The Full moon for April is on April 9th and I will be traveling on April 6th. It says if you travel a few night before the full moon your visibilty at night will be clearer. If I leave this Sunday I guess it will be dark right? For departure on April 6th will it be easy to see outside of the train due to the moon? How about for leaving this Sunday on the SW chief?
Posted by Railroad Bob (Member # 3508) on :
Well, I remember trips over the Needles Sub on full moon nights where you could almost see every little rock and bush; even the lights of Vegas 'way off on the northern horizon were sometimes visible. So unless there's cloud cover in the desert, you should be able to see something of the landscape. As to werewolves and other stuff that is supposed to come out during Full Moons, I'll leave that for others to address..
Posted by wayne72145 (Member # 4503) on :
I have enjoyed the full moon or nearly full moon on both the Empire Builder and Capitol Limited. West bound on both. I closed off the roomette and turned off all lights and could see very well going through the mountains. Both moon lit trips were during winter with plenty of snow.
Posted by Mr. Toy (Member # 311) on :
I remember my first moonlight view of Mt. Shasta from Train #11 back in my school daze, sometime in the mid '70s. It was quite a sight.
More recently I have encountered two spectacular moonlit scenes in that same area. You can read about them in my Train Travel Tales at the bottom of this page and that page.
Alas this is not something you can capture with a camera.
Posted by sojourner (Member # 3134) on :
The full moon or near full moon has been a highlight of several of my western trips. I remember it particularly shining on the prairie on the Zephyr, i.e., a Prairie Moon. However, in my experiences, if you go by roomette, you probably have to be in one on the proper side of the train; otherwise you would have to go into the observation car to see it (or into an empty roomette, if there is one and if it's OK with your car attendant).
Posted by Tanner929 (Member # 3720) on :
A few years back I was ridding back to New Haven from Philadelphia. It was around 2 am and the train was comming out of the east river tunnels out of Penn Station making the curve in Queens. The Full Moon was huge over the mid town sky scrappers on a clear night. It lite up the whole city scape.
Posted by smitty195 (Member # 5102) on :
If you ride the California Zephyr in the summer, you will see plenty of full moons as you cruise through the Rockies. The folks along the river will be happy to give you a big "Zephyr Salute"!