East to West Coast Trans; Preferred Direction

[greatpenguini]

Getting ready to ride the Empire Builder. I was reading an old thread that was saying it was better to go west to east. I'm wondering, in terms of daylight, how much difference it makes if you're traveling toward sunset or away from sunset. Does it cost you a lot in terms of length of daylight?

 

[drdumont]

Get a copy of the schedule. There are resources which will show you the sun's path across the land at certain times and dates. (Try Google Earth). Then see when the sun will be up when the train comes through the area you are interested in seeing.
There has been discussion elsewhere about how we would have the opportunity to see everything on a path is we had "Morning" and "Evening" trains. Would be nice.
Alas, it would also be nice if we aged backwards at a certain point...

 

[niemi24s]

Do as suggested above - it's the only thing of any practical concern.

That's because up at the latitude of the EB's East-West route from GFK to SEA, the train would have to average about 690mph going West to keep the Sun in the same position overhead. But as the EB's average speed is only about 1/15th of that, I don't think you'd notice any difference.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

West to east is better for seeing glacier national park which is the true highlight of that route. Also when leaving St. Paul in the morning you’ll be traveling along the Mississippi River in the morning which is when the bald eagles will be fishing for breakfast. Last time I rode the builder I think I counted about 24 eagles along that stretch (I probably missed just as many...). You tell me what is better in life than eating a cooked breakfast in an Amtrak dining car while watching bald eagles fish from the Mississippi River!

 

[Siegmund]

I'm wondering, in terms of daylight, how much difference it makes if you're traveling toward sunset or away from sunset. Does it cost you a lot in terms of length of daylight?

Four minutes per degree of longitude. To a rough approximation, that's why you gain 2 hours to time zone changes going west, and lose them going east. (And it makes both night and day longer going west and shorter going east.)

As for the scenery itself, that depends on what you want to see, the time of year, and how late the train is.

Eastbound wins for the Mississippi river near St. Paul. If the train is on time, Glacier Park is about a tie - if you're late you'll wish you were eastbound. Westbound wins for the Cascades/Columbia River Gorge. And unless you are very very late, Spokane to Whitefish is in the dark both ways. Too bad.

 

[Rasputin]

In the summer I much prefer east to west on the Builder as long as the train is reasonably on time. The days are long and when the train is on time it is still daylight when you get to Whitefish and the next morning you pass through the loop at Trinidad just at dawn (helps if the train is a bit late there.)

Eastbound the best scenery ends once you leave Glacier Park and it is a long trip through interesting but undramatic scenery for the rest of the day.