Transcontinental Los Angeles to New York via Canada Southwest Chief, International, Maple Leaf, Empire Service
February 12-20, 2001 Section 1 of 3
by
Southwest Chief
It's 5:45 p.m. on Monday, February 12, 2001, and I've
just arrived at the Amtrak station in Fullerton, California
where I will be boarding the Southwest Chief, scheduled to
depart at 8:04 p.m. Last Thursday night, I flew out to
Ontario, California on JetBlue Airlines, and I spent the
weekend in San Diego. Yesterday, after picking up the
tickets for my Amtrak trip at the San Diego station and
riding the Orange Line of the San Diego Trolley all the way
to its end at Santee, I drove to Palm Springs, stopping in
Oceanside to meet my online friend Eric Starr. Today, I
attended my meeting in Palm Springs (the main reason for my
trip to California), which ended about 3:15 p.m. Steve
Rosen, a member of the committee who lives in Huntington
Beach, just south of Fullerton, knew of my interest in
Amtrak, and volunteered to drop me off at the Fullerton
station on the way home. My ticket read from Los Angeles,
but I knew that I could also board the train in Fullerton,
which is the first stop. (Actually, I could also have
boarded at the second stop, San Bernardino, which is much
closer to Palm Springs, but the San Bernardino station is
located in a rather unattractive area, and Fullerton is a
much more pleasant place to wait for the train.) So after
dropping my rental car off at the Palm Springs Airport
(located only about a mile from the hotel at which the
meeting was held), I got into Steve's Suburban and we were
on our way to Fullerton.
We pulled up to the Fullerton station just as the
northbound 5:43 p.m. Metrolink train to Los Angeles was
departing. Had we arrived a few minutes earlier, I would
have taken that train to Los Angeles, since it was scheduled
to arrive at Union Station in Los Angeles at 6:19 p.m.,
affording me plenty of time to catch the Southwest Chief,
which is scheduled to depart at 7:05 p.m. But the Fullerton
station, which is manned by an agent, also has an attractive
waiting room, and I did not mind waiting there. The agent
assured me that my train was expected to arrive on time.
Fullerton is a very busy station. During my wait for
the Southwest Chief, four Amtrak Pacific Surfliner trains
(formerly designated San Diegans) came by. The first
southbound train (Train #782, scheduled to depart at 5:40
p.m. but running a few minutes late) consisted of Superliner
and California Car equipment. Next, at 6:22 p.m. (13
minutes late) came a northbound train with Amfleet and
Horizon equipment. This train (#585) had two Custom Class
(a/k/a Pacific Business Class) cars and full-length dome
#9302. I didn't see any passengers in the dome, and the
train as a whole was very lightly patronized. Three
Metrolink trains also stopped at the station during this
period, and no fewer than six BNSF freight trains (all
northbound) also passed through.
I also walked over to the Old Spaghetti Factory, a
restaurant located in the former Union Pacific station just
south of the ex-Santa Fe station which is now used by
Amtrak. This building has been magnificently restored, and
is even more elegant than the current Amtrak station, which
is quite nice itself. I made a number of phone calls, since
this would be my last opportunity to do so for a while. I
also took out some food that I had brought along and made up
a salami sandwich, which I ate together with a bottle of
Snapple that I purchased from the adjacent cafe. I was
expecting to be served a meal aboard the train tonight, but
I was rather hungry and knew that the train would not be
arriving for a while.
The station gradually began to fill up with
passengers. Besides the Southwest Chief, scheduled to
depart at 8:04 p.m., a southbound train to San Diegan (#784)
is scheduled to depart at 7:52 p.m., and a northbound
Pacific Surfliner train departs at 8:08 p.m. A recorded
announcement of the impending arrival of Train #784 on the
southbound platform was made about 7:45 p.m. This was soon
followed by a live announcement that due to the late arrival
of equipment on this morning's Southwest Chief from Chicago,
tonight's Southwest Chief would be arriving between 45
minutes and one hour late. Well, I'm not altogether
surprised. I had checked on the web and knew that this
morning's train was running about five hours late, but I had
hoped that tonight's train would nevertheless depart on
time. Had I known that tonight's train would be delayed, I
probably would have taken the next Metrolink train to Los
Angeles so that I could board my train at its point of
origin. But the Fullerton station is an attractive place to
wait, so I didn't really mind spending the additional time
here.
