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The Southwest Chief to Chicago 4/29-5/1/2003

My next trip was supposed to be to the Amtrak Historical Society Convention in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Since Trainweb hosts my website and now that I was a member of their family, they asked me to attend and cover the event. Amtrak owed Trainweb a roundtrip sleeping car trip, as well as plus a corridor roundtrip, which was used to get me to Milwaukee. I would rent a car so I could drive to Green Bay, which is nowhere close to any Amtrak route, past or present and the convention cost included my hotel there. A check of the baseball schedules produced a White Sox game in Chicago the day I arrived and Brewers day game in Milwaukee the day after the convention ended. I reserved a hotel room in Chicago and Milwaukee then all was planned and I was looking forward to the events.

That was until Trainweb received a letter which stated that due to lack of interest, this year's convention was cancelled as only three people registered. It was now time for a new plan. With the baseball games set, I could still go to Green Bay and see the National Railroad Museum there then on Saturday, the Illinois Railway Museum was having Casey Jones Day. I contacted the East Troy Electric Railway Museum, who offered me a late Saturday afternoon visit and these three museums would be brand new for me, in addition to parts of Wisconsin that I had never visited.

My mother rushed me off to the Santa Ana station before she was going to be picked up to go to the opera that night. After a couple of Metrolink trains departed, including one with conductor Dave, my train arrived early and I boarded the lower level and Conductor Lisa Washington collected my ticket before I was off to the snack bar for a few boxes of jelly beans prior to reaching Anaheim. In no time, we arrived at Fullerton where I went to the Trainweb office and visited briefly with Shivam Surve.

BNSF 4250 West approaching Fullerton from the end of the platform.

As the Chief arrived, I saw one of my favourite Amtrak conductors, Bryan Allen, leaning out of the transition crew sleeping car. I was greeted by Chuck Jones, the 431 car sleeping car attendant who took my ticket and directed me to my room in sleeping car 32086 "Louisiana" a Superliner II car. Once on the move, Chuck checked in with me before I went to the dining car for beef tenderloin from Menu 1, which was excellent, along with ice cream. The only change in the normal route so far was the new shoo fly for the Placentia trench project and the new Metrolink North Main Corona stop. I started my musical selection with "Live Evil" by Black Sabbath during the Ronnie James Dio period of singing with the band after Ozzy Osbourne was fired. I enjoyed our trek up Cajon Pass and by the tunnels there, I called it a night as I made up my bed and slept soundly my first night out.

4/30/2003 I awoke east of Canyon Diablo, Arizona on a clear morning with high clouds and went to the dining car for French Toast and sausage before freshening up for the day. All the toilets were out in our car as we made our way into New Mexico while I read USA Today and listened to Uriah Heep's "Live". Before Gallup, I went to the lounge car for a cup of tea and met my dear old Lead Service Attendant friend Shirley Robinson then sat back watching the beautiful western New Mexico scenery.

The New Mexico red mesas before we crossed the Rio Grande River and arrived at Albuquerque where there was a medical emergency aboard and were met by the paramedics. I recorded our train's consist here: P42DCs 177, 71, 80 and 97, baggage 1701, transition 39032, sleepers 32086 "Louisiana" and 32042, diner 38005, lounge 33031, smoking coach 31520, coaches 34095 and 34029, dead-heading smoking coach 31540 with Express Cars 71023, 71030, 71169 and 71192, ExpressTrak 74104, 74024, 74005, 74087 and 74083 and Road Railers 460123, 410019 and 462093. I learned that my sleeper had been having toilet problems for over a year and while the crews at Los Angeles made them work, they died overnight, resulting in no toilets for the rest of its round trip to Washington, DC then back to Los Angeles. After thinking about that one, I walked across the street for a mint ice cream, to which I had chocolate chips added. We departed on time and proceeded north to Lamy, then at Canyoncito, the westbound Southwest Chief was waiting in the siding. I went to the lounge car and watched the last half of "Harry Potter, Chamber of Secrets" before we arrived at Las Vegas. Chuck went through our sleepers passing out three kinds of pound cake then at 5:00 PM, I had a dinner of beef tenderloin along with a chocolate pyramid, dining with a nice couple from New Jersey.

As we climbed Raton Pass, here we are entering Raton Tunnel. We stopped in La Junta and I visited Safeway for some supplies then departed on time and ventured out into the night with me asleep about thirty minutes later.

5/1/2003 Waking up in Kansas City, I had my now usual French Toast breakfast before returning to my room and napping to La Plata. Following a shower, I went to the lounge car to enjoy an hour of the Missouri countryside turning into Iowa. We were stopped by freight train congestion approaching Fort Madison which cost us forty minutes.

The Southwest Chief on the Cameron Connection as we left the former Santa Fe for the rails of the former Burlington Line for Chicago. As we sped aloong, we encountered rain and the new schedule kept the Chief out of the Metra BNSF commuter rush. The train was wyed and the Express cars were cut off before we arrived only twenty minutes late.

I detrained for a Char Dog and since it was raining, took a taxi to the now Rodeway Inn, formerly the Quality Inn, to wait to see if the White Sox game would be played due to the rainy weather. I decided to make the CTA Green Line trek to the White Sox vs Oakland A's and walked over to the CTA Clinton station and walked to the east end which overlooked the former Chicago and North Western station with three outbound trains ready to leave. My train arrived and I rode to 35th-Bronzeville IIT where I detrained for the four block walk to the ball park.

I asked at the first ticket window if the game was on and with a smile, the ticket seller said "Yes!". Realizing it was 44 degrees and falling and remembering Denver on Easter Sunday, I stopped at the White Sox souvenir trailer for a White Sox beanie. I entered, bought a program and went up to my upper deck seat behind home plate. The ground crew was busy fixing the field as I dried my seat then ate my two hot dogs and a Mountain Dew, all for $4.25. I thought that was low until I realized it was one dollar hot dog night, oh well! Beyond the confines of the park, I watched Metra Rock Island trains, Red Line trains in the Expressway and my Green Line trains off in the distance.

This was the coldest game thus far in my quest to complete visits to all of the major league ballparks. In the bottom on the first, Carlos Lee for Chicago singled in two runs. At the top of the second, Manuel Tejeda hit a two-run blast then another run was added. In the bottom of that inning, Chicago tied the game. In the bottom of the third, Maggilo Ordóñez hit a solo blast for Chicago, giving them the lead. Later in the fourth and fifth, the A's picked up runs, but the White Sox scored two more in their fourth and one in their fifth, to put the game away before a paid attendance of 10,639 with a final score of 7-5. However, I would say there was only a fifth of that in the ballpark that extremely cold and damp evening, with a strong cold breeze blowing out of the northwest. I took the Green Line back to my hotel and called it a night.

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