We recently traveled from Los Angeles to Boston via Chicago and I thought I would share some thoughts of the experience. We decided to take Amtrak for various reasons, but mostly because flying has become such an ordeal and price-wise was as expensive if not more so than the train, we also decided that we had the time, and the opportunity to see the country from Pacific to the Atlantic from ground level is something everyone should experience at least once in their lives as there is no better way to grasp the vast scale and diversity of the nation. We traveled coach all the way, learned a few tips I will pass on here. Ate in the dining car on several the occasions and overall had a very positive experience save one that was specific to me. I’ll do my best to keep it short, but we are talking about 8 days total of travel experiences so please bear with me:
Stage 1: LA to Chicago
We left LA in the evening around 6pm-ish on the Southwest Chief, as we were going to Chicago, our car was last in the train, we considered a Roomette in the sleeper car but it would have doubled the trip costs, but apparently the sleeper cars were full, so someone has money to pay for it. The trip out of LA was smooth and we were soon going to our dinner reservation, overall all the food in the dining car was excellent, very tasty and good portions. That first night we split the Roast Chicken dinner and it was very good, eating on the train is a communal affair so your sitting with other folks on the train, it’s a good way to meet and chat with new people for a short time.
The first evening on the train I ran into what had to be my only real complaint about the trip and it was a constant problem throughout the trip, namely that I am about 6” to 8” too tall for the coach seat and foot well. For the life of me I could not find a comfortable sleeping position as it was impossible for me to stretch, or if I found a tolerable sleeping position, the not quite as thickly as advertised seat padding would soon be causing pain on pressure points on my bottom, in other words it was a literal pain in the a$$ to try to sleep on the coach seats if you are a tall person. Also for me it’s very hard to sleep in any kind of noisy environment and boy there can be a lot of noise on a train, even though the cars are well insulated and on smooth stretches of track very quite, it doesn’t prevent sound inside the car, namely gabby fellow passengers or constantly crying colic babies or the snore-masters. So despite being the last and therefore quietist car on the train, I only got a couple hours sleep that night.
Despite that the next day we were in Arizona and New Mexico, and I was surprisingly awake and not tired. Breakfast somewhere in New Mexico, excellent French Toast, wife had the Oatmeal breakfast she enjoyed. Parts of NM are spectacular scenery wise, other not so much unless you enjoy cattle. The train entered Albuquerque with a ½ hour layover, and while we were sitting there. Two plain clothes police officers came on board and politely asked the passengers for ID and asked questions about which pieces were our luggage, next thing we know they handcuffed a guy in the back of our coach and lead him off the train! Apparently he came on in LA, a 30ish single guy, carrying a very girly baby shower gift, no other luggage. Turns out the gift was poorly thought out ruse and was packed with pot! According to other passengers it was so poorly packaged you could clearly smell the pot, we don’t know how the police were notified but it was a pretty inept attempt to smuggle pot across country, knucklehead.
The train then went thru Raton Pass at 7500 feet was the highest point on the trip and the only part of the Rockies on the trip. This was probably the scenic highpoint of the trip, as the high mountains surrounding this pass are very impressive especially from the lounge car. Then down into Colorado and onto the plains, vast cattle county areas then farmland, we entered Kansas at night and dinner again in the dinner. I had Chipotle Beef Steak which was delicious. My wife had the Vegetarian Pasta which she also enjoyed. All our experiences in the dining car were very good. This time I had a plan to approach my sleeping problem, I finagled another pillow which went under my kiester, and provided just enough padding to lessen the pressure point problem, I also dug out of my suitcase some earplugs I packed, and a hoodie I had that I could cinch the hood down over my eyes, this allowed me to cut out a lot of the distractions that made it hard for me to sleep the first night so I sleep much better this night.
The Next day found us racing thru the prairies of Kansas and Missouri. Its one thing to hear about how hard the small farming towns of the Midwest are supposedly dying off as young people leave for jobs elsewhere, its quite another to see it. I noticed all the way thru the trip the abandoned houses, farms and businesses, especially beginning in the farm belt and thru the rust belt particularly, in some places whole towns were gone or almost gone. We crossed the Mississippi at Mt Pleasant Iowa and raced towards the windy city, the only note of interest occurred when we pulled into Galesburg Illinois, as we came into the station the DIY Hardware store across the street had just burst into flames! So we watched from the lounge car as the fire dept and the police arrived while the building burned. On the return trip we saw that the building was a total loss, nothing left but charred metal siding.
