[?]

Spring Break in the Southeast 3/28-4/8/1996

Christmas came and went and I spentmy first Christmas season sober in years. My AA group met 365 mornings a year and has a good success rate. Since then ten-day Spring Break at McFadden Intermediate was on the horizon, I decided to work on completing riding the Amtrak system. With routes in the northeast and Canada still in the grips of winter, I chose the southeast where it would be warmer. I came up with a plan, called Amtrak and was able to book the routes I wanted except into Tampa, but to get into Florida, had to settle for a Slumbercoach, which suited me just fine, as all the coach seats were sold out. I went to Santa Ana station and paid for it as was my tradition because I like to give my home station the business. I then worked at McFadden for two months until the departure date arrived.

I boarded the San Diegan with its Amfleet coaches, for the usual journey to Los Angeles to connect with my first long-distance train. Someone asked me why I did not connect at Fullerton and my two reasons were that by boarding at the originating station, I was able to have my choice of seat and by going to Los Angeles, it gave me an extra fifty-two miles. I realized that the next Amfleet train I would be riding would be the Crescent out of New Orleans. It was an uneventful ride and we arrived on time and I walked down the long tunnel to sit in front of the gate to wait for my next train.

I boarded the Superliner coach, choosing my usual large window seat on the right and the coach filled up. The man who sat next to me never uttered a single word to me but did ask the conductor if he could have a seat to himself? Those were the only words I heard him say until he detrained in Albuquerque the next afternoon. I went to the lounge car for a 7-Up and to enjoy the ride to Fullerton where tonight's film started but it was not very good so I returned to my seat about the time we reached Santa Ana Canyon, curled up with my Amtrak blanket over me and fell asleep.

3/29/1996 I awoke the next morning just as the train was passing through Peach Springs, Arizona and climbed over my-non speaking seatmate to go to the lounge car to wait for it to open and as it was so early, was able to travel through the lone Santa Fe tunnel in Arizona awake before we reached Seligman. We travelled over the high fills and deep cuts through the low pine forest to Williams and while I was having my breakfast, saw the Grand Canyon Railway preparing for the day's operations. We kept on climbing then crossed the Arizona Divide at Maine before passing beneath San Francisco Peak and arriving at Flagstaff.

Leaving town, the scenery slowly changed from forest to desert before you knew it and if you knew where to look, you could see us speeding across Canyon Diablo 225 feet above the wash on a 560 foot steel bridge. To the south, the rim of the famous Meteor Crater was visible before we arrived at Winslow twenty-five minutes later, then followed the Little Colorado River east to Holbrook before we passed between the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. The Santa Fe freight trains were being met at an increasing rate, which was always a sign that business was good on my favourite railroad. We paralleled the wash into New Mexico with its mesas which I always have thought are beautiful, then passed the junction with Santa Fe's Defiance Branch, with all of its coal reserves, before we arrived at Gallup, the Indian Capital of the World.

We passed Red Rock State Park followed by Pyramid and Church Rocks and The Santa Fe main line divided here, with us taking the shorter route and a long westbound manifest train taking the gentler grade. We crossed over the Continental Divide and sailed past two more junctions of coal-producing routes then sped through Grants before crossing through the lava beds followed by the McCarty and later the Acomita Pueblos. Next was Laguna Pueblo before we ran along the gypsum cliffs and past the Kneeling Nun rock formation. To the north we had been seeing Mount Taylor, one of the highest peaks in New Mexico at 11,301 feet then we traversed Rio Puerco before we curved off the Santa Fe double track main line at Dalies and descended along a single track main to the Iselta Indian Reservation before crossing the Rio Grande River and minutes later, the landscape turned more urban as we arrived in Albuquerque.

The train was serviced, the windows washed and the Indians sold their wares on the platform then upon departure, we proceeded north up the Rio Grande Valley and past the San Felipe and Santa Domingo Pueblos. Since we were running two hours late from waiting for the Coast Starlight's passengers at Barstow, who had been bussed from the San Joaquin trains all the way to Barstow, we met the westbound Chief at Waldo siding then departed the Rio Grande Valley and made our way up the wash to our next stop at Lamy. From there, we travelled through the rocky Apache Canyon before the final climb to the summit of Glorieta Pass. It was then time for dinner and from menu three, I chose a New York strip steak and was seated at a table with three know-it-all railfans, who were wrong about everything they discussed. I tried not to point out any of their mistakes but sat quietly and laughed inside.

We were now a night train as we departed Las Vegas, New Mexico and I went to the lower level of the lounge car for tonight's showing of "Kingfish". Since my next train was going to New Orleans, I learned a little history on the way and during the film, we crossed Raton Pass into Colorado and descended to Trinidad. After the film ended, I stayed upstairs chatting to a nice group of people until the servicing stop of La Junta where I detrained to enjoy the nice cold Colorado fresh air before returning to my coach seat and falling asleep. I could have stayed up a couple of hours and crossed Kansas off the list of former drinking states, but decided that it had been a good day so deserved a good rest. I would cross it off in the morning anyway.

3/30/1996 I awoke in Missouri just as the train arrived at Kansas City and could now cross that state off my list on a very rainy spring morning. I detrained and visited the tiny gift shop in the station that hid in the shadow of the massive Kansas City Union Station that is no longer used. We were still an hour and twenty minutes late, so the St. Louis and Chicago-bound Anne Rutledge departed ahead of us and we followed the train out of town through the industries and the many railroad crossings before we returned to the farmlands along the Missouri River, which was crossed on a high single track bridge in a driving rainstorm at Sibley. Exiting the bridge became shared trackage with Norfolk Southern (formerly Wabash) and there was a train waiting for us to clear as we came out of the rain shower.

