Sunset and Eagle Switching

[saxman]

I have a few questions about the Sunset and Eagle from LA. I am taking a trip from LA to Houston next week and was curious.

First what is the consist leaving LA? I know there are through cars in San Antonio to Chicago. I have noticed that lately the Sunset is several hours late arriving in SAS, but the Eagle leaves on time. What have they been doing with the through passengers and cars?

I'd also like to know what happens in the reverse direction for 1, 21, and 421.

 

[coronado]

I have taken the Texas Eagle/Sunset Limited from Dallas to LA and back several times in the through cars.

To the best of my recollection of my last trip from LA a couple of months ago, the consists was:

Two locomotives

Baggage

Transition sleeper

Florida bound sleeper

Diner

Sightseeing Lounge

Two Florida bound coaches

Chicago bound coach

Chicago bound sleeper

When the train arrives in San Antonio, the Chicago coach and sleeper (train 422) are uncoupled from the rear of the Sunset (train 2) and coupled to the rear of the waiting Texas Eagle (train 22).

The Sunset is scheduled to arrive in San Antonio fairly early in the morning, the Texas Eagle isn't scheduled to leave until around 8:00 am or so. Except for recently it seems, there is usually enough time for the switching to be accomplished and for the Eagle to depart reasonably close to on-time (for Amtrak) or least soon enough to gain time through schedule padding farther up the line.

Heading back to LA, the Texas Eagle (train 21) arrives in San Antonio the night before, with the LA coach and sleeper (train 421) at the rear of the train. At some point during the night, thes two cars are removed from the Eagle and coupled to the rear of the Sunset Limited (train 1) once it arrives in San Antonio early in the morning.

I've been lucky on my trips... Eagle and Sunset haven't been so late that the connection wasn't made. Although, the Eagle has been held for several hours on occasion waiting for the Sunset to arrive from LA. And one trip the Sunset was so late, that we actually connected with the Texas Eagle that departed day after we were scheduled to connect. That wasn't really related to the Sunset's poor on-time performance, but rather due to a consist not being available to leave LA on time because of a problem with the Southwest Chief. The Sunset was scheduled to depart LA at 10:30pm, we left at noon the following day.

Enjoy your trip and just be prepared to go with the flow no matter what happens.

 

[NativeSon5859]

Between ORL-SAS, #1 usually looks something like this:

2 P42's (only 1 P42 between ORL and NOL)

1 Baggage

1 Transition Sleeper

2 Sleeping Cars

1 Dining Car

1 Sightseer Lounge

2 Coaches

During busier times you'll see and extra coach thrown on there but that's generally what it looks like.

In SAS (San Antonio), the train picks up an additional Coach and Sleeper for its journey West to LAX.

 

[RandyJay]

Can't speak for every occurance, but just as a caution - if #2 is significantly late into SAS you will likely be bused from San Antonio northward to catch up with the Eagle. Seems lately Amtrak is getting more serious about the on time performance of the Eagle so it's not too likely they will hold it as much as in the past. As you have noted the Eagle is getting out of SAS on time even with late #2's these days.

Of course you never know for sure. In fact I heard of an instance where #2 was so late into El Paso that Chicago passengers enjoyed a bus ride from ELP to Dallas, skipping San Antonio all together. Yikes!

The other direction (21/421 to 1) is not near as likely to miss, since the Eagle is almost always into SAS well before #1. You will layover in your car (with power, AC) until the Sunset arrives. San Antonio station is small and nothing much to see in the immediate vicinity. If your schedule permits, consider a days stay in San Antonio on your way out - not expensive - then no problems if #2 is waaayyy late!

 

[Amtrak Watcher]

As a frequent rider of both the trains I can confirm that when the train from LAX arrives too late to be stuck onto the Texas Eagel, a bus takes you to Dallas (sometimes Fort Worth). Lately, the need for the bus option has dropped significantly.

I can not recall the southbound Texas Eagle ever arriving too late to meet the the Florida train going to LAX. The westbound Sunset Limited is usually vary late getting into SAS. In fact, I was on the southbound Texas Eagle, which finally arrived into SAS at 06:30 in the morning (about 7 hours late), but the Sunset Limited had still not arrived in SAS (San Antonio) - I had to sit around the tiny San Antonio station (with its stuck toilets in the restrooms) for another 5 hours. The Sunset Limited arrived (if I recall) into LAX about 7 hours late.

When going east from LAX and if I have the time, I like to stay in San Antonio for a day before meeting the northbound Texas Eagle. When doing so, I like the Best Western hotel, which is an easy walk of only 3 minutes from the train station. The hotel hands out free tram tickets to the River Walk even though it's only a 20 minute walk from the hotel.