The southbound train to San Diego, consisting of the
new Surfliner equipment, departed at 7:58 p.m., six minutes
late. Several announcements were then made about the
impending arrival of the northbound train, but that train
did not arrive until 8:24 p.m., 18 minutes late. It
consisted of Amfleet and Horizon equipment, but unlike a
previous train, did not have a dome car. Even after the
departure of this train, over 25 people remained in the
waiting room, all waiting for the delayed Southwest Chief.
Next to me sat a woman who would be traveling in the
same car as me. She was going all the way to Chicago and
had reserved a deluxe bedroom just for herself. Her
ultimate destination was Boston, and she hoped to connect in
Chicago with the Lake Shore Limited. She was working on
some sketches, and another woman sitting nearby asked her to
sketch her granddaughter from a photograph she supplied.
Finally, at about 8:55 p.m., an announcement was made
of the impending arrival of our train on Track 1. This
track is normally used for northbound trains, but since it
is immediately adjacent to the station, the Southwest Chief
usually arrives on this track, even though it is traveling
at this point in a southerly direction. The sleepers were
stated to be at the rear of the train. It was now raining
quite hard, so I walked outside and waited underneath a
Metrolink canopy towards the northern end of the platform.
Soon, I saw the headlight of the approaching train, and the
Southwest Chief pulled into the station at 9:07 p.m. My
car, the first sleeper, was positioned right near the
canopy, so I didn't have very far to walk.
I quickly boarded my sleeper and walked right over to
my Room #14, a lower-level accommodation. Quite a few
passengers boarded my car #32001, an unreconditioned
Superliner I sleeper. We departed Fullerton at 9:11 p.m.,
one hour and seven minutes late, and the conductor
immediately came by to collect my ticket.
Tonight's Southwest Chief is pulled by four Genesis
engines and includes a baggage crew, a transition/crew dorm,
a 34000-series coach with lower-level seating, a 31500-series
coach with a smoking lounge on the lower level, a
Superliner II lounge car, a dining car, a Superliner I
sleeper (my car), a Superliner II sleeper, and a large
number of MHC, express and RoadRailer cars, the numbers of
which I did not have the opportunity to record until we
stopped in Albuquerque. Last summer, when I rode the
Southwest Chief from Chicago to Raton, there were four
coaches on the train, all of which were quite full. But
this is the off season, and two coaches are more than
adequate to accommodate all coach passengers.
Once my ticket was collected, I went to the dining
car. I was seated with two women, Gail and Joyce, who live
in California and were on their way to New York, where they
planned to visit for four days, returning by train. They
shared a deluxe bedroom and would be taking the Lake Shore
from Chicago to New York. This was the first time that
either one had traveled by train in quite some time, and
they asked me a number of questions about the trip.
Having eaten my salami sandwich earlier in the
evening, I wasn't all that hungry, so I just asked for a
salad and a cup of tea. I also got a small fruit plate for
dessert. My seat mates ordered pizza and pasta,
respectively, and seemed to be satisfied with their meals.
Upon my return from dinner, my attendant asked if I
wanted my room made up for night occupancy. I indicated
that I was not ready for this yet, whereupon he replied that
he would be going to sleep soon. I told him that I knew how
to make up the room myself (which, indeed, is relatively
easy once you know what to do). Next, I walked through the
lounge car and coaches. There was a movie playing in the
lounge car, which was lightly patronized. The second coach
on the train, reserved for local passengers, was more than
half empty, with all through passengers to Chicago being
assigned to the first coach (which was over half full). I
then returned to my room.
After stepping off the train briefly during our five-
minute stop in San Bernardino, from where we departed at
10:13 p.m. I updated these memoirs, rearranged some of my
belongings, and soon got ready to climb into bed.
At 11:13 p.m., we arrived in Victorville. The station
here is on the north side of the tracks, and on the scanner,
I heard the dispatcher give protection to Track 1, meaning
that no trains could proceed on that track, which had to be
crossed by passengers boarding our train. The Victorville
station consists of nothing more than a plastic Amshack.
