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My fascination with the rails began when I was around 4 or so. My grandfather used to own some land up in Poplarville,MS, and we used to take day trips there from New Orleans on the Crescent. We all enjoyed the ride, especially having breakfast as the train began its journey over the Lake Pontchartrain trestle. After Amtrak stopped service to Poplarville, we made frequent trips to Meridan....we usually had about a 4-hour layover there and we went to a mall near the train station,had lunch, saw a movie....talk about great memories!
I remember on one trip back in 1992 or so one of the conductor's sat down next to me and listened as I told him (from memory) the names of all Amtrak trains and the routes they cover. He even gave me an autograph and let me take a quick peak into the F40 locomotive once we got to Meridian.
Amtrak has meant a lot to me for a very long time.
Posts: 135 | From: Atlanta, GA / New Orleans, LA | Registered: Jan 2004
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I stopped flying on planes about 8 years ago after a bad ride. I have a full blown phobia now of airports etc. I love to take the train! So does my kids and hubby
Posts: 168 | From: Spring TX USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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hey chris, hello from livingston mt! ( i see you enjoyed your trip to the depot here)congrats for overcoming your drinking. Hope to see you on the rails some day!
Posts: 416 | From: St. Albans, Vermont | Registered: Feb 2003
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my first train ride was on the last amtrak train out of my hometown of livingston, the north coast hiawatha, on october 1, 1979. went to billings mt with my mother and brother. then i didnt take an amtrak train for many years. in a few days i will take the train to start working in DC, but i have to take the greyhound bus first to meet the train!
Posts: 416 | From: St. Albans, Vermont | Registered: Feb 2003
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My first Amtrak trip was in 1974, on the Montrealer, from New York to Montreal. My family wanted to experience the still-new Amtrak service and we had two deluxe compartments, with the divider opened. I already loved trains, but I was hooked even more from that point.
The following year we rode from San Francisco (OK, Oakland) to Los Angeles, with the same set-up.
My father made a point of telling my sister and me repeatedly that these accomodations were not the norm for all train travelers, and that we should realize as much. (To his credit, he was always concerned that we might end up spoiled.) A few years later, I learned this in an even more concrete way, when I rode alone overnight from New York to Savannah in coach.
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About 12 years ago I took the Desert Wind from LA to Chicago without knowing anything and loved it.
Then, in 2002, with the annual budget crisis and impending shutdown I wanted to see what all the fuss was about so took an 18-day, 9996 mile junket around the US, all by train. Needless to say, I fell in love ... and here I am!
Posts: 363 | From: Southwest North Central Florida | Registered: Apr 2002
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In my youth I got hooked out of necessity. My first trip on Amtrak was in 1974 when my mother and I traveled from Salem to San Francisco, then returned from Salinas. On that trip we learned of a new boarding school which I ended up attending the following fall through my high school years. The school was located north of San Francisco, so I used the train to get between home and school cheaply. Coach every time.
After that I took just two train trips, one on our honeymoon in 1983, and the next to a job interview in California. I got the job, and figured I'd be using the train to visit family back in Oregon, but we ended up driving every time.
But a train trip was always in the back of our minds, and we finally got the opportunity to go to Denver on the CZ in 2000. On that trip I remembered just how pleasant train travel could be, and I got hooked all over again. In my middle age I've realized that it is more fun to leave the driving to somebody else and take time out of the rat race to relax en route.
------------------ Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth. -Mr. Toy
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My first Amtrak trip was a round trip between LA and Fullerton when Amtrak was about three weeks old.I have taken many trips,both long and short,(mostly short),since then.
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As a kid in the 50's I fantasized about riding around the country on trains and collected timetables. Next I became a car fanatic, took marathon driving trips, and forgot about trains. Then I married someone who did not drive, so we took the Southwest Chief on our honeymoon.
As my kids grew up, they loved traveling and trains. When I became more aware of the politics and sensibility of train travel, it became an obsessive issue for me.
I love traveling but I hate airplanes. I cannot imagine why anyone would travel to another place and miss everything between here and there.
The movements and the sounds are hypnotic and addictive. I sometimes have these sounds in my head like a tune. It is a creeping obsession for me. As I lose interest in other things, train rides come to the forefront.
