After spending a day and a half at my uncle's, we left on Tuesday the 22nd from Bloomington, bound for LA, on the Texas Eagle. Our good luck with on-time trains ran out before we even started, as the message board showed a delay of 15 minutes. Looking at the Amtrak tracker, I saw the Eagle was stopped outside of Joliet. The delay went on longer and longer, and it turned out the Eagle stayed stopped for over an hour, for no reason we ever discovered. By the time we left Bloomington we were an hour and five minutes late. Fortunately the line to St. Louis doesn't see as much freight traffic as some, and there is padding between Alton and St. Louis, so we'd be fine. The dining experience was a bit different than that of the EB, as our dining car attendant, a very good one and whose name I also forget (names are the first to go and I forget the second
) not only took our dinner reservation but asked which entree we wanted. That was a big time saver for them, she said, as the sleeper was completely full. She also encouraged passengers to eat in their rooms, so naturally we had our meals in the diner for all meals. 
The diner was configured the same as in the EB, with seating at alternating tables and no communal seating. We received our meals immediately upon being seated. Too bad they can't do that with regular dining!!! We stayed about an hour behind, but figured to cut that deficit into St. Louis. As was a recurring theme on the Eagle and Sunset, wrong answer. Just a mile or so out of the St. Louis station, we came to a stop at a red signal. "Just a minute or so" turned out to be almost half an hour. So much for padding and making up time. I love skylines of cities lit up at night, though, so I got a shot of the St. Louis skyline without the movement of the train blurring it.
At St. Louis, I was on the platform, minding my own business, when a recap in a cart approached the train with an elderly gentleman in tow. I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention, but I heard a crash and saw the man had a plastic box with miscellaneous items in it that he was trying to balance on his walker, and had dropped the box, spilling its contents under the train. I wasn't paying close attention to that point, but it seems to me the car attendant, Erroll, and/or the red cap could have been more help. The redcap couldn't as she appeared to be not a whole lot younger than the man and Erroll wouldn't help retrieve the items, so I put my 22+ years of experience in the grocery industry, getting up and down and spending a lot of time on my knees, and knelt down on the platform and reached under the train to get his things. That probably violated any number of safety protocols, but oh well. It turns out the items were cassette tapes, a portable tape player, and candy bars, for the most part. Once I had picked up everything I could, there were still several things out of reach. So I laid down flat on the platform, hoping against hope that A) I didn't fall and get stuck and B) my phone didn't fall under the train and C) I'd be able to get back up!!! Once I got everything (I think) I used my phone's flashlight to look for items I might have missed in the dark. Good thing I did because I couldn't see the power cord to the tape player without it.
After getting everything (I hope) I was able to hoist myself up. We left St. Louis not a whole lot ahead of what we were. I went to bed right away but was unable to sleep too well, not unusual my first night on a train. I dozed off and on, and was awake as we rolled into Little Rock little more than half an hour late. More time made up, I thought. Wrong answer again. We sat in Little Rock half an hour, so still stayed an hour behind, actually not bad considering a lot of time is lost due to UP shenanigans throughout Arkansas. I dozed again after Little Rock, and woke for good at Texarkana, where, thanks to Tropical Storm Beta, I was treated to a driving rainstorm.
As we made our way toward Dallas, we surprisingly didn't encounter any UP interference, and in fact arrived in Dallas half an hour early, affording us nearly an hour fresh air break. In a first for me, I encountered cloudy and chilly conditions there, again due to Beta. I have only a very small sample size but's been invariably 100+ degrees and sunny.
We left Dallas right on time and as we did so, crossed over Dealey Plaza, the scene of course of President John F. Kennedy's assassination. It always gives me chills to see this.
We encountered no delays into Fort Worth, arriving early and again having an hour long fresh air break. By now the sun had broken through the clouds. We left on time, and continued to make good time and still surprisingly encountered no UP freight train interference. At Temple, we were joined by Jim Hudson, aka Bob Dylan from the AU forums. It was good to be able to catch up with him again. It was like having our own tour guide as he told us of the towns we were passing through, their history, and the industries that were making these towns' population boom. We met in the lounge, and I saw something there that bothered me greatly. I don't think Jim nor my uncle noticed, but there was a young Amish or Mennonite girl who was singing in the lounge. No problem, but a uniformed Amtrak employee (not sure which one) went up to her, told her to cease and desist her impromptu concert, this was her first and last warning, and if she didn't stop she'd be thrown off the train. Whichever position she held on Amtrak, I thought this was way over the top.
