2006 Amtrak vacation

Kirk's Log, Day three

Saturday: third day.
Went to sleep last night in Montana after leaving Whitefish. Woke up this morning in Washington aroundSpokane. There were more junk cars but things suddenly started to change and became more scenic. We followed the Columbia River for over 200 miles , at times it seemed we were actually riding on the river. This was a day ov very beautiful scenery. Cothing compares to what I saw at Mt. Hood. As we rounded a curve in the track there was a huge mountain covered with snow. It dominated the whole landscape. This is one spectacular sight you would have to see to appreciate its beauty. It was on to Portland, Oregon and a new state to see. Here we had a four hour layover. We freshened up in the R.R. while we were there. We rode a bus downtown and ate at a place called “Good Dog, Bad Dog” in the city of Roses. We went back to the station to catch the Coast Starlight from Portland to San Francisco. With this new train line on the west coast comes new passengers and encounters. Last night, Tackett and I had the “Orphis-meister” behind us with air coming from every orphis in his body. His grunts sounded like continually trying to start an old uncooperative car. The one that woke us was the sound like an elephant with his trunk raised, makes as he charges at his prey. John and Dad have two girls thinking they’re at the drive-in together. The one thing I forgot to say about the orphis man was he had the nerve to blame me and Tackett for the farting and other noises to the women setting behind him. It’s starting to rain and they’re going to show “National Treasure” in the club car.

Day 3, In and out at Portland.

Today we arrived in Portland, Oregon. It was the end of the line for the Empire Builder ( our trip, not the future of the train.) We would continue south on the Coast Starlight. For a change, we would be running late.

Click below to read the "rest of the story."

It’s day three. It’s really sort of day two but officially it’s day three. It’s after midnight. I slept through Idaho. I bet it was nice although it was dark when we got there and it’s still dark. We’re in Spokane now. Our ticket said we were on Train 27 but all along the way the engineers, conductors, and the dispatchers have referred to it as Train 7. Between Chicago and Spokane, Train 27 is a part of Train 7. Spokane is where the train is split and Train 7 goes on to Seattle and Train 27 goes to Portland. I guess I woke up during the bumping and jerking motion encountered while switching, or maybe it was the bell or horn of a train on an adjacent track. We were in Spokane for about an hour. When we left, our train was much shorter. I think there were eleven units on the train when we arrived and now we had five. They split the train between the diner and the observation car. Train 7 left with one of the diesels, the diner, and four coaches / sleepers. Train 27 left town with one diesel, the observation car, two coaches and one sleeper. We were on the final segment of this part of the trip and after two or three quick stops, we would be in Portland. I watched some of the lights and sights of Spokane fade away and it wasn’t long until I faded away into slumber land.

Ah! Daylight. No doubt about it now, this is day three. We’re still in Washington but we can see Oregon. For the next several hours we will be traveling along the Columbia River. Up close, Washington seemed to be dry and very hilly. Some of the hillsides were quite steep, seeming to go almost straight up. The railroad follows the river valley because of the relatively flat grade. We went through several dozen tunnels along the way. Some were probably less then fifty feet and others maybe three hundred feet. Meanwhile, the Oregon side of the river looked much greener and the hill were gentle. There seemed to be much more industry and many more towns on the Oregon side of the river. As we rounded one turn, Mount Hood came into view. Kirk would tell him mom that “It just looked like a big pile of snow.” It was quite impressive. We were not close enough to really see any detail but we were able to see it for well over an hour as we traveled toward Portland.

It’s 10:00 and we’re in the station at Portland. We arrived about ten minutes early. It’s the end of the line for this train today. The crew will service the train and turn it around for the trip back to Chicago. In six hours and forty five minutes they would be departing on Train 28 to meet Train 8 at Spokane and retrace their route to Chicago.

The station in Portland was an old brick and stone building with a red tile roof, built in 1896. Nothing is very modern here but everything is adequate. Since we had been traveling for a few days we headed for the restrooms, shaved, and freshened up a bit. We still had another day and night before we would be in a hotel. We had about four hours before we caught the next train. There were no lockers in the station but they did have a baggage check office. We checked our luggage and headed out to “Downtown Portland.” We walked a block or two and ask someone for a suggestion of where to go. Turned out that there was a free bus to the business district, about a half mile from where we were. When we got there we found that there was some kind of festival going on. We sort of stayed away from the heart of it and started looking for something to eat. We found “Good Dog, Bad Dog,” a gourmet hotdog shop. I think we all got something different and we all were pleased with what we had picked out. I picked up one of their “menus on a post card” and sent it to Frances, my wonderful wife that let me go on this trip. We killed a little more time and then headed back toward the station, stopping at a Subway and picking up our meal for the evening. We got back to the station about forty-five minutes before the scheduled departure of our train to Emeryville. We picked up our luggage and found a seat near the gate where we would be boarding. Turns out we had arrived earlier than necessary. Train 11, the Coast Starlight was running about an hour late. There was an additional conductor boarding at Portland and she did the best she could to calm everyone down. We were in no hurry so we didn’t care, but some people were upset. Our only concern was getting four seats together, or at least close. When the train did arrive the car attendant was assigning seats so when we said a party of four, she assigned two groups of two seats across the aisle form each other. Since the train was running late, they boarded everyone as quickly as possible. The twenty minute scheduled stop was cut short. In just a few minutes we were on our way.

We settled in for the next sixteen hours as we headed south. A new train and a new bunch of “characters.” It didn’t take long to find out that “Mr. Hey everyone, I’ve got a cellphone” was on the train with us. Why is it that a person that can carry on a normal conversation face to face has to yell when he’s on a cell phone? After a couple of hours he announced to someone that “My batteries are about dead, got to go.” He was pretty quiet after that except for his watch that beeped loud enough every hour that we all knew what time it was without looking at our watches.

Butch and Sundance were in the seats in front of me. That’s what we called them. They were two girls and they were lesbians. They were hugging and smooching all evening. Destination: San Francisco.

