[?]

A Cross-Country Trip to Rutland, Vermont 6/12-23/1997

Since I had completed the Amtrak system last August, Amtrak added a new train in December to Rutland, Vermont, named the Ethan Allen Express. Everyone I had talked to wondered what was in Rutland, since none of us had ever been there, so I had a new destination. I had planned on completing the rest of the Amtrak system sober, but unfortunately could not get a train to Miami or the Kansas City-to-St. Louis segment without a seven-day layover in Kansas City for a seat on the Southwest Chief. On June 12, 1997, I finished my last day of school working at McFadden Intermediate and late afternoon found me packed and ready on the station platform at Santa Ana awaiting my train.

I boarded this train for the journey to Los Angeles and found a seat in an Amcafé car, which gave me a front row seat to the heavy drinking activities of four groups of passengers was as a reminder of my former self. As they left the train at Anaheim for the baseball game, I cleaned up their areas back to my high standards then detrained at Los Angeles, walked over to Metrolink 608 and briefly talked to Leonard, an Amtrak engineer and a key player in the San Diego branch of Operation Lifesaver, then went into the station and started the queue for the Southwest Chief.

I boarded a Superliner coach and chose a window seat on the right, my preferred location, then a nice gentleman who was going all the way to Washington, DC sat next to me. I started reading John Grisham's "Runaway Jury" and we departed on time and I finished the first four chapters after we passed Fullerton. I called it a night, curled up in my coach seat with my Amtrak blanket over me and fell fast asleep.

6/13/1997 The next morning, I was off to the lounge car for a breakfast of tea and chocolate chip cookies while I watched the Northern Arizona scenery west of Seligman. It was a beautiful bright morning as the train climbed towards the Arizona Divide then at Williams, I saw the Grand Canyon Railway's steam engine being prepared for its run to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. We arrived at Flagstaff on time and I picked up a copy of USA Today which made me a very popular person in the coach. Just before crossing Canyon Diablo, I returned to my book and spent most of the rest of the day reading and glancing out of the window every so often. I had never read a book that I could not put down and this was the first Grisham novel I had read, given to me by Peter Televik, a Lead Service Attendant on the San Diegan line.

Once in New Mexico, I broke for lunch before returning to my reading and before I knew it, the train had crossed the Rio Grande River and was almost to Albuquerque, where I mailed a postcard and photographed the train. We departed an hour late and I resumed my reading as we proceeded north up the Rio Grande Valley. As the train neared Lamy, I returned to the lounge car for Apache Canyon and Glorieta Pass until my dinner reservation time was called, where I enjoyed a nice New York strip steak then returned to the lounge car watching the rainbows in the northern New Mexico sky. We stopped in Raton for two passengers then climbed the south side of Raton Pass, plunged into the summit tunnel and upon exiting, entered Colorado before the train became a silvery snake, twisting and turning down Raton's steeper north side. There were many times that you can see both ends of the train at the same time that a child lost count of every time he saw the end of the train. We stopped at Trinidad just as the sun set and sped eastward to La Junta, a crew change point and an extended fresh air stop. Once back onboard, I turned in and received my second good night's sleep of this trip.

6/14/1997 Awaking in Kansas, we were nearing Kansas City as the train was passing through Santa Fe's Argentine Yard before it crossed into Missouri and stopped in Kansas City. I went into the station then back aboard, went to the lounge car and continued this extremely engrossing book as we travelled through several railroad junctions before running along the Missouri River and crossing it on a high single track bridge at Sibley. As the train was crossing the green hills of Missouri, we bypassed Marceline, which used to be a stop but due to lack of patronage, Amtrak ceased serving that town last year, and only stops in Kansas City and La Plata in the Show Me State. We had been moving along at top speed all morning and soon entered Iowa, saw the Mississippi River and arrived at Fort Madison on time.

We crossed the Mississippi River on the Santa Fe swing bridge and entered Illinois then as we neared Galesburg, I was about to start the last chapter when I put the book down to start to look for the Cameron Crossing. In 1854, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad arrived in the town of Galesburg, nine miles northeast of Cameron, followed by the Santa Fe Railway in the second half of the 1880s. The two railroads had two separate stations in Galesburg, with the Burlington station, which serviced trains such as the Nebraska Zephyr, Denver Zephyr and California Zephyr, being located on Seminary Street, and the Santa Fe station, which serviced trains including the Super Chief and El Capitan, located a few blocks northwest on North Broad Street. Continuing west, the two tracks intersected at Cameron, with the Santa Fe, heading southwest, crossing over the Burlington route, which headed directly west.

In 1995, the Burlington Northern, itself the product of a 1970 merger of the CB&Q, Great Northern, Northern Pacific and Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railways, merged with the Santa Fe to form the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, later renamed the BNSF Railway. With the anticipated that merger, it became necessary to connect Burlington Northern's Ottumwa Subdivision to the Santa Fe's Chillicothe Subdivision, the latter of which became part of the BNSF's Southern Transcon Route. Work began in 1995 and was completed on May 29, 1996.

Prior to the building of the connector, the Southwest Chief operated on the Chillicothe Subdivision to Galesburg, via Joliet, Streator and Chillicothe. The building of the connector enabled the Southwest Chief to be rerouted onto the BNSF's Mendota Subdivision, used by the California Zephyr and a couple of short-distance inter-city Amtrak trains via Naperville, Mendota and Princeton. Southwest Chief service to Streator and Chillicothe was dropped as part of the realignment, although Joliet continued to see Amtrak service from other trains. The Chief rerouting through the Connector to the Mendota Sub tracks caused Amtrak to concentrate all of its Galesburg operations in the present station, and the station building along the former Santa Fe line was closed and later demolished.

All my previous trips on the Southwest Chief had been 'Santa Fe All The Way' so the Cameron Crossing would be the first new piece of trackage. We crossed over the Burlington Northern mainline then curved onto new trackage, making an "S" and travelling about a mile then returning to my friendly BN mainline for the trip towards the Windy City. I finished the book just after Galesburg and ended my ride on the Southwest Chief with an on-time arrival at Chicago Union Station.

Between my two Amtrak trains, I had two Gold Coast Char Dogs before riding Metra to Elgin and back, with the highlight being seeing the Danish IC3 diesel multiple unit train in trial service between Chicago and Milwaukee.

When I booked this trip, I decided to ride it in reverse of what I did previously on my first cross-country trip so as to maximize my daylight running on the route of the Cardinal and to see the New River Gorge in West Virginia, this time in broad daylight. I had been looking forward to returning sober to this route and being so near the Summer Solstice, I would be getting near the maximum amount of daylight, this time aboard a Superliner train.

We departed Chicago on time and I met a railfan from Wisconsin who was traveling to Charlottesville, Virginia and neither of us knew the route the Cardinal took to get to Dyer, Indiana. My guess was that we would travel on the former Chicago and Eastern Illinois, now Union Pacific. I went to the lounge car to buy a Sprite and a Cardinal coffee mug then once past Comiskey Park, we went to the junction where the Conrail and Amtrak lines turn east, while we stayed on the route used by the Orland Park commuter trains before we branched off them. I suddenly found myself on a longer section of new track than I had expected and we passed through some major railroad crossings on the way to Dolton, Illinois and the Union Pacific yard there before entering Indiana, where we stopped at Dyer. I called it a night after the brief stop there, since I was on the same route I had ridden in 1990 and slept the night away.