Our station stop lasted for three minutes, and when we
departed, one hour and seven minutes late, I pulled down the
bed in my room and climbed in.
As is generally the case when I travel by sleeper on
Amtrak, I slept intermittently throughout the night. The
ride seemed relatively bumpy, which I thought might have
something to do with the fact that I was traveling in a
lower-level room in an unreconditioned Superliner I car. I
did not fall asleep until after we stopped at Barstow at
11:54 p.m. Barstow features a classic brick station, which
is open for waiting passengers (although no longer staffed
by an agent). Adjacent to it is another two-story brick
building called "Casa Del Desierto," which apparently means
Desert House in Spanish. This was formerly a
restaurant/hotel operated by the Fred Harvey Company.
Today, it is closed and surrounded by a chain-link fence,
but it seems that efforts are underway to restore this
historic structure. I could not see the station in Needles
(it seems that it was on the other side of the tracks), but
I did note the old stucco station in Kingman, Arizona.
Here, the train made four stops, since all passengers
boarded the train at the grade crossing adjacent to the
station, which was boarded up. There is a normal-sized
platform adjacent to the station, but for some reason, it
was not being used.
I woke up for good when we approached the Williams
Jct. station, where we stopped briefly at 6:45 a.m.
(Mountain Standard Time). This is the first time that I've
been on an Amtrak train that stopped here. The station,
which was established only about two or three years ago,
exists for the sole purpose of facilitating the transfer of
passengers to the Grand Canyon Railway, whose trains
originate at nearby Williams. The Williams Jct. station is
located in the middle of nowhere, and it consists of nothing
more than a short paved platform. A van from the Grand
Canyon Railway was on hand to meet the two passengers who
detrained from the rear sleeper. I'd assume that business
at this station is considerably higher in the summer. When
we departed Williams Jct., we were one hour and ten minutes
late, not having lost any more time overnight. Also, for
the first time on this trip, I observed that the ground was
covered in places with snow.
About 7:10 a.m., an announcement was made that we were
approaching our next stop, Flagstaff. I folded up the bed
and quickly got dressed. When we pulled into the station at
7:17 a.m., I detrained and walked a short distance down the
platform. The sun had just risen, with its glare obscuring
the view eastward. This station was quite familiar to me,
as our troop had spent over an hour here three years ago,
when we boarded the eastbound Southwest Chief. The
attractive Santa Fe station has largely been converted to a
visitor center, but the station is still staffed by an
agent, and adequate room is provided for waiting passengers.
We spent only our scheduled five minutes here, and when we
departed, we were one hour and five minutes late.
Soon after we pulled out of the station, I heard on
the scanner that we have a "carry-by" -- a passenger who was
supposed to detrain at Flagstaff but failed to get off. It
seems that this passenger was advised of the stop several
times, but still did not get off -- even though we spent
five minutes at the station! The conductor stated that she
would continue to Albuquerque and take the westbound train
back this evening. How such things happen always puzzles
me, but I guess there are some passengers who rely on their
attendant to almost drag them off the train. (I later heard
from a fellow passenger that this passenger had gotten off
the train in Flagstaff, then realized that she had left
something on board. She got back on the train to retrieve
her belongings, but the train departed before she had a
chance to get off again.)
East of Flagstaff, the train passes through hilly
terrain, with many curves. I watched the scenery for a
while, then went to take a shower, returned to my room, and
got dressed. I watched from my room as we made a brief stop
at Winslow at 8:20 a.m. Here, several passengers got on and
off. Winslow features not only a very attractive stucco
station building, but also a large, sprawling adjacent
building which was designed by Mary Colter as a Fred Harvey
house. The station, though, is no longer staffed by an
agent, and it did not appear to be open when we passed
through.