We travelled along the Missouri River floodplain before climbing the low hills and minutes later, passed the bright red brick depot at Carrollton then crossed the Grand River as we continued our northeast path across the low hills until we crossed a low-laying wetland prior to Marceline, the boyhood home of Walt Disney. Our route crossed the Chariton River, stopped at La Plata and met a parade of Santa Fe freight trains and since we were now in northeast Missouri, the train was on a roller-coaster of grades and crossing over streams that empty into the Mississippi River. We crossed the Des Moines River and entered Iowa for a few short miles to our only stop in that state, Fort Madison.

We crossed the Mississippi River on the unique 1927 dual-level Santa Fe swing bridge, where vehicles ride on the top and the train tracks are underneath, and entered Illinois, then climbed away from the river and travelled across the farmlands before arriving at Galesburg. We then crossed more farmlands to our next stop at Chillicothe, bridged the Illinois River before we going over the Holstein Hills and descended around Houlihan's Curve. After Chillicothe, we crossed the Vermilion River and stopped at Streator. Amtrak was planning to re-route the Chief off the Santa Fe to the Burlington Northern tracks between Galesburg and Chicago, so I chose to have one last ride to Chicago on this routing so I could say "Santa Fe All The Way".

The crowd from last night were still sitting in the lounge car so it was decided that once we reached Chicago, we would stick together to wait for our connecting trains. It was amazing how strangers can bond on a train and become akin to family. We continued heading northeast, crossing the Kankakee River then passed a power plant before arriving at Joliet. Every time I think of this city, Joliet Jake of "The Blues Brothers" fame, played by Dan Akroyd, comes to mind. We went by that fictional character's home at the Illinois State Prison before crossing the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, followed further by UPS' Willow Springs facility then had the first glimpse of the mighty Chicago skyline. A variety of industries and rail junctions were passed before we crossed the South Chicago River, the train was wyed then reversed past Amtrak's Chicago Maintenance Facility before arriveing at Chicago Union Station, one hour and twelve minutes late.

As I detraind, the bottom of my new bag ripped from the bottom but I found a piece of rope on a luggage cart and used both to my advantage. The other people followed me and they also found two luggage carts as well, so we loaded six people's luggage on them. You would think that with six people, at least one of us would be on the same connecting train, but we are all on different trains. We took the elevator to the food court where we bought our dinners and sat around discussing our trips with each person's destination the main topic and I named mine "The Here To There But Not Everywhere Tour, Southeast!" We went back to the waiting room and one by one left for Grand Rapids, Battle Creek, Milwaukee, Cleveland and Erie, leaving me all alone until my departure to New Orleans.

I boarded the City of New Orleans, chose a seat and and in a few minutes, was joined by a very young attractive girl from New Zealand who was on a tour of the United States and had a USA Rail Pass. She started in Florida, went up the east coast and stopped along the way until she reached Boston, then took the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago, where she spent the last few days. Next was New Orleans then San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and up into Canada. We got to know each other while the train was still in the station we and I told her that if I woke her up, I would buy her breakfast in the morning; otherwise she owed me nothing. It was my way of welcoming her to America.

We departed into the night-time air and passed the Amtrak yard before reversing around the wye onto Burlington Northern's Aurora main line and proceeded forward onto the Illinois Central's St. Charles Air Line. This gave a perfect view of the Chicago skyline then we came off the Air Line and joined the Metra electrified commuter line and passed Illinois Central's Homewood yard before stopping at the suburban station. The one and only call for dinner was made and our lounge car attendant made his call for tonight's film "Get Shorty" as we travelled down the Illinois Central main line. I watched the film and rated it ia six out of ten then returned to my seat to find my New Zealand seatmate fast asleep so I quietly climbed over her, never waking her and curled up, falling fast asleep myself.

3/31/1996 I awoke just as we were entering the station at Memphis, Tennessee and found my New Zealand friend already awake. Since last night, the City of New Orleans had travelled the length of Illinois, crossed the Ohio River and cut across western Kentucky into Tennessee. I detrained here and enjoyed the early morning air with a view of the Mississippi River just beyond the waterfront. The conductor came up to me and I asked him if were were going through Yazoo City since the last time I tried to go through there, the train was re-routed because of an Illinois Central freight train derailment. He responded in the affirmative, which pleased me, and went off to do his duties.

We departed on time and passed through the Illinois Central freight yard before we diverging from the original route of the City of New Orleans for the old historical "dark" freight only line of the Illinois Central. The word dark in this case refers to the lack of any signalling system on this stretch of railroad. When the Illinois Central upgraded the line to move all of its main freight traffic over to it, they completed the CTC (Centralized Traffic Control system) in 1994-1995 and moved all the freight traffic to it, downgraded the City's route and then moved the City of New Orleans over to this route. That was why I had chosen to ride this train and best of all, riding southbound provied for an all-daylight journey.

We entered Mississippi and the route was anything but straight since it had gentle curves and short pieces of tangent track that meandered through the countryside just as the rivers do. The communities that we passed through were small and based solely on agriculture. With cotton the major crop of this region, we passed miles of cotton fields and the landscape was forested and undulating in some places. We crossed Coldwater River before passing through Lambert with its old coaling tower still standing. The line was single-tracked with passing sidings spaced evenly down the route and upon our passage through Gwen, I spotted a rice field. Before I rode trains, I had no idea what a rice field looked like. We crossed the Tallahatchie and Yalobusha Rivers before arriving at Greenwood then continued south with the hills to the east, passed Bee Lake and at Delta was a fish farm.

We crossed the Yazoo River and reached the city limits of Yazoo City. My idea of Yazoo City was based on what the Yankees did when they invaded during the Civil War, burning the town to the ground and leaving only the remains of burnt-out buildings, so that was the image I expected to see. In reality, it appeared to be a clean town with nice-looking homes and since it was Sunday morning, cars were parked at the churches, of which I coulded thirteen, so it was a religious community - completely not what I expected. We arrived at the station then departed on time, travelled two blocks and there, to the right, were burnt-out buildings, a reminder of history for all to see.