As we approached Austin, we began to encounter delays to freight traffic. We said our goodbyes to Jim as he returned to his home in Austin. Our dining car attendant, who had said last seating for dinner would be at 6:30, around the same time as our arrival into Austin, graciously extended dinner hour to accommodate us and allow us to visit with Jim as long as we could. Talk about going above and beyond!!!! Wish I could remember the good one's names and not the bad ones. After Austin, we did run into more freight traffic. I went to bed right after San Marcos. I was asleep before San Antonio and slept through the switching there.
I'm running low on my phone's battery power so will cut it off here and continue with the Sunset Limited portion later.
) not only took our dinner reservation but asked which entree we wanted. That was a big time saver for them, she said, as the sleeper was completely full. She also encouraged passengers to eat in their rooms, so naturally we had our meals in the diner for all meals. The diner was configured the same as in the EB, with seating at alternating tables and no communal seating. We received our meals immediately upon being seated. Too bad they can't do that with regular dining!!! We stayed about an hour behind, but figured to cut that deficit into St. Louis. As was a recurring theme on the Eagle and Sunset, wrong answer. Just a mile or so out of the St. Louis station, we came to a stop at a red signal. "Just a minute or so" turned out to be almost half an hour. So much for padding and making up time. I love skylines of cities lit up at night, though, so I got a shot of the St. Louis skyline without the movement of the train blurring it.At St. Louis, I was on the platform, minding my own business, when a recap in a cart approached the train with an elderly gentleman in tow. I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention, but I heard a crash and saw the man had a plastic box with miscellaneous items in it that he was trying to balance on his walker, and had dropped the box, spilling its contents under the train. I wasn't paying close attention to that point, but it seems to me the car attendant, Erroll, and/or the red cap could have been more help. The redcap couldn't as she appeared to be not a whole lot younger than the man and Erroll wouldn't help retrieve the items, so I put my 22+ years of experience in the grocery industry, getting up and down and spending a lot of time on my knees, and knelt down on the platform and reached under the train to get his things. That probably violated any number of safety protocols, but oh well. It turns out the items were cassette tapes, a portable tape player, and candy bars, for the most part. Once I had picked up everything I could, there were still several things out of reach. So I laid down flat on the platform, hoping against hope that A) I didn't fall and get stuck and B) my phone didn't fall under the train and C) I'd be able to get back up!!! Once I got everything (I think) I used my phone's flashlight to look for items I might have missed in the dark. Good thing I did because I couldn't see the power cord to the tape player without it.
After getting everything (I hope) I was able to hoist myself up. We left St. Louis not a whole lot ahead of what we were. I went to bed right away but was unable to sleep too well, not unusual my first night on a train. I dozed off and on, and was awake as we rolled into Little Rock little more than half an hour late. More time made up, I thought. Wrong answer again. We sat in Little Rock half an hour, so still stayed an hour behind, actually not bad considering a lot of time is lost due to UP shenanigans throughout Arkansas. I dozed again after Little Rock, and woke for good at Texarkana, where, thanks to Tropical Storm Beta, I was treated to a driving rainstorm.
As we made our way toward Dallas, we surprisingly didn't encounter any UP interference, and in fact arrived in Dallas half an hour early, affording us nearly an hour fresh air break. In a first for me, I encountered cloudy and chilly conditions there, again due to Beta. I have only a very small sample size but's been invariably 100+ degrees and sunny.
We left Dallas right on time and as we did so, crossed over Dealey Plaza, the scene of course of President John F. Kennedy's assassination. It always gives me chills to see this.
We encountered no delays into Fort Worth, arriving early and again having an hour long fresh air break. By now the sun had broken through the clouds. We left on time, and continued to make good time and still surprisingly encountered no UP freight train interference. At Temple, we were joined by Jim Hudson, aka Bob Dylan from the AU forums. It was good to be able to catch up with him again. It was like having our own tour guide as he told us of the towns we were passing through, their history, and the industries that were making these towns' population boom. We met in the lounge, and I saw something there that bothered me greatly. I don't think Jim nor my uncle noticed, but there was a young Amish or Mennonite girl who was singing in the lounge. No problem, but a uniformed Amtrak employee (not sure which one) went up to her, told her to cease and desist her impromptu concert, this was her first and last warning, and if she didn't stop she'd be thrown off the train. Whichever position she held on Amtrak, I thought this was way over the top.
As we approached Austin, we began to encounter delays to freight traffic. We said our goodbyes to Jim as he returned to his home in Austin. Our dining car attendant, who had said last seating for dinner would be at 6:30, around the same time as our arrival into Austin, graciously extended dinner hour to accommodate us and allow us to visit with Jim as long as we could. Talk about going above and beyond!!!! Wish I could remember the good one's names and not the bad ones. After Austin, we did run into more freight traffic. I went to bed right after San Marcos. I was asleep before San Antonio and slept through the switching there.
I'm running low on my phone's battery power so will cut it off here and continue with the Sunset Limited portion later.
