Sunset Limited discussion

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Last Saturday "Train Status" (Amtrak's website train #1) said there was going to be a long delay due to a vehicle incident at a crossing. Location was just outside Vinton, LA. I have not been able to find any mention of the accident.
 
As of 8:50 pm PT Sunset Limited Train 2/Texas Eagle Train 422 scheduled to depart Los Angeles (LAX) on 4/26 will hold in Ontario (ONA) for late connecting passengers with an estimated 2hr delay.

They ended up departing Ontario over three hours late. What connections are there in Ontario at that time of night?
 
That's what I would have thought (and a dicey connection that I would never book), but 11 (25) was already running over 12 hours late into the Bay Area last night.

https://dixielandsoftware.net/cgi-bin/gettrain.pl?seltrain=11&selyear=2024&selmonth=04&selday=25
I’m guessing it was more for passengers who got on before Sacramento. I noticed 11 made a long stop there. Part of that might have been to transfer connecting passengers to take the inland round to meet up with #2. Passengers from SLO onwards could have been accommodated by the Surfliner. Of course I should make it clear that this is just speculation.
 
I have been digitizing some pictures recently, and found these two of the Sunset Limited. I think they were around 1998; the train we were on went to Orlando.

This first picture captures the luxury of Bedroom travel: breakfast in bed. This was our third Superliner trip, having ridden the California Zephyr Oakland to Chicago in 1994, and the Coast Starlight Seattle to Los Angeles in 1996; and my wife didn't like the communal dining car experience. The flowers were bought on Olvera Street, where we had dinner before catching the train.

IMG_0722 2.JPG

The second picture shows what I thought were people wading across the Rio Grande; and a few minutes later we saw what I thought was a border patrol helicopter. But on my last Sunset Limited (actually Texas Eagle) trip in 2019, we never seemed to run along a river. Has the train been re-routed?

IMG_0723 2.JPG
 
The second picture shows what I thought were people wading across the Rio Grande; and a few minutes later we saw what I thought was a border patrol helicopter. But on my last Sunset Limited (actually Texas Eagle) trip in 2019, we never seemed to run along a river. Has the train been re-routed?
I think that is the Rio Grande, looks as if you were on the bridge that crosses it.
 
I have been digitizing some pictures recently, and found these two of the Sunset Limited. I think they were around 1998; the train we were on went to Orlando.

This first picture captures the luxury of Bedroom travel: breakfast in bed. This was our third Superliner trip, having ridden the California Zephyr Oakland to Chicago in 1994, and the Coast Starlight Seattle to Los Angeles in 1996; and my wife didn't like the communal dining car experience. The flowers were bought on Olvera Street, where we had dinner before catching the train.

View attachment 38566

The second picture shows what I thought were people wading across the Rio Grande; and a few minutes later we saw what I thought was a border patrol helicopter. But on my last Sunset Limited (actually Texas Eagle) trip in 2019, we never seemed to run along a river. Has the train been re-routed?

View attachment 38567
no the train has not been rerouted, I guess you just missed this spot that you pictured on your first trip. I travel this route 10 times a year for the past 25 years.
 
I think that is the Rio Grande, looks as if you were on the bridge that crosses it.
It runs parallel to the Rio Grande west of Del Rio. But not for terribly long distance. Otherwise it isn't that close to the Rio Grande (except right around El Paso).

It never crosses the Rio Grande beyond the crossing just north of El Paso where it goes from New Mexico into Texas, as any crossing past there would put it in Mexico. It may be on a bridge over a tributary.

Del Rio is at 5:52 am westbound and 1:12 am eastbound on the current schedule.

But on my last Sunset Limited (actually Texas Eagle) trip in 2019, we never seemed to run along a river. Has the train been re-routed?

It has never been rerouted between Picacho Jct, AZ, where the Maricopa and Phoenix lines rejoin, and Houston, where they do directional running on the former MoPac and former SP, since before Amtrak. The schedule has shifted, at one time, during the height of the merger meltdown, 2 left LA at about 2:30 pm and did much of the El Paso-San Antonio segment in the daytime eastbound.
 
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