That afternoon we entered Chicago on time at Union Station on the west side of the loop. We had a 6 hour layover until we had to board the next stage of our journey on the Lakeshore Limited. We walked up to a restaurant we always wanted to try, the Frontera Grill north of the loop, its a very popular place (owner has a TV cooking show) that takes limited reservations, it’s a mostly first come basis. We got there over an hour before it opened and there was already a line, luckily we got in when they opened and it was worth the effort to try getting in, a high point of our trip. Chicago was cold and bloody windy but then again it always is that time of year. One other thing about Chicago if you find yourself there on a weekend, on Saturdays the entire darn city closes down by 5pm, Sundays are even worse so keep in mind some of your options of killing time could be limited.
Have fun with your trains
Stage 2: Chicago to Boston
At 9pm we got onboard the Lakeshore Limited, in that it was a marked difference from boarding in LA. In LA there was a desk where you checked in, had seat numbers assigned to you so when you boarded it was a very orderly affair, this was a classic Chinese Fire Drill, with people trying to outrun others to get the best seats in the remarkably unreserved “reserved” seating. Luckily most folks were going to New York, which breaks off in Albany, so in the Boston bound section it was less dramatic to get seats. We switch now from the high two deck Superliners to the single level Heritage fleet cars, which were not quite as sound proof and had tighter spaced seats than the Superliners. This evening was the toughest, namely because the Boston coaches were at the head end behind the single Boston bound sleeper. As such in our coach the engine’s horn was very loud, and as we were crossing northern Indiana and Ohio and a lot of grade crossings thru the rust belt at night, the horn noise was almost constant, I swear there were stretched where the horn was constantly going off for periods up to 20 minutes long! Despite my best attempts at creating my own private mental environmental deprivation chamber with my earplugs and hooded eye covering and despite the extra pillows I got my hands on, it was a hard night’s sleep. Luckily somewhere around 4am we left the rust belt and entered the relatively wide open farm belt again and sleep once more came to me.
The next day was a treat namely passing along side the Erie Canal for long stretches, its not the canal so much that’s a treat but all the picturesque town alongside it, one thing I did note with sadness were the abandoned mills that also stood along the canal, I kept thinking what excellent loft spaces those mills, and several factory and industrial building I had seen on the trip, could be converted into, of course I know there’s no demand for such housing but its just to me such a tremendous waste of material to let those buildings rot. Anyway late that afternoon we got into Albany where the train splits. Most of the cars go onto NYC, but one sleeper, two coaches and a baggage went on to Boston. Here is also where we lost the dining car. We had breakfast that AM in the diner but forego lunch in the diner before we hit Albany, while we skipped the diner in favor of a not too shabby microwave pizza, there were a lot of disappointed riders who realized too late that now they were stuck with the microwave fare of the Café car. Now to be fare there were only a few things to beware in the café car, we had a very passable microwave pizza, turkey and swiss sandwichs and various little treats, about the only negative thing I will recommend avoiding is the microwave cheeseburger, and that’s because the microwave heating and cooling quickly turns the bun into a fossilized piece of Jurassic leather that is totally inedible.
Our now shortened little train finally arrived on time in Beantown about 9ish that evening, where upon we trundled onto the T and eventually to our hotel. All I can say about the T is that I’m darn jealous we don’t have something that effective here in LA, were there 5 days and NEVER needed a car to get around town.
Stage 3 the return
We decided to take all the things we learned on our way out and make sure we were prepared for the return trip. This included going to TG Maxx and buying a pair of inexpensive full size pillows, a large flat NY Giants thro pillow that functioned as a seat cushion for me, and a small box of Nyquil gel tablets also for me. We also brought a selection of food stuffs and treats to try and cut down on trips to the café car, but we kept dinner in the diner on the SW Chief. The return wasn’t quite as eventful as the outbound trip. Boston to Albany came and went; we passed the Erie Canal at night this time awaking in the farm belt of Ohio. This time armed with the extra pillows, earplugs, hoodie and finally the chemical sandman named Nyquil I actually was able to sleep pretty well, the only caviet being again that the seats are just too darn short for someone my size and it catches up with you when you cant stretch out, but it was far better than the way in.
