Anything to see SAS-NOL?

[Heading North]

This is my first post--have greatly enjoyed reading over the last few weeks, and for better or worse, you folks are compelling me to throw in a train trip wherever I can! I've gone up and down the NEC NYP-WAS-WBG quite a bit, and a few other trips (Toronto, Florida, Boston, and NYP-CHI-LNK on the late Three Rivers and Zephyr) here and there.

I was recently invited to a friend's wedding in New Orleans this October, and am hoping to have enough time to take the train at least one way on the Crescent (I currently live in NY, but will have relocated to DC by then). The City of New Orleans doesn't fit my schedule very well for this trip, but it looks like I could fly to San Antonio (found some great deals from BWI) and then take the Sunset Limited into NOL. Is there anything particularly compelling about the route SAS-NOL? And if I had a day to spend in SAS, what's walkable and interesting? Would I want to be waiting to board #2 at 1 am (or later) there?

I'd love to hear any thoughts on this.

 

[Montanan]

Well, it'll be dark until you get to Houston, of course ... and everything east of there is flat, flat, flat. Lots of wooded country, a couple of Louisiana small towns with historic depots, some Class II railroads in sight of the Sunset route if you're a railfan. Nothing spectacular, but definitely pleasant enough.

As you approach New Orleans, though, you get to experience the crossing of the Mississippi on the Huey Long bridge, which is thoroughly spectacular ... endlessly-long approaches on both sides, an amazing bridge, views of New Orleans in the distance. The trip would be worth it just for that, IMHO.

 

[the_traveler]

Welcome Heading North!

I was recently invited to a friend's wedding in New Orleans this October, and am hoping to have enough time to take the train at least one way on the Crescent (I currently live in NY, but will have relocated to DC by then). The City of New Orleans doesn't fit my schedule very well for this trip, but it looks like I could fly to San Antonio (found some great deals from BWI) and then take the Sunset Limited into NOL. Is there anything particularly compelling about the route SAS-NOL? And if I had a day to spend in SAS, what's walkable and interesting? Would I want to be waiting to board #2 at 1 am (or later) there?

I haven't been to SAS (except on the train passing through ), but I hear the Alamo and the Riverwalk are not to far away from the station. I don't mean to scare you, but with the SL arriving from LA, it may be late! I know they build in hours of padding into the stop as SAS, but it may be departing after 1 AM! And if you do, the approach and crossing of the Huey Long Bridge may be after dark!

For you information, the bridge is named for Huey Long - but the bridge and approaches are LONG and high over the Mississippi River!

Are you returning to SAS on the SL also? Is so, the crossing will be in daylight - being before noon.

 

[Heading North]

Welcome Heading North!

I was recently invited to a friend's wedding in New Orleans this October, and am hoping to have enough time to take the train at least one way on the Crescent (I currently live in NY, but will have relocated to DC by then). The City of New Orleans doesn't fit my schedule very well for this trip, but it looks like I could fly to San Antonio (found some great deals from BWI) and then take the Sunset Limited into NOL. Is there anything particularly compelling about the route SAS-NOL? And if I had a day to spend in SAS, what's walkable and interesting? Would I want to be waiting to board #2 at 1 am (or later) there?

I haven't been to SAS (except on the train passing through ), but I hear the Alamo and the Riverwalk are not to far away from the station. I don't mean to scare you, but with the SL arriving from LA, it may be late! I know they build in hours of padding into the stop as SAS, but it may be departing after 1 AM! And if you do, the approach and crossing of the Huey Long Bridge may be after dark!

For you information, the bridge is named for Huey Long - but the bridge and approaches are LONG and high over the Mississippi River!

Are you returning to SAS on the SL also? Is so, the crossing will be in daylight - being before noon.

Time-permitting, my plan was to go SAS-NOL on the Sunset and then NOL-WAS on the Crescent. Does the Crescent cross the Huey Long Bridge also?

I could reverse the two and do NOL-SAS (and avoid the Crescent's EARLY NOL departure!), but unless I book a sleeper, I don't think I'll be in the mood to spend much time in SAS at 3 am... though I could connect with the NB Texas Eagle (departing at 7) and maybe ride that a bit, to Austin or Fort Worth. Austin's another place I'd wanted to visit.

