SUMMER 1999
AMTRAK TRAVELOGUE
PART IV OF V
THE
by Carol Larsen
I awoke that morning with even more feelings of
nostalgia. Not only had the convention
and Railfair ended, but it was time to finish packing
to leave my nice room overlooking the Amtrak station platform. My train, the number 6 eastbound
instead of rail events and the people in the public areas were no longer those wearing rail convention tags.
I stepped outside the hotel and noticed more changes from the previous Monday. With Railfair over, there were few people heading into the passageway to Old Sacramento. I thought about going there to possibly see some of the locomotives leaving, but decided against that. At the
time, I preferred to remember
the grounds as they had been all the previous week. I thought about what it would be like to
return to
Back in my room, I observed the vintage UP consist at the
railroad station, preparing to leave. At
lifted it out at the station, "This thing sure is heavy!" I positioned my shoulder carry-on atop the upright case and wheeled on through the depot. It was dim and slightly stuffy inside, so I opted for one of the benches on the platform.
With the sun overhead, the benches were all shaded by the
platform roof and cooled by a light breeze blowing. I took out my camera for some photos of the
Capitols consist on the opposite track and plugged my radio into my ear for
word on train number 6. At
My car, the 0633, was just one car down from where I was standing. The conductor came along the platform from the 0633 car, directing people to the proper sleeper. My sleeper attendant, Jay, was there to greet me, lifting my heavy suitcase into the car and then onto a shelf. I
knew from the configuration of the luggage compartment that this was a Superliner I sleeper and observed that it still had the orange and red color scheme. The seat upholstery pattern may have been updated from the original. Jay told me where everything was located, even though he
asked if I had ever ridden
before. He also said he would bring my
lunch reservation number to my room as soon as we were under way. Jay would prove to be one of the friendliest
and most accommodating car attendants I've ever had. I pulled my "onboard wardrobe" bag
out of the front pouch of my suitcase and proceeded upstairs to room 4, my home
for the next two days on my favorite side of the car. If I thought I had fun on the trip out to
The air conditioning was working in good form, which felt really good after the heat outdoors. As I was settling in, the conductor announced we should have our tickets ready as he would be coming through the cars to collect them. Jay came shortly after the conductor, bringing me a
number 10 lunch reservation number and my free beverage coupon. The dining car steward, Calvin, was calling number 1, so I knew I wouldn't have long to wait. I was very hungry, having eaten only a breakfast bar that morning. Knowing that the two-day feeding frenzy was about to begin again, I was watching my meal quantities.
About that time, I heard the man in room 6 asking Jay
what frequency the crew radios would be on.
I'm usually skeptical about the attitude of the service and operating
crews toward passengers monitoring rail frequencies and keep a low profile with
my equipment in their presence. However,
Jay seemed to be quite open to the idea.
He told the man that the crew radios went by channel numbers, but he'd
find out about the frequency. Jay
started to ask the man across the aisle from me in room 3, but I had already
chimed in with "161.550." This
was the start of my learning how many NRHS people were traveling with me. The man in room 6, Hank, was fellow Ham radio
operator N8XX. He and his wife were
returning home to
About that time, my lunch number was called, so I headed
to the diner. On my way, I noticed that
the other two sleepers were also Superliner I's, the 0632 car being one of the refurbished cars with
the blue decor. The 0632 car was
connected in the opposite direction from normal. Calvin seated me with a man and his daughter,
Julie, a girl in her early 20's. They
were returning home to
with a refreshing glass of iced tea. Julie and her father had chicken breast sandwiches. She skipped the dessert, but her father and I both had that wonderful ice cream turtle pie, which I was pleased to see on the menu again. The conversation centered on how enjoyable it is to
see the wonders of our country by train and what people who haven't done that are missing. We also compared notes on the NRHS rail excursions of the past week.
Back in my room, I decided the air conditioning now felt too cold. I closed the vent and turned the temperature dial to the "warmer" setting, for whatever that was worth. These dials frequently have little effect, but I'm usually trying for more cool air, not less.
A lady from the railroad museum in
work they had expected to complete in time for us to pass. We were stopped somewhat longer than expected.
