Has anyone here 'aced' the Amtrak system?

[jacorbett70]

I am curious as to if anyone here has ridden at least once on every mile of the current Amtrak rail system.

I have been on every major route but not end to end for all routes yet, though I am quite close. I know I have parts of the Blue Water, Carolinian, and Florida routes that I have not been on but will be in the near future.

 

[rrdude]

I wish I had.....

I'm short on these routes:

Portland to Vancouver

Orlando - Tampa

Orlando -Miami (to be rectified in January)

Atlanta - NOL (had tix twice, missed the SC, and Amtrak CANX for MOW this past January)

Kansas City to St. Louis (to be rectified next week)

Selma-Greensboro

New Orleans - Jacksonville

Sacramento - Bakersfield

Battle Creek - Port Huron (can you believe it, I'm from Michigan)

Amhearst - St. Albans

Richmond -Newport News (hope to fix this later this fall)

Dang, I didn't know I was that short, I better get planning!

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I'm not all that crazy about every possible mile, much of it is boring and/or in serious disrepair for passenger speeds. :angry2:

 

[FriskyFL]

Is it in the realm of possibility that someone has ridden on every Amtrak route that EVER existed since the very beginning?

 

[Ryan]

It's on my list of things to do.

Out west, I need the CZ and the SL.

I need the CONO and a bunch of stuff in the midwest.

Missing the Sanford - Miami in FL and ATL-NOL on the Crescent is going to be hard to pick up. Vermonter, Empire Service and the LSL are a little more realistic.

 

[saxman]

I'm almost there. I need to do the Michigan routes and now that I'm in Michigan a lot, I should have that done soon. Also need Sacramento to Stockton, St. Albans to Essex Jct., Greensboro to Raleigh and Richmond to Newport News. Oh and the Missouri River Runner, but that will be covered in just a couple weeks!

 

[jimhudson]

I am curious as to if anyone here has ridden at least once on every mile of the current Amtrak rail system.

I have been on every major route but not end to end for all routes yet, though I am quite close. I know I have parts of the Blue Water, Carolinian, and Florida routes that I have not been on but will be in the near future.

I'm not the_traveler but I sometimes play him on this site! As far as LD trains go I only lack the two Silver trains from NYP-MIA and my dance card will be full! The "short" routes still to go are the Bluewater,the Pennsylvanian and the Downeaster! Also a few of the legs on the regional trains in California, next summer I'll cover them when I take the annual freeloading trip to Sonoma! (what are brothers for!) Hope to see everyone in St. louis or if not out on the trains somewhere in N. America! (ie VIA, Amtrak or the Alaska Railroad!)

Jim

 

[Michael061282]

I'm short a couple of major routes..

City of New Orleans route,

Charleston-Miami (or Sanford to Mia if you count the original Auto Train),

Raleigh - Tampa-Miami,

everything in Michigan,

Illinois Zephyr/Carl Sandburg route west of Galesburg,

Heartland Flyer Route,

Maple Leaf (Buffalo - Toronto),

Sacramento-Stockton & Stockton- Martinez on the San Joaquins.

Downeaster route

also missing the Eastern Sunset, although I don't consider that part of Amtrak any longer.

if anyone would like to donate to my cause, feel free <j/k>

 

[had8ley]

You could make it real interesting and add all the Thruway connections.... :lol:

 

[rrdude]

You could make it real interesting and add all the Thruway connections.... :lol:

I'd rather walk, STRIKE THAT, crawl, than take the bus..........ugh.

And I'm on the "Dog" from Duluth to MSP later this month. But it's only two+hours....

 

[jacorbett70]

You could make it real interesting and add all the Thruway connections.... :lol:

I'd rather walk, STRIKE THAT, crawl, than take the bus..........ugh.

And I'm on the "Dog" from Duluth to MSP later this month. But it's only two+hours....

I'm sure the number of Thruway bus trips I've ever taken can be counted on one hand. I've also been lucky in avoiding emergency bustitutions.

 

[Edgefan]

Taking care of the Cardinal in three weeks! Silver service to only Orlando next Feb. (will still have ORL to MIA to ride) Lake Shore Limited NYP to ALB will be completed on our return home next March. Only thing left for us will be the Maple Leaf, Adirondack, Pennsylvanian, Downeaster, Springfield, MA (SPG) to Boston, Heartland Flyer, NC services, MO services, and not crossed into Canada on the Cascades service. That's it in a nutshell!

 

[the_traveler]

LD, I'm only missing the CONO and Vermonter north of Springfield and The Silvers south of Arburndale (sp) to Miami. Plus many of the short IL and MI routes around CHI. And the MORR - but that will be done real soon!

Also Everett, WA to Vancouver, BC and BFX to TWO and Whitehall, NY to Rutland, VT.

I have taken the Pioneer, Desert Wind and the SL-East (all the way from LAX to JAX

)! I have also taken the Adirondack via the old routing (via Cohoes and Mechanicville - now it operates via Schenectady and past the old ALCO plant {left side just after leaving SDY heading north})! And the old SL routing via Phoenix!

 

[jacorbett70]

Here is (AFAIK) the sum total of my discontinued-routes Amtrak riding, as I did not have the $$ to ride LD routes until shortly after the mid-90s cuts:

Empire Service route from Grand Central

Atlantic City Express (also since then on NJT)

Three Rivers route PGH-CHI via Nappanee

late '90s Silver Palm route JAX-TPA via Ocala

...and the "suspended" segment of the Sunset Limited

I could also note the rerouted Zephyr though WY that covered part of the old Pioneer route.