Posts: 1572 | From: St. Paul, MN | Registered: Dec 2002
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I originally planned my trip to Montreal by plane. Then while searching around the internet I thought how cheap would it be by bus or... train?
When I saw the prices and realised how much I'd really get to see of the US I was hooked and booked immediately.
I've loved my train trips here in NZ, we have a route called "The Northener" that goes from our capital city (Wellington) to our Biggest city (Auckland) and goes overnight.
There's nothing like waking up to the movement of the train, watching the sun rise over unspoiled country while smelling the hot coffee and other food being cooked...
Posts: 116 | From: Auckland, New Zealand | Registered: Jan 2004
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quote:Originally posted by TwinStarRocket: I cannot imagine why anyone would travel to another place and miss everything between here and there. [/B]
That is a great quote. Thanks.
I have been a railfan for years. It probably stemmed from my childhood, riding in the family LTD wagon across the tracks in town...hoping to see a train. It rarely happened though, fueling the desire to just see one of those elusive and powerful monsters.
Amtrak became a part of my life much later.
In August of 2000, I ended my summer DCI (Drum Corps International) tour in Washington D.C. My Girlfriend returned from backpacking in Europe to D.C. to watch Finals...Then we came back to Michigan by Train. It was the perfect way to spend time together on a relaxing trip home.
I really liked the trip, I only wish I had known more about enjoying Amtrak at the time - We didn't even visit the sightseer lounge, or tipped the sleeping car attendant. I've learned so much since then.
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I live in the NY metro area. In 1998 I was in a car accident in Washington DC and I made a vow that I would never drive my car into DC again. In 1999 I had to go down to DC on business and someone suggested that I should take the Metroliner. I took the Metroliner and realized the advantage of rail travel - nice comfortable seat, relaxing atmosphere, scenery rolling by with no traffic or driving issues to worry about, and I could travel and work at the same time. I then had a bad driving experience to Boston and made a similar vow. So my East Coast travel on the Northeast Corridor was formed. Then in 2001, my fear of flying was pressed to the limit when I was an eyewitness to the World Trade Center disaster. I wanted to visit a friend of mine out on the West Coast. Flying was not an option so I explored travelling via Amtrak in a sleeper on the Lake Shore Limited and Southwest Chief. Visited other desinations in CA using the Coast Starlight and took the Empire Builder back to Chicago from Portland. From that trip, I was hooked. Since then I have used the train for business and vacation travel as much as possible. I had a fascination with trains as a child, but this fell silent for many years.
Posts: 337 | Registered: Jun 2003
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What first hooked me on Amtrak were the old Metroliner MU's. I rode them on the Corridor, also rode them and worked them many times on the Harrisburg line.
Posts: 49 | From: Drexel Hill, PA 19026 USA | Registered: Nov 2003
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I remember when I was 6 or 7 I would go to a hotel on vacation over the summer and I would watch the trains go by on the tracks. THe tracks were right on the hotel so I didnt even have to really go anywhere. The Hotel was really great it has a dining car Restarunt and another train as well. The restarunt was an older maybe late 70's Amtrak dining car! Boy did I love that restarunt. In 1999 (I think) THe hotel closed . I then missed trains, and took up being a "railFAN". I soon found this forum and now its like a part of my life. Before I never knew what a railfan was!!!!!! http://www.freehotelsearch.com/us/California-hotels/Montecito-hotels/Miramar_Hotel_Resort_Montecito_Closed_For_Renovations!-hotel.html
**NOTICE** The train tracks ont he map at the bottom of the link site. http://www.suzanneperkins.com/montecito/montecito.jpg **NOTICE** BLue roofs are the old hotel, and you can see the train tracks which are used by the COAST STARLIGHT still.
-Anton
Posts: 1082 | From: Los Angeles, CA. USA | Registered: Aug 2003
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I've loved traveling by train since long before Amtrak came along. When I was growing up during the 1950s, my family traveled by long distance train at least two or three times every year.
I don't remember anything about my first trip, when I was just 6 months old. But I do have vivid memories of regularly traveling overnight on the old New York Central Railroad, starting at about age 3.