Traveling south, I think we went through some very beautiful country. The only problem was the fog. It was raining some and the fog was so thick you couldn’t see much beyond about a hundred and fifty feet most of the time. There were a few spots where visibility was greater but they were rare. I went to the observation car after dark and watched the movie. I came back to my seat after that for the “double feature” that was showing inside my eyelids.

NOTE: I mentioned the “bumping and jerking motions encountered while switching” early in this posting. If you watch old movies where people are jerked around when the train starts and stops and you think that’s what it’s like these days, then you’ve got another think coming. Probably 99% of the starts and stops are much smoother than what you experience in your car. When the train starts, you “might” feel a slight nudge but usually you look out the window and notice you’re moving. When stopping, the effect is more noticeable, but again, smoother than your average stop in your driveway. If you happen to be in the diner, you’re not going to spill a drop of your coffee.

Kirk's Log, Day two

Friday (second day)
Woke up this morning in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota. Dad had a red blanket around him because it was only 42° , this according to uncle John, gadget master. We decided toeat breakfast on the train. I had Railroad French Toast. We went thourgh Rugby, North Dakota which is the center of North America. I had to set my watch from Central to Mountain time. We went through Fort Buford were Sitting Bull surrendered in the Battle of Little big Horn. There are a lot of Indian reservations in North Dakota. Sitting Bull spent his last days here. Then on to Glasgow where a large area of dinosaur bones were discovered. In Havre we got off the train and stretched our legs. Along the empire line butch Cassity and the Sundance Kid with Billy Jarvis blew up a train in 1901 and stole $66,000. The glacier Park was very scenic and had snow capped mountains. As this is the Rocky Mountains. It’s one of the most beautiful sights I have seen. In cut Bank, Montana the area is know for the coldest mid-winter temperature in the country. Coming out of the Rocky Mountians ther is a section known as Mystery Pass. The tracks curves were so severe we coud see the front of the train. Then it was on to Whitefish which was one of the layover points. It was really beautiful and Dad said you would enjoy it. Now we’re in a 7 mile tunnel called Flathead. This has taken us out of the Rocky Mountains and on our way to Spokane, Wahsington. We’ll write more tomorrow as Dad has his red blanket over him. Dad’s taken two who chairs. I’m sleeping with Tackett again. I’ll never be the same.

A trip to the moon.

The Moon. That's what it seemed like. This entry covers the second day of our trip, going through North Dakota and Montana. Click below to read the entire article.

I didn’t know we were going to the Moon on this trip but that’s what it looked like when I woke up. My brother had similar thoughts but he was thinking Mars. The sun was just starting to come up. It was still over the horizon. My eyes were still in a sleep mode. As they tried to focus on what was outside the windows as it zoomed past, I couldn’t figure out if we were on land, next to a big lake with some whitecaps, or if we had taken a detour to the Moon. After a few minutes my eyes began to work a little better and I decided that we must still be on the planet Earth because I didn’t think that anyone had erected fence lines on the Moon yet. We were in North Dakota. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so flat with nothing around it for miles. There were little ripples of sandy dirt and grass. I guess that’s what made me wonder if we were next to a lake. As the sun popped over the horizon, things changed from shades of gray to a more colorful appearance.

Boy! Did I sleep or what? That question I had in my mind yesterday as the trip began was answered now. “Yes. I can sleep pretty well in the coach seats.” I think I woke up one or two times during the night for maybe a minute or so but I went right back to sleep. My knees were a little stiff but they loosened up pretty quickly. Other people were starting to wake up and stir around a bit but it was still fairly quiet. Everyone was respecting the sleeping habits of those that were snoozing for a few minutes longer. A little later the Dining Car Steward announced that she would be taking reservations for breakfast and that breakfast would be served shortly. We didn’t rush to get our name on the list. We did eventually decide that we would have breakfast in the diner. I made my way to the diner to get on the list. The steward said it would be about 30 minutes before we could be seated. That was fine with us. We were in no hurry. We still had over 24 hours on this train so 30 minutes was nothing.

As speculated, we were called to the diner about a half an hour later. The four of us made our way through the 2 coaches and the observation car and finally to the diner. We were seated in about 2 minutes or less. The Dining Car Steward was very friendly. We review the menu and our order was taken quite promptly. I ordered the Railroad French Toast. It was only a few minute before we were served. It was a different experience, eating breakfast while the countryside zoomed by at nearly 80 miles per hour. The service was quick, the waiters and staff were very polite and professional, and the food was good. When we paid we left a tip for the servers. The Dining Car Steward was very thankful for the tip. We knew that the Amtrak employees did not receive their tips directly. They received their tips with their pay and it is taxed as regular income. Our Steward said that most people don’t leave tips. They just assume that the tip is built into the price of the meal or that the service staff is paid at a level that they would not expect tips.

The next several hundred miles were rather uneventful. We passed through several small towns, not even slowing down for some of them. The weather was really nice, a few clouds here and there but mostly sunny. The prairie was generally flat for miles with a slight slope here and there. I was talking to my brother about how rough it must be during the winter. I could imagine a foot or more of snow on the ground and a cold wind blowing out of Canada and not a thing to stop it or slow it down.

Along the way we often see a house out in the middle of nowhere. Sometime there were groups of five or maybe ten all together. We wondered why anyone would pick that particular spot to build a home. We guessed that it was a farm family but we rarely saw anything that looked like farm equipment and buildings. The one thing that seemed to be common around most of them was the junk cars. It seems that every one of those home had at least one or two old cars in the back yard. I guess that they probably wear a car out pretty quickly since it’s so far to “civilization.”

