Cross Country Trip

[AlanB]

Well last year's travel log was "Where in the US was AlanB?" This year it will be easy to know where in the US I'm at, since the itinerary for the OTOL NoCal fest can be found by clicking here.

Just like last year, I will try to keep up a running trip report with pictures as we journey across the US. As I write this, already I'm sitting in the Club Acela Lounge in NYP awaiting our first train ride of the trip on #125 to Washington DC. Along the way down the corridor, we be joined by three other travelers. NJCoastExp will join us in Metro Park, and Kevin Korell along with his son will join us in Philly.

 

[MrFSS]

Well last year's travel log was "Where in the US was AlanB?" This year it will be easy to know where in the US I'm at, since the itinerary for the OTOL NoCal fest can be found by clicking here.
Just like last year, I will try to keep up a running trip report with pictures as we journey across the US. As I write this, already I'm sitting in the Club Acela Lounge in NYP awaiting our first train ride of the trip on #125 to Washington DC. Along the way down the corridor, we be joined by three other travelers. NJCoastExp will join us in Metro Park, and Kevin Korell along with his son will join us in Philly.

Have a great trip!!!

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

Hope you enjoy it!!

And I hope the CZ will go through the Rockies rather than Wyoming.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

There is so much to appreciate about the history of the CZ. It was never just "another train".

It began in 1949 as a diesel powered stainless steel replacement for the Exposition Flyer, a train which originated in the early 1900's to the World's Fair in San Francisco..

One today may think that dome cars were all over the place. Not so, domes were a sign of distinction mostly just on the better trains on the longer more scenic routes.

And the CZ had FIVE domes!! Quite an outlay. It had domes on all the original coaches, the mid-train lounge (called the "cable car room")and the observation lounge at the rear. The diner and sleepers did not have domes. Not too many trains ever did have that.

The CZ was a highly advertised train, in all sorts of national publications. And, in kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy, I guess, it was advertised as "the most talked about train in the country" (probably because all the ads said it was!)

The ads featured the domes and you were told you could "look up, look down, look all around".

There is a point somewhere along its route, maybe it will be announced, where the original inspiration for the dome car was born and at least at one time there was a landmark dome statue sitting out there. Don't remember where but I think it was down in the various river canyons, sort of beyound the mountains, going west, in the afternoon.

The CZ was also specifically scheduled to hit the best scenery in the daylight. In some cases that meant actually going slower than it mght to satisfy the scenery need.

It originally was operated by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy from CHI to DEN; the Denver and Rio Grande Western from DEN to SLC, the Western Pacific from SLC to SF.Its orignal western terminus was Oakland. That route from SLC to SF was not the present day route. The present day route was the former Southern Pacific.

That old, original Western Pacific route went through the Feather RIver Canyon , which received a lot of publicity. But the SP mountains today are great scenery also. Somewhere in there is where the famous stranding(from the snow) of the City fo San Francisco in the early 50's took place.

Back when domes were a novelty, they always made much of the domes being showered as the westbound train backed into the Denver station. Actually a lot of trains get a "bath" but the idea of the water showering on the dome windows with the instinctive ducking was kind of special.

The original CZ had much in common with the Canadian (which equipment has not changed appreciably). Esp. that neat dome obsevation car on the rear of each train.

The CZ fell on hard times and had various route changes,days of operation changes , and name changes, such as San Francisco Zephyr, "California service" etc but under Amtrak finally got its old name back of CZ, don't remember exactly when.

An old timer naming the top five trains of the era would likely put the CZ in there ,along with, say, the 20th Century Limited, the Broadway Limited, the Super Chief (forerunner to today's Southwest Chief) for example. And if not in the top five surely almost anybody would have it in the top 10. The only thing such a listing would have against it is it having coaches rather than being exclusively all-pullman. That all-pullman status was a magic one did not touch.

The Empire Builder and the Panama Limited(a much faster version of today's City of NOL) would be some others.

