Does the Onboard tour guide still come aboard in Gallup/Alburqurqe?

We were roundtrip KC-LA, First Class tickets, and Compartments each way for accomodations.

Downside: Whereever the trainset last saw service, be it Chicago or further east, the coach yard had not pumped the sewage out. Every last tank was beyond full by Victorville.

Downside, not of Amtrak's origin: Some d###-fool kids went crusing the right-of-way between Lamy and Albuquerque. Stuck their pick-em-up in between the tracks. The train crushed the truck; thankfully the kids were out of it.

Upside: Good food, good service.

Upside: The train crews all busted tail, and we did make the advertised ... even after accounting for the slack in the schedule. After the wreck, we were 5 hours late into Albuquerque.

BTW, yes, I called it the Grand Canyon. This is a M/E train with a passenger consist tacked on now, not one of the premier trains in the nation.

Mind you, there is nothing wrong with a working M/E train with a passenger consist. That was how the railroads made money on their Passenger Traffic Departments before the end of the Railway Mail Service (well, factoring in a whole bunch of "goodwill" in the accounting for the SEC helped too)

John

Train 3 on the way back from Chicago to Fullerton was completely different. The cook was incredibly good, the dining car stewards excellent and fun, and the entire tone of the trip was much more relaxed.

I can see the food is either very good or very bad. Train 4 needs a cook that has lessons; I picked up Pepto Bismol on Chicago thinking all food on trains was bad. When I sat down to dinner out of Chicago back to Fullerton I couldn't beleive the difference!