Next, I went to the dining car for breakfast. I was
seated next to a woman and her young son, who were returning
to their home in Albuquerque from a trip to Disneyland. She
was accompanied on the trip by her mother (who subsequently
joined us for breakfast) and by a friend who was traveling
with two young children. All but the mother were sharing a
family bedroom in the rear sleeper; the mother was traveling
by coach. I ordered a continental breakfast consisting of a
bagel with cream cheese and a plate of fresh fruit,
accompanied with orange juice and coffee. Service for
breakfast was rather slow, but we were in no rush, and it
was very pleasant watching the scenery go by. At this
point, the terrain was rather flat, but it was still
interesting. As we approached New Mexico, various rock
formations began to appear along the route, with a
particularly interesting one right at the Arizona-New Mexico
state line.
Soon after breakfast was over, I walked through the
coaches again. There were more people aboard, and most
seats were occupied by at least one passenger, but the
coaches were certainly not full. I noticed a computer
printout indicating that there were supposed to be 97 coach
passengers on board (with about 130 available seats), and
that the number of coach passengers actually decreased
beyond Albuquerque.
Our next stop was Gallup, where we arrived at 10:00
a.m. Here, a Navajo guide boarded the train and provided a
running commentary in the lounge car for about an hour. The
car was rather full, but not every seat was taken. I spent
almost the entire two hours between Gallup and Albuquerque
in the lounge car, watching the interesting scenery and
listening to the commentary of the guide. For the first 40
minutes out of Gallup, there are red rock formations to the
left of the train. Then the train curves to the south and
passes through lava beds, with the broken lava rock plainly
visible on the surface. We also passed by a number of
Navajo villages. For the second hour, the guide showed a
film which described the history of the various Anasazi and
Navajo settlements in the area, pointing out the many cliff
dwellings and kivas that have been discovered, and
explaining why they were located in such inhospitable
surroundings and eventually abandoned. The film was really
excellent, and although most of the sites described were not
visible from the train (or even located along its route),
the theme of the film fit in perfectly with our
surroundings. This is the first time that I've watched a
film on a train, and unlike the ones which are usually shown
on Amtrak trains, this film complemented the scenery along
the route rather than merely serving as a distraction.
Ironically, though, only a handful of people bothered
staying in the lounge car to watch the film.
About 12:05 p.m., as the film was ending, an
announcement was made that we would be arriving in
Albuquerque in about 15 minutes. Then another announcement
was made that we would be "taking a different route" to the
station, with the result that the station stop would not be
reached for about half an hour. What was meant by this I'm
not sure, as there was no other possible route we could have
taken to reach the station, and I did not hear any
communications on the scanner indicating that any unusual
move would be taking place. In any event, I returned to my
room, and although we proceeded rather slowly through the
yards south of the station, we pulled directly into the
station, coming to a stop at 12:20 p.m. -- only five minutes
late!
For many years, Albuquerque had a magnificent Mission-style
station, which unfortunately burned down several years
ago. At present, the ticket office is located in a small,
nondescript stucco building which formerly served as a
warehouse. But a magnificent new transit center is now
being constructed just north of the location of the former
station building. The station agent told me that this
building will serve only as a local transit center, but that
another, equally magnificent building will soon be erected
for Amtrak's use on the site of the old station. It is
heartening to see such new construction on what had become a
bleak, unattractive site!
After detraining, I walked back towards the end of the
train to record the numbers of the various MHC, express and
RoadRailer cars at the back of the train. I counted four
MHC cars, four express cars and 11 RoadRailer cars that had
been on the train since Los Angeles, and a switch engine was
in the process of adding another four RoadRailers behind the
last MHC car! Then I returned to the station, walked
inside, and made a phone call. At 12:40 p.m., an "all-aboard"
call was made, and I reboarded the train. We did
not leave until 12:56 p.m., however, apparently because the
conductor had to obtain permission from the dispatcher to
proceed. We were now 11 minutes late, but we had made up
almost all the time that we lost due to our late departure
last night from Los Angeles.
As soon as we pulled out of the station, a last call
for lunch was made, and I went to the dining car, where I
had a deli sandwich for lunch. Opposite me sat a woman who
was traveling, along with her mother and her twin sons (who
were about 4 years old), to Philadelphia, where she would be
attending a trade show and visiting her sister. She was
taking the train primarily because her mother wouldn't fly,
although she also stated that she enjoyed train travel.
