From: jr@ksr.com (John Robinson)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: YA Amtrak report
Date: 28 Aug 92 01:02:57 EDT
Organization: Kendall Square Research, Waltham, MA

My family and I traveled on Amtrak this summer too.  I am happy to
report that we had no serious complaints from our trip; I thought the
net ought to hear some good news on this score too.

Itinerary:

Lake Shore; Boston-Chicago Aug 1/2; full bedroom.
Desert Wind (California Zephyr); Chicago-Salt Lake Aug 2/3/4; two
  economy sleepers.
... and reverse on August 15/16/17

Two economy sleepers work pretty well for 2 adults and 2 children.
The full bedroom is a bit tight; maybe 2 economy bedrooms would work
better for us on the Heritage sleepers as well.  Couldn't get the
family bedroom on the DW/CZ, alas.

Amtrak Service.

Lake Shore each way was under 1 hour late.  CZ/DW eastbound was about
1 hour late, still plenty of time for the Lake Shore connection.
Considering it left SLC 2 hours late, and was as much as 2:40 late in
Utah and Colorado, the 1 hour late arrival was pretty good (made up
the time overnight in CO/NE).  The CZ section was the slow one into
Salt Lake.

CZ/DW westbound was delayed due to a derailment in McCook, NE.  We
rerouted over UP from Lincoln, NE up to Cheyenne and then down to
Denver, 6 hours late.  Too bad for me this started at night, so it was
a bit confusing on waking up to see we were on the UP; it took a
little while to find out what had happened.  But this had its bright
side: Got some rare Amtrak mileage.  Sat quite a while in the North
Platte yard, and a little less in the Cheyenne yard.  Also, it delayed
our arrival in SLC from midnight to 6 am, so we got a free night and
some meals on Amtrak and saved the hotel :-)

But we saw less of the Rockies in daylight; darkness overtook us
before Glenwood Springs.  The return trip made up for it; as it was
2-2.5 hours late on the DRGW leg, it came down the front range at late dusk, as a
just-past-full moon rose over the plains and Denver.

Diners worked okay, though the menu becomes a little repetitive after
a while.  Eastbound on the CZ the chief steward took great delight in
announcing "today's cake ran out yesterday" every meal.

Equipment.

We had one of the ex-GO GP40TC units for the Denver-Chicago leg
eastbound.  The SLC/LAX leg of the Desert Wind seems to be all GE now
using the Dash 8-40BWH (P40) units, so they are on view in Salt Lake.
On the westbound CZ/DW, the HEP unit was cutting out intermittently.
This got worse at night, which should be okay, right?  Except that a
little alarm goes off every time the power comes back, so my sleep was
interrupted several times.  Finally, they stopped the train west of
Granby, CO, and walked the train to check the electrical connections.
They found something, as the problem went away after that.

Someone was mentioning the lack of windows in Amtrak bathrooms.  The
Superliner sleepers do have a bathroom with a view upstairs in the
sleepers - definitely a favorite destination for me when nature
called.

Tips for railfanning on Amtrak

Walk to the back of the train eastbound into Denver.  You can watch
the conductor guide the train after they wye it in the BN yard,
backing into the station and the coupling with the Pioneer section.
Our eastbound had no dorm car, which meant that the lead Superliner is
coupled to a baggage car.  You can look out the high-level door and
see ahead over the roofs of the baggage cars and the locomotives.

Scanner is a big help.  I wasn't organized enough on the frequencies,
but another FRN helped me out in Denver and it made the Denver-Chicago
leg much more fun.  Agree that scanners help to find out what is going
on while aboard.

There is a pretty interesting RR-oriented shop inside the Denver
station, so pass the time in there while they arrange your train
(unless you'd rather watch the goings on on the platform!).

Static diaplays you can see from the train:

Elkhart, IN

 NYC 3001 (didn't get the type - Hudson maybe)?
 PRR GG1 #4882, far from Pennsy electric territory!
 a number of cars

Galesburg, IL

 CB&Q 4-6-4 3006

Burlington, IA

 CB&Q 3003 (wheels hidden, but maybe a 4-6-4 like 3006?)

Cheyenne, WY (probably not usually visible from the Pioneer)

 DDA40X Centennial 6936
 The Challenger wasn't there - still en route SLC to Rock Springs on
 its return from San Jose.  Didn't see the 844.

Also, as we pulled into Boston South Station in a light rain, the
train stopped a car length short, as the track held a beautiful
private car painted up in GM&O livery.  Whose is that?

While off Amtrak, we went through Heeber, UT.  The Heeber Creeper is
apparently shut down, though the owners hope to restart it either
later this year or next.  The equipment outside is getting kind of
trashed.  They had posted signs all over begging for help in catching
the culprits.  The steamers outdoors seem to be somewhat cannibalized;
I hope that the parts haven't all walked off the property.  One
interesting item they had - the steel span for a turntable.

Did anyone mention Soldier Summit for the top railfanning spots in the
west list?  Raton Pass?

The rest of our vacation was great too, but this is rec.railroad.
--
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