Stupid Amtrak Tricks

[Princess Susi]

In October of last year, my wife & I took the Coast Starlight from Los Angeles to Chemult, OR and back. We really enjoyed the whole trip, and we're looking forward to it again.

That is the one we want to take. I have heard that the Starlight is a beaut of a train and the meals are great. They also have a wine and cheese social in the afternoons? Yes? That is a trip I want to make and not to go anywhere, just to take the train up and back! How far up does that train go? I would like to take it to Tillamook and stay over there a night. Or having a brother in Sisters, we could take it up to where he could come pick us up. He could drive out to the coast and get us for a couple days and then back down on the train! We could even take the Zephyr to the Bay Area and get the Starlight and take the whole trip by train! Coooooool..... :)
sues

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo... :D: I love the sound of a train in the morning and daytime, and at night!

[Cheshire Figment]

Several times we went from Washington to New York (and once to CT) by train. We never did steerage, but used either Business class, Metroliner, or even Acela. One thing that was very convenient. My office was directly across the street from the East side of Union Station. I would load the suitcases in the morning on the way to work. Pick up Judy at her office, drive back, drop her off (with the luggage) in front of Union Station, and then go back to my office building to park. Then meet her in the station. When we got back we would just cross the street, go into the building, downstairs to the garage, and then home.

Also, we took the AutoTrain several times. First time was steerage (bad choice). The we did two round trips with sleepers. Then we found the real smart thing to do was drive down and take the AutoTrain home. Of course living about 20 miles from the Lorton Station helped.

[mechurchlady]

best part of my trip was the food. I got meals with mine. Going into DC and my train was the last one heading west other than locals. I had to be on that train, fly west or stay over night in DC.

I was setting there checking the time as we got stuck for over 3 hours. I was supposed to get in before lunch time but I got the train west and a free lunch with all the trimmings. Now to find my videos and get them transfer.

[Big Wallaby]

Note on the Coast Starlight: You got onto it only 12 minutes late? Wow, what happened? Used to be the Northbound would get into Portland anywhere from 4 to 12 hours late. If you were really lucky you might get on it going south on time.

Now my favorite is the Cascades train. Talgo set, same as used by Eurostar. Very nice.

[Randy B]

Wow!, That guy is lucky he didn't loose more that just the rear of the truck!!
Every once in a while, you see a story of some moron SG that graduates to "Darwin Award" status by going around a lowered rail crossing an meeting up with a fast moving, thousands of tons of train to his piddley little vehicle!

Always remember, when two objects try to occupy the same space at the same time, the one with higher mass will win. Truck and train, train wins. Truck and car, truck wins. Car and motorcycle, Car wins. And continue all the way down to ECV vs child. It makes no difference which object has the right-of-way. That only comes into effect AFTER the dispute is settled and the vultures...err lawyers have flocked. ;)

(present company excluded from the "flock" of course)

Randy

[Theme Park Where]

I toured Europe in a musical show many years ago. One of my responsibilities was to travel ahead of the cast and prepare the venue. I was in Denmark with the cast when I got my "marching orders" to return to Belgium to set up our last Europe show. They had booked us on the train. We ended up in beautiful private berths, with breakfast served in the morning and our own personal valet. I suspect our cast manager didn't know what he was purchasing when he bought the tickets, but I certainly wasn't going to complain!

A few weeks earlier, on our holiday break, I had been visiting a friend and his family in Poland. We had to meet up with the cast in Copenhagen after the break. We ended up on a series of trains and ferries, in steerage, for about 2 days as we made our way across Poland. By the time we got to the coast, and our ferry, we were silly from exhaustion. There were by that time about five or six of us from the show, the others having caught up with us in their own travels to Copenhagen. We ended up in a seating berth with a young Polish couple. Being giddy, we began doing tongue twisters from our own languages (we had a couple of us from the US, the polish guy, a guy from Mexico, a young Swiss lady, and a young man from Japan in our group by that time). It became a contest of, "oh yeah, well can you say THIS?!" Eventually, the young couple got tired of us and stormed out of the berth.

