Next stop where?

When we checked in at Chicago Union Station for the 2.15pm Empire Builder train, we were told boarding would start at 1.30pm. We waited and waited, 1.30 came and went, then 1.45 and finally at 2pm we were told we could only go as far as Minneapolis & St Pauls as the Red River had finally flooded.

It did not look like Amtrak were going to do anything about people who needed to go further than Minneapolis & St Pauls until we all started asking “What happens then?” Finally a manager came down to the check in to sort us all out and arrange for us to go to Seattle via Los Angeles!
We had to change our tickets and be ready to board the Southwest Chief train that was leaving at 3.15pm. We appreciated Amtrak making alternative arrangements, but it meant we were going to be on a train for almost 5 days, and we only had enough clothes for 3 – we had to check the bulk of our luggage – but on the bright side we would have 6 extra meals we would not have to pay for!

The Southwest Chief train leaves Chicago, which is in Illinois, towards Fort Madison (Iowa), Kansas City, (for some reason in Missouri), then right across the state of Kansas, which is flat, very flat. We stopped at Dodge City – saw a sign for Boot Hill – then we travelled through a part of Colorado, stopping at La Junta for a stretch of the legs, and for those in desperate need a chance for a cigarette!

Now we climbed up into the mountains via Raton Pass, amazing scenery and very slow moving as we climbed up to 1700+ feet. There were an awful lot of very large rocks just waiting for the chance to fall down!

Next stop Las Vegas, no not the gambling centre in Nevada the small town in New Mexico, and then on to Albuquerque, where the train had to be serviced, this gave us a chance to find some beer and nibbles at a more reasonable price than Amtrak’s! Here it was blowing a stiff breeze and this was cooling.

But after leaving Albuquerque this became a dust storm, quite amazing from on board a train, but we would not have liked to be out in it, as it got very dark, and the train had to slow right down as there were a number of freight trains coming the other way, and the dust could be smelt inside the train! After the dust we climbed up into the hills and we had snow!
Next major stop was Flagstaff in Arizona, this was in the middle of the night, and as we found out at breakfast the next morning, 30 more passengers had joined us there; they were a party from the UK who had been travelling across the US of A on trains and were heading for San Francisco for their flight home.

As we crossed Arizona overnight we did not get a chance to see any desert, and in the morning we were in California, having slept past Needles and the Bagdad Cafe. We arrived in Los Angeles at 8.00am on Thursday, it was a long slow ride through the suburbs, and seeing the pollution in the air made us realise how lucky we were to be inside an air conditioned train.

The food on the train was fairly good, although we got a bit fed up with having steak every night, as the alternative was salmon, and as you all know we don’t do fish! Lunch was usually a burger and breakfast an omelette with streaky bacon and hash browns. However, there was plenty of free coffee and fruit juice in each sleeper car, but tea only on request. Our sleeping car attendant Angie was fantastic, she had two cars to look after, as we had been put into the overflow carriage, part of the crew quarters. She did not stop working the whole of the time coming round with towels, bottles of water and constantly asking if we were OK.

At Los Angeles we transferred to the Coast Starlight train, we were pampered with free coffee and tea in the first class lounge before boarding and given a brochure to read all about the train. There was an additional facility for sleeper car passengers in the form of the Pacific Parlour Car which had coffee and bar facilities and alternative meals to the standard diner on Amtrak trains. Thank goodness for that as we were really not looking forward to two more steaks!

Unfortunately we could not take Angie with us and we were stuck with her replacement called Abel, and he was not! A lazy worthless individual who did the very least and disappeared from sight when work needed to be done.

We left Los Angeles on time and headed to Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo along the Pacific Coast. The scenery and wildlife is fantastic and how lovely to see some green and flowers! After leaving San Luis Obispo we climbed into the hills again and could see both ends of the train from the same window, fascinating to see the same scenery from different angles! We passed through the Salinas Valley where, we are told, the majority of America’s food is grown. We saw San Jose but missed seeing San Francisco, passing along the bay area into Oakland reaching there at 10pm.

In the morning we woke up in time to see Mount Shasta with the sun just rising and glinting of the snow on the peak. We passed into Oregon at Klamath Falls followed the lake with it’s abundance of bird life and started climbing into the mountains again. We climbed above the snow line, it was over a foot deep in places and if you suffer from vertigo it is not a good idea to look down! Coming down the other side of the mountain we were held up for over an hour by track maintenance. Pat & Matt, who we met at Chicago, were trying to get to their grandson’s wedding in Albany and at this rate they were going to miss not only the rehearsal but the rehearsal dinner as well!

We were slowed on our route as we tiptoed past a huge mud and rock slide that had not long been repaired and reached Portland 1 hour and 50 minutes late, but for the travellers going to Spokane on the East bound Empire Builder, the worry about missing their connection was over, as the train had been held waiting for us, since they needed one of our engines.

After Portland we crossed into Washington State – almost there! Because of the delays from earlier in the day and uncoupling the engine we finally arrived in Seattle at 10pm, just as the Mariners game finished! People, people everywhere and hooray our luggage was some of the first to appear, so we joined the taxi, sorry cab, queue and finally got to our hotel! Tony was happy as some original cars of the California Zephyr were on an adjacent track.

The only advantage this train had was the parlour car, which not only had comfortable chairs in it but a new menu every day. We had really great food on both days and not a flat iron steak in sight!

One of the many things we noticed on this trip was the number of railway sidings and spare roads in railway yards with container carriers and car carriers (autoracks is the correct name!) standing around with nowhere to go and nothing to move, a real sign of the downturn in the American economy.