As mid afternoon approached we began to see a few hills. As flat as the area was, the first hill was visible for 30 minutes before we got near it. I wonder how the pioneers felt when they first saw that same hill. At 80 miles per hour it took us 30 minutes or more to get to it. It probably took them three or four days to reach it in their wagons. After about an hour of the small, gentle hills we got into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. By the time we got to Cut Bank we were into some really scenic terrain. The view was great on either side of the train but the south side probably had the most scenic views along this portion of the trip. The station at Glacier Park is very nice. It has a rustic look and the entire area is a post card just waiting for you to take the picture. We continued on around the southern border of Glacier National Park to Essex and the Izaak Walton Inn, then on to Belton / East Glacier Park. You can find Belton on the Montana highway map but you won’t find it in the Amtrak timetable. Amtrak calls it “East Glacier Park.” The next stop was Whitefish, Montana. Shadows were starting to get a little longer when we arrived and the sun cast a golden glow over the area. The station was probably the most interesting of all of the stops along this route. It made you think you were in an Alpine village. The train stopped there for about 25 minutes but just before we arrived the conductor announced that we would have time to walk around and he reminded us to stay near the train. “If you fail to re-board and the train leaves you, you will be able to spend 24 hours in Whitefish at your own expense and Amtrak would gladly pick you up the next day and take you to your destination, provided you had your ticket.” The town looked very tempting and no doubt, on previous trips through the town, passengers had walked into town and failed to get back to the train before it left.

We continued on towards Stryker, Libby, and into Idaho. Somewhere in that area I fell asleep. I’m sure Idaho was nice but the only thing I saw as we passed through the state was the inside of my eyelids.

Kirk's Journal - Day 1

Kirk is my Nephew. Kirk (with Sonny's assistance, or embellishments) kept a journal as we traveled. Click below to read his version of day 1.

3AM. Stopped in front to pick up Tackett but John stopped at the wrong house. (NOTE: I've never been to Tackett's place. My brother had me go to the wrong place.) People going to call police but John called Tackett. A am writing this as the train is going 81 MPH.

We stopped to eat breakfast at McDonalds but they were serving lunch at 4AM their time, 3AM our time. Dad said no to a Big Mac and wanted a biscuit. John and Dad went to park the car forever while me and Tackett talked about Star Wars and music. We took the train from Naperville to Chicago. Stored our bags in a locker that held six bags but we put 9 bags in the locker. We at lunch at Billy Goat Tavern, Tackett got all of us a souvenir. Tackett wanted to get us a famous Chicago hotdog. Tackett went to the RR while we were boarding the train to Portland. We all ate our Subway subs at six o’clock. Dad sent me to get drinks. We called home to talk to you. I wish you were here. I know you would like this.

The train has stopped for a drug bust. The PA guy said “This is completely a nonsmoking train.” There’s a movie being shown but I can watch TV at home. We’re leaving Wisconsin and the cheese farms on our way to Minnesota. Dad put a blanket on and We’ll start again tomorrow. But I forget to tell you about one wire John who brought six gadgets we know of. They tell us how fast, elevation, temperature, and listening to the trains crew. We’re in Minnesota now. We’ll write more tomorrow for sure.

All Aboard

The "Empire Builder" left Chicago on time and we were on our way. Day one was and adventure, in more than one way.

We’re on our way. This is my first really long distance rail trip in over 35 years. The trips from Louisville to Chicago and back were short trips compared to what was ahead. The last time I did anything like this was our family trip to New York City for the World’s Fair. I was 16 years old then. Now I’m old enough to get the seniors discount in a lot of places. I was wondering how this trip was going to be. Would I have trouble sleeping? I don’t usually fall asleep at the drop of a hat. If there is anything going on I’m usually want to see what it is. Oh well! I was on my way and it would be a week and 5391 miles before this trip would be over. I was looking forward to it but I had some second thoughts.

For the first few minutes we were still getting settled in. “Where’s the thing-a-ma-jig?” and “Who’s got the what-cha-ma-call it?, Did you put it in overhead?” By the time we got to Glenview, Illinois, 18 miles and 24 minutes from Chicago, we were all settled in. We had passed a southbound Hiawatha just before we got to Glenview. A few minutes later we passed the Chicago bound Empire Builder. Those folks were on their way to an on time arrival at Chicago. That was an encouraging thing to see. For about 6weeks before we left on our trip I had been checking the arrival times of the trains that we were going to be riding. The Empire Builder was averaging 23 minutes late at Portland. One trip was 7 hours 10 minutes late. Most of the severe delays were in the first 2 weeks that I tracked it. As the trip got closer the on time performance improved and there were trips when the train arrived 25 minutes ahead of schedule.

Time to get out the maps and gadgets and do some railfanning. I had a GPS receiver with me, my scanner, the maps, and the route notes that I had prepared. I was getting real comfortable with the trip now. Let’s see… the GPS says 79MPH, bumping 80 or 81 every now and then. Turned on the scanner, channel 44 since we were on the Canadian Pacific (old SOO line.) Sometime before we get to Milwaukee we change to channel 94 but for now, I guess I’m on the right frequency. I’m hearing occasional chatter and defect detectors announcing “No defects” along with the other information. Milwaukee would be coming up pretty soon. Besides being a “beer town” in the “Cheese state,” Milwaukee is quite a rail town. If you’ve ever looked at a railroad magazine, you probably looked at a product of Kalmbach Publishing Company. Some of the biggest magazines in their field are “Trains,” “Model Railroader,” “Classic Trains,” “Classic Toy Trains,” and “Garden Railways” and they are products of Kalmbach.

