In 1985 I was scheduled to drive to Reno, from La Crosse, WI, to attend a convention in early December. But then came a last minute business trip which put me driving back to Wisconsin from Los Angeles in early November. While cruising across I-40 in Arizona, I found myself running side by side with the Amtrak train, and the “light” went on. When I got home, I went down to me local depot and got an Amtrak schedule and started planning, and eventually came up with a trip that circled the West, all coach, six nights on the train total, and all for the $265 “All Aboard America” ticket.
Since I couldn’t make same day connections in Chicago with the train to Reno, I opted for the “Eagle” which at that time had a 5 pm Chicago departure. I wish I had taken photos of the train, because the Eagle (a superliner) had a lounge car that was something other than a “sightseer” but all I remember of it was a lot of yellowish paint on the mostly metal interior. The Eagle took me to San Antonio, where I spent three days and four nights.
Then it was back on the next westbound “Eagle” for L.A. The Eagle/Sunset was only an hour late, allowing me to make my connections to the “Coast Starlight” with an hour to spare. I rode in the tail end coach to San Francisco, spending a lot of the time looking backward out the window of the rear door.
After a three nights stay in S.F., I boarded the “Zephyr” for Reno, assigned to a blood red seat in the “El Capitan” dorm car – the Reno depot was only a block from my hotel (that fact I had noticed the year before). After spending the weekend in Reno attending the convention, and etc., I boarded the westbound “Zephyr”, on that Monday morning, going back as far as Sacramento (I went that way because I couldn’t make same day connections in Chicago, Zephyr to EB). The 2 pm arrival into Sacramento gave me a 9 hour layover, allowing me to visit the Cal. RR Museum, the Old Town, and the Capitol building, before sunset, at which time I took in Monday Night Football at the Holiday Inn bar. At the end of the game, I returned to the station to wait for the northbound Coast Starlight.
By the time I reached Portland (rode in a ex-Santa Fe hi-level regular coach) I had picked up a nasty cold, which zapped my energy big time. The Portland depot procedure was quite weird: First everyone, except me, lined up at a desk to get a “boarding pass” (which was just a slip of paper with your destination and car number) - when the line was down to the last person, I got out of my chair, near the platform door, and staggered over to the desk and got my boarding pass, and then went back and sat down, fighting hard to stay awake. Meanwhile, almost everyone else had formed second line; the first person in line, a mother with kids and lots and lots of stuff, was right next to my chair. When they opened the door to the platform, I just grabbed my bag and headed for the train, while everyone else stormed by the mother with the kids and stuff who didn’t have enough hands for all their bags – that line was such a waste.
Aboard the eastbound Empire Builder, I slept right through dinner, but by 10 pm I was feeling better, so I made my way to the sightseer lounge car where a nice party was going on. The attendant gave last call, and turned down the lights, and we each bought four or five beers. For the next few hours we were ooing and ahing at the snow covered eastern Washington mountains, which were glowing from the light of a full moon. Two weeks after I left home, I arrived back in La Crosse. Probably aided by the time of the year, I was able to have two seats to myself for my entire time aboard the various Amtrak trains. I hadn’t ridden a train since the late 60’s when I used to ride on the Burlington Route back and forth to Chicago. I was hooked on Amtrak, and have done at least one LD trip per year ever since. I have to say that 99% of my Amtrak experience has been possitive, and I have found my local ticket agents very very helpful for the past 20 years.
