Recent content by JohnF

Well in my opinion they are similar as they both cross vast desert regions. You get a longer ride on the sunset and the end destination is New Orleans, a party town with great food and the Canal and St Charles streetcar lines. But then Chicago is a great place too. Toss a coin.

But what about the rest of the country? What bone will they throw to Texas. with two Republican Senators. Probably nothing.

I would think the best solution would be to go back to a West Coast and an East Coast train. The Meteor being the fastest could take the FEC route and the Star could continue it's current routing. The only problem is how do you get the Meteor to serve Orlando if it takes the coast route down...

According to the 1956 Official Guide the East Coast Champion made the 366 mile trip in 7 1/2 hours on the FEC. At the same time the Seaboard's Silver Meteor made it's 406 mile journey in just 7hours. Of course it did not go through Orlando.

Whatever happenned to people using trains for TRANSPORTATION. I wouldn't think any station agent has any obligation to help railfans do anything. I for one would not want to share the lounge car with scanners going off or loud mouth railfans anytime. Glad I wasn't on that trip. Yep you...

Such negativism. Nothing is impossible except getting through to some of the closed minds on here. All trains are subject to timetable changes. They happen all the time whether initiated by Amtrak or the host railroad. In passenger train scheduling, change is the only constant. Otherwise we...

I would be glad to send you the proposed schedule if you want. It's pretty easy to hit all the major stops at a reasonable hour since there are only 5 in between LA and NO. As for other LD trains, I believe we are addressing the Sunset Limited here. Prior to Katrina and the abomination of a...

This is a stupid answer to a complex question. I have worked the timetable many times and even with the padding Amtrak added it is possible to serve the major population centers at something close to a reasonable time. The train traverses over 2000 miles but only hits 6 major population...

Yes I was aware of the Houston section of the TE. I even rode it once. It took over 6 hours to negotiate the 265 miles. Amtrak spent millions of dollars to rehab the old Texas Central(SP) route to Dallas, ran the train for a few years then dropped it. That route had not seen passenger trains...

This is one post I really don't understand. We already have a Chicago to Dallas service. It's called the Texas Eagle. The track from OKC to St Louis through Tulsa doesn't exist anymore. If you route the Heartland Flyer up to KC then you can connect with the SWC to Chicago. It's on BNSF...

I believe they go to the Phoenix area mostly. Maybe they should bring back the "Golden State" instead.

Actually UP combined their city of Denver and City of Portland in 1958-1960 or so and ran it through Denver. When I took my trip to the Seattle worlds fair in 1962 that is how we traveled. Sam Houston Zephyr to Dallas, Texas Zephyr to Denver, and City of Portland to Portland and a corridor...

That route was covered by the UP's City of Portland later Amtrak's Pioneer. The connection to Dallas was via the Texas Zephyr. I believe the National Limited from St Louis to DC was the 'center' train until Amtrak cut it.

The trains across the South practiced segregation until the 1960's. However, most of the trains disapeared before the mid 60's so it became a moot point. Amtrak as has been pointed out came into being in 1971 by which time the vast majority of the passenger train system in the US was gone and...

Well I don't think there ever were very many that did not originate or terminate at Chicago. We had the Texas Zephyr from Dallas to Denver. A route that Amtrak should have restored years ago. And we had the Twin Star Rocket from Houston-Dallas/Ft Worth/Kansas City to Minneapolis/St Paul. A...