Getting TO Poland from Germany at the beginning of the holiday break was an even bigger adventure. We got on the train at 10pm in Germany, and found that it was packed with Russian and Polish students returning home for Christmas. All of the seats were booked. My friend spoke Polish but I didn't. He managed to find a pair of seats where the confirmed passenger wasn't getting on until Berlin, a few stops later. He secured them for us. We reached Berlin in the middle of the night, and my friend went to see if the couple were getting on, forcing us to vacate the seats. He had been chatting with the others in the berth, and I think he was annoying the older lady sitting next to him. Another couple poked their heads into the berth and asked something in Polish. The woman answered and the lady sat in my friend's seat. When he came back, he told me in English that the couple hadn't shown up, said something in Polish to the older lady, then explained that he was giving up his seat to the other lady and would go stand in the aisle with the dozens of other Polish and Russian students who were standing shoulder to shoulder on the overcrowded train. That left me as the only non-language speaker in the berth when we crossed the border into Poland. Although communism had recently fallen in that region, it was still a tense situation going over the border, and the train fell silent when we stopped for the passport check. It was kind of scary not knowing what was going on. Apparently there were no problems, and we were on our way shortly. We arrived in Warsaw early morning and our train to my friend's town didn't leave until later in the evening, and being without any Polish money, we ended up sitting on the floor of the train station, in December, with all the Russian and Polish students, waiting for the train. We had packed a lunch, but had no dinner and didn't want to leave the station to find any. It was a long day! Luckily, the next train wasn't nearly as full, and we easily found seats. My friend chatted with our berthmates, while I stretched out on the opposite bench and fell asleep. I woke up to find him asleep on the other bench, and us alone in the berth. I began to worry about recognizing the name of his town in Polish if he didn't wake up before we got there! Fortunately, he did wake up in time to get me up, and we ended up at his parent's house at 2am!

I've done a few cross-country train trips in the US, but none as memorable as my Polish rendetion of "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" (um, without the planes or automobiles!)

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

DW has travelled all across europe, and keeps telling me that the trains here and there cannot be comparied. ( I think she is trying to tell me something..Wonder what it is!!)hehe

[Whazzup]

That was an interesting story, Theme Park Where. What an adventure that must have been! :)

[Princess Susi]

best part of my trip was the food. I got meals with mine. Going into DC and my train was the last one heading west other than locals. I had to be on that train, fly west or stay over night in DC.

I was setting there checking the time as we got stuck for over 3 hours. I was supposed to get in before lunch time but I got the train west and a free lunch with all the trimmings. Now to find my videos and get them transfer.

I agree the food was great, at least all the trips we have taken. I am going to cross my fingers that it stays the same.

That was a great story, Theme Park Where! What a true adventure! When we go to Europe to visit Ralph's side of the family in Hungary and Germany, I want to travel by train.
susi

[Belgarion42]

WE were thinking of taking that train all the way up the coast, San diego to L.A., switch trains and continue up to Vancouver. Did you have get a berth?

We did. It was the "Superliner Roomette", which is pretty small when the bunk is folded down, but there's plenty of room for two people otherwise. We got to see in the "Family Bedroom" which is nice and considerably larger, but more than we could afford.

That is the one we want to take. I have heard that the Starlight is a beaut of a train and the meals are great. They also have a wine and cheese social in the afternoons? Yes? That is a trip I want to make and not to go anywhere, just to take the train up and back! How far up does that train go? I would like to take it to Tillamook and stay over there a night. Or having a brother in Sisters, we could take it up to where he could come pick us up. He could drive out to the coast and get us for a couple days and then back down on the train! We could even take the Zephyr to the Bay Area and get the Starlight and take the whole trip by train! Coooooool..... :)

The meals are very good. One of the best parts of having a room (aside from privacy and a reasonably comfortable place to sleep) is that you can order anything off the menu for each meal (only one entree, this isn't a cruise) no matter the cost and it's included in the price of the room, so you don't pay extra! I had an $18 dinner one night just because I could. :)

The train goes all the way up to Seattle. (You can see more info about it here: http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentSe ... 1&ssid=137). If you have a brother in Sisters (for some reason that strikes me funny) you can take it to Chemult. That's about an hour and 45 minutes south of Sisters (87 miles). The next stop after Chemult is Eugene, but that's a half an hour farther away. (You can take bus service from Chemult to someplace closer, but if he's willing to pick you up that would be easier and more convenient for you.)

Note on the Coast Starlight: You got onto it only 12 minutes late? Wow, what happened? Used to be the Northbound would get into Portland anywhere from 4 to 12 hours late. If you were really lucky you might get on it going south on time.

We were almost stunned with the promptness (it's been nicknamed the "Coast Starlate" for a reason). Apparently, service has been improving over the last 2 or 3 years. It was late coming in going south by almost an hour, but we'd made up nearly all of that time pre-collision.


One note for anyone considering this trip: the train is nice and comfortable, the food is good, and the people were (by and large) very polite. However, the train is showing it's age, so don't expect pristine.