We continued our trek south, proceeding through the hills and oil fields to our next stop and the state capitol, Jackson. I detrained for some fresh air then we continued south to Hazelhurst where the next two stops were twenty minutes apart, Brookhaven and McComb, our last stop in Mississippi. We departed McComb, passing through Magnolia, where I spotted two nice Colonial mansions before we crossed the Tangipahoa River and a few minutes later, entered Louisiana. Once into that state I started noticing that not only where the houses were built above ground, but also the graveyards, due to the high water table below the earth's surface here. We continued through the forests but now were paralleling a highway. We arrived at Hammond, still running, and I was impressed with the Illinois Central dispatchers' handling of our train, who kept the freight trains out of our way.

As we were about to pass through Ponchatoula, the Train Chief made an announcement for all to be on the look out on the left side of the train for Charlie the Alligator who lives in his cage. Charlie is fed by members of the local community who take care of him. All the children came into the lounge car to look for him, but I knew that alligators are cold-blooded and with the weather being as cold as it was, Charlie would be on the bottom of his pond staying warm. The train passed, people looked and I spotted Charlie where I knew he would be. It was not alligator weather today, but the children were crying because they did not see the alligator. After five minutes, I announced "Ladies and gentleman, if you want to see alligators, go to the New Orleans Aquarium. They have some really nice rare white ones!" Everyone smiled and I heard children ask if they couuld go there.

We crossed the Port Manchac waterway then skirted the shore of Lake Pontchartrain and passed New Orleans International Airport just before going by our northbound sister train. I saw the Huey P. Long bridge in the distance and the City of the Dead cemetery before the train was wyed and reversed past the Superdome into New Orleans Union Station on time, ending another journey on the City of New Orleans.

I rode a tax to the Maison St. Charles Days Inn before buying an all-day trolley pass so I could ride the streetcar to my heart's content and took it downtown, walking along Canal Street before reaching the River Walk. I came upon a hobby shop and bought a couple of videos on the Milwaukee Road electrics then rode the Waterfront Streetcar before returning up Canal Street to wait for a St. Charles streetcar to take me to the end of the line. Upon arrival there, all passengers exited but I asked the motorman if I could stay on as I wanted to see the car barn, so we proceeded straight to the junction where the operator jumped off and threw a switch before moving the streetcar to a side street. He then re-aligned the switch and took the streetcar up the side street to the car barn then pulled out, went down another street to where we re-entered the main line, and travelled to the end of the line so the streetcar could be put back in service. It was really nice to finally see their maintenance facility. I rode the car back downtown then back to the hotel and went to Subway, my first time eating at this chain, before returning to my room and watched a film on HBO before having a good night's rest.

4/1/1996 I was up early and had a large breakfast across the street at Shona's before taking a taxi back to New Orleans Union Station to wait for next train.

I boarded a 60-seat long-distance Amfleet coach and chose a seat on the right, as I usually did. This egment would take me the entire length of the former Southern Railway (now Norfolk Southern) to Washington, DC, and beyond to New York and was the first of the four new routes I planned for this trip, thereby allowing me to continue to reclaim states for my sobriety. I would also be visiting Alabama for the first time, so I would add that to the list of states I have visited.

We departed on time and passed the Superdome before curving past the City of the Dead cemetery to make our way onto the Norfolk Southern then passed through rail junctions and northern New Orleans before reaching the shore of Lake Pontchartrain, which we crossed on a 6.2 mile long wooden trestle barely above the lake level, a very impressive crossing. Once off the bridge, we stopped at Slidell where I went to the lounge car and bought a Southern Crescent coffee mug and received a free cup of tea with it, along with unlimited refills for the rest of the journey. At $4.50, it was a great bargain. East of town, we crossed the Pearl River and entered Mississippi.

At the next stop of Picayune, we approached the station on a siding and I acquired another cup of tea but this time, sat at a table in the Amfleet 2 lounge car, doing a word search puzzle. The conductor came up and informed me that we were waiting on a freight train with engine trouble. I replied that I bet it had a Southern Pacific locomotive on it and the conductor took me up on it, saying that he would buy me a cup of tea if it did, and I would buy him a cup of coffee it it did not. Thirty minutes later, the train appeared with three Southern Pacific engines in the consist. The conductor asked how I knew and I replied that with the problems Southern Pacific had been having, I just knew. As the last car passed, a cup of tea was placed in front of me as we pulled forward and returned to the mainline.

I was discovering that Mississippi was mostly forest with farms cut out of them as we travelled over the rolling landscape crossing Black Creek before arriving at Hattiesburg with Bonhomie & Hattiesburg Southern 2-8-2 300 and other equipment on display. Leaving town, we bridged Leaf River and thirty minutes later, arrived in Laurel then trestled Tallahala Creek and later Chunky Creek, passed Key Field in Meridian, home to Mississippi Air National Guard then entered Meridian, the junction of several railroads, including Kansas City Southern. We proceeded east out of town and entered Alabama.

The first town in Alabama was York and we passed all the stores on Main Street. The Tambigbee River, which is also home to barge traffic, was crossed over on a rather large bridge and we were still travelling through the southern forest before entering a rather large area of cotton production, known as the Black Belt of the South because of the very rich dark soil in the area. We crossed the Black Warrior River before traversing a marshland prior to reaching our next stop at Tuscaloosa.

Upon our departure, we went by the University of Alabama, home of the Crimson Tide, then spotted a new Mercedes Benz plant under construction. We entered the fringes of the Rock Mountains before passing through Bessemer and came upon the southwestern residential suburbs of Birmingham, which changed from affluent to slums as we neared the inner city. Train travel always gives one a safe way to see a city and one advantage of it is that the tracks do not always go through the best parts of a city. We stopped at Amtrak's sation and I detrained while the train was being serviced then departed, going by the University of Alabama Medical Center and by way of the industrial areas before returning to the forest.

