rickycourtney
Conductor
As a birthday present to me my girlfriend took me on a trip from Fresno to Chicago last week. We took the San Joaquin from Fresno to Stockton, a thruway motorcoach from Stockton to Sacramento and in a roomette on the California Zephyr the rest of the way to Chicago.
The scenery on this route is stunning, especially the trip through Glenwood Canyon. It was fun to see all the "painted" canyon walls covered in a blanket of snow.
Timekeeping
We fell about four hours behind schedule overnight in Nevada. I was told the previous days westbound train had to set out its baggage car. We were asked to pick it up and tow it back to Chicago. The problem was that many of the switches were frozen solid making it difficult to access the siding and to add insult to injury when we finally backed up to the car the conductor realized the coupler was too badly damaged for us to repair.
Our engineer and conductor did their best over the next day to help regain some of that lost time. When we pulled into Denver we had made up about an hour. Unfortunately most of that time was lost overnight due to slow restrictions on the tracks east of Denver.
The good news is, despite our delays, we didn't miss any of the trips best scenery and we had the added bonus of being able to see lots of Christmas lights as we pulled in Chicago at dusk.
Sleeping Car
We rode in a refurbished Superliner I sleeping car that had no problems during our entire trip (despite the -10°F weather outside.) Our sleeping car attendant was Curt was fantastic. He provided a bunch of little "extras" around our sleeping car to make sure everyone felt at home...
* When we boarded the train he had set up the table in our room with a blue napkin as a tablecloth on which he placed a handful of Lifesavers candy along with a note welcoming us aboard signed by him.
* There was always a basket of cookies by the coffee maker.
* He placed a vase of silk flowers and a solid air freshener in each of the bathrooms.
* When our beds were turned down at night he handed my girlfriend a handful of Hershey's Kisses (along with a funny line like "I only give kisses to the ladies").
I forgot to bring a bottle of shampoo along with me. Curt was able to scrounge up one of those velvet bags with shampoo, conditioner, soap, a hair net and lotion. Again, I'm not sure why shampoo isn't considered a basic amenity (it is at almost any hotel.) Curt said that he hadn't received any of these amenity bags in nearly two years.
As an aside, Curt mentioned that he had been some sort of manager on the CZ for years, but decided to return to working on-board because it allowed him spend more time at home with his family.
Dining Car
The dining car crew was really great. Everything was served hot and very quickly. But they seemed to be frustrated with the new menu. Other than the old favorites, there seemed to be one good "new" choice and one bad "new" choice at each meal.
Breakfast:
Great: buttermilk pancakes (made to order with blueberries baked in)
Horrible: spinach mushroom and cheese frittata (tasted like eating an old kitchen sponge)
Lunch:
Great: griddled crab cake sandwich
Bad: kung pao chicken stir-fry
Dinner:
Great: braised beef short-rib topped with ancho-molasses barbecue sauce (inspired by Seattle chef Tom Douglas)
Bad: vegetarian bucatini pasta with sun-dried tomatoes, asparagus and edamame beans (while the description sounds good, it didn't have much flavor and the pasta was mushy.)
Overall, we throughly enjoyed the trip and arrived relaxed and ready to enjoy Chicago... where the next day I proposed to my girlfriend at the top of the Willis (Sears) Tower.
The scenery on this route is stunning, especially the trip through Glenwood Canyon. It was fun to see all the "painted" canyon walls covered in a blanket of snow.
Timekeeping
We fell about four hours behind schedule overnight in Nevada. I was told the previous days westbound train had to set out its baggage car. We were asked to pick it up and tow it back to Chicago. The problem was that many of the switches were frozen solid making it difficult to access the siding and to add insult to injury when we finally backed up to the car the conductor realized the coupler was too badly damaged for us to repair.
Our engineer and conductor did their best over the next day to help regain some of that lost time. When we pulled into Denver we had made up about an hour. Unfortunately most of that time was lost overnight due to slow restrictions on the tracks east of Denver.
The good news is, despite our delays, we didn't miss any of the trips best scenery and we had the added bonus of being able to see lots of Christmas lights as we pulled in Chicago at dusk.
Sleeping Car
We rode in a refurbished Superliner I sleeping car that had no problems during our entire trip (despite the -10°F weather outside.) Our sleeping car attendant was Curt was fantastic. He provided a bunch of little "extras" around our sleeping car to make sure everyone felt at home...
* When we boarded the train he had set up the table in our room with a blue napkin as a tablecloth on which he placed a handful of Lifesavers candy along with a note welcoming us aboard signed by him.
* There was always a basket of cookies by the coffee maker.
* He placed a vase of silk flowers and a solid air freshener in each of the bathrooms.
* When our beds were turned down at night he handed my girlfriend a handful of Hershey's Kisses (along with a funny line like "I only give kisses to the ladies").
I forgot to bring a bottle of shampoo along with me. Curt was able to scrounge up one of those velvet bags with shampoo, conditioner, soap, a hair net and lotion. Again, I'm not sure why shampoo isn't considered a basic amenity (it is at almost any hotel.) Curt said that he hadn't received any of these amenity bags in nearly two years.
As an aside, Curt mentioned that he had been some sort of manager on the CZ for years, but decided to return to working on-board because it allowed him spend more time at home with his family.
Dining Car
The dining car crew was really great. Everything was served hot and very quickly. But they seemed to be frustrated with the new menu. Other than the old favorites, there seemed to be one good "new" choice and one bad "new" choice at each meal.
Breakfast:
Great: buttermilk pancakes (made to order with blueberries baked in)
Horrible: spinach mushroom and cheese frittata (tasted like eating an old kitchen sponge)
Lunch:
Great: griddled crab cake sandwich
Bad: kung pao chicken stir-fry
Dinner:
Great: braised beef short-rib topped with ancho-molasses barbecue sauce (inspired by Seattle chef Tom Douglas)
Bad: vegetarian bucatini pasta with sun-dried tomatoes, asparagus and edamame beans (while the description sounds good, it didn't have much flavor and the pasta was mushy.)
Overall, we throughly enjoyed the trip and arrived relaxed and ready to enjoy Chicago... where the next day I proposed to my girlfriend at the top of the Willis (Sears) Tower.
Cue Dean Martin Singing: "Memories are Made of This!" Congrats, maybe a Honeymoon on a LD Train????! 
