American Orient Express - a Review

[fjerome]

Many of you have probably seen the show on PBS or the Travel Channel about the American Orient Express. The shows are good, but focus on only a small part of the experience. My wife and I took our first no-kids vacation in decades and we took it on the AOE’s National Parks of the West tour. I thought you might like to hear of our experience.

First – the age group. A decidedly older group; probably 90% of them were retired. However, this made for backgrounds rich in experience that anyone of any age could enjoy. A gregarious group of people; we made many friends during the trip. Some may well extend beyond the time frame of the trip itself.

The staff, on the other hand, was young and refreshingly cheerful and energetic.

Second – the train. The train consists of cars reclaimed from service during the heyday of American passenger rail service. They have all be fabulously refurbished and finished in the cream and blue colors of the Express. Our consist included an observation car from the NYC (with full bar), a lounge car from the UP (with full bar and baby grand piano staffed with a talented pianist every night), a dome car (from the Empire Builder), two diners, both from the UP, and six sleeping cars from the UP, SP and C&O. The sleeping cars have a variety of compartment arrangements. As they teach you to say, “our compartment was compact, but comfortable.” There are crew quarters cars and supply cars. It is a train of some length. While the train itself is a private concern, the motive power is provided by Amtrak and it is considered an Amtrak train (Amtrak 145) for dispatching purposes.

Amtrak 145



Both my wife and I have wonderful long distance train memories from our youth. She traveled from NYC to Chicago and onto Banff and back to Chicago with her family. My mother used to take me (and later me and my sister) from Portland, Oregon to Chicago to Miami every winter for about 6 years running. The train aspect of the experience was a big allure for both of us.

Third – the trip. AOE runs several tours each year. This one goes from Albuquerque to Salt Lake City (or the reverse) and you get to visit Grand Canyon, Cedar Breaks, Zion, Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. I had never been to any of these (and had never heard of Cedar Breaks) and had always wanted to see the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. The parks were also a big allure, despite the fact that we would be at each only a day.

We started at Albuquerque late in the afternoon (after an orientation briefing at the hotel most had arrived at the prior evening) and traveled BNSF tracks to Williams, AZ. We were stationary that night (no rail rocking to put one to sleep) and in the AM traveled Grand Canyon RR tracks (with a GCRR crew) right onto the south rim of the canyon. We lunched at the El Tovar Hotel (one of only four meals we had off train). Late in the day, we were bussed back to Williams (the train could not stay at the Canyon as the GCRR had their own trains to run and there was not enough room at the Canyon end to store the train. Each end had large Wye’s to turn the trains.

Leaving the Wye at Williams on GCRR tracks heading to the Grand Canyon





From Williams, we reversed back on to the BNSF mains and then went on to Barstow, CA (passing a huge number of intermodal consists heading east). One delay on the way by a huge thunderstorm that brought water levels in a trackside arroyo to high enough levels to cause the train to stop for about 20 min. From Barstow we were on UP tracks.

Morning saw us traveling through the Caliente canyon. At Lund, we shifted to the branch line into Cedar City, UT. This stretch had a section with a 10mph speed limit (a little wavy).

That afternoon we were bussed to Cedar Breaks National Monument. We spent the night on the train and the next day were bussed to Zion National Park. That evening we made our way back to the UP mains and headed for Idaho Falls. Since the Oregon Short Line tracks and trestles into West Yellowstone were torn up some years ago, we were bussed to Yellowstone (bag lunch), spent the night at the Jackson Lake Lodge (dinner), had our Grand Tetons visit the next day, were bussed to Jackson Hole, WY (where we had lunch) and then were bussed back to the train for the trip back to Salt Lake City.

We entrained on the 8th of September and detrained on the 14th.

The Experience - It was great!

The train itself was terrific. The tracks were not always the best, but it was certainly tolerable. We had our share of waits when sharing a single track, but the timetable had enough slack to account for it. All in all, the logistics were superbly handled.

The service people like to say AOE also stands for Another Opportunity to Eat. It was truly amazing what they turned out of those two small kitchens. Every meal on the train was fabulous. Dinners had two freshly baked breads, appetizer, soup, salad, choice of three entrees (you could choose more than one…and I did twice!), and two desserts. Continental breakfasts in the observation, lounge and dome cars or full breakfasts in the diners. Cocktails with munchies in the observation and lounge cars every evening and everyone was invited to dinner in the dome car once during the trip. We got to do this on the last night on our way out of Idaho Falls and it was a treat.

The service was terrific. The train staff and the tour directors were always around and very approachable. The Trainmaster (a former UP Trainmaster) gave a lecture one night about rail operations. It was great stuff.

The Staff and our Porter, Amanda





The bus trips could have been a downer, but the tour had local guides (often former Park Service Rangers) who were not only able to tell us about the parks we were going to visit, but also the geological events that formed them, historical details of the area and local tidbits. I cannot overstate how great these guides were. We really learned a lot.