For me, traveling on Amtrak was (and is) simply a continuation of that tradition. The railroad name has changed, and the coaches and sleepers are a bit more modern. But the overall experience of traveling by train still feels exactly as it did when I was in the 4th grade.
[This message has been edited by dilly (edited 01-16-2004).]
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I have been a RailFan for 13 years, after ridding the San Diago route since age 2 I started Model RailRoading then started to find out the different stuff besides just watching Trains,...
Rolling Stock, Scanners, Eqipment, Long Distance Trains, History, Industry, Routes, Discotinued Services,facts, Events, Storys, Erras, ect.
Thats how I got Interested in Amtrak
------------------ JONATHON D. ORTIZ
[This message has been edited by JONATHON (edited 01-16-2004).]
Posts: 989 | From: DIAMOND BAR CA. U.S. | Registered: Nov 2003
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Me too, Dilly (and NativeSon). My affection is for more than AMTRAK, it's toward trains. Rode NY Central and Pennsylvania Railroads between NY and Lancaster - Pullman and coach - and then NY and St Louis several times a year through the fifties and sixties(born in Brooklyn - 1950) grew up in Lancaster and then St louis. The National Limited it was back then I think. Family tradition. Then used to travel Austin to St Louis in the eighties. Now go Denver to NYC and back periodically. And Denver to rand Junction, too. And as you say - the stuff is more modern but the feeling is generally the same as when I was small. That's true playing with my toy, er, I mean model trains.. Ira
Posts: 300 | From: Denver, CO USA | Registered: Aug 2000
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I took my first train trip when I was three months shy of being born. It was on the Chief and Starlight from FLG to Eugene, OR. My parents contend that I must have been shaken around just enough to make me a train lover for life. I made the same trip when I was 4 and 6, and after that, whenever my family wanted to go somewhere, it was always Amtrak! In 5th grade, I decided that I wanted to become an Amtrak locomotive engineer/conductor. I graduate high school in June, and I am still pursuing that goal.
Posts: 553 | From: Flagstaff, AZ USA | Registered: Apr 2001
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Needed to get cross-country...flying or driving were not options. Loved every minute of my 6000+ mile Amtrak adventure this past October!
Posts: 33 | From: Fair Oaks, CA US | Registered: Jul 2003
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I think the reason people like train travel goes deeper than just 'because it's enjoyable.' We used to be nomads, all of us, so whether it be by camel caravan, or wagon train there is something innately comforting about being on the move...across the ground, not high in the air. Trains are such a nice secure little world, esp. at night Posts: 171 | Registered: May 2002
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I'm with dilly and Ira. Starting in 1944, we used to visit my grandparents every summer (Boston to Spokane). So my earliest memories of travel are from the LSL and Empire Builder and associated with fun and adventure. Still chasing it after all these years.
Posts: 518 | From: Maynard, MA, USA | Registered: Sep 2000
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My first train travels were pre-Amtrak. In the mid 60's I would travel from St. Paul, MN to Dubuque, IA on the Zephyer or Empire Builder. I vividly remember the dome cars on the Zephyer and the St. Paul Union station. After 16 years and a move to LA, we have begun to enjoy Amtrak again. We took the CS from LA to SEA and have used the Pacific Surfliner numerous times, including yesterday from Fullerton to San Diego. I find the trip very relaxing versus the battle on the freeway out of San Diego, especially on a Sunday.
Posts: 32 | From: Redondo Beach, CA | Registered: Sep 2003
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My first "modern" train trip was in 1969, when I worked for Yellowstone Park Company as a college student. My parents had arranged for me to take the old North Coast Ltd from Chicago to Livingston, MT, and back for the summer. I was in a roomette, and enjoyed the trip very very much!! Then a short 3 years later, I was married and could not find a job in my academic field yet (geology), so saw an ad in the Chicago Tribune that said AMTRAK was hiring people to work at the Chicago reservations office, which was located on the top floor of the old Santa Fe bldg at that time, at the corner of Michigan Ave. & Jackson Blvd. I took the job and became interested in AMTRAK, took my former wife on a couple trips, and she hated traveling by AMTRAK, but I loved it. And, as they say, "the rest is history....."
Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
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. I then missed trains, and took up being a "railFAN". I soon found this forum and now its like a part of my life. Before I never knew what a railfan was!!!!!!
