The B&O's Cincinnatian in it's steam powered days.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
daveklepper wrote:What did you like better about the Super Continental than the Canadian? Or did you mean no particular order?
I liked the Super Continental at that particular time because that was when the CN had the Red, White, and Blue fares and the Super was always full while the Canadian on the other hand was beginning to resemble a dowager lady becoming a little threadbare and in need of refurbishing. The Budd domes were far nicer than the full length Pullman domes of the CN but the other offset to the CN was the superb Prime Rib. It was a friendlier train than the Canadian and always provided a very pleasant trip.
I've only been riding in the last five years, so all my experience is Amtrak but , , ,
Until the food was downgraded a couple of years ago, the Coast Starlight was a good ride. Two round trips Bay Area to Portland and a one way in each direction connecting to the Empire Builder. Now, I don't think one of those legs actually arrived on time (thanks to UP trackwork) and one time the agent in Emeryville neglected to put my checked bag on the train. But that gave me a chance to talk to the great station staff in Portland. They sent my bag to my hotel by cab when it arrived the next day. It's been two years since my last trip, so UP may have the delays under better control now.
Probably my best trips have been Chicago to or from west coast on the Empire Builder. I've had great sleeping car attendants on both trips I taken (once in each direction). The best was from Seattle to Chicago in May of 2006. The car was recently refurbished and the food had been recently upgraded, I believe, and was quite good. And, thanks be to the BNSF, the train stayed close to schedule.
EVERY FREAKING AMTRAK LINE!!! but put them in order1. Amtrak Acela, Capital Limited, Southwest Chief, The Surfliner, California Zelper and everything else after that
2. The CTA and Metra in my home town in Chi-town!!!
Amtrak77 wrote: EVERY FREAKING AMTRAK LINE!!! but put them in order1. Amtrak Acela, Capital Limited, Southwest Chief, The Surfliner, California Zelper and everything else after that2. The CTA and Metra in my home town in Chi-town!!!
Zelper? LOL!
http://www.trenalasnubes.com.ar/home.htm
The British HST
South Shore through Michigan City.
If I weren't trackside at Denville station about 11:30 in the morning, or looking out my bedroom window about that time, I would be in a class at Morris Hills Regional High School, Rockaway, NJ,in a south facing room watching closely down the hill and across the valley to a point about a mile away where a break in the trees allowed me to watch the westward progress of The Phoebe Snow (my english teacher I am sure didn't notice my lack of paying attention!). Evenings, I viewed the eastbound Phoebe from the house or watched her marker's and tail signs round the bend out of the station from Denville Tower. Phoebe Snow, yes! But number 7, the Westerner, just about 9PM, with it's NKP sleeper, and full dining car, sweeping around the station curve or exchanging waves with the rear man from the house, was great. Oh, yes, you know what was neat? The westbound 47 with all the empty millk cars and express and baggage; ;came up the Boonton Line, too. Then there were the few MU (electric, like an interurban) trains that came through town with but two or three cars rather than the longer (up to 13 cars) train. Although riding the 13th car of the Tom Taber express, 5:30 PM out of Hoboken, while going through the crossovers at Roseville Ave. from track one to three, allowed for a whiplash thrill that one can never foreget. Then there was #633 leaving Hoboken at 4:15PM daily with 9 cars under the control of John Zipay (who several times allowed me cab rides) with a splitting of a pair of cars (including a parlor or club car) at Summit for the Gladstone Line, the setting off of another parlor and motor into the Railway Express track at Morristown, and still arriving Denville on time at 5:21 and go west for a meet with the Phoebe Snow #6 as she left Dover to snake through the commuter rush for Hoboken. That was back then.
Today...want a unique, memorable, almost nostalgic, rustic, ride on a regularly scheduled passenger train? Right in the middle of New York City, too. My favorite ride of today: 4:54PM out of Long Island City to Jamaica and Oyster Bay, but it is the "to Jamaica" part that makes it special, over the LIRR's Lower Montauk branch. Leave LIRR's LIC station with on the ground yard switchman throwing the switches and operating the grade crossing gates; zip down double track main of probably 100lb rail at a comfortable 35-40 miles per hour; PRR position light signals guarding both blocks and homes; from port to industrial to city dwellings, through railyards and backyards and parks, past duplexes and double slip switches and two and four track electified mains. With luck there'll be a westbound freight stopped at one of those PRR position light interlockings waiting to crossover behind you to go into Fresh Pond yard. Arrive Jamaica on the main at 5:18PM: the best 24 minute passenger train ride today! By the way, the close second would have to be the 8:11AM reverse move out of Jamaica to LIC. But I have never been able to make that westbound connection that early in the morning from where I am.
RIDEWITHMEHENRY is the name for our almost monthly day of riding trains and transit in either the NYCity or Philadelphia areas including all commuter lines, Amtrak, subways, light rail and trolleys, bus and ferries when warranted. No fees, just let us know you want to join the ride and pay your fares. Ask to be on our email list or find us on FB as RIDEWITHMEHENRY (all caps) to get descriptions of each outing.
Let me think. There must be one that stand's out. I'll get back to you. lol
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Phoebe Vet Let me think. There must be one that stand's out. I'll get back to you. lol
Let's see. Could it be Queen of the Valley? No, no: The Black Diamond! Or perhaps the Atlantic/Pacific Express? Maybe the Lakeland Express. Unless, of course it is the Sussex County express (I presume we are dealing only with drumheads here).
