Special moments on Amtrak...

[GlobalistPotato]

You know what "midnight train" Journey is referencing to in "Don't stop believing"? Well, the "Smalltown girl" and the "City Boy" live in Ohio and they're waiting for the Lake Shore Limited.

Anyway, on subject... Are the any special memories you've had while riding on Amtrak, or something special you've seen the other passengers do?

GOSH THIS SHIfT KEY ISN'T WORKING PROPERLY!!!

Why do I have a feeling that someone has probably proposed while riding on Amtrak?

Any memories of people having birthdays?

Any other special events?

Has anyone tried to make an Amtrak trip into a date with their spouse or girlfriend/etc? Or made it part of a date?

 

[reefgeek]

You cite the "Smalltown Girl," but may I remind you of Bronski Beat's "Smalltown Boy,"

Alone on a platform

The wind and the rain

On a sad and lonely face...

Good song! (Okay, it IS British Rail).

I had a wonderful trip on the CS with my wife a few years ago. It was our first-ever vacation without our two boys (well, since they were born) and it was great. We flew to LA and rented a red Thunderbird. Went to Disneyland, then we We drove north (yeah, sacrillege around here, I know) visited Hearst Castle and picked up the CS in SLO. We rode the CS to Seattle, it was much delayed but we very much enjoyed ourselves and the scenery, met people, etc. Sacrilege #2: We din't know anything about the PPC, we ate in the diner and only went back there for the wine tasting. Not great getting kicked off the train at 3AM in Seattle, but what are you gonna do? We had few great days in SEA ands flew home. Well, flew back to DC where the kids were staying with my sister and drove five hours home.

Now that the lads are in high school, I am anticipating further such trips!

 

[ButFli]

Oh I've got some "special memories" of doing some horrible, horrible things in a bedroom on the Empire Builder. And the Capitol Limited. And The Cardinal. :giggle:

 

[Bierboy]

Oh I've got some "special memories" of doing some horrible, horrible things in a bedroom on the Empire Builder. And the Capitol Limited. And The Cardinal. :giggle:

Hmmmm...I have some GREAT memories of doing some special things in our bedroom on the SWC, CZ and EB...

 

[Everydaymatters]

My special memory is when my sister and I went to San Antonio. It was our 3rd Amtrak trip together and it was the best. We had a great time.

When leaving Chicago, the conductor took our tickets for San Antonio. My sister had a sense of humor. She said "San Antonio? Doesn't this train go to New York City?" The conductor had such a look on his face that I couldn't hold back and had to laugh. He was happy to hear we were on the right train and said he was thinking they probably wouldn't back the train up for us.

I didn't know that would be our last trip together.

 

[ScottC4746]

You know what "midnight train" Journey is referencing to in "Don't stop believing"? Well, the "Smalltown girl" and the "City Boy" live in Ohio and they're waiting for the Lake Shore Limited.

Anyway, on subject... Are the any special memories you've had while riding on Amtrak, or something special you've seen the other passengers do?

GOSH THIS SHIfT KEY ISN'T WORKING PROPERLY!!!

Why do I have a feeling that someone has probably proposed while riding on Amtrak?

Any memories of people having birthdays?

Any other special events?

Has anyone tried to make an Amtrak trip into a date with their spouse or girlfriend/etc? Or made it part of a date?

Growing up in Bellaire, TX (a city within a city, located inside Houston but its own government) the Sunset Limted passed 2 blocks from my house until we moved in 1993. I had always dreamed of taking the train end to end. Sure I had gone from HOS to NOL before and HOS to SAS, but that is not really a true overnight trip. Finally for my birthday in 2009 I did just that and flew to NOL and took the SS Ltd to LAX. Somewhere in Texas I spent my birthday on the train and loved it. I am now on a quest to take every Amtrak route numerically end to end. I did 2, SS Ltd LAX-NOL in Jan 2010 and now on May 28, 2011 I am going to fly overnight from LAX-CHI arrive around 5:30 AM and take the train that afternoon SWC #3 CHI-LAX.

While others complain about the food quality on the train, I think it is just fine. It is not a cruise, but better than the airlines.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Sharing my First Trip on the Coast Starlite from LAX-PDX with my then Significant Other (she has since Married a Millionaire! :lol: )in A Bedroom and the PPC! We then rode the Talgo from PDX to SEA, enjoyed several Beautiful Sunny Days in SEA and Rode the EB to CHI, then the CONO to NOL! It was the Closest thing to a Honeymoon I have Experienced ( Several of our Members have Shared theirs) and it was Magic!

