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C

coachseats

Service Attendant
Joined
May 11, 2003
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Hey- You may have already seen this webpage, but I just stumbled on it tonight and it is by far the best, most comprehensive Amtrak station guide I have seen. It has pictures, locations, and a neat interactive route guide that lets you travel from one station to the next on each train route. The only drawback is it dosen't have the far NE states yet. Check it out!

http://snow.prohosting.com/usarail/index.html
 
Excellent find, no I have never seen that website. I certainly like how it has all those photos. Will ceratinly help a first time traveler see where they may be wiating for a train (which can sometimes be a surprise when you pull up and find a plastic amshack).
 
thanks for the link! I love this site!! I like checking out all the weird varietys of Amshacks there are, they range from tiny local bus shelters, to trailors, to stations like Albany's old one. Im definatly a fan of Amshacks, which makes me an oddity.
 
Great site! I think it's great to be able to see many of the stations in the Amtrak station. Now if only they could finish off everything north of Pennsylvania. :rolleyes:
 
Dynamite website!

The author claims that he not only wants to photograph all Amtrak stations but also commuter rail and light rail stations. Maybe we can help him. The administrators should contact this person to see if he will accept our potential input.
 
I'd be willing to help out with that. With all of us all over the country all together we could be able to help him get a sizable chunk of the work out of the way.
 
If anyone would like to contact him on the forum's behalf, you've got my blessing. Just mention here with a reply that you are, so that nobody duplicates the effort :)
 
This is indeed a neat site. :)

I can just click on the next station all along the various routes I'm traveling. I likes, I likes. :D
 
One question about a station: I saw the Eugene (OR) station. I am wondering, when the Talgo trains are laying over over night between runs, where in Eugene are they kept? I thought they were kept at the station. There doesn't look to be too much room to keep two trains on layover at the stations.
 
I can't speak on what the exact conditions are in Eugene, but ocasionally trains are serviced in a freight yard, or a small yard a mile or two down the road from the station. This is true in cases like the Sunset Ltd. in Orlando (it Deadheads 45 miles to Sanford), Tri-Rail-Mangonia Park to West Palm (five miles),MARC-Frederick, MD (Deadhead a mile to the south).
 
Here in Portland, trains are serviced--fueled, watered, toilets emptied (into a tank truck), cleaned, loaded with supplies,etc. right at the station. The morning Talgo (arrives at 11:30am) sits at the station until train time at 6:15pm. The Portland section of the Builder is turned by using the Steel Bridge and using the Wye capabilities on the Union Pacific in East Portland to turn itself around for the eastbound run.
 
That sort of arrangement is often the case with a few trains. Auto Train for example is cleaned, watered, and serviced right there in the station. While the engines do go down to the engine house, and the yard crew will tear into the train to make consist changes, the train gets almost all of its service right there in the station.
 
Speaking of servicing: one thing I'd like Amtrak to return to is washing its trains again--locomotives and rail cars. At one time, passenger trains were called varnish because they were kept so spotlessly clean--on the outside as well as inside. Locomotive windows are occasionally washed. Some railroads, like the CB&Q and the Western Pacific and Santa Fe, ran their passenger trains through the washers enroute. That may be too much to ask of Amtrak now, with budgetary constraints, but washing could at least be done before setting out on runs.
 
steve_relei said:
Speaking of servicing: one thing I'd like Amtrak to return to is washing its trains again--locomotives and rail cars. At one time, passenger trains were called varnish because they were kept so spotlessly clean--on the outside as well as inside. Locomotive windows are occasionally washed. Some railroads, like the CB&Q and the Western Pacific and Santa Fe, ran their passenger trains through the washers enroute. That may be too much to ask of Amtrak now, with budgetary constraints, but washing could at least be done before setting out on runs.
Click to expand...
I have always thought this was a job id like to partake in. I took a trip down to the ATL Amtrak station a few months ago to see about a window-cleaning oppurtunity.

Plus, nothing looks better than a pristine Acela p42 on the head of its train! :D
 
Reminds me of this interesting shot:

amt33007.jpg


Would be nice if they could do that enroute someday, I recall riding Silver Service through Florida and seeing pollen gather on the windows. At least they're cleaning the cars again. :D
 
I, too, like the stations Web site. Even I learned things I didn't know. I didn't know there was a new station in Everett, Washington. Looks like just outside the tunnel (that burrows underneath downtown). The station looks nice, modern, customer friendly. The station is used by the Empire Builder, the Mt. Adams Int'l trains to and from Vancouver, BC, the Talgo trains to and from Bellingham, and the Puget Sounder commuter trains. Sound like it will be busy.

I also like your diagrams of which directions the trains go from the stations.

Another question: the Coast Starlight used to stop at Emeryville and then be serviced in a yard for about 30 minutes before proceding to Oakland. That was why there was an hour transit time between stations. Now, the time is just a few minutes. There is about 10 minutes at Emeryvill and 20 minutes at Oakland. Which one of these stations is the servcing (fueling, watering, trash-emptying, etc.) done?

Another question: does anyone know the exact smoke-stop stations? I know of Portland, Eugene, Klamath Falls, Sacramento, San Luis Obispo. I am not sure of the others. Does anyone else know?

One more question: in Bellingham, a Talgo train sits overnight on layover (it arrives at about 8 pm and leaves the next morning). According to the picture, there is not much room at the station for keeping a train on the track (a one-track mainline) without blocking traffic. Where is the train kept overnight?
 
Servicing for the Starlite watering and fueling the power is generally done in Sacramento (14 especially); however, I would believe that servicing is also done at Oakland Jack London Square but this is generally comissary service restocking of food. Since the Oakland Coach Yard is between OKJ and Emeryville if anything serious needed to be taken care of this is the most logical place for this to happen.
 
How far (in mileage) can the P32s go one tank of gas? Anyone know?

The Autotrain, which uses these locomotives, travels without stopping or servicing enroute. So, I take it these locomotives make the trip with no trouble.

Another question: someone on another topic noted the engineer for the Autotrains has perhaps the longest ride of any other Amtrak train. Is it just one engineer that handles the train for the entire route? Or is there an assistant engineer who can take over for certain periods of time? How about when Nature calls? What about Federal rules about how long an engineer can be on the job at a time?
 
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