We roll into Milwaukee right on time. It’s just a short stop. We pick up a few passengers. That would be the normal for the next stops and then we were far enough along that some passengers had reached their destination. From Portage on, we would be exchanging passengers at just about every station but, for the next 24 hours or so, we would be picking up more that we let off. Things were pretty quiet. The evening meal announcement was made and we pulled out our Subway’s around that same time. We made a few stops and the conductor announced whether the train would stop long enough for the smokers to light up or not. There was one family of smokers that got off to light up every time the train stopped. At one of the stops we noticed that they man had a cigarette in each hand and he would take a puff from one, blow it out, and take a draw on the other one and then repeat the sequence again. He almost got left at one station. When we got underway again the conductor announced that passengers were not to get off the train unless it was their destination or if it was announced that the train would be stopped long enough for a smoke break. A little further along the way we did have a longer break. I can’t divulge the exact content of the communications but about 5 miles out from one of our stops, the conductor requested the agent at the station to have the local police meet the train. Seems there was some “drug activity” on the train. When we arrived at the station there was a police car there. The train stopped to let passengers board and depart the train. After that short stop the train moved ahead about 3 car lengths and stopped again. The conductor met the officer and took him to the sleeper at the end of the train. A few minutes later they took someone off the train and into the station. About 10 minutes later the passenger re-boarded the train. We sat there for another 10 or 15 minutes while everyone did their paperwork. We were about 25 minutes late when we departed the station. That was the first time we had been behind schedule. About a minute after we departed I hear someone on the radio say “I aint strip searching nobody!” A minute or two later there was an announcement that “There will be no smoking on this train! No smoking of anything, anywhere, at anytime! Absolutely no smoking at all!”

I knew what was going on but I wonder how much the other passengers knew. There was a couple with a scanner at the other end of the coach we were on. He had heard the same thing that I had. I suspect that a few others on the train also had scanners but the rest of the passengers probably figured that someone was smoking in the restroom or in the baggage storage area.

As we continued we crossed the Mississippi around sunset. It didn’t take too long to make up the time that we had lost due to the “drug bust.” As it got darker I got a little sleepy. I don’t know where we were when my eyelids clamped shut but I woke up as we were entering the Twin Cities. We had about a 20 minute stop there. Seemed like a great place to get off and stretch a little. If we had any idea of finding something to eat around the station we soon discovered that we might as well be on the moon. There were no signs of “golden arches”, Taco Bells, Whoppers, a local bar or even a convenience store. The only things available were the vending machines in the station. I got a soft drink and walked toward the front of the train. I found that there were some preserved rail cars from the Hiawatha trains that used to frequent this area. The jewel of the collection was a rounded end car that would normally bring up the end of a train.

Toot! Toot! “All aboard!”

I knew what that meant. We were about to get underway again. Everyone quickly got back on the train. We were on our way again. I sipped on my soft drink, nibbled on some crackers or some other snack. It wasn’t too long before I would be out for the night.

Cheesborger! No Pepsi. Coke.

Here starts our trip to Chicago and the West Coast. We didn't really drive to Chicago. We went to Naperville and road a train to Chicago. Ate at Billy Goats Tavern and had "Cheesborgers." Click below to read the rest of the story.

My 2005 Amtrak trip was great. Kirk, my nephew finished the school year on Wednesday and we headed out around 1:30AM Thursday morning for Chicagoland. We had to pick up Sonny before we left town. Sonny wasn’t in favor of leaving quite that early but I knew it was about a seven hour drive to Naperville and then a little more time to grab a breakfast, stop for gas, and maybe run into some construction delays. Our train would depart Chicago at 2:15PM whether we were there or not. I knew it would take some time at Naperville to unload baggage, park, and get back to the station. The METRA trains from Naperville to Chicago run hourly. I figured about 2 hours in Chicago, maybe 3 if everything went like clockwork.

We ran into a few minor delays on the way to Naperville. A 24 hour McDonalds wouldn’t serve us breakfast until after 5:00AM, it was about 4:30AM when we got there. We drove on up the road and found something else. A gas station we pulled into was lit up like it was open but it wasn’t. Things like that kill 2 or 3 minutes each but enough of them could become significant. Since we were making good time we took a little extra time to stretch about halfway between Indianapolis and Naperville. About 40 miles south of Gary Indiana we took some back roads that took us around the Chicago area and kept us away for any rush hour traffic. They were all good roads and except for having to slow down as we went through a few towns, speed limits were 55MPH and we made pretty good time. We arrived in Naperville and it seemed like I had over estimated our buffer time. We were plenty early. We found the station… I sort of knew where it was anyway. We unloaded all of our baggage. There were a few cabs there waiting for the next train coming from Chicago. We got a phone number from one of them then drove to the “Community Christian Church” where we would be parking the car for a week. We talked to one of the staff members for a few minutes and told them that we had made arrangements with Pastor Tim. Then we called the cab. They told us it would be about 45 minutes before we would be picked up. Glad I had the extra time built into the schedule. As it turned out, we got picked up in about 10 minutes. We arrived at the station and had about 45 minutes to wait for the next METRA train into Chicago. I had allowed for about 50 minutes at Naperville, figuring that we could have up to 1 hour wait if we had just missed a train. The trip to Chicago took an hour also. My two to three hour buffer in Chicago was working out about right. We arrived in the Chicago terminal around 11:00AM. We found the baggage lockers and proceeded to stuff 8 bags into a locker that should have held 5, maybe 6 bags. With a little pushing and shoving, the door actually did close and lock.

“Cheesborger! Cheesborger! Cheesborger!” Sound like something from a SNL skit? Take a trip to Billy Goats Tavern in Chicago. That’s where we had lunch. It’s about 5 blocks from the station. It’s also the place that inspired that skit on SNL (Saturday Night Live, incase you didn’t know.) Take a look at the menu before you get in line to order.

“What’ du-yuh want?”

“I’ll have the special.”

“Cheesborger!” he yells. “You want fries?”

Don’t get in line without knowing what you want. He’ll ask you once, maybe prod you once more, and if you’re not quick enough he’ll ask the next guy in line and he may not come back to you. For about $5.00 you can get a pretty good burger, fries, and a Coke. No Pepsi!

We strolled around for about a half hour after we ate lunch and then headed back towards the station. Along the way we stopped at a Subway and picked up a sub for the road.