My first trip on the CZ was during the Christmas season 1964. My most unexpected memory? It's immacualte cleanliness. It was so clean....a king could have eaten off the floor.Never had that sensation before or since on a train.

 

[GG-1]

Well last year's travel log was "Where in the US was AlanB?"
I'm sitting in the Club Acela Lounge in NYP awaiting our first train ride of the trip on #125 to Washington DC. Along the way down the corridor, we be joined by three other travelers. NJCoastExp will join us in Metro Park, and Kevin Korell along with his son will join us in Philly.

Aloha

Considering the Time Difference as Alan was sitting in the Club Acela Lounge in NY I was just getting into bed.

4 days later we will be in the same zone ALOHA

 

[AlanB]

As I mentioned yesterday in my first post from the Club Acela lounge, I started out on another cross-country journey on Amtrak. This time, in addition to my mom, there will be many other people joining us along the way. My mom had so much fun on the trip that the two of us took, that she decided that she wanted to join a bunch of railfans to make another trip.

After meeting my mom at the Port Authority bus terminal, since she took a bus in from Allentown PA, we walked down to Penn Station. And basically at that point the fest was on. Skip Howard had already left a few hours earlier from Boston on train #95 heading south to DC, so he had us beat by a few hours.

Initially when we entered the lounge I had the attendant just print the tickets for our first reservation, trains #29 and #125. But then during a lull in people arriving, I returned to the desk and had Alma a very helpful and polite attendant print out all the rest of our tickets. I had originally planned to just go out to the Quik-Trak machine, but Alma happily pulled up the other 4 reservations that I had, and printed out all of our tickets for us.

Mom and I were on #125 out of NYP in business class, which departed right on time. Train #91 however was late out of the yard, so instead of being behind it, we were running in front of it. Our business class car was one of the former Metroliner Club cars, now converted to a Club-Dinette, so 2 & 1 seating was available.

At MET we picked up Piotr Dzwonek (NJCoastExp) and we were running about 5 minutes down. In PHL, our group grew again with the addition of Kevin Korell and his son Michael. That was as large as our group would get until we reached WAS. Somewhere along the way, we made up our lost time, as we arrived into WAS 4 minutes early.

Waiting for us at the arrival gate, was Skip. After greeting everyone, we proceeded to the Club Acela lounge to await our next train the Capitol Limited. I took a quick run around WUS hoping against hope to be able to find a store in which to buy a surge protector, as I had forgotten mine. Kevin also left the lounge briefly to check one of his suitcases to EMY.

Just about 3:35 PM EDT, the announcement was made for boarding and we all gathered our belongings and proceeded out the west gate from the lounge to our train. Mom and I, along with Kevin, Michael, and Piotr boarded the 2900 sleeper, while Skip went one car further to the 2901 car. Skip was in room 2 of that car. We had the D room, while Piotr was in room #3 and the Korell’s were in room #5.

By my watch, we were one minute late leaving DC and things weren’t going to improve from there. We ran slow all the way to our first stop at Rockville. Shortly after that point, mom and I headed to the lounge car since we had taken dinner reservations at 7:30, since 6:30 and 7:00 were already gone by that point in time.

The rest of the group had wanted an early dinner, so they all opted for the 5:00 PM seating. We learned later that for some unexplained reason, the LSA was not following proper SDS procedures, which require one seating of 8 every 15 minutes, skipping every third quarter hour. He was calling one seating of 8 every half hour. So instead of three seatings of 8 per hour, they were only doing 2 seatings of 8, and even then they were running late.

This no doubt lead to the middle dinner times selling out rather fast, since the capacity of the dining car was reduced by 8 people every hour. The thing that I don’t understand is why he choose to do this on a sold out train, both sleepers and coach. That’s a lot of lost revenue for the dining car, as they served 40 less people than they might have otherwise had he followed proper procedure.

After dinner we retired to our sleeper, although we didn’t head off to sleep right away. Around 10:30 or so, we had Cornelius make up our beds and drifted off to sleep.