6/15/1997 I awoke at Cincinnati, Ohio while the train was in the station, prepared myself for the day and enjoyed the views as we departed. We passed downtown Cincinnati, Riverfront Stadium and since we were on an elevated viaduct, I was able to see some of the damage from the flooding of the Ohio River this last spring and I was glad that all the towns along the Ohio River had flood walls to minimize the damage. We crossed up and over the Ohio River and entered Kentucky.

The railfan and I decided to have breakfast in the dining car but the limited menu did not appeal to me and was told that the dining car had just returned to the train and a more complete menu would be coming next week. That was fine for then, but for now, I was back to the lounge car for some tea and cookies before I chose a riverside seat in the upper level of the lounge car that would be mine for the whole morning. As the train travelled along the south shore of the Ohio River, I began to notice that all the electrical generating stations were in Ohio across the river and they received their fuel from river barges. On the Kentucky side, there were several coal car unloading facilities from hoppers to barges. The train made good time on this water level route, running about half an hour late as we had lost time as I slumbered last night. We stopped at Maysville and South Portsmouth before a crew change occured and the train was watered at Corbin, Kentucky, a stop not included in the schedule.

We passed through the CSX yards and several steel mills which preceded our next station stop of Catlettsburg than had to reverse two miles to a crossover due to a westbound CSX freight train on the same track. We continued east into West Virginia and left the water level route of the Ohio River. At Huntington, we picked up our travel guides who provided a scenic commentary to White Sulpher Springs, and the first item they pointed out was a recent wreck scene that the CSX had just two days ago, where one CSX freight train had rear-ended another.

We made our way to our next station stop of Charleston, the state capital, with its golden dome on top of the capitol itself. This is where the route became interesting as the train first travelled along the south bank of the Kanawha River, stopping at Montgomery, until the junction with the New River, then the canyon walls started to become higher and the vegetation increased. I was enjoying a hot dog as we passed through several small towns and the guide pointed out Lover's Leap and we crossed the New River to run through the gorge on the north side, but lost the highway just before Hawk's Nest State Park and plunged into the New River Gorge. I really liked the Superliner lounge car with their floor-to-ceiling windows when passing through scenery such as this and with an against-the-gorge wall seat, it gave me a wonderful view of the rocks and layers that made up the gorge and I wished Maureen Angle, the science teacher I work with at McFadden Intermediate, was with me as she would be in heaven.

The river was quiet at this point so we had just the train, the gorge walls and the descending waters of the New River. The next scenic highlight was the US Highway 19 bridge, otherwise known as the New River Gorge Bridge, which is the world'ss longest single-span steel arch bridge with a center span of 1,700 feet and a total length of 3,030 feet. It was here that I saw bungee jumpers for the first time in 1990 and learned that on the third Saturday in October, the bridge was opened to pedestrians who watch people bungee jumping and parachuting off it. I noticed river access just beyond the bridge and once past, the river came alive with rafters, canoes and kayakers, much to the amazement and happiness of our passengers and I just sat back and looked across the car at all the river activities. We passed a set of rapids with the passengers oohing and aahing as the watercraft made their way through them. Normally, the riders wave at the train, but through the rapids, they do not as they are holding on for dear life.

We passed through the flag stop at Thurmond as I moved back to my coach river-side seat and had a seatmate for the first time on this trip, an older woman going from Charleston to Washington, DC, who was knitting. She said that she has been over this route twenty times and knew it like the back of her hand, so she knits and was hoping to have it finished by DC, since it was a gift for a close friend. The train followed the river's bend, passing more rapids, to our next station stop at Prince then once past there, we met several westbound CSX freights as the New River turned east before rounding a large bend to the south. We crossed under Interstate 64 then passed Sandstone and Brook Falls prior to our next stop at Hinton. Once we departed, we left the New River and followed the Greenbrier River as our route followed it east, gaining elevation and passing near the bronze statue of John Henry, which towers over the entrance to the Great Bend railroad tunnel near Talcott. John Henry died from a race with the steam drill, during construction of the tunnel for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company.

With a sober passage through the New River behind me, I decided to nap as the excitement of the day had caught up with me, so I slept for about an hour through the flag stop of Alderson and awoke as the train arrived at White Sulpher Springs and I was completely refreshed. After ascending all day, we passed through the summit tunnel of the Appalachian Mountains and entered Virginia before starting the descent to Clifton Forge, a crew-change point, then arrived a moment before our sister train, so we sat for a few minutes as I watched CSX freights in the yard.

We departed Clifton Forge one-and-a-half hours late and I went back to the lounge car and after about twenty minutes, we came upon a section of track which caused us to creep over, making us two hours late by our next station stop of Staunton, home to the Virginia Central Railroad with its pair of steam locomotives. The funny thing about that delay was that a truck on a side road could not go any faster than the train due to the road conditions. We departed then climbed a ridge, passed through a tunnel and exited to an excellent view of the valley below through the trees, then slowly wound our way off the ridge onto the gentle rolling foothills. My mind turned to the Civil War and all the battles that were fought between the North and South in Virginia. We entered Charlottesville and passed the University of Virginia before crossing the former Southern Railway (now Norfolk Southern) main line and arrived at the station that serves both lines. We stayed on CSX rails crossing the Rivanna River before reaching Orange, Virginia and the former Southern main line which we would take all the way to Washington, DC.

The train made a brief stop at Culpepper before continuing up the mainline at the highest speeds of the day, enabling us to make up some time, and passed the Virginia Rail Express trains in overnight storage before arriving at Manassas. The sun slowly set as we travelled at a rapid pace to Alexandria, arriving there just after dark. The Potomac yard was now a thing of the past with urban development occuring where rails once stood. We then passed the Crystal City area, crossed the Potomac River and entered Washington, DC, a beautiful sight all lit up against the nighttime sky and it was the arrival here that I had had. We plunged into the Capitol Tunnel and arrived at Washington Union Station one hour and twenty minutes late, with this route reclaimed for my sobriety.

I detrained from the Cardinal, went upstairs into the station to call home and to mail a postcard before boarding a 78-seat Amfleet car on the Night Owl to Boston. Once in my seat, I wished I had paid for a sleeper and if I ever do this again, I will. The coach filled up and once underway, I curled up and went to sleep until Philadelphia where crews are changed and the new conductor woke everyone up in single seats to inform us he was expecting many passengers, who of course never showed. He also used the public address system all the way to New York City which disturbed everyone, as well as turning on all the lights, apparently so he could see better.

6/16/1997 Once we arrived in New York, the crew changed again and this time a female conductor apologized to each passenger for the trip from Philadelphia, allowed everyone to stretch out in the empty seats and to have a pleasant night's sleep. We, the passengers, had a good laugh and a quick discussion about our journey so far then I stayed awake through the East River Tunnel, passed Sunnyside Yard and over Hell's Gate Bridge with an outstanding night-time view of the entire New York City skyline before I fell fast asleep. I slept through New Haven, another crew change and awoke in Providence, Rhode Island where I prepared myself for the day before we departed. An MBTA, commonly known as "T", commuter train departed in front of us so it was announced that we would arrive in Boston at 8:30 AM. So much for going back to New York via Springfield as I needed to reclaim the Boston-to-Springfield segment for my sobriety, as I was doing on this trip from New York to Boston.

