrak. The diner charges hit my AMEX statement about six months later and I thought at the time that Amtrak wouldn't survive the year if that was the best they could do processing revenue. I was wrong of course because I didn't consider that the federal treasury would provide an endless supply of "revenue."

 

[Steve4031]

Amtrak, WAS-CHI, 1975, I used my AMEX card in the diner for meals. I don't recall the train(s?) I rode nor the reason I took Amtrak. The diner charges hit my AMEX statement about six months later and I thought at the time that Amtrak wouldn't survive the year if that was the best they could do processing revenue. I was wrong of course because I didn't consider that the federal treasury would provide an endless supply of "revenue."

You rode the Washington section of the Broadway Limited

 

[Chatter163]

My first ride on Amtrak was in July 1973 on the 'Washingtonian' from Montreal to New York. I was in coach and didn’t get much sleep that night. I remember getting off at White River Jct in the wee hours of the morning....and by the time we reached Springfield we were over 3 hours late after crawling for miles along the bankrupt Boston & Maine RR. I was fascinated by all the old abandoned railroad infrastructure I was seeing. Then it was on to New Haven and my first encounter with a GG-1. I walked forward for pictures while it replaced our E8s for the run into Penn Station........ where we finally arrived in early afternoon.

This was the same train, year and month that I rode, from NY-Montreal on the 31st, and back a week later. We stayed at the Queen Elizabeth upstairs. Great memories.