As I write this now, South Bend came and went. Mom and I woke up this morning at 6:15 and headed for breakfast at 6:30. Piotr was already in the diner having his breakfast. The Korell’s arrived while we were eating breakfast, and Skip arrived after all of us. We were about 2 hours down out of Toledo and we were eating our breakfast while we were stopped in TOL.

The Hammonds, Mike and Lynn, who will join up with us in Chicago, boarded the Lake Shore Limited early this morning in Cleveland. By last phone check they were about 1 hour behind us.

And that will wrap up my first report, and sadly there will be no pictures, at least from me. I didn’t bother to take any so far, in part because of the overcast conditions yesterday out of DC. Hopefully I’ll have some from our Chicago activities and on the CZ.

 

[gaspeamtrak]

I'm with you in spirit!!

One of these years I hope to be able to attend one of these fest...

Hope you guys have a great trip!!!

Looking forward to your reports and pictures!!!

I hope you all have a GREAT TRIP!!!

All the best...

 

[AlanB]

Well we arrived into Chicago just shy of two hours late. That squashed any chance of taking a quick ride on the CTA, especially by the time we got checked into the Metropolitan Lounge and then got our luggage checked into the holding room. We also found Steve Weagant (Steve4031) and his girl friend Roslyn waiting for us in the lounge. Roslyn also had a small surprise for us, she brought everyone a rose. So now we have the sweetest smelling train in the Amtrak system.

So with a ride on the CTA out of the question, we waited around for about 45 minutes or so from that point, for the Hammonds arriving on the LSL. Kevin, Michael, and Piotr also used the downtime to recharge some electronic equipment. During that time I received a phone call from Robert Madison (rmadisonWI). Robert lives in Chicago and was going to come down and meet us for lunch.

Then with the Hammonds checked in, all luggage stored, we proceeded to walk down the platform for tracks 9 & 11 to the Madison Avenue exit from CUS. About halfway down that platform, we met Robert walking towards us. With a group of 11 now, we continued to walk down the platform and up the stairs to Madison. Then a short cattycorner crossing of the streets, brought us to Olgilvie Transportation Center, where they have a much nicer food court than does CUS.

After a little food, fun, and camaraderie, it was time to split up a go our separate ways. Roslyn was heading back home, since she was not joining Steve on the trip. Piotr was leaving the group in Chicago, as circumstances prohibited him from going all the way to the west coast. He will be returning east later tonight on the Cardinal. So he and Robert went off to ride some CTA trains, and I think that Piotr had a lunch date with a friend of his in Chicago.

So a group of 8 started to return to CUS. A few people broke off to visit a store or two, but eventually all reentered the Metro Lounge, whereupon we found our conductor collecting sleeper tickets. We also reclaimed our bags from the storage room, and then stood around chatting for about 15 to 20 minutes, since there were no seats left in the lounge, before they announced our boarding call.

Both full sleepers are on the rear of the train, preceded by the lounge car, the coaches, and the trans/dorm which also has some rooms sold to passengers. Mom and I are in the 531 car, room A and the rest of the group are in the 532 car at this point. Both cars are refurbished Superliner I sleepers, however our car needs some more work, as the A/C isn’t working properly. It’s probably about 80 degrees in our room at the moment.

On the other hand, the 532 sleeper’s A/C might actually be working too well. Mike and Lynn Hammond just walked by our room on the way to dinner, both wearing coats.

And that will close out this section of my report.

 

[Trogdor]

Then with the Hammonds checked in, all luggage stored, we proceeded to walk down the platform for tracks 9 & 11 to the Madison Avenue exit from CUS.

Well, Madison Street, technically.

Both cars are refurbished Superliner I sleepers, however our car needs some more work, as the A/C isn’t working properly. It’s probably about 80 degrees in our room at the moment.
On the other hand, the 532 sleeper’s A/C might actually be working too well. Mike and Lynn Hammond just walked by our room on the way to dinner, both wearing coats.

