Texan Eagle
Conductor
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2011
- Messages
- 1,705
Tasting First Blood- Texas Eagle to San Antonio - Part 1 of 2
Dallas to San Antonio
Date: Sat Sept 03, 2011.
Train: 21 Texas Eagle. Coach class.
It was my long cherished dream to ride a long distance Amtrak train and since this was the day it would be fulfilled, I was excited. More so because I decided to leave my car back home and do the trip by public transport all the way. Left home quite early, at 9.30am to catch a bus operated by Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) that connects to Parker Road station on DART's Red Line, from where I could get a direct train to Dallas Union Station. I reached the station by 11.15am in time for Texas Eagle's scheduled arrival time of 11.30am. I had checked the train status online before leaving home and it was running some two hours behind schedule so I was mentally prepared for a long wait. The Amtrak counter at the station had a board that stated "21/421 scheduled to arrive 1pm or later". This being quite ambiguous I asked the lady at the counter if she knew more specifics about the delay and in reply I was met by the often-talked-about Amtrak staff rudeness. She just said "I am not onboard the train to know more details" and went away. This is 2011, not 1930s. Being onboard isn't the best way to know a train status, I wanted to tell her but she was long gone from the counter.
Having more than two hours to kill I took a DART train (I had a Day Pass valid for unlimited rides) to downtown, had lunch and took a train back to Union Station by 1.00pm. By now impatient passengers had moved out to the platforms but no signs of Texas Eagle. Around 1.40pm a Union Pacific freight train passed by non-stop so I thought no chance of Texas Eagle showing up for another fifteen minutes or so, but in ten minutes without any warning the seven car long train consisting of double decker Superliners hauled by a single Amtrak P42 diesel locomotive pulled into platform 5. A staff member checked my ticket and asked me to proceed to a coach car and grab any vacant seat. When I boarded half the car was empty and I took my own time to select a good window seat. One thing I noticed is, different rows of seats have varying legroom, for example the seat I took up had tremendous legroom and my legs could barely reach the footrest, but the row just behind had so less legroom that I would have to bend my legs at the knees to put them on footrests. I have no idea what is the reason for this! Although the car was old, one good thing was that during rebuilding they have added standard 120V plug points for all coach seats. Departure from Dallas was quite interesting. The train was backed out on the track it was occupying and after moving for almost a mile in reverse, we were switched on to adjacent track, passed the Union Station once again without stopping and took a sharp left turn to cross the Trinity river and head towards Fort Worth. It is a double track section and I was surprised for a moment to see us travelling on the left side track, but the reason for this was revealed the next day. Just outside Fort Worth is a diamond crossing where double track Union Pacific mainline crosses double track BNSF mainline at grade. Coming from Dallas, the Fort Worth Amtrak station is on the right side but we took a left turn on to the BNSF line, went a little ahead, and then backed in all the way across the diamond into the station! This was quite an interesting type of reversal to see.
Immediately after our arrival, the other Texas Eagle- heading northbound to Chicago, also pulled into Frt Worth and both stood on either sides of the same platform. I had alighted and was on the platform when the northbound Eagle was arriving and I started walking towards the end of the platform to photograph the engines of both Eagles crossing each other but I was stopped by an Amtrak employee to go any further once I reached around the first car of our train. The P42 of the northbound Eagle had some problems, so it was removed and another P42 attached to it. While this entire exercise was going on, it was blocking fuel line to our train so we had to wait until they were done for our refueling. Finally after a 1 hour 15 minute halt we departed Fort Worth but right then Union Pacific decided to dispatch a freight, making us wait before the diamond crossing. Once on the move, I grabbed my camera, time table and GPS and headed to the Sightseer Lounge Car. With its large double windows it gives a panoramic view of the surrounding scenery but I was not much impressed with the seating arrangement. The single seats, I found, are a bit too far from the window and the glasses reflect too much interior to be able to take any good photos. By now the Dining Car attendant had come to take dinner reservations and was offering 5.30pm or 6pm slots. I asked him if there are any later slots since this is too early for my usual dinner time but he refused so I booked a 6pm slot.
I was under the impression that since the tracks are owned by freight companies they must be giving priority to their freights over Amtrak trains resulting in regular delays, but BNSF proved me wrong as we made our way past no more than eight freights in a couple of hours without stopping even once to let a freight cross us on the single track section. Very nice hosts indeed! The first stop was at Cleburne which was very brief, less than a minute. I had my car GPS with me and had it turned on throughout the journey to track the route and the speed of the train and we mostly stayed around 60 mph, speeding up to 79 mph a few times. The next stop, McGregor was again a brief one. Here one of the young guys sitting in the Lounge Car was getting off and he said was going to propose his girlfriend who was coming to pick him at the station. True to his word, he did it right at the platform and the moment was captured by a couple of passengers on their cameras, although I missed it being on the other side of the car. By now it was 6.25pm, way beyond the 6pm slot I had reserved for dinner. I walked to the Dining Car where I was stopped by the attendant and he joked that I would have to pay double because I was late. People were still having their dinner at all but one tables in the Dining Car. He led me to that empty table where I was seated all by myself. I ordered the Vegetarian Lasagna which tasted good, nothing extraordinary, nothing to complain about, and it was accompanied by a small dish of salad which seemed fresh. By waiting in the Sightseer car a bit too long, I missed out on the opportunity of socializing at dinner since I ended up having dinner alone. On my way back I asked the attendant if he would be working on the train next day morning too, since I was going to be on the return trip as well, and he made some joke about banning me from entering the Dining Car and putting up my photo that said I was a terrorist. Now, he may be joking all along but I don't think that's the kind of jokes I would appreciate.