Amtrak 95, the Old Dominion, flew by southbound, followed by the dispatcher running us around that commuter train and we returned to high-speed running. The installation of overhead poles for the future electrification project between New Haven and Boston would allow for higher speeds than between New York and Washington. We made our station stop at Route 128, where there was a platform full of commuters waiting for their train, and by the time we reached Boston's Back Bay Station, we were on time. It was a very short trip to South Station and we arrived in Boston also on schedule. The Night Owl did exactly what it was supposed to do and I walked off very impressed.

I could not get a ticket on Train 145 because of the six minute connection, but was told that it would be all right if I rode it back to New York, which would save me having to come back here again to do the Boston-to-Palmer segment. I walked all the way down the length of the platform on Track 12 and around to Track 3 to find the conductor to ensure my plan was agreeable with him. He said that it would be fine and I boarded the Bay State, choosing a seat on the left. We departed Boston on schedule, so it was a very brief visit to the hometown of the Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins. The only thing that I noticed different from my last trip here was that a building had been constructed over the platforms at South Station. We emerged into daylight and curved to the west with the Boston skyline standing to the north and ran the mile to Back Bay Station.

Our assistant conductor was making her first trip and Michelle D. took her first two tickets before I handed her my booklet of tickets. I introduced myself and explained that these tickets were a series of See America tickets before I told her a little about myself. I did not know who was more impressed, Michelle, or our head conductor, as he had to inspect and read off every ticket's destination so all the other passenger could hear where I had been and where I was going. Later on, Michelle was amazed by the coincidence that the third ticket she would take was mine and she now knew what a See America set of tickets looked like. I hope she had a wonderful future with Amtrak.

The Bay State passed a block behind Fenway Park, complete with its Green Monster, in a baseball park I have always dreamed of going to. We were proceeding out on the double track mainline against the flow of morning "T" commuter rush-hour trains and stopped first at Framingham. I went to the café car for breakfast and received a Northeast Direct lounge car playing game card and won ten percent off my next Northeast Direct trip and wondered if I would be back here by September 30th. Not likely. Once west of the station, we saw our last "T" train and we were out into the open rolling New England countryside, passing a couple of lakes and small towns before we arrived at Worcester where I saw some locomotives of the Providence and Worcester Railroad. We crossed the Blackstone River, climbed out of its valley then on the way to Springfield, the Bay State crossed two more river valleys. We made a couple of broad turns before I saw the tracks of the New England Central converging in from the southeast. We were now at Palmer, Massachusetts and another section of sober trackage complete. The train handled the rest of the miles to Springfield quickly, a large difference from my last trip here.

We departed on time and followed the Connecticut River south towards New Haven and after about ten minutes, crossed the Connecticut River and stayed on the west side all the way to New Haven, then paused at Windsor Locks as we had just entered Connecticut, but no passengers boarded, so we proceeded to Windsor where I acquired a seatmate who was traveling to Washington, DC to visit friends before returning to New York tonight in order to fly to Italy to work for three months. He was very excited to be going and asked me all sorts of questions about Amtrak before we both listened to our own brands of music. The Bay State next stopped at Hartford with the very English-looking Capitol before making its scheduled station stops at Berlin, Meridian and Wallingford. We arrived on time at New Haven and performed the engine change from diesel to electric for the journey to New York City, which gave me an opportunity stretch my legs and see the AEM-7 electric engine.

I had never been on a train between New Haven and New York in daylight so was looking forward to this. We first saw a Connecticut Transit commuter train in a wonderful former New Haven paint scheme, followed by a Metro-North commuter train from Grand Central Station in New York City. We were then plagued by track work all the way down the corridor to New York since there are two times in the day that track work can be performed, either in the middle of the day between rush hours or in the middle of the night. We stopped at Bridgeport, where Lucy and Ricky moved to in "I Love Lucy" then crossed several inlets and curved to our next station stop at Stamford and I had a glimpse of Long Island Sound as we continued west before I received one long view of the Sound and Long Island. We continued to switch tracks to avoid track work and arrived at New Rochelle, hometown of Dick and Laura Petri of "The Dick Van Dyke Show". I found it interesting that both shows used these two towns and that commuting by train was mentioned in each.

The line to Grand Central diverged from our route and after passing through miles of high-density housing projects, the train climbed the grade to Hell's Gate Bridge and switched to the other side of the train and had an excellent view of the entire Island of Manhattan, which was quite a sight seeing all the high rise buildings of New York City all at once. The view from the bridge was truly impressive. Once back onto Long Island for a few minutes, we curved down to the junction with the Long Island Rail Road, whose tracks are all over Long Island, before passing Amtrak's Sunnyside Yard, which was a rather cramped servicing base with a large assortment of cars and locomotives. We then plunged into the East River Tunnel and under a part of Manhattan before arriving at Penn Station New York in the basement of Madison Square Gardens, forty minutes late due to the track work.

I walked straight upstairs into Penn Station and found the New Jersey Transit timetable rack for myself and my brethren of the Orange County Railway Historical Society. I bought a few postcards before going to Boar's Head Deli for a roast beef sandwich then wrote the postcards before going across the street to the post office to mail them. Everyone on the street was in such a rush to reach their destinations and it was amazing just to stand back and watch them go on their way. Upon my return to the station, I stopped at the Solari timetable board which was really fun and engaging to watch as it clicked with all the changes. As I stood there, a large commotion occurred behind me with the Amtrak Police arresting someone and upon the opening his luggage, it appeared that he was trafficking a large amount of illegal drugs. I must say my visits to New York City have never boring. They quickly removed the suspect as I changed my location to by the stairs that were under construction and waited for the Ethan Allan Express track number to be posted.

Once I saw the number, I made my way to Track 6 and was the first on board bound for Rutland. I chose a large window seat on the left in a former Santa Fe coach similar to the one I rode on the Adirondack seat so I would have the Hudson River outside my window all the way to Albany-Rensselaer. The consist was four former Santa Fe coaches that had been used in Clocker Service between New York and Philadelphia and an Amdinette with the rear section used for Custom Class.

The Ethan Allen Express departed on time and proceeded onto the Empire Connection, passing through the tunnels and under buildings with daylight running in between. There was an expressway and just beyond the Hudson River, before the road crossed over us, we ran along a park then passed under the George Washington Bridge before crossing the Harlem Ship Canal and reached the junction with the Metro-North line from Grand Central Station at Spuyten Duyvil. I had been seeing billboard advertisement with the "Lost in Space" robot on them, but we are always moving too fast to read them. The train stopped at Yonkers, passed under the Tappen Zee bridge an travelled by Sing Sing State Prison before arriving at Croton-Harmon.

