Leave No Station Unphotographed » Tennessee to Texas

Home From Colorado: Greyhound to Denver to two Local Buses to SkyRide to a JetBlue Red-Eye to the Q10 to the A Train

Jeremiah Cox — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 21:01:30 +0000

I’m back in New York!

I had thought about taking the train back cross-county but when I realized Amtrak would be double the price of flying I just couldn’t justify it so only about two weeks ago I decided to buy a plane ticket on JetBlue.

The final day of my Tennessee to Texas trip which ended my week in Colorado really began at noon when a friend who I thought might be driving up to Denver had decided to go up much earlier. At that point as I was wondering around grabbing some breakfast I stopped at the Greyhound Station to buy an overpriced $17.50 ticket from Denver to Colorado Springs scheduled to depart at 3:55. I wondered around some more and went back to the station at 3:30 with no sign of the bus. The schedule was the same one I arrived in Colorado Springs late on last Thursday. The bus finally showed up at about 4:30 (the agent did mention the lateness but made no announcements) and there was a terrible moment when none of the drivers went into the station to grab the passengers checked luggage. I didn’t have any, I had only brought a few things down for this weekends wedding and left the rest of my stuff in Denver with friends. The bus finally left for a smoky trip up I-25 leaving Colorado Springs because of the devastating forest fire on the edge of the city. We made one stop at the Amtrak station (this schedule is a thruway connection to the eastbound Zephyr). I considered getting off and would have if Amtrak was back in the regular Union Station but didn’t. It was then a quick trip to the Greyhound Station where we arrived at 6:00 and I walked the mile and a half to a friends house where my luggage was.

I spent my last few hours hanging out in Colorado with friends before walking to the bus stop around 10:00pm. Google maps told me to take the Route 15 would leave at 10:18 but this would give me just 5 minutes to connect to the last 73 bus up to Stapleton Park and Ride so I got there in time for an earlier bus which was 9 minutes late. I paid my $2.25 and got a transfer. I got to Quebec Street with about 15 minutes before my connection. Another Route 15 passed about two minutes before the 73 arrived for a ten minute trip up to the Stapleton Park and Ride. There I waited twenty-five minutes for the 11:07 SkyRide AS bus. That bus arrived on time at 11:02, completely packed with every seat taken, full of travelers and commuters alike coming in from the airport. An extremely friendly SkyRide driver loaded my bag into the bus bays and told me that buses were no longer stopping at individual airlines but arriving at one stop on the departures roadway of the West Terminal due to the South Terminal Expansion. I paid another $6.75 for the overpriced SkyRide fare for an uneventful ride to the airport where I arrived early at 11:35. (I did once manage to http://subwaynut.com/updates/?p=858 ride the local bus out of DIA Airport to the FREX but that was a huge adventure into itself with extremely limited service hours).

Upon arriving I realized the bus had dropped me off at the opposite end of the West Terminal from JetBlue’s ticket counter and I decided to enjoy a walk outside to reach it. I got to the ticket counter and there was no one in the full service line but lots of people in the bag drop line. I decided to skip dealing with the kiosks and wait for a friendly agent to check me in and I was helped quite quickly. I declined spending $40 to get an Even More Legroom Seat Assignment and was told I would have to have one assigned at the gate. When I booked my flight there were only middle seats left so I decided not to choose one and try my luck at the airport. I got to security and the two open lines were using the millimeter wave technology. These use radio waves that seem totally harmless so I will actually go through them unlike the X-ray radiation based back scanners that I just don’t trust so I didn’t opt-out this time. I got through security around midnight, plenty of time for my 12:50 flight. I decided to take a joyride on the DIA Subway (People Mover really) out to the C Concourse before doubling back to the A Concourse. Getting off at the A-Gates there was a bad moment when one of the car doors opened but the platform edge door didn’t so I had to run to the other door in the car. The platform edge door opened shortly thereafter but was a completely odd experience. I went upstairs and to the ticket counter to see about a seat assignment but no employees were there (I accidentally asked a Delta, I believe, flight attendant who was waiting to try and deadhead on the JetBlue flight). I walked the concourse and it felt less like a ghost town than normal. Spirit has entered the Denver market and they had a red-eye midnight flight to Fort Lauderdale.

At about 12:20 I went back to the gate and a friendly gate agent gave me seat 25D, luckily an aisle seat (windows are always my preference) but in the dreaded very last row of the plane. I had hoped that I might be bumped up to Even More Legroom, because of the regular seats being full. I have had success by not choosing a seat assignment on United Express and gotten bumped up to their Economy+ on regional jets, whose regular economy seats are some of the worst I know about. While waiting to board I thought there was an amusing moment of a Frontier Airlines employee pushing a JetBlue wheelchair for a passenger out to the Jetway. The gate agents definitely just worked for JetBlue. It wasn’t the completely shared Continental/US Airways agents that I use to experience when I flew Continental in Colorado Springs. I finally boarded at 12:40 for a completely full flight but not all JetBlue passengers with some deadheading employees and some other passengers from a United flight to LGA canceled 7 hours ago. The flight was largely uneventful, even being stuck at the back of the plane. JetBlue still distributes eye masks and ear plugs although I find them too uncomfortable to use. Being on the aisle meant I took full advantage of JetBlue’s unlimited snacks enjoying a ginger ale, two bags of chocolate-chip cookies, and a bag of animal crackers, nut mix (peanut free), popcorn chips, and the required bag of Blue potato chips. All of JetBlue’s snacks except for the Miltigrain fiber crisps. I couldn’t seem to get my seat to recline but the legroom wasn’t that terrible and I’ll definitely take a seat on a JetBlue plane over one on a Greyhound bus. A half-hour before landing they came through with bottles of water and cans of orange juice but not coffee. I asked for some coffee and a nice cup of Duckin-Donuts was delivered promptly.

The plane arrived a little early at 6:26 and it took me a good ten minutes to get off from the very back. I saw a nice large Hawaiian Airlines A330 Jet, the only airline other than JetBlue to use terminal 5 at this time. It’s flight started on June 4th, with a code share and frequent flyer partnership, a match that makes perfect sense since JetBlue’s Airbuses do not have the range (although some Boeing 737s can, ask Alaskan Airlines) to ever serve Honolulu and Hawaiian Airlines does no domestic flying. I decided to take a little detour to see how much branding was at its gate and it was quite minimal, just a small banner. The inflight monitors had a ever so slight additional branding for the Honolulu Flight with just a small Hawaiian Airlines logo. I walked out to the baggage claim area and the monitors were saying to different things. First that we were at the same belt as those arriving from Honolulu and then to use the next belt. I ended up going and asking baggage services where to go and was told that luckily we weren’t sharing the same baggage claim as the crowded one from the Honolulu Flight. They eventually announced both my flight and the Hawaii flight’s arrival over the PA. The Hawaiian Flight got E komo mai to New York (Welcome in Hawaiian). I couldn’t tell if JetBlue was handling ground operations or Hawaiian had there own in New York.

At 6:55am my backpack finally appeared and I decided to try the poor man’s way back from JFK Airport for just a single subway ride instead of dealing with AirTrain. As of the beginning of this month the expansion of terminal 4′s construction for Delta has moved the one MTA bus stop to right outside the now lot of rubble that was the old Terminal 6 (JetBlue’s Terminal), and is being rebuilt into a new International Concourse for JetBlue. I walked over there (along a narrow sidewalk beyond a sign that said no pedestrians), told to buy a Ground Transportation security officer and a New York Air porter employee. The elevators that used to deliver you to the old JetBlue terminal is the safer way to get there from the SkyWalk. A Q10 Limited was right there and I hopped on. We left almost immediately and left the airport straight away making a few brief stops for airport employees leaving the airport area and two longer ones beyond the airport, where the bus got a bit crowded for residents of Ozone Park. We also did pass one Q10 Local.

At 7:21 we get to the stop across from the end of the Liberty Avenue elevated and I am walking across the street to the A train, swiping the MetroCard I always keep in my wallet on trips for a free transfer. The one train in the station on track 1 is an R32 (switched with the C for air conditioning reasons as part of the summer swap) and I walk the length of the train to the front car. I contemplate taking the rail fan window (at least to Rockaway Blvd) but realize my backpack will block the driver’s door and know I need to try and snooze. At 7:31 we finally leave Lefferts (as a R46 enters the station) and start passing a number of trains stored overnight on the middle track of the Liberty Avenue elevated. At 104th Street I almost have to hop out for a photo stop because there are two R46 A trains lined up back to back on the middle track. One has its doors wide open on both sides of the train, the others are closed tight. By Rockaway Blvd the train is standing room only and quite crowded by Broadway Junction. I doze on and off and by 34th Street there plenty of seats available. At 8:45 I’m pushing through the crowd, entering the station and am getting on the elevator to head home. Total travel time from retriving my bag less than two hours, nearly the same as when I took JetBlue’s Red Eye previously, almost exactly two years ago and came home the conventional way via AirTrain to Jamaica to the E train to the A train (with an extra ten minutes spent riding the E train out to Jamaica Center to get a decent seat to nap in).

My verdict on doing the Q10 bus is if your flying on JetBlue (or Hawaiian) it can save you $5 and take nearly the same amount of time to get into Manhattan but if your using a different airline and have to take AirTrain to Terminal 5 just to get to the bus it seems like a hassle I might just spend the extra five bucks not to deal with. If you have an early morning arrival, the Q10 is also a great way to guarantee a seat into Manhattan since you get to board the A train at its terminus of Lefferts Blvd.

Back to C. Springs via a Full Southwest Chief through the night to La Junta, and BeeLine Express and Greyhound Buses

Jeremiah Cox — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 18:44:59 +0000

Hello from Colorado Springs where my trip of actual traveling has fully come to a close (I’m here for two weddings).

Wednesday began with me sleeping in a bit until 9:00 and relaxing in my room, having a disgusting breakfast of donuts from the day before. At 10:00 I go downstairs to check out and leave my bag at the front desk. My first destination of the day is free the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art which I enjoy the contemporary collection of, particularly a modern exhibit of photographs of an artist who had different people (strangers and friends) sleep in her bed for seven days straight photographing them. I leave that museum and go to the smaller – Museum, which is also free. At about 2:00 I reclaim my bag and take the MAX (buying another day pass, its the price of two trips that I will probably take) down to Union Station. I get to the ticket office to two extremely friendly agents who I chat with about eTicking, they’ve both worked for Amtrak since the 1970s and said that when the QuikTrak machine was installed it resulted in two jobs lost of other agents. There both worried a bit about their jobs with eTickets and us young people only wanting to use machines. There titles have been changed from Ticket Agents to Station Customer Service Representatives (or something ridiculous like that). She doesn’t print my ticket saying “Why worry about losing it”? As I spend $3 day checking my bag. If my trip was a day trip I would check my bag but I don’t want to carry my ‘pillow’ and blanket around all day.

After checking my bag I wander around Union Station a bit more and flash my Transit Museum Membership for free admission to Science World which includes the KC rail experience. It’s kind of a little kid railway museum and the rail experience is a few displays that need updating on how railways work. There meant to have some cars on display on two tracks but these are closed, the cars have been moved off site for refurbishment. I also go to the model train display (included in my free admission ticket) which is a bit better than the terrible one in Chattanooga which made me realize I don’t enjoy model railroads enough to pay to see them. Next I discover the bridge from Union Station across to the freight house building which has little slats that provide an excellent place for photographing trains. I photograph Train #311 as it arrives with the same three cars as yesterday. I then go over to the – rib house to have a late lunch. The 50th Anniversary couple from Kansas City told me to go there for them, its delicious but one of the more expensive meals of the trip at $16. At that point I go back and cross the bridge back to Union Station and photograph the same Amtrak trainset now wyed and reversed preparing to leave again as Train #316 back to St. Louis. There is one more attraction I want to go to in Kansas City, the Negro Leagues Museum. I walk over there and get there at about 4:15, its open until 6:00pm. I pay the rather steep $8 admission fee and have a decent wander around the little museum which looks non-professionally done and a bit homemade with exhibits that could use some updating, particularly the fact that the number of blacks in baseball has declined today.

I decide to take the bus back into downtown and end up wandering up to a path along one of the rivers, its a neat path with lots of railroad lines along it. I get off of it to try and get back into downtown and realize I am entering a bit of an industrial wasteland it’s a sidewalk-less walk up a hill to the nearest Main Street MAX stop which I board for Union Station. I want to explore Crown Center a bit, the modern shopping/office center around the station, and also find dinner. I get to one of the food courts which is basically deserted and end up at the only open restaurant, a sports bar, and get in just before its kitchen closes (remaining open for cocktails) at 9:30 for a quick grilled cheese sandwich. I take the various sky bridges across local streets and get back to Union Station at about 9:50 and see a ton of boy scouts waiting for the train (to get to Raton for the scout camp there I bet). I then have an adventure in the halls of the closing Union Station trying to find an open bathroom (which also gave me a nice chance to explore various random halls of the station).
I end up at the ticket office at about 10:25 (the train leaves at 10:45) after boarding has begun with no one in line definitely within the 10 minute/5 minute rule (ticket purchasing/boarding) that this station has because of the long walk out to the platforms. I go up to the ticket window and present my baggage check tag and ID to get my ticket printed. I am greeted by another old but incredibly surely Amtrak employee. She tells me “You were supposed to be back to pick that up by 9:30, you should be happy I am still here. I’m going to have to yell to the day shift.” She does get me my backpack and when I then say I still need my ticket printed she says that the day shift wasn’t supposed to check my backpack without a ticket (Holding onto the ticket for the day was my original plan).