The landscape continued to become more rugged as we reached the Beaver Creek Mountains and we crossed the Cahaba River before going through the tunnel in the Chulavista Mountain. I went to the dining car and was seated with a lady going from Birmingham to Atlanta and we were having a nice pre-dinner conversation as the train passed the northern tip of Logan Martin Lake. While I enjoyed a steak off the Crescent menu (at least it was not the dreaded Menu 3), the sun set in a beautiful red sky.

We arrived at Anniston as night took its hold and forty-five minutes later, entered Georgia and I crossed that state off my list then set my watch to that of the Eastern Time Zone. I listening to music and did word fill-in puzzles which passed the time until the train entered a world of lights as we approached Atlanta. The skyline was all lit up and ready to host the Summer Games of the 23rd Olympiad. We arrived at Atlanta an hour late and I again detrained while the train was serviced but this stop included the addition of two coaches and a sleeping car. We departed exactly an hour late, I curled up and fell asleep in my seat and during the night, travelled through South Carolina, North Carolina and part of Virginia.

4/2/1996 The next morning I awoke in central Virginia as we were departing Lynchburg on a high viaduct. I went to the lounge car for tea and cookies where the conductor was performing some magic tricks and was really good. I am always amazed at people who can do that type of thing and sometimes wish I could. We crossed the rolling countryside until we passed the University of Virginia before arriving in Charlottesville. Our recent trek had taken us through the lands of the Civil War and all along the northern end of the Old South are battlefields and other important historical areas. The conductor continued to do more magic tricks and I asked him if, since we were two hours late, could he get us to New York in time for me to catch the southbound Crescent.

He left to do his work at Culpepper and Manassas as I continued to drink my morning teas then returned with the answer of if we get to DC before 10:30 AM, you can take Train 84, which will get you to New York with forty minutes to spare and he would give me a note to explain to the conductor on that train what I was doing. The rest of the magic now rested in the hands of our engineer and the Norfolk Southern dispatcher.

The landscape was becoming more urban as we approached our next station at Alexandria and it looked a though time was on my side. We passed the former Potomac Yard before passing through the glass highrises of Crystal City then crossed the Potomac River and since I was sitting on the right, finally saw the approach to DC from this side. We ducked into the Capitol Tunnel and arrived at Washington Union Station at 10:30. I detrained and went upstairs to give the note to the conductor on Train 84, who was fine with the arrangement and gave me time to retrieve my luggage. I gathered my bags, said goodbye to my fellow passengers from the last twenty-seven hours and detrained, took the the escalator and boarded my magic trick to New York, thanks to the conductor who pulled it off.

We were led by Amtrak AEM-7 924, built by Electro-Motive Division in 1981 and this ten-car trainset started its trip in Newport News, Virginia, where I would be in three days, and ran the entire length of the Northeast Corridor to Boston. This will be my first daylight ride north along this route as far as New York. I settled in to my usual window seat on the right and we departed Washington Union Station on time and accelerated out of town. Amtrak's Ivy City engine terminal was seen before we gained Northeast Corridor track speed, then we passed a train going in the opposite direction at speed and was a unique feeling when that occurs at over one hundred miles per hour. We stopped briefly at New Carrollton, Maryland, so I crossed that state off the list then zipped to BWI (Baltimore-Washington International Airport), before entered the Baltimore and Philadelphia tunnels before arriving at Baltimore Pennsylvania station next to a MARC commuter train bound for DC.

We departed past the lines of row houses and now the train was really at its top speed of 120 miles an hour, quite impressive to be going that fast. We crossed Gunpowder River and within minutes, crossed Bush River then continued our high-speed dash over the long Havre de Grace bridge across the Susquehanna River before entering Delaware, another new state, and travelling to our next station at Wilmington, the only Amtrak stop in that state. Quickly back up to speed, we passed Amtrak's Northeast Maintenance Base before crossing Christina River and Brandywine Creek then a very large steel mill to the east before entering Pennsylvania. We passed through Eddystone, where Baldwin Locomotive Works built steam, electric and diesel locomotives and entered the industrial areas as we approached Philadelphia. The convention center and the University of Pennsylvania's Franklin Field were seen before we arrived at Philadelphia's 30th Street Station on time.

Upon our departure, Zoo Tower was passed, then we crossed the Schuylkill River before travelling through North Philadelphia and crossing the Delaware River into New Jersey then passed the sign over the river that reads "What Trenton Makes The World Takes." We stopped at that city's station before resuming our dash, flying through Princeton Junction then large industrial developments, Metropark and skirted Elizabeth before we arrived at Newark. We crossed the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers as we sped across the New Jersey Meadowlands and the New York skyline stood out impressively against the blue sky before entered the Hudson River Tunnel and once under the middle of the river, I entered the State of New York, crossing off the final state of the day. We popped into the sunlight briefly before we arriving at Penn Station ten minutes early with the magic trick completed. Thank you to the conductor on the northbound Crescent for some excellent magic.

I had a forty-five minute layover so I took the escalator up into what I thought was the Amtrak station, but came out on the Long Island Rail Road level, a floor below Amtrak, so I went down a level to wait for my next train.

I boarded the correct coach and was met inside by the attendant, who asked if I was going to Charlotte and when I replied in the affirmative, he said to choose any seat I wanted. This reclaiming states for my sobriety was really quite fun. We departed Penn Station on time and entered the Hudson River Tunnel which took me back to New Jersey and I was enjoying the scenery on the opposite side of the train as I travelled south. I was listening to music via my headphones on and doing word fill-in puzzles as the train sped along, with only an occasional glance out of the window at the trackside scenery. We made all the stops to Washington, except for BWI, then ran on time all the way to the corridor but at a slower speed than on an Amfleet train. An electric E60 locomotive was pulling our train as these engines pull all the long distance trains while they are under the corridor overhead wire. South of Wilmington, the first call was given for dinner and I wanted to enjoy a meal at high speed. The dining car rode extremely smoothly at corridor track speed and I had steak again, which was prepared very well and it was an enjoyable experience to eat at 115 miles an hour. Once past Baltimore, we passed the outbound MARC trains from Washington, DC before arriving at Washington Union Station, eight minutes early.

