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This is my 1st post. Registration problems some months ago prevented my access so I gave up, but now I see I'm in. I have ridden almost 200,000 miles by rail, mostly Amtrak, and I like to keep track of consists by car number, especially the Viewliners and state-named Superliner II sleepers.
In several months, my wife and I will take a long-awaited trip to Alaska for our 35th anniversary. The itinerary may remind some of Steve Martin and John Candy in "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles", but I hope to not have the same experiences.
We will rent a car from Florida to New Orleans, stopping off to visit long-time friend SilverStar092. Then, it's the City of New Orleans to Chicago (full bedroom for all trains, over half on Guest Reward points), the Empire Builder to Seattle, an Ambus to Vancouver, and cruise ship to Alaska. We'll take a tour bus up thru Anchorage and Denali to Fairbanks.
For the return, fly to Seattle, Coast Starlight to Sacramento, Cal Zephyr to Chicago, Lake Shore Ltd into upstate New York to visit my parents a while, Empire Service to New York City, and then "our home train", the Silver Meteor, to Florida. An ambitious trip for sure, but we've had lots of practice. Looking forward to it.
sbalax Member # 2801
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This sounds like a great, well thought out trip. Hopefully you'll give us a trip report when you return.
Frank in sunny but cool SBA
SilverStar092 Member # 2652
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This is going to be a great trip and you will sample a nice variety of Amtrak trains. The Alaska cruise is a fabulous adventure and you are going to see some amazing sights. I believe you will take the White Pass RR also which you will enjoy. A trip report is a must!
Gilbert B Norman Member # 1541
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From Marriott Renaissance, Pittsburgh PA--
Welcome Mr. Canaveral; take good records of your consists; take great care to identify train number, name, and date of origin. Official Amtrak protocol identifies a train, for example as follows). 52(3) would be the Northbound Auto Train leaving Sanford today. 52 (3FEB) is Auto Train that left Sanford a month ago 52 (3MAR11) is Auto Train that left Sanford a year ago.
Finally, while it is poor taste to refer someone to "a competitor", i.e. another rail site (hopefully The Moderator will allow leeway in this instance), here are pre-Amtrak consists I submitted to another site. Unfortunately, this college kid when most were compiled did not do the best of jobs in recording dates and where observed, so many I have could not be shared:
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I'd recommend taking the Alaska Railroad's Denali Star from Anchorage to Denali Park and Fairbanks rather than the bus. It's a great ride.
chrisg Member # 2488
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If you have time take the train down to Seward and take the Kenali Fjord Tour. both the train with Dome Cars and the tour is excellent.
Chris
SilverStar092 Member # 2652
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Ditto with the above posts. The trips from Anchorage to Seward and Fairbanks are outstanding and I would recommend them highly. I'd certainly prefer that over the bus ride.
canaveral Member # 15138
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The bus tour into Alaska is thru the cruise line. We chose from the available itineraries according to sights we'd see and time. The only rail segment is unfortunately just from Talkeetna to Denali, about 4 hrs.
Nice list of pre-Amtrak consists.
sojourner Member # 3134
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Sounds like a fantastic trip. So many wonderful sights . . . really, fantastic. The one small change I recommend you might try to make, if the timing is right, is to go by train from Seattle to Vancouver instead of bus. It's a very pretty ride (sitting left side facing forward northbound). OTOH, Vancouver is a very pretty city, so if taking the bus allows you to see more of the city, I understand why you are doing it!
SilverStar092 Member # 2652
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Sojourner is right that the SEA-VAC train is a wonderful ride. I suspect Canaveral's reason for taking the Ambus to Vancouver is connectability. When you take the Empire Builder into Seattle the only rail connection to Vancouver requires an all-day wait in Seattle. It is too bad the Builder doesn't offer a connection with the Vancouver train at Everett but, unfortunately, this misconnect by 2 minutes. Obviously you'd need much longer connecting time to even attempt to connect there.
Gilbert B Norman Member # 1541
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Mr. Turner, obviously Amtrak does not want passengers to attempt a 7-EVE-510 connection - even if they were willing to "do it on their own". Somehow having an itinerary clearly labeled "connection not guaranteed', would not be sufficient to have some litigious passenger "looking for a way to have a little courthouse payday".
Jerome Nicholson Member # 3116
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quote:Originally posted by SilverStar092: Sojourner is right that the SEA-VAC train is a wonderful ride. I suspect Canaveral's reason for taking the Ambus to Vancouver is connectability. When you take the Empire Builder into Seattle the only rail connection to Vancouver requires an all-day wait in Seattle. It is too bad the Builder doesn't offer a connection with the Vancouver train at Everett but, unfortunately, this misconnect by 2 minutes. Obviously you'd need much longer connecting time to even attempt to connect there.
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