The solution here is to keep the end doors between both cars open, that way the extra cool air from the car with too much AC can drift over to the car with the bad AC.

 

[AlanB]

Dinner for the two of us last night was Salmon and it was quite good and properly heated. My Cod from the night before wasn’t quite as nicely heated. Our SA for the evening was Jane, one of the most efficient that I’ve seen and one of the most friendly. Jane took wonderful care of us, so we were quite disappointed to find out that she was short turning in Denver and wouldn’t be with us for the rest of the trip.

After diner we returned to our room and relaxed until Donald came around to put down our beds at about 9:30 PM CDT. Since we wanted to be in time for our arrival into Denver, and we’d been getting up early for the past two day, plus we needed to set our clocks back by another hour, we decided to turn in early.

While we went to bed without either the sheet or blanket covering us, during the night time hours with lower temperatures outside, and no sun on the cars, the A/C did start to catch up. First it was time to pull up the sheet over each of us, and then eventually the blanket.

Awake the next morning at 6:41 AM MDT before the alarm clock set for 7:00 AM, we proceeded to get dressed and head for the diner, only to discover that we had just missed the last available table and had to go on the waiting list. Returning to our room, Donald came by and returned it to its daylight configuration for us shortly before our arrival into Denver.

Our arrival into Denver came at 7:36 AM, one minute late. Then the fun started. There were approximately 190 people detraining in Denver, and if I had to guess I’d say at least 100 were boarding. Mechanical came out to look at the 32 car, which had no hot water and Donald got the supervisor to try and fix the A/C in our car. There was some improvement after he fiddled with things, and things had cooled down rather nicely overnight with the cooler air and lack of sun.

Then we had the EMS come and remove a sick passenger from the crew dorm, as well as a mix-up with two people being assigned the same roomette in our sleeper. And one of those involved in the mix-up was our own Bill Magee (PRR60).

When the conductor started lifting tickets inside the station, he lifted the ticket from a couple without checking the date. They had a ticket for July 11th. So when Bill went to check in, they realized that they had a problem, since he had the correct ticket for today. They did manage to board the couple in a roomette, but it is unclear at this point if they will be able to remain in that same room or if they will have to move to a different room further down the line.

I heard the conductor talking to them and saying that he had at least one empty roomette during the entire journey to Emeryville, but again he wasn’t sure if he could keep them in that roomette the whole way or if he would have to ask them to move to accommodate the passengers boarding down the line.

Just before we reboarded our sleepers, Jane, the SA from the night before came down the platform rolling her bag behind her. Just about everyone on the platform came up to say goodbye and to thank her for her wonderful service. The big smile on her face told us all that she greatly appreciated our heart felt thanks.

Shortly after returning to our rooms, I heard the station calling the crew to inform them to look for a coach passenger headed for Sacramento and to ask her to step off the train for a minute. The station was sending out the person who had dropped off this lady at the station, because this lady apparently had the car keys that she needed in order to get home.

Close on the heals of that, came the announcement from the LSA, calling mom and I as well as others to the diner for our breakfast. The dining car was once again full after she went down the list only part way. In fact Mike and Lynn came in hoping to sit with us, only to find out that they needed to get on the list and that it was a rather long list.

While we were waiting to actually get our food, and service was a bit slow since the diner was down to one SA and one LSA for crew, we departed Denver at 8:21 AM 16 minutes late thanks to the emergency and the key situation.

With the diner so full, Paulette the attendant from the 32 sleeper came in to help out a bit by pouring coffee, tea, and juice for many of the passengers waiting to have their orders taken. She probably did this for a good half an hour, before returning to her sleeper to attend to her regular duties. Shortly after her departure from the diner, Donald our attendant in the 31 car, also came in to help out. He spent some time helping to clear the empty tables and reset them so that more passengers could be called to the diner for their breakfast.

I was quite impressed with both of the attendants, as working in the dining car is not their job. But despite that fact, they both took the initiative to pitch in and help out in the diner for the good of all passengers. Kudos to both for their excellent work practices in the face of the shortsightedness of Amtrak management to keep enough SA’s on duty to handle the sold out train.

