I took the Texas Eagle/Sunset Limited route from Chicago to L.A. in January 2011. It is a LONG trip with some good scenery but certainly not as much as other Chicago-West Coast routes (the Southwest Chief, California Zephyr, Empire Builder) but it was okay. If you think an 8-10 hour delay is bad, take the California Zephyr. That train has routinely been late, once up to 22 hours late. The Empire Builder, I heard, at one point was running so late that the train would be met by the train that had left the following day! I do love Amtrak though. I wish Amtrak would get better management though. The current management seems to be hell-bent on ending Amtrak long distance service. They've already taken diner service off of the Silver Star, Capitol Limited, and Lake Shore Limited. Who knows what else they'll do in the near future. I just hope Congress continues to fund its long distance service, even if the management doesn't want to.

@@alexanderhall2720 The scenery isn't as nice with mountains and fir trees of other transcontinentals. On the Sunset Limited/Texas Eagle route west of San Antonio its Cactus Jack country, or the land of Judge Roy Bean. A few mountains consisting of sage brush and prickly pears, not fir trees. If you got to have fir trees, I suggest you take other routes.

I love trains and particularly, the view of the countryside going by. As a school kid I used to travel to boarding school by train. I vividly remember the steam engines which were mostly in use then. I'm South African. I still rush at an opportunity to travel by train. I think my last train trip was London to Edinburgh and back, years ago. My son now lives in Colorado, and I am very tempted to take the train for one of the connections, when visiting him. I love this Utube because he shows so much of the countryside. Much of the Western part of Texas looks very much like South Africa's Karoo.

Michael Sheldon Reed :-):-):-)

Great idea, can't you get google map on your laptop while riding and follow your journey in real time? Just curious.

The Sunset Limited does not have wi-fi on board. However, my cell phone (I have AT&T) was able to connect in many areas to the 4G network and my BlackBerry phone has its own "maps" app, and in many (but not all) areas I was certainly able to track the train's location and movement in real time. It was just as easy to follow the maps as much of this route in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas parallels major highways, and you can tell when you pas through a town by simply looking at buildings, signage and landmarks.

I've followed general places in real time using my outboard car GPS unit. It is satellite based and requires no internet connection while on the move. I wouldn't buy one just for this purpose, but if you already have one here is another use.

If that was her at 47:45, I'd have never guessed.

Yep, here is a better audio recording kzfaq.info/get/bejne/o5-Bi6thqJO5k6c.html

It's might not be so much the "age" of the video as the way it was converted from dvd to KZfaq format that makes it rather fuzzy. More recent videos on KZfaq could be worse though.

When did Sunset Limited last have a daily schedule? I've heard that Southern Pacific ran it 3 times a week, just before Amtrak took over that route.

That was a really long time ago. The Sunset Limited hasn't served Phoenix for at least 2 decades. Amtrak rerouted the train through Maricopa, AZ and you have to drive or get a ride into Phoenix.

@@alexanderhall2720 they stopped doing the route after some numb nuts decided to blow up the tracks causing an Amtrak train to derail.

Particularly thru Georgia, as far as I can remember..

Kathi Baker, I like desert scenery as well, but I find that of southern Arizona more charming than that which I am familiar with in Texas.

When the hurricane hit the Gulf coast at that time damaging a bridge as I recall, Amtrak ended the train at New Orleans. Doing so saved three train sets out of six train sets which were used to replace a lot of cars on other trains that had derailed, one being the Auto Train, Amtrak's east coast gold mine. Amtrak has a lot of rolling stock, but they are just barely enough to meet its fleet needs. Notice after the Cascades derailment that train set has not been put back into service. They are operating one train set short presently...

Maybe likely on the Cardinal and Crescent you'll see in a new Viewliner sleeper... They are more or less the same as the older Viewliners, minus the toilet in the roomette...

I did that circle 3 years ago, except late for sure limited instead of cardinal.

I took it in August 2017 from LA to Dallas. I really enjoyed the trip. I thought the scenery was quite unique, very different from what I'm used to here in Miami.

Yeah. They also took the diner off of the New York-Miami Silver Star. Between New York/Washington and Chicago is mostly farmland and factories, except on the New York-Chicago Cardinal, where you'll see some great scenery while it's traveling through West Virginia and the bluegrass region of Kentucky, though you'll have to be on the eastbound train#50 since the westbound train #51 goes through these regions as it's getting dark (spring/summer) or after it has already gotten dark (fall/winter). Between Chicago and Los Angeles on the Texas Eagle/Sunset Limited mostly what you'll see are oil fields (Texas), farmland (Texas) and desert (western Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California). The best scenery is on the California Zephyr (west of Denver), the Empire Builder (Montana-Seattle/Portland) and the Southwest Chief (west of Albuquerque).

