Amtrak Pass 1997

[RochdalePioneers]

Okay this will be a bit clipped in places as you don't want to know all the details of what I got up to in my student days (!) but in the summer of 1997 I travelled round America with a female friend on a 1 month Amtrak pass. I'll try and cover off the railway bits in whatever detail I can remember/have notes of....

DAY 1 Tuesday 19th August 1997
First rail move of the trip is New York subway from JFK to somewhere on 4th Avenue. An interesting ride, using express tracks down the centre of a 4 track cut and cover line through Brooklyn before changing (twice I think) to get to our hostel.
We then walked across to Penn station to collect our passes and book the first few trips. Slightly puzzled that you need to phone up from inside Penn Station to book tickets as the ticket office can't do it, but more importantly the planned move to Chicago is full for the next few days. A coffee and a mahoosive danish lets us look at the map for options, and we manage to find seats on tomorrow's Capitol Limited from DC to Chicago.

DAY 2 Wednesday 20th August 1997
We board the 10am NorthEast Corridor service to Washington. Motive power is an AEM-7 on Amfleet cars, and its a three and a half hour trip south. The view through the Pendolino-esque slit windows is of uninteresting flat countryside in between the large cities of Philadelphia and Baltimore, and as we approach DC its raining hard. We get dropped on regional platforms with a narrow shelter to shield us (badly) from the weather before heading into the impressive terminal building at Washington Union station.

The pattern seems to be build a large and impressive terminal building and hide the platforms out of sight (like Euston, only with a large and impressive terminal building). Er have a couple of hours to kill, its lunchtime and there is a large choice of eateries, so the time goes quickly. We then join the queue at gate K, where they call sleeping car passengers first then seat passengers calling at the various stops, finally Chicago passengers. We find upstairs Superliner seats, which are huge reclining armchairs with adjustable footrests. Big luggage stays downstairs so we dump the rucksacks and grab day packs.

Its a nice ride west, rolling through a heavily wooded river valley with the Allegheny mountains behind. As night falls we work out how to sleep. The rocking movements, noise from track joints and raaaarp of the horn as we go across endless level crossings help! The seats go back 60 degrees which also helps.

DAY 3 Thursday 21st August 1997
Woke up during the night as we stopped in Pittsburgh and Cleveland, and by 6am sunlight is streaming in under the curtains, so we wander down to the lounge car for breakfast. Giant floor to ceiling curved windows upstairs, with pairs of seats which rotate mean that if you get there early enough you get a great view. Food comes from the cafe downstairs, can't remember what we had but suspect it had about 1,400 calories...

The line runs along the southern edge of Lake Michigan with views of Chicago. It gets progressively more industrial until arrival in Chicago Union station. We reverse into a platform which makes Euston look pretty and so ends our first Superliner journey.

More soon.....


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[142094]

Sorry to bring back up this thread, but would be interested to hear more of the trip. I'm planning on doing a few weeks in the States, but torn between doing a rail jaunt or hiring a car for a full on road trip.

 

[Genocide]

http://www.usabyrail.co.uk/

Since 2003 usabyrail.co.uk has been providing information on North American Railroad Operations with a view to promoting interest in the railways of this diverse continent. As well as the information provided through this website, usabyrail.co.uk has run eight rail trips covering varying routes and commuter areas across the United States enabling participants to sample such delights as stunning scenery or high powered diesel locomotives on heavy weight passenger trains.

Easy and fun.

 

[RochdalePioneers]

With profuse apologies for the long gap between posts!

Day 5 Saturday 23rd August 1997.
Started with a morning historical tour of the El, which did three complete loops around the city centre. A tour guide gave a running commentary including their "very old" buildings from 1873! I was as interested in the El, vast heavyweight structures that made the streets underneath very dark. An interesting solution to a public transport problem.

Later we went back to Union station and joined a lengthy queue to board the 15:05 California Zephyr. Once again an overnight aboard a Superliner was at hand, and we took a bay of seats in the coach assigned to those of us not going all the way.