I then go out to the platform where there is nice large line of people but no sign of the coach attendant to tell us which of the three coaches to board. I wander and get some pictures in the darkness of the Other Missouri River Runner trainset which has already been wyed for tomorrow morning’s trip and waits across the platform. I chat with a lady on line who is on a 15 day pass (spent $45 to change her departure day for her leg to Flagstaff). I just did the math on my recent 16 days on Amtrak, with 8 segments and including the low rail fare portion of my eagle sleeper and realize the pass might have been better for this trip and might have saved me $20. Finally the conductor comes and we are asked to put our luggage in the Coach/Baggage which is the last car of the train and are told to sit in the lounge car because there no seats available. On a day trip I would say don’t worry about it but I want to sleep. We leave Union Station passing the other Missouri River Runner trainset which has four cars. My ticket hasn’t been lifted yet. The train slowly leaves Kansas City, following a road with just streetlights. I look at my phone and realize I am deep in Kansas, another first time in a state. There is a nice large BNSF freight yard off to one side of the train. The yard is enormous and very slow going. We start and stop and at 11:02 as my ticket is collected.

At about 11:30 the attendant comes and says she has a seat for me and walks me back to the middle coach. Towards the front of the car (the lights are all still on) I am first assigned a seat next to a fast asleep Latina girl which I think might be manageable for sleeping. I stow my computer bag at the seat and I go back to grab my backpack from the rear Coach-Baggage. When I get back the attendant moves me. She wants girls sleeping next to girls, assigning the traveler I was talking to to my original seat. I do slightly understand the attendant (do I look like a non-trustworthy guy?), but I am assigned the worst possible aisle seat. It’s right across from the staircase (which has to have its lights on all night) next to a man watching a movie on his laptop. The attendant finally gets around to turning off the lights shortly before midnight, far too late which does nothing really for us sitting across from the fully lit staircase, hearing far too much thumping. The car is too hot for a change so putting my blacket over my head doesn’t really work. I attempt to grog out listening to my iPod but am very much awake as we pull into Lawrence, at a modern platform across from a few BNSF locomotives and then a BNSF brick building at 11:49pm, 3 minutes early, not quite enough time to try and hop off for a photo. The station has a neat blue neon sign. I hear the man next to me’s soundtrack between songs.
At midnight the man next to me puts his computer away and asks the attendant if she can dim the stair lights. She says she will ask the conductor. They are never dimmed.
I decide to try the lounge and contemplate Kansas as the conductor comes through saying Topeka is next. I see a few buildings as we slowly enter passing a large BNSF freight yard. We slowly enter a large depot 7 minutes early with a nice long canopy. I try and do the lying across three seats in the lounge trick (at least I can look out the window, unlike in my asile seat) by am awake for the following moments:

1:31 – Emporia, a discontinued stop with a large well lit freight yard. Another train of double stacks pass us as I try and remember where we leave the BNSF trans-con for the branch line via Raton they want to let deteriorate
2:31 – arrive Newton and then continue to in front of an old brick depot at 2:34, arriving 11 minutes early. A train comes through going the other way of hopper cars. I know might be able to step off but know it will just make me wake up more and I’m trying to doze off as much as possible, I need to be awake tomorrow.
3:17 – get to Huntington with a modern station building made of brick, only 3 minutes early
5:18 – I am asleep and wake up siting on the edge of a fenced off platform, it’s Dodge City, a quick crew change point and I am too late to step off. As soon as we leave the sun rises on the short grass prairie.
At 6:16 CT the conductor actually says to me good morning time to get up. There a few people in the car eating their breakfast but I’m surprised I got as much sleep as I did in the lounge.
6:25 – get to Garden City in front of a brick depot, the first stop were actually late into by 4 minutes, some Amish/Mennonites get off. There a few sets of empty seats in the front car where most of the Nebraska passengers were but I am actually scared I might oversleep and know not to dare move my seat check. It’s overcast out and there isn’t a sunrise. My coach is now cold.
6:46 – go through Holcomb who’s houses go on for some time.
7:19 CDT – Syracuse, Kansas. The last town in Kansas
6:48 MDT – Granada, Colorado a small little town and we continue through the shortgrass prairie
7:07 – stop in Lamar with a nice brick depot used as a colorado welcome center and a modern fenced off platform with a gate someone (not the conductor) opens

We slowly keep going through the Prairie with 1 hour to La Junta. See a number of deer and rabbits. Pass some cows but it’s mostly just empty rolling parties. Keep seeing doe. I chat with one of the scout leaders going to the camp near Raton for ten days of backpacking, resupplied every three. I ask and find out the trails on the ranch are totally private since insurance won’t allow people to wander in from the adjacent national forest. They will be backpacking without fires, the danger is too high. There from St. Louis and I wonder if the evening River Runner yesterday got an extra coach just for them.
7:46 – go through Las Alamas, the final town before La Junta
I get to La Junta at 8:04am and step off the train. I am immediately annoyed with Amtrak’s website. The brick building which is shared by Amtrak as a station and BNSF railway as a crew quarters is open Monday to Wednesday until 1:00pm (before reopening in the evening for Train #4s departure) but Thursday thru Sunday now closes at 10:00am. There is no one in the office (they are all out servicing the train) and I want to get a picture of the Southwest Chief leaving (although the light is terrible, straight into the sun). I walk to the end of the platform and get a locomotive shot before walking across the platform and open my iPhone to find the nearest grade crossing is only a quarter mile away which I notice keeps going up and down without a train in site. I get there and see a BNSF Hi-Railer and a man in his orange vest working in the control box. I tell him I am there for a picture of the train and he asks me if I am a railroad buff. I say yes and she says he is one too every since he was a kid. He is a little surprised I am not planning to continue riding the Chief but tells me just to stay back. At 8:26 I hear the all aboard double-toot and on time at 8:30 the Chief is off. I get my pictures of it leaving and then chat a bit more with the grade crossing maintainer who is stunned I’m from New York and lets me get a picture inside the crossing shed. He is doing a one month inspection, every used grade crossing in the country gets a bigger inspection every 90 and 120 days, and a much fuller overhaul every 360 days. Never quite appreciated how much work goes into keeping our grade crossings safe and passable.

I then wandered back to explore the little business district of La Junta and went out to breakfast at the one obvious breakfast place in town. At that point it was ten o’clock when Uptown Video, the local Greyhound agency but not the actual stop, Greyhound’s website claimed to be open. (Second time today hours have been wrong). Turns out it opens at noon which is still enough time before my 1:25 bus to buy my tickets. I then go and take a walk a little bit to a small city park just south of downtown before walking back to the one cafe that I noticed in town, Barista. It was the perfect place to spend an hour on the internet before shortly after noon went I went across the street to still closed uptown Video. At 12:10 a mother and teenage daughter showed up to open and at 12:15 I was inside having one of my most amusing ticket purchasing experiences. I explained that I thought it would be cheeper to buy two separate tickets, one from La Junta to Pueblo and then Pueblo to Colorado Springs. They agree with me and preform that transaction giving me tickets that look like Greyhound’s except they say Prestige Bus Line’s (out of Wichita, Kansas) on the top. This is the operator of Bee-Line Express, my first bus of the day, a states (Kansas and Colorado) subsidized route.

I then walk out to the local America’s Best Value Inn, a little over a mile east of town. I get there a little before one and the receptionist invites me to sit in side in the air conditioning. There is a little leaflet of the bus on the front counter. The only problem is the Maury Show about relationships gone bad is glaring in the background which I really can’t stand. At about 1:10 I go and wait outside. The 1:25 departure times comes and goes before the receptionist comes out to tell me that the bus driver called and is running about a half hour late, he mainly calls when he is late to see if there is anyone waiting, I am assured that the bus will come and stop for me. I start wondering about my connection to Colorado Springs, don’t know if its guaranteed.

At about 1:48 a bus pulls into the edge of the parking lot and honks at me. The bus leaves at 1:50, the destination sign says Denver but I am told this bus will terminate in Pueblo and the connecting bus will wait. The bus is painted for Prestige Bus Lines but has the modern leather greyhound seats with seat bets and more importantly power outlets as my phone is dying. There is the little blue Greyhound Dog similarly inset along the edges of them The drivers hat has a neat bumble-bee on it. The back of the bus as the Recovery Act logo since the Kansas Dot purchased the bus. The bus has maybe 20 people on it as we go down US-50, a 4 lane highway. I have to step over a guys feet in the asile, we pass a water tower which says Swink and then a huge feedlot.
At 2:09 we get to Rocky Ford, where one passenger is escorted into a different uptown video to buy a ticket, the driver gives me a hand written Greyhound bag tag for Colorado Springs which he places on my bag beneath the bus.

The bus continues to Pueblo continuing through a few more small towns. As we enter Pueblo the bus driver makes a rather long announcement that the Greyhound bus will be stopped behind us and that if that bus is full, we have priority seating as connecting passengers compared to those originating in Pueblo. He also thanks those passengers who have gone all the way for their patience when the bus just died in the middle of Kansas and luckily was easily restarted. We arrive to an outdoor stop on the edge of Pueblo’s Transit Center (still using RTSs) at 3:10 with no sign of a connecting bus. I took the bus through Pueblo once before and remember the Greyhound Station being off in the suburbs, I like this new downtown location with plenty of connecting buses (Greyhound probably doesn’t have to pay a dime for it either). At about 3:20 a Greyhound bus arrives with a quite friendly joking driver, he loads our luggage with the help of the other driver and at 3:30 we leave Pueblo, I am on a quite full bus with a seat mate. It is an uneventful ride up to Colorado Springs where I arrive at 4:20, unhappy to be late but am picked up immediately to go off for a bachelor evening that I won’t be blogging about.

The On Time Missouri River Runner to a bus adventure to a K.C. Royals Game

Jeremiah Cox — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 05:30:23 +0000

Hello from Kansas City, these were the rest of my adventures yesterday:

After my last post at about 8:30 I decided I need a half hour power walk, and debate leaving my luggage in the first class lounge (I know that’s the procedure in Club Acelas and Chicago’s Metropolitan Lounge) but go back to the ticket window which agrees to store it for me free of charge for half an hour. As I leave the lounge there is a conductor who looks at me awkwardly, wondering why I am beyond the roped off entrance to the overpass to the two platforms. I leave the new Gateway station and get a few photos of Metrolink stopping at the Civic Center Station across from one of the entrances. I then walk over to the old Union Station, a hotel with other amenities that looks open to the public but don’t have enough time to go in. I return to the station getting more photos and get back as they make the first boarding call at 8:55. St. Lewis has a ticket sales stop ten minutes before, boarding ends five minutes before rule like Chicago and Kansas City because of the long walk. I refill my water bottle, grab my backpack (from a different agent who remembers me) and go back to the nice glass overpass with escalators and colorful squares over to the other platform to get on the train. It is one of the shortest Amtrak trains I have ever boarded (only the Springfield Shuttle was shorter), just three cars: a P42 Engine followed by an Amfleet-I Cafe/Business Class Car and just two Horizon Coaches. I am directed unfortunately to the middle coach (as you know I will always ride in the last car for back window and curve pictures). Much to my surprise this midwestern train isn’t in push-pull mode, getting wyed in St. Lewis and Kansas City, all the low legroom Horizon Seats face forward. There not too many people boarding in St. Lewis so leaving the train is relatively empty.

At 9:11 we get the welcome aboard announcement to the Missouri River Runner, please have tickets for collection. The conductor comes through and for the first time he proceeds to use my ticket stub as a seat check. He does say he will give it back. At 9:14 the short train slowly starts to leave from Platform B. I notice Amtrak has its own little modern private building as well a a shed painted red, white and blue. We pass the old Union Station off in the distance, a few replica platforms too. I’ll have to go explore it more when I come back to St. Lewis. We start following Metrolink as we leave the station, lots of coal cars on the other side of the train.

9:21 – Pass the Grand, Metrolink Light Rail Station, and start speeding up.
9:26 – I go up to the cafe car to grab a nice to butter my biscuit with as we stop somewhere. At 9:30 we start moving again through a neighborhood of St. Lewis.
9:34 – go under a Metrolink Line and keep going through a neighborhood, the area is quite hilly.
9:39 – go along a golf course and through trees with houses around. We get the announcement for Kirkwood.

We arrive at 9:42 to maybe 50 people getting on, I wonder if I’ll have to double up.This station is the only one on the Missouri River Runner that has a local bus from St. Lewis, its a nice brick historic depot that I’ll have to revisit at some point, so much for an empty quiet train. It fills with children, and we start moving as soon as everyone gets on. That’s an efficient way to board a train (unlike the Eagle with collecting tickets on the platform). I start cleaning off the seat next to me but it is not needed. We leave Kirkwood and enter trees.

9:51 – speeding up we pass a bunch of trains in the Museum of Transportation, and go back to trees. I think there is a river along the one side of the train. I notice lots of people going to Lee’s Summit.
9:59 – cross a river and keep going through the trees, and again at 10:01, then go through Eureka following a highway

I go and have some back door time as we go through two tunnels through hills and get our first view of the Missouri River at 10:15. Other people get my idea and take there kids back to have a look. I realize I am have chosen (I think) the side with the most river views, the right (north side).

At 10:23 we get the announcement for Washington, (Missouri that is). The station is super scenic facing the river with a fenced off platform. I sort of sang a photo of the depot from the otherside of the train. They load from the rear vestibule and I notice a bike is boarding. We leave Washington and the river comes to and from view, between dense foliage. This is a train that would be quite different in winter. The river comes and goes between the trees, but more often its just a blur of green out the small Horizon coach windows.