We got back to the station about an hour before our scheduled departure time. Opened the “exploding locker” and got our bags out and walked to the ticket kiosk to print out our tickets. Amtrak has a nice system. You put the same card in the machine that you used to purchase the tickets and it spits them out for you. That’s how it’s supposed to work. For some reason, it didn’t want to work for me this time. I had used them previously but they were not going to work this time. So, I got in line at the ticket counter. I was expecting to find that there was some problem with the tickets and this was going to take awhile to get ironed out and we were going to be pushing it to get on the train. I don’t know what was wrong but the agent took the info from my card, typed in a few things and out comes 12 tickets that she wanted me to sigh. She did ask to see my Veterans Advantage card but said that there was nothing asking her to verify it. She didn’t know why the kiosk wouldn’t work. She was extremely nice, friendly, and helpful. I forgot her name but if I knew it I think I would have sent a letter to Amtrak telling them how nice she was.

With tickets in hand we head toward the gate where we were to board the train. Since there were four of us traveling together I wanted to be near the front of the line to make sure we got four seats together. I didn’t know how crowded the train would be. Sonny had to make a “personal” stop. The rest of us went ahead and got in line. After about 10 minutes we began to wonder about Sonny. He had not returned and I had his ticket. My brother went looking for him and came back empty handed. A few minutes later, Sonny came from the back of the line to join us again. Boarding started a few minutes later than the scheduled time. Amtrak had another train to get out first and it was a few minutes late. As soon as the other train departed, Amtrak started boarding passenger on the Empire Builder. Our coach was two coaches from the end of the train. We boarded, stowed our luggage downstairs, went upstairs, found some seats, stowed our overhead luggage, sat down and about five minutes later we were moving. I looked at my watch and it was 2:15 and 5 seconds.

Before we leave Chicago, let me talk about the station for a minute. The Chicago Union Terminal is an old building build in 1925. Countless millions, or maybe I should say “billions” have come through the terminal. In the 1940’s over 300 trains and 100,000 passengers used the terminal daily. When you enter the main hall from the Canal Street entrance on the east, the steps to the waiting room are worn to the point that there is a very noticeable slope on the tread (the part you step on.) It’s about like any other old municipal terminal, full of echos, hard surfaces, one hundred foot plus ceilings in the main hall, and old wooden seats. It’s clean and to the casual visitor, it seems well maintained. Most visitors to the terminal are METRA riders since all METRA trains terminate at that terminal. METRA has some new facilities but Amtrak uses part of the old terminal. They have installed modern ticket counters, lighting, and equipment, however, they kept the charm of a 1920’s era station. The waiting room has been remodeled, however, it’s probably due for another update. It was crowded and a bit warm the day we were there.

Once you leave the waiting room you enter the working part of the station. This is the part where the real business of the railroad takes place. Steel meets steel down here. This part of the station is dirty. It’s underground. The sun never shines in here and rain never makes it in either except when it finds a leaky path from the surface. The bowels of the station have seen years and years of coal burning steam locomotives and for the last 50 years, diesel locomotives. They create a lot of dirt and years of it have collected in some areas. I’m sure the area gets cleaned from time to time but just don’t brush a white shirtsleeve against anything as you walk to your train. When the station was built, passengers expected to get dirty when they took the train. They were riding in coaches that were not air-conditioned and suet and cinders’ coming in the windows was the norm.

We were under way. If we forgot anything, it was too late now. After about a minute or so we saw sunlight. Time to call the wife just to let her know that we were on our way.

What were they thinking?

Once the trip was planned I went to www.amtrak.com to book it. It's easy to use but watch out for a few snags that will get you if you're not carefull. click below for details

The Amtrak website is really easy to use but you need to watch out for a few things. I clicked the Multi-City Trip option, entered CHI to PDX and a date, PDX to EMY and date, and then EMY to NPV and a date. This is where it gets a little tricky. Amtrak will often offer several options (if available) between locations. Some are options in name only and others are just sort of strange.

Here’s an examples of “What’s in a name?”. Train 27 goes from Chicago to Portland. Train 7 goes from Chicago to Spokane and from there you can catch train 27 on in to Portland. Trains 7 and 27 are the same train from Chicago to Spokane. In Spokane Amtrak splits the train. The front part of it (train 7) goes to Seattle, and the rear part (train 27) goes to Portland. If you book your trip to ride train 7 and then 27, depending on which coach you were on, you might have to get off the train in Spokane to move to the other part of the train. You can book that segment of the trip either way, it’s the same train.

Now for some examples of “What were they thinking?” Lets look at the Emeryville to Naperville segment. Amtrak offered several options. The most direct option was on train 6 that left Emeryville at 9:15AM and arrived at Naperville at 1:47PM two days later. Option two, leave an hour and twenty minutes earlier and go to Sacramento, wait there for 90 minutes to catch train 6, the same one you could catch at Emeryville and not have to transfer. Option three, catch train 712 at 7:40AM and ride to Bakersfield. At Bakersfield, take the bus for 2 hours to Los Angeles. At LA, catch train 4 to arrive two days later at Naperville at 2:14PM, two days later. Or, option four. Take train 6 from Emeryville to Chicago (past Naperville), wait 2 hours and 30 minutes and catch train 347 back to Naperville, arriving at 6:30PM. The first option makes the most sense unless maybe you want some extra miles under you seat or maybe you need to meet someone for 10 minutes at Sacramento or Los Angeles. Most of the options will cost the same but sometimes the less direct routes will cost more. Take a look at all of the options before making your final choice.

We booked our travel for the first day my nephew would be out of school. As it turned out, by booking it that early we got the non-peak period rates. A week later would have cost us over $100 more. I opted to pickup the tickets in Chicago. I wouldn’t have to worry about loosing them that way. I paid for them in advance with a credit card. By doing that you can go to the kiosk in the ticketing area, using the same credit card you used to pay for the tickets, put that card in the machine and the machine prints out your tickets

I got busy after that. I obtained state highway maps of all of the states that we would be traveling through. Most had major railroad on the maps. I highlighted the routes on the maps. Then I copied the timetables for each route into a spreadsheet. Then I got the Route Guides for each route, viewed other people’s travelogues and notes, radio frequency references, and incorporated all of that on the spreadsheet. When it was all put together I had the timetable with times, miles, locations with notes, host railroad, and radio channel used in that segment. I ended up with a few errors and some missing links, mostly with the radio information. A few times we would pass into a division where the crew changed channels and I didn’t have any info on where the change took place. It turned out to be a great way to track our progress.