Also I heard that the scenery on the Los Angeles-Seattle Coast Starlight is great, though they took off the Pacific Parlor Car last year.

Thats cool a nice restuarnt for the old train station.

...nor the California Zephyr, Southwest Chief, or Coast Starlight.

@@alexanderhall2720 Frankly the Southwest Chief isn't much better than the Sunset Limited route...

now mist are just huge ranches and they named the sidings after them etc

Must not like the view of prickly pears...

DOSBoxMom, that is one reason why getting 1st class reservations on the AMTRAK long distance trains is actually a good value, when compared to travelling coach on the same train. As for comparison with "sit-down restaurants", it is no doubt much more expensive to provide hot meals on the train, for relatively small numbers of people, than it is in a typical sit-down restaurant elsewhere. It is like a convenience store, where you are paying more in order to enjoy the convenience. For my part, I don't really care whether trains (or for that matter, commercial aircraft) have HOT meals, or "chef prepared" meals, or whatever, as long as there is reasonable food available and I can continue to enjoy the conversations with diverse other travellers during the 'communal' meals in the dining cars. In other words, I would miss the dining car experience more than I would miss the meals themselves.

To answer the question according to how it is worded, yes, roughly 1/3 of sleeper car passengers (in Superliner sleeper cars) have had lower level Roomettes. But my guess is you meant something else. Did you intend to ask about specifics of lower level Roomettes? I am going to assume that this was your intention, and answer accordingly (although from observation only, not from personal experience). The lower level Roomettes are identical to those on the upper level. But the passenger experience might differ for the following reasons: - Lower level Roomettes might be preferred by passengers with mobility problems, those who have trouble climbing stairs, those who wish to be closer to more restrooms, those who might be accompanying a passenger in the 'Accessible' (handicapped) bedroom, or who have a need to regularly access, or supervise, items in the lower level baggage storage area, etc. - Passengers in any lower level rooms will still have to climb stairs in order to get to the upper level, and this will need to be done in order to get to other cars, such as the Dining car, Lounge/Observation car, or to access the Cafe. However, mobility limited passengers in lower level rooms can arrange for their sleeper car attendants to get meals and bring them to their rooms. - On stretches of rough track, the lower level rooms will seem to move & sway less than the upper level rooms, and passengers how might have stability issues when standing or walking might prefer the lower level for that reason. - Lower level rooms will be noisier. - Lower level rooms might seem more peaceful, in the sense that their hallways/aisles are NOT on the upper level; upper level aisles have more foot traffic since any passenger or crew moving around on the train MUST use the upper level aisles. The short aisles on the lower levels are not on the way to any other place.

I have and it was just fine. Loved it. Slept like a baby and not crowded.

@@wendygough316 While the coffee and drinks are upstairs your extra luggage and the shower is downstairs... The roomettes are the same whether upstairs or downstairs, but I believe the view is slightly better upstairs...

Yep! I used to dislike it...but the last time I rode it was pretty nice actually. It's quieter except at stations when people are boarding. I think its a little more bumpy than an upper level room but it's not bad! I found it to be quieter than the upper level rooms in general except at stations, particularly "smoke stops"...its also nice to be closer to the luggage rack if you put your bags on it

Lindsay Moore, I have looked into taking the City of New Orleans, but decided against it.....last I checked, most of it would be at night, so I would be paying for a sleeper but not getting much scenic time in the bargain. Plus, I have visited New Orleans more than I care to, so don't see a benefit in taking a train trip there. It might still happen, especially if I can combine it with more subsequent rail travel on a vacation. Perhaps another Train Odyssey.....

@@youtuuba Have You considered taking The CoNO North-bound? Depending on the time of Year, You will get Day-light well into Tennessee..

There once was a time when the freight got out of the way for passenger trains when they carried the bulk of the US Mail in their multiple mail cars. When was the last time you saw Amtrak having a mail car on the consist? The very same day the private railroad companies lost their mail contracts was the day they killed their passenger trains. Even back during the 1960s, the trains could not and did not win the war with air mail. This video describes the demise of North Texas passenger trains during that era, but it applies just as well nationwide... It isn't a pretty story... kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rdBknpuiqaemaH0.html

Thanks for pointing that out. I had this on while I was writing some computer code and missed it.

Thanks Paul

Well Amtrak pays their diner staff much more than other restaurants, a railroad union wage probably twice what Dennys pays their staff... As it is Amtrak loses its most money serving food. With a former airline CEO now Amtrak's CEO, no wonder Amtrak is switching to airline style box meals... Doing so allows Amtrak to cut another union employee off every sleeper train. When they started using paper plates they cut the dishwasher several years ago... The more the staff is paid, the higher the price of the goods and services sold...