I know that I’ll be upping my tip to Donald to thank him for his efforts, and I also walked back to the 32 car after I was done eating, to personally thank Paulette too for her efforts on our behalf. While they shouldn’t have had to do this, they both exemplify the type of workers that Amtrak needs to find and keep.

Finally with tummies full we left the diner for our room, just about the time that the Hammonds were being seated. At this point, with a low outside temp of about 75and with the sun being on the other side of the train from our room, things remained reasonably cool within our room. Sadly that would not continue to be the case, but that’s tomorrows story as we’re getting ready to pull out of Salt Lake City right now and I want to get this post up before loosing the signal and it is getting late.

 

[GG-1]

Aloha

My flight from Honolulu was on time and surprise I has seatmates that were quite friendly. A mother and Daughter from Neighbor Island Kauai.

Mahalo to a Brother from the San Francisco Local I am in My room at the Jack London Inn, 3 trains have passed my window already

I remember on my east bound Zephyr the Car attendants also helped in the diner, must be good moral on board if a couple of years later they do the same.

Meet you tomorrow

GG-1 Eric

 

[AmtrakWPK]

Wonderful travelogue, makes us feel like we're actually there, and we wish we were. On the other hand, tomorrow a.m. we leave for the Florida Keys

But tell everybody HELLO from us!!!

 

[AlanB]

Wonderful travelogue, makes us feel like we're actually there, and we wish we were. On the other hand, tomorrow a.m. we leave for the Florida Keys But tell everybody HELLO from us!!!

Will do!

And have a great vacation yourself.

 

[MrFSS]

How was the Wyoming detour? Did you get to see much of the countryside?

 

[AlanB]

Yes we did, and there was still some decent scenery, although since I've never been the other way, I can't compare it. I hope to have some pictures up later today if all goes well.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

Yes we did, and there was still some decent scenery, although since I've never been the other way, I can't compare it. I hope to have some pictures up later today if all goes well.

Yes, that scenery is beautiful in its own right.

There have been a few periods of time in the CZ's, history (like maybe some of the early days of Amtrak) when the Wyoming route was THE official route, not to be confused with trackwork or other temporary re-routing.

And that territory through Wyoming was no slacker for train service.

Union Pacific (Yes, I know that is a bad word now) ran its beautiful yellow "City" streamliners through that territory. Cheyenne was a big junction.

They were the City of LA, City of SF, City of Portland and City of St. Louis There was also a City of Denver but of course that stopped short of that territory. You can still see those beautiful yellow cars in railroad magazines and modelers mags to this day.

Last but far from least I am glad all seem to be having a good time, esp. your mother.

 

[MrFSS]

Yes we did, and there was still some decent scenery, although since I've never been the other way, I can't compare it. I hope to have some pictures up later today if all goes well.

Yes, that scenery is beautiful in its own right.

There have been a few periods of time in the CZ's, history (like maybe some of the early days of Amtrak) when the Wyoming route was THE official route, not to be confused with trackwork or other temporary re-routing.

And that territory through Wyoming was no slacker for train service.

Union Pacific (Yes, I know that is a bad word now) ran its beautiful yellow "City" streamliners through that territory. Cheyenne was a big junction.

They were the City of LA, City of SF, City of Portland and City of St. Louis There was also a City of Denver but of course that stopped short of that territory. You can still see those beautiful yellow cars in railroad magazines and modelers mags to this day.

Last but far from least I am glad all seem to be having a good time, esp. your mother.

Those were great trains. I rode the City of Portland into Chicago many years ago. Here's one I took a picture of coming in to CUS about 1956.

 

[PRR 60]

Except for my night in Reno and my flight home tomorrow, my mini-fest is now over. I'll post a more detailed summary later, but my ride on the Zephyr was very pleasant. It was a good overall performance by Amtrak. I joined the group yesterday in Denver and just left them about seven hours ago here in Reno. Tomorrow I fly home to what is labeled as "reality". And not to scoop Alan, but the Zephyr arrived in Emeryville EARLY!!! Amazing.

