South West Chief

[Bill]

Took the Cardinal from Cincinnati to Chicago on the 21st of january to hook up with the Chief to go to LA.Well a few miles east of Flagstaff(I have a scanner) an east bound freight sees alot of smoke coming from one of the cars,3rd,4th or 5th he didn't really know being at road speed.So we slowly roll to a stop in the middle of nowhere blocking the main we were on.We call dispatch to let them know we were stopped and had a man on the ground to inspect our train.Dispatch immediaetly notifies all trains in the area.I see the glow of the led flashlight starting at the headend walking past my car in the deep snow till I can't see back any farther,I am in a roomette three cars back.

Then he climbs on board and determines what the freight train crew saw,at night,very cold out and with us moving and him moving was the dinner releasing the hot dish water on the tracks and with it being soo cold out it turned to steam and only seeing it for a few seconds the freight thought it was smoke.

After all was said and done,a laugh or two our train said "Thanks for your observance" to the freight ...we took off and hit Flag a short time later..lots of snow.

 

[greatcats]

Took the Cardinal from Cincinnati to Chicago on the 21st of january to hook up with the Chief to go to LA.Well a few miles east of Flagstaff(I have a scanner) an east bound freight sees alot of smoke coming from one of the cars,3rd,4th or 5th he didn't really know being at road speed.So we slowly roll to a stop in the middle of nowhere blocking the main we were on.We call dispatch to let them know we were stopped and had a man on the ground to inspect our train.Dispatch immediaetly notifies all trains in the area.I see the glow of the led flashlight starting at the headend walking past my car in the deep snow till I can't see back any farther,I am in a roomette three cars back.Then he climbs on board and determines what the freight train crew saw,at night,very cold out and with us moving and him moving was the dinner releasing the hot dish water on the tracks and with it being soo cold out it turned to steam and only seeing it for a few seconds the freight thought it was smoke.

After all was said and done,a laugh or two our train said "Thanks for your observance" to the freight ...we took off and hit Flag a short time later..lots of snow.

I boarded that train at Flagstaff that night, which would seem to explain why it had been on time and then pulled in about 15 minutes late! We were 15 minutes early arriving LA, which I have remarked on in other posts - Amtrak did very well through that stormy week on the Southwest Chief.

 

[greatcats]

Bill, were you the guy in the forward slepper when I was talking to a Canadian couple about the Grand Canyon as we neared Williams?

 

[Bill]

Bill, were you the guy in the forward slepper when I was talking to a Canadian couple about the Grand Canyon as we neared Williams?

Yuppers I was I think two door down from that couple.Tall,thin with grey white hair.Renee was the Car attendent,remided me of Mr. Miyagi from the Karate Kid.

What a mess at Williams when we missed the drop off point for the first sleeper by 10 feet and had to back up,poor conductor had to walk back in a couple of feet of snow to make sure we didn't foul a signal. Didn't understand why,thought it would have been easier to have the passengers walk back to the second sleeper and get off...it was a nasty night for sure.

In Flag,what a mess,three drops...saw lots of people walking acroos the street so I figured the bars were open.

 

[MrFSS]

I fixed your picture for you!

 

[Trainmans daughter]

Nice job on the "pic fix", MrFSS. That yellow snow was creeping me out a little!

 

[greatcats]

Those photos do look familiar. Many restaurants were not open, but when walking from the Drury Hotel to the station that night I lucked out and found the Cottage Place restaurant open - on a side street just south of the tracks, and one of Flagstaff's classiest dining places. The meal was fabulous, having eaten there once before, and do recommend it for anyone visiting Flagstaff. ( not cheap. ) I am in Flagstaff again today and there is still plenty of snow on the ground, but everything is running normally. I was at a lecture last weekend at the nearby Riordan Mansion State Park and it was about the late 1920's rail and air service with Charles Lindbergh involved - coast to coast in 48 hours. It had more to do with the planes than the trains, but was an interesting evening. A man in the audience questioned what happened to the air connections if the trains were late and the answer was that the trains were very reliable in those days. I piped up and said I realized that trains these days have a spotty reputation, but that the Southwest Chief had transported me during the storm to Los Angeles very well, which drew a positive reaction from the group.

Getting a little away from the topic, but the abovementioned Riordan Mansion State Historic Park was to be closed down next week, due to the drastic budget cuts to the State Park budget, along with about two thirds of the other parks. I heard on National Public Radio this morning from Flagstaff that after a big meeting yesterday, that closing of Riordan has been delayed until March 29. This will be to give the support groups ( to which I've contributed ) more time to work out a compromise to keep this park open part time, so that is good news for now. I do recommend visiting Riordan Mansion if possible, an important piece of Flagstaff history.

 

[Bill]

Thanks MrFSS for getting that picture cleaned up for me...We arrived early in LA and had Redcap Monica take us directly to the taxi stand,left two days later on the Sunset Limited to New Orleans.