This was her first major long-distance trip in a while, and
the four of them were sharing a deluxe bedroom. Only she
and one of her sons came to the diner; her mother remained
in the room with the other son, and she ordered a sandwich
to bring back to her mother in the room. By this point, the
diner was rather empty.
Soon after I finished lunch, we stopped at Lamy at
2:07 p.m. Several passengers detrained, including a man who
attempted to get off from my sleeper. The attendant did not
come to open the door, so I walked to the next car to try to
find an attendant. In the meantime, the man had yelled out
the window and caught the attention of another attendant on
the platform, who finally opened the door for him. I
noticed that the Legal Tender Saloon behind the station -- a
well-known landmark which, the Route Guide states, "contains
$250,000 in art and antiques" -- was boarded up. When we
departed Lamy at 2:10 p.m., we were 20 minutes late, having
lost another nine minutes since departing Albuquerque.
Leaving Lamy, the train snakes through the very narrow
and rocky Glorieta Canyon on its way to Glorieta Pass. This
is one of the most scenic sections of the route, with the
rock walls of the canyon coming to within one foot of the
side of the train! I went to the Sightseer Lounge car
(which was nearly deserted) for the climb up to the pass,
and then returned to my room, where I updated these memoirs
and continued to watch the beautiful scenery. About 3:15
p.m., we approached a double S-curve, providing an excellent
opportunity to observe the front and back of the train as it
negotiates the tight curves.
Soon afterwards, at about 3:25 p.m., we took the
siding at Chapelle to permit the eastbound Southwest Chief,
Train #3, to pass us. The line from Los Angeles to near
Albuquerque is heavily used by freight trains and it is
almost entirely double-tracked. However, from Albuquerque
to Newton, Kansas, the Southwest Chief follows what has
become a secondary single-track route, which is bypassed by
most BNSF freight trains in view of its very severe grades
over Raton Pass. The freight trains follow an alternate
route, known as the Belen Cut-Off, which passes through
Texas and has much more favorable grades.
Chapelle is a tiny village, consisting primarily of a
handful of abandoned stone homes. A few homes do appear to
be inhabited, though. One interesting feature of this
siding was a operating pair of semaphores, which are still
found in several locations along this route, although they
are gradually being replaced with more modern color signals.
The conductor had to go out to hand-throw the switch,
and then we slowly pulled into the siding and waited a few
minutes for Train #4 to pass us. The westbound train was
scheduled to arrive at Lamy at 2:33 p.m., so it was running
about two hours late. Its consist was the same as ours,
except that it had fewer freight cars in the rear. Not
until 3:40 p.m. did we proceed ahead, and even then, it took
a few minutes for our entire long train to pull out of the
siding so that we could regain track speed. During the 15
minutes that we occupied the siding at Chapelle, we were
blocking a grade crossing, and one local resident waited
patiently in his truck for our train to pass.
I was getting a little tired and dozed off for a few
minutes. At 4:05 p.m., though, I awoke when I heard on the
scanner that the defect detector at milepost 774.9, just
south of Las Vegas, N.M., had reported that we had a
dragging equipment defect at axle 53 of our 116 axles. That
would put the defect just behind the first freight car on
the train, MHC car #1409. The train came to a halt, and the
conductor went out to inspect the train. He determined that
the defect consisted of a dragging hose, which he "repaired"
by tying it back up again. We lost another five minutes or
so due to this unanticipated event. (Luckily, the defect
was not near the end of the train, as then even more time
would have been lost by the conductor having to walk all the
way back there!)
Finally, we arrived at Las Vegas at 4:21 p.m. No one
was getting on or off here, so we paused only briefly and
continued on our way. Several railfans were at the station
to see our train go by, though. Both the old Santa Fe
station and the adjacent Fred Harvey building, inscribed
"The Castaneda," seemed to be closed but in relatively good
condition.
From here to Raton, the scenery is not quite as
spectacular, although there are several rather sharp curves
and interesting mesas. The Route Guide mentions that the
ruins of Fort Union, built in 1851, are visible to the right
at Watrous, and I think that I located the stone ruins of
the fort just north of this town. I walked down to the
coaches and then returned to my room, where I finally did a
little work on the new edition of the New York Walk Book.
