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How would you rate the cross country trains that you have been on. MINE: Coast Starlight: Seattle to Portland-1999 Texas Eagle: San Antonio to St. Louis-2001 Southwest Chief: Kansas City to Flagstaff-'92 Desert Wind: Los Angeles to Chicago-1993 City of New Orleans: Carbondale to New Orleans- 2000
NEVER BEEN ON: Pioneer California Zephyr Empire Builder Sunset Limited
*Desert Wind on The CZ route pretty much.
*Planning a trip on CZ to San Francisco this summer, what is the best possible way for a man in St. Louis to get on that train.
Posts: 547 | From: St. Louis, MO, USA | Registered: Nov 2002
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Capitol Limited: Washington, DC to Chicago, IL in the Sleeper, best trip ever!
Auto Train: Lorton, VA to Sanford many times and surprisingly had better service in Coach. First Class was horable all the attendants went and hid from all the passengers, the Diner staff was rude, and the lounge attendent was off in another universe. Go figure!
Silver Meteor: West Palm Beach, FL to New York Penn. OK, did the crew give a damn.
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Of the trains I've taken in different parts of the country, I'd have to single out. . .
Southwest Chief (Chicago to L.A.): The train was running five hours late by the time we reached Albuquerque. But Amtrak's famous "Crew Ten" made the ride a pleasure.
Coast Starlight (L.A. to Oakland): The scenery on the route's southern stretch was better than advertised (and more interesting than the northern half from the Bay Area to Seattle). And we arrived in Oakland on time.
Pennsylvanian (Cleveland to Chicago): The funniest, strangest, and emptiest Amtrak train I've traveled on. It was a "Twilight Zone" episode on rails, especially since most of the trip took place in the dark.
Lake Shore Limited (New York to Cleveland): What's not to like? Postcard scenery along the Hudson River. A Heritage dining car. Award-winning East Coast "non-service" from a crew that was so bad-tempered it was actually entertaining. Plus the chance to roll past the truly spooky (and now abandoned) Buffalo Central Terminal after midnight.
Pennsylvanian (Cleveland to Philadelphia): This was a more recent journey than the "Pennyslvanian" trip mentioned above. Even in daylight, at a different time of year, the train was eerily empty. And weird. I love the Pennsylvanian.
Special Mention: A late-night trip I took on the Crescent from Philly to New York during the early 80s, when Heritage cars were still used.
I boarded an ancient, totally unrefurbished ex-Santa Fe coach, filled with uniformed soldiers snoring in their seats. With the lights turned down and the air filled with that "passenger car smell" that trains don't have anymore, it was like stepping into the 1950s.
[This message has been edited by dilly (edited 12-03-2002).]
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The Coast Starlight, famed for its service did not have good service in 1991 when I travelled its entire length, but the scenery was beautiful.
My favorite scenery of all is the Sunset Limited, especially in the Louisiana swamps, but the service has not been very good.
I have had several rides on the Southwest Chief and it has by far the best quality service of all. Most of the attendants seem very good, and the train is almost always clean.
Both directions on the Lake Shore Limited between Chicago and Boston were horrible. The scenery was good, but the service was a disaster, icluding several obscene words from crew members.
------------------ Elias Valley Railroad (N-scale) www.geocities.com/evrr
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Union Pacific, City of Saint Louis, LAUPT - Abilene, Kansas, Summer 1967. That was THE trip that made me a railfan. See my sig line
Deutsche Bundesbahn, overnight Boat Train, Frankfurt - Copenhagen, roundtrip, February 1986. My (then) wife and I took a bedroom on a TEN sleeper.
Amtrak, Coast Starlight, summer 1978, Tacoma, WA to LAUPT.
Amtrak, Super Chief, Christmas 1975, LAUPT - Albuquerque and return. On the outbound trip they had to sub a dome sleeper for a 10-6, and I got a single bedroom under the dome. On the backhaul, they had to sub a Regal series 4-4-2 for a 10-6, and I got a compartment.
Deutcsche Bundesbahn, 1983-1987, any number of IC trips in First Class. This also includes a couple of runs on the Rheingold.
Amtrak, California Zephyr, Spring 1999: 50th anniversary celebration; in fact we were onboard on the 50th anniversary of the inagural run. Amtrak did itself proud that day.
John
------------------ The City of Saint Louis (UP, 1967) is still my standard for passenger operations
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My favorite, SOuthwest Chief LA-Chi 1999. Crew ten made the trip very enjoyable. The worst, a close tie but Sunset Ltd Houston-LA 2000 comes in last just beating The Lake Shore Ltd(any time). To say the staff on these trains was bad, would be a compliment. Come to think of it, the staff on the LSL is so bad they really are laughable. My reference to the LSL covers 1999,2000 & 2001.
Posts: 6 | Registered: Mar 2001
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most scenic empire buider west of spokane to portland,cz in the sierras,coast starlight along the pacific. latest train-cz 10 hrs late summer 2001 most fun-broadway limited winter1992 great passengers both ways had a ball in the lounge.
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Posts: 175 | From: FENCE WI USA | Registered: Oct 2000
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quote:Originally posted by irish1: most scenic empire buider west of spokane to portland,cz in the sierras,coast starlight along the pacific. latest train-cz 10 hrs late summer 2001 most fun-broadway limited winter1992 great passengers both ways had a ball in the lounge.
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Posts: 175 | From: FENCE WI USA | Registered: Oct 2000
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I've only ever done one long distance trip on Amtrak - the Zephyr from Osceola to Reno earlier this year on my first trip to the States - and it was the best rail journey of my life.
(ps: the travelogue is posted in the "Travel" section if you want to read more)
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I'm a little surprised no one has suggested Via's Canadian from Vancouver to Toronto. Three days and nights of often spectacular scenery, along with standard sleeping cars from sections to drawing rooms, excellent dining cars and of course dome cars.
Posts: 524 | From: Toronto Ont. Canada | Registered: Mar 2001
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Coast Stalight, Summer 2002, good (3hrs Late) California Zypher, ThanksGiving 1993, fair CA Zypher, Laborday 1993, 7hrs late Outstanding Service** Coast Starlight, X-mas 1994, fair CA Zeypher, serval other times I don't remember Pacific Surfliner Summer 2002, good San Diegan, 1996. fair, Amtrak Capital (calif)/Bus/San diegan, fair Acela Regional, 1996, poor, outstanding after crew change.
**this Zeypher was 7 hours late and the train emptied in Sparks of passengers madder than a wet hand. when I borderd I learned that the second engin providing HEP died, they replaced the loco with a gp9 in sparks, sence the Geep didn't have a HEP generator, anything perrishable was free, they train stoped at a KFC and provided the passengers with free food, and the gave my younger brother his own sleeping room along with the rest of our family at no extra charge(we rode coach).
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