10:47 – See fields of corn as we are clearly going through the floodplain of the Missouri River with impassable in High Water signs.
10:49 – get the announcement for Herrmann, MO, as we keep following the river. I notice some neat houses and the walls of the cliffs on the side of the riverbank.
10:54 – Arrive in Herman with a small wooden building to serve as a station opposite the Missouri River. We go under a narrow bridge to leave the station, and back into woods.
11:00 – the river comes into view again. This river following is one for glimpses through the trees not hugging like Hudson on the Empire Service that I know so well.
11:02 – cross a tertiary river and go through the tiny town of Rhineland.
11:05 – have left the river for the moment but see a nice wide grassy floodplain. (I think), we pass a coal train going the other way on a siding, followed by another.
11:17 – as we go through fields another freight passes us by.
11:20 – the river leaks into view again between the trees.
11:28 – pass some construction. go over a river, and through Bonnots Mill with a few modular homes. We pass what is clearly a prison up on a hillside, a road has a series of signs with messages about the Missouri Department of Corrections.
11:32 – pass airplanes at a National Guard base.
11:33 – go over a river and pass train #314 the morning eastbound Missouri River Runner

At 11:37 we get the announcement for Jefferson City, no mention about a fresh air stop, we are a few minutes late as we go through a wide yard. We pass what looks like a former freight house and get to the stop. It is another quick in an out. I ask the conductor if this train has one designated (I’m thinking like Ardmore on the Heartland Flyer) but I am told there is a few minutes of padding in Sedalia, so maybe. I notice a seats missing in the last car with two seat checks that say bikes, that is the ‘bike rack.’ We continue through fields and the countryside. The train has quieted down quite a bit, its afternoon nap time for the train (not me), my one and half morning cups of coffee (which I never drink except on days like this) are keeping me awake.

11:56 – go over a grade crossing for Road Z
12:03 – the landscape stays as rolling hills as I see a pond, a women complains she is too cold, nice to know I am not alone. I have grabbed my travel blanket to wrap around my legs since I am wearing shorts. The conductor claims the car is thirty years old although the Horizons are only
12:07 – go through the small town of California, passing its cemetery and then a few houses in a small town center. It has a water tower and multiple grave yards.
12:21 – the landscape is becoming flatter with more fields than trees, but still plenty of trees in places
12:31 – cross a neat little river and continue through fields and go through Otterville
12:43 – slowly enter Sadela, two minutes early arriving at 12:44, but with only one door open and people getting on and off can’t snag a photo. Its a modern brick building with a neat canopy. We leave at 12:46 running on time with commuter train precision. We slowly pass through more of this town and leave it behind, entering the trees and fields once again.
1:08 – following a two line divided highway I notice a 53 miles to Kansas City sign.
1:11 – the announcement for Warrensburg, MO as were still in the trees. Soon I start seeing houses entering a town.

We arrive at 1:14 and the conductor lets me stop off for five minutes I get enough of a photo essay for a webpage and even quickly get one of the inside of the small waiting area in the small depot. I get what I really want, a photo of the boxy back of an Horizon’s car, I have only photographed them mid-consist before. The platform has a tactile warning strip, is made of bricks but completely at track level, not the six inch height required for level boarding with the automated doors of the California style equipment that the midwest is buying. I jump on as the conductor says 30 seconds, a few smokers have followed me off the train. We cross a small creek as we leave and are soon back in the trees and fields of America’s Heartland (or is that Oklahoma?), John Sterling, the Yankees radio announcer when they were last in K.C. Kept saying references like the “Sun has set in America’s Heartland.” its all I can think of. The train is making good speed.

1:38 – pass some large bans used by the Kingsville Livestock Auction to the south of the train, there lots of hay bales again.
1:47 – start getting to another town, and pass a lumber yard, we curve north as we go through the town of Pleasant Hill. It has a nice old brick restored depot but isn’t a station stop.
1:52 – the conductor comes through for all the Lee’s Summit passengers handing them their receipts back. The bus does reach Lee’s Summit and I thought of getting off there but want photos of the platform area in Kansas City in daylight, which I assume are restricted areas. We continue through trees. I keep forgetting I have an hour until our scheduled arrival time in KC.
1:57 – pass on the outskirts of another freight yard and are definitely entering a town. We enter Lee’s Summit about four minutes early but there too many people getting off to try and get pictures. There a few people getting on although this is express bus service to Kansas City.
At 2:03 – we leave this little town, 15 minutes to Independence. 40 minutes to KC as I get my passenger receipt, crucial if my AGR points don’t post, we go through trees, it feels like farm and horse country still not the sprawl I heard about yesterday of Kansas City.
2:12 – enter another town of suburban houses and cross over I-70, then we go through strip-mall land passing Truman High School (his hometown). We slowly pass buildings as we enter Independence seeing suburban houses.
2:18 – arrive Independence, it has a nice old brick depot and is home to the Jackson County genealogy library. The platform is fenced off but open. 25 minutes to downtown Kansas City, 10 minutes of padding in the timetable. We go through at a grade passing suburban houses and over various grade crossings.
2:26 – go under a freeway and pass the Rock Creek tower, and enter a large freight yard as we enter
2:29 – now there is another line joining us and cemetery followed by a strip mall. I am entering another city through the back door, not in a glamorous modern airport. Pass an abandoned factory as we go through Lykins. I am listening to a boy in front of me whose maybe five discussing legos.
2:32 – pass the junk yard of the day, then a cement factory and another highway. A long freight train of empty double-stack cars pass as we keep entering KC on a grade separated line, with graffiti along the lines, the kid in front of me is commenting on it.
2:35 – get my first view of the KC Skyline as we slowly enter, the line is grade seperated, 2 to 3 minutes. Union Station, I forgot, is slightly south of downtown, there lots of overpass as we hit switches and arrive at 2:38pm, 17 minutes early.

I get off the train and debate leaving my bag in the station to get a wonder in downtown before I go down to my hotel in the Art’s District that I got on Priceline for $60 this time. I realize check in is at 3 and I am in the mood to relax a bit before I venture off to the Royals game. After getting my required platform photos, but not one of the locomotive because the train leaves the station to be wyed before I have a chance to walk up to it, I go outside and buy my $3 KCATA Day Pass from the driver as I board the Main Street MAX (one of two BRT lines). What makes this line BRT is newer buses and established stops with names and countdown clocks for next arrival times. I take it down to my hotel, the Homestead Extended Stay Sweats and check-in. I am thinking about a walk but decide I want some internet time and just relax for an hour. At 4:30 I leave the hotel to try and find an early dinner and end up at a drive through burger joint called Winstead’s. The burger and fries are good and I take a little walk noticing the wonderful sculpture garden of the art museum I want to venture to tomorrow. At 5:40 about 5 minutes late I board Route 47 out to the suburbs, its a tiny 30 foot low-floor bus with just a front door. I get off on the edge of the access road to Kaufman Stadium, a suburban 1970s ballpark and home of the Kansas City Royals.

I go up to the ticket window and for $23 I get a Tier Box seat. I enter the stadium in time for another free T-Shirt (This one says Royals Homegrown Heros), and have a great time wondering around the renovated stadium. They have done a great job keeping the 1970s concrete architecture but created a gated park around it to let fans wonder around outside its gates. I walk the perimeter, there is a carousel and other games for kids. I almost miss the first pitch visiting the Royals Museum and soon enough I am wondering up an original circular ramp up to the Tier Level as the National Anthem is being sung. I take my seat in the fifth row along the first base line and feel like I am back in my Dad’s Saturday seats at the old Yankee Stadium (seats that don’t exist in the new stadium).

The game is one of the better games I’ve seen in a long time. A pitchers dual against the Brewers who’s former Royals Ace Zach Greinke is pitching. He gives up a home run to lead off the game before settling down as Royals pitcher (a reliever subsiding for an injury) through a no-hitter into the seventh innings. It was finally broken to very dramatic fashion in the 7th inning when a sharp grounder to third (definitely a hit) by was overthrown to first base and then the first baseman overthrow second so the Brewers had a runner at third and no outs. The next batter walked and Mendoza was taken out of the game. The Brewers got one run to tie it that inning and KC got a run in the 8th to win it 2-1. 24,258 fans, including me watched the very exciting game.

Getting home from the game was the real transit adventure. The bus line I took to the game stops running at 7pm and the nearest bus stop with service was a mile walk north on route 28. It had trips at 10:00 and 11:00. The game was so quick I thought I might have time to make the 10:00 bus but it didn’t end that quickly. I leisurely walked out of Kaufman Stadium, over I-70 that had a nice wide sidewalk and down a sidewalk less street (with a dirt path) up to US-40. There I stopped to buy a snack at a gas station with the attendant behind bullet proof glass. I crossed the street and noticed quite a few people waiting leading on the fence of the abandoned (for rent) former Stadium Auto Sales. My eyes adjust to the light and I realize many are waring Royals shirts and caps. All have ID tags around their necks. It’s the some of the staff of Kaufman Stadium who lack cars on their way home. The bus finally comes at 11:00 as I board it with ten Kaufman Stadium employees and a girl who works at the Wendy’s down the street from the bus stop. This bus is a short-turn and doesn’t go downtown ending at Troost Avenue to go to the garage. It is surprisingly crowded. At Troost I transfer to another bus, which also has most of its seats full, down a little ways to 47th Street where I walk the ¾ mile back to my hotel room, I pass out almost immediately.

My First Time in Rommette on an On Time but Slow Diner Texas Eagle eating $75 worth of Food

Jeremiah Cox — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 13:24:52 +0000

Greeting from the small (maybe sofas a few leather chairs a single bathroom and a computer with a printer) but modern First Class Lounge at the Gateway Transit Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

I have been really bad this trip for some reason about posting and I have a bunch in the works that I am planning to pre-date about my time in Austin and San Antonio. I am in this lounge waiting to make a connection on the Missouri River Runner to Kansas City. St. Louis I hope to return to sometime soon but I only have one night to spend in Missouri and decided on Kansas City, mainly to attend a Royals game. It would be cutting it to close before I board the Southwest Chief tomorrow night if I waited, that was my original plan. I have access to the little, unstaffed lounge that I am alone in (and the only complimentary beverage is water bottles) because I just traveled in my first roomette from San Antonio. I booked a roomette because for once it was only $100 more than coach fare including 4 meals and a better nights sleep compared to hundreds more. I am a heathy eater and managed to eat about $75 worth of food in the dining car (I did not quite get the maximum value in terms of coach menu prices in the dining car which would have been about $9 more because I didn’t have my dessert a-la-mode at lunch, didn’t have a soft drink at dinner and had only time to order the Continental breakfast before I got off in St. Lewis since the dining car’s service was so slow). I also booked my ticket to Alton for about a $1 more (the stop north of St. Lewis) knowing it would give me full occupancy of my sleeper during the up to an hour layover there.

The day began yesterday at about 5:15am. The hostel was a two mile walk from the Amtrak station which I knew would be a good start to my day before spending all of it on the train. When I am awake I really like going for early morning walks and there was something fun about wondering the dark streets of San Antonio. I got to the station early, which I wanted just to be safe especially because I couldn’t print my ticket off the day before. I go into the station, there is a slight line for the ticket window so I use the Quik-Trak machine. I then sit outside the station and wait for sunrise to get a few more pictures and boarding. I talk to a station attendant who tells me that there is no pre-boarding for the sleepers, we have to join the line which is forming outside of the station where our tickets will be lifted on the platform. He also starts to tell me that my sleeper is at the other end of the train but I correct him. He apologizes and says they just moved the sleeper. The train has two one at each end, the front run a transition which I believe also has passenger space sold in it and is also the crew’s dorm. I finally the join the end of the line and notice the farther with his wife and kids has just the internet print out and tell him he needs to run inside, he runs back to grab his wife’s license as the line slowly moves and comes back just before the end of the line boards at about 6:50. I walk back towards the sleeper and my attendant is manning the rear coach (behind the diner, the Eagle has such a strange consist) he checks my name off his list and I board my first Superliner going upstairs to Roomette 7, in my favorite place on the train, just one set of Rommettes before the back door. The Texas Eagle today has its unique Superliner consist of a single P42 followed by the Transition Sleeper, then a Coach/Baggage car, followed by a regular Coach Car, next is the Sightseer Lounge, Diner, another Coach car and a Sleeper (these two cars are positioned at the back because if today’s train is a through train to the Sunset Limited they are switched in an out from the Sunset).

At 7:00 we start backing out of the station as I hear the conductor at the back window. He hasn’t opened the back door. We get an announcement from the dining car saying not to come, it hasn’t opened yet.

My attendant, David who seems like exactly my age and the youngest on Amtrak gives me an intro speech that sounds straight by the book. This includes showing me how to use the Amtrak call button. The other sign of his age is the Game Stop (video game store) loyalty tag hanging from his keys.
At 7:18 the back-up move ends as we stop and start moving forward. Then we cross a river and start leaving San Antonio as I go down and shower. I rolled out of bed this morning realizing I might as well skip the hostel’s slightly nasty shower and try Amtrak’s. It’s a perfectly decent shower, hot water readily available. My only complaint is a lack of shampoo.
Afterwards I feel refreshed for the day and hungrily wait the call for breakfast. I sit with my feet up on the opposite one in my small roomette (who’s seat i find less comfortable than a coach seat) as we follow I-35. There is a frontage road on each side of it quickly out of town. We block many grade crossings of morning rush hour commuters. Pass a bunch of motels advertising $35 a night (plus tax I assume) too far out of town for someone without a car.

At 7:40 the first call for breakfast comes and I go in and sit with an older couple who have come to San Antonio from Fort Worth for their 50th Anniversary and their son who just spend three months driving from Cape Town to the southern Sudan. I get in and it’s an express menu with only Scrambled Eggs, French Toast and the Continental. Dinner is just a burger, chicken or pasta. I ask the steward about this menu who makes it clear that the rest of the meals will have a fuller menu. I have the French toast and bacon, which is quite good. Just like the couple I had dinner with coming down into Texas, they also prey (asking me first). They lived in Kansas City for awhile and tell me its a sprawling city that requires a car. We stop at the Amshack in San Marcos (two canopies) and I am disappointed I didn’t bring my camera.