The Hudson River was absolutely beautiful in the mid-afternoon sunlight and the river was alive with plenty of watercraft. The train glided under the Bear Mountain Bridge and across the river on the bluff was West Point Military Academy. We then passed through Breakneck Ridge Tunnel before passing Bannerman's Castle out on the island in the middle of the Hudson River before stopping at Poughkeepsie. North of town was the old abandoned high bridge, damaged by fire, that was the main link in the old Alphabet Route as the smaller railroads fought to keep the traffic out of the hands of the Penn Central. When Conrail was formed, it swallowed up all of the partners of the Alphabet Route.

The Ethan Allen Express picked up speed once more and escaped the confines of the Metro-North commuter district then passed the stylish Rondout Lighthouse in the Hudson River and on the west bank, back-lit by the sun, was a castle- like structure in an impressive location. The train stopped at Rhinecliff, crossed the Roeliff River before arriving at Hudson then quickly resumed speed and twenty minutes later, passed Conrail's Boston-to-Buffalo mainline on a high bridge. Albany, the capital city of New York, came into view across the Hudson River and then we arrived at Albany-Rensselaer where we spent fifteen minutes, mainly to switch out the dual-powered General Elecric locomotiv and place an Amtrak F40PH to the point of our train.

I had enough time to photograph the train and change film before we departed on time, passed the Amtrak maintenance shops with all the FL-9 locomotives basically in storage, except for one which was idling. We crossed the Hudson River with an excellent view of downtown Albany then passed Rensselaer Lake, which is nowhere near the station of the same name, before stopping in Schenectady, which allowed for another platform walk since we arrived early. We curved onto the former Delaware and Hudson tracks before leaving town and crossed the Mohawk River then arrived at Saratoga Springs, which is known for its horse racing but students of history will remember that near here is where the Battle of Saratoga occurred, which became a French victory and caused the French to aide us in the Revolutionary War in 1777.

I had watched the Weather Channel before I departed Santa Ana and their weekend forecast had shown clear weather for New England. However, as I looked at the clouds, I was on storm watch since the sky was signalling advancing rain and my Geography degree from Cal State Fullerton come in handy when I travel. Canadian Pacific Railway was performing track work that slowed the train before our next station stop of Fort Edward then we accelerated to Whitehall, but diverted onto the former Delaware and Hudson branch before the station there and I started my new mileage towards Rutland. We left Whitehall in the last light of day over the tracks of the Claredon and Pittsford and ran east in twilight so I could at least make out details along the route. The effects of the train's speed and the newly-upgraded track had the train rocking, rolling and vibrating and at one point, if I sat straight with my back against the seat, the train provided a really good massage, something I had never experienced before. We arrived at Rutland on time after a most interesting journey.

I caught a cab whose driver showed me the train yard before taking me out to the Days Inn, where I checked in, called home and to my brother Bruce in Sacramento before freshening up and watching a bit of television. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow and slept undisturbed my first night off the train in four nights.

6/17/1997 I woke up completely refreshed and had a breakfast of French toast and Vermont maple syrup. As the rain washed away my plans of a good morning walk back to the train, I watched some television before checking out, mailing some postcards and taking a taxi back to a parking structure across from the spot where the train would stop in the rain. I waited for an hour doing word fill-in puzzles until a representative from a ski resort opened the station trailer to take down their display. He was surprised by the caretaker, who wondered who was inside the traile then let me wait inside.

The Clarendon and Pittsford local, led by GP38 203, nee Maine Central 255, built by Electro-Motive Division in 1966.

Introduced on December 2, 1996, this Amtrak route between New York City and Rutland, via Albany is operated on a 310 mile north–south route with and is subsidized by New York and Vermont for the portion north of Albany. It is named for Vermont co-founder and American Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen. It began as an extended Empire Service train and was the first passenger service to Rutland since 1953, and the first to use the line between Rutland and Whitehall since 1934.

The Ethan Allen Express arrived and I managed to photograph it in the rain before boarding the empty train and chose a seat across from the one I had yesterday so as to have the Hudson River view again. Until our on-time departure I listened to Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live. I enjoyed the car all to myself as I started my daylight journey back to Whitehall and we crossed Otter Creek as we left town. Rocking and rolling started as we picked up speed but slowed to a stop by the Rutland Paper Company to throw a switch so we could continue to Whitehall, since we were switching from the Vermont Railway to Canadian Pacific. The train crossed the Clarendon River in a very nice setting with a waterfall next to an industry on the northeast bank of the river, followed by a marble works, where all the slabs were divided by size and laid in piles ready to be used and cut.

The train then entered the forest, started its descent and after we crossed the highway, I found where some of that marble must have be destined, namely Artistic Cemetery Memorials in West Rutland. Tie plates, along with former ties were spotted along the train's route as this line was in the midst of an upgrade thanks to the State of Vermont. Where the forest was cleared, there was agriculture and dairy farming then at Castleton, we passed a really nice wooden depot, then a brick one at Fairhaven before crossing high over the Poultney River, the state line of New York and Vermont. We rode up and over a ridge then crossed a much smaller Hudson River before curving onto the Canadian Pacific (formerly Delaware and Hudson) main line at Whitehall. The train crew was very helpful with river names and they helped to make this ride more enjoyable.

Once back on the Delaware and Hudson, I walked the train finding fourteen passengers and the crew said that it was a really slow day with the rain keeping people away because there was no real station in Rutland but were planning to have one open by the autumn. At Fort Edwards, two more passengers joined our train then at Saratoga Springs, I had some company in my quiet but cool car and at Schenectady, was joined by a few more.

At Albany-Rensselaer, many people boarded and I bought a D&H Historical Society magazine and a new word fill-in book. It was a late afternoon journey south along the Hudson River as we departed on schedule. When one looks at a map, it appears that the Hudson River runs north to south but having this viewpoint made me realize just how much it curves, a lot more than I had thought, with some rather large sweeping curves. At New Hamburg, our train set off a track side detector which scans the train for problems and while it was being inspected, everyone enjoyed the river views. This was only my third time to be on a train stopped by a detector. There was a Conrail freight parallelinig the west bank in a perfect location to be seen across the river. With our track speed, we overtook him before Peekskill, where the river had a huge bend. With the freight train on an inside bend and us on a longer outside bend, we exited said bend neck-and-neck then stopped at Croton-Harmon, where six Metro-North workers inspected our train during our brief stop. All in all, we lost forty minutes before we arrived in New York City late on a wonderful day-long adventure.

I picked the South Gate Towers to stay for my night in the Big Apple because of its location across the street from Penn Station. I walked out of the station into the hustle and bustle of New York City and had no problem finding the hotel. After a fifteen minute wait to check in, I went to my room which was supposed to be non-smoking but it turned out to be a smoking room on the 22nd floor. So far, I was only impressed with this hotel's location. I went for a five block walk for a $2.45 Popeye's chicken dinner then I returned to my room for the rest of the night where I developed my train-riding plans for tomorrow.

6/18/1997 I had only two questions when I awoke: Does this city ever become quiet and is there any place on the Island of Manhattan where one can get some peace and quiet? It was a very different world from Rutland. The morning started with a walk to the post office for more postcard stamps then to Penn Station and the New Jersey Transit ticket window for a round trip ticket to Dover, where I was given three tickets for each way and I went out into the waiting room to watch the departure board for my train number.

