Hello everyone, I thought would finally getting around to posting my trip report. My wife and took our first train trip in early December that took us from our home town of Fort Worth,Tx. to Key Largo Fla. via Chicago, Washington DC, and Miami.(we rented a car and drove to Key Largo,stayed for a week, then flew home hence our Trains,planes,and automobiles X-mas vacation to ourselves).We thought it was such a great way to see this beautiful country at a relaxing pace, we would do it again.
Our trip started on 3/22/2010. We left FTW to SAS.(purchased seperate from our 8 seg. rail pass) The #421 TE left on time,it was a nice smooth ride our SCA was Robert who did a great job,coffe,juice,water,and ice were all readily available and all the restrooms were clean.We had an early dinner I had been wanting some more of those ribs like I had in Dec. they were out so I had steak insteadMy wife had the salmon,both were good.The dining crew all did a great job. We were eating when we went thru Temple, missed a nice photo op lots of interesting things to see on both sides of the train.We were right on time when we pulled into the Taylor,Tx. depot which was great since our beloved Jim Hudson who had been out riding the newly opened red line was going to meet us at the Austin depot. I looked at my wife and said"right on schedule" ......as we came to a grinding halt two minutes out of Taylor.The conductor informed us of trackwork ahead and said we would be underway in a few minutes,a few minutes turned into two and a half hours late,right Jim.We were really suprised to see ol' Jim and his significant other waiting for us as we pulled into AUS. depot. I thought it was really nice of Jim to wait that long,and it just shows what kind of guy Jim is when he gives his word.Thanks Jim
. say hi to Stacy for us!We made up a little time and pulled into SAS around midnite, where we were forced to de-train unexpectedly. I thought since we were on the #421 FTW-SAS, but were on #1 SAS to LAX, we would be able to stay on the TE until the SL started to board.Robert our SCA said no, he needed the room for some other ticketed pxs.(so much for Robert being a good guy LOL :lol: ) The SL was early and the TE was late so all in all we were in bed by 3am. Our SCA was named Julie and once again the entire OBS on the SL was great no complaints.. I was up in time to move thru the diner into a...diner that had been substituted for SSL. I watched night turn into day with a gorgeous firey red sunrise. We booked along looking at deerstand cluttered desert until we got to Del Rio where the rails 7 trails people got on board and pointed out alot of the highlights along the way.I could not hear so well so I just looked at the literature they provided and guessed at what they were saying. they had some cool hands on stuff as well.I got to see the High Bridge at Pecos A really cool bridge considering when it was built.Ther is also alot of really neat looking rock formations in the West Texas desert. We had lunch in Alpine, I had the angus burger,wife had curry chkn. and rice both were good.While stopped at Alpine Border Patrol Agents walked through the train a few times, they got off without any incidents.The trip into El Paso was just more of the same. desert and rock. Looked forward to see the station at El Paso since it was designed by the same architect that designed Washington Union Station. Expected more ,got less since it was alot smaller ,and not as grand as I was expecting.About the time I got tired of looking at the same ol' scenery, I got about 4 more hours of the same with a little variation coming into New Mexico.It rained while we were having dinner which was pretty cool and I got my bbq ribs that I wanted and they were goood.Not sure what time we went to bed because we went thru 3 time changes in about 6 hours,confusing. Got up for the 5am brkfst. and went bak to the room to get ready to detrain in LA. We arrived almost an hour early. went back and thanked the dining crew for their great service. and showed Julie my appreciation for her her service as well.
