Capitol or Cardinal eastbound, most scenic?

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user 6862

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We're interested in the Appalacian scenery in the main, does one or the other a stand out?

Thanks
 
The eastbound Capitol is also no slouch when it comes to scenery. You get the Youghiogheny River gorge, crossing the Alleghenies over the Sand patch grade, passage through the Narrows at Cumberland, Ridge and Valley scenery along the Potomac to Harpers Ferry, and even the Maryland Piedmont is pretty until you hit the DC metro area. And, hopefully, they'll return the Sightseer Lounge to service at some point in the near future.
 
The eastbound Capitol is also no slouch when it comes to scenery. You get the Youghiogheny River gorge, crossing the Alleghenies over the Sand patch grade, passage through the Narrows at Cumberland, Ridge and Valley scenery along the Potomac to Harpers Ferry, and even the Maryland Piedmont is pretty until you hit the DC metro area. And, hopefully, they'll return the Sightseer Lounge to service at some point in the near future.
Even if the sightseer cars are unstaffed,they are an essential part of a Superliner. Up until the pandemic The Capitol Limited and Texas Eagle had them. If you are in Coach you are confined to your seat. On the Eagle you are talking about a 32 hour ride. Again,why is there no SSL on the TE?
 
The eastbound Capitol is also no slouch when it comes to scenery. You get the Youghiogheny River gorge, crossing the Alleghenies over the Sand patch grade, passage through the Narrows at Cumberland, Ridge and Valley scenery along the Potomac to Harpers Ferry, and even the Maryland Piedmont is pretty until you hit the DC metro area. And, hopefully, they'll return the Sightseer Lounge to service at some point in the near future.

Even better, it gives us more options next time, thanks
 
Even if the sightseer cars are unstaffed,they are an essential part of a Superliner. Up until the pandemic The Capitol Limited and Texas Eagle had them. If you are in Coach you are confined to your seat. On the Eagle you are talking about a 32 hour ride. Again,why is there no SSL on the TE?

We are travelling in February next year, maybe with Covid world improving they may be reintroduced soon.

Card, particularly eastbound. Both trains are a bit short on the amenity side now.

I'm sure we will still enjoy this train ride especially if there is a diner operating, over 3500 miles in total from LA to Washington via Bloomington Normal and Indianapolis, can't wait.

Thank you
 
We have done both, and liked both. Both trips were eastbound (definitely the better direction on the Cardinal, I don't know about the Cap Ltd). Both were in winter, and I can say at least on the Cardinal, it was way better to have the leaves off the trees. There was just enough of a tree strip between the tracks and the river to obscure a lot of the river in summer.
 
Even if the sightseer cars are unstaffed,they are an essential part of a Superliner. Up until the pandemic The Capitol Limited and Texas Eagle had them. If you are in Coach you are confined to your seat. On the Eagle you are talking about a 32 hour ride. Again,why is there no SSL on the TE?

The official reason - tri weekly operation led to equipment being sidelined and employee furloughs and getting back up to full strength labor wise has been slow. When they went back up to daily operation they had to remove Sightseer lounges from the Texas Eagle and Capitol Limited to ensure they had enough road worthy lounges for what they considered the priority routes for sightseer lounges - the two night cross country routes and the Coast Starlight both presumably for them being the most notable for views and their need for two food service cars due to traditional dining being restored - the CONO having axle count requirements was also prioritized. Whether one buys that as the full reason or feels there are other ulterior motives is of course up to them but that is being cited as the reason.

According to an RPA event last week with management Q/A they are currently working a backlog with still somewhat understaffed maintenance bases. It was hinted that right now transition sleepers are being prioritized for return to service.
 
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Re the Cardinal eastbound. Is there an approximate time for travelling through the gorge(s) assumimg we are on time?

Thanks
 
The New River Gorge is between Montgomery and Hinton.
October 2020 on #50 eastbound the gorge was mid morning between Montgomery at 8:52 AM and Hinton at 10:34AM.
#51 Westbound was early evening Hinton at 6:49PM and Montgomery at 8:24 PM...got dark!
East bound was definitely better as far as light goes.
I keep the status reports (OTP) for all my trips from Amtrak Train Status/Archives:
http://dixielandsoftware.net/Amtrak/status/StatusPages/index.html
 
OK, got it. The current schedule is depart Montgomery 9:02 am and arrive Hinton 10:50 am, just about perfect.

We have not used 'flexible dining' as yet. Is that eat in your sleeper only or is there an option to eat in a communal place?
 
I guess you will know if we are on time. The current schedule has Charlottesville Arr. 3:35 and Dep. at 3:44 pm, 9 minutes.
We would look forward to that, but the only thing we can guarantee is we have British accents. We have a Roomette in Car 5000 if that helps.

Hope it works out.
 
I didn’t notice your direction. I was westbound. What do you have planned in Indy?

Nothing too much except a few local forum members think it is a little less than the best station that Amtrak services, which made me curious. That we are also travelling through two of the greatest stations in the world, LAX and WAS makes for a great contrast.

The reason for this particualr route is twofold.
We also enjoy buses, not so much tour buses but buses that have somewhere to go, Thruway or Greyhound types. We get a bus experience earlier in this trip from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo before catching a Surfliner south. Then again from BNL to Indianapolis. We are visiting your country and are interested, sometimes bus life and road travel is very different from Amtrak, a different view of America.

Second, from the first time I saw there was a place called 'Normal' I needed to go there to meet normal people (a rarity in life).

Simple reasons really.
 
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