Breakfast takes me all the way to close to Austin, a fresh air stop. I was just there but didn’t get back to it on my one day in Austin, so I only currently have nighttime photos of it from my arrival. I go to the back window as we cross the colorado river and enter the station. We arrive at 9:30. I notice a long line of passengers and that there ripping tickets and issuing seat checks on the platform. I have enough time to run up to the locomotive and back to my car. A family goes to the family bedroom after the attendant gets their picture. We pull up at 9:49 closer to the station to let a women in a wheelchair get on to the accessible bedroom at the bottom of my car. They use the little portable ramp, not the wheelchair lift in the newly built platform enclosure. There is a bad moment as she crosses the unused track next to the used one, her power chair barely making it. Soon we are in the middle of Loop 1, the freeway which takes us out of austin.
At 10:00 we move from the middle of Loop 1 to the side of it. The dining car announces he has closed for breakfast. Those boarding the sleepers in Austin do get breakfast. This is followed by the cafe car attendant who says he is still open for breakfast with the required safety announcement. His twist is “Children tell mommy and daddy no running and jumping”

10:06 – leave the highways beyond and continue through the suburbs
10:10 – pass what looks like a cement factory and enter a more rural area
10:16 – pass Chasco.
10:20 – Hutto, it has a decent sized high school football field. We soon are back in fields of Alfalfa (I think)
10:24 – now a water tower for Hutto.
10:32 – We stop briefly to let a freight train go by, over the PA we get Austin history a little late. He mentions the state capital and the famous bats that I never saw, the largest urban bat colony. He says to use the upper level to get from one part (not the car) to other parts of the train. We’re 4 minutes from our stop next stop, Taylor.

Were moving again at 10:40 and I decide to sit in the almost completely empty lounge. We pass a hub for the Carts bus which I saw evidence of in Austin so maybe I could have gone on a bus adventure up to Taylor, Texas. We slowly go through a freight yard as we enter town and come to a stop at a simple brick building. I get a few photos from the train before deciding to do the back window ride in. We’re doing a double stop for the sleeper an I go down stairs, see David has the window open and ask if I can snag a picture but David the attendant says he is so new he’s on his introductory probation and doesn’t want to get fired. I understand and expected a no, but have gotten photos like that a few times before.

We pull up at 10:53 for a sleeper passenger. I get a picture of a maybe a ten foot long platform with a tactile warning strip as we slowly leave. The lady who got on the sleeper in Taylor is just going to fort worth. We pass a cemetery as we leave Taylor and enter the farms and fields of Texas again. Corn here I think.

At 11:09 we get an announcement that freight train congestion by the up has been delaying us again. We enter a yard with a few abandoned switches and two other rusty rail as a freight train waits for us on one blocking a grade crossing. It’s a mixed goods train mainly of Idaho (and other lumber) and some tank cars followed by coal and then box and hopper cars. It’s an old fashioned train, not a modern intermodal one. We’re 40 minutes late. I hope we can keep that lateness into St. Lewis for breakfast purposes. My camera battery dies and I exchange it but realize the single plug is too far inset into the headrest consul in my sleeper and need to go up to the Lounge to charge it. I do that, it’s luckily a newer one with outlets. I notice the coaches are on my much more preferred first come first served half reserved for groups, half singles, no seat assignments being given.

11:42 – quickly pass through a town my phone labels as little river academy.
11:43 – Pass some cows around an irrigation pond. One I notice is peeing in it.
11:47 – Go over a loop road with intersections and start to enter Temple Texas, the next fresh air stop as we pass houses and slowly switch railroads.

We arrive into Temple Texas at 11:48 to maybe 30 people getting on. I hop off and go through the gated opening in the fence and get some pictures of the historic cars. The main station is closed since its Monday I don’t get into the little Amtrak annex. We finally leave at 12:07, the luggage rack is getting crowded in the sleeper. I get back to my room and notice a copy of USA today at the door. I go sit in my sleeper as we leave the houses of Temple beyond which is the transportation and heritage museum.

At 12:17 is an announcement that lunch hasn’t started yet because of breakfast going on so late. Were just 25 minutes late to McGregor Texas. I am actually quite hungry again waiting for the first call to lunch.

At 12:35 we get to McGregor as the line for lunch extends into the next Coach and am seated with a mother and high school son on his way to Tanglewood’s summer camp, Boston they tell me is their final destination. Their actually going to Pittsfield, Mass. There is also a man who is a retired electrical engineer from San Antonio. The service is abysmal since there is just one chef downstairs cooking for the entire, full diner. We almost immediately to through Crawford, home of the Bushes and stop in Celborne when our food finally appears. I have fried chicken and mashed potatoes. This is the market place special that I thought would be similar to what looked so good on the Sunset limited, it was a little too fried for my tastes. The dinner roll and salad were just what I needed to tide me over for the 2:00 meal. One man at another table (who’s service was faster than ours) is screaming at the attendant, who is telling him to call up Amtrak’s customer complaint line. I am finally eating my cheesecake and quickly finishing it as we pull into Fort Worth. I step off again, The Eagle, going the other way, is getting set to leave about 30 minutes late across the platform. I get a few pictures but it leaves before anything decent. A TRE train comes through and I re-board my sleeper seeing the conductor opening the back door. I ask about the backup move and why we don’t just use the TRE tracks into Dallas since this would render the time consuming back-up move unnecessary. I am told that “the TRE doesn’t want us messing up their schedule.”

2:55 – start backing out of Fort Worth. The conductor has the door open. I sit in my room and enjoy the noises of the train yard, door open. Sitting facing forward for the back-up move on the opposite seat.
3:04 – still in the yard, finally start moving again back to beneath the highway interchange to continue the back up move.
3:08 – hear the conductor closing the back door and leave. Soon we’re moving forward again. I realize it’s time for an afternoon nap as we take the ridiculously slow trackage into Dallas. I already blogged this track on my way north. The Eagle needs to be moved to use the TRE tracks. I doze off a bit and they announce were starting and stopping due to equipment on the tracks as we go through Grand Prairie. I see plenty of workmen along the tracks.
4:15 – keep seeing water as we enter Dallas. We then go under freeways and stop again.

4:37 – Dallas coming up announcement. I realize it took us double the Trinity Railway Express’ trip time. We stop again for a red signal due to local commuter traffic. We stop over the I-77 and I see the light rail as we pull in on the far platform at 4:38. I run up and get a loco photo and unsuccessfully try and get TRE, DART and Amtrak all in one shot, unfortunately there are too many platforms to make this possible. All aboard is sooner than I think at 4:52. I jump on one of the coaches and decide to leave my rather uncomfortable roomette seat for one in the lounge which is almost totally empty and a bit warmer. We follow Dart out of Union Station briefly, no fence between us and it’s tracks. It leaves us before the convention center stop. The sign of an early light rail system. Not up to FRA code today and leave it as we go through the convention center.

5:00 – go under Dart again and come to a stop in bushes because of a westbound freight.
5:10 – the dining car steward announces he will come through and as always start in the sleeper car for dining car reservations. I return to my room as this freight train passes.
5:13 is a double toot and were on our way
5:19 – the dining car steward comes through with dinner reservations I am still stuffed from lunch and ask for an 8:00 reservation everyone around me is choosing the earlier times. 6:15 is most common. We cross under dart again and I can see houses beyond us, we go over a few suburban roads.
5:31 – announcement for the family in room A to see the conductor, I wonder why?
5:34 – Pass the mesquite flying center
5:36 – Now “The please where shoes at all times announcement. We don’t want any unintended pedicures.” I like that twist from the crew
5:44 – follow US 40 as we go through Forney, there is a train waiting on a siding as we go by at high speed. The track is as straight as an arrow we slow down a bit as I stand at the back window waiting for a curve as we come to a stop and leave this town behind still following a highway. There are more trees around us, compared to going through the hill country.
6:00 – the conductor comes on asking for specific passengers. Paperwork issue? Tickets not collected?
6:04 – were running faster as I decide to return to the lounge. I see the dining car steward cutting up apple pie. I’ll have to have that for dessert. We go through Wills Point a cute little downtown before we return to trees and fields.
6:12 – get to another town with houses on each side of the tracks. We pass the first double stacked container train that I can remember of the trip. Many empty cars. We keep following a highway
6:18 – leave towns and go back to trees with some stretches of empty pasture. I feel like I am back in the east coast. This is a quiet train, even the lounge car is a road appears again.

At 6:34 I see a few locomotives in a yard as we get the Mineola announcement. We get to town, a caboose and random shelters and nice little building I try and get rear window shots, a mistake because of the glare from the setting sun. The conductor announces he needs all seats available for Longview. It is next with lots of people getting on, and a few getting off. This is because its the bus connection to Houston, via what I believe is an Amtrak charter The conductor also says the train is sold out in the sleepers. No in route upgrades. We leave this town and are back into a forest which feels very eastern, also because of the trees

6:51 – really feel like I’m east as we pass a freight train who’s motive power is two CSX locos followed by a UP. We then come to a stop briefly before passing.
6:57 – cross a few swamps in the trees
7:00 – The town of Hawkins with Jarvis Christian college . Cafe says he will close soon for the service stop of Longview for the Texas eagle. We slow down again.
7:13 – start passing through another larger town, Gladewater. We have 14 miles to Longview.
7:18 – speed up again as I see more water then a few oil wells.
7:22 – pass a steel plant as we reach the outskirts of Longview.

Another announcement that the train will be sold out after longview, a second reminder to just take up one seat. I use the Amtrak app and realize this isn’t true I can still buy a ticket. We are allowed to step off because of all the station work but it’s not a designated smoke stop. We arrive at 7:23 and get the all aboard at 7:38. I have time to get the two waiting rooms one with a small ticket office inside the old union pacific building. I do the back door to supplement my platform time, graham my battery I’ve left in the lounge and wait for my dinner call. I here the conductor lifting sleeper tickets right on the train. Here elevator again and I think it’s the cook wanting the dumbwaiter. I go and wait in the lounge realize I have left my fully charged battery. The one outlet in my roomette is too far indented, says saving only, and can’t fit my camera charged. I decide to stay here till the 8:00 dinner reservations are called as we pass strip malls and trees leaving Longview. I see the attendant writinge down empty seat numbers for those boarding in the night. The lounge is again empty.

8:00 announcement for Marshal, which is a crew change double stop but not a fresh air stop. I wonder why not?

At 8:03 pull into Marshall as I go to the dining car for dinner. I am sitting with the same elderly man from lunch, and two scientists who have a wonderful debate about global warming. One is a chemist who fully supports it, the other things its just global cycling. The old man is convinced that we won’t do anything about it because it won’t effect us in our life times. I just listen to the discussion my viewpoint being made by the chemist. I have the usual small salad (have to grab the dressings from another table) and roll and of course the $25.75 steak that I’m too cheep to buy. I ask for it rare its more cooked then I like, the service isn’t quite as slow. I realize why I never pay for the steak, its slightly small and the chicken definitely gives you more food. Dessert comes and I have to have the apple pie. I ask for it A-la-mode which I only know is allowed as a sleeper car passenger from once glancing through the employee on board service manual that was released by a Freedom Of Information Act request. It is not offered by the steward. I get my pie and a Haagen-Dazs cup of vanilla that I dump on it, It’s delicious. Dinner isn’t as long as lunch and at 9:30 as we stop in we stop at the quite large station in Texarkana, possibly a fresh air stop and I enter to Arkansas for the first time our dinner comes to a close. Those with alcohol are paying up and I wonder back to my roomette to finally sleep in it. I find David, my porter who is overwhelmed since everyone else wants their beds made at the same time. I should have asked before dinner, although I keep seeing him in the dining car getting meals for those choosing to dine in their rooms.

At 10:00 we go through Hope, home of the Clintons (after Crawford home of the Bushes and the train ends in Chicago home of the Obama’s). It doesn’t seem to be a station stop yet (it is on the timetable with a time and opening date to be annouced) All I want to do is go to bed but there is no sign of my overwhelmed attendant.

At 10:13 I finally get my bed made. It’s stored in the upper birth, a thin mattress cover with a sheet and blanket already on it. No good night chocolate and just two small pillows, I think just one if I was sharing the room, the upper birth does remains up. I immediately realize that I would take a VIA Section over an Amtrak Roomette any day. The bed is more comfortable, Amtrak’s feels like your sleeping on a couch and you get a full comforter instead of a thin blanket. There is incredibly more light leakage on Amtrak because the curtains out to the windows to the aisle are not nearly as good since the door is made of glass. It is still darker than coach and I sit up in bed for a bit looking out the windows:

10:29 – speed by a neat old depot in Gurdon
10:43 – come to a stop in Arkadelphia I’m on the wrong side of the train to see town, seeing just a silo/grain elevator and a grade crossing beeping away. Now just 40 minutes late, dang probably no breakfast.

I don’t fall asleep cold, waking up quite a few times during the night. I definitely wake up to see the Little Rock Station and its skyline (stop at 11:54).
I fall asleep until about 5:30 (waking up briefly in the Poplar Bluff Station) when I see the main scenic highlight of the trip (at least I have red). The sun rising across the Mississippi River. If I was staying on through Chicago I would have just sat in bed watching it rise. I though want to get another Amtrak shower in before I attempt at getting breakfast and go downstairs and do that. I grab my backpack and finish packing before leaving my room at 6:15 and see no sign of breakfast yet.

At 6:25 I am told to go wait in the lounge. Breakfast in ten to 15 minutes. At 6:29 we get an announcement we are stopped four miles from the St Lewis station. Breakfast hasn’t begun yet. We start moving again slowly entering St Louis. At 6:38 we are told the additional Coach Car, #322, will be added before anyone can detrain, and we should be losing power.

The steward finally beckons us into the diner. Somehow everyone gets there orders in and my table is last. I am sitting with a Father and Sun who were planning to go in a sleeper until there plans changed and the sleepers were sold out. I order the Continental knowing that ordering any of the two cooked options (its the dreaded Express Menu again) won’t get me my food in time in St. Louis. For some reason choose Frosted Flanks as the cereal, might have gotten oatmeal but that sounds to time consuming. The lights go out for the extra car and the Steward says union regulations prohibit the cook from doing anything in the dark. At 7:00 we get power again and the de-boarding announcement for St. Louis. At about 7:05 I am the only one served in the diner with a peal top disposable of bowl of frosted flakes, a glass of milk and two of Amtrak’s disposable dishes (don’t getting me started on the amount of plastic my Sleeper ride wasted) covered in foil. One has strawberries and a grapefruit half, the other a biscuit, a disposable bowl for my cereal, and a single serving of strawberry yogurt. David, my attendant walks through and reminds me that I have until 7:55. I eat the strawberries and cereal, wrapping the biscuit and yogurt up in the foil to take with me. I like my table mates and chat with them for a while until about 7:35 when I walk back to my sleeper, grab my luggage and detrain as a stream of people walk towards me since the first boarding call has been made for the local going to Chicago. All the through travelers are going in the newly added rear coach, intermediates have to deal with sleeping bodies finding seats in the middle coaches. I end up using the elevator up to the glass overpass because the one escalator is going down to the platform and the staircase is narrow with people coming down. I go inside to the ticket office saying I just got off a Sleeper on the Eagle and am waiting for the Missouri River Runner (the train to Kansas City). An attendent lets me into this little lounge where I am now posting.