 

[railiner]

Is it in the realm of possibility that someone has ridden on every Amtrak route that EVER existed since the very beginning?

I am fortunate enough to make that claim, except for two that eluded me...from Chicago to Wisconsin in the late '90's. I have also been on many detour routes and was aboard some Amtrak test trains run by the late VP Jim Larson.

The ones that I miss the most are the National Limited, the Floridian, and the Pioneer. I do miss many of the other routes as well.

I am not counting any 'Thruway' bus routes, but if you want to talk about buses, I miss a lot of Greyhound and other bus routes that have disappeared over the last 45 years or so.

 

[Great Train Rider]

Yes, many times. Not only every route that has ever existed (except the short-lived Janesville train), but many trains before Amtrak such as the Phoebe Snow, Tennessean, Southern Belle, and Choctaw Rockette and Cherokee. I have also done every suburban line in the country. A few light rail lines still elude me.

 

[had8ley]

You could make it real interesting and add all the Thruway connections.... :lol:

I'd rather walk, STRIKE THAT, crawl, than take the bus..........ugh.

And I'm on the "Dog" from Duluth to MSP later this month. But it's only two+hours....

I never said they were pretty BUT they are part of the Arrow system. h34r:

 

[railiner]

Yes, many times. Not only every route that has ever existed (except the short-lived Janesville train), but many trains before Amtrak such as the Phoebe Snow, Tennessean, Southern Belle, and Choctaw Rockette and Cherokee. I have also done every suburban line in the country. A few light rail lines still elude me.

Yes, that Janesville train was one of the two that I missed. The other was the one that ran into central Wisconsin, I forget where, Oshkosh, perhaps?

I was a relative latecomer to railfanning, (began at about age 21), but I was able to ride some of the disapearing routes just prior to Amtrak. The Erie Lackawanna 'Lake Cites' from Hoboken to Chicago, the N&W 'Wabash Cannonball" from St. Louis to Detroit, and the CB&Q-D&RGW-WP 'California Zephyr', are three that come to mind.

The old Amtrak 'South Wind' and 'Floridian' over its many different routings from Chicago south was a particular challenge to keep up with.

 

[Eric S]

Yes, many times. Not only every route that has ever existed (except the short-lived Janesville train), but many trains before Amtrak such as the Phoebe Snow, Tennessean, Southern Belle, and Choctaw Rockette and Cherokee. I have also done every suburban line in the country. A few light rail lines still elude me.

Yes, that Janesville train was one of the two that I missed. The other was the one that ran into central Wisconsin, I forget where, Oshkosh, perhaps?

I was a relative latecomer to railfanning, (began at about age 21), but I was able to ride some of the disapearing routes just prior to Amtrak. The Erie Lackawanna 'Lake Cites' from Hoboken to Chicago, the N&W 'Wabash Cannonball" from St. Louis to Detroit, and the CB&Q-D&RGW-WP 'California Zephyr', are three that come to mind.

The old Amtrak 'South Wind' and 'Floridian' over its many different routings from Chicago south was a particular challenge to keep up with.

If you're talking about a train in existence at the same time as the Chicago-Janesville Lake Country Limited, it was an extension of a CHI-MKE Hiawatha north of MKE to Fond du Lac, WI. And it never actually began service, just like the proposed Chicago-Des Moines train and the Crescent Star and Skyline Connection.

 

[railiner]

Yes, many times. Not only every route that has ever existed (except the short-lived Janesville train), but many trains before Amtrak such as the Phoebe Snow, Tennessean, Southern Belle, and Choctaw Rockette and Cherokee. I have also done every suburban line in the country. A few light rail lines still elude me.

Yes, that Janesville train was one of the two that I missed. The other was the one that ran into central Wisconsin, I forget where, Oshkosh, perhaps?

I was a relative latecomer to railfanning, (began at about age 21), but I was able to ride some of the disapearing routes just prior to Amtrak. The Erie Lackawanna 'Lake Cites' from Hoboken to Chicago, the N&W 'Wabash Cannonball" from St. Louis to Detroit, and the CB&Q-D&RGW-WP 'California Zephyr', are three that come to mind.

The old Amtrak 'South Wind' and 'Floridian' over its many different routings from Chicago south was a particular challenge to keep up with.

If you're talking about a train in existence at the same time as the Chicago-Janesville Lake Country Limited, it was an extension of a CHI-MKE Hiawatha north of MKE to Fond du Lac, WI. And it never actually began service, just like the proposed Chicago-Des Moines train and the Crescent Star and Skyline Connection.

Okay, I had thought that the Fond Du Lac train did run. Thanks for clearing that up.

So the only route I missed was the Lake Country Limited. Bugs me that I missed that one. Oh, well...

 

[jacorbett70]

I've done it! With my recent first trip on the Silver Star north from MIA via TPA, I've covered every mile of every route of the current system between 1997 and the present. Luck (and some planning avoiding some notorious connections like 1-14 and 14-28) has also kept me from being bussed around any of the trackage.

 

[abcnews]

Good Job! Impressive...

 

[Long Train Runnin']

Congrats! Thats no easy undertaking.

 

[NETrainfan]

This is an amazing thread and an amazing feat. Congratulations to all who travel the trains so extensively. It is inspirational!

 

[pennyk]

I've done it! With my recent first trip on the Silver Star north from MIA via TPA, I've covered every mile of every route of the current system between 1997 and the present. Luck (and some planning avoiding some notorious connections like 1-14 and 14-28) has also kept me from being bussed around any of the trackage.

WOW, I am very impressed (and jealous). What makes it even more impressive, is that you are young and did it in a relatively short period of time.

Congratulations.