Amtrak in 2005, a totally different experience.

In 2005 I took a trip with my brother, his friend Sonny, and my nephew from Chicago to Portland, then Emeryville (Oakland/ San Francisco area) and back to Chicago. These trains were not to be confused with the Kentucky Cardinal.

Click the link below for some of the planning that went into the trip. Then watch for details of the trip.

Amtrak in 2005, a totally different experience.

In the early part of Spring, 2005, my brother called me and ask “Would you want to in take a trip on Amtrak?”

“Sure! What’ya got in mind?” was my reply.

He told me that he was thinking about taking a trip somewhere and he had ordered and received Amtrak’s booklet with all of their maps and timetables. He said that he got a call from “Sonny”, one of his friends from his high school days and Sonny had said something to him about an Amtrak trip also. Sonny also had the Amtrak booklet. Here I am the biggest rail fan in the bunch and I don’t have anything. Anyway, the three of us got together for a few minutes on the phone and kicked around a few ideas and then decided on a time when everyone could meet at my home. I didn’t really know what they had in mind. I was figuring maybe driving to Cincinnati, Catching the Cardinal to Chicago and back or maybe a roundtrip to the Washington DC area. When we had our little meeting I found that these guys were talking “West coast.” Destinations like Seattle, San Francisco, or Los Angeles. We decided on a few things right away. We wanted to get the most miles for the money, We wanted to see as much of the country as we could, and we wanted to go west on one train and return via a different route. My 14 year old nephew would be going with us and my brother wanted to maximized the number of states he would travel through, however, that wasn’t a high priority since any route we would take would take us through a dozen or more states. Three trains were among our possible choices; the Empire Builder, the California Zephyr, and the Southwest Chief. The Sunset Limited was sort of ruled out because of connections and time constraints. Sonny and I are retired but my brother still works and he could only take 7 days off from his work. We jotted down a few ideas and I took the task of searching www.amtrak.com to see what kind of schedule and cost options we had available.

About a week later we got together again. I had priced several options and routes. We decided to drive to Chicago, take the Empire Builder to Portland, then the Coast Starlight to Emeryville (Oakland), Ca., and the California Zephyr back to Chicago. We had considered spending a day in Seattle but we just didn’t have the time. We took the Portland option because it would give us several hours between our arrival and the scheduled departure on the Coast Starlight. If we had gone to Seattle, the scheduled arrival of the empire Builder would have been 20 minutes after the Coast Starlight’s scheduled departure. At Oakland we had to spend a day there. The California Zephyr departed about two hours before we arrived. Besides, we needed a day to clean up and sleep in a bed. Our stop at Oakland would be our “go visit the sites” day. The next morning we would depart on the California Zephyr for our return trip. Total of 14 states visited and 5419 miles by rail. Scheduled time on the train would be 115.2 hours. Cost for the four of us would be $1043. Now it was time to work out all of the details.

If we’re driving to Chicago we’re going to have to park somewhere. I figured parking in downtown Chicago would be pretty expensive, We later found that we could have parked for $60.00 for a week. Since we would be returning on the California Zephyr and since it had a stop in Naperville, Il., I wondered if I could find someplace in that area that would let us park. While I was looking at the METRA schedules I stumbled onto a link to information about a shuttle bus between the Naperville station and a local church. Well, to make a long story short, I contacted the church and made arrangements to park in their lot. We would just have to get a cab to take us to the station. At the station we would catch METRA, the commuter rail service and ride it into Chicago’s Union Station. Using Naperville as our starting and ending point had another advantage. On the way back we would be departing the train about 1 hour before it arrived at Chicago so we could be on our way back to Louisville an hour earlier. We were going to need a hotel in Oakland. I used Microsoft “Map Point 2002” to locate some hotels in the area. Since we were only staying one night, I figured we could go a few extra bucks and get something nicer than a Holiday Inn. There was a FourPoints Sheraton about 2 blocks from the station for $140 for the night. As it turned out, when we got there they had a special rate going and it only cost us about $99.00 plus tax but that’s something for the next installment on this blog.

After researching everything and getting the prices nailed down pretty good I called the other guys to confirm that everything was still on. Everyone said to go ahead and order tickets.

The Kentucky Cardinal

Amtrak came back to Louisville in 1999, but not for long. The Kentucky Cardinal was often called "The worst train on Amtrak." I road it twice and each time was an adventure. It was late on each of my trips (both ways.) The only really good thing about the trips was the cost. My first trip cost $7.00 each way and the last trip was $14 each way. I happened to catch some "Rail Sales."

Continue reading for all of the details or Google "Amtrak Kentucky Cardinal."

In the 1970’s Amtrak ran the Floridian through Louisville on its Chicago to Miami route. Seemed like it was never on time and that was the main cause for Amtrak discontinuing it in 1979. Actually, it was discontinued due to low ridership caused by its poor performance. I remember going to the station near Outer Loop and National Turnpike adjacent to the CSX Osborne Yard to see the last Amtrak train leave Louisville. It was a southbound train. I don’t remember exactly what time it was supposed to arrive. It was around sunset or maybe just a little later. I didn’t hang around to see it. It was several hours late. I had to go to work the next morning. That was in October 8, 1979. Amtrak was struggling to survive and the many of the host railroads were doing all they could to get rid of it. The trains scheduled was set based on traveling 65 mile/hour or faster. The host railroads, mainly the PennCentral through Indiana, often issued slow orders. Trains were often restricted to long sections of 15 miles per hour. A single 15 mile section of slow orders could put the train about an hour behind schedule. That only complicated things because now the train was missing its scheduled meet to pass a freight train going the other direction and might have to wait 30 or 45 minutes on a passing track for a freight to arrive. Now it was nearly two hours late and things just kept on compounding the problem. One thing for sure, the host railroads were not going to jeopardize the schedule of their own freight trains just to help expedite that unwanted Amtrak service.

