40 Years of AMTRAK

[billhagstrom]

Regarding the recent issue of Classic Trains and the AMTRAK article.

As usual, Kalmbach editors and publishers are smitten and enthralled by eastern

railroads.  Western roads were mostly  ignored, except for the article about then ATSF.

The Cal Z was briefly mentioned, but nothing about the Empire Builder, North Coast Limited,

Western Star, Zephyers and UP's "Cities" passenger trains.  All were as classy and well operated as any of the eastern railroad passenger trains that Kalmbach blatantly seems to favor.

I guess I'm a littlle biased as I spent 32 years with Northern Pacific/Burlington Northern/BNSF.

Bill

[henry6]

Humph!  I often find Trains and Classic Trains smitten with mid western and western railroads, sometime too much southern leaving us in the east and northeast in the dust.  So, they must be doing something right!

 

[daveklepper]

I rode the last eastbound City of LA and, except for the lack of the domed diner, found the service and everything else absolutely first class if every respect, with 844 on the point between Rawlins and Cheyenne an added great surprise.  I had an unusual ticket:    SP-UP-Milwaukee-Amtrak, interline ticket, continuing on an early Amtrak Broadway to New York, after a Chicago (actually in Great Barrington) stopover.   The Amtrak portion of the interline ticket was coach since the agent at LAUPT could not find the price of a stepup to Slumbercoach, which I got a CUS.

It was very rare that I had a really flawless trip on Penn Central just before Amtrak, although I can say they did try on just the Broadway.

[Los Angeles Rams Guy]

daveklepper

I rode the last eastbound City of LA and, except for the lack of the domed diner, found the service and everything else absolutely first class if every respect, with 844 on the point between Rawlins and Cheyenne an added great surprise.  I had an unusual ticket:    SP-UP-Milwaukee-Amtrak, interline ticket, continuing on an early Amtrak Broadway to New York, after a Chicago (actually in Great Barrington) stopover.   The Amtrak portion of the interline ticket was coach since the agent at LAUPT could not find the price of a stepup to Slumbercoach, which I got a CUS.

It was very rare that I had a really flawless trip on Penn Central just before Amtrak, although I can say they did try on just the Broadway.

I was only 11 years old on that weekend back in late April/early May and will never forget it.  On one of the TV stations in Cedar Rapids they had a big news story of one of the last "Cities" trains coming into Marion.  I was so incredibly heartbroken that I just ran to my room and cried for 2-3 hours.  My mom was really worried about me.  Even now, 40 years later, I can't say that I've completely gotten over it.

[aricat]

I am not celebrating Amtrak's 40th birthday. It was hard to choose which train to ride that April. Do you ride the Zephyr or the Hiawatha down to Chicago? I chose the Hiawatha even though it would be Amtrak's chosen route from St Paul (Pig's Eye) to Chicago. The Superdomes won out over the Vista Domes. The Zephyr's domes would survive, Milwaukee's would not. The Morning Hi's diner served food on paper plates; but the food served to them was excellent. The dining cars crew faced unemployment after May 1st 1971; Let's not forget that. That point was not lost on David P Morgan and the Trains editors.

Riding in the Superdomes was wonderful. On the way home from Chicago I met another railfan who had ridden the San Francisco Chief from California and was riding the Hi to St Paul then the Empire Builder in a sleeper to Seattle. A lot of people remember what was lost on May 1st 1971.