Where do you reside?

Advertise with us
Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Born 61 years ago (1944) in Chattanooga,TN.

Moved to Atlanta about 29 years ago.

Was taken overnight on the "Dixie Flagler" from Chattanooga to Daytona Beach, FL. and back at age 3. Been hooked ever since.

Have about 147,000 miles under my belt (pre-Amtrak, Canadian, commuter and Amtrak.) Would have more if my business required travel but it does not.

Early pre-Amtrak experience centers heavily around the Louisville and Nashville Railroad(which took over the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis in 1957) and the Southern Railroad. (forerunner to today's Norfolk Southern).
 
I currently reside in Duluth, MN. I'm originally from Red Wing, MN, about 60 miles south of the Twin Cities metro area. I grew up watching the Empire Builder make its stop in town and envying everybody on board.

Unfortuantely, Duluth lost it's Amtrak route about 20 years ago when the state stopped supporting it (which i was lucky enough to ride about 4 years before this happended). However, there is a movement to get regular rail service established back up here again. Only time will tell....

Dan
 
I live in northeast Michigan and have been a train fan most of my life (60 years). Closest Amtrak is Flint, about 2 hours away. My wife and I are taking an Alaskan cruise in September and we are taking the train from Lansing to Vancouver and back. I last rode the Empire Builder in 1991 and I am anxious to see the upgrade. We have a bedroom both ways. In my younger years, I rode Santa Fe, Southern Pacific, L&N, NYC, Canadian Pacific, Canadian National, Algoma Central, and Grand Trunk. What a shame to see what has happened to our railroads. It should be a first class system.

Love this web site.
 
I live just north of Champaign Illinois less than 100 yards from the IC- CN main.Get to see 4 Amtrak trains a day & it looks like that will go up to 6 soon. I am 50 years old & work as a musician & recording engineer. For years I was active at the Monticello Railroad Muesum at Monticello Il. back when they were running steam & if I can find the time,plan on getting back out there more. I worked for the L&N on the old C&EI Evansville divison in Maint of Way back in 75. Spent 4 years in the boiler room of a frigate for the USN , then I worked for Marmon Transmotive operating & maintaining Track cleaners & undercutters. Left that for the track crew in a mine at Gladstone Colorado & finally ended up back in Illinois running boiler rooms in 2 hospitals. Had health problems & got out of swing shift in the boiler room & now play drums in a Southern Rock Tribute band & do some recording in a studio I am building here at my place. Wow that turned into a book!

Dave Huffman :ph34r:
 
I live in San Pedro, CA, just outside Long Beach. I'm 59 years old. I'm 20+ miles from Union Station in downtown L.A. I think one of the prettiest train stations around.

I'm retired from a school district working in maintenance.
 
My name's Jarod. I'm 30 years old and a sixth generation Tennessean. The nearest Amtrak stations are Atlanta, Anniston, and Birmingham, all about 3 hours away, and Memphis and Newbern, both about 4 hours from here. I have traveled about 22,000 miles on Amtrak in my life, mostly for pleasure. I come from a family with a long railroad history. My hometown of Cowan is an old railroad town and many of my high school buddies work for CSX. I'm an officer with Cowan Railroad Museum and I own the Franklin-Pearson House, an old railroad hotel. I'm also active in the Tennessee Association of Railroad Passengers.
 
I just had my 59th birthday. I was born in GA and have lived in San Francisco since 1971 with the exception of a couple of years in Coos Bay OR and five years at Tassajara Hot Springs near Carmel CA. Because of the geography of San Francisco, i.e. a peninsula with no tunnels except BART and auto-only bridges, the only trains to come into town is the Caltrain commuter line south to San Jose. However, Amtrak runs lots of free busses over to Oakland (about 15 minutes) to the many trains there. Of those I have taken the Starlights (14 & 11) several times all the way, the San Joaquins a half a dozen times to Bakersfield, the Capitol Corridors a couple of times to Sacramento and the Zephyr (5 & 6) a couple of times to Reno and from Chicago.

When I grew up in Columbus GA some summers I took the orange and brown City of Miami up to Fulton KY to visit my grandparents on their farm near Farmington near Mayfield. I also took it once down to Jacksonville to visit a buddy who had moved there.