My One Full Day In Dallas: Riding the Other A-Train, Finishing DART and the Trinity Railway Express

Jeremiah Cox — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 03:52:04 +0000

Last night I realized that the only way I was going to get the Trinity Railway Express done was by waking up early and getting the final four intermediate stations I needed during the AM rush hour. I woke up (nearly on my own) after a terrible nights sleep due to a man snoring and was at the train station buying another $10 Regional ticket at 7:01, this would serve me all day including up to Denton County. I had a nice time in the cooler morning taking the 7:05 train to Centerport/DFW, doubling back on the 7:24 train to West Irving. From there I had to take the 7:43 train to Hurst/Bell and spent a whole 30 minutes there before the 8:26 train out to Richland Hills. While I was there a couple of fire trucks and ambulances started arriving as the train I had just gotten off of remained in the station. Eventually the paramedics brought someone off the train as the 8:41 train took me into Victory Station. There I transferred to the Green Line and took it out to Buckner and started wending my way back in getting photo essays. When I got to MLK Jr. and wandered over to the Fair Park itself (I was panning to walk anyway). I decided I wanted to wonder inside the Dallas Natural History Museum for a little air conditioned break with my Transit Museum membership. The small galleries were kind of odd but it was need seeing what wildlife (in stuffed form) is native to Texas. I then got on DART again, got the last few downtown stations on the Green Line (including the only island platform on DART in the middle of an urban boulevard), before taking the Blue Line out to White Rock reversing to Mockingbird and getting off for more photos at City Place. There I figured out I needed the 2:59 Green Line train which would connect me to the first Denton County A-train of the day. I had plenty of time to grab a quick bite to eat and get another ride on the McKenna Avenue Trolley back into downtown.

I got on the Green Line and found myself a seat for the ride up to Trinity Mills, as we headed north the sky started getting darker and darker before claps of thunder became audible as I dozed off from my early start this morning. I got to Trinity Mills and it had really started raining. As soon as everyone got aboard transferring from DART, the A-Train’s two car Budd RDC DMU (leased from the TRE with an odd hybrid livery) left for Denton. Yes there is another transit line in this country called the A-Train. This one has been modernized (complete with florescent lights) and seats that look like those on the M1/M3s if they had two by two seating except with much different patterned seat covers. It kept raining as we headed up to Denton and I debated what to do. The A-Train runs every 26 minutes during rush hour and the stops are spaced far enough apart that the doubling-back trick wouldn’t work to get its 4 intermediate stops. I got to Denton and did a rainy photo stop during the 13 minute layover. I got back on and decided I was determined to get at least one intermediate stop. I got off at a rainy Medical Market and the train didn’t leave the station, it was waiting for a train to come the other way. I got back on slightly confusing the conductor of the old 1949-1962 RDCs. These have manually operated doors and even traps over modified (for modern commuter rail platform heights) steps that must be manually opened at every station (there is an on platform ramp of a temporary looking nature at each stop for wheelchairs).

I got off at the next stop, Highland Village/Lewisville Lake Station for a very rainy 25 minutes, and did the same at Old Town Staiton. I kept thinking the rain would stop but it just didn’t. I felt like a drenched rat, realized my pictures weren’t really coming out and decided to skip Hebron Station (which will be the only non-Amtrak rail station in all of Texas I didn’t visit on this trip). I went back to Trinity Mills and did hop up to New Carrolton for a few dark rainy photos before heading back into downtown. I got off and wondered around trying to find some place for dinner. The only decent places are along the McKenna Avenue Trolley, the Trolley was luckily there at its downtown terminus so I hopped aboard Matilda, the ex-Melbourne trolley again for a trip up to a burger joint. After eating my dinner I realized I was going to miss the 8:20 train and end up on the 9:20 again. Feeling cold and wet I wondered back to the underground City Place DART Station (one of the only indoor non-airconditioned places I could find in Dallas) and almost let a few trains go by. I took the Red Line down to Cedars to pass the rainy time but didn’t get any night photos because there were about ten police cars lined up along the platform (in a park and ride lot) arresting someone on the platform. I get out of there on the next inbound train and get back to Union Staiton at about 9:00 for my 9:20 train back to South Irvine.

I get back to the hostel and have a very late night hanging out with 3 Britts (two of them also 22) also staying in the hostel. The other guests are a few odd older resedents most of whom are in town for the Ron Paul Convention.

The Bus up to OKC, the Heartland Flyer Back and Finishing the DART Red and Blue Lines

Jeremiah Cox — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 03:10:50 +0000

The morning began with me waking up at 5:30, showering and going to the breakfast room of my hotel at 6:00. At 6:30 I walked out onto the relatively cool streets of Norman Oklahoma to walk about a mile to the nearest stop for the 6:50 Commuter Bus for Oklahoma City. I paid my $2.25 fare into a standard modern GTE fare box, which had issues accepting my dollar bills. The driver commented that they were getting old and probably had been maintained all that well. I sat down in one of the most commuter buses I have been on (although it was a bit too cold for my liking) complete with headrests on all seats. I got to OKC at 7:25 and got off right at the train station. This gave me plenty of time to get my pictures of the historic Santa Fe depot and the single island platform on the viaduct that the Heartland Flyer uses to carry passengers through downtown Oklahoma City. The only ticketing facilities are a single Quick-Track machine. The fact we now have eTickets makes this matter less and less. I went up to the platform in time to see and photograph the Heartland Flyer leaving one side of the island platform, a stub-end siding with access only to the north, and enter the mainline track (there were a few others beyond the platform) to pick up maybe a car full of passengers. The conductor checked our ids on the platform again as I flashed my iPhone and as I got on the middle car with the cafe beneath he asked me “Jeremiah (he had just seen my id), how crowded is that luggage rack?” I said its looking mighty full and the rest of the passengers were directed to the rearmost car, the front car stayed closed for our entire journey.

8:17 – Welcome aboard announcement, same as yesterday, No Smoking except for the smoke stop in Ardmore, “I’ll let you know so you can get your cigarettes and lighters ready.”. Lounge car won’t open until after we leave Norman. We will leave on time in about 5 minutes.
At 8:24 the double toot comes and we begin to pull out of Oklahoma City on its wide elevated trackway with a few tracks and some overgrown. First we pass industry of some type and then go over I-40, on what is a modern concrete railroad bridge with a surprising amount of graffiti. Next is an auto parts yard full of lots of automobiles with there hoods open being spared for parts.
8:29 – cross a river and are between an industrial area and Santa Fe Avenue when we come to a stop briefly, and then come to our first grade crossing of the day at the Burnett siding and South 23rd Avenue. The whistle becomes more pronounced and keep going through industry,
8:34 – see a footbridge across the tracks to connect to a school. I notice the other conductor is issuing a hand issued ticket for $27.20 a piece with the senior discount. Cash will continue have to be handled onboard at non-staffed stations. (I paid $23.40), there chatting away having fun. The crew doesn’t recognize me.
8:38 – speed and go over I-240 passing a Budwiser distribution center, and pass a nice large freight yard. We keep passing subdivisions and suburban ranch style houses as I go back through Moore at a grade. I am a bit surprised this community doesn’t have a stop especially with the non-existent parking in downtown OKC.
8:42 – a modern subdivision right along the edge of the tracks with a railfan with his truck is photographing the train.
8:45 – Continue through the suburbs along Flood Avenue and pass some modular homes.
At 8:47 we go over a wide being expanded highway overpass as the conductor announces he has no one before correcting it to one person getting off and that were going to stop and pick-up some folks. We enter Norman following a park at a grade, the engineer leaning on the horn which is quite loud even from the middle coach, I don’t miss the exhaust smell though. I need a few photos to supplement those I took inside the depot and I get few not great ones out the windows of the train. If the train used California style BiLevels with automatic doors I would have run downstairs for a few photos but know the conductors are opening just one door. The stop is faster than I originally thought and notice that ridership is light enough the front coach is closed as few passengers wonder the wrong way to find that door locked. They definitely needed it yesterday. I guess the Heartland Flyer is much more of a weekend leisure travel train. I don’t see anyone aboard in a business suit. We leave Norman faster than I think we will with a railfan and his dog photographing the train and pass some modern college apartments of OU that look like they could be anywhere.
8:57 – running quickly we are within the trees with a few farms of Oklahoma.
9:00 – cross another river that looks like it is running dry and see cows on a green pasture before we pass through more trees.
9:04 – announcement for Purcell, I get to the otherside of the train for photos. We stop to pick-up one passenger and see the conductor’s chatting with an old retiree waring a hat that says Purcell Station Master. I see the conductors chatting with some regulars, the Heartland Flyer is that kind of train.
9:09 – slowly go over a quite dirty river and back to seeing trees.
9:16 – see a large horse ranch on one side of the train, there are fields with bales of hay on the other. We slow down again.
9:19 – see a BNSF track gang with lots of High Railers at the siding Wayne
9:24 – speed up in hay fields with quite a few trees around and see some ponds. There is quite a lot of trees over the tracks and all around us as we speed through the fields.
9:34 – Slow down again in an area with oil wells in the middle of cornfields
9:37 – Another muddy river, and the announcement for Pauls Valley. I get up and do my little on train photo essay, not enough to justify making a station page though with my current system for them. We leave and go back to fields, and trees of the heartland.
9:49 – speed through Wynnewood and its chemical plant with a thud beneath the tracks, I think we just ran something over
9:57 – speed through the town of Davis with a nicely restored Santa Fe Depot. Unfortunately where going too fast to get a photo of any decency. We keep passing through trees some hay fields are still off in the distance.
10:00 see the Washita River for the first time I go and sit on the other side of the train to try and get some decent photos of it.
10:03 – we return to rolling hills and trees but I am looking for the decent spot for photos of the river, it shortly returns back into view
10:07 – slow down as we go through another siding and the river comes back into view. Not quite as pretty compared to at sunset. It leaves our view again and we go back into the fields and trees.
10:13 see the low muddy trickle that is the Washita River with an announcement as we cross the river. We get a nice crossing view and see the rolling Arbuckle Mountains (look more like hills to me). She also announces that Ardmore will be just a two minute smoke stop very soon.
10:31 – slowly go through trees as we keep approaching Ardmore, seeing a large industrial dirt area and then a nice large chemical plant.
10:35 – north of Ardmore see quite a few houses
At 10:38 we pull into Ardmore and I am the first off the train for what is just a four minute stop, with many fewer people stepping off to smoke and the fact I photographed the same to locomotives sitting in the station yesterday I don’t run up for a photo of either of them. I get a few more photos to supplement my previous ones but definitely don’t have enough time to run inside the depot.
10:47 – We pass a nice large cemetery as we slowly leave and then speed up from Ardmore.
10:53 – We are in the fields and trees of southern Oklahoma approaching the Texas boarder, crossing over little bodies of water. Trees are on both sides of the train.
10:58 – Speed through the North Marietta siding and then see the little town.
11:06 – Keep going through fields and trees, seeing I-35 off in the distance.
11:09 – See a few houses of Thackerville and pass a train on its sidings of mostly containers, didn’t realize they were sent up this way.
11:17 – cross the Red River (different than the one which divides the Dakotas and Minnesota) on a long bridge and I am back in Texas going through trees and fields. None of the hay bales of North Texas have moved since yesterday.
11:23 – get the announcement that were approaching Gainsville, TX, and pass a yard full of freight trains and then a redi-mix concrete plant as we enter Gainsville, the whistle tooting.
11:28 – It is a much shorter stop then yesterday (fewer passengers) and we continue south. The conductor comes through and collects and throws out the tiny little seat checks. I notice that almost every set of seats in the two open cars are taken, no one though has had to double up with a stranger.
11:31 – Keep going through the northern Texas fields seeing cows.
11:34 – Go through wide fields of northern Texas, trees and grass and seeing I-35. The highway leaves us and we see fields and hay bales again.
11:45 – See a few tall buildings off in the distance, I wonder if this is downtown Denton. I will see tomorrow when I go up there to ride the A-Line Express.
11:51 – go under a highway I-35 again and pass a drag racing track. I no longer see the few tall buildings although were quite close to Denton.
11:55 – start seeing the suburban subdivisions of Krum
11:59 – see a few subdivisions and more horse farms and then over a ravine full of trees
12:04 – go through Ponder and then back to the hayfields. A few rivers run through the area.
12:09 – go over another muddy river and then another
12:16 – pass a huge subdivision under construction I am distracted because I am changing my Southwest Chief reservation for next Wednesday from Kansas City to La Junta that just became $20 cheeper. I was curious and decided to check the app. I have to do the full canceling it and paying again routine, the change trip option of the app doesn’t work. $86 sounds a lot better than $108 my previous fare. Might it go down to the $77 area (the cheapest I have found), we will see? I am curious and check the app again, ten minutes later, I notice its back up to $120 without the NARP discount. Thank you Amtrak with your fully refundable tickets for saving me $22.
12:20 – pass along the edge of a nice large rail yard and a lot full of new cars, think this is one of those intermodal facilities.
12:28 – pass between fields and Saginaw.
12:32 – go by a mill, home of light crust flower and Texaco feed
12:35 – Go through the switches at South Saginaw.
12:39 – We slowly roll through the suburbs north of Fort Worth there a surprising number of trees and cross a very green looking river on one of three parellel railroad bridges.
12:42 – Get an announcement that we are approaching Fort Worth and he announces 21 leaves at 2:10 and 22 at 2:20, didn’t realize Amtrak needs both tracks if there on time. We are reminded of the back-up move to enter the station and start seeing parts of downtown.
12:44 – start crossing above a neighborhood full of older looking apartment buildings that have an entrance in a restored freight depot and go around downtown Fort Worth and see the intermodal station. I wait to put my computer away until we begin the back-up move. We stop first at 12:47 and lose power to back in briefly. Almost immediately power comes back and I step off at the Fort Worth depot once again.

