Last trip on a passenger train?

[markpierce]

Seattle WA to Martinez CA. Over the Cascades. What a wonderful view of steel trestles and tunnels. The free meal (steak dinner) was great (went first class.) Had wine and cheese earlier in the day in the parlor car. Met a lady in the dining car who makes frequent trips to visit her daughter in San Luis Abispo (my spelling is screwed up.) The movie later that night was so bad we went back to the compartment. The cheapest first class (sleeper) bunks are too narrow to make love. (Do you have some advice?) In the middle of the night, woke up in Dunsmuir right beside the turntable. Looked just like the photos. Overall, A GREAT TRIP!

[Tom Eisentrager]

Seems a bit out of place but my last train trip waslast month on the "Sunlander" from Rockhampton to Townsville {Queensland Australia]. Self and wife in a twinette [sleeper] . Overnight trip Takes 12 hours [bit over 400 miles} Next month down to Brisbane {400 miles} on the Day Tilt Train {takes 7 hours}.

[rayhippard]

Hi everyone !
I have quite a strory and many great memories of train trip my mother ( God Bless Her ) took me on in 1954 when I was 13 years old. We started in Elmhurst, IL on CNW commuter train to Chicago where we got on The City of Los Angeles UP steamliner to go visit my much older sister in San Diego, CA. I made friends right away and had a great time palling around for 3 days and nights with them in the lounge car and the dome car drinking virgin tom colins. Mom and I spent 14 great days in CA and she even took me to Mexico to see the Jahi-Li games. This is a super fast game played in a large racket ball type court with bananna style baskets and a racket ball. Then she surprised me even more by switching our return trip to The Santa Fe El Capitan so we could experience a different ride back to Chicago through the southern part of th U.S..
Remember, this was 17 years b/4 Amtrack and the service and food was terrific ! My dad had told me wisely b/4 we left home ( he couldn't go with cause he'd used up his vacation time taking us to FL earlier that year ) that my mom would do nice things for me if I was good and didn't whine about doing stuff. Boy, was he right ! Even though my parents are no longer alive, they gave me many great memories to remember them.
Anyway that was certainly a great train trip.
Thanks for listening.
Ray

[Kimble]

I love the Downeaster. It goes into North Station at the Fleet Center. I've taken it to see the Bruins, the Celtics and to have dinner in Boston's (Italian) North End.

My best friend and I rode it this summer to the Macworld Computer Expo in Boston.

We missed the returning 6:15 train by THREE minutes. We had to wait around for the 10:20 train, but at 10:00 Amtrak announced there would be a delay. At 11pm, they announced there was engine trouble and they would bus us back to Portland.

I *hate* the bus! I'm 6'4" and a bus is worse than riding in a Yugo or some other sub compact. Well, we didn't get into Portland until 2am. Was my wife miffed...

Rob C
Portland, Maine

[on30francisco]

My last trip on a paasener train was Sept. 16, 2004 on CalTrain. I went from San Francisco to Mountainview.

[Anonymous]

Well, if your talking about Amtrak, my last time was the summer of '96 on the Ann Rutledge from St louis Mo to KC MO. If your talking about when operated by the railroads, It was from Topeka, KS, my home town to Los Angeles,CA on SF train 23.
Ch

[Anonymous]

In February 2002, my wife and I lived in Whitefish, MT, and wanted to go to the twin cities to see a show. We took the Empire Builder overnight to St Paul, napped in a hotel, went to the show, and had a cab take us right back to the station, where we caught the Empire Builder back to Whitefish. Had a roomette both ways, great scenery, nice people, sleeping was easy if you are on the lower level. On the upper it's a little like being on the top deck of a medium size cruise ship.

[Anonymous]

...long time ago.

Must have been a good 8 or 9 years ago when the Royal Hudson was still running on the BCRail line from North Vancouver to Squamish.....

Hell, BC Rail won't even be around much longer, get the pictures while you can.