The Omaha trains ...
The City of Los Angeles, Trains 103-104
California and Denver Zephyrs
Rocky Mountain and Corn Belt Rockets
Amtrak's Desert Wind (come back, come back)
California Zephyr
This is a tough question -- present or past? Day train or overnight? I agree with oltmannnd in many ways -- my first ride in a new Amfleet coach was a treat. And I believe that Superliner room F is one of the finest accommodations on wheels...
But my best ride was on Canadian National's Super Continental from Montreal to Vancouver in 1974. Our sleeper had (I think) six open sections, three bedrooms, and six roomettes. Open sections are the best way to travel!!! The train also had a diner, full-length dome, and snack car. Our automobile was shipped by rail a couple days in advance
"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood." Daniel Burnham
As Maglev says, this can be a tough question to answer. In general, I would say the train that gets me where I am going with the least disruption to my schedule. Of the 345 different passenger trains I have ridden (863 total trains on my 159 trips, none can be said to be my most favorite one. I can say that one sticks in my mind as being the worst--riding coach from Providence to Wilmington on the Night Owl. As well as I could tell, my car was Amfleet I--which was not designed for overnight service; no movable footrest, no legrest, limited reclining ability--and we were wakened as we approached every station stop (I did have the same experience of being wakened before every stop on the Southern when going from Danville to Charlotte on the Crescent in 1967, and when going from Greensboro to New Orleans on the Southern Crescent in 1978). My mother might have said that my first train was a bad experience for me; I was two years old when we moved from Florida to South Carolina, and I screamed from the time we boarded ACL #80 in Plant City until we arrived in Lakeland. I have had a much better feeling towards trains since then. Each train has been a new experience for me, even if I have ridden the schedule before.
I may say differently after the trip we plan to take this coming spring, when we will make our second crossing of Canada from west to east--we have drawing rooms reserved on the Canadian and the Ocean. (But our return to Montreal will be in a Renaissance car, which we do not particularly like.) Our previous experience in a drawing room was from Chicago to Albuquerque in 1973, with three young children sharing the room with us.
Johnny
Yeah, I asnwered earlier....but want to add: any train I am riding! Just get me to the train on time!
I never got to ride them, but I have to stick up for the great trains of the South:
ACL Florida Special, behind those big, bad and beautiful R-1 Northerns.
ACL Champion/FEC Henry Flagler. How could you not be impressed by those purple and silver or orange, yellow and red diesels at the head end of these twin streamliners?
Seaboard Orange Blossom Special, especially with the streamlined Pacifics and the "Citrus scheme" E-Units.
Seaboard/SCL Silver Meteor - love those "Beach" series Sun Lounges!
Southern Crescent - One of the last post-Amtrak holdouts, with those gorgeous green E-8s.
As for the favorite train I have ridden:
Amtrak's Milwaukee-Chicago Turboliners of the 1970s. They looked good and rode great!
If I had a time machine, I would go back to 1946 with a modern-day digital still camera and high-def video camera and spend a day at Jacksonville Union Terminal photographing all those colorful Florida trains.
Off the current batch-I have to put the Cal Zephyr at the top of the list, expecially with accomidations in Bedroom D, and Don Phillips providing a guided tour pointing out photo hot spots going up the front range to Moffett Tunnel and later over Donner Pass. I've done the Empire Builder and the Southwest Chief, but the CZ still ranks tops for overall spectacular scenery.
My favorite in the Classics was was Minneapolis to Chicago in the Skytop Lounge on the Afternoon Hiawatha or New Lisbon to Chicago (more often) in the Super Dome. In the early 60's, track speed Tomah to Watertown, WI was 99MPH and the track was still in excellent shape. What a ride.
"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo Possum "We have met the anemone... and he is Russ." Bucky Katt "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." Niels Bohr, Nobel laureate in physics
The single-level 400 cars really took out the bumps in the ride over end-battered rail ca.1960 - like riding on a cloud. The cars also were quiet; and the seats were comfortable.
The Peninsula 400 was my favorite; but the Flambeau 400 had the more interesting equipment like twin unit diners and coaches, and Challenger and Streamliner coaches. These trains ran 18 cars including a couple heavyweights with 3 E's for the holidays; and I remember standing on such occasions because there weren't any open seats.
Strangely, the Bi-Levels weren't bad-riding either while the commuter cars were noticeably rougher on the same tracks. I also rode the Q, Hiawathas, and GN to Fargo in that era.
I was more impressed with the 100-mph Pioneers than the Metroliners between New York and Philadelphia in 1967.
The most impressive ride was not the fastest. While the "Lyonnaise" was limited to 86 mph; it swept smoothly around curves at a breath-taking speed high above a valley near Dijon, France in 1974.
The Talgo gives a good ride from my experience in Illinois and on a Cascade a few years back. The only exception was violent rocking on jointed rail at 20 mph approaching the Argo IHB crossing at restricted speed by signal indication.
I read that VIA was putting queen beds in some of its rooms -- material comforts and amenities seem to be significant considerations here. Superliner rooms are usually fine; although I would prefer an open section layout, with wide berth and curtains, as opposed to the Standard Rooms with a wall and narrow berth.
Once on Amtrak's Coast Starlight from Seattle to LA, we used two adjoining Deluxe Rooms for part of the trip while my sister and nephew joined my wife and me. The suite was a very nice arrangement for day use. I think it would be great to travel with a group on the train, with a couple suites or room F and a couple other rooms downstairs...
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