I rediscovered our passenger rail system about 3 years ago and since have covered a lot of it: all CA trains, the Empire Builder, the Zephyr, the Chief, the Sunset, the Crescent, the Capitol Ltd, the Anne Rutledge and the Pennsylvanian. In October I'll take a leaf peeper trip on the Adirondack from NYC up to Port Kent and back down from Essex Jct on the Vermonter. I'm looking forward to it tremendously. I now have over 20K AGR points and I don't know what to do with them! I usually fly to where I'm going and take the train back. I haven't experienced any major screwups- bustituted once on the Sunset Ltd. between Houston and San Antonio because of flash flooding.

Oh yeah. I'm a Zen priest, currently functioning as the head cook at San Francisco Zen Center.
 
Hi!

I'm kimberly

I live in Albuquerque

I joined this site last year but haven't posted much until lately.

I lost my mom about 12 yrs ago.When I was a child,we traveled alot by train. Even though it is a different ride,I appreciate the opportunity it gives me to reminisce .I never had much time to use trains, for many years I was always in a hurry.

I gave up my business 3 yrs ago ,but I still work for myself.I drive a Yellow Cab,I meet the most interesting people,I get alot of them off the Southwest Chief and I go on vacation about every 2 to 3 months.

I can actually say I'm having a pretty good time.
 
Hi

I am a solo mum living in NZ for almost 20 years originally from Mass. I'm a musician by night and I teach intellectually disabled adults arts, crafts, music, drama etc. by day. Can I ask a rail question too?? Hope you guys don't mind.....No one back home has met my kids (2 boys 11 and 14) so we are coming over in late Sept. I haven't been back for 8 years myself...anyway.... I was thinking of taking a sleeper from Flagstaff or thereabouts (after seeing the Grand Canyon) to Fort Worth to see my brother and his family proably around Oct 6th. It looks a lot easier to go from Tuscon AZ but I'm not sure what else is near the Grand Canyon that could be on that easier route. I have a membership to the Automobile Association over here which is affiliated with AAA so I might be able to get a discount. I noticed there is a train from Tuscon to Fort Worth which takes 35 hours - does that stop for long periods of time? I'm finding the Amtrak website really confusing - are meals included when you get a bedroom? If not - what does the average meal cost? Would a "roomette" be able to accomodate 3 of us - even if the 2 kids slept in one bed? Any other way to get a discount? ANY info would help so much. This is my first time on a long train ride like this. I just thought it would be so neat for the kids to experience different modes of transport and see as much as the US as they can. Thanks so much! (sorry about the novel)
 
Nzdee, you'll need to ask that questions under "new topic", this topic was started months ago and the subject was "where you all from", you may not get any response on this subject line. People may not view it here. If you pose the question you just posted here under new topic, you'll have a bunch of replies! :)
 
As you might guess from my screen name, I live near Kansas City MO; actually in a suburb called Gladstone, about 9-10 miles north of KC's Union Station. I was born more years ago than I care to think about :D (51) & raised in Wyoming MI (a suburb of Grand Rapids), and transferred here about 14 years ago for employment reasons. I'm a Systems Administrator for a large international company, and am in college part-time working toward an Associates Degree in Computer Science/Database Management. I still have family in Michigan, and enjoy riding the SWC & Pere Marquette back to visit them when I have the opportunity.
 
It's a quiet morning on this forum and I finally got around to reading where y'all are from. I'm amazed at the diversity. There are so many home states, ages and occupations represented here.

Count me in as one of the old geezers. I'm a retired accountant from Northern Illinois. I was born and raised in Illinois, but I've lived in Iowa, Michigan and California. Hobbies are traveling and antiqueing.

Trains have always fascinated me. I even enjoy riding the "El" in Chicago!
 
I live at Grand Canyon, Arizon, where I am now employed as a tour bus driver. For many years I worked for New Jersey Transit as a crew dispatcher and ticket agent, but left several years ago in a nasty disagreement. I like what I am now doing better, anyway. I occasionally enjoy riding Amtrak, the last time this past November from Williams Jct., AZ to Chicago.
 
I live in Louisville, KY. I am stay at home mother to a three year train fan and a 6 month baby girl who adores her brother. I took my first train ride as a girl to Oregon from Washington State. I enjoyed it, but hadn't ridden again until my toddler came along. We live a block from railroad track and see freighters go by a few times a day from a park near our home. My son Lee Roy got the train bug from watching that I suppose. We have done Thomas day out twice. Once in Spencer, NC and the other in New Haven, KY. We did a polar express ride at the later this past holiday. We have taken a two hour train ride each way to the Grand Canyon and a two hour ride in Sante Fe, NM. I love to travel and will be taking the kids on an Amtrac ride from Chicago to LA this summer and back. The first leg will be two days and the way back will be three days.
 