New Jersey Transit ALP-44 4403, built by Asea Brown Boveri of Sweden in 1990. I was seated in coach 5564, a Bombardier car with 3-2 seating. We departed on time and the conductor took all three tickets, which were Penn Station to Newark, Newark to Summit and Summit to Dover, placing an orange marker on the back of the seat in front of me. I had chosen seat on the right for my ride out to Dover and would switch sides on the return. We went through the Hudson River tunnel and crossed the New Jersey Meadowlands before diverging onto New Jersey Transit-owned former Lackawanna trackage to Newark's other station, Broad Street Station, then proceeded up the line, stopping at Brick Church and yes, two short blocks from the station is a big red brick church surrounded by typical New York-style buildings.

By Orange, New Jersey, home of Seton College which I would have never know had I not been on this train, the countryside lost its New York influence and became forested with nice homes and a much cleaner environment. The next stop was Maplewood, a very nice-looking small town, followed by Millburn and Short Hills. We then stopped at Summit, which is at the top of the hill from the Hudson River and trains for the Gladstone branch depart from here. At Convent Station was the Academy of Saint Elizabeth, so the names along this line at least tell the truth about what is there. The countryside became more undulating and we passed Lake Estling before arriving at Dover, New Jersey.

The layover gave me an opportunity for a few pictures, a good morning walk and some cookies for a light breakfast. I was glad that I decided to do this as I was seeing a completely different side of this state.

Morristown and Erie C430 17, ex. Conrail 2053, nee New York Central 2053, built by American Locomotive Division in 1967, passed through the station as I waited to return to the Big Apple. The train filled up quickly and remained busy all the way to New York. At Convent station, I again spotted the billboard with the "Lost in Space" robot and this time was able to read "Danger Will Robinson!" with the robot holding a box and the slogan of Altoids Mints "The Curiously Strong Mint." I must say seeing my old friend the "Robot" used in the media warmed my sci-fi heart. We had a short delay outside Newark but arrived at Penn Station on time and I enjoyed my first taste of riding New Jersey Transit.

I walked back to my hotel room, watched "The Guiding Light" and freshened up before checking out and returned to Penn Station to have another roast beef sandwich before going to the Amtrak waiting area. About twenty minutes before my departure time, I walked out into the hall and waited for the Solari board to show my train and its track.

I went down to Track 8 and boarded a seven-car train comprised of three Amfleet coaches and a dinette plus three mail and express cars. I chose a window seat on the left so I would enjoy the view around Horseshoe Curve this evening. We departed on schedule and started running backwards to Philadelphia, which is done so that the train can use 30th Street Station in that city. My ride this morning had been perfectly timed as more rain moved into the Northeast as I sped through. During our forty-five minute stop that allowed the electric engine to be cut off and three diesel engines added to the point of our train, as well as four more material handling cars to our rear. I used this break to go upstairs to the South East Pennsylvania Transportation Authority area of the station and acquire a complete set of rail timetables and extras for my mates at the Orange County Railway Historical Society. There was always at least one member appreciative of my efforts.

On the move again, once we had escaped the influence of Philadelphia, we crossed the rolling hills of southeastern Pennsylvania and west of Paoli, I saw an Amish farmer in his traditional dress spraying chemicals from a horse-drawn sprayer, which was really two worlds mixing. There was an Amtrak police officer riding our train and I was told that they ride most of the Keystone Service trains between Philadelphia and Harrisburg. The cooling towers of the ill- fated Three Mile Island came into view, along with the Susquehanna River then we passed Harrisburg International Airport and since the Three Rivers lacked a dining car, I enjoyed a feast of a hot dog, chips and ginger ale before we arrived on time at Harrisburg for our ten minute stop.

Our train and Pennsylvania Railroad GG-1 4859, built by General Electric in 1937 and Pennsylvania Eastern Region caboose 980016, built by the railroad in 1920, on display under the station shed.

Im a very foggy environment of extreme low clouds, the Three Rivers departed on time continuing its trip to Chicago and crossed the Susquehanna River on the Rockville Bridge, which was the longest stone structure in the world when built in 1902. We followed the Juniata River for the next 112 miles and were running slow because of the very heavy freight traffic and moments later, we met the eastbound Three Rivers running almost five hours late. The countryside turned into forested hills as we met a Conrail Office Car Special with two of their E9s pulling an impressive consist. The rain returned, this time in a hard downpour then at Lewistown, passengers boarding the train made a run for it. Lightning then joined making for an excellent stormy journey through central Pennsylvania and Conrail added to the act with a parade of eastbound freight trains on the next track over.

The rain had stopped by Huntington and the area has turned into dairy farming. A crossover tunnel alerted me to the upcoming double track bore then we started criss-crossing the river, crossing it at least ten times as the mountains grew larger and the rock cuts deeper as we proceeded west. We arrived at Altoona, twenty-one minutes late, where the former Pennsylvania Ralroad shops, now the Altoona Railroaders Museum, were south of the station. Next was the moment I had been waiting for, my first westbound trip around the Horseshoe Curve, and sober no less. From Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, I was reclaiming this route for my sobriety. I had bought a Trains On Location video of the curve so that I would be more familiar with it than I was seven years ago. We passed another eastbound freight train as we climbed the hillside and there were some photographers waiting for us in the last light of the day. When we approached the curve, I saw an eastbound freight rounding the top end, then we met the power and rounded the Horseshoe Curve, making viewing of our train impossibl. The GP9 on display in the middle of the curve was only seen between the passing gaps of this long double-stacked freight train. It was still incredible to go around Horseshoe Curve, this time stone cold sober.

Two miles up, we passed another eastbound freight and you one could see the advantage of a three track (formerly four) main line. Conrail had put on quite a show as that was the fourteenth eastbound freight train we had passed since Harrisburg. Darkness was taking over the sky and I was glad to have done this trip in the third week in June when I could see the curve in the late evening light. The Three Rivers went through the Summit Tunnel and the rain let up, allowing for a few more minutes of viewing the Pennsylvania countryside as we crept slowly downgrade, where I called it a night after an exciting day of train riding.

6/19/1997 I awoke as the train pulled into a siding and sat for twenty minutes to let a CSX freight train by. I had no idea where I was, but knew I was on new trackage as my last eastbound trip was on the Broadway Limited in 1990, when I rode the former Pennsylvania Railroad from Chicago to Philadelphia but the train was re-routed over the rails of CSX the last few years before it was discontinued. When the Three Rivers was created, it took over the Broadway's CSX routing from Pittsburgh to Hammond-Whiting, Indiana. As such, I was not sure if I was in Ohio or Indiana. We reversed out onto the main line and passed two more eastbound CSX freights.

The water tower in the next town read Hicksville, Ohio so that solved the mystery and were travelling across the flat farming country of Ohio. I had a breakfast of cookies and orange juice for my vitamin C then returned to my coach with everyone wondering where we were. We travelled for about forty-five minutes before we stopping at Garrett, Indiana, a non-timetable stop for a crew change and to refuel the locomotives before we reversed off the grade crossings to let traffic by. It was then announced we would arrive in Chicago at 10:30 AM. CSX had one of the two main lines out of service between Garret and Nappanee due to track maintenance so we were waiting for an eastbound CSX freight train that should be have been here in fifteen minutes.