Was really impressed with LAUS. It Is a beautiful station and really taken care of,all of the employs seemed to really take pride in their building.We left our bags under the watcful eye of Alberto the great Red Cap, while we ventured out and checked out the sites near the station.We got to see the oldest house in LA which is right across the street from the station, and Olvera St. which had a lot of neat little shops with all kinds of merchandise by all kinds of vendors. LAUS is a really neat place and I wish we would have more time to chek out the nearby sites,but it was time to board the Coast Starlight we got bak just in time for Alberto to wisk us away to meet Terrance our SCA for our trip to PDX. We got settled in and Terrance came by and offered us either sparling champagne or chilled apple cider, and presented us with a small velvet bag with the Amtrak logo embroided on it and small bottles of shampoo, soap, and body lotion. He also took our lunch reservation.I couldn't wait to check out the CS. It was everything every one had said it was and more. I really liked the big comfortable armchairs that swiveled 360 degrees in Parlour Car. I ordered salad for lunch and was brought a plate of lettuce, it looked nothing like the salad the guy in the Parlour car was having :angry: . Then the ocean came in to view we were seated on the right hand side so I missed some photo ops. also our roomette #5 was on the R.H. side and the bedrooms and even nmbrd. rooms were on the L.H. sidel.I made a mental note to always try to get a room with an even number on the Coast Starlight since thats the same side the bedrooms are on.As every one has said before the bedrooms were on the ocean side of the train. it was the same when I rode a week later but this time I was in rmmte.#6.About the time we finished lunch I thought the ocean views were over, so I sat in the PPC and enjoyed the mountains and valleys. then the ocean came back and stayed with us for a long while. The views from both sides of the train were really great as I found out on this trip. There isn't a bad side of the train to sit on just a different view,and any view from a train is a NICE VIEW. Like when we pull out of San Luis Obispo and went thru the horseshoe bends and climbed up over the California Mens Colony a penitentiary that made me glad to be on the train and not in there.It was really cool to be able to see both ends of the train at the same time and to be able to look down and see where we had come from. I never really knew California had such beautiful scenery,with all the mountains and valleys. I don't know what I expected from a state formed by earthquakes though.It wasnt long before we crossed the San Andreas Fault Line, BTW the conductors so far had been very helpful in making announcements and pointing out all the points of interest along the way.The day is spent looking out the window at from either the PPC or our room and the sites in early spring were really beautiful. Darkness soon fell and I turned in shortly after we pulled out of Jack London Station.I slept really good and jumped up refreshed and ready for the day until I realized it was 2am!! I jumped back in bed and got two good nights sleep for the price of one!. It started snowing while we were at Klamath Falls it made for more beautiful scenery all the way in to PDX. I can't say enough about the whole crew on the CS #14 esp Daisy one of the waitresses in the dining car. We got into PDX on time. It was raining so I stuck pretty close to the station. I got to see a couple of the Cascades trainsets I thought were really cool with their swept back wings design. I think the CS was the roughest ride so far, but I can't wait to do it again either all the way to seattle or in reverse next time!
I will finish and post pictures later.
Our trip started on 3/22/2010. We left FTW to SAS.(purchased seperate from our 8 seg. rail pass) The #421 TE left on time,it was a nice smooth ride our SCA was Robert who did a great job,coffe,juice,water,and ice were all readily available and all the restrooms were clean.We had an early dinner I had been wanting some more of those ribs like I had in Dec. they were out so I had steak insteadMy wife had the salmon,both were good.The dining crew all did a great job. We were eating when we went thru Temple, missed a nice photo op lots of interesting things to see on both sides of the train.We were right on time when we pulled into the Taylor,Tx. depot which was great since our beloved Jim Hudson who had been out riding the newly opened red line was going to meet us at the Austin depot. I looked at my wife and said"right on schedule" ......as we came to a grinding halt two minutes out of Taylor.The conductor informed us of trackwork ahead and said we would be underway in a few minutes,a few minutes turned into two and a half hours late,right Jim.We were really suprised to see ol' Jim and his significant other waiting for us as we pulled into AUS. depot. I thought it was really nice of Jim to wait that long,and it just shows what kind of guy Jim is when he gives his word.Thanks Jim