I spent the remainder of the afternoon in my room, trying
to write notes for this travelogue, but being distracted by the beautiful
scenery of the Sierra Nevadas and the
Shortly after that, Greg, the Chief of On-Board Service,
came through the cars to take dinner reservations. I chose
When the
east. The three of us NRHS members probably regaled
him with more convention excursion stories than he could ever expect to
hear! In turn, we were able to give him
rail travel advice on several topics, including tipping. In the course of the conversation, I found
that Alan was sitting across the aisle from me on the steam excursion to Tehama on Wednesday.
We didn't recognize each other, but when he mentioned that the friend he
had stayed with is Gene Poon who writes for Rail
Travel News, I remembered hearing that about the other man across the aisle
from me on the excursion. When our
waitress came, she was the same waitress as I had at lunch, a girl who wasn't
wearing a name tag. I had the
salmon entree. We all chose the turtle pie for dessert.
The train must have made up time after being almost an
hour late at
After we returned to our sleeping cars, it was announced that the movie that evening would be "The Water Boy," which I knew I would skip after seeing it on the trip west. Instead, a major confab developed in my room between Jay and Alan. Not only had Alan stayed with his friend,
Gene Poon, in
the last two states I have yet
to visit,
Jay announced that everyone should turn their watches
ahead one hour for Mountain time before they went to bed. Alan was keeping his watch on Eastern time during his entire trip.
It was now
early for that. I planned to read, listen to my radios, and
catch up on travelogue notes for awhile.
I asked Jay to have mine the last bed he made
up, which he said he'd do right after our stop at
While listening to my radios, I found a frequency in use by HBDs and our crew that I didn't have on my list: 160.470. I thought back to my westward trip through that area. Since I wasn't monitoring that frequency then, it was probably the reason why I didn't hear any HBDs
or other communications in that
area. Now I heard that at
We pulled into Elko just before
out the lights, I saw the landscape lit by a beautiful almost-full moon.
I slept so well that I didn't wake up until we were
stopped at
It was
ready for breakfast. We made our stop at Helper, UT while I was in the lounge. Further down the car, I could hear "NRHS" being mentioned by several people, so I knew this was a train full of NRHS members again.
It was very cold in the lounge car, but in taking a seat
on the sunny side, I soon warmed up. The
HBDs were saying it was 72 degrees outside,
considerably warmer than the 46 degrees I heard during the night. They now reported 76 axles, so I thought we
must have picked up an MHC or mail car, probably at
I was seated at Kathleen's table with a couple from the
northwest side of Chicago and their son, Austin. He was named for the neighborhood they had
lived in on the far west side of
The rest of the morning went quickly, including visiting with Alan in our car. We heard an HBD report of only 72 axles again and couldn't understand how we had gone from 76 back to 72 without a stop to drop off a car. Hank came over from room 6 and commented on the same thing.
Our train was only 10-15 minutes behind schedule when we
made our crew change stop at
Calvin announced the lunch menu and said that the soup and salad entrée (my favorite) wouldn't be available because of short preparation time between breakfast and lunch. When I arrived in the diner, he seated me with a woman from the far south side of Chicago who was returning from
visiting in
When I left the diner, I proceeded to the lounge car,
first going downstairs to inquire about souvenirs. I wanted to see if they had some on this
train that weren't on number 5 going out.
The attendant gave me some good hints on ordering souvenir items from
various routes, some of which Alan and l had ready discussed. I have since contacted the company in
of interest to me.
Back upstairs in the lounge car, I found a seat on the
north side of the train, the best side for the scenery which would begin around
Glenwood Springs. "The
Admiral," assistant conductor Don Hulse, was on
my train again, doing his interesting commentary.
At
Alan and I sat at the same table for dinner, along with a
woman of German descent and her 14-year-old son, who were going to
and the boy had the chicken entree, and the woman had stuffed trout. For dessert, Alan and I had turtle pie and the boy chose cheesecake. While we ate, we passed through Moffat tunnel, the effect of which wasn't as great in the diner as in the Sightseer lounge or other cars.
After dinner, we all returned to our rooms to watch the
last of the
Back on the platform, I visited with others from my car. Hank and his wife were there, with Hank trying unsuccessfully to make Ham radio contacts on his 2-meter band handheld transceiver. I've never had any luck, either, with making Ham radio contacts from the train, which is
why I concentrate almost
exclusively on monitoring rail frequencies instead. Peter, the man from
understand the correlation, since my white shorts and blue striped top didn't look like business attire. When I told them I work for the school district where I live, it turned out that I know George's niece, our curriculum director. Here was another example of "small world."