 

[GlobalistPotato]

Oh I've got some "special memories" of doing some horrible, horrible things in a bedroom on the Empire Builder. And the Capitol Limited. And The Cardinal. :giggle:

Hey, you gotta make use of your extra sleeper fare! Those meals just aint enough of a benefit!

 

[Shanghai]

My most memorable Amtrak train trip was the Cardinal from NYP to IND in the hot summertime

when the air conditioning failed followed by the toilets stopped working just past Charlottesville, VA.

Our SCA told us we had to walk back three cars if we needed to use the toilet!! I was happy to detrain

in Indy to get some fresh air!!

 

[the_traveler]

with my then Significant Other (she has since Married a Millionaire! :lol: )

So I take it she did not marry you. (But I thought all Texans had a few oil rigs in the "back 40" and were Millionaires!

)

One of my most memorable moments was having dinner with a (then) Amtrak VP aboard the Crescent!

 

[dlagrua]

My interesting moment always comes at Breakfast time on the Autotrain. On that train breakfast is a "Continental" and you just show up at any time. I usually go to breakfast around 7:30- 8 AM. My wife is the early bird and she goes around 6:30 AM. As is customary the dining car attendent puts couples with other couples and singles with other singles. I usually end up having breakfast at a table with three other guys and we compare travel experiences and "wife stories". I usually start off by asking the controversial question "where's your wife'? Most of the time, the answer comes back "shes still sleeping" in one case one guy told me, yeah she's still sleeping, why should this be any different than at home. Once I got a reply "I don't know where she is" .

On the train we have dined with all types of people; retired folks, a college professor, newspaper reporter, a few business people, a corporate executive, engineers, ethnic couples and even nudists. Its always an interesting and pleasant experience!

 

[the_traveler]

On the train we have dined with all types of people ... even nudists. Its always an interesting and pleasant experience!

Did they come to meals undressed?

 

[Greg]

Oh I've got some "special memories" of doing some horrible, horrible things in a bedroom on the Empire Builder. And the Capitol Limited. And The Cardinal. :giggle:

Hmmmm...I have some GREAT memories of doing some special things in our bedroom on the SWC, CZ and EB...

LOL, please don't do like me and forget to close the curtains when making these great memories at night and then all of the sudden realize your'e at a station stop and there are people standing on the platform who can see into your room!!

 

[Bierboy]

Oh I've got some "special memories" of doing some horrible, horrible things in a bedroom on the Empire Builder. And the Capitol Limited. And The Cardinal. :giggle:

Hmmmm...I have some GREAT memories of doing some special things in our bedroom on the SWC, CZ and EB...

LOL, please don't do like me and forget to close the curtains when making these great memories at night and then all of the sudden realize your'e at a station stop and there are people standing on the platform who can see into your room!!

Windows are tinted enough so they can't see inside...plus, on a superliner, you're up too high for them to seen in....

 

[Greg]

Oh I've got some "special memories" of doing some horrible, horrible things in a bedroom on the Empire Builder. And the Capitol Limited. And The Cardinal. :giggle:

Hmmmm...I have some GREAT memories of doing some special things in our bedroom on the SWC, CZ and EB...

LOL, please don't do like me and forget to close the curtains when making these great memories at night and then all of the sudden realize your'e at a station stop and there are people standing on the platform who can see into your room!!

Windows are tinted enough so they can't see inside...plus, on a superliner, you're up too high for them to seen in....

This was an upper bunk on a viewliner...i assure you, visibility was there.

 

[the_traveler]

LOL, please don't do like me and forget to close the curtains when making these great memories at night and then all of the sudden realize your'e at a station stop and there are people standing on the platform who can see into your room!!

Windows are tinted enough so they can't see inside...plus, on a superliner, you're up too high for them to seen in....

This was an upper bunk on a viewliner...i assure you, visibility was there.

When's your next trip?

I'll be sure to meet the train - up close and personal!

