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.
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.
Well that's my list.
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).]
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.
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Elias Valley Railroad (N-scale)
www.geocities.com/evrr
Silver Meteor was the worst for crew, other passengers, cleanliness of the train, and food.
Worst for timekeeping I've ever had was quite recently on the Cal Zephyr, 7 hours late into Chicago.
Best made-up time - Empire Builder 2 hours late past Essex, right on time into Seattle.
Never had any complaints on the Sunset Limited (3x), although it was late by 5 hours once into LA.
Lake Shore was ok but food was leftovers for lunch. Scenery quite pleasant, crew also good.
Crescent had boring scenery IMHO but one of the few trains that actually had the entertainment advertised (bingo in the afternoon).
Just my thoughts.
Geoff M.
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
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The City of Saint Louis (UP, 1967) is still my standard for passenger operations
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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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(ps: the travelogue is posted in the "Travel" section if you want to read more)
**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).