By the time we reached Raton at 6:02 p.m., it had
gotten dark. The family occupying the family bedroom
adjacent to my room detrained here, so I was able to step
off the train briefly. I noticed the connecting bus to
Denver parked right alongside the train. Of course,
compared to the summer, when over one hundred Scouts often
detrain from the Southwest Chief in Raton, today's passenger
load at Raton was meager indeed, and our stop lasted for
only two minutes.
Soon after we departed Raton, the steward announced
the 6:30 p.m. dinner sitting (which commenced a little early
tonight). I was seated next to a man from Elkhart, Indiana,
and opposite an Amish couple who also lived near Elkhart.
The man was a driver for a bus company, who would drive
buses from the factory in Elkhart to their ultimate
destination anywhere in the country, and then return home,
often by train. He had just delivered a bus to the Los
Angeles area and was returning home in coach.
The Amish couple had traveled out to California to
obtain medical treatment at Tijuana, where it appears that
such treatment was available at a much lower cost than in
the United States. They had coach round-trip tickets, and
boarded with me in Fullerton, but decided to upgrade to an
economy bedroom on board the train. As a result, they
received a 25% discount off the price of the room, and ended
up paying about $100 less than I did for my room.
During dinner, we went over Raton Pass. This is a
very scenic part of the trip, but it was completely dark
out, and you couldn't see anything. We paused briefly at
Trinidad at 7:00 p.m., but no one got on or off, and we
immediately continued on our way. We were now 50 minutes
late. When I finished dinner, I returned to my room and
updated these memoirs.
Our next stop was La Junta, where we arrived at 8:11
p.m. La Junta is a service stop where the engines are
refueled. On my trip to Philmont last summer, an additional
engine was added to the train here. I had thought that one
of our four engines might be removed (since the remainder of
the route to Chicago is relatively flat), but I was informed
by the conductor that this is no longer being done. We are
scheduled to spend 25 minutes in La Junta, but tonight, the
stop lasted for only 13 minutes. Hardly any other
passengers stepped off the train here, but I walked into the
station and made a few phone calls. When we departed at
8:24 p.m., we were only one minute late, having made up all
of our lost time!
Now I decided to walk down to the rear coach, which
was more than half empty, and do some work there. (I might
ordinarily have gone to the lower level of the lounge car,
but a movie was being shown there.) The coach seats are
actually a little more comfortable than the seats in the
sleepers, and this provided a welcome change of pace. I
stayed there for about 45 minutes until we paused at Lamar
at 9:11 p.m. By now, I was getting a little tired, and I
knew that we would be losing another hour when we reached
the Central Time Zone, so I returned to my room, pulled down
the bed, and went to sleep.
Tonight, the ride seemed smoother than last night.
Again, I slept intermittently, waking up for most of the
station stops, but I think that I got a fair amount of
sleep.
We arrived at and departed from our next two stations,
Garden City and Dodge City, essentially on time. But at
1:00 a.m., we came to a sudden stop. It seems that the
train had lost air pressure, resulting in an emergency
application of the brakes. The conductor went back to
inspect the train and found that an air hose behind the last
MHC car had become disconnected. He fixed the break, and we
started moving again about ten minutes later. Soon, though,
we lost air again. This time, the engineer was immediately
able to pump up the air pressure, and when the conductor
checked the train, he could find nothing wrong. So after
another delay of about 15 minutes, we moved on again. Over
the scanner, I heard the comment that if this happens
again, the conductor should close the angle-cock in front of
the FRED (end- of-train device), since the FRED might be
malfunctioning. But whatever the problem was, it did not
recur.
As a result of these delays, we arrived at Hutchinson,
our next station, at 2:53 a.m., 51 minutes late. Our
arrival at Newton and Topeka was similarly delayed.
I woke up again at 6:30 a.m. as we came to a halt at
the DeSoto yard, west of Kansas City. Here four of the
RoadRailers were removed from the middle of the train by a
waiting switch engine, and the train was serviced. Our stop
here lasted for nearly an hour.