[johncolley]

Last August I helped a friend team drive his household goods from Port Townsend, Wa to Altoona, PA. His gift to me was the return trip on Amtrack. After seeing the Altoona PRR museum, horseshoe Curve and a ride on the East Broad Top, I caught the evening train and next day had a train change at Chicago and had enough layover to bus down to the Museum of Science and Industry where I saw the new HO layout AND the Burlington Zephyr! Rush bus back to Union Station to catch the Empire Builder back to Seattle. A great trip! Loved seeing all the Great Northern route that I model in HO! John Colley, Port Townsend, WA

[Anonymous]

I've never ridden on a train before but Big_Boy_4005 has got tickets for the July 2nd "261" trip from St. Paul, MN to LaCrosse, WI and back to St. Paul. I am so excited --better than X-mas[swg] .

The next day we are going to chase the train by car. Hopefully my shoes will survive this railfanning trip better than the last one[:p][:p].

[Anonymous]

Summer of 1997 me and my family took the Empire Builder from Red Wing, MN to Essex, Montana. Quite a trip.
I've also been on a couple Milwaukee Road 261 excursions, and a BNSF Employee Appreciation Train between Wilmar, MN and Minneapolis (I forget the name of the wye where it terminated, where the Wayzata Sub meets the tracks from St. Paul into Northtown). I got to go on this trip because a friend got two tickets from one of his friends.

[CG9602]

I just returned from my last train trip. Went from Red Wing, MN to Ft. Lauderdale, and return. It had its share of moments (mainly due to the tardiness of trains, which was the result of going through several areas while amintenance was taking place), but, other than that, It was pretty good. One note: when travelling overnight, you really might want to take the sleeper.

[orsonroy]

Commuter trains around Chicago. Every time I have to go downtown (about once a month) I use Metra instead of the Kennedy, to save time and mental stress. I also occasionally take the CTA "L" into town, especially if I'm heading to a Cubs game (gotta love the Skokie Swift!).

I also ride the trains at the Illinois RR Museum several times a year. Being a member means I get to do this for "free".

The last "real" passenger trip I took was way back in 1992, from Harrisburg to Chicago. I got to have breakfast in a Heritage Diner while we rounded Horseshoe curve!

I sum, I ride the train as much as I can, which is something like 20 times a year.

[AggroJones]

I've NEVER been on a real train going anywhere! [:(]

I just never had a place to go that had to be reached by train.

The closest I've got was walking through a Heavyweight coach at a railroad museum. [:)]

[Anonymous]

Mine was on the Grand Canyon Railway in June of 2002, & will probably be in for going on it again soon. Just too much fun.

[Anonymous]

The last train trip I took was in England. A lot of their equipment is old, but there are so many trains that you can get all over the country with no need for a car. Even to small towns.

I can't remember the last time I rode a train in the US (other than rapid transit). Sad comment.

[randybc2003]

HOORAY!!!

One Step at a time!

"Oh Honey - you ain't done it untill you've done it ......... rolling over the Santa Fe"
"Lone Star" to (Maggie Smith) in "The Honey Pot"

Randy

[cbq9911a]

My last trip was the people mover at O'Hare Field last October. Two weeks before it was Amtrak from Chicago to BWI.

[Roadtrp]

QUOTE: Originally posted by randybc2003

More thought: Don't Ask her. Sweep her off her feet. Seduce her w/ dreams. Buy her a book or rent a movie of romance (I said ROMANCE - not action) on the train. Leave the car at home. Treat her like a Hollywood star. Take her shoping and buy yourself and her a new suit of traveling cloths. Take a taxi (or even a limo) to the station. Bon Voyage celebration w/ flowers, champain, etc. check over Classic Trains for menus & ideas.

Randy

Well, using your advice I got my train trip!!! It's not to Orlando, but my wife and I will be taking the Empire Builder to Chicago for our 25th Anniversary in May. We will be staying at The Drake hotel, going out for a great dinner and then a musical. Should be fun!! .[:)][:)]

[Anonymous]

Hello!

My last trip on a passenger train was about three years ago I took Amtrak from Pittsburgh to Chicago then at union station switched trains and then headed off to La Junta Colorado. It was a really nice ride, left pittsburgh at midnight then arrived at chicago about 9am and then laid over until about 3pm then arrived in la junta at 8am the next morning it was a really nice sceniced ride! I will do it again real soon!!

