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... )

When Amtrak announced it's 2014 Fall Foliage Trip to and from the Rockville Bridge via the Conrail Harrisburg Line I was on board immediately. However this year riders were presented with a choice of days (Saturday or Sunday) from the beginning. This year I decided to go with Sunday with a plan to drive up to Rockville on Saturday to photograph ( 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... )

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... )

Note: I just realized that I forgot to do the segment from Reno to Winnemucca, NV so look for that next week.

The section of former Rio Grande trackage between Provo, Utah and Grand Junction Colorado is probably the most scenic on the entire Amtrak system. I had the privilege to survey this route back in 2012 and now it was time for a second ( 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... )

I know what you're all saying. Didn't this guy finish posting all the photos from his epic cross country trip months ago? Well you would be right, I did post all of my photos, but I was also traveling with a second unit / B Camera who took the time to take some pictures from perspectives different from straight out the back of the last car.

An ( Read more... )