We soon reboarded the train
which started to move at
stop the train because there were still visitors aboard. Those visitors must have detrained on the run, because the train barely stopped! I don't know which would be worse--not being on the train when you wanted to be or being on the train when you didn't want to be.
As soon as the train was underway again, the evening movie was announced. I was told earlier that it would be "Mighty Joe Young," which I had seen on the trip out. For whatever reason, they decided to change it to a Star Trek flick. Although I hadn't already seen that one, I'm not a "Trekkie," so decided to forego watching that, too.
Tonight was another night for setting our watches ahead,
this time to Central Time. That made it
after
thereafter without sitting up to look out the window.
My early start for breakfast in the morning was
Back in the sleeper, Jay had the rooms made up
again. I settled down with my radios to
enjoy the
into our discussions while passing through the car.
Don is another crew member who was supportive of our
monitoring their radio transmissions. He
told us he would say something to us on the radio when we left
As we neared
I went to the diner for lunch at
Before returning to my room after lunch, I decided to exchange my free beverage coupon in the lower level of the lounge car. On my way past Greg, I mentioned to him that I thought the tortellini was excellent. He said he had chosen it, too, and agreed with me. After selecting a Diet Pepsi in exchange for my coupon, I passed through the diner again. Calvin stopped me by saying, "Are you going to tip-toe through here without saying good-bye?" I had been hoping to avoid good-byes since I hate them anyway, wishing to concentrate on having almost four more
hours on the train instead of thinking of it as the trip being almost over. After I said good-bye to Calvin, Hussin also said, "Good-bye, Carol," to me.
I should have spent more time in the lounge car toward
the end of the trip. There were some
people I met on the trip out with whom I would have liked to compare notes on
our stays in
weeks, listening to my radios,
and enjoying the scenery. I hoped we
would make up some time to allow me the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to climb
aboard an Amtrak P42 and still be able to catch the
With thoughts on my return home, I switched frequencies
to NOAA weather to preview temperatures in the
along the platform in the train
shed with the kind of hot, sticky summer weather that can be typical for
As we neared
Steve, Alan, and I detrained with all our luggage and proceeded down the platform to the lead engine where Don joined us. Don stayed on the platform to watch our luggage while each of us had our chance to climb aboard. I think they were a little concerned that I might not have the
technique to negotiate going up and down the ladder. However, my experience climbing my radio tower at home held me in good stead.
What a thrill that was--much more impressive than viewing the controls in the engines at Railfair or in a static museum display. Thinking about the Amtrak videos in my collection that include cab views, I examined the controls, sat in the seats, and looked through the windows
as the engineer would. I had never thought I would actually be there!
While we were standing by the engine, talking and taking photos, some of the other people I met on the train passed and waved good-bye. I supposed the passengers coming down the platform must have wondered how we were lucky enough to be allowed into the engine. Perhaps some of
them decided I must be an Amtrak employee after all! Don said something about sending me some Amtrak items, but he never did.
When we had all taken our turns viewing the inside of the cab, it was time for us to thank Don for the great opportunity and go our separate ways. Steve needed to claim his checked baggage, Alan wanted to beat the rush to a special restaurant for dinner before his next connection,
and I was off to the Hiawatha with twenty-three minutes to spare.
CONSIST:
P42 16
P42 25
F40PH 402
Baggage 1209
Transition Sleeper 39018
Superliner I Sleeper 32044
Superliner I Sleeper 32052 (refurbished)
Superliner I Sleeper 32040
Diner 38035
Sightseer Lounge 33047
Coach (with smoker) 31545
Coach 34038
Coach 34098
Coach 34014
MHC (mail) 1533
MHC 71172
MHC 70019
MHC 71102
MHC 1740 (from Denver)
End-of-train device 23409
CREW:
CHIEF OF ON-BOARD SERVICE Greg Granato
DINING CAR STEWARD Calvin
SLEEPER ATTENDANT Jay Slinde
DINER ATTENDANTS Kathleen
Hussin W. Muhammed
ENGINEER Don Novak (Ottumwa, IA to Chicago)
CONDUCTORS Don Hulse (Grand Junction to Denver)
J. W. Fitzgerald (Ottumwa, IA to Chicago)
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Copyright © 1999 by Carol Larsen