He has a video on the Capitol Limited. I took the Broadway Limited in the 80’s when Amtrak still ran it. Loved going over the curve. Didn’t like waiting for every single freight engine to zoom past the train.

By the way, I still liked the video to re-live a train trip from my past.

Things are cheap, except the price to travel.

I always use the Rand McNally "Road Atlas" of North America. It has good coverage of all the states, and detail is a good compromise between showing not enough and showing too much. As a regular traveler in the UK and continental Europe, I am also used to the Ordnance Survey maps (excellent detail, but can be hard to deal with since each page shows only a small area of the countryside) and the Michelin guides. I think for train travel in North America, the RM "Road Atlas" is about perfect. And it is readily available.

Well, it happened in the middle of the night, and I was already asleep before we got there. In fact, I slept right through it and did not realize that it had happened until I woke up in the morning and found that my car was now in a different part of the train.

@@youtuuba Ditto with my first shunt in the middle of the night in San Antonio as well. Truth be told the Missouri Pacific Eagle of long ago was geared to serve San Antonio and into Mexico, not to shunt cars onto the Southern Pacific Sunset Limited. Other railroads besides the Missouri Pacific served the DFW area better. Burlington, Katy, Santa Fe, Rock Island, Texas & Pacific...

If you get cancer from air alone then you might want to stop smoking.

Joey Sheremata, I used a Canon "PowerShot" series point-and-shoot camera in its video mode. I don't recall which model, and I don't have it anymore.

I was fine with everything, except for the scanner too noisy for me. I do like he tells us where they are located.

My scanner is an old model, so its model number is meaningless now. It is made by Uniden (Uniden Bearcat) and I think it is comparable to something like their current model BC75XLT. I like this supplier: www.scannermaster.com which is where I bought mine. They list the BC75XLT as a "police scanner" but I think is would be fine for train frequencies......you might contact them and confirm. Also make sure you buy an AC power adapter and the interface cable/software so you can program the scanner and manage your frequencies more easily. For trains, I would say that a good scanner should have a large memory, divided into banks of at least 20 frequencies per bank...that way, you can program each train route's set of frequencies into each of the banks, and select one bank at a time depending on which train you are on. I am considering buying one of these, not because the old one has any issues (it it working fine) but because the newer ones have much better displays and keypads.

Route 66

Route 66

WHAT is Avernon Way?

Hoser Man, I thought that I covered this in the video, both as narration and as text overlay.....In San Antonio, the Texas Eagle train route technically ends, and its 'consist' is merged with the Sunset Limited train's consist, and in the process my sleeper car ended up as the last car in the new consist, and facing in the opposite direction. This all happened in the middle of the night while I was sleeping, so I was disoriented upon awakening.

You may have covered it, but in a 3+ hour video, much of it plays in the background while I do other things on the computer. Not your fault, It was a fun video and I appreciate all that you do for rail travel. My Gramps was an engineer and he taught me to love trains.

When I took the train from Chi to LA last September we were in the front of the train to San Antonio, were then turned around and were the last car to LA. Loved every mile of it.

@@youtuuba You were flip flopped in San Antonio in the sleeper, those in the coach were sliced and diced. They woke up in their coach sitting backwards as the train traveled forward. After everyone in that coach wakes up and have breakfast. Jack knife city, slice and dice... You have to understand San Antonio has two stations, one for Missouri Pacific and one for Southern Pacific. The Sunset Limited cannot access the Missouri Pacific station on the west side of downtown San Antonio, whereas the Texas Eagle can access the Southern Pacific station on the east side of downtown San Antonio. Therefore Amtrak uses the east side station. The Texas Eagle southbound heads for the west side station and then circles around anti clockwise to the east side station facing northbound. The Sunset Limited westbound enters has a service stop entering San Antonio and then heads into their station facing southbound. The shunting is done and the cars heading westbound are flip flopped, sliced and diced... The Texas Eagle then gets serviced as it heads northbound, as well as the Sunset Limited eastbound at the same service facility of the westbound Sunset Limited. Those advocating a commuter rail service between San Antonio and Austin prefer to use the west side station as its bigger and better although the east side station is very nice with only two tracks. Shame on you, you slept through a lot of railroad shunting action... Simply put the Sunset Limited was geared for east west traffic, the Missouri Pacific and Katy were geared for north south traffic...

@@ronclark9724 , thanks for the detailed explanation. I understood that some slice&dice was done, but I did not know the logistics. I am glad that I slept through it! It was disconcerting to begin the trip nearer the front of the train, only to wake up and find my car at the tail and and the dining car in the opposite direction.