At 7:15 a.m., during our stop at DeSoto, I decided to
get up. I walked over to the shower down the hall, but it
was occupied, so I went back to the rear sleeper and took my
shower there. Then I returned to my room. In the meantime,
we arrived at the Argentine Yard, just outside of Kansas
City, at 7:58 a.m., and stopped for eight minutes for
refueling.
At 8:22 a.m., we finally arrived at the Amtrak station
in Kansas City. An announcement was made that Kansas City
is no longer a service stop, and that our station stop would
last no longer than necessary to permit passengers to board.
I went outside and walked down the platform, but in view of
the limited time available, decided not to go into the
station (which is located some distance from the passenger
cars of the train). It was drizzling lightly outside. I
noticed a man with a black dog walk into the sleepers, where
the dog climbed over the baggage in the baggage racks,
sniffing it out. The man confirmed what I thought -- the
dog had been trained to sniff for illegal drugs. Due to its
passage through southwestern states near the Mexican border,
the Southwest Chief has been favored by some drug smugglers,
and drug-related arrests are periodically made on board. In
fact, in a TRAINS magazine article, the Southwest Chief was
once (against strong protests by Amtrak) given the nickname
"the cocaine train"! Today, however, the dog didn't find
anything.
Our stop in Kansas City lasted only the ten minutes
set forth in the timetable, and when we departed at 8:32
a.m., we were only 20 minutes late, having made up half an
hour of our lost time despite the long wait in DeSoto. If
we encounter no further delays, we should arrive in Chicago
on time -- or maybe even early!
The last call for breakfast was now made, so I went
into the dining car, where I was seated opposite Sally, who
lives in Rouses Point, N.Y. She had driven out to Phoenix
with a friend, then taken a Greyhound bus from there to
Santa Fe, and now was riding Amtrak to Ann Arbor, Michigan,
where she would be visiting another friend. Sally is a
member of the Adirondack Mountain Club and often goes on
hikes with them. We had a very enjoyable conversation over
breakfast, and after Sally left, I remained in the diner for
some time, reading a newspaper that had been put on the
train in Kansas City. For breakfast, I had the same bagel,
cream cheese and fruit combination that I had yesterday.
The scenery was rather bleak outside, and the drizzly, misty
weather made everything look even more desolate. During
breakfast, we crossed the Missouri River on an impressive
steel bridge.
After breakfast, I returned to my room, updated these
memoirs, and then walked down to the coaches. A movie was
playing in the lounge car, something that I ordinarily find
objectionable during daylight hours, but given the bleak
scenery and dismal weather, I didn't have a problem with it
today. The lounge car was pretty full with passengers
watching the movie. I counted only about 20 passengers in
the rear coach (many of whom were headed all the way to
Chicago) and 40 passengers -- all destined for Chicago -- in
the first coach. Then I returned to my sleeper, where the
attendant was changing the linen in my room, so I briefly
sat in Room 12 which (along with Room 13) was not occupied
for any part of the trip.
At 10:49 a.m., we made a brief stop at La Plata, where
one passenger detrained and four boarded. The station here
is a relatively modern wood-and-brick building, which has
seen better days (although it is still open for waiting
passengers). When we departed a minute later, we were 25
minutes late.
A first call for lunch was made at 11:30 a.m.,
accompanied with the explanation that lunch today would be
short, due to FDA regulations that require the dining car to
be thoroughly cleaned before arrival in Chicago.
After a three-minute stop at Fort Madison, Iowa, where
we arrived at 11:55 a.m., I watched as we crossed the
massive double-deck, double-track bridge over the
Mississippi River. It was interesting to note that the
western side of the river (presumably, the location of the
shipping channel) was clear of ice, while the eastern side
was completely frozen. Then, I proceeded to the dining car
for lunch.
I was seated opposite an Amtrak maintenance employee
who boarded the train in Kansas City and was headed to
Chicago. He confirmed that, beginning last November, Amtrak
moved the servicing of the Southwest Chief from the Kansas
City station to the yard in DeSoto, located about 30 miles
west of Kansas City. He also explained that, at the DeSoto
yard, the RoadRailers are first removed from the train, and
then the maintenance people are allotted 20 minutes to
inspect the train. For lunch, I had the same sandwich that
I did yesterday, and got a fruit plate for dessert.