I detrained and went upstairs into the station to pick up some MARC and Virginia Rail Express schedules, stopped at the train shop for some reading materials before visiting the post office to mail a postcard, then returned to the train. We left on time, passing all the sites before crossing the Potomac River to escape the urban landscape into the Virginia countryside and the sunset. As the Crescent proceeded into the night, I did word puzzles for about an hour before curling up and falling asleep because of my early morning arrival in Charlotte.

4/3/96 I slept soundly until the conductor woke me up at 4:00 AM with "Charlotte in fifteen minutes". I turned on my reading light, brought my bags down from the overhead rack and packed then twenty-one minutes later, we entered the station in Charlotte, North Carolina, one hour and thirty-two minutes late.

I walked into the modern and efficient Amtrak station and used my three-and-a-half our layover to write postcards, read the newspaper, listen to music and do my word puzzles. At 7:00 AM, when the Amtrak agent arrived, I upgraded my ticket to try Carolina Class Service for my journey to Richmond, Virginia.

I boarded the Carolina Business Class Car located behind the locomotive at the front of the five-car train. Four other passengers joined me in this car and the lounge car attendant came in to distribute morning newspapers to each of us and told us the features of this Carolina Class. There were television monitors set up in the overhead luggage racks that would show two films, the seat is where the headphone jacks are located, with one channel for the films and the other channel is linked to a five-CD deck, on which only one CD can be heard at a time, and our complimentary beverages were located in the lounge car behind our car. Since I was not sleeping on this train, I chose a seat on the left, mainly to keep the bright Carolina sun from blinding me.

We departed on time and I was riding over the same section of former Southern track for the third time on this trip, but this time in full daylight as far as Greensboro. We proceeded up the Norfolk Southern main, passing a southbound freight as we left town and entered the hills and forest of North Carolina. The tracks more or less curved their way to our first stop at Kannapolis then we departed, continuing north on the double tracked main line while I listened to the first of the CDs, which was very middle-of-the-road rock and I enoyed it. We stopped next in Salisbury and three miles later, passed the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, located in the former Southern Railway Spencer Shops, then crossed the Yadkin River before our next stop twenty miles later at High Point. We passed another Norfolk Southern freight then crossed over to meet yet another southbound freight and continued through the forest to our next stop at Greensboro, where we left the Norfolk Southern main line for the rails of the North Carolina Railroad, a state-owned rail corridor. At the first siding, we met the North Carolina state- sponsored Piedmont on its daily Raleigh-to-Charlotte daily run then the CD player switched to the music of Phil Collins.

We had been travelling through the Piedmont portion of North Carolina, which is a plateau that stretches from the Blue Ridge Mountains in the west to the Atlantic Coastal plain in the east, with the boundary between the two called the Fall Line. That name has interested me since Grade 8 at Willard Junior High School in Santa Ana. It is literally where the rivers fall off the Piedmont and onto the coastal plain. Because I was riding this train, I would have a first-hand look and understanding of it as we descended.

We were passing through the heart of tobacco-growing country as we passed many major cigarette plants this morning. A little further on, the train passed the textile industries in the town of Burlington, one of three towns on the Amtrak system with the same name. The other two are located in Iowa and Vermont. From Burlington, the train descended and wound its way past the Haw River with the Cone Fabrics plant located next to the tracks, then we passed through Mebane and Hillsborough in the midst of the forest before going by more tobacco companies and entering Durham, where there was a well-patronized station stop. Leaving town, we passed Research Triangle Park then it was back to the woods until we passed North Carolina State University and then Central Prison before entering the rails of CSX and arrived at Raleigh.

Amtrak F40PH 316, built by Electro-Motive Division in 1979 on the point of our train. I was almost left behind as I was attempting to buy a T-shirt and no boarding call was made. We proceeded east back into the woods and passed more tobacco farms then the film "Angus" started as we made our way to Selma and Wilson before we travelling through the CSX yard and arriving at Rocky Mount and I was enjoying the film so did not pay much attention to our route. We crossed the Tar and Roanoke Rivers, where I did glance out of my window because of the different sound the train made when it was on a bridge. The film ended and I gave it a nine out of then, after which the second film was started but I did not catch the title, although it was about four ladies who relive their childhood and teen years and it was quite poor so only rated a two.

We entered Virginia while traversing Meherrin River then slowed for the CSX yards before crossing the Appomattox River and arrived in Petersburg. From here on, the forest continued with the odd farm thrown in for a mere diversion, after which we passed Fort Gregg-Adams then reached the southern suburbs of Richmond, the state capital of Virginia. The Carolinian crossed James River before passing through the CSX yard and arrived at Staples-Mill station. I detrained, bought and mailed a postcard, bought a newspaper and sat out in the warm spring sunshine.

The Tropicana Juice Train, led by CSXT GP40-2 6233, nee Balitmore and Ohio 4334, built by Electro-Motive Division in 1979, while I waited for my next train, which was forty minutes late. Before it arrived, the Silver Star stopped on its overnight journey on the way to Florida.

I boarded a very crowded train that had travelled the entire length of the Northeast Corridor and after walking two coaches, managed to find a window seat on the right. The train was abuzz about a lunar eclipse and that a Japanese satellite would be visible. From reading the Richmond newspaper, I learnt that during the height of the eclipse, the comet Hyakutake would be at its best visibility and I realized the passengers were referring to the comet as if it were a satellite because of its Japanese name.

