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My wife and I just celebrated our 35th anniversary with an Alaska cruise. And yes, it was as good as everybody told us it would be.
First, some background on me. I am a veteran rail traveler, reaching 200,000 miles on this trip, mostly on Amtrak. I have covered virtually all the routes, progressing from coach travel alone to slumbercoach to roomette to bedroom. I have been sprayed on by a loose water hose in St.Louis, I have spent 4 hours standing in the Charleston, SC parking lot from 9pm to 1am during a bomb threat on the Silver Meteor with police chaplains everywhere, I have endured a 90-degree Superliner roomette on the Chief, I have experienced a dead Meteor on 125 mph track on the NEC when a frantic Amtrak HQ wanted to transfer everybody to a following Regional train and our engineer just lowered and raised the pantographs and re-started the engine, I have survived connections reduced to mere minutes because of late trains, and I keep coming back.
For this trip, my wife and I drove a rental from our central Florida home to New Orleans. This would save some on sleeper costs and also enable a nice visit with SilverStar92. 2 nights were required as our seldom commented upon City of New Orleans departed midday... We rode part of the Sunset Ltd route last year, it's not a very interesting route, and connecting to the Starlight in L.A. would also mean a late night arrival in Seattle and Vancouver.
Upon arriving downtown New Orleans, we were immediately whisked away to the station by the rental staff. The station looks much better and cleaner than my last visit pre-Katrina, with polished floors, better chairs, and a Subway shop and hot dog restaurant inside.
The City backed in at 12:35pm. Boarding was ordered by a police officer into coach and sleeper lines. The conductor took tickets at the door. Departure was on time at 1:45pm.
I spied Superliner II sleepers NE and WA in a spare consist in the yard. It's fun to keep track of the state names, even though they've been removed from the outside of the cars, and I have seen all except KY, MT, TX, and UT.
The engineer employed a loud, frequent horn over bumpy CN track. Our bedroom end of the car was cold while the roomette end was hot; weird how often that is encountered, usually the reverse, and how Amtrak is stumped on how to remedy it. Dinner consumed 1hr 5min despite only 4 occupied tables due to a slow chef and the diner was hot.
We sat in Effingham,IL 45 min the next morning waiting for 1 freight. At Homewood, a police dog boarded our car and sniffed each room, a 10-min delay. Another 8-min delay occurred at Kensington despite 8 tracks. And finally 3 more min before passing under McCormick Place and the NATO Conference. Chicago arrival, with schedule padding, was only off 35 min at 9:35am. The Capitol Ltd had sleepers 32016 and 32093 MO. Union Station's Great Hall was also closed off for NATO.
We chose to just walk around the station and sit in the Metro Lounge for our 4 hr layover. The westbound Empire Builder began boarding at 1:45pm, but no red caps. They were all assisting passengers for the Texas Eagle and California Zephyr. My wife fumed with our heavy bags (one weighed 46 lbs) and we walked. A l-o-n-g walk as the train was spotted WAY down track 19. At least upon arrival in our bedroom, we were greeted by a tablecloth on the pullout table, mints, toiletries, and sparkling cider (their enhanced service).
We lost an hour across Wisconsin because of trackwork, signal outages, a malfunctioning crossing gate, and a BNSF freight blocking our way at LaCrosse,WI. Each delay was fully explained up to 3 times each by the conductor, a nice touch for once. Dinner took only 30 min with an organized, efficient crew, the way it should be instead of sitting at those cramped tables waiting and waiting.
On an impulse, I flipped on my scanner at LaCrosse and heard a confused engineer asking "what re-route?" Yipes. A freight derailment ahead of us near Winona,MN was going to re-route us from ex-MILW track to ex-CB&Q. An alert Amtrak was on the ball for this one.
Winona and Red Wing passengers were removed for a substitute bus (ok, motor coach. what's the difference? according to our Alaska tour guides, a motor coach has a restroom, a bus does not).
We departed at 8:34pm to cross the Mississippi River bridge and wye the train. The wying was completed after much discussion on the scanner over switches and track condition at 9:13pm. We re-traced our path back over the Mississippi to the LaCrosse station at 9:25pm. We reached the freight yard and backed onto the transfer track with a relief crew at 9:43pm and awaited a pilot. Departure on the ex-CB&Q, a new route for me, was at 10:14pm. Minneapolis arrival was only 2hr 15min late over ok track.
Eyeing our timekeeping with a 3+ hr layover in Seattle, we oscillated around 3 hrs late all the way west. I knew there was plenty of schedule padding into both Spokane and Seattle, so I wasn't nervous. Jointed rail gave way to welded at Minot where the BN freight line joined; 19 freights were then met enroute to Havre,MT. I noted the rising lake that caused so many problems last year. Glacier Nat'l Park was going to be at night, so no mountain viewing, our first in a long string of missing the mountains. I did note the partial solar eclipse through an altostratus cloud deck.
Cascade Tunnel was traversed from 9:10 to 9:25am, then we stopped 10 min for orders. Funny how years ago no one was supposed to move between the cars while inside the big tunnels and the a/c was even turned off. Too much diesel smoke. Now it's ignored, I suppose, because nobody has complained.
Seattle was reached in rain and fog 1 hr 50 min late at 12:15pm, along with a Cascades train from Portland. What a crowd. And what a dump that Seattle station is after all these years of construction: dirty, messy, crowded, no food, no signs. We only had to endure it until our Ambus to Vancouver,BC departed late at 2pm (and after we all watched the driver slowly eat his lunch behind a closed door past the scheduled departure time).
more to come...
notelvis Member # 3071
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Sounds like the City of New Orleans Cross-Country-Cafe has the same staffing as the folks doing dinner on the northbound Crescent.
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