 

[Rider]

My entry to the topic:

I was boarding the CZ in EMY headed for CHI, and on to BOS. It was the first Tuesday of November 2008. I met my SCA first thing, and said "Ian't it a beautiful day." She replied, "Sir, it is a great day in the morning!"

That evening, in the cafe car, there was a great deal of partying going on. The guy in the roomette next to me also had a guitar and the two of us played songs and drank beers. Folks with Blackberries or other wireless internet devices yelled out election returns as they came in. What a celebration!

I can't speak for anyone else, but that night on the train it sure did seem to me like most of the passengers were happy about Barrack Obama being elected President. And so that, for me, is a wonderful memory of a train ride.

 

[GlobalistPotato]

Oh I've got some "special memories" of doing some horrible, horrible things in a bedroom on the Empire Builder. And the Capitol Limited. And The Cardinal. :giggle:

Hmmmm...I have some GREAT memories of doing some special things in our bedroom on the SWC, CZ and EB...

LOL, please don't do like me and forget to close the curtains when making these great memories at night and then all of the sudden realize your'e at a station stop and there are people standing on the platform who can see into your room!!

You see, an Amtrak bedroom really does feature ALL of the perks of a hotel room!

My entry to the topic:

I was boarding the CZ in EMY headed for CHI, and on to BOS. It was the first Tuesday of November 2008. I met my SCA first thing, and said "Ian't it a beautiful day." She replied, "Sir, it is a great day in the morning!"

That evening, in the cafe car, there was a great deal of partying going on. The guy in the roomette next to me also had a guitar and the two of us played songs and drank beers. Folks with Blackberries or other wireless internet devices yelled out election returns as they came in. What a celebration!

I can't speak for anyone else, but that night on the train it sure did seem to me like most of the passengers were happy about Barrack Obama being elected President. And so that, for me, is a wonderful memory of a train ride.

Well that must had been really nice. Maybe I should ride on a train on election day 2012, especially if Ron Paul is the candidate on the Republican ticket.

 

[PRR 60]

It is not Amtrak, but I learned a valuable life and engineering lesson on a pre-Amtrak PRR train coming back from a college basketball game in New York. If one urinates off the back of a train moving at 80mph, the air flow will result in the liquid ending up back on your pants.

This did not happen to me. It happened to a friend. It was 1967. I, and a group of Villanova engineering student friends had been at a basketball game at Madison Square Garden along with a bunch of other college crazies. After the game, we all piled on a late night PRR Clocker heading back to Philadelphia. This train, the last one of the night and only four cars long, ran empty other night except when games packed it. The PRR, being the PRR, would never add cars just because there would be hundreds trying to ride it. The four cars were not just standing room only, they were filled solid, wall-to-wall people, including the vestibules. Our group was in the last car, in the end vestibule, open-air with just a chain hanging across the back opening.

In the 1960's, New York was a huge draw for college students to attend games. Back then, New York City had a drinking age of 18. You could not only drink (which we all did), you could do so legally. So, the trip was maybe 10% basketball and 90% beer. With beer, one thing leads to another, and soon it is time to complete the cycle and return the material to the environment. Unfortunately, for one of our group, that time occurred on the train home somewhere near New Brunswick.

The train was so crowded that getting to the conventional facility was impossible save for crowd surfing overhead. Plus, back then the conventional facilities simply deposited the material onto the tracks. So, the decision was made to bypass the difficulty and deposit it on the tracks directly from the back of the train. It would end up in the same place, the only ones back there were us, and we didn't care one way or another. I can even recall someone encouraging the idea (that someone was me). We were stopped at New Brunswick, and he feared the implications of an unexpected witnessing of the action, so he decided to wait until we were underway and clear of civilization. That time came just a few minutes later, at full track speed (80mph back then).

Moments after commencing the activity, he let loose with loud and continuous profanity. The reason was immediately obvious. He was soaked from the top of the pant-legs on down to his shoes. The liquid was being blown by backdraft right back on him. It was a valuable lesson in the action of flow around a moving object that we embarrassingly described in a fluid dynamics class later in our college career. Witnessing this incident and the aftermath caused me to laugh so hard that night that I got the hic-cups.