My excuse for taking this ride was to experience the Wyoming detour. But truth be known, my main reason was to spend some time with the OTOL folks and be a small part of their amazing rail adventure. Both goals were accomplished. The Rail Fest is more than just some trains rides. It is a chance to meet and spend time with good folks who are otherwise just names on a website. I was honored to be even a small part of the trip.

Best of luck to the group as they continue the adventure, and here's hoping the rest of the Fest goes as well as the small portion I attended.

 

[dan72]

Just like last year, I will try to keep up a running trip report with pictures as we journey across the US. As I write this, already I'm sitting in the Club Acela Lounge in NYP awaiting our first train ride of the trip on #125 to Washington DC. .

Hi Alan

I was in the NYP Club Acela later that same afternoon as I took the Acela down from BOS and awaited boarding on the LSL from there to ROC.

I'm going to post my trip in the next week or so, but hope yours is going well.

Dan

 

[RailFanLNK]

I, my girlfriend and her two daughters were suppose to be part of the "mini-fest" but had to change our reservations since we were going to Glenwood Springs and that would have had us on a bus during the best part (IMHO) of the CZ. We just arrived in LNK 1 hour ago and our trip on Amtrak went almost great until the service we got in the Dining Car last night. I will post more later after I get some sleep!

Al

 

[GG-1]

Aloha

Not ready to provide my trip report. I am Back in my hotel relaxing, until I head to the Airport and my Hawaiian Airlines Flight to Honolulu.

I am so tired from so much fun. I want most at this time to say Mahalo to the gang for the Birthday, everything, I will never Forget It. Mahalo.

I watched them leave on this mornings CZ for their points East trip. The South bound Starlight showed up shortly ? after you left. After that I visited the California Rail Museum.

Hope you are enjoying the Train.

 

[PRR 60]

When the Northern California RailFest was first announced, I wanted to find some way to join the group for at least part of the trip. The Zephyr detour through Wyoming was my opening. Good airfares was the second piece of the puzzle. Room availability on Amtrak and at desired hotels in Denver and Reno was the next piece. Finally, less than three weeks prior to the Fest, I pulled the trigger and booked the trip. Fly to Denver, Zephyr to Reno, fly home. Four days, four flights, two hotels, and one train. My family thought I had lost my mind.

On Saturday, July 14 I flew from Philadelphia to Denver via Pittsburgh (nice flights, on-time) and spent the night at the Oxford Hotel located one block from Union Station. The next morning I was up at 5:30, went out for a quick run, and then hit the nearby Starbucks for breakfast. At 7:45 I checked out and walked to Union Station. The train had already arrived and the station was busy with the arriving passengers passing through and the departing passengers queuing up for check-in. In one of those "it can only happen to me" situations, there was a double booking with my assigned room. Two of us had the same car, same room. But it was quickly resolved and I settled into my Roomette for the trip west. The train left Denver at 8:20: 15 minutes late.

The scenery along the detour route lacks the spectacular mountains of the Moffat route, but large portions of the Moffat route are not spectacular either. The highest point of the route, Sherman (elevation 8013'), is the summit of a grade in an otherwise pretty plain area. You travel through prairie, past small towns, along historic US 30, and into increasingly desolate areas as you proceed west. Sometimes you are next to busy I-80, and other times you are off in the middle of nowhere. The scenic highlights are Echo and Weber canyons in eastern Utah that are reminiscent of Glenwood. I, for one, enjoyed it. It is classic West.

The UP line across Wyoming and into Salt Lake City is all double track. The Overland Route is big-time railroading with numerous double-stack and other trains moving at speed. The UP moved us along very well, often running us left handed. One stop was made at Green River for smokers and to get some fresh, although very hot, air. The speed of the Wyoming route was proven when we arrived in Salt Lake City at 8:20pm, nearly three hours early. This was despite the fact that the detour is over 40 miles longer than the Moffat route. This gave us a long stay at Salt Lake City.