We curved off the CSX main line to Florida and onto new trackage as we proceeded through an older part of Richmond and I saw the former Seaboard station to the right as we ascended to a viaduct before passing the remains of Main Street Station. Then the unique and singular Triple Crossing was traversed, the bottom level built in 1859 for the Richmond & York River/Southern Railway, the middle in 1900 for the Richmond, Petersburg & Carolina/Seaboard Air Line and the top, whose tracks we were riding, built in 1901 for the Chesapeake & Ohio. This was featured on the cover of 1983 Trains Magazine. We then crossed over a drawbridge and returned to ground level at CSX's Fulton Yard.

Once out of Richmond proper, we passed the Nabisco Bakery followed by the runway of Richmond International Airport then out through a marshland in the last light of the day before going through Providence Forge. We ran by a very large tree farm and passed the boats docked on the Chickahominy River before arriving at Williamsburg. Leaving town, we passed the Busch Gardens Theme Park then travelled through Lees Hall and crossed over part of the city's reservoir prior to running through more miles of forest to the outskirts of Newport News, arriving at the small-but-functional Newport News station, with another segment of rail travelled across and completed. I had seen some new and interesting countryside which I enjoyed.

I detrained and went straight to the taxi for a return ride up the highway into town to the Relax Inn. The driver gave me his company's card so I could call for a cab for tomorrow morning since cab companies here were very busy in the morning hours so I would call later tonight. I went to my room and freshened up before watching the total lunar eclipse. At the height of the event, to the right of the darkened moon, was the brilliant view of the comet Hyakutake with its tail showing nicely and wished that I could be sharing this with Maureen Angle, that most wonderful science teacher at McFadden Intermediate School in Santa Ana, whom I work with. I felt very lucky as I had taken the train to this place for the first time and witnessed the eclipse and comet. I stood in the hotel's doorway for over an hour-and-a-half before calling for the cab for the morning and home to Santa Ana, then watched a few minutes of television before turning in for the night.

4/4/96 I received a good night's sleep before awakening for a walk to MacDonald's for breakfast then returned to the room to watch a little morning television before the taxi arrived and I checked out.

I asked the taxi driver to drop me off opposite the station as Chesapeake and Ohio 2-8-4 2756, built by Lima Locomotive Works in 1947, was on display in Huntington Park, donated to the city in 1963. After crossing the busy street, I waited for my train which came down the far side of an abandoned railyard before reversing into the station and was the same consist that had bought me herelast night.

I boarded on a bright and sunny morning for the journey to Washington, DC and chose the same seat. The train was fairly crowded with quite a few passengers ticketed all the way to Boston and we departed on schedule and would travel the same route as last night, but this morning's trip was naturally going to be in the daylight. When I am on a route where I am travelling in the reverse direction within a short period of time, I always relaxed and watch the countryside pass by. We stopped at Williamsburg, where many passengers boarded then followed our path back to Richmond, where a large number detrained. Since I was riding in an Amfleet coach, I felt for a moment as if I was on a San Diegan train back in California, but am on the wrong coast and Virginia looks nothing like the Golden State.

At Richmond, the entire coachload of passengers detrained to enjoy a smoking break and upon their return, were seemingly happier than before and were now extremely talkative. Departing on schedule, we sped up the double tracked CSX main line through the small Virginia towns and forest. My new seatmate was a loqacious fellow on his way to Philadelphia and discovering that I was from California, dubbed me as "Bringer of Good Weather." I asked him to explain and it turned out that until my arrival here three days ago to this part of the country, they were still embracing the nasty wet weather of winter and my arrival to the northeast changed all that. I explained how I had no power over the weather and that my only claim of fame is the fact that I am a train rider, not a weather god. He just laughed at that for a few minutes before we discussed sports, the government, music and other trivial matters. We spanned the Pamunkey and Mattaponi Rivers before arriving at Fredericksburg then continued our dash north, crossing another inlet from the Potomac River before stopping at Quantico, home of the huge Marine base. We went over more inlets of the Potomac River before reaching Alexandria then passed Crystal City, crossed the Potomac, entered Washington, DC, rode through the Capitol Tunnel and arrived at Washington Union Station on time.

There was just over two hours between my trains and I had a plan, so stored my bags in the new and improved lockers before walking around the US Capitol building and as I walked out of the station and looked towards the Capitol, noticed that all of the cherry trees were in bloom with white blossoms, which fulfilled one of my personal dreams. I walked through the parklands, admiring these most beautiful trees and thinking how lucky I was to be seeing all of this after last night's lunar eclipse and comet.

After photographing the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Memorial behind, I went for an extended walk back to Union Station with many more cherry trees then went downstairs to the food court and chose a roast beef deli sandwich then returned to the Grand Hall and bought and mailed postcards before retrieving my bags from the locker. On the way back to the gate for my next train, I spotted a luggage shop and decided to replace the bag that had ripped in Chicago which I had been carrying around with me ever since. I purchased a new bag and went to wait patiently for my next train, the Silver Star.

This train arrived from New York City and the sleeping car passengers were boarded first so since I was in a Slumbercoach, could board early. My car was the last of a fourteen-car train but I enjoyed the walk, not knowing how much longer Amtrak was keeping these unique cars in service. I boarded my car to find Room 3 was on the lower level on the right. I had experienced three Slumbercoaches on this route and was always assigned to rooms on the right.

We departed Washington Union Station on time and now having been over this route from here to Raleigh, there was not much new. Passing Lorton, the Autotrain was preparing to leave and this time at Richmond, I detrained to stretch my legs then I had dinner in the dining car which was fried chicken and prepared excellently. Something new is the 'Dinner-To-Go' service that is provided to the coach passengers. The coach attendant takes your order and you are given a time to go and pay, then take it back to your seat to eat, thus allowing the dining car staff to serve a greater number of passenger. I saw that several coach passengers use this service.