On departure the train romped through Illinois suburbia, towns and shopping malls that didn't seem to have gaps between them. That is until about half five, when they abruptly stopped and gave way to corn fields. Which then went on for the rest of the evening like a flat monotonous nothing. Once planted, do vast fields of corn need much tending? What do Nebraskans do all day?

As with the El tour earlier we have onboard entertainment, this time from the staff. Regular PA announcements went "Hi this is Johnny your lounge attendant. As usual I am all alone down here desperate to serve you hot and cold snacks and lots more to anyone who wants them. So please, come down here and save me from all this food because with no queue right now there is no waiting .... no waiting .... no waiting ...." with the voice trailing off into a whisper. The first few times this cracked us up, but when he did it just before midnight with lights down very low it sounded rather creepy. We finally fall asleep to the almost constant blarting of the horn as we cross farm tracks.

Day 6 Sunday 24th August
Dawn reveals the same endless sea of corn fields first encountered at tea on Saturday. 800 miles of nothing. Finally we climb into Denver for an hour layover where they change the horses and muck out the passenger stables. I wander up front as a trio of P42 GE Genesis locos is attached, a mere 13,500 horsepowers. With white tipped mountains looming large I can imagine why we need such power!

We depart and wind our way up the climb to Moffat Tunnel, which reaches 9,200 ft as it cuts through the continental divide. Our climb is slow and the scenery dramatic from our seats in the lounge car, with 4 track levels visible at one point. We chat with a couple of Californian students, who seem convinced that when the poor gun owning people realise that there is no American dream for the likes of them, it will be a massacre!

Across the continental divide and its more wooded, and we plunge into the Colorado River gorge which seems to go on for hours. We pass crazy people on rafts in the river rapids, camping teens mooning at us, a truly spectacular railway line. The deepest section of canyon is east of Glenwood Springs, where the railway is joined by a freeway on stilts on the opposite side of the gorge.

We arrive into Glenwood Springs where we are leaving the train, and its 90 degrees in the sunshine. We lie on the grass at the station basking in both the sun and the spectacular view. The California Zephyr pulls out, and in the opposite direction a Rio Grande train pulls in and loads up with the large crown that had been waiting for it. Once it departs it feels that half the town has left with it.

I won't bore you with details of our stay in the town's hostel, but I will mention my amusement at their licensing laws. Aged 20 and 11 months clearly I wasn't fit for a beer. Happily my student ID listed my birthday in UK date order and therefore read as though I had just turned 21.

Day 7 Monday 25th August
Another roasting day spent at the outdoor hot spring, with the California Zephyr rolling in an hour late in the afternoon. We have my up with other people also travelling west, so we're greatful to the conductor who manages to find us 7 seats together. The scenery heading west is spectacular but not as eye-gouging as yesterday and doesn't stop until sunset. Spectacular views out the windows as we collapse back into the usual Superliner armchairs.

Day 8 Tuesday 26th August
We are getting pretty fed up with Amtrak breakfast "food". The lounge snack bar offers a "Breakfast Roll" which is Ham, Egg and Cheese on an English Muffin, an item which at the time I hadn't encountered ("but you're from England aren't you"). So instead we decide to shell out for the restaurant car. We are sat on a table with a man who clearly has native american heritage and his daughter. He is greatly amused by our questioning of the menu ("don't you have breakfasts in England") when 'Biscuits in Gravy' sounds unclear.....

Anyway, I am shovelling down Bacon, Eggs and Hash Browns when I get asked "say, do they teach you guys etiquette in England?" I stop, wondering what cultural sin I have committed, when he continues - "only you east so dainty". Yeah, apparently shovelling is dainty when coordinating knife and fork together to shovel faster than the American one handed one at a time method.

After breakfast back to the lounge car with Utah's crags barren before us. But its not that exciting until we climb through the Sierra Nevada mountains which closely resemble the rockies in design if not in stature. Its downhill from here, through Reno with its gaudy casinos and onwards until we hit the coast north of Oakland. Its s stunning ride around headlands and across spindly truss girder bridges. I noted down a moored fleet of mothballed Navy ships "awaiting the next war" before reaching Emeryville where we left the train as seemingly did virtually everyone for the shuttle bus to San Fransisco.

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