[GerFust]

I've taken Amtrak from Toledo to Boston a couple of times in the past two years, most recently last August 2003. I'd love to do more, and may consider taking Amtrak for a vacation this year. The work schedule usually dictates air for business travel, but I do squeeze in Amtrak when east of the Mississippi.

-Jer

[IRONROOSTER]

Two weeks ago my wife and I took the train from Washington, D.C. to Portland, ME with a stopover is Boston. Delightful trip. Got to visit the Maine Narrow Gauge RR in Portland and ride in the caboose cupola. Train travel is the best way to go. One caution the long term parking is the same price as the daily parking at Union Station in D.C. - $16/day, I learned this the hard way when I paid $80 for 5 days parking.
Enjoy
Paul

[Anonymous]

Most recent 'passenger ' train ride was on tourist line out of Chattanooga with my son five years ago. Time before that was on IRT subway line in Queens in 1994. Most uncomfortable ride was in cab on Edaville 2 foot narrow gauge in 1980: my fiance and I had to sit on the cab's window sills, for there wasn't room for four of us in the cab. Most beautiful scenery was on Amtrak from Oakland to Reno in the snow just after the rotaries cleared Donner Summit in 1978 with my earlier fiance. Best meal was on New York Central from Utica, NY to NYC in 1962-best lamb chops I ever tasted! Dumbest thing I ever did on a train was in UK in 1986, when I left my camera on the train seat when the London train I was on arrived at my stop in Swindon. I got off the train, the doors shut and I realized I didn't have my camera, ran up to the cab unit and frantically pleaded with the crusty ol' Brit engineer to stop the train-eventually a conductor, or whatever they call them in the UK, intervened and convinced the engineer to accomodate me. All this took place with a large crowd enjoying the whole escapade. On that same trip, while riding the London 'underground', I saw some of the weirdest wierd-oos ever in public-downright scary when you're in a train underground in a foreign country and most of the passengers looked and acted like the cast from "A Clockwork Orange" that aged very badly, and that you had only a vague idea where you are and not a clue as to how to get where you're going. Rode the San Deigan (Amtrak) many times in the '80s from San Juan Capistrano to San Diego-nice ride thru beautiful country but best part was twisty bits near La Jolla. Unfortunately it always ran behind schedule, so spent a fair amount of time in bar in restored San Juan station-there was/is? a great restaurant in The Depot right in the station with jazz every Sunday with brunch. Most annoying train ride was when I was a liitle kid living in Queens and my Mother insisted that I wear short pants every time we went into Manhattan on the IRT, and they had those awful plastic wicker- like seats that left little dents in the back of your legs all day. Passenger train trip I almost took but it didn't make sense to, so I didn't, was from LA to Raleigh in 1994, when my just restored Corvair blew up its transmission a few days before my 9 yr old and I were to drive it to our new home in NC to join my wife (the 2nd fiance mentioned earlier) who was already there. Airfare was $300 less than Amtrak. Plane would take 5 hrs. Amtrak would take over 5 days with a layover at night in either Jacksonville or Pittsburg (I think), and that was sitting up in coach all the way to NC! My son didn't want to fly because he wanted to see the USA out a window so we shipped the broken car, took the bus for it only took 2 1/2 days, even though Greyhound was on strike, they transferred us to a local from Dallas to Atlanta because of floods in Tenn. and we spent the night in the very hostile Atlanta bus station with food poisioning from an earlier bus stop meal. Three days later they found our luggage. At least the fair at less than $150 total for the two of us offset the shipping cost . My very last bus ride ever. The other train I wanted to take but didn't was the Durango & Silverton out of Durango when my son and I were on our way home from our vacation after visiting many n.g. train spots throughout Colo.and we got to Durango just as the train left for Silverton. Most fun ride was on the Roaring Camp and Big Trees out of Felton, CA in the redwoods near Santa Cruz with my daughter in 1975 in a gondola pulled by a Shay up steep grades while eating barbeque. Scariest moment for a relative was when my late grandfather got his foot caught between the platform and a subway car on the curved platform on a NYC subway at the South Ferry station in Manhattan around 1950. (He wasn't badly hurt.) An almost as scary, but definitely fun train ride was the cab ride in an ex-Sacramento Northern juice motor that had "very high voltage" signs in the cab about 12" from where I was riding. That was at the Orange Empire Museum in Perris, CA. in approx 1990. Shortest ride on a passenger train was on a special pulled by the just restored Santa Fe Northern in the Bakersfield, Ca yard about 12 years ago. We wrangled our way into a cab ride back and forth about 300 feet or so in the yard. I'll never forget it though because it was freshly shopped, looked like a million bucks, probably cost a lot more than that to restore, and that it gave my young son an appreciation for steam locomotives, not unlike the effect my Dad had on me when I was a kid and we took the"tubes" from Manhattan to Jersey, or the PRR in NJ, the Long Island, the New Haven in CN, visited the Sunnyside Yard in Queens, or watched the RR car ferries in NYC and Jersey--all in the fifties. Time to go-I've had way too much coffee tonite!

