Ryan
Court Jester
Some really great stories here, great idea for a thread.
Exactly a year ago today I was on the Empire Builder on the second leg of my honeymoon around the country, and while there were plenty of those special moments on the trip, the one I consider most special was actually quite some time ago.
In the summer of 1994, I joined the multitude of Boy Scouts that head to the Philmont ranch near Raton, NM for 10 days of backpacking in the mountains. Back then, the Capitol Limited was still a single level train, and ran with a dome car (at least it did on our trip, I have no idea how common that was). As coincidence would have it, a group of Campfire Girls from Spokane, Washington were on the train, headed home from a trip to Washington, DC when we boarded at Harpers Ferry. Needless to say, a few dozen 14-17 year old boys and girls quickly settled into the dome car for a fantastic night while we headed for Chicago. There were some terrible bad thunderstorms that night, so there was a lot of slow running, and a real long break when there was apparently a tree down (either across the tracks or just knocking out some signals). But, we couldn't care less up in the dome, the storms were impressive to watch, the comradely good fellowship was abundant, and I was absolutely fascinated by watching the signals change as the locomotive went under them.
Hands down the best night I've had on Amtrak - it sounds a lot like the Guest_Rider's night, just one big party on the rails.
Exactly a year ago today I was on the Empire Builder on the second leg of my honeymoon around the country, and while there were plenty of those special moments on the trip, the one I consider most special was actually quite some time ago.
In the summer of 1994, I joined the multitude of Boy Scouts that head to the Philmont ranch near Raton, NM for 10 days of backpacking in the mountains. Back then, the Capitol Limited was still a single level train, and ran with a dome car (at least it did on our trip, I have no idea how common that was). As coincidence would have it, a group of Campfire Girls from Spokane, Washington were on the train, headed home from a trip to Washington, DC when we boarded at Harpers Ferry. Needless to say, a few dozen 14-17 year old boys and girls quickly settled into the dome car for a fantastic night while we headed for Chicago. There were some terrible bad thunderstorms that night, so there was a lot of slow running, and a real long break when there was apparently a tree down (either across the tracks or just knocking out some signals). But, we couldn't care less up in the dome, the storms were impressive to watch, the comradely good fellowship was abundant, and I was absolutely fascinated by watching the signals change as the locomotive went under them.
Hands down the best night I've had on Amtrak - it sounds a lot like the Guest_Rider's night, just one big party on the rails.