I live in Austin,been a train fan for a long time. As my screen name implies I am a fan of amtrak, and I am a wine sales rep in Austin and west Texas. Not a bad job as you must taste what you sell. I am calculating my amtrak miles and I am somewhere around 25,000 to 30,000 miles on amtrak .

CHEERS,Alvin
 
I live on the southwest side of Chicago and am 56 years old. Besides a love of trains, models and real. I really enjoy now taking as many trips on Amtrak as I can, and always go in a sleeper as I travel alone, so coach is not too good an option for me. I have also had the pleasure of taking more trips on Via than I ever thought I could. I also enjoy seeing the Chicago Bears and some good boxing on television. Anyone who enjoys NYC and PRR railroads let me hear from you.

Bill
 
I'm living in Basel, Switzerland

About every year I have the possibility to add a few days to a business trip to the US and ride Amtrak trains. Last ride: in May Seattle-Chicago.

Hope the LD trains will not be killed end of 2006!
 
hello!

i just so surprise of all you .You guys are love and know ur trains.

By the way, I am 26 yr old Amtrak (working towards year number 5 ) and I currently working at Washington DC as onboard attendant (I am qualify to work in all crafts ).I used to be base out of New York and Los Angeles.

I have work all the trains execept Empire Bulider, Auto Train, Cal Zep and Vermonter.
 
I'm from Peoria Heights, Illinois. I've been a passenger train fan ever since riding the "San Francisco Chief" at the age of 6. The year was 1964. I have been captivate ever since. We had a "compartment" with a private lounge in the end of the car. It was pure magic! Later on I was to ride the "Super Chief" and the "El Capitan". Such memories! I've taken the family on Amtrak several times.....the ONLY way to travel!
 
Hello, all! Newbie here.

I live in southern MD (suburb of Washington, DC) now, but until 3 years ago I was born and raised on Long Island, NY. I used to ride the Long Island Rail Road compulsively, and now I get to take Acela often to visit my parents back in NY. I'm a long-time train buff, and finally convinced my wife to take a cross-country trip last summer (Capitol Limited/Empire Buiolder WAS-SEA-WGL-WAS) -- she loved it so much we're heading to San Francisco next month!

I've been lurking here for a while, and I just wanted to say I'm glad to be a part of this warm, friendly community. Looking at all the diversity on the pages of this thread makes for some great conversations and interesting perspectives. I look forward to posting here!
 
MadManMoon said:
Hello, all! Newbie here.
I live in southern MD (suburb of Washington, DC) now, but until 3 years ago I was born and raised on Long Island, NY. I used to ride the Long Island Rail Road compulsively, and now I get to take Acela often to visit my parents back in NY. I'm a long-time train buff, and finally convinced my wife to take a cross-country trip last summer (Capitol Limited/Empire Buiolder WAS-SEA-WGL-WAS) -- she loved it so much we're heading to San Francisco next month!

I've been lurking here for a while, and I just wanted to say I'm glad to be a part of this warm, friendly community. Looking at all the diversity on the pages of this thread makes for some great conversations and interesting perspectives. I look forward to posting here!
Click to expand...
Welcome!!

This is a great place to talk about Amtrak and we will look forward to your trip report for the California trip you will take soon.

Tom
 
I work in Downtown Chicago,

and get to ride a Metra Train back and forth to work everyday. After 8 years of this I still love it.

I will admit, however, that my favorite mode of transportation is Amtrak and have ridden just about every route that has existed. I have been on this forum for a short month and am excited to be here and talk with/and learn from other Forum Members!

Keep on training!
 
rail rookie said:
I guess I'm gonna stick my neck out on this one, but I have been on this forum about 3 months now and I have almost gotten addicted to it. I mean....I check e-mail, make lunch/supper/breakfast and then click on to this website. Have you "longtimers" on this site ever wondered where people are from or what they do? Would it be appropriate for us to chime in who/where and what we do in life? I will be willing to go first I just don't want to cross a privacy line thats been drawn. I just get to see some of the same people posting and kind of wonder where they live etc.
Click to expand...

First time on this site. I live in Bloomington, MN, a suburb of Minneapolis. I love passenger trains and will vote against any politician who does not support building a much stronger Amtrak.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top