Those fifteen minutes were extended but for my enjoyment ,I could see a Baltimore and Ohio S-2 486 built by American Locomotive Company in 1944 on display at the Garrett Historical Society museum in the freight house. During the delay, one passenger called this the "Train from Hell" but since being two hours late does not even come close and I told another passenger about the ten-hour late Empire Builder and both had a good laugh about it as we stood in the vestibule with both doors open since the smokers continued to puff away in the lounge car. All the smokers let out a cheer when that eastbound CSX train passed and we finally proceeded west after only an hour and forty-five minute delay.

We departed Garrett with another cheer and passed a westbound freight in the yard before we going into the single track construction zone of total track replacement. When we finally reached the westward end of the slow orders, we found three more eastbound CSX freight trains waiting for us and I wished the CSX dispatcher a lot of luck with this dispatching nightmare. My luck was still with me since while I would not be riding the IC-3 between Chicago and Milwaukee, I was seeing this route from Hicksville to Chicago in daylight.

We arrived in Nappanee, our only official Amtrak stop in Indiana on this route, and quickly departed four hours and twenty-six minutes late. I sat back and watched the slightly more rolling Indiana scenery turn flatter as we continued west with pleasant vistas. I was enjoying the morning passage through this state and had been listening to Emerson, Lake and Palmer since Philadelphia and their song "For an Officer and a Gentleman" really fit the feel of this countryside. We started encountering railroad crossings at a fairly steady rate and I knew we were getting close to Chicago when the trash and graffiti started to appear. What appeared to be a swarm of bugs turned out to be cottonwood seeds as we neared the South Shore over-crossing then approached the Conrail mainline and had to wait for one of their freights to clear before we could enter, ending my new mileage to our next stop of Hammond-Whiting after we stopped for two more red signals. We passed the Buffington Harbor Casino and I saw Lake Michigan across the train as we entered Illinois then we pulled straight into Chicago Union Station, arriving four hours and fifty-two minutes late.

I detrained in Chicago then went to the Metra ticket window to finally ride their North Central Service line to Antioch and the very tardy Three Rivers was not going to stop me this time. I stopped by Gold Coast for a couple of Char Dogs before making my way to the north platform and found my train then boarded one of Metra's new cab cars and found the seats to be more comfortable. There was less seating both upstairs and downstairs, due to the control area and the wheelchair accessible bathroom.

We departed on time and proceeded the same way we went to Elgin last Saturday. After the River Grove stop, we turned north onto Metra's North Central Line, owned by the Wisconsin Central Railroad then travelled through Bensenville yard before passing Chicago O'Hare International Airport on the left and stopped at O'Hare Transfer, whose station was still being constructed. This line's service is less than a year old so everything still had a fresh look to it. The scenery on this part of the line changed from light manufacturing to the suburbs then we crossed the triple-track Metra Union Pacific Northwest Line to Harvard before our next stop at Prospect Heights. That was followed by Wheeling, our final stop in Cook County before we entered Lake County. A father and his two children, Matt and Jamie, were on the first train ride of their lives from Wheeling to Vernon and it made me think back to my first ride on a Santa Fe San Diegan many, many years ago. Just think what one little train ride started me on!

The suburbs returned in full force as we made our stops at Buffalo Grove, Prairie View and Vernon Hills, all with very nice new stations. We passed a large sand and gravel plant before our next stop of Mundelein and by this time, had passed two Wisconsin Central freight trains so it appears that this regional railroad is as busy as I was told. The train passed a large Motorola plant on the right before the countryside opened up again to a nice rural environment as we neared our stop of Prairie Crossing in Libertyville. We crossed Metra's Milwaukee North Line to Fox Lake then travelled through Grayslake before stopping at Round Lake Beach with no signs of the beach. That was followed by Lake Villa and we went between Cedar Lake to the west and Deep Lake to the east before our final stop at Antioch, just a mile from Wisconsin. I detrained into a nice afternoon with large raindrops occasionally falling before returning to Chicago and rode on the right. Once back at Union Station, I had a couple more Char Dogs as my next Amtrak train to Grand Rapids had no food service then went to the south waiting area.

The last time I attempted to ride this route eastbound, I was in a van on the highway instead of the rails due to the lateness of the Texas Eagle, so tonight would be my first eastbound journey on the Pere Marquette. The train consists of two General Electric B32-8WH locomotive and GP38-2 90 facing backwards, a former Capitoliner coach, in which I was riding, and a Horizon coach. The conductor led every passenger to their seat saying that we would have a full train and I chose a window seat on the right. We departed on time but lost head-end power when we exited the station but just as we slowed down to have it fixed at the coach yards, it came back on and stayed on for the reminder of the trip, which I was reclaiming for my sobriety.

Not much had changed since this morning other than my direction and the sky as we proceeded eastbound down the Conrail mainline. We stopped at Hammond-Whiting and minutes later, sped by the abandoned station at Gary, Indiana with the steel mill across from it. The last time I was on these tracks I was having dinner on the Capitol Limited when I was finishing the Amtrak system but tonight, I was on a train with no food service, so passengers were encouraged to bring a picnic with them on future trips. We caught up with an eastbound Conrail train and passed it before we curved onto the CSX mainline at Porter bound for Grand Rapids. The scenery quickly turned to forests with fields cut out of it and more cottonwood seeds were in the air as we passed a CSX freight and entered Michigan. Before we arrived at the Amshack at New Buffalo, we passed an old coaling tower and roundhouse then went by some rather large industries before curving to the northwest through a slow order due to rail and tie replacement. Lake Michigan came into view to the west and we paralleled the bluff into St. Joseph-Benton Harbor.

We made our stop with the cottonwood seeds falling like snow, crossed the St. Joseph River on a drawbridge and passed the marina before returning to the forest proceeding northeast following the meandering course of the St. Joseph River. We stopped in Bangor and once more I was glad to be doing this in the long days of June. I had been listening to Aerosmith, doing word fill-in puzzles and having an enjoyable evening, although I wished I was sharing it with someone special. Looking across the train at a beautiful orange sunset did bring me back to reality from the daydreaming. Near Holland, the trees gave way to fields as the last of the light faded into darkness and we made the rest of the way to Grand Rapids under the cover of night. I taxied to the downtown Days Inn and spent a wonderful night in an excellent room complete with a large sofa in front of the television.

The next morning I was back at the Grand Rapids Amtrak station with the same crew for the 7:30 AM departure of Train 371. I had a seatmate who was travelling home to Rochester, Minnesota, whose daughter was is in and out of trouble in Michigan, so she makes the round trip from Minnesota at least once a month. After she composed a personal letter, we laughed and talked all the way back to Chicago and time really flew by, making for an enjoyable morning on the Pere Marquette. We arrived back in Chicago Union Station on time.