. say hi to Stacy for us!We made up a little time and pulled into SAS around midnite, where we were forced to de-train unexpectedly. I thought since we were on the #421 FTW-SAS, but were on #1 SAS to LAX, we would be able to stay on the TE until the SL started to board.Robert our SCA said no, he needed the room for some other ticketed pxs.(so much for Robert being a good guy LOL :lol: ) The SL was early and the TE was late so all in all we were in bed by 3am. Our SCA was named Julie and once again the entire OBS on the SL was great no complaints.. I was up in time to move thru the diner into a...diner that had been substituted for SSL. I watched night turn into day with a gorgeous firey red sunrise. We booked along looking at deerstand cluttered desert until we got to Del Rio where the rails 7 trails people got on board and pointed out alot of the highlights along the way.I could not hear so well so I just looked at the literature they provided and guessed at what they were saying. they had some cool hands on stuff as well.I got to see the High Bridge at Pecos A really cool bridge considering when it was built.Ther is also alot of really neat looking rock formations in the West Texas desert. We had lunch in Alpine, I had the angus burger,wife had curry chkn. and rice both were good.While stopped at Alpine Border Patrol Agents walked through the train a few times, they got off without any incidents.The trip into El Paso was just more of the same. desert and rock. Looked forward to see the station at El Paso since it was designed by the same architect that designed Washington Union Station. Expected more ,got less since it was alot smaller ,and not as grand as I was expecting.About the time I got tired of looking at the same ol' scenery, I got about 4 more hours of the same with a little variation coming into New Mexico.It rained while we were having dinner which was pretty cool and I got my bbq ribs that I wanted and they were goood.Not sure what time we went to bed because we went thru 3 time changes in about 6 hours,confusing. Got up for the 5am brkfst. and went bak to the room to get ready to detrain in LA. We arrived almost an hour early. went back and thanked the dining crew for their great service. and showed Julie my appreciation for her her service as well.Was really impressed with LAUS. It Is a beautiful station and really taken care of,all of the employs seemed to really take pride in their building.We left our bags under the watcful eye of Alberto the great Red Cap, while we ventured out and checked out the sites near the station.We got to see the oldest house in LA which is right across the street from the station, and Olvera St. which had a lot of neat little shops with all kinds of merchandise by all kinds of vendors. LAUS is a really neat place and I wish we would have more time to chek out the nearby sites,but it was time to board the Coast Starlight we got bak just in time for Alberto to wisk us away to meet Terrance our SCA for our trip to PDX. We got settled in and Terrance came by and offered us either sparling champagne or chilled apple cider, and presented us with a small velvet bag with the Amtrak logo embroided on it and small bottles of shampoo, soap, and body lotion. He also took our lunch reservation.I couldn't wait to check out the CS. It was everything every one had said it was and more. I really liked the big comfortable armchairs that swiveled 360 degrees in Parlour Car. I ordered salad for lunch and was brought a plate of lettuce, it looked nothing like the salad the guy in the Parlour car was having :angry: . Then the ocean came in to view we were seated on the right hand side so I missed some photo ops. also our roomette #5 was on the R.H. side and the bedrooms and even nmbrd. rooms were on the L.H. sidel.I made a mental note to always try to get a room with an even number on the Coast Starlight since thats the same side the bedrooms are on.As every one has said before the bedrooms were on the ocean side of the train. it was the same when I rode a week later but this time I was in rmmte.#6.About the time we finished lunch I thought the ocean views were over, so I sat in the PPC and enjoyed the mountains and valleys. then the ocean came back and stayed with us for a long while. The views from both sides of the train were really great as I found out on this trip. There isn't a bad side of the train to sit on just a different view,and any view from a train is a NICE VIEW. Like when we pull out of San Luis Obispo and went thru the horseshoe bends and climbed up over the California Mens Colony a penitentiary that made me glad to be on the train and not in there.It was really cool to be able to see both ends of the train at the same time and to be able to look down and see where we had come from. I never really knew California had such beautiful scenery,with all the mountains and valleys. I don't know what I expected from a state formed by earthquakes though.It wasnt long before we crossed the San Andreas Fault Line, BTW the conductors so far had been very helpful in making announcements and pointing out all the points of interest along the way.The day is spent looking out the window at from either the PPC or our room and the sites in early spring were really beautiful. Darkness soon fell and I turned in shortly after we pulled out of Jack London Station.I slept really good and jumped up refreshed and ready for the day until I realized it was 2am!! I jumped back in bed and got two good nights sleep for the price of one!. It started snowing while we were at Klamath Falls it made for more beautiful scenery all the way in to PDX. I can't say enough about the whole crew on the CS #14 esp Daisy one of the waitresses in the dining car. We got into PDX on time. It was raining so I stuck pretty close to the station. I got to see a couple of the Cascades trainsets I thought were really cool with their swept back wings design. I think the CS was the roughest ride so far, but I can't wait to do it again either all the way to seattle or in reverse next time!
I will finish and post pictures later.
Last edited by a moderator:
