Grand Central Sanderson Station

[Greenline]

I might be the only person to have taken Amtrak to three of those stations in FY23. Those being Sanderson, Lordsburg, and Schriever.

Sanderson was an incredibly nice and cute town in my opinion. I love to take Amtrak to small towns, and Sanderson was a gem. It wasn’t that hard to get around without a car. Almost everything is under a 15 minute walk. However, Sanderson does not have any full service grocery stores, fine dining, or other normal town amenities. Preparation is essential.

I am restoring the old bank building across the street from the Sanderson platform. I plan to make the bank lodging available for Amtrak rail fans touring the conntry. Should be ready in a year or so, Thank you for giving Sanderson a tour.

 

[Rasputin]

I am restoring the old bank building across the street from the Sanderson platform. I plan to make the bank lodging available for Amtrak rail fans touring the conntry. Should be ready in a year or so, Thank you for giving Sanderson a tour.

Is there any restaurant in Sanderson?

 

[Bob Dylan]

Is there any restaurant in Sanderson?

There's a couple I think are OK:
"The Ranch House" and "Eat 'em Up"
plus a Coffee Shop for Breakfast I cant remember the Name of!

The 2 Cafes serve Burgers,Fries,Chicken Fried,Nachos Steak etc. Nothing Fancy, but reasonable.

 

[cirdan]

Yeah I've always been kind of puzzled that both CONO and Crescent seem to underperform in Mississippi and Alabama in spite of daytime service and relatively cheap fares. They mostly serve small / smallish towns but the overall population density is still far greater than most of the Great Plains and Mountin/Intermountain West. But traffic at many of these MS/AL stations is pretty lukewarm at best.

The Crescent seems to have been cancelled on its southern portion quite frequently in recent years for track work, to the point that it almost stretches the definition of daily service.

 

[Rasputin]

There's a couple I think are OK:
"The Ranch House" and "Eat 'em Up"
plus a Coffee Shop for Breakfast I cant remember the Name of!

The 2 Cafes serve Burgers,Fries,Chicken Fried,Nachos Steak etc. Nothing Fancy, but reasonable.

It is reassuring to know that starvation is not the only option in Sanderson.

 

[Northwestern]

Sanderson, Texas was near the site of one of the last great train robberies in Texas:

https://is.gd/Qmr3Lz

Ben Kilpatrick, on of the two train robbers, was an original member of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang.

 

[jimdex]

The Crescent seems to have been cancelled on its southern portion quite frequently in recent years for track work, to the point that it almost stretches the definition of daily service.

Because of an annual track work project, Amtrak has to curtail service on the Atlanta-New Orleans leg of the Crescent for several weeks every winter.

 

[railiner]

Because of an annual track work project, Amtrak has to curtail service on the Atlanta-New Orleans leg of the Crescent for several weeks every winter.

Why is that? It doesn’t seem to happen in most other places. They seem to be able to do maintenance while continuing service…

 

[Peter_Travels]

I've passed through Sanderson too many times to count (both train and car) but only remember a gas station, a bank, and a motel. Everything else seemed to be pretty dead, but I never looked that closely so I could have it wrong. I’ve stayed in Alpine several times and outside Marathon once but never in Sanderson. Did you ever write up a trip report on your tiny towns?

I have not written a trip report about my trips and posted it on the forum, but I will keep it in mind on my next trip.

 

[Peter_Travels]

I am restoring the old bank building across the street from the Sanderson platform. I plan to make the bank lodging available for Amtrak rail fans touring the conntry. Should be ready in a year or so, Thank you for giving Sanderson a tour.

That’s great to hear! Sanderson was a really nice town and I would definitely go back if I get the chance! Best of luck to you.

 

[jimdex]

Why is that? It doesn’t seem to happen in most other places. They seem to be able to do maintenance while continuing service…

I've always wondered about that myself. It may have something to do with the fact that Atlanta-New Orleans is basically a single-track railroad, but then again, there are a lot of Amtrak segments like that.

 

[west point]

Why is that? It doesn’t seem to happen in most other places. They seem to be able to do maintenance while continuing service…

CSX does it on the ALB - BOS route. many times Amtrak changes train times to meet work windows. That has happened on the CSX "A" line. Also the Sunset route on UP.

 

[railiner]

CSX does it on the ALB - BOS route. many times Amtrak changes train times to meet work windows. That has happened on the CSX "A" line. Also the Sunset route on UP.

Hmmmn….I wonder if those roads also “curtail” their freight train service when doing that annual maintenance?

 

[jis]

Hmmmn….I wonder if those roads also “curtail” their freight train service when doing that annual maintenance?

They typically take the lines out of service during work windows which happens to be in the daytime usually. If Amtrak traverses that segment during that time it gets canceled since Amtrak for multiple reasons, does not have the flexibility of rescheduling their trains when the line is open at night. Freight trains simply get moved to a slot when the line is open.

There are examples in other countries like India where LD trains get mass rescheduled on a work outage day around the work window. It is easy for them since they control the thing soup to nuts. It is not that easy when you have to keep multiple constituencies happy when trying to make such temporary adjustments as is the case in the US. Amtrak still manages to pull such adjustments off from time to time.