I arrive and look at the Trinity Railroad Express Schedule. I still haven’t gotten to its actual terminus, the historic T and E station. Although its only 2/3 of a mile away I want to ride a train there. I buy my $10 Regional ticket from the TVM (and like the fact its on different The T instead of DART ticket stock) and take the 1:13 train over to the T and E Station. Its lobby is completely grand and I get my pictures of it. The former tower appears to be used for apartments. I then have a productive quick walk back through downtown Fort Worth, getting more photos of the Santa Fe Depots before reclaiming my bag and boarding 1:51 train which I take to Irvine. I board the front Cab Car of this train in push mode and realize there is a decent rail fan window looking through the driver’s cab. I get off in Irvine to drop my backpack off at the one youth hostel in the DFW area (I didn’t stay there on Sunday night because it would have been a long, slow bus ride to get there since the TRE doesn’t run on Sundays). It is a small little place but I can tell Ivan the proprietor is trying to make it welcoming to backpackers. I take the next train, which originated at Centerpoint (where the TRE yard is) and is nearly empty into Dallas Union Station. There I notice the Stadler DMU owned by Denton is open for viewing as part of the APTA conference so I go in and have a look. The most interesting thing is that with some modifications it has been approved for mixed use (not time separated use like the RiverLine) with freight trains at the same times on the same track. I spend about ten minutes inside before I am off on the red line for this evenings adventures.

The DART red line out to Plano is the busiest branch and recives service every seven minutes during rush hour (combined with the few runs branded with the Orange Line) so I have a simple railfan trip spending seven minutes at each of the 11 stations, no backtracking required, as I head out to Parker Road. I am on an inbound train by 6:30 and realize that I have enough daylight to try and get the rest of the Blue Line. I look at my schedule and realize the doubling-back trick will only work for the middle two stations. I go out LBJ/Skillman. There I get annoyed by a Cop on a MotorCycle Riding down the actual platform like he is a stunt artists. (What’s wrong with just getting off and doing a quick patrol on foot). I double back to Lake Highlands before spending 20 minutes at Forest/Juniper and get to watch a freight train go by. I then finish at Downtown Garland. I still need White Rock and want to stop again at Mockingbird but decide things are looking too dark. I take the train into downtown and find a taco shop (one of the few places open) in downtown Dallas for some dinner. I am then on the 9:20 train back to South Irving for a little hanging out with the other guests at the hostel and then bed.

The Northbound Heartland Flyer to Norman, Oklahoma

Jeremiah Cox — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 03:09:29 +0000

Greetings from Norman, Oklahoma where my evening adventure of the day was riding the Heartland Flyer! I am planning to fill in on the rest of my adventures by postdating posts.

The day began this morning as I let myself sleep in at the hotel out by Love Field. I went and enjoyed the complimentary hot breakfast before checking out and leaving my backpack at the front desk again. My goal for the morning was to get most of the northern branch of the green line done. It is tracks I will have to ride on again (when I venture out to ride the A-train to Denton) but it just seemed like a good little morning trip to avoid spending tons of time slowly taking the train through downtown. Although the DART runs every 20 minutes one really nice aspect of it is that it seems to follow its schedule pretty much to the minute. I notice that there is an extra post-rush hour take-out providing a ten minute frequency and incorporate that into my rail fanning plans for the day. I end up getting every station between Love Field and Downtown Carrolton before realize I am running a little bit early. I take the bus back to my hotel from last night and take a little walk through the suburbain sprawl (with quite a few office parks) making a few phone calls before grabbing my backpack and catching the bus to the Hospital area and getting the 1:58 Trinity Railway Express train to Fort Worth.

The TRE train has just two bilevel cars and could easily use a third car. I am stuck grabbing a set of facing seats with someone else, its that crowded. There is no luggage rack (in this TRE car) so my backpack is stuck spending the ride in the seat next to me. We get to Fort Worth and I go straight to the Amtrak ticket office where the agent gladly lets me leave my bag overnight for the standard $3 charge. Next I had come up with a bit of a possible adventure to get two more stations on Trinity Railway Express with an hour to spare. Instead I start walking downtown and realize that I am at the perfect time to head up to the stockyards and see the 4:00pm Cattle Round-up. I take the bus up to the stockyards and watch maybe ten bulls with there huge longhorns being marched around in a circle (something they do twice a day every day). The stockyards do though seem worth seeing. I take the bus back downtown and I notice what is the old Santa Fe freight depot followed by the old passenger depot. While I am taking pictures of the old passenger depot, now owned privately as a special event space, a women who works there stops her car and asks me if I want a look inside. I of course say yes and get a little tour. I then rush back to the station in time for my train and as I board realize I have no idea what the direction of travel is. The Superliners in use on the Heartland Flyer have the seats in a half facing each direction design. I learn and grab a seat facing forward for the ride north.

At 5:20 The Heartland Flyer backs up a bit to ensure an on time departure I notice one women running out to the train to board the train. At 5:25 we finally switch out of the station and I realize I am in the very front of the train behind the locomotive. We crossover the TRE tracks on a bridge and then cross over the highway overpass the TRE goes under. We go over grade crossings on the edge of downtown, and continue through uptown on a grade. The conductor welcomes us aboard #822 addressing the train
5:28 – pass a cemetery as we leave Fort Worth and then go through a neighborhood and then lots of trees, its strange being on a Superliner with normal Superliner seats but the seats in short-distance push-pull half backwards, half forwards configuration. We slowly cross over a fork of the Trinity River and cross another railroad. I can really hear the engine sitting right behind it.
5:33 – pass the Mexican Community (according to a man sitting across from me) and a loop for horseback riders.
5:35 – pass the huge scrapyard for the day and then the old Navel Station and Meacham Airport. Then our first time meet a train of wind turbines on very long double flat cards as we go through a train yard quickly and then hopper cars.
5:39 – enter Saginaw and then pass an historic depot at Saginaw interlocking as we switch railroads. Next is a grain yard followed by silos and its water tower off in the distance as we enter farmlands and fields. There are some subdivisions off in the distance before these become closer to the train. The conductor comes through taking tickets. There is a strange contrast of beeping for eTickets and punches from the old fashioned tickets. I end up being the last ticket collected as the conductor thanks me by name (he has done this with everyone) and says “How Cool is That” as he zaps my iPhone. He issues the most unique seat checks I have seen, ripping them into thirds like he is rationing them before writing my destination on it and hole punching it. Those going all the way to OKC just get a blank white one. We slowly enter more farmland and pass another freight train. Soon after my ticket is collected there is a nice long cafe car is open announcement from that attendant. She gives far too long a safety briefing saying to use the handrails and reminds people that the only products permitted in her lower-level lounge are those bought on board.
5:51 – I think we have left the Metroplex beyond, but wait I see the large boxes on a JC Penney (a warehouse) in the middle of some fields.
5:54 – pass a shopping mall off in some of the fields. I notice the conductor is just sitting in some open seats his suitcase open.
5:58 – pass through Justin, a seed bank and some houses off in the distance.
6:04 – the subdivision of Northlake
6:07 – More new houses and a feed store. I hear some people behind me complaining about the line for the sank car
6:11 – Go under US-380 and I realize I am only 8 miles from Denton, the northern terminus of the A-Line Express, a new DMU commuter train I am planning to ride tomorrow or the day after depending upon timing.
6:13 – Now we go through Krum with a mixture of larger subdivision houses and then a trailer park
6:17 – We continue through fields I exhaust from the locomotive blowing by my window now and again.
6:20 – pass through a forest with trees on each sie of us but more fertile fields beyond them.
6:22 – approaching Sanger, pass a subdivision of identical single story ranch style houses. I then can see a downtown off in the distance.
6:25 – see I-35 off in the distance and nice contrast of cows followed by a huge Wal-Mart distribution center. There are a lot of bales of hay.
6:30 – going over a little water and a riparian zone so there are quite a few trees that also act as a buffer between fields and the train
6:32 – pass a few houses and the signs of a few suburban houses as we enter and then go parallel to I-35.

At 6:39 we go back to trees in a wetland interrupting the fields and the announcement for Gainsville. I hear the other conductor in my car get up and check for passengers. We enter passing the antique center of north texas. We arrive at 6:42 and there about a halve dozen people on the platform looking like they are getting on, more than getting off. Most lack luggage, guess there making a day trip from OKC. There is a nice old wooden depot, the seats in front of me now have passengers huffing and puffing who almost missed the train. I notice another interesting aspect of eTickets the conductor just needs one from a party traveling together on the same reservation. They have three separate tickets but he just scans one. One of the passengers asks the conductor the fastest speeds and I hear we get up to 79mph in Oklahoma but only 55-60mph in Texas due to the fact the grade crossings need to be retimed in Texas which that state hasn’t paid for yet.
6:51 – Go through trees and fields of North Texas. The land isn’t totally flat, rolling up and down a tiny bit although it could just be the size of the trees in the area.
6:56 – Cross the Red River into Oklahoma! The 43rd state I have now at least set foot in! More trees along the railway line which yield to some fields as well but plenty of trees.
7:02 – go through the first town in Oklahoma, Thankerville, and go back to rolling hills in fields off in the distance from the train.
7:13 – Now we pass through some simple small houses of Marietta passing its baseball fields seeing what looks like a pee-wee coach pitch game going on. The area around us becomes full of more trees and continues this way. The glare from the evening sun not that nice since I am sitting on the west side of the train. There are little patches of water in places, we could moving 80mph.
7:22 – see a few houses of Overbrook off to one side of the train, Ardmore the one smoke/fresh air stop is next, were definitely going faster possibly, 79, I can hear the generator of the P42s speed which keeps changing.
They announce were approaching Ardmore but not to get up yet. I do one of my techniques for making sure I have the longest possible photo stop by running to the bathroom and getting the arriving announcement while I am in there before jumping off the train to get a quick photo essay. We arrive about two minutes late. I end up walking the length of the train and get pictures of each of our locomotives. I get the All Aboard and re-board in the rear coach and notice that almost every set of two seats is taken in the previous two coaches being used by passengers going the full FTW to OKC length. We leave 5 minutes late at 7:33 officially. I walk the length of the train on board and notice the conductor is still using his old fashioned pad to sell tickets ($20) to passengers who have just boarded the train in Ardmore. I thought that would now be just an iPhone transaction. I know the train sold out yesterday since it was my original plan to take it that day. I still got its lowest bucket though for my little overnight round trip 3 days before so I could also get my NARP discount
7:38 – slow down passing a huge chemical plant and keep running slowly by trees in the evening sun.
7:48 – there is a nice low evening sun over fields and a few cows with plenty of trees in the rolling hills.
7:51 – Go by a few houses in the tiny community of Gene Autry near the Ardmore Airport. My iPhone is being slow (cell service is poor).
I decide I need to visit the cafe car and go downstairs and get distracted sightseeing with the sun setting on the Watchita River. The cafe car has a slightly unique menu printed on a piece of regular computer paper. There the usual donuts but the sandwiches are different and seem quite a bit cheeper. Had I known the reasonable prices I might have skipped stopping at Subway for a sandwich. At this point we reach the most scenic point of the trip along the Washita River, through the Arbuckle Mountains. No pictures because I didn’t bring my camera down. The water is real low. After I buy a nice large cookie the conductor jokes with me that “Were not a fly by night operation.” I try an explain that I am used to the more expensive regular cafe cars. The river luckily comes back into view in the sunset were moving slowly with trees all around us.
8:05 – pass Doughardy in a meadow with a farm house off beyond it.
8:12 – the river comes back into view as the sun keeps setting
8:15 – regain speed as we go through Davis, a main street is visible off in the distance. The sun keeps setting on the trees and fields. I think I’ll be shooting Norman in the dark
8:24 – Slow down passing some other chemical plant as we go through Wynnewood, there is tubing and smokestacks on both sides of the train for this industrial monstrosity we must pass by slowly, before a full unit coal train passes us by. We stop to let it pass.
8:33-It finishes and we leave again, the sun almost fully set and regain good speed.
At 8:41 the sun has almost fully set as we start coming into a town. It is the town of Pauls Valley. It feels a bit big and has a modern gated platform in front of a closed station house with an old pointless arrow sign on it. The gate is already open. It’s getting a little dark for photos. We leave at 8:43 about 20 minutes late, quite typical for the Heartland Flyer as I have tracked it for the past few days. There is a caboose and steam engine beyond the depot in a little park. We leave the houses of Pauls Valley beyond and go back into fields. A ray of pink sunlight still visible but not much else. I see the last rays of sun, had the train been on time I would have gotten some last ray shots in Norman, guess it will be a photo essay in the dark. This I expected (after tracking the train for the past few days) but was hoping for the better.
9:15 – announcement for Purcell although there is no one on the train getting off. He also announces it will be 15 minutes to Norman. Everyone around me gets on their phones, all going to Norman to say how close they are.
At 9:17 we slowly get to lights of a platform along a very empty parking lot with just a shelter. There are a few people waiting in that shelter. We briefly stop but there is just family watching the train go by. There is a nice long platform with an unused wheelchair lift enclosure. I decide its time to pack up. We slowly pull into Norman arriving at 9:35. I notice one major problem with trying to get a nighttime photo essay. The platform has very few lampposts. The lights in the station are off but they switch on almost immediately. I go inside and start chatting with the volunteer who staffs the station and almost forgot to come and show up. I get my pictures of the space used during the day as a rehearsal space for the performing arts and he offers me a ride the 3 miles to my hotel which I am grateful for. The original plan was to walk. I get to the Country Inn before 10:00pm which accepted by bid on Priceline of just $35 (came to $45 with taxes). My goal was to only ride the Heartland Flyer if I could make the round including accommodation trip for under $100 which did happen. To make myself even more happy I find out the complimentary breakfast starts at 6am giving me half an hour before I need to leave the hotel and catch the commuter bus up to Oklahoma City so I can ride the Heartland Flyer for its entire length.

