All Aboard!

Boarding at the Fullerton Station, the first stop once the train leaves Los Angeles, is very easy.  Parking is immediately adjacent to the small station.  You walk a few steps from your car to the platform.  Station attendants will tell you where to wait on the platform.  From experience I know where the sleepers stop, so I'm ready with my luggage to step right on the train.  There are two sleepers on the Southwest Chief and they follow the 2 Genesis Locomotives, a single-level baggage car, and the Transition (Crew) Sleeper when it pulls in.  Occasionally you may have a room in the Transition Sleeper.  The two sleepers will have the numbers 431 and 430 by the door.  My accommodations were in Car 431, Room 14.  Following the sleepers is the Diner, then the Sightseer/Lounge car, and finally two coaches.  Sometimes there will be single-level privately owned cars on the rear of the train.

Wife, Sue, had taken me to the Fullerton Station, and as the Southwest Chief pulled in, 431 stopped right in front of the bench where we were waiting.  It was about 7:10 pm.  The attendant opened the door and I announced my name as he looked at his manifest.  He repeated my room number and I put on my suitcase and camera bag.  I told him I had 3 other pieces of 'matched luggage' (3 cardboard boxes containing eighteen 16" x 20" framed train photographs).  I told the attendant, as I set on the 3 boxes, that I would put them in the upper bunk in my room.  When I set the last box on, and said Goodbye to Sue, I stepped into Car 431.  I went to my room and the attendant, Chris, had made up both beds and put the 3 heavy boxes on the top bunk!  This guy is going to get more than my regular $10 per day tip.

We pulled out at 7:20, the scheduled time.  I talked with Car Attendant, Chris, a moment and learned that this was his first trip as a Sleeper Attendant.  He had worked coaches the two months he had worked for Amtrak.  Conductor Angelica soon came by and collected my ticket and said she would be the Conductor to Kingman, AZ. 

Chris had gotten me an 8 pm dinner reservation, so I had time to set up my Command Center, as Rail Friend Andy Smith calls my on-board technology setup.  I bring a power bar on an extension cord since there is only one plug in a roomette.  I put the power bar between the seats, between the window and the folded up table.  I plugged in my:  GPS, MacBook computer, iPod Touch charger, and cell phone charger, then headed upstairs and through 1/2 of Car 431, all of Car 430, and into the Diner. 

As I passed Chris in the hallway on the way to the Diner, he used my first name - this kid is learning quickly.  At dinner, where I had trout, vegetables and salad (also offered were a dinner roll and dessert).  I sat with 3 other gentlemen.  One was heading for Albuquerque on a turn-around just for fun.  He is the sole proprietor of Jerry Meyer SB Wine Tour.com of Santa Barbara. 

Another gentleman at our table was from San Diego headed for Albuquerque to play tennis and golf, then on to New York for a wedding.

The final gentleman at dinner was a Trails and Rails host on Amtrak along the Hudson River and a Tour Guide in New York City.  He was using Guest Rewards to take a 3 week trip around the USA.  He started by crossing Canada on The Canadian.  He came down the coast to LA, and was taking the SWChief to Chicago then the Capitol to Washington, DC, and finally on back to New York City.  His next train trip will be to Halifax, Nova Scotia by train.

We all had an enjoyable dinner and discussion about wine and train travel including the Copper Canyon and the Grand Luxe.

At dinner, and later from my window in my roomette, I watched the Half-Moon Rise.  We arrived at Victorville 10 minutes early, but soon after leaving, we traveled at 10 mph for 15 minutes before moving to track speed past what looked like a moonlit space station in the black California desert night.

Training Pants

Cargo pants/shorts have become my new train travel apparel...thus the Section title, TRAINing Pants.  It seems in the past that when I went for meals on the train, I seem to always need something I had left back in the room - my billfold for tip money, or to pay for wine, my small notebook for writing down things I learn from my seat mates, my business cards, my cell phone, my iPod Touch with photos, my GPS,  the schedule and route guide, so now I have it with me in one of my many pockets.  You may have noticed that I called them pants/shorts.   They have zip-off leg bottoms in case the A/C isn't working through the desert or at my destination.  Albuquerque is where I made the transition to cargo shorts on this trip.

The other part of my outfit is my TrainWeb.com shirt so my seat mates can ask, "What is TrainWeb?"  or better yet, "I've read your reports on TrainWeb."  Finally, since it is a rule that everyone wear shoes on Amtrak Trains, I like tennis/running/walking shoes.  At the risk of being called, "Old Baggy Britches," that's what I look like if you see me on the train.

10:20 pm, We're rolling eastbound at 80 mph by moonlight on smooth-as-it-gets ribbon rail somewhere in the California desert near Barstow.  This trip I have a lower-level room, #12, where I hope to find smoother riding when I have my second night on the roughest tracks on this nearly 2,000 mile ride -- Kansas!

Packing for a Train Trip

Through the many trips I've taken over the years in sleeping cars on trains, I've learned to pack more efficiently.  Since, many times I travel alone in a Roomette (closet with a window) without a toilet and shower, I pack a bag of night clothes, next-day clothes, toiletries inside my suitcase.  When I board, I pull out that smaller bag and take it to my Roomette.  I leave my suitcase in the luggage area on the lower level near the entrance/exit door and don't use it until replacing that night bag at my destination before detraining. 

Additionally, I like using the bathroom that has a baby changing table.  The sinks in these bathrooms have no room for by toiletries bag, so I pull down the changing table making a large area to lay out the articles I need.  I doubt that a baby has ever been changed on these tables, but I still cover it with paper towels just in case. 

In the narrow closet in your Roomette, on the top shelf, there are small towels and wash cloths - take them to the bathroom with you.  Larger towels are in the one shower/dressing room on the lower level.  There will be a laundry bag for the used towels in the shower/dressing room.  Take a small bar of soap and shampoo with you.  They may or may not be available so when you are stripped down ready to enter the shower, that is no time to realize you have no bar soap or shampoo!

Finally, I like to shower when the train is stable, such as at a stop where there is time for a 'smoke break' or 'crew change' or when we are on a siding.  I have fewer bruises because of this tactic for showering, and no serious falls in a slick shower from train movement.

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Albuquerque is a Crew Change Stop.  We arrived at 11:50 a.m. and it was announced that we would leave at 12:55 pm, so I had an hour to walk downtown and photograph the "Crossroads Clock Tower."  Many rail travelogues about the Southwest Chief #4 which leaves from Los Angeles in the evening, do not include any photographs until Albuquerque.  The train spends the night traveling through western California and Arizona, and except for desert photography, there is not much to photograph.  So, my first photographs on this trip are from Albuquerque.