We left Salt Lake on-time at 11:35pm and I called it a night about an hour later as we passed the casino hotels at Wendover on the Utah - Nevada border. I slept pretty well in my comfortable little room. The next morning I got up as we approached Battle Mountain, Nevada. Winnemucca was reached just a bit late, but extra padding added between there and Reno resulted in us making up so much time that we had to sit on a siding at Thisbe (NV) to avoid arriving over an hour early at the UP rail yard stop at Sparks. Finally, Reno was reached at about 12:30, just a few minutes late. After some quick goodbyes to the Fest folks (most of whom were having lunch), I stepped off the train at the new Reno trench station. Except for my one-night stay at Harrah's (located right at the station) and my on-time flights home, my mini-fest was over.

The Roomette proved to be far more comfortable than I had thought it would be. It is really a very nice accommodation for a solo traveler. I did not miss the in-room toilet and sink facilities of the Bedroom as much as I feared, but did miss the ability to look out both sides of the train as you can with a bedroom. My car (same as AlanB's) had some air conditioning issues that worsened after the fresh air stop at Green River. By the time we approached Salt Lake City, the car was just plain hot. I feared a sweaty, sleepless night. But the situation improved during the three-hour stop and by the time we left Salt Lake, the car was comfortable. Our car attendant was quiet and efficient. He was not chummy, but I do not need chummy. He did a fine job, and kept us well stocked with bottled water: a necessity in the dry, high altitude air. In the morning he had my room changed back to day mode before I even went to breakfast. Good man.

Food service was a mixed bag. The food itself was quite good. My choices were: lunch, Angus Beef Burger (a little dry but OK): dinner, Beef Bourguignonne (with wine, and very good!): and breakfast, the Continental (I miss the pancakes, but I added sausage patties and it was fine). No complaints about the food. Service was a bit haphazard. There is a lot of work for the food crew: probably too much with a full trainload of passengers. Reservations were taken for lunch and dinner and seatings spanned a long time period. Lunch seatings, for example, ran to 3pm with nothing earlier than 2:15 available when they got to me. Once seated, the service was not exactly speedy but was not horrible either. You are on the train, so who really cares if you have to wait a bit. Particularly at dinner when the sleeper AC was misbehaving, it actually was nice to linger in the nice, cool diner.

The Zephyr trip was very, very nice. It was great to share a part of the RailFest and see the UP's big-time Overland Route in action. It was a spur of the moment deal (my specialty), and I am glad I did it, even if it did leave family and friends shaking their heads.

 

[AlanB]

Just a very quick update before going to bed, as we roll through Indiana on the Capitol Limited.

First my apologies for falling so far behind on posting, I've just been way too busy and I wasn't helped by the fact that the outlet in our room in the CZ sleeper was dead. Thankfully Lynn and Mike let me use the power in their room some of the time, but it still was difficult to get online.

Second, obviously we all made our connection from the CZ to the Cap at Chicago, the biggest worry on everyone's mind for this fest. We only made it however with one hour to spare.

Finally, I'm betting that Clearfork was wishing that his luck had been as good, but instead he misconnected yesterday on the Empire Builder, which arrived horribly late into Chicago. However, fortune would still smile on him a least a bit, as he ended up on our Capitol today and we accidentally bumped into one another in the lounge car. It's always nice to bump into members on the board be it unexpectedly or expectedly.

I will try to see if I can't fill in some of the blanks tomorrow, and get some pictures up once I get home. All in all though, the fest has been great and everyone has had a great time, even though a few tears were shead tonight as our group got smaller, and it will get still smaller later tonight when Lynn and Mike get off in Cleveland. So far NS is doing very good by us, only 10 minutes down out of Waterloo. Let's hope that they keep it up.

 

[Steve4031]

Alan,

Im enjoying the "instant replay" of our trip.

Thanks