3 Full Days of Museums (plus riding its light rail) in Houston

Jeremiah Cox — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 04:12:41 +0000

For my first day in Houston I had a small breakfast of toast and biscuits (an item I had never encountered at a hostel breakfast before). I next went walking and ended up finding the light rail. The Houston Light Rail is the only modern one in the country (Pittsburg is the other, I’ll end up having to buy a weekly pass when I end up railfanning it) that doesn’t offer day passes. Instead you can either buy a single-ride ticket for $1.25, on the light rail only valid for 3 hours in only one direction of travel, away from the originating station which is printed on the ticket. If you use a Q-card it deducts $1.25 and you have three hours of transfers whose use have restrictions I did not figure out. At the end of the day I tapped onto Metro Rail assuming I had a transfer (it had been less than three hours since my last tap) but had another ride deducted after walking a few Metro Rail stops down. I started off wending my way down from Wheeler Station making some brief stopovers until I got to Fannin South, the southern terminus. There I had a nice chat with the customer service folks (in a air conditioned booth with a window they slided opened) who told me photography was completely fine and to make sure I buy another ticket to head northbound. I decide to tap my Q card assuming I would be transferring to a bus in less than 3 hours. I make a few more stops and get off at Museum District.

My first attraction is the Holocaust Museum which is quite a good little gallery of history for that tragedy. It isn’t nowhere as large as the national museum in DC which I went to years ago. Next I notice a sign for the weather museum which is maybe four homemade looking exhibits on the first floor of what felt like a home, a place I would not spend money to visit. It was a Thursday and free and the Holocaust Museum is always free. At that point it was about 12:30 and I had booked a free boat ride on the Sam Houston at 2:30.

I took the light rail into downtown and the heavens opened up, it started pouring. I stopped for some soup in a cafe before going outside to a shelterless stop for the hourly bus out to the port. My iPhone said 1:30 but that time came and went as I got worried I would miss the boat, they advised arriving a half-hour before for security reasons. The bus finally got there at 1:50 and I was at the gate to the port at 2:15. It had luckily stopped raining by then. The guard was a little surprised to see someone show up on foot but with a flash of my ID I was walking down the driveway (lined with completely transplanted palm trees) getting to the dock at 2:25. The captain of the boat checked our Ids again and we were off on a 90 minute cruise through the port. It was scenic for the industry. We passed quite a few huge ocean going container boats and one that transported cars as well as a mill for stones and a huge oil refinery. It was a good reminder of how much industry powers our modern lifestyles. At the mid-point of the tour they unlocked a few refrigerators with complimentary cans of soda and I indulged (something I never do). There was a fairly simple commentary of the facts about the port from time to time but it was neat getting on the water in front of such large boats on what was basically a propaganda tour. The tour ended and I wondered back to the bus stop with two routes to choose from, my iPhone had died so I just waited. The gate on one side of me and a freight train yard on the other where I watched (and photographed) a few trains being built. There was no fence, just no trespassing signs. A different bus route came which also went to downtown and I had a very chatty driver all the way to Minute Maid Park where I bought a ticket to tomorrows ballgame.

I spent the rest of the day wondering down Main Street getting some more light rail photos, got charged for another ride on my Q card for what I thought would be a transfer, as well as letting my phone charge in a bookstore. I wondered back to the hostel early and went out for a quick burger before going back and having good time chatting with others in the hostel, distracting myself from planning Dallas.

Friday began with me making a point of sitting down and planning my time in Dallas and quick overnight round-trip to Oklahoma to ride the Heartland Flyer. I’ll be discussing my adventures in the next few days. I ended up realizing that with the fact the one youth hostel is on Trinity Railway Express and not accessible on Sundays to delay my trip north for a night (by Greyhound, no other way) and leave on Sunday and found a decent Hotwire Hotel but not in downtown. I then wondered out of the hostel and back down to the museum district.

I spent the morning first visiting a small photography gallery and then the small (and free Museum of Contemporary Art’s). I wasn’t planning to go to the larger Museum of Fine Arts until I saw a sign for one of there promotions, free admission if you buy lunch (from a food truck outside or their cafeteria). The food truck outside specialized in grilled cheese and I enjoyed one for $6 before spending the afternoon wondering through Houston’s predominant art museum, with the standard little bit of this and that collection from the ancients to impressionists to modern.

I left around 4 o’clock and got on the Light Rail making a few photo stops on my way into downtown for tonight’s activity, attending a Houston Astros Game. The game didn’t start until 7 but I entered around 6 wanting to make sure I got one of the T-shirts being given to only the first 10,000 fans. I then wondered the two concourses getting a feel for the modern movable roof stadium which was closed on the hot night. I also got my pictures of the building that provides one of the entrances into the park (and houses the Astros front offices), the historic Union Station. It was a fairly quick, well pitched game in which the Cincinnati Reds beat the Astros 4-1. Interesting oddities in Minute Maid included the Deep in the Heart of Texas sing-along during the seventh inning stretch and two sponsored between inning moments from Latin Food companies (Goya and a tamale company) which shows the Latin influence in Houston. The game ended and the roof was opened for a fireworks display. I was just over two miles from the youth hostel with a bus that would take me right there leaving every 15 minutes according to maps on my phone. I got to the bus stop and one came in shortly there after on layover and finally left ten minutes later not at all following the schedule on my phone. It got to be standing room only and I was one of the first to get off and had another late night just chatting with some new people and some from the day before in the hostel.

Saturday was my final day in Houston and a day I decide I’ll relax on and not have my usual I must be out for the entire day mentality. I eat my breakfast with some Dutch smokers who I was hanging out with the night before who are ending up in New York and remember to warn them about our extremely high cigarette taxes to stock up before they arrive (I completely support the high taxes, we spend so much more money subsidizing the health care of those who participate in the deadly disease). I leave the hostel and start wondering down the museum district again. I first stop at a little craft gallery and then continue to the main and final museum I wanted to see, the Health Museum.

I get to the Health Museum and realize its primary designed for children, but since my Transit Museum membership gets me in free it is the only reason I am going. $8 for an adult is not worth it to see this museum. I find it a little amusing when the clerk asks me Where I Parked? And is surprised that I got there the more healthy walking way. There is an interesting interactive exhibit about cells and how they work, and I can’t believe how much I remember from biology class, with most of the names. There is then a 15 minute 4D show (we are waring 3D glasses and there are lights, fog machines and mist that are spayed on us in the theater) about how the human body fights disease going through computer generated images of the blood stream which I find actually quite neat. I then go and see there general exhibit on the body which seemed a little out of date. For example the wall about the Food Pyramid had a giant sign that it was no longer accurate with the new USDA food Plate. I poke into the gift shop and am surprised to see a soda machine and vending machine with sugary snacks as the only food service in the museum. You would think a museum about health would have a nice healthy cafe to eat in. At that point it is around three and I leave to walk back to the hostel wanting some computer time to catch up on this blog.

I get distracted saying good bye to the really interesting British Couple I have spent the past three late nights with and talking to a few new arrivals. I end up wondering over to Starbucks to have some time to myself before going back to the hostel shortly before 7 to do my laundry (only $2, including detergent) as I watch the Stanley Cup which the Devils unfortunately lose 2 to 1 in overtime. I have a very late dinner before going to bed relatively early and not having another 2:00am night chatting.

A Friendly Sunset Limited to Houston, Running into a Previous Amtrak Dining Companion

Jeremiah Cox — Wed, 30 May 2012 21:29:03 +0000

I stopped for breakfast which I ate quickly and was worrying about being late. Had I already had a ticket I wouldn’t of worried so much but I didn’t see a Quick-Trak machine when it was in the station. I rushed over and arrived at 8:35. There was a long line to board but the ticket counter was empty. The line started moving, I got my ticket, got a few last photos and walked out to the platform. I manage to be assigned the last window seat in my coach car (I had forgotten the Sunset has only 2 until SAS when the eagle joins it). Sitting next to a man with his wife and kid behind. Its my first time with a seat check with the numbers pre-printed. I think boarding last if seat assignments are being given is my new strategy.

9:03 – We get the usual welcome aboard announcements and we larch forward at 9:05
9:25 – pass east bridge junction and rise up onto the bridge. I go to the rear of the train for photos of the wooden track bed. The last car is more empty with travelers for non major stops. It’s a very slow crossing.
9:43 – descend from the trestle. I wonder back to the lounge car, a nicely newly renovated one with seat outlets.
9:47 – start going through a huge intermodal freight yard. Pass Avondale and see a Tropicana Juice train and stop at the edge of the yard at 9:54.
9:59 – Were moving again passing a cemetery fill of flowers I guess due to memorial day. We reenter the trees.
10:10 – We speed up and go into flat marshy fields
10:23 – We slow down again in Des Allemendas and cross a bayou I believe
10:39 – Keep speeding through flat green farmland and trees
10:49 – I’m at the back window as we arrive Schriever, I’m surprised how many passengers are
getting on maybe 10 and like 3 off. The stop is basically in the middle of a freight yard. We go through trees a highway and swampland. The fauna is so different than up north. We pass trees and go over water features.
11:30 – slowly go under highways as the dining car steward describes the menu. Lunch is first come first served, its a very slow ride. The speed is due to signal trouble with the BNSF railroad
11:43 – West Gibson water tower

I am sitting in the lounge car and a familiar man, Wyming the Feng Shui master I met having dinner on the Coast Starlight. He lives in New Orleans and is going to Houston for a client traveling in the family bedroom, (the only bedroom left) paid for by the client. At noon is the first call for Lunch and I realize we’re late enough to go to lunch before the fresh air stop in Lafayette, LA. I enjoy the clam chowder and salad. Wyming let’s me have half his cheesecake (included in his sleeper fare) which is quite good and a bite of his fried chicken cutlet which I regret not ordering. We’re sitting with a mother and daughter who are quite non commutative. Its a ride through trees and sugar cane fields and we stop in New Iberia, a tiny shack of a station. I hear the announcement about the upcoming fresh air stop of Lafayette and pay my lunch bill determined to get a photo essay. We arrive at a quite crowded platform at about 1:26. I step off and go straight to the renovated into a transit center’s small waiting room in an historic depot (local buses stop at bays across from the train platform). The platform has also been renovated but is too short. The rear of the two Sleepers have stopped on grass just beyond the end of it, the front transition sleeper not even open. I watch them close the door of the front coach while the last coach is being loaded, its a long line of people with a pile of luggage. The conductors deciding its easier to load luggage last. There is a woman in a wheelchair boarding. The crew doesn’t go and grab the mobile lift out of the standard brown enclosure but just uses a little bridge plate metal ramp which is stored on the train. I re-board using the ramp because it hasn’t been removed yet. The conductors are screaming at the boarding passengers to please board the train, they will load the luggage for everyone, “We need to leave”.
We finally leave Lafayette at 1:38. The last call for lunch in the diner is made followed by an announcement for the passengers who boarded in Lafayette to stay upstairs while they load and organize their luggage before they come downstairs to claim it.

1:57 – pass Wayne
2:08 – See quite a few Crawfish ponds off to one side of the train, the view goes back to trees.
2:13 – Midland, a few houses
2:36 – pass Welsh with a water tower, community center and then pass its little downtown.
2:46 – the conductor walks through trying to figure out who is going to Lake Charles and not in their seat, were ten minutes away. We start seeing more houses as we enter the community of Iowa home of the Yellow Jackets gaining speed. I overhear a guy coming from somewhere who had an overnight layover and ended up spending it in the Union Terminal in New Orleans

At 3:15 we stop in the middle of Lake Charles briefly and slowly go over the bridge across the lake and then slowly go over a drawbridge. We stop again at 3:20 after the bridge. We stop again because of a manually operated switch the conductor must align. We Keep moving slowly over the switch and through this town.
At 3:32 we are moving again through trees. There is a man with long hair combing it in the lounge car. Is that appropriate?

3:47 – go through the small town of Sulphur. This is the second to last one in Louisiana. We regain track speed in the trees and swamps of this flat land. Is a blur of green shapes out the windows with partly cloudy skies.
3:50 – go through Vinton, the last town in Louisiana and continue through trees. Then some trackwork.
3:54 – get to the swamps of Sabine Island Wildlife Management Area, the last part of Louisiana we go through. Its a swampland.
3:57 – cross a bridge and according to my iPhone map of the boarder we have entered texas. Then we pass some towers that look like they are under construction. We keep crossing more swampland.
4:02 – come to a stop on the outskirts of Orange, our first town in Texas. It is brief and soon we are moving again very slowly through some houses on large grassy lots of this town.
4:07 – the houses become more numerous and see Louisiana across the river we crossed earlier.
4:10 – go through the center of town. Pass some houses along the right of way as we go through down very slowly.
4:14 – pass the boarded up Orange Depot and then some abandoned passenger cars. Then we go over swampland and enter West Orange as a water tower says with an empty train yard. There are some Union Pacific Track crews, we are clearly in there territory.
4:23 – leave that town and regain track speed
4:42 – We slowly cross another river and enter Beaumont Texas.

We arrive at Beumont, a modern shelter station at 4:46. I get off for this quick crew change stop to get a photo essay of the modern platform with green fences and just a shelter. This platform is too short. The last coach is stopped just beyond the end of the platform and a stool is awkwardly on the ballast. In that coach a wheelchair passenger wants to get off an have a smoke but the all aboard comes before he can.
As we leave Beumont, Texas at 4:59, the conductor makes far too long an announcement about attractions in Houston as a way to tell people not to leave train side. This new crew is on only until San Antonio, just one stop. He also mentions an all night Denny’s and that the train will depart on time at 2:45am. The diner than thanks the conductor for his speech and announces they are open for dinner.
We leave Beumont and reach rice and other fields.