The last call for lunch was made about 12:40 p.m.,
which I found to be not at all unreasonable (unlike my
experience on the Crescent, where the one call for lunch is
sometimes made as early as 11:00 a.m.). As I finished my
meal, I watched as we entered the newly-constructed
crossovers between the BN and AT&SF lines at Cameron Jct.
Since the summer of 1996, Amtrak has used the ex-CB&Q line
from Galesburg to Chicago. In addition to being slightly
shorter than the ex-AT&SF route, this permits Amtrak to
consolidate its operations at one station in Galesburg
(formerly, the California Zephyr and the Southwest Chief
stopped at different stations).
As I returned to my room at 12:55 p.m., we made a
brief stop at Galesburg. Although our stop lasted for only
about a minute, the conductor stepped off the train from my
car, and this afforded me the opportunity to step off and
take a picture.
Soon afterwards, a man walked over to my room and
asked if I was Daniel Chazin. When I replied in the
affirmative, he said that we know each other. He was John
Mills, Jr., whose father had worked for Amtrak for many
years (with his final position being Senior Quality Control
Inspector for the Superliner II cars), and now serves on the
board of the National Association of Railroad Passengers.
John Jr. had been the ticket agent in Topeka, but he was
"bumped" due to seniority, and now fills in on a temporary
basis for agents at Newton, Topeka and Garden City. He was
riding from Kansas City to Chicago, and had printed out a
copy of the manifest for the train. He recognized my name
(probably from my participation in All-Aboard), and decided
to come over and say hello! This was an unexpected but
delightful bonus. John invited me back to his room in the
rear sleeper, where he gave me his copy of the manifest
(which permitted me, for the first time, to copy down the
numbers of the three rear RoadRailers which I had not been
able to record in Albuquerque). We talked for a while, and
I promised to send John a copy of the story of this trip.
During my visit with John, we made brief stops at Princeton
and Mendota.
After making a brief visit to the lounge car (which,
by this time, was largely deserted), I returned to my room
and started to pack up my belongings. We made only a brief
stop at Naperville to discharge a few passengers, and then
we proceeded ahead to our final destination, Chicago Union
Station. At 3:28 p.m., on the wye just southwest of the
station, we stopped for four minutes to drop off all our
freight cars and RoadRailers, and we began our back-up move
to the station at 3:36 p.m. Finally, at 3:46 p.m., --
nearly half an hour early -- we made our final stop on
Track 20 at Union Station.
I unloaded my luggage from the train and walked down
the platform to the station. My car was the next-to-last
passenger car on the train, and with all freight cars having
been removed, I had only a very short distance to walk along
the platform before reaching the station. Since he had not
performed any services for me -- not even taking luggage off
the train upon our arrival in Chicago -- I did not offer any
tip to my attendant.
I went straight over to the Metropolitan Lounge, where
I made several phone calls and arranged with my cousin Aaron
that we would be taking the 5:30 p.m. Metra train to
Edgebrook. Then I plugged in my computer and signed online
to check my accumulated e-mail from the last two days.
Before I knew it, it was time to purchase my ticket for the
Metra train.
When I arrived at Track 15 at 5:20 p.m., there was a
large crowd waiting for the Metra Fox Lake train. An
announcement was made that the incoming train had been
delayed and would arrive in five minutes. Sure enough, at
5:25 p.m., the incoming train pulled into the station. I
don't know how everyone managed to get on the train in the
short time available (after waiting for a considerable
number of incoming passengers to detrain), but somehow our
train departed at its scheduled time of 5:30 p.m.
My trip on the Southwest Chief was quite pleasant, if
uneventful. The rather lackadaisical attitude of the
attendant in my sleeper was compensated for by the very
positive attitude of the attendants in the dining car. The
dreary weather and rather boring scenery on the second day
of the trip was more than made up by the decent weather and
wonderful scenery we experienced yesterday. And despite our
lateness in departing Los Angeles, we arrived in Chicago
half an hour early! All in all, I definitely enjoyed my
trip on the Southwest Chief.