Twenty years later, Amtrak returned to Louisville in the form of the Kentucky Cardinal, Amtrak trains 851 (northbound) and 850 (southbound). Originally the service terminated in Jeffersonville Indiana but once the station ( a platform, a sign, and a stub end track) was completed in Louisville, service was extended the last few miles to that station. The original equipment was Superliner sleeping car and a hi-level ex-ATSF Heritage coach. The train was really doomed from the start. Between Louisville and Indianapolis, a distance of about 125 miles, the train was restricted to 30 miles per hour over the Louisville and Indianapolis Railroad. This made a 2 hour drive or bus ride a 4 hour train ride. Then, when you got to Indianapolis, if it was one of the nights when train 51, the Cardinal was running, you would have to wait for it to arrive and it was seldom on time. The trip from Louisville to Chicago could be driven in 6 hours or less. By Amtrak it was about a 12 hour adventure. The first time I made the trip we spent about 2 hours in Indianapolis waiting for train 51 to arrive. There’s not much to see of do in Indianapolis at 3 AM, especially when the station is also the Greyhound bus station. After we finally coupled onto the Cardinal we departed Indy. At last we were finally moving and I do mean moving. I had a GPS receiver with me and we were doing 79 miles per hour. Unfortunately, that didn’t last too long. About 50 miles north of Indy we hit a 20 mile section of restricted speed. For over an hour we were moving at 12 Miles per hour. I also had a scanner with me and I heard the train crew talking to the dispatcher. They ask for permission to go faster but the dispatcher denied the request. You could tell that the engineer was not happy but he had to obey the order. The rest of the trip was rter uneventful. We arrived in Chicago over 2 hours late. On the return trip we were the tail end of train 50 to Indianapolis. They parted the train there and the Cardinal was on it’s way. The crew coupled the locomotives to the coach and then nothing happened. You could hear them bring the locomotive that supplied the head end power up to speed but no lights, fans, air, or anything. They did that several times and no luck. The conductor told me that they had a defective connector on one end of the coach. They were going to run the locomotive around to the other end. That meant that they had to turn them around on the wye. After maybe 15 minutes the locomotives came back and connected to the other end of the coach. After a few minutes we finally had lights, air, and other services. We were ready to leave. The only problem was, we were headed the wrong direction. We had to go through the wye again. We sat there another hour waiting for a freight to arrive and pass… 55 minutes waiting and 5 minutes for it to pass. Finally, we were on our way again, facing toward the rear of the train. We were over 2 hours late when we arrived in Louisville.

Remember those nice coaches I mentioned earlier? By the time I took this trip they had been replaced with a 84-seat Horizon coach. Not bad for a couple of hours on a day trip. After all, it’s still more room than you have on an airplane, but not very comfortable is you want to catch a few ZZZs.

My last trip on the Kentucky Cardinal was not much different. By this time Amtrak had already announced that the Kentucky Cardinal would be stricken from the roster. My brother and his two children went with me. We had planned on catching a baseball game when we got there. That was not to be. We arrived in Indianapolis pretty close to schedule. By this time, Amtrak had had so much trouble maintaining the schedule of the Cardinal that they had adjusted it so that train 51 reached Indianapolis over 2 hours after train 851 got there. The schedule for train 851 had not been adjusted. When we got to Indianapolis the conductor told us that train 51 was running about 3 hours late. The crew left the train. The locomotives uncoupled and moved into position to wait for train 51, and we had a 5 hour wait in Indy in a coach with no power, no air (it wasn’t hot but the air got stale), and the toilet wasn’t working. We took a trip down the street and found a Steak & Shake that was open and we had some burgers and shakes. After awhile we found our way back to the train, laid the seats back and tried to catch a little sleep. I always hate leaving the station like that. You never know when someone might get their wires crossed and get the wrong information. You walk away from the station thinking you have 5 hours before the train leaves and then the other train arrives, couples up, and leaves and you arrive to see no train.

On our way back to Louisville we encountered a several delays here and there. None of them were major but they all added up to well over an hour. Often Amtrak can make up some time between stations or cut a station stop short. There was no way of doing that south of Indianapolis. The schedule was set up expecting the train to do 30 miles per hour and there was no extra time built into that schedule. There were no stops except Jeffersonville and that was just long enough to drop passengers off. If you were late leaving Indy you were guaranteed to be late at Louisville. When we finally got close enough to see Louisville we figured we would be at the station in about 5 minutes. That was not to be. We sat on the bridge over the Ohio River for over 30 minutes. There is a draw bridge over the navigation channel to allow tow boats to pass. The bridge was up and we had to wait for a tow to pass. I remember my brother saying, “Poor old Amtrak. They have to wait for everybody.”

He really summed it up pretty good. Amtrak seems to have to wait for everyone else. They wait for freights on the host roads, wait for hours to turn around in a wye, and even have to wait for tow boats. No wonder the Kentucky Cardinal failed. It was often referred to as the worst train in the Amtrak system. It was designed to fail, with 12 hour schedules each way and poor on time record, you could catch a Southwest Air flight for $20 more and be there in an hour.

From Louisville to Chicago the train traveled on the following host railroads: CSX for about 100 yards, L&IRR, CSX again, N&W, UP, METRA, Amtrak, and others

Thank you Mr. Bistline

A few excursions here and there kept me on the rails for awhile. In the southeastern portion of the U.S. it was mostly on The Southern. Railfans in this part of the country knew the name "Bistline." (Pronounced with a long "I", and would rhyme with heist-line.)