Earlier this morning, I noticed my suitcase had a rip in the bottom so I foregoed riding Metra and went in search of a new bag. I was directed to a store on State Street but it was too expensive, then I saw a Woolworths where I found one at a very reasonable price then returned to Union Station a different way so had a small walking tour of Chicago and stopped at a record store before strolling along the banks of the Chicago River with noon-time music filling the air. I received a new interpretation of the City of Chicago and enjoyed myself immensely. Back at Union Station, I retrieved my bags before switching their contents then returned to the south waiting area where the air conditioning was out. I met a passenger with a stack of Relic magazines, a Grateful Dead fan magazine, and he let me read a couple of them while I waited. One had an article about Jethro Tull on tour twenty-five years ago and another had a picture article that my friend Ralph Hulett authored on the Grateful Dead show at Irvine Meadows, California. A small world indeed.

After passing through another round of boarding instructions, I walked out down the platform to board my nice and cool Superliner coach to California and shared my seat with surely the most intelligent fourteen-year-old travelling to Martinez, California, as I was doing, with his mother and sister in the seats behind us. We departed on time and soon were cruising down the triple track mainline to Aurora as I sat back in the lounge car and watched the suburban towns pass outside. West of Aurora, I returned to my seat to obtain a 5:30 PM dinner reservation then watched the open Illinois countryside as the train sped west.

I had a nice New York strip dinner with two ladies, each going to Ottumwa and Denver, along with a very cute young woman travelling around the United States by train. She had a degree in design and told stories about her experiences hikin in the Alps well as other places in Europe. She was stopping in Denver and made this evening's dining experience most memorable and I will always be able to picture her in the Alps from the way that she described the scenes. Following dinner, I returned to my seat as the train stopped short of the Mississippi River bridge since a barge with a tug had the right-of-way, so we sat awaiting its passage. We crossed the river, entered Iowa and arrived in Burlington thirty minutes late. The fourteen-year-old and I talked for the next three hours as we travelled to Osceola before the day ended with another beautiful sunset. It was one of the most interesting conversations that I have had with anyone on a train.

When I decided to call it a night, the overhead lights were already out and I asked very politely for some quiet, which two gentlemen across from me observed and became silent. When one of the men's wives and friend returned from the film after a night of heavy drinking, they sat down in the seats in front of me, which were not even their correct seats, and started to have a picnic with very loud talking. After twisting and turning to no avail, I finally used the idea that had always worked in over 272,000 rail miles and said "Sh!"

Little did I know by going "Sh!" that it would start an incident that I would have never even imagined. "We can talk all night long because it is our right as an American citizen!" they responded and were joined by the two gentlemen who had agreed to be quiet with one saying "We can talk as loud as we want because of the First Amendment." He then went on to relay a story of being on a train with a man playing music through his headphones and the conductor telling him that he could not do anything about it. Our conductor walked by not knowing what he was getting into and the man told him the headphone story then said "I have the right to keep on talking all night if I want to because of my First Amendment right to free speech, right?" Now how do you answer a question like that?

I kept my mouth shut and tried to think of a solution prayed to God for an answer to this dilemma. It quickly hit me and I said "I am sorry!" Those three simple words of my own free speech returned the car to a state of silence. The forefathers may not have given us the right to peace and quiet, but by using my first amendment rights, I attained that goal and had turned to a much higher power for a true answer.

6/21/1997 I was sleeping quite soundly when I was awoken by the fourteen-year-old boy's knee in my back. I shifted position and noticed a good night-time thunderstorm happening so I got up, took my pillow and blanket and went to the lounge car, falling asleep on one of the couches as lightning lit up the blackened pre-dawn sky. I slept soundly until I awoke to the gentle rolling hills of Nebraska but had a stomach ache with almost a churning action taking place. I went downstairs to the Lead Service Attendant who gave me a bottle of ginger ale and I felt much better. The rolling hills of Nebraska turned into the rolling green hills of Colorado and off to the north, a thunderstorm was providing a nice morning shower with the storm clouds providing a unique character to the sky.

We arrived at Fort Morgan and departed one hour and thirty-eight minutes late. Approaching Denver, the skies cleared exposing the front range of the Rockies with their peaks still snow-capped, which we would be crossing later this morning. As we entered BNSF's yard, it was announced the Hillary Clinton was on a train about to leave Denver and we are to be held out of Denver Union Station until her train departed. The G7 Summit Meeting was occuring in Denver and the leaders' wives all boarded the Rio Grande Ski Train to Winter Park for a luncheon. The Secret Service shut down Denver Union Station, limiting all street access until the special train left. We wyed our train on the one that leads to the Union Pacific yard where I saw Union Pacific 4-8-4 844 with its excursion train waiting to enter the station as well.

Union Pacific 844 entered the station first with us reversing in on Track 1. I detrained and rushed to the front of the excursion train and talked to Steve Lee, engineer and director of the Union Pacific Steam Program. He offered to take me along but I was not prepared for such a trip on the spot and wished that I could have participated in that three-day excursion to Salt Lake City via the Royal Gorge and Tennessee Pass, but tickets sold out instantly. I went inside the station and bought and mailed some postcards.

The front of the California Zephyr, after which I returned to my coach and upon hearing the whistle of Union Pacific 844, asked my car attendant if I could open the vestibule window to get some pictures with an answer of "Yes!" I positioned myself and as the train reversed by everyone in their open vestibules, saying "Wish you could come along with us!" The train reversed slowly and then 844 steamed by, giving me an excellent view of the locomotive. Thank you to Hillary, and all the G7 ladies for delaying us, Steve Lee and his whole crew for having Union Pacific 844 in Denver, and Amtrak for all the nice memories and for getting me here to enjoy this unexpected event.

We departed Denver one hour and thirty minutes late but I did not care because we were about to climb the front range of the Rockies in a different light condition due to the hour of the day. I sat back and enjoyed the climb from my coach seat passing all the known locations and taking it all in. By the siding of Rollins, I made my way to the lounge car for lunch and to enjoy the train's passage through the Moffat Tunnel. Upon exiting, there was no snow at the Winter Park Ski Resort before the train stopped at Winter Park-Fraser. Since this train had a smoking lounge in the bottom of one of the coaches, it was a brief stop, then at Tabernash, we found the empty Ski Train waiting for a late afternoon departure to take the G7 wives back to Denver.

Near the old siding of Troublesome, we encountered a dark signal that made us crawl through Kremmling, Gore Canyon, Gore siding and Azure, before we finally received a green signal. Gore Canyon was good at any speed, but I liked this passage the best because of the restricted speed, I was able to have a longer look at all the details in the canyon. The Colorado River was running wild at flood stage and had left its the banks as it crossed flatter terrain. When in its canyons, it was wild and free and with the river running as it was, it was no surprise that the rafters were out in full force.

The train continued to follow the Colorado River through Red Rock Canyon before we reached Dotsero and went into the siding for our eastbound counterpart. The Zephyr entered Glenwood Canyon with the river running wild and fast, covering the bicycle trail that ran through the canyon in many spots. We all sat looking out at the canyon in amazement as two passengers were chatting with me about my mileage and trip. They had a friend who collects mileage, but admitted he was nowhere near where I was and they asked me to work out my exact mileage when we arrived at Glenwood Springs. At the dam, the flood gates were open and where there was normally a trickle, today it was a wild uncontrolled rush of water and impressive to see the Colorado River running like this.