5:17 – Pass lots of little houses on the side of the railroad line
5:23 – Start seeing trees again around the railroad line
5:36 – Pass the historic Liberty depot as we go through this town. It’s full of trailers we cross a river and continue through. We slowly enter the suburbs of Houston as I chat with a retired railfan on a nice square trip from Tacoma, Washington mainly to Atlantaredeeming his AGR points riding in roomettes. I give out my first website card of the trip.
6:25 – Come to a stop outside in front of a large container port within the Houston suburbs. The conductor makes the same announcement in brief not to miss the train leaving Houston.

We’re 15 minutes away once we get moving. Some hopper cars pass us by going the other way. I decide to return to my car as we pass small houses and I see the skyline off in the distance as we slowly approach and curve into downtown. I chat some more with the family sitting around me. We slowly enter downtown and we go under the Metrorail Streetcar and passing through downtown to the Amtrak station on the outskirts of downtown.

We arrive into Houston at 6:54pm and I get off the train and get myself a really decent photo essay of the 1960 built simple Southern Pacific Station. It is surrounded by parking lots and I am still figuring out the best way to walk there when the family I was sitting around offer me a ride in the back of their truck for the two and a half miles which I accept. Its maybe a ten minute ride to near the Museum District where the hostel is and the mother won’t stop talking about how I am in the museum district which is an extremely safe area. I finally go and check into my bed for what should be the next three nights. I have a quiet evening going to Kroger to buy a Q-Card (the Smart Card for Houston’s buses and the only way to get a free transfer) and decide to buy groceries there and cook as well. I plan to spend the evening writing but the hostel is quite social and I have a nice evening staying up late chatting with other travelers.

A Full (Stomach and Train) Ride on the City of New Orleans from Memphis to its namesake

Jeremiah Cox — Wed, 30 May 2012 04:09:11 +0000

My day leaving Memphis I knew would be early, the City of New Orleans leaves at 6:50am. MATA luckily has quite decent weekday service but I had to walk south a few blocks since the first trip on the 2 would arrive in downtown too late. I woke up a little after 5am and walked south to a stop on the 57. The bus finally arrived at 6:10 about 5 minutes late (right as I was getting nervous). It was quite crowded with early shift workers (lots of people in job uniforms) and got me into downtown at about 6:30.

I hear a whistle off in the distance and look down a side street to see a single silver P40 (much to my surprise not a P42, I only know the differences from the Locomotive numbers) leading the City of New Orleans over the quiet streets of Memphis (and I think following the waterfront streetcar line through its grade crossings along the Mississippi). I walk the few blocks south to the train station and get some morning photos from the street and walk up through the station to the platform. There was a giant blob of people at one car waiting to board but I didn’t bother yet. Instead I choose to walk the platform getting pictures of the train including our locomotive getting refueled. I walked back to the last coach car where everyone going from MEM to NOL was boarding. The conductor on the platform asked me if my ticket had been lifted and I said no. I opened my phone up (zoomed in on the QRL code) and he asked me to double tap out to full size and he zapped my ticket with his eTicketing iPhone in its special dock. My first eTicket experience now complete. The coach attended handed me seat 61 (a window) and I realized I was going to be the last to board as I wondered upstairs and might be the only one with two seats to himself.

I got to my seat and there was a lady already in it. She was desperate for a window and not handed an odd number (something I often argue over). There is another empty row of seats behind us where I attempt to sit, the coach attendant not happy. He yells at the lady to go to her assigned seat but she doesn’t leave and its implied with seat checks I am supposed to be in the aisle next to her. (On a day train, I don’t really care, I have the sightseer lounge to sit at the windows in). I go and get a back window look as we leave Memphis. Another conductor comes through asking for everyone’s last name to confirm ticket lift on their iPhone. We leave Memphis behind entering fields.

7:22 – see horn lake as we enter mississippi and then to through the first town, Walls. I try and have breakfast in the diner, a Cross-Country Cafe but am told that “It’s broken” with sleeping car passengers getting food from the lounge as well. (a refrigeration or stove issue I don’t know?).
7:27 – We slow down and see some CN track work. Today’s trip is all on the CN (technically the Soo line it’s American subsidiary officially but branded as CN). TThey own the track to have access to a golf coast port. The dining car is staffed since I did see a few chefs step off to smoke. It’s really nice to be sitting with my feet up in the lounge car than on a bus. Had I been traveling with someone I would have paid just $60 more for a roomette which would have basically paid for itself through the free meals, good thing I didn’t.
7:53 – the little town of Crenshaw
8:07 – go through slightly larger Marks and enter a swamp then Lambert I read from a water tower
8:16 – the train continues through standard empty fields.
8:32 – pass some huge cornfields, am I back in iowa I think?
8:39 – go slowly over a muddy river
At 8:55 we arrive in Greenwood, a smoke stop where the conductors change. I run off and get a photo essay of the station including the tiny waiting room in a depot used by CN. We get the all aboard at 9:01. I sit in the last car at the window (with the last seat to myself) and watch a women running to meet the train. New conductors get on board and announce they want to see all ticket stubs. That has never happened on a long distance train before. As we leave I see our previous conductors making there ways into the non-public CN area of the station building. I show the PDF of the email on my iPhone which is accepted. I have some back window time and decide its time to return to the lounge car and sit. I notice the conductor is even waking people up to check tickets. He doesn’t check the lounge.
9:26 – pass through Tucla a sad looking town of prefabricated homes and keep slowing down. I’m in the lounge car overhearing the CN detectors on a railfans radio nearby they all end with the automated voice saying “Have a Safe Day”. We slow down to let some containers pass.
9:35 – pass Antioch church, paster Joe Jackson in the middle of a cornfield. We’re going 67 mph. I notice a man, mechanic perhaps? With an Amtrak ID and an Acela hat but no other uniform walking the train with keys. I then here what sounds like a drill in the Dining Car. I guess there trying to fix it in route?
9:51 – we slowly enter Yazoo city, a flag stop I hear one off.
9:55 – we stop at a simple platform with a fence, shelter but a tactile warning strip and pass the scrap yard of the day and reenter cornfields.
10:05 – Stop in Bali (spelling ?) the conductor announces were waiting for an empty coal train to pass before we can continue. There is another siding with tank cars on it. At 10:11 I see the orange of 3 BNSF locomotives (guess they have trackage rights). I notice that most have the new orange BNSF railway logo but some are the Diamond logo and others the old BN logo. It isn’t a unit coal train, there no locos at the back.
10:34 – Pass the historic depot of Flora, but not a passenger stop
10:46 – We slowly start entering the outskirts of Jackson passing some autoracks being unloaded in a fenced off (including from the mainline) barbed wire area
10:54 – It’s slow running into Jackson, passing CN Jackson terminal before stopping 2 miles from the station at the southern end of this yard. A train is being built on one side of us. We slowly proceed forward and the announcement to not leave trainside if you stretch your legs. We won’t leave tardy. This is the final smoke stop.

We arrive at 11:03 and that early I am tempted to run into the station. I notice that were on an elevated viaduct and the modern elevator/staircase is crowded with people boarding and detaining. I do get to the opposite end of the train though for a few more photos of our P40 (not a 42) locomotive. The fact this train uses a Superliner Coach/Baggage car in the middle of the train and not the standard baggage car behind the locomotive makes these easier. The sleeper attendant yells all aboard hearing the double whistle from a freight train, but then retracts laughing at herself. I get my photo essay and end up re-boarding from the heat slightly early to the last row of seats in my coach. There is a nice modern canopy on the present side platform but it is covering up the area where the lounge and broken dining car have platformed. My supposed seat mate is asleep across both seats and the grumpy attendent comes back to sound like he is not happy about things. The seat across from me is also supposed to be empty but one of the two ladies traveling together across from me and now occupying it. We slowly pull up at 11:26 and I see that a second former platform is now used for baggage on the other side of Amtrak’s track. We stop again still in the station. There are the remains of two other platforms that are in surpassingly good shape. At 11:30 we slowly leave Jackson for good. There doing track work just south of the station.

11:39 – we keep leaving Jackson mostly by trees but going under highways. We pass a full coal train on a siding hearing the clicking-clack of jointed rail. We regain speed and enter single track territory on what I believe is good welded rail.
11:52 – pass a neat old depot in Terry, I am not at the back window for a photo.
12:05 – Announcement for a double stop in Hazlehurst, once for sleepers then coaches. We finish at 12:08. I get some rear window photos of the platform with a bus shelter and depot beyond. Then it’s back to mostly trees.
12:28 – We arrive in Brookhaven, MS at a modern platform, canopy and a building which calls itself a transportation center beyond. It looks like a converted factory with a chimney. We then pass the former depot with a fenced off brick platform that stretches for a few blocks. The train here feels like a local state supported train (Adirondack feels most similar) making stops every 20 minutes.
12:47 – Pass a small lake an we enter Macomb, MS. We stop in the town with a little cute station and a locomotive and tender. Im sitting in my rear seat due to the stops quick succession followed by an announcement for free soda in the lounge. I rarely drink soda but decide to have an 8 oz Sierra mist natural with real sugar. They must be dealing with extra stock from the broken diner.
1:01 – then they announce free turkey and Swiss hoagies. I am still a college student at heart and although I’m fairly full from my peanut butter sandwiches I ate a half hour earlier it is time to see what this Amtrak creation is like. Its bland and basically tastes likes melted cheese.
1:25 – I see Louisiana state highway signs as I chat with a man who stayed put during Katrina and works for the water board
1:32 – pass through Independence
1:38 – announcement for Hammond staffed with checked luggage, we soon arrive at a modernized platform with green railings. 1 hour to New Orleans.
1:50 – We slow down to go through Ponchatoula with a nice restored depot and a steam engine
1:58 – start going through swampland. They announce there are free sandwich boxes. These are more fancy from some gourmet sounding deli and look like boxed lunches brought on for those in the sleepers. I don’t grab a sandwich, there a turkey again but enjoy a chocolate chip cookie and chips
2:05 – go over the causeway over the waterway between Lake Maurepas and Lake Pontchartrain
2:12 – We follow and go around Lake Pontchartrain as there are a bunch of discarded jersey barriers between the train and the lake
2:16 – Stop following the lake but keep seeing swampland before the lake emerges again and we go under a highway
2:30 – pass the City of New Orleans going the other way and see the airport off in the distance with its long term parking lots. Then we start going by houses. These continue as another rail line starts to also follow us.
2:40 – We have a clearly new Orleans based crew. I can tell by the attendants bag and he’s collecting all the seat head coverings and pillows. The older attendant who was not happy with my seat mate is singing as he works.
2:43 – announcement to return to your seats that the upper level of the lounge is closed and to remain seated until we hear otherwise. The reason is because we have to back in around a wye to enter New Orleans. No locomotive photos here in New Orleans since I’ll be right at the station exit since we’re backing in. I see the conductor coming to the back to radio with backing in. He sits and starts chatting with the ladies across from me about how all he can think about is paying for camp for his 5 kids.
2:49 – pass the building home to the times Picayune. The conductor is now talking about his years in the military as. He then opens up the back door to radio the movement. We pass the shop with a spare locomotive and a few Superliners but nothing looks like it is being stored for the single level Crescent.

At 2:56 we enter the platform slowly. The conductor says hello to station crew by name. We stop once for safety part way in and continue very slowly back to the red bumper block. There is an announcement that it is now safe to detrain but for the last car to please let the conductor out so he can come downstairs. At the end of the car I am the last one to detrain.

I get a few photos as I slowly leave the platform and walk into the nice art deco terminal shared with Greyhound. I get outside and notice a woman waring a backpack and looking at directions. I ask her if she’s trying to go to the India House, she says yes, I grab my iPhone to navigate there. We walk over two miles there quite quickly, a rarity when I end up walking somewhere with someone (I’m often yelled at for going too fast). The youth hostel is definitely not the cleanest of paces (as all the reviews say) but my nice wide bunk in a squeaky metal bed is more than adequate and is luckily quite far away from the central communal area so it should be relatively quiet.

I drop my bag off and by 4:00pm hit the Canal Street streetcar back into downtown. I decide to first take a little walk in the French Quarter to get that out of the way. I end up on the Waterfront Streetcar which only runs every 20 minutes but a car is coming. I take that back to the Canal Street Car and get off to transfer to the historic and original St. Charles Streetcar. Each line has its own rolling stock, the Waterfront (non air-conditioned) and Canal Street (air-conditioned) use replica modern streetcars which include wheelchair lifts that take up a lot of space. The St. Charles Line is the only one that has had continuous operations through the American Streetcar Scandal. All the operators are extremely friendly waving at each other whenever two cars pass and are also good at helping tourists. The streetcars serve an interesting contrast of locals and visitors. I take the St. Charles line out to the area right in front of Loyola University and get some water in a nearby park before riding back into the city. On this trip my relatively empty streetcar catches up to the one in front and at a stop we are all requested to get off and board that car instead. The drivers radioing each other to facilitate this. I get to Lee Circle where the streetcar directions separate and follow different one-way streets through downtown. Here the tracks act like a traffic circle with the two directions sharing track in the same direction of travel (but there are no intermediate stations). I go back and wonder around the waterfront and then the french quarter to see how ridiculous it is at night. The main thing I notice is New Orleans allows drinking out on the streets, European style (in a plastic cup, not a glass bottle).

I end up taking the streetcar back out to the hostel and am contemplating calling it an early night when I get distracted talking and end up finally excusing myself and going to bed at 3am! The most interesting and memorable part of this little group of us is the fact I am surrounded by three people who work out on cruise ships out at sea. One is Sweetish and works in floating casinos, the other two are two American girls who are in the entertainment shows on Holland American Line. It is really interesting to hear how the main pass time it seems of the crew is drinking. I mention the fact I am getting really sick of all the ads for Disney Cruise Lines in New York City and they mention it is a company they have no interest in working for because the rules of how the crew must conduct themselves are much more strict.