While I was having dinner we stopped at Temple which is a desginated smoke-stop meaning the train would halt longer than usual and passengers are allowed to deboard the train to stretch out and/or smoke. After Temple, we diverted from BNSF to Union Pacific hosted tracks and the rot in performance started rightaway. All the way from Temple to Taylor, we had to crawl at around 40-45 mph. I am not sure if this was due to freight congestion or bad quality of tracks, but its bad either ways. We pulled into Taylor after sunset and just as we were ready to depart, a freight was dispatched ahead of us. This host railroad should be rather called Union Pathetic. The speeds on this section were good, in the range of 70-75 mph but within half hour, we were again sidelined by Union Pathetic to let a freight pass. We finally reached Austin, the next smoke-stop around 8.45pm, more than two hours behind schedule. The run from Austin to San Marcos was uneventful and since it was dark outside I just spent time watching a couple of sitcoms on my laptop. After San Marcos I was curious to see what happens, since the time table assigns 2 hours 43 minutes for a 52 mile distance! Either the track and traffic would be extremely bad or there is too much slack time incorporated to reduce the delay seen in arrival at San Antonio. It turned out to be both. The last few miles out of San Antonio are quite a pain with dozens of grade crossings requiring constant honking and slow track speeds, resulting in us taking 1 hour 43 minutes to cover the 52 miles, arriving in San Antonio at 11.17pm, 1 hour 22 minutes behind schedule. The Sunset Limited from Los Angeles scheduled to arrive over an hour back had not arrived yet, so ours was the only train at the station when I deboarded, ending my first long distance Amtrak journey.
The return journey from San Antonio to Dallas will be covered in Part 2.
Dallas to San Antonio
Date: Sat Sept 03, 2011.
Train: 21 Texas Eagle. Coach class.
It was my long cherished dream to ride a long distance Amtrak train and since this was the day it would be fulfilled, I was excited. More so because I decided to leave my car back home and do the trip by public transport all the way. Left home quite early, at 9.30am to catch a bus operated by Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) that connects to Parker Road station on DART's Red Line, from where I could get a direct train to Dallas Union Station. I reached the station by 11.15am in time for Texas Eagle's scheduled arrival time of 11.30am. I had checked the train status online before leaving home and it was running some two hours behind schedule so I was mentally prepared for a long wait. The Amtrak counter at the station had a board that stated "21/421 scheduled to arrive 1pm or later". This being quite ambiguous I asked the lady at the counter if she knew more specifics about the delay and in reply I was met by the often-talked-about Amtrak staff rudeness. She just said "I am not onboard the train to know more details" and went away. This is 2011, not 1930s. Being onboard isn't the best way to know a train status, I wanted to tell her but she was long gone from the counter.
Having more than two hours to kill I took a DART train (I had a Day Pass valid for unlimited rides) to downtown, had lunch and took a train back to Union Station by 1.00pm. By now impatient passengers had moved out to the platforms but no signs of Texas Eagle. Around 1.40pm a Union Pacific freight train passed by non-stop so I thought no chance of Texas Eagle showing up for another fifteen minutes or so, but in ten minutes without any warning the seven car long train consisting of double decker Superliners hauled by a single Amtrak P42 diesel locomotive pulled into platform 5. A staff member checked my ticket and asked me to proceed to a coach car and grab any vacant seat. When I boarded half the car was empty and I took my own time to select a good window seat. One thing I noticed is, different rows of seats have varying legroom, for example the seat I took up had tremendous legroom and my legs could barely reach the footrest, but the row just behind had so less legroom that I would have to bend my legs at the knees to put them on footrests. I have no idea what is the reason for this! Although the car was old, one good thing was that during rebuilding they have added standard 120V plug points for all coach seats. Departure from Dallas was quite interesting. The train was backed out on the track it was occupying and after moving for almost a mile in reverse, we were switched on to adjacent track, passed the Union Station once again without stopping and took a sharp left turn to cross the Trinity river and head towards Fort Worth. It is a double track section and I was surprised for a moment to see us travelling on the left side track, but the reason for this was revealed the next day. Just outside Fort Worth is a diamond crossing where double track Union Pacific mainline crosses double track BNSF mainline at grade. Coming from Dallas, the Fort Worth Amtrak station is on the right side but we took a left turn on to the BNSF line, went a little ahead, and then backed in all the way across the diamond into the station! This was quite an interesting type of reversal to see.