[Jetrock]

Fortunately for me, my wife hates to fly and likes trains so she doesn't object to train trips. However, for multi-day trips she definitely prefers a sleeper--me, I'm a rough & ready type who doesn't mind sleeping in a coach chair, but my wife likes a bit more privacy and comfort, and, well, I don't mind it either I guess...

[Anonymous]

Summer before last I rode the Passenger trains(both of them) at the Texas State Railroad. I was there scrounging parts for the "819". Got a line on the part we were looking for AND a cab ride in the light pacific #500. I rode from Rusk to Palestine (round trip) with the Pacific and from Palestine to Rusk (round trip behind a Consolidation. I have also been slated for a cab ride in late May/ Early June when the Challenger comes through here on her way to houston. I chased her for two weekends in Jan and Feb this year.

[Anonymous]

Just got back from a great trip aboard the Southwest Chief. The wife and I boarded at Galesburg IL, got off at Flagstaff AZ and rented a car to go onto Phoenix. Using Amtrak's Railsale, we paid just $260 roundtrip coach fare for both of us. Once we got on board, we asked about upgrading to sleeper. Westbound, we paid just 100 to upgrade to standard sleeper. Eastbound, we paid $86 to upgrade (apparently upgrade prices are based on distance traveled in the sleeper). As of the time of our trip, dining car meals were still free to sleeper passengers (I hear rumors this may end soon), so that was a real savings. The dining car meals were great, especially being free. We also learned, for best results, you need to sleep on your back given the rock and roll of the train! The sleeper even had a shower with hot water. Scenery over Raton, etc was really great.

Two Track Main

[Fergmiester]

The last train trip I did was between Halifax and Port Hawkesbury Cape Breton. That was back in 87' It was on a Via RDC. That service was shut down in the early 90's. What a shame as the trip to Sydney from Hfx was a really scenic trip.

[PistolPete]

Boston to Baltimore and back for a soccer clinic. I was not back in to trains at that point but it was still a great way to travel.

[fiatfan]

My last two passenger train trips very very special for me. A friend was an engineer trainee on the Boone and Sceneic VAlley Railway in Boone, IA. I was fortunate enough to be allowed to ride in the engine (NW-2) for the 25 mile round trip. That was in the fall of 2001.

Then in May or June of 2002, the UP brought an Operation Lifesaver train to Fort Dodge. Since my company ws a major customer, we were given tickets to ride the train. They had a drawing on the train for a ride in the cab and a gentleman won. He said to give the ticket to a child. The UP said, "Sorry, no minors allowed in the cab for liablity reasons." He then offered it to any one in the car. I gave it about 3 seconds before popping out of my seat. Rode in a GP38-2 on the way out and some one else rode in the cab on the way back.. A friend sitting next to my wife said after I left, "He never even said goodbye!" My wife just laughed.

[randybc2003]

More thought: Don't Ask her. Sweep her off her feet. Seduce her w/ dreams. Buy her a book or rent a movie of romance (I said ROMANCE - not action) on the train. Leave the car at home. Treat her like a Hollywood star. Take her shoping and buy yourself and her a new suit of traveling cloths. Take a taxi (or even a limo) to the station. Bon Voyage celebration w/ flowers, champain, etc. check over Classic Trains for menus & ideas.

Randy