At Glenwood Springs, there was time for a lengthy walk on the platform in the ninety degree heat as most passengers detrained. The lounge car was quiet this late afternoon as we continued to watch where the river had left its channel. I enjoyed a Prime Rib dinner in the dining car while the train passed through De Beque Canyon before I detrained at the servicing stop at Grand Junction, where upon our departure, I had only one thought in mind, Ruby Canyon since wee would make a daylight passage through there unless we encountered another delay. We passed through Fruita and the tunnel that led to Ruby Canyon as I pointed out the sites to a few passengers. A gentleman wanted to know where the state line with Utah was so when we arrived at Utahline siding, we looked up on the cliff right above the train and there was the Colorado/Utah state line spray-painted on the rock wall. We made it to Westwater and left the Colorado River after an exciting day of running along its course as I said my goodbye to Ruby Canyon in the last light of day.

Tonight the train travelled across the Utah desert and the Wasatch Mountains so I decided to watch the films. The first one was the true story of "Steve Prefontaine", a runner who was awarded a college scholarship and ran in the 1972 Summer Olympics before his tragic ending. The second one was "Dante's Peak" which I had seen in a theater and was a good choice to watch on a Saturday night. When that was finished, I straightened up the lounge car then retrieved my blanket and pillow from my seat to fall asleep across the lounge seats which allowed me to rest soundly. However, the passengers in my coach were not as lucky since it seemed there was a woman who first awoke everyone to follow her off the train but the train was still moving. She then became really loud and boisterous and the car attendant had to sit by her to keep her calm. Next she wanted off the train and a taxi to drive her to San Francisco. They called the paramedics and she was removed at Salt Lake City, much to the relief of the car's passengers.

6/22/1997 I awoke just inside of Nevada in daylight and enjoyed the Zephyr rounding the former Western Pacific's Arnold Loop. I prepared myself for the day as the train crested Silver Pass Zone before crossing the Steptoe Valley, Shafter and the Nevada Northern interchange. We climbed the Pequop Range then went through the Spruce Mountain Tunnel before descending to Wells, Nevada. We turned west to Alazon where we joined the former paired trackage following the Humboldt River to Elko, arriving there nearly three hours late. All the bathrooms in my car were bad-ordered and we made an extended stop at Carlin to try and solve the problem and the crew advised us to pack up and be ready to be move to another car, but that order never came. I returned to the lounge car to enjoy the daylight passage through Palisade Canyon in all of its splendor and from the beauty back to the sage, the state flower of Nevada, as the train sped through the basins and range topography while I listened to music and did word fill-in puzzles. It was a good combination that kept me going all the way across the Silver State. We made a brief stop at Winnemuca before continuing our tardy journey west.

The Zephyr was making a vain attempt to live up to its name as it tried to make up time. Rye Patch Reservoir looked very inviting for a swim as the Humboldt River left most of the water there before it continues to its own demise in the Humboldt River Sink. We blew through Lovelock, no longer a stop, and crossed the sink to where we turned northwest to Fernley, where we would follow the Truckee River upstream to California. I had a hot dog for lunch as we made our final miles to Sparks, which was a crew change point and servicing stop and the passengers made a mad dash to the lone telephone by the Southern Pacific yard office. I had a chance to see the rotary snowplough patiently waiting through the summer and autumn until the major snows of winter attack Donner Pass when it would again be needed.

We made the quick sprint to Reno where many passengers boarded and I had a window seat in the lounge car for my crossing of Donner Pass and it was amazing how things changed over just a few months from my last visit. They had terrible flooding along the Truckee River here last winter and it destroyed the wooden aqueduct across the river which created a complete mess, but today, there was little trace of it. Crews were working on the highway which really delayed traffic on Interstate 80 as we passed them, snaking by to our next stop at the very nice mountain community of Truckee. The Zephyr proceeded up Coldstream Canyon before looping back to overlook Donner Lake then plunged into Summit Tunnel under Donner Summit. Emerging back into daylight, we passed the quiet ski areas at Norden and train dropped down the western grade of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where I just sat taking it all in. It was an uneventful descent as far as Colfax, where children took over the upstairs level of the lounge car and I watched in amazement the games and tricks that they pulled on each other. It was never boring on a train if you ride with your eyes and ears wide open.

On display at Colfax station was Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad 2-6-0 5, ex. donation to Nevada County Historical Society Transportation Museum 1985, exx. Revue Productions Incorporation 1960, exxx. MCA Incorporated 1958, exxxx. Frank Lloyd Productions 1940, exxxxx. Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad Company 5 1899, exxxxxx. Carson and Tahoe Lumber and Fluming Company 1 1890, nee Carson and Tahoe Lumber and Fluming Company "Tahoe" built by Baldwin in 1875.

The train wound its way down the foothills with a good view of downtown Sacramento in the distance before we reached the Sacramento Valley floor and our next station stop at Roseville. I was informed that due to our late running, I would not make my San Joaquin connection in Martinez so I will detrain in Sacramento and take the Amtrak Thruway bus to my last train, thanks Hillary! I knew this an hour before as I had worked out the times at Colfax and realized that Martinez was a no-go, although I really wanted to travel across the Delta region of California in the last rays of the afternoon sun. I returned to my seat, gathered my belongings and was ready to detrain at Sacramento two hours and twenty-five minutes late.

Though the excitement of the day, I then remembered it was my brother Jon's birthday so as I waited in Sacramento for the bus, I called Jon, as well as my brother Bruce, before riding the bus to Stockton. The southbound train was late, so the crowd waited patiently until a headlight appeared from the west and an all-Amfleet San Joaquin arrived and I wondered where the California Cars were that were the normal consist. I boarded a coach and after two minutes, went to another car because that first car reeked of a stale sick smell but only lasted three minutes in there as the odour became worse so escaped it for a seat in the Amcafé amidst the open food boxes. There was rubbish throughout this car and if the FDA had seen it, they would have closed it. At least I had a seat in a car that did not smell! I bought my dinner and ate it while the train was still at the station.

We finally departed after a thirty-two minute layover and the conductor apologized for the sad shape of the equipment, saying that this was a set of Los Angeles-based Amfleet equipment used on the Dunsmuir Daylight trip which made made it through just before a bridge was shut down, closing the Coast Starlight's route north of Redding. The normal set of California Cars were sent down the coast for an on-time Coast Starlight, so we were stuck with this junk. By the time Train 718 passed Merced, I curled up and fell asleep for the rest of the journey down the valley and awoke twenty minutes before Bakersfield then packed so I could enjoy the last few miles.

At Bakersfield, I was off the train and onto the bus then following a rather long delay, I slept all the way to Los Angeles where I awoke to watch the circus called 'find the missing bag under the bus'. How can someone put a bag under a bus which makes no stops and end up losing their bags? All through passengers south of Los Angeles had to participate in their game which cost us an hour and twenty minute delay then once back on Interstate 5, we made a quick trip to Santa Ana, where I debussed to a taxi cab that took me home. I walked up to the front door as my other brother Duane was walking out to go to work and welcomed me home.

RETURN TO THE MAIN PAGE