 

[the_traveler]

Time-permitting, my plan was to go SAS-NOL on the Sunset and then NOL-WAS on the Crescent. Does the Crescent cross the Huey Long Bridge also?
I could reverse the two and do NOL-SAS (and avoid the Crescent's EARLY NOL departure!), but unless I book a sleeper, I don't think I'll be in the mood to spend much time in SAS at 3 am... though I could connect with the NB Texas Eagle (departing at 7) and maybe ride that a bit, to Austin or Fort Worth. Austin's another place I'd wanted to visit.

No, the Crescent does not cross the Huey Long Bridge, but it does cross Lake Ponchatrain (sp?) - and I hear the sunset on the Lake is beautiful! (I have never experienced it. )

Even though you would still get to SAS @ 3 AM (if it is on time), you would not depart on the northbound TE until 7 AM, so you would still be there overnight!

 

[ourlouisiana]

Passing Eastbound on the Sunset you will see

Westlake: major oil refineries on each side

Lake Charles: beautiful lake on south side

Western Louisiana: rice fields abound, as well as grain elevators

Crowley: Rice capitol

Lafayette: former SP division point, newly rebult but unattended station

airport on east side

South Central Louisiana: sugar cane is king, crop still low, you can see for miles

Calumet: major gas processing plant on south

Morgan City: begin Louisiana swamp ride

Avondale: begin ascent of Huey P Long bridge - worth the entire trip.

If Sunset is a couple of hours late, you can be treated to sunset from the bridge.

And NO the only AMtrak that crosses the HPL is the Sunset.

Donna n Paul Scott, La.

 

[gswager]

Passing Eastbound on the Sunset you will see Westlake: major oil refineries on each side

Lake Charles: beautiful lake on south side

Western Louisiana: rice fields abound, as well as grain elevators

Crowley: Rice capitol

Lafayette: former SP division point, newly rebult but unattended station

airport on east side

South Central Louisiana: sugar cane is king, crop still low, you can see for miles

Calumet: major gas processing plant on south

Morgan City: begin Louisiana swamp ride

Avondale: begin ascent of Huey P Long bridge - worth the entire trip.

If Sunset is a couple of hours late, you can be treated to sunset from the bridge.

And NO the only AMtrak that crosses the HPL is the Sunset.

Donna n Paul Scott, La.

Donna, thanks for the details! I've never been in the deep south before and look forward to it in the future, if Amtrak is still running.

 

[George Harris]

Cajun Louisiana is as different from the rest of the Deep South as the rest of the Deep South is from New York.

 

[Crescent ATN & TCL]

Time-permitting, my plan was to go SAS-NOL on the Sunset and then NOL-WAS on the Crescent. Does the Crescent cross the Huey Long Bridge also?
I could reverse the two and do NOL-SAS (and avoid the Crescent's EARLY NOL departure!), but unless I book a sleeper, I don't think I'll be in the mood to spend much time in SAS at 3 am... though I could connect with the NB Texas Eagle (departing at 7) and maybe ride that a bit, to Austin or Fort Worth. Austin's another place I'd wanted to visit.

No, the Crescent does not cross the Huey Long Bridge, but it does cross Lake Ponchatrain (sp?) - and I hear the sunset on the Lake is beautiful! (I have never experienced it. )

Even though you would still get to SAS @ 3 AM (if it is on time), you would not depart on the northbound TE until 7 AM, so you would still be there overnight!

The Crescent crosses lake Ponchartrain on a 5.8 mile causeway, near the hwy 11 bridge. The bridge is only 10ft above the water and is 10ft wide, you can't see the bridge when you're crossing it. It's an eerie feeling to be rolling along and the world drop away and you see nothing but water. The Crescent crosses this bridge a little before 7pm and a little before 8am, so you can get some good views of the sun setting depending on the time of the year.

Occasionally they have to issue a slow order due to high wind bringing waves up over the bridge. The tracks were completely washed off during Katrina, but NS worked a miracle and pulled all 5.8 miles of track out of the lake and put it back on the bridge. They reopened it 2 weeks after Katrina, a good bit before any of the other lake crossings.

To really get a feel of how long this bridge is look at it in Google Earth/Maps of in Microsoft Virtual Earth.

Link in Google Maps