Also new was that the coach cars were set up with television monitors similar to those on the Carolinian Business Class and were showing cartoons and films to the coach passengers who cared to view. Headphones are provided and one can only hear the sound if you wear them. At least that is how it is supposed to work. What I noticed was that people took them off, they did not unplug them, so anyone could hear the soundtrack and I was glad I was not riding coach this segment. I returned to my room with a couple of ginger ales but this time, enjoy my room dark with the view of sunset turning into that of night. I loved the peacefulness that this room gave as I listened to music while the train travelked in the night. We entered North Carolina and I realized that tomorrow morning, I would be in Florida but still had the rest of the night through South Carolina and Georgia. I made my bed and fell fast asleep slumbering in my Slumbercoach.

4/5/1996 The next morning I awoke in Jacksonville and could now cross Florida off of my list. The Silver Star splits in Jacksonville so the front half departed to Tampa via Orlando and once that section departed, the remainder of our train was re-coupled. I learned that we had freight train problems during the night and we left Jacksonville an hour-and-a-half late. The offending freight train pulled a drawbar and we waited behind him at a siding for a local locomotive from Savannah to pull the rear of his train into the siding to set off the offending car, before the front of the freight train reversed onto his train and off they went, with some time-sensitive cargo. We then followed him all the way to Jacksonville.

We rounded the Honeymoon wye then passed through the CSX yard and the countryside turned into pine forest with the occasional palm trees thrown in with the low areas being marshy. Once away from the coast, the landscape became undulating with ranches and dairy farms. We stopped at Waldo, near Gainsville and the University of Florida then passed through the intermittent forest and since I was on the rear of the train, spent some time riding the back platform of the car and watching the tangent single track route. We crossed many streams and off to the right, I saw Lochloosa Lake, then we passed a horse farm with a full-sized race track before arriving at Ocala. Upon departure, we sped down the middle of the Sunshine State to Wildwood and entered the Florida citrus belt, passing Dade City in the process before we approaching the junction with the Tampa line, heading west, while we turned east to another junction at Auburndale to turn south and my stop at Winter Haven, where I detrained from my Slumbercoach and the Silver Star.

The Silver Star at Winter Haven and upon its departure, I wondered if that was the last Slumbercoach I would ever ride.

I spotted a locomotive in a siding so went to investigate and found Florida Midland Railroad CF-7 63, ex. Arkansas Midland 637, exx. Florida Midland 2637, exx. Florida Central 2637, nee Santa Fe F7A 246C, built by Electro-Motive Division in 1951. It turned out that I had photographed this locomotive in the 1970's in Santa Ana. With a two-hour wait in front of me, I went into the station on a somewhat overcast spring day and since the station sold Amtrak T-shirts, bought a Florida Service, Silver Service and Sunset Limited shirts then did my word search puzzles while the station agent cleaned around me and a heavy rainfall occurred but it did not last long and the sun popped back out warming the air to a very comfortable temperature. As a result, I sat outside in the Florida sunshine to wait for the train that would take me all the way across the United States back to Los Angeles.

I boarded the Sunset Limited bound for Los Angeles, my 26th state in which I hav reclaimed for my sobriety since ceasing to drink on January 18th, 1995. We proceeded north, passing through the junction at Auburndale but this time, turned east through the orange groves before arriving at Kissimmee, the closet stop to Disney World. We departed there through more orange groves before arriving at Orlando then came upon our next station of Winter Park, near Lake Tohopekaliga. There were overhead wires as we travelled up the east side of Florida to Sanford, where Amtrak's Auto Train has its southern terminus, then we crossed St. Johns River between Sanford and Deland, then recrossed it once more before Palatka. I went to the dining car for dinner and ordered steak while we crossed a tributary of St. Johns River and passed a coal-fired generating station and a large dairy farm then bridged the Ortega River as night took control of the sky before viewing the skyline of Jacksonville from the lounge car.

We reversed into Jacksonville station, a few miles from downtown and I detrained to enjoy the night-time air of the Sunshine State. There as an on-time departure and tonight's film was "Father of the Bride Part II" and watched it as we proceeded west for the Florida panhandle through the night. Rating it an eight out of ten, the film ended west of Madison but I decided to stay up until Tallahassee, the capital of Florida, before returning to my seat and sleeping peacefully as the train continued its westward journey.

4/6/1996 I woke up to an overcast misty morning in Alabama just before we stopped in Atmore then continued through miles of southern forest interspersed with the odd farm here and there. Our next station stop was Bay Minnette, where a CSX freight was waiting for us. I learned that during the night, we waited for three CSX freights which explained our hour and thirty minute tardiness this morning. We crossed the Tensaw and Alabama Rivers on drawbridges while I made my way to the dining car for breakfast then crossed the Mobile River on another drawbridge and my breakfast arrived just as we traversed the Big Bayou Canot bridge, the same bridge from which the Sunset Limited derailed in 1993 after a barge hit the bridge supports. It was Amtrak's worst accident with 47 deaths and I was here this morning eating breakfast as we crossed over it.

We navigated over Bayou Sara, the Chickasaw River and Three Mile Creek before arriving at Mobile then passed the airport on our way out of town and twenty minutes later, entered Mississippi and five minutes after that, arrived at Pascagoula. We trestled the Pascaqoula River then sprinted through the forest to where we bridged Biloxi Bay prior to arriving in Biloxi, which like all the gulf towns in this state, are now all into gambling. We passed by Keesler Air Force Base on the way to Gulfport where we stopped briefly and fifteen minutes later, the Sunset Limited made its way out onto the two-mile long trestle over the waters of the Bay of St. Louis and I could see out into the Mississippi Sound, which was really part of the Gulf of Mexico. We stopped at Bay St. Louis and after passing the elevated houses over the bay, crossed Pearl River and entered Louisiana.

