On my cross country Amtrak Trip via the Sunset Limited my train had already reached Texas, yet it was only about halfway through its journey. It was after noon when my train pulled out of El Paso heading east towards San Antonia. The great double track main line was replaced by a single track with passing sidings on the former SP Valentine Sub. ( Read more... )

Over the past 5 years my annual cross country Amtrak trek has resulted in large, often multi-part posts with 30 or so photos each. Well, as I alluded to in last week's post, this year's trip was ruined by Dan Akroyd parking his private car on the back of the train for the entire journey. I tried to salvage things as best I could, but I am going ( Read more... )

The majority of the Coast Starlight run actually takes place in daylight hours, with the longest stretch being from the Bay Area down to the LA Basin via the Southern Pacific's Coast route. In our last segment we left off at Gilroy, about 75 miles below Oakland an at the southern limit of the Bay Area commuting area. In this segment I will cover ( Read more... )

So some weeks before my Coast Starlight trip kicked off we got one of those Amtrak e-mails explaining how there would be a surprise service modification in the form of a Bustitution between Portland and Eugene due to a UP maintenance blitz on the Brooklyn Sub. Now I have experienced this type of Bus Bridge before and it actually didn't cost much ( Read more... )

So with the last few B&O CPL signals vanishing quickly from the B&O Main Line, there isn't a lot for me to document from the back of Train 30, Amtrak's Capitol Limited. Still, I did have a few sections of the grade between Connelsville and Cumberland to catch up on as well as the segment between Hancock and Harpers Ferry, WV so this is what will ( Read more... )

Well its tine to finish to the remainder of my 2014 transcontinental trip across Colorado on Amtrak's California Zephyr. If you remember from last time I covered the route from Grand Junction through to the "Steven" Moffat Tunnel. Today we will be heading into Denver and checking out its brand new Union Station complex, which was still under ( Read more... )

Time for Part 5 of my 2014 cross-country Amtrak trip. As you should all know by now I was reprising my 2012 trip on the California Zephyr and we have now left the state of Utah and reached the city of Grand Junction in the square state of Colorado. This segment will cover the line from Grand Junction to the Moffat Tunnel with a few gaps on parts ( Read more... )

Well it's not often one gets a second bite at the apple. Back when I originally took the California Zephyr I was not fully aware of the color balance issues that both my new Cannon IS30 and my friend's Cannon DSLR presented. Our 2011 trip was largely cloudy where the problems are not as evident and I had only purchased my new camera about 6 months ( Read more... )

Well for anyone who read the URL's involved with my last photo set and was all excited about seeing cool mountain scenery were bound to be disappointed by the offering of flat prairie and semaphore signals. Well hopefully the seventh part of my third annual Cross Country Amtrak trip this time involving the Southwest Chief will prove more popular ( Read more... )

Of course on the Empire Builder going over the Cascade Range is just the warmup act for the real show which involves crossing the continental divide while skirting the southern edge of Glacier National Park. The eastbound Empire Builder travels in darkness between Wenatchee, WA, combining with the Portland section at Spokane around midnight, and ( Read more... )