At the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone one had the choice of bus trips or hikes. At Yellowstone there were three hike options (we took the thermal features hike at it was fabulous). At Zion you were pretty much on your own. At the Tetons, there was an optional raft float down the Snake River. We did that, too.

As a surpise, on the return from Zion, we were taken to The Canyons at Kolob, another little known and little visited park (like the Breaks). It was a nice little bonus.

More time at any parks would have been great, but this was a fantastic way to get in touch with a bunch of them. We saw lots of incredible stuff and I shot nearly 400 photos and have printed a bunch of them already (ah, the wonders of digital photography).

A marvelous total experience; I can highly recommend it!!

[cnw1995]

Congratulations on your opportunityt to ride this 'cruise' train. I'm glad you had such a great trip. We'll not be in your same category - vacation with no kids - for another two decades or so ;)

[jonadel]

Forest--

THANK YOU for taking the time to share with us your first hand experience. We have watched the PBS production a few times and it always looks like a super time, what a vacation. What I like is the idea that someone else does the driving and takes care of all the arrangements, I'll bet you didn't even mind the delays since the train is so elegant.

Do you think you might do this trip again in the future? One year ago this month we took a road trip to Colorado and rode three trains and had a wonderful time. There's just something so relaxing and refreshing about riding the rails, I could go back tomorrow and do it again without much coaxing.

Thanks again.

Jon

[fjerome]

my wife is talking about a paddle boat trip down the columbia river...run by the same company...one of the cruises is a big band trip.

i would do another train trip if the destinations were something that interested me.

[Buckeye Riveter]

I'm saving my pennies and saving my dimes. [:)][:)][:)][:)] Good description of the American Orient Express.

[jonadel]

Forrest--

Could you share with me the Paddle Wheel Big Band trip? That sounds absolutely wonderful...... kind of wondering if they would do that on the Mississippi? Nothing against the Columbia river but...... on the Mississippi we might be able to spot Tom Sawyer or Mark Twain spinning some tales!!

Feel free to email me.

Jon

[Anonymous]

You have made me green with envy, Forest! I hope they keep that service going for a good, long time into the future because it sounds like something I would very much like to experiece a few years from now. My last train trip of any real note was across Canada, from Vancouver to Toronto, aboard Via Rail, and it was a journey that I fondly remember--everything from the superb service and great food to the bedroom that afforded me hours of rest and relaxation, and the wonderful feeling of being lulled to sleep in such a gentle and soothing way. Anyone who has not traveled a long distance by train--the trains with the good reputations, that is--simply has no idea what they have missed.

[BudKarr]

Okay, I'm new at this, but why is this on Classic Toy Trains?

The information is worth the read, but shouldn't it have been posted elsewhere?

Just trying to do it right .........

BK

[csxt30]

Hi Budkar: Oh, I think it was great for him to share this trip with us here! Just look at all the guys positive responses & excitement. A lot of us are also interested in real train stuff, too, we don't always get time to go to the other forums on this kind of stuff. You never know, some of us guys on the forum here could all plan a trip like this some day ! Seems a lot of good friendships & club like get togethers, started here. Plus get togethers to go to train shows, car pooling, etc. Good you brought that up, though! Thanks, John

[jonadel]

Budkar-

I think the two go hand in hand, are we not after all trying to recreate real life experiences on our layouts? I know after we have taken trips we can come back and say this is the way it is and transpose that to our layouts.

Jon

[fjerome]

budkar

ok, how's this. after traveling on it, i am thinking about modeling the AOE [:D]

seriously, i posted here because i thought this would be of interest to CTT fans. i also posted on OGR's Real Train forum and put a notice on the 3 rail forum than the review existed on the real train forum figuring, again, that the 3 rail crowd might be interested but not frequent the real train forum. the notice on the 3 rail forum got deleted. topic police are meaner over there.

jon, there are river boat trips down the mississippi, but they all terminated in new orleans. not sure what their situation is now.

the columbia, snake, willamette cruise stuff can be found here



http://www.americanweststeamboat.com/

the big band specialty cruise is here

http://www.americanweststeamboat.com/cruises_tours/specialcruisesBigband.php

[Anonymous]

I am greatly interested in taking a friend on this trip. We are both in our 50's and both coming out of cruel and unusual divorces. I would like to know more from you on how you went about getting this trip together. We both live in the Dallas area. We are both train lovers and I thought this trip would be a great way to just take a break from life. My email is [e-mail]. Could you respond to me about this trip to the Grand Tetons. etc.
Becky Duncan

[Anonymous]

We are so excited... we're leaving on May 29, 2006 for the National Parks of the West trip. First saw AOE on the Travel Channel several years ago and have been planning ever since. So glad to see this very favorable review. This week TC is featuring the National Parks and we've seen everywhere we're going.

We're flying to LA from New Hampshire, then returning from SLC after a few days of sightseeing there. We are so ready for this.

Richard

[Anonymous]

I think the reason we operate toy trains is because of our experiences with the real ones. Thanks for sharing forrest. Easter