Thank you Mr. Bistline. Who was “Mr. Bistline” and why am I thanking him? If you ever road a steam excursion on a mainline railroad in the southeast, you probably road on The Southern, on equipment supplied by The Southern, or by a locomotive that had been restored by The Southern. How does James A. “Jim” Bistline fit into this equation? Jim Bistline oversaw the legendary steam program of Southern Railway and its 1982 successor, Norfolk Southern, for 20 years and became a household name in many railroad circles. A rail fan in those days would talk in numbers. Numbers like 4501, 610, 611, 1218, 630, 722, 750, 765, 2716, and others. These were the numbers on some of the locomotives that ran on Southern Steam Program trains. Many were restored to service in The Southern’s Birmingham shops. Others were mighty locomotives that were leased by The Southern for the program.

Fans in the Louisville Ky. area usually had the option of two trips. The westbound trips would cross the Ohio River into New Albany Indiana, proceed up Duncan hill and through Duncan Tunnel and eventually to Huntingburg, In. If the trip was eastbound it would go to Danville or Lexington, Ky. My first trip was to be behind the Texas & Pacific 610 but when we arrived at the boarding location we found that the train would be pulled to Danville by diesel. It seems that on the trip the day before, the steam locomotive had derailed in the yard when it had been taken for service. It wasn’t put back on the rails until the early hours of the morning. Anyway, we got to Danville, had a lunch, and when we returned to the station we had steam power in position for the return trip. On other trips I rode behind the CP 2730, N&W 611, N&W 1218, and NKP 765. The trip with the 765 was through Danville to Lexington. The train was too long to turn in Lexington so they turned the locomotive only, coupled to the rear of the train, and pulled it to Danville with most of the passengers riding backwards. Along that route we seemed to be going a little faster than the 50 or 55 miles per hour that we had dome most of the time. A quick check of time between mile post revealed that we were doing a mile every 55 seconds, or 65 miles per hour. When we arrived at the Danville wye, the train was left on one leg of the wye while the locomotive turned around through the wye and the coupled to the front of the train.

There were a few other excursions in the area other than on Southern. The Kentucky Railway Museum sponsored a few trips. Some with diesel such as the Monon BL2 and some with CSX power. The KRM also operated some with steam and their L&N 152. On one occasion the train was pulled from Clermont to Bardstown by steam. Since there was no place to turn the train at either end, the BL2 was on the other end of the train and it pulled the train back to Clermont. The KRM had tried to obtain that route but the R. J. Corman purchased it. The KRM was able to later obtain a portion of the L&N Lebanon Branch where they operate today.

The War years (Viet Nam era)

In the late 60's my brother and I were getting a little too old for "family vacations" and my dad's health was not the best. I was going to electronics school 4 hours a day, working 8 hours every evening, and on weekends I was more interested in going on a date with Frances. The years between 1968 and 1971 were years of proud service to our country as a soldier in the United States Army.

See the extended entry for more details.

After our trip to the World’s Fair our family didn’t do much traveling. My dad had mentioned taking a trip to St. Louis at one time. The logical route from Louisville would have been on the Southern Railway System. Southern’s “Western Division” went from St. Louis, through Louisville, and then to Lexington or Danville Ky. I don’t know when “The Southern,” as most people called it, discontinued passenger service to Louisville but there was no service listed in the October 30, 1960 timetable. It’s possible that we could have taken the Monon or the Pennsylvania north and then caught the New York Central going west. At one time there was a connection that could be made at Bedford Indiana but I’ll have to do some research to find out which road it was with.

I entered the U. S. Army in August of 1968. There wasn’t much time for railroading while I was a soldier. I spent 9 months at Fort Monmoth, New Jersey. I wasn’t real close to the trains in that area, however I was able to watch some of the NJT trains once in awhile. After completing my school in New Jersey I was stationed on Okinawa. Okinawa was a U. S. occupied territory at that time. The year after I left it reverted back to Japanese control. It may have been a part of Japan but it had about 300 miles of ocean between it and the mainland. After about 18 months on the island I was sent to Korea for a week. I didn’t get to do much train watching there. I didn’t know my way around the area and the guys that were with me had no interest in trains. The highlight of the trip was our rail trip from Taegu to Seoul. While waiting for our train to arrive I watched some steam locomotives doing some switching. The Korean railroad had a reputation for being on time. I usually kept my watch set pretty accurately. I remember that the train arrived within 10 seconds of the published time and departed exactly on time. The passenger equipment was pretty modern but a trip to the restroom reminded you that you weren’t in North America. If you’ve never been to the Orient, just try to imagine a porcelain bowl about 9 inches by 18 inches, mounted flush (no pun intended) with the floor.

A few months later a friend and I took some leave and went to Japan. We stayed in the Air Force barracks at Camp Drake, near Tokyo. While we were there we went to a ski resort about 2 hours north of Tokyo and we went by train. There wasn’t anything special about the train, average accommodations. I didn’t venture to the restroom so I can’t report on that but I suspect I would have found it similar to those in Korea. Later that week we left Tokyo for Hiroshima. We road the Shinkansen, or “Bullet Train” from Tokyo to Osaka. It was a very modern train, as would be expected. There was a speedometer in the lounge car. I remember it hovering around 200 to 205 K/hr most of the time. That works out to about 125M/hr. The ride was very smooth. A passing train going the opposite direction was nothing but a 3 or 4 second blur. My friend and I were the only “round eyes” on the train, or so we thought. The conductor told us to walk back about 3 or 4 cars and look in the first class section. As a couple of GI’s, we were traveling coach. All of the American and European business and vacation travelers were in the first class coaches.

We changed trains at Osaka. This train didn’t know how to spell first class. The seats were wooden and the seatbacks were made of bead board. They could best be described as resembling the booths in some restaurant, minus the padded seat cushion. There were several stops along the way and you could open your window and buy Cokes, box lunches, and other items while the train let passenger board and depart. It reminded me of something you might see on a National Geographic documentary about South America, Southeast Asia, or some place in Africa. I was expecting someone to get on with some live chickens at the next station.

We spent two days in Hiroshima before returning to Okinawa. My railroad adventures were over for awhile.