Immediately after our arrival, the other Texas Eagle- heading northbound to Chicago, also pulled into Frt Worth and both stood on either sides of the same platform. I had alighted and was on the platform when the northbound Eagle was arriving and I started walking towards the end of the platform to photograph the engines of both Eagles crossing each other but I was stopped by an Amtrak employee to go any further once I reached around the first car of our train. The P42 of the northbound Eagle had some problems, so it was removed and another P42 attached to it. While this entire exercise was going on, it was blocking fuel line to our train so we had to wait until they were done for our refueling. Finally after a 1 hour 15 minute halt we departed Fort Worth but right then Union Pacific decided to dispatch a freight, making us wait before the diamond crossing. Once on the move, I grabbed my camera, time table and GPS and headed to the Sightseer Lounge Car. With its large double windows it gives a panoramic view of the surrounding scenery but I was not much impressed with the seating arrangement. The single seats, I found, are a bit too far from the window and the glasses reflect too much interior to be able to take any good photos. By now the Dining Car attendant had come to take dinner reservations and was offering 5.30pm or 6pm slots. I asked him if there are any later slots since this is too early for my usual dinner time but he refused so I booked a 6pm slot.
I was under the impression that since the tracks are owned by freight companies they must be giving priority to their freights over Amtrak trains resulting in regular delays, but BNSF proved me wrong as we made our way past no more than eight freights in a couple of hours without stopping even once to let a freight cross us on the single track section. Very nice hosts indeed! The first stop was at Cleburne which was very brief, less than a minute. I had my car GPS with me and had it turned on throughout the journey to track the route and the speed of the train and we mostly stayed around 60 mph, speeding up to 79 mph a few times. The next stop, McGregor was again a brief one. Here one of the young guys sitting in the Lounge Car was getting off and he said was going to propose his girlfriend who was coming to pick him at the station. True to his word, he did it right at the platform and the moment was captured by a couple of passengers on their cameras, although I missed it being on the other side of the car. By now it was 6.25pm, way beyond the 6pm slot I had reserved for dinner. I walked to the Dining Car where I was stopped by the attendant and he joked that I would have to pay double because I was late. People were still having their dinner at all but one tables in the Dining Car. He led me to that empty table where I was seated all by myself. I ordered the Vegetarian Lasagna which tasted good, nothing extraordinary, nothing to complain about, and it was accompanied by a small dish of salad which seemed fresh. By waiting in the Sightseer car a bit too long, I missed out on the opportunity of socializing at dinner since I ended up having dinner alone. On my way back I asked the attendant if he would be working on the train next day morning too, since I was going to be on the return trip as well, and he made some joke about banning me from entering the Dining Car and putting up my photo that said I was a terrorist. Now, he may be joking all along but I don't think that's the kind of jokes I would appreciate.
While I was having dinner we stopped at Temple which is a desginated smoke-stop meaning the train would halt longer than usual and passengers are allowed to deboard the train to stretch out and/or smoke. After Temple, we diverted from BNSF to Union Pacific hosted tracks and the rot in performance started rightaway. All the way from Temple to Taylor, we had to crawl at around 40-45 mph. I am not sure if this was due to freight congestion or bad quality of tracks, but its bad either ways. We pulled into Taylor after sunset and just as we were ready to depart, a freight was dispatched ahead of us. This host railroad should be rather called Union Pathetic. The speeds on this section were good, in the range of 70-75 mph but within half hour, we were again sidelined by Union Pathetic to let a freight pass. We finally reached Austin, the next smoke-stop around 8.45pm, more than two hours behind schedule. The run from Austin to San Marcos was uneventful and since it was dark outside I just spent time watching a couple of sitcoms on my laptop. After San Marcos I was curious to see what happens, since the time table assigns 2 hours 43 minutes for a 52 mile distance! Either the track and traffic would be extremely bad or there is too much slack time incorporated to reduce the delay seen in arrival at San Antonio. It turned out to be both. The last few miles out of San Antonio are quite a pain with dozens of grade crossings requiring constant honking and slow track speeds, resulting in us taking 1 hour 43 minutes to cover the 52 miles, arriving in San Antonio at 11.17pm, 1 hour 22 minutes behind schedule. The Sunset Limited from Los Angeles scheduled to arrive over an hour back had not arrived yet, so ours was the only train at the station when I deboarded, ending my first long distance Amtrak journey.
The return journey from San Antonio to Dallas will be covered in Part 2.
Last edited by a moderator:
Actually "Tony" isnt all that funny, you should have told him you didnt appreciate the remarks! Do let Amtrak know, these people need retraining or another profession!!! Jim
