Recent content by jpakala

We had a bedroom on the Capitol from Chicago to DC and a friend was in a roomette in the same car. When a mother and her late teen or early 30s daughter boarded and found their roomette the daughter was shocked at its tiny size. I think she was a bit claustrophobic because she was lying across...

Actually if the BC/Cafe car is last rather than right behind the locomotive, there is no noise from the horn throughout the trip. And if we board in Chicago it is the closest to walk to as well.

Between both STL & KC and STL & Chicago we always want Business Class and it's consistent (2 & 1 seating, well-extending fold-out trays, free beverage, curtains, curtain between BC & cafe, free newspapers, of course outlets & footrests, plus leg rests but the ones in the flat-sided cars are...

In 1964 we took the Super Chief and dining was 5-star quality with fresh flowers, heavy-quality silverware & linens, crystal-like goblets, even finger bowls and always a plate (even if a clean empty one until replaced by your next course). When there wasn't seating for us they took us into the...

Philadelphia still has two stations, the huge 30th St Station on Market St and the long-time North Philadelphia Station on Broad St.

My wife & I do not care for rooms without lavatory & toilet facilities and enclosed ones unless traveling alone in the Pullman roomettes or duplex roomettes or duplex rooms of years past (or today's privately operated special cars).

From this video I see the Viewliner 2's H room also has that window. We had an H room from NYC to Chicago. It was superb: lots of floor space, big bathroom, and views out both sides, thanks to that window and an outside aisle window across the aisle from it.

Pre-Amtrak sleeping cars' rooms all had toilets and with the exception of some older style bedrooms, all were in separate enclosures with a door if the room slept more than one person. And nobody complained about a toilet in a roomette, duplex roomette, or the large duplex rooms whose toilets...

Catty-corner from Penn Station is the Stewart Hotel. (For decades it was The Governor Clinton and my father always stayed at it, not the Statler which is now the Pennsylvania Hotel.) ww.stewarthotelnyc.com 371 7th Ave, New York, NY 10001 212-563-1800 And in St. Paul the Hyatt Place is adjacent...

We had no trouble using the bedroom sink with the bed down, and there is no sink, toilet or shower at all in the roomette on a Superliner, and we had to go downstairs to go to the bathroom at night or anytime, as the one public restroom on the upper level was in use or out of service, but all...

Today at Bloomington/Normal, IL we watched the Texas Eagle which stopped for quite a while. We were on the side which has the aisle by the bedrooms' doors. The lower level of the train's sleeping cars differed! At least one had no wheelchair-accessible bedroom window (or any indication there...

Driving to or from CA is a long, long drive with multiple nights spent for lodging en route unless you want to arrive dead. The Santa Fe, e.g., provided a night-day-night trip from Chicago (fewer hours of course from KC). Someone mentioned that route doesn't involve mountains the way the CA...

Viewliners are superior especially with the wheelchair-accessible bedroom. The ceilings everywhere are higher, helping reduced claustrophobia especially in the roomettes but also in the bedroom upper birth. SL roomettes all require leaving the room for even use of a sink and not infrequently...

Riding Santa Fe's Super Chief in 1964 from KC to LA the track was very smooth and in western KS the speeds were especially fast but still smooth.

Be aware that only the single-level Viewliner cars have lavatory & toiler facilities in all rooms (although the new ones will have only the sink). Superliner bedrooms have them but no roomettes and not the family room either, and the handicap bedroom has only a curtain compared to a sizeable...