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we just got back from my trip on the Amtrak Southwest Chief from Los Angeles to Kansas City. My Mom and I drove my brothers pickup and 5th wheel camper out to California because he was storing it at my house while he was playing king of the sandbox in Iraq, and kicking some *** with the Marines in Fallujah. they all came home to Camp Pendleton on friday night. it's good to have my brother and all the other Marines home safely. but, back to the Amtrak trip. we left Los Angeles Union Station on monday night. LA Union Station is very nice. it's good to see thousands of people still using a station that old, the way it was supposed to be. we were in superliner sleeper Florida, in a roomette. let me tell you, if you are over 6 foot tall or weigh more than 200 pounds, fork over the extra cash for a bigger room, the accomidations in the roomette with the beds made are VERY tight. i have more room in the sleeper of my truck[:D]. the sleepers have a set of the bigger rooms on one end, a bathroom, coffee machine, and the stairs in the middle, and the smaller roomettes along each side of the other end. none of the pictures i took of the inside came out except this one looking down the hall twoards the larger rooms: [img]http://akpierce.20m.com/amtrak%20trip/superliner%20hallway.JPG[/img] and a couple of shots out the lounge windows: [img]http://akpierce.20m.com/amtrak%20trip/looking%20out%20the%20lounge.JPG[/img] [img]http://akpierce.20m.com/amtrak%20trip/out%20the%20lounge.JPG[/img] we left at 6:45PM and just after we left, they started serving dinner. I dont think there were more than 20 passengers on the entire train. at dinner, i decided to have the steak, it wasnt too bad, but not great. the service was excellent although the oriental woman working the dining car didnt speak english very well. after dinner, i headed for the lounge car to watch the nighttime scenery go by. one thing i noticed is that the lounge and the 2 coach cars rode much better than the 3 sleepers and the diner. must have been the trucks. here is a shot of the trucks that were on the coach and lounge: [img]http://akpierce.20m.com/amtrak%20trip/superliner%20coach%20trucks.JPG[/img] here is the truck type that was on the sleepers and diner: [img]http://akpierce.20m.com/amtrak%20trip/superliner%20diner%20trucks.JPG[/img] I cant remember which type is on which style of car (superliner 1 or 2), but the diner bounced and swayed all over the place compaired to the lounge. (by the way, the chocolate cake is pretty darn good[:D]) after dinner i went to the lounge and watched I Robot (with all the cuss words edited out, gotta be kid friendly i guess) then watched the mountains go by. after we got to the top of Cajon pass, i decided to head off to bed. my Mom took the bottom bunk and i had to squeeze my fat, tall butt into the top bunk. not much room up there, but i slept pretty good. I woke up just after the Williams AZ stop and headed for the diner for breakfast as we pulled into Falgstaff. after that, it was back to the lounge. the only problem with this trip is that it follows I-15 and I-40 all the way to Albuquerque. I drive this route in the 18 wheeler almost every week so the scenery gets a bit old. here is a shot of the red cliffs and a westbound stack train: [img]http://akpierce.20m.com/amtrak%20trip/nm%20red%20cliffs.JPG[/img] [img]http://akpierce.20m.com/amtrak%20trip/wb%20bnsf%20from%20amtrak.JPG[/img] somewhere around Flagstaff the toilets in our sleeping car stopped working. so we had to go over to the sleeper "New Jersey" to use the bathroom. kinda appropriate i guess(bad New Jersey joke...[:D][:D]) We got into Albuquerque about 30 minutes early, so we had plenty of time to wander around the platform. the new station there is pretty nice looking. I took this opportunity to get some bad pictures of the entire consist[:D] lead locomotive #205 [img]http://akpierce.20m.com/amtrak%20trip/consist%20loco%20205.JPG[/img] next loco #16 [img]http://akpierce.20m.com/amtrak%20trip/consist%20loco%2016.JPG[/img] last loco, a rare sight on long distance trains these days, 8-32BHW #500 [img]http://akpierce.20m.com/amtrak%20trip/consist%20locomotive%20500.JPG[/img] baggage car [img]http://akpierce.20m.com/amtrak%20trip/consist%20baggage.JPG[/img] transition sleeper [img]http://akpierce.20m.com/amtrak%20trip/consist%20transition%20sleeper.JPG[/img] sleeper "New Jersey" [img]http://akpierce.20m.com/amtrak%20trip/consist%20new%20jersey%20sleeper.JPG[/img] sleeper "Florida" [img]http://akpierce.20m.com/amtrak%20trip/consist%20florida%20sleeper.JPG[/img] Dining car [img]http://akpierce.20m.com/amtrak%20trip/consist%20diner.JPG[/img] Sightseer Lounge [img]http://akpierce.20m.com/amtrak%20trip/consist%20lounge.JPG[/img] coach [img]http://akpierce.20m.com/amtrak%20trip/consist%20coach%201%2034061.JPG[/img] coach #2 [img]http://akpierce.20m.com/amtrak%20trip/consist%20coach%202%2034064.JPG[/img] and bringing up the rear, a lonely Express Trak reefer. [img]http://akpierce.20m.com/amtrak%20trip/consist%20express%20trak.JPG[/img] they fueled up the locos, cleaned and restocked the train, and picked up some new passengers while everyone wandered around and bought some native American goods being sold by various vendors on the platform. I hadnt had a cigarette since we left Los Angeles so i had to smoke a few while i had the chance. as I was out smoking and taking pictures a cop came up to me and flashed his badge, i thought he might be wondering why i was taking so many pictures, but the problem was that the name tag had come off my bag and they were trying to figure out who owned it. gotta make sure no one was trying to plant a bonb or smuggle drugs i guess. before we left, most of us headed to the diner for lunch. i had the chicken sandwich which was pretty good. then it was back to the lounge with my new Dean Koontz book and my camera to watch the mountains go by. we slowly truged uphill in the snow to Raton pass. somewhere in the mountains, we met the westbound Chief. we had to sit a while to make the meet and that messed up the schedule a bit. here are some pictures from the mountains: [img]http://akpierce.20m.com/amtrak%20trip/raton%20front%20of%20train.JPG[/img] [img]http://akpierce.20m.com/amtrak%20trip/raton%20funky%20house.JPG[/img] [img]http://akpierce.20m.com/amtrak%20trip/rear%20of%20train%20in%20canyon.JPG[/img] about this time, the cold i had caught was kicking the heck outta me so i headed back to the roomette to take a nap. then it was time for dinner. the special was baked chicken and it was really good. after dinner, i headed back to the room and went to bed in my tiny bunk. we got to Kansas City this morning right on time. as we jumped off, we tipped our car attendant (really nice guy[:D]) and headed into Kansas City Union Station to pick up our checked bags. wow, Kansas City has a beautiful station. and from there, my Dad drove us back to Springfield. overall, i would have to say it was a great trip. the only problems were the non-working bathrooms and the broken door in the dining car (it was stuck open) and the lack of a smoking car for the addicts like me [:D] all of the people working on the train were very friendly and it was kept pretty clean. i would highly reccommend an Amtrak trip if you ever have the chance and you are not in much of a hurry. but like i said, spring for the bigger room if you are not one of those twig people[:D]
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