Planning a trip AZ-NH

[fromsuncook]

I am not certain this fits in this forum. No doubt Mr. Benton will either delete it or move it as he sees fit.

I am planning a trip. It might not happen but I do have two to five weeks to work with. No dates but this calendar year.

I want to leave AZ and travel to NH. My choices for departure are the Southwest Chief out of Flagstaff AZ or the Sunset Limited out of Maricopa AZ. On the outward or return trip I want to stop in St Louis MO. Boston North Station would be the best Boston destination. Maybe take the Downeaster to Durham or Dover. It involves a stayover in NH and St Louis MO.

Some of you out there will know what days these trains run and what connections would be possible. That would save me some planning time as the Amtrak site is geared toward all ready knowing what connections you need and when you input a specific date it tells you it is not possible.

TIA

[David Benton]

You may have more response in the Amtrak forum.
A stopover in St Louis would be possible using either route. The Southwest Chief would be quickest for the journey you do not want to stopover. For the stopover , You could travel Chicago-St Louis, St Louis- Kansas City, and pick up the Chief there. All these trains run Daily.
The Sunset Ltd only runs 3 days a week. Once your on the Texas Eagle route , its daily , so you could use a St Louis stopover to catch the Sunset Ltd on the right day.
You could ride the Sunset Ltd all the way to New Orleans, overnite there, then take the Crescent up to New York if you wanted some variety. No St Louis stopover on that one .

[Rockingham Racer]

The fastest routing is out of Flagstaff, as David said. You'll change trains in Chicago for Boston. If you want to use the Downeaster out of Boston North Station, you will also have to connect to it from Back Bay using the Orange Line.

Coming back, it's the reverse until Chicago; to get to St. Louis from Chicago, you'll have several choices during a given day. West from St. Louis, your train back to Maricopa runs only three days per week from San Antonio on its way to LA.

[fromsuncook]

I did post in the Amtrak forum and did get many responses. Thank You

[David Benton]

No problem, enjoy your trip.