My next long distance trip

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Hi y'all

I'm planning my next long distance trip. I'm going to visit my son and his family near Seattle, and I will be traveling from the Austin, TX area sometime the first of July. I plan to take the Texas Eagle south, join up with the Sunset Ltd and go west to Los Angeles. I'll overnight in LA (would like to check out China Town), and take the Coast Starlight north the next day. I'll spend about a week or so in the Seattle area and would like to take the Cascades train to Vancouver BC for a one or two day trip. For my return, I will take the CS south to Sacramento, the California Zephyr east to Galesburg, IL, the SW Chief south to Kansas City, an 8303 bus ride to OK City, then south on the Heartland Flyer/Texas Eagle back home. I've only taken the Texas Eagle/Sunset Ltd train before, and I very much enjoyed that. Any tips or hints you might have to make this adventure more interesting? :rolleyes:
 
Hi y'all
I'm planning my next long distance trip. I'm going to visit my son and his family near Seattle, and I will be traveling from the Austin, TX area sometime the first of July. I plan to take the Texas Eagle south, join up with the Sunset Ltd and go west to Los Angeles. I'll overnight in LA (would like to check out China Town), and take the Coast Starlight north the next day. I'll spend about a week or so in the Seattle area and would like to take the Cascades train to Vancouver BC for a one or two day trip. For my return, I will take the CS south to Sacramento, the California Zephyr east to Galesburg, IL, the SW Chief south to Kansas City, an 8303 bus ride to OK City, then south on the Heartland Flyer/Texas Eagle back home. I've only taken the Texas Eagle/Sunset Ltd train before, and I very much enjoyed that. Any tips or hints you might have to make this adventure more interesting? :rolleyes:
Sounds like fun! Standard warnings apply about allowing enough time for transfers between trains. The CS, CZ and TE might be the three worst trains in the system as far as OTP. Overnighting in LA is a good idea just for that reason, to make sure you make the CS the next day. The CS and CZ are regularly a couple hours late and rarely up to around 10 hours late by the time they get to your transfer points, so don't schedule any tight connections in Sacramento or Galesburg. You may very well know all this stuff. Also, not too many people make the transfers you're describing in Galesburg or Sacramento so don't expect them to hold the train if it's gonna be close.

One way to make it more interesting is to transfer from the CZ to TE in Chicago instead of Galesburg, if you have any interest in visiting that great American metropolis. Especially if you were going to stay the night in Galesburg in order to ensure the connection. I would be bored in Galesburg if I was stuck there for a day without a car, although if you're a real train nut there is plenty enough of railroad history and freight operations there to keep you entertained.

If time is really not a concern, Denver and most stations west of Denver in Colorado would be excellent places to stop in for 24+ hours (i.e. until the next CZ comes through). There are generally cheap accomodations available and at many of these you can see the sights very well even without a car. It also breaks up the ~48 hours on the train from Sacramento to Galesburg close to the middle.

-meatpuff
 
You just gave a idea for a train trip. I didn't know you could take bus from KCY to OKC (to bad it's a bus). My trip would be SWC, Heartland Flyer, Texas Eagle back to CHI, then SWC back to Ft. Madison. I haven't checked on the price yet, or figured out how many days it would take, but it is food for thought. Thanks, Greg
 
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