We passed thru the rust belt and into Chicago, I spent 5 days in Boston lugging an umbrella that I really didn’t need, and here in Chicago I got caught in a T-storm, with my umbrella safely stored in a locker in the station, I got hosed. Oh well deep dish pizza in Giordano’s helped dry me off. Leaving Chicago and crossing the Midwest again, only real treat being a series of T-storms on the way the Kansas City, we had a full car leaving Chicago but most folks got off at K town and we had a half empty. The storms gave quite a light show, its old news for long time Midwesterners but for us west coasters T storms are a rarity. Again dinner in the diner, BBQ Pork Ribs that were as good as anything from the local rib-joints around here! Again all the food in the diner was excellent.
Trip back across the plains, thru Raton, thru the desert back to LA felt much quicker on the return leg, perhaps the ability to finally sleep well on the journey had to do with that. I had two books to read on the trip one that I brought, and one I bought in Boston, both done by the time we reached Chicago on the return, I should have bought a third but didn’t, so I discovered the limits of my smartphone’s antenna range. It was absolutely fascinating to actually reach an area in SW Colorado where my phones map GPS simply did not work at all, all thru the journey I could use the map feature to follow where we were in real time along the route and watch the little arrow creep along the rail route on the map as we went along, but while I would loose the email or web access regularly in the sticks, the GPS always worked, until there. I was literally in electronic Terra Incognito. Amtrak coaches have power plugs at all coach seats so a lot of people brought laptops or had there smartphones plugged in to watch movies or check messages, that was a nice feature, next time I’ll bring either a laptop or a portable DVD player to watch flicks on.
We arrived back in LA uneventfully save for one knucklehead hipster who kept hitting on a very attractive young lady sitting behind us, I really felt sorry for the girl as this guy couldn’t get a clue even if Sherlock Holmes belted him over the head with it while Watson held him down. I found his awkwardly suggestive conversation and her parries to be just hilarious, every time I thought he couldn’t put his foot farther into his mouth he’d say something that was so inappropriate too someone you’ve only known for a few hours that his foot would go whoosh right back in up to his knee. I wasn’t worried about the gal; she was very self assured and knew how to handle a dork like that, so I just enjoyed the show. So we arrived back in LA, Gold Line Metro then MTA bus to our neighborhood. This plan was my wife’s idea to save on the Union Station parking fees, I would have gladly paid to avoid riding the usual MTA bus of the Undead, but it worked out, the vampires and zombies that usually frequent the MTA were happily absent in the morning hours we rode it.
Conclusions and recommendations:
Overall aside from the sleep issues, the trip was great! I do think next time if we do a long trip and decide to go by train, I think we will try to save more and get the Roomette, although the Roomette on the Heritage cars, I could see walking thru the station that the toilet was right there in the cabin, like right NEXT to where your head is at night, eeewwww! But the folks we talked to that were in the sleepers all said it was definitely worth getting the sleeper, so more research is needed.
Some sections of track were very smooth but some stretches were very rough and the cars could really pitch you around, I’ve been on fishing boats in rough seas that were smoother, the rough sections tended to occur either in the very remote boondocks or in the urban cores of large cities where the trains passed thru yards. If you have balance issues this could be a real negative but there were a lot of older retirees on both legs of our trip.
Recommendations: Traveling by train is generally cheaper than flying if you book early, its less stressful but only if you have the time to spare. A lot of fast paced people we know couldn’t fathom why we were going by train. if your going to go by coach, BRING PILLOWS, you’ll need them. Also if you have issues with sound and sleep bring earplugs, they work. Also if your cash strapped, you can save a lot of money by bringing your own food. Of course part of the fun of traveling by train is eating in the diner but not all meals need to be eaten there or in the café. Besides the café food is little better than that you can bring along or buy at a CVS before boarding. But I would definitely try dinner in the diner at least once on your trip, it’s worth it.
If I were going to go ocean to ocean again I would try hard to put a day or two between the legs and spend a full day in Chicago, even one night in a full bed gives your body a chance to stretch out and recover before you begin your next leg, yeah I know that adds a lot to the trip but its either that or pay up for the sleeper car, when you think of it that way, the extra cost for the sleeper begins to make more sense. Otherwise I hope to do more trips via train, there’s a lot still in the Boston/New England area I want to visit, so I know somewhere down the line we’ll be going back.
Thanks for bearing with me, I know this is a very long thread, but hey it was eight days and a bit of an adventure ;-)
Sounds like you had quite the excursion...did you get any good shots of the surrounding countryside?
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I enjoyed reading about your trip from LA to Boston and back in a coach.
