Taking the Train from Miami to Alaska!

[Bob Dylan]

Hey Jim,

I’ll bet you a coffee when I see you next (Gathering in the East? Or maybe before?) that this kid will find something to be cheerful about even on the Eaglet!

I’d make it lunch, but know I’ll win so don’t want to take advantage!

I know you Patty, and you would try to like the Eaglete, but I guarantee you'll dislike more than you like due to what they've done to my Train!

You're on for a Lunch!( Taco Bell has a Good Value Menu!)

 

[MARC Rider]

I know you Patty, and you would try to like the Eaglete, but I guarantee you'll dislike more than you like due to what they've done to my Train!

You're on for a Lunch!( Taco Bell has a Good Value Menu!)

The Eaglette might be tolerable under the current reduced consist if (1) they allowed passengers to use the CCC as a lounge car. (This worked very nicely for me on the Capitol Limited last fall.) (2) They had enough staff so that they could serve sleeper passengers their flex meals and also keep the cafe car open at the same time for coach passengers.

 

[Anderson]

Minor nit to pick: He said he was on the oldest railroad in the US, but that would have involved taking the Camden Line Washington-Baltimore. [Amusingly, he could've patched the Camden-Balto Penn connection with another train...)

 

[MARC Rider]

Minor nit to pick: He said he was on the oldest railroad in the US, but that would have involved taking the Camden Line Washington-Baltimore. [Amusingly, he could've patched the Camden-Balto Penn connection with another train...)

To really pick nits, the oldest mile of commercial railroad on the B&O that can be ridden today is at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore.

https://www.borail.org/visit-the-bo/tours-experiences/train-rides/
The original B&O started at Mount Clare Depot (the site of the current museum), located several blocks west of today's Camden Station, which wasn't built until the 1850s. (The B&O started construction in 1828 and originally went to Ellicott City.) If you take a MARC Camden Line train, its route eventually joins up with the original B&O route, but at Relay, MD, south of the city, it diverges on the Washington Branch (now known as CSX Capital Subdivision) to continue on the Washington. The Washington Branch opened in 1835.

It looks like they've redone the place considerably since the last time I was there in the 1980s. I may have to go downtown and take a look. Maybe a suitable destination for a "mini-Gathering" of mid-Atlantic AU'ers? We could follow it up with a ride on the Camden Line into Washington.

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

Somehow I don’t think we’re Mike’s target audience. By the time we’ve dissected everything he got wrong in one episode, he will have wrapped up several more as he zips across the country, gleefully heedless of getting all the details right.

 

[thully]

Latest video is now out - it is in fact about the Texas Eagle from Chicago to LA.



He brings his dad on this portion of the journey, which he did on some of his previous videos on Canadian trains (the Rocky Mountaineer and the Churchill route). In the video, the inferiority of the flexible dining (and the lack of the lounge car) is definitely highlighted, as they look forward to having the full diner and lounge after San Antonio. In San Antonio, they walk around Riverwalk a bit during the layover, and get burritos from the Burrito Lady in El Paso.

I do see where the title of the series is a bit misleading - this is more of a trip across America to ride trains as opposed to riding trains across America. Even if you accept that they won’t be able to ride a train all the way to Alaska, at this point they're not doing anything resembling a direct route - the Texas Eagle takes them much further south than they need to be. Also, the next episode will be on the Rocky Mountaineer US route, which is nowhere near where they are or will end up.

Regardless, this was an entertaining video - I generally like the ones that focus on the train ride more than the ones that focus on other attractions. I wouldn’t choose the Texas Eagle in its current state to travel end to end (the Southwest Chief goes Chicago-LA and has a lounge/traditional dining the whole trip), though it is the longest train ride in the US. I’m definitely interested to see his take on the US Rocky Mountaineer, as his video about the Canadian Rocky Mountaineer was pretty good. Just don’t take the title too literally…

 

[Qapla]

It was pretty cool that, at 8:59 we got to see one of the new Brightline trains while it was enroute to Florida.

 

[Steel City Don]

Would be one hell of a long trip!

 

[Qapla]

Episode 5 is up

 

[Qapla]

Episode 6

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

I can watch and enjoy these now, since I got my new adjusted glasses prescription and have finally gotten used to it.

I’m way behind the rest of you since I got a late start—just watched the Brightline and Silver Star one and enjoyed seeing trains I’ve been on and scenery I recognize.

 

[Qapla]

Episode 7 - Colorado

 

[crescent-zephyr]

Strasburg doesn’t even come close to be the oldest railroad. Quaintest yes.

Minor nit to pick: He said he was on the oldest railroad in the US, but that would have involved taking the Camden Line Washington-Baltimore. [Amusingly, he could've patched the Camden-Balto Penn connection with another train...)

Strasburg is the oldest operating under its original charter. So it’s correct in a way.

I took a train to Alaska as well…. Amtrak to Seattle and then a cruise to the white pass and Yukon and then all of the Alaska railroad!

I don’t count it as click-bait. It’s a fun idea for a series!

 

[Qapla]

One thing's for sure - the train may not be as fast as a plane ... but you also can't ride on an outside rear deck on the plane

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

I know you Patty, and you would try to like the Eaglete, but I guarantee you'll dislike more than you like due to what they've done to my Train!

You're on for a Lunch!( Taco Bell has a Good Value Menu!)

Hey, Jim—I lose my bet and I owe you a lunch when you’re out east next. You were absolutely right—even Mike Downie and his even more (if that’s possible) optimistic and cheerful Dad couldn’t find anything to really like on that poor little Eaglette.

I lost count of the number of times Mike said “I’m really looking forward to tomorrow, when we get a real dining car.”

I just finished episode 5. I enjoyed that—nice luxurious Rocky Mountaineer—although I wish he had said where they stay overnight and shown more of the hotel.

But even more, I wish he would stop sticking his head out of the train—tunnel walls, mountains in his face, sheer drops to nowhere right outside the window—to say nothing of his partners in crime going up Mount Washington and standing outside on the front of the train.

I enjoy watching his videos, but I would never go anywhere with him myself!

 

[Qapla]

He's getting closer - latest video premiers later today

 

[Qapla]

This trip series reaches its end



His comment at 13:50 sums it all up

"Experiences like this - you can only get on the train"