The victim of this event went on to become a well known transportation engineer, but sadly passed away a couple of years ago. He was one of those people who always seemed to have weird and funny stuff happen to him. Here we are, some 44 years later, and I can still remember that night like it was yesterday and I still laugh. It wasn't Amtrak, but it was a special moment on a train.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

My life has often been difficult for me, partly because of problems I was born with, partly because of problems I have developed over time, partially because I was one of those kids that was abusively made fun of as a child (until I got large enough to physically put an end to it), and partly because the former ended up imbuing me with a sense of enraged pride that, essentially, always makes me do things the hard way because I never let myself simply take the path of least resistance.

As a result, I am rarely overall happy, let alone content. Something is usually weighing on me, something is usually going wrong, or needs to be dealt with around the corner, or whatever. Contentment is elusive, and thinking that a moment or time is perfect is almost nonexistent.

But one morning in Oregon, riding through the mountains in the Pacific Parlor car, drinking some hot coffee brought to me by the car attendant, sitting in a comfortable seat and looking both the beauty of the outside world passing before me, and my (also rarely) content girlfriend doing the same in the seat next to me... I was at peace, more so than I had been in a long time, or have been since. Maybe it seems like something unimportant to you, but to me it was the world... and certainly special.

 

[oldtimer]

with my then Significant Other (she has since Married a Millionaire! :lol: )

So I take it she did not marry you. (But I thought all Texans had a few oil rigs in the "back 40" and were Millionaires!

)

One of my most memorable moments was having dinner with a (then) Amtrak VP aboard the Crescent!

Speaking of millionaires I knew a guy who's wife made him a millionaire, he was a billionaire when he married her.

hboy: :giggle: hboy:

I met my wife at CUS that has been a very special moment for me.

 

[Greg]

LOL, please don't do like me and forget to close the curtains when making these great memories at night and then all of the sudden realize your'e at a station stop and there are people standing on the platform who can see into your room!!

Windows are tinted enough so they can't see inside...plus, on a superliner, you're up too high for them to seen in....

This was an upper bunk on a viewliner...i assure you, visibility was there.

When's your next trip?

I'll be sure to meet the train - up close and personal!

Traveler...I've since learned how to behave myself!!!!

 

[TraneMan]

Not sure if this a special moment, but this moment hit me.

I lost a cousin of mine who was a year younger than me. We were close growing up and done a lot of things together. He died in an accident at the age of 25 and his death hasn't hit me till about 8 months later while on the Empire Builder on our way though the mountains in Montana. I was just soaking in the beautiful view I had. Had the CD playing Mike and the Mechanics, "The Living Years". This song and the view made me think of my cousin Mike. I was in tears and wishing he was with me enjoying the trip together since he loves the outdoors as well.

 

[jb64]

:wub:

I like this thread. It is racy, funny, poignant and sweet.

 

[JayPea]

Probably my most special moment aboard Amtrak was a short Champaign-Chicago round trip in September of 2002. This was because it was the only Amtrak trip I took with my wife. Ours was an internet romance, the kind that supposedly never work. :giggle: Worked perfectly in our case! My wife enjoyed every part of that trip, from flying from Spokane to my uncle and aunt's near Champaign and back, visiting some of the sights of the area, and the trip to Chicago, the main feature of which was a Flubs Cubs game at Wrigley Field. Even though, as usual, Chicago lost, she really enjoyed that. And the train ride too. She had had a hard family life, never had much money, and really hadn't seen much of the country. On top of that, she had ill health, and couldn't physically do too much. Even though she was exhausted by the whole trip, she was ready to do it again as soon as we got home! She in particular enjoyed that train trip. We sat in the SSL virtually the whole way, and she was in awe vitually the whole way, especially as we approached Chicago. It was her first-ever Amtrak trip. At the beginning of 2003, we began to make plans about what to do for vacation that year, and she so thoroughly enjoyed the train so much that we kicked around the idea of taking another Amtrak trip, from Spokane to her hometown of Kelso, which is a stop for the CS and Cascades trains to visit her foster family and her sister, possibly around Thanksgiving.

Unfortunately, that never came to pass, because on Super Bowl Sunday that year, 2003, she died unexpectedly. Every time I've been on the CS or Cascades since then, whenever the train stops in Kelso-Longview, I think back wistfully to that all-too-short time we had together (we were married only a year and three months and we had only known each other a few months before that) and in particular that whole Illinois adventure. Especially how much she loved that short Amtrak trip and how we were going to start making Amtrak part of our future vacations together. It wasn't to be, however..........