It has been a long time since I rode coach class overnight in the U.S. The last time was more than 20 years ago. I was in a bit of an economy mode, so I booked a roomette on the Texas Eagle from Dallas to Chicago, but I opted for coach class on the Capitol Limited from Chicago to Washington. Big mistake! The train was crowded, and I found myself sitting next to a full figured woman who turned out to be a religious zealot. After an hour of attempted conversion therapy on her part, which did not take, I headed for the lounge car, where I camped for most of the night.
I frequently take the Eagle from Temple, Texas to Dallas or Fort Worth. As noted in a previous post, I ride coach class, and most of the people that I have met are OK. But the few bad apples really make travelling in a coach over a long distance a trial.
Again, thanks for the very interesting travelog.
I believe that the Sunset Limited goes through texas, not Albuquerque. I think you were on the Southwest Chief
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I always travel in Sleeping Cars in all LD trains, and Business Class on shorter trips. The only way to go is sleeping car. Great Story about your trip.
You are a good writer and reporter, and I thank you for your descriptions of your trip.
Hint: On your next trip, if you can do so without much extra fare, go via Oakland (Emeriville) and the California Zephyr at least one way. Others on this Forum will know whether you get more of the excellent Salt Lake City - Denver scenery eastbound or westbound, but a lot of the scenery, Soldier Summit between Provo and Helper, and everything east of Grand Junction, is about as wonderful scenery as exists anywhere. I can truthfully compare it to the Swiss Alps, which I have also covered pretty throgoughly.
The book "Never on Wednesday," if you can find it, has some wonderful photos so you will know what to expect. It details the 1970-1988 Rio Grande Zephyr that was the D&RGW's own train three times a week each direction until Amtrak rerouted its train daily off the UP main through Cehyenne and Rawlins to the D&RGW Moffat Tunnal line.
daveklepper You are a good writer and reporter, and I thank you for your descriptions of your trip. Hint: On your next trip, if you can do so without much extra fare, go via Oakland (Emeriville) and the California Zephyr at least one way. Others on this Forum will know whether you get more of the excellent Salt Lake City - Denver scenery eastbound or westbound, but a lot of the scenery, Soldier Summit between Provo and Helper, and everything east of Grand Junction, is about as wonderful scenery as exists anywhere. I can truthfully compare it to the Swiss Alps, which I have also covered pretty throgoughly. The book "Never on Wednesday," if you can find it, has some wonderful photos so you will know what to expect. It details the 1970-1988 Rio Grande Zephyr that was the D&RGW's own train three times a week each direction until Amtrak rerouted its train daily off the UP main through Cehyenne and Rawlins to the D&RGW Moffat Tunnal line.
I have taken the CZ both ways between Emeryville and Denver. The scenery is great in both directions; it is amongst some of the best that I have laid eyes on. The scenery in Colorado that you describe is awesome in either direction, and the CZ is scheduled to maximize viewing of it. Also, the scenery through Donner Pass is spectacular.
I have ridden the CZ in the spring, fall, and winter. I liked the winter trip best of all. The train was not as crowded as in the spring and fall, thereby making for a better experience, and the snow scenes in the Rockies as well as through Donner Pass were something to behold.
ccc I believe that the Sunset Limited goes through texas, not Albuquerque. I think you were on the Southwest Chief
Yikes your right, dually noted and corrected! I was helping a friend plan a trip to San Antonio so I guess I had the Limited on my mind
Sam1, Dave, I have taken the CZ to Iowa before, but that was back when the Desert Wind was still running from LA to SLC. Nice trip thru the rockies but still have to do the Sierra leg to Oakand.
I took some pics, mostly thru Raton Pass. I still need to upload them, will try to post a few here this weekend
Last week took the Southwest Chief and Capitol Limited from Kansas City to Washington (then Philadelphia) The Chief was delayed in Illinois by a freight, yet still arrived in Chicago on time to the minute, as did the Capitol. The Norfolk Southern track was a little rough until Cleveland, then very smooth from Pennsylvania on.. In spite of Romney's threat to shut Amtrak down, the employees were most pleasant and helpful.. Food was above average, French toast in the morning was exceptional. This contrasts with an airline trip the previous week which involved consistantly rude stews and employees. Being charged $100 extra because of a two pound overage didn't make my day. BTW On Southwest you get 31 peanuts in a foil bag for service.
Be aware that Northwest Regional trains are quite crowded. Count on along line for snack service.
Some pictures, thru Raton Pass:
Probably the best scenery pic :
More thru Raton Pass:
The fire at Gainesburg:
Chicago:
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The loop!
Those are the best pics from the time on the train.
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