Off in the Gulf were offshore oil rigs then we travelled through a grassy, yet very wet, lowlands. The area that drained Lake Pontchartrain was to the right with Lake Borgne and the Gulf to the left. The low clouds prevented me from seeing across Lake Pontchartrain but it was still an impressive sight. We crossed the Chef Menteur Pass, a ship canal that connects both lakes then once we were on terra firma again, we ran along the shore of Lake Pontchartrain, passing the John C. Stennis Space Centre, after which the New Orleans skyline came into view. We circled around the northern part of town and went through various railroad junctions before passing the City of the Dead (the above- ground cemetery) and the train wyed then reversed past the Amtrak maintenance facility before arriving in New Orleans only twenty minutes late, thanks to heavy padding in the schedule.

During the nearly three-hour layover, I detrained to buy and mail postcards and bought a sandwich with cookies for lunch before returning to an empty train. The on-board crew switched here so my car attendant gave the car a quick cleaning and I had an hour-and-a-half nap. Since I had been here only a week ago and did all I planned, I took it easy and still had 2,033 more miles to go until Los Angeles, having travelled 618 miles. I awoke refreshed and the new car attendant introduced herself.

We departed on time and proceeded out of town by way of the Huey Long Bridge that took us high over the Mississippi River and provided one last fantastic view of the skyline. We passed high above a roundabout before reaching the ground at Southern Pacific's Avondale Yard then crossed the Atchafalaya Basin, a series of streams that allow the excess waters of the Mississippi River and its side rivers to the west a way to reach the Gulf of Mexico without flooding the urban areas in and around New Orleans. This system was the reason for most of the bayous that we would be crossing in the next three hours; the first was Bayou Lafourche and its swamps, followed by the sugar cane fields then over Blue Bayou before we reached our next stop at Schriever.

West of town, we crossed the Chacahoula Swamps prior to reaching an offshore oil rig assembly plant then arrived at Morgan City before being stopped by a red signal at the bridge over the Atchafalaya River. There was no public address announcement to explain our forty-five minute delay but once on the move, we trestled over Bayou Teche and passed an above-ground cemetery reaching New Iberia then travelled by miles of sugar cane fields before crossing the Vermilion River and arrived at Lafayette. West of town, we passed rice fields before bridging the Bayou Cannes and Nezpique then the call for dinner was made and we arrived at Lake Charles. I ordered steak, sitting alone at a table in the dining car, as we crossed the Calcasieu River and I watched the countryside pass in the last light of the day. I was enjoying my meal as we went over the Sabine River and entered Texas under the cover of night and we should leave that state tomorrow mid-afternoon, if all goes according to plan. I watched a rerun of "Father of the Bride Part 2" then returned to my coach seat knowing that I would fall asleep in Texas and wake up again in Texas, God willing!

4/7/1996 I awoke outside of Del Rio and by the time I was functioning, we had left town with the Rio Grande River to the southwest and on the other side, Mexico. We crossed a branch of the Amistad Reservoir, made from the damming of the Rio Grande River which flooded the adjacent canyons. There was a slow order from an earlier Southern Pacific freight train derailment and the scenery was nothing but desert, but would exhibit slight changes in vegetation as we climbed into the mountains to the west. We rounded a long "S" curve before crossing the Pecos River High Bridge, 321 feet above the impressive canyon then passed through Langtry, of Judge Roy Beam fame, before following a canyon to Sanderson.

Departing here two-and-a-half hours late, the Train Chief stopped by to let me know that yesterday, the high bridge cost them forty minutes, then last night, three freight trains delayed us between Houston and San Antonio for an hour-and-a-half and that last slow order delayed us for fifteen but with the padding in the schedule, the time should be made up. The scenery changed to more mountains as we continued to ascend, passing freight trains travelling in both directions before we reached Alpine, where the dining car was watered. The name 'Alpine' was deceiving, but just to the west is the highest point on the entire Sunset Route, Paisano Pass, at 5,074 feet. The train twisted and turned up the narrow canyon to reach the summit before we descended the west side and once cleared of the mountains, I returned to my seat for a well-deserved nap after watching so much exciting West Texas scenery.

I awoke to see the former Missouri Pacific tracks joining ours at Sierra Blanca. The mountains to the north are also called the Sierra Blanca, as the train's route turned due west towards El Paso, passing cotton fields and groves of pecans. As we reached the eastern areas of El Paso, we passed a Mobil Refinery and other industries before going through Southern Pacific's yards and following the trench through downtown to the Amtrak station, one hour and thirty- three minutes late.

I detrained to mail a post card then enjoyed the warm West Texas sun as the train was serviced done. We departed with Juarez, Mexico across and up the hills beyond the Rio Grande River. The Sunset travelled between the massive Southwest Portland Cement plant and the Asarco refinery before crossing the Rio Grande River and entering New Mexico. We then climbed through the hills and within fifty feet of Mexico where buildings made out of cardboard were within a stone's throw of the border. We finished our ascent before we sprinted to Deming, while the Train Chief played the trivia game and I won another Sunset Limited T-shirt for answering the question of how many states does the Sunset Limited go through on its transcontinental trip, which is eight.

We passed the old coaling tower and arrived at Deming then once underway again, my reservation time for dinner was called so I ordered my final steak of the trip and ate at sunset with the train living up its name. I bypassed the film as it was the same and returned to my seat to do word search puzzles and listen to music as we entered Arizona then fell fast asleep after Benson and did not wake up until I was back in California.

4/8/1996 I awoke as the train passed Banning and when we reached Apex, the top of San Gorgonio Pass, a few minutes later, started our descent through Beaumont and San Timiteo Canyon as the sun rose. At the bottom of the canyon, we emerged into the San Bernardino Valley and crossed the Santa Ana River before climbing the short hill to West Colton Yard then sped west, stopping at Ontario and Pomona before we travelling through Industry and down the middle of the San Bernardino Freeway. We then curved along the Los Angeles River before crossing it and arriving at Los Angeles Union Station, ending my transcontinental trip on the Sunset Limited a little under two hours late.

We arrived in time for me to catch San Diegan 772 home to Santa Ana and it was an uneventful trip which got me home in time to work half a day at McFadden Intermediate.

RETURN TO THE MAIN PAGE