California Zephyr, Coast Starlight, & Empire Builder

I always mean to write trip reports for our Amtrak journeys, but by the time we get home & get the photos organized I have forgotten many of the details. So, this time I thought I'd write one "in progress" and add the photos whenever we have time and wifi.

Our journey is as follows:

Waterloo, Indiana - Chicago on the Capitol Limited

Chicago - Sacramento on the California Zephyr

Sacramento - Portland on the Coast Starlight

Overnight in Portland

Portland - Whitefish, Montana on the Empire Builder

Stop for a week in Montana

Return home via the Empire Builder and Capitol Limited

We started this morning at Waterloo, Indiana, and the newly redesigned station. The old platform and waiting area are still there, but they moved the old abandoned station closer to the tracks & opened part of it up for public use. The best thing about this was the newly paved parking area - we used to have to park on a hill covered in gravel & weeds, so that's a big improvement. It's also great to have restrooms! We didn't see much of the station today, as we arrived about 20 minutes before the CL arrived - it was running about an hour late.

Due to the short trip from Indiana to Chicago (and the fact that I napped the whole time), I didn't take any photos of the meals or that part of the trip. However, we had a great breakfast - the Railroad French Toast was brilliant as usual. My spouse had the "Engineer Special", which was interesting in that the potatoes have peppers in them and are a lot spicier than they used to be. I forgot to ask if they had the other special - the biscuits with spicy gravy. I might try that some time on the next leg if it's available.

We arrived into Chicago about an hour late. We had planned on trying to visit the Field Museum during out layover, but unfortunately the hour delay from the CL just doesn't leave us enough time. So, we went straight in to the new Metropolitan Lounge.

The new lounge is great! I thought it looked rather sparse in the pictures, and it's certainly not a very colorful place. However, there are many different types of seating areas, and outlets / USB ports everywhere. The check-in desk, baggage area, and the food are all downstairs, & so far the downstairs has been more crowded. We headed upstairs, and are now in the comfy chairs overlooking Canal St. There's another entrance to the lounge here, but it's not currently staffed. So, I was able to leave via that door, but not re-enter.

The food and drink options are a big upgrade over the old lounge. There's a soda dispenser with many choices and even flavor add-ins, if you want a shot of lemon, lime, or vanilla in your soda. They also have coffee and tea, as well as a dispenser with cold and sparkling water. Shortly after we arrived they set up a table with bags of pretzels, cookies, and fruit - there doesn't appear to be a separate counter for food set up yet, I don't know if they will set up new tables every day or what. They also have another drink station upstairs - no sodas, but they have the coffee and water there too.

Additionally, the attendant told my spouse that they will have sandwiches and wine (!) between noon and 2:00 pm. I don't know yet whether that means today, or every day, or what, but we'll see.

My one quibble so far is with the check-in- it's just as time-consuming and awkward as always. There's not enough room inside the door for everyone to wait to check-in. The baggage area is in a room off to the right, and although there are plenty of shelves it's a rather small and crowded space. Plus, when you enter or leave the baggage area you have to cross through the line of people checking in, so it's kind of a traffic jam by the door. I think a lot of that is due to the crowds that surge whenever a train arrives, so next time we might wait a few minutes to enter the lounge.

There's plenty of seating available right now, so we'll see how crowded it gets in a few hours.

Nice trip, thanks for the update on the New Station and the Metro Lounge!

Sounds like the Lounge is still a work in progress and that some fine tuning is necessary, especially with the entry and luggage procedures.

Looking forward to how the boarding process goes and to future chapters of your adventures in the West!

We just got onboard Train 5 and the wifi is still working down here, so I'll take a few minutes for another quick update.

Even higher thumbs up for the Metro Lounge after spending another hour or so here. Even with so many passengers for all the 2:00-3:00 trains in here, there are still many empty seats - especially on the upper level. I think a lot of people are just walking in and plopping down in the first seats they find, so the upper level is still mostly empty. It's light and airy, and other than the Pepsi dispenser you have everything you need upstairs.

Free lunch! Free cold sandwiches, cookies, a variety of chips, etc. Again, no word on whether this is a permanent thing, but I would assume so.

Free wine (I think). I didn't ask (don't drink wine and didn't have time to ask), but there was an Amtrak employee stationed at a table with 10-20 bottles of wine, & there was some sort of punch card system - I think each person got 5-6 punches per card.

Boarding - in the words of an Amtrak employee, it's a "work in progress." When you go in the lounge you'll see a corridor off to the left that leads to the restrooms & an exit out the end. The exit leads right back out to the main hallway, and then around to the right to the boarding area. So, we ended up basically waiting in the coach area for another 10 minutes. Weird.

Security check onboard - random check took 5-10 minutes, so I must sign off. More in another 2-3 days.

Enjoying the reports, thanks for taking the time to do so!

Thanks for the as-you-go trip report. I especially enjoyed the description of the new Met Lounge (which i won't see till at least a year from November), and the boarding procedure. I am looking forward to the next installment (and photos as they are available).

(Note A: We finally found wifi - on the Starlight, in the lounge. I'll post this one day at a time to cover our Zephyr trip, then update the Starlight trip tonight or tomorrow. These are long posts, and I generally write about the conditions of the cars/service, delays & timing, meals, and any activities we do during layovers. So, be warned if you were expecting a different type of review, or let me know if you have questions).

Note: I started to write a post just as we were leaving Chicago, but we lost the wifi and I’m not sure whether it posted or not. So, I’m going to start over and assume that it didn’t post and give a more lengthy description of our time in Chicago and the new Metropolitan Lounge. I’m writing this Tuesday night as we cruise through Iowa and Nebraska; I’m hoping that the Denver station tomorrow morning has wifi & I can run in and post this. If not, it will have to wait until we get to Davis on Thursday night, or Portland on Friday night.

But first, I should go back and start from the beginning & explain a little bit more about the trip and the route we’re taking. We visit family out west most summers, either in Los ANgeles or Montana, so we have taken the Southwest Chief & Empire Builder several times. We’ve heard so many wonderful things about the Zephry, and it has been on our bucket list for a long time. However, connecting from the Zephyr to get to LA or Montana is usually rather difficult, and often rather expensive too. WE are AGR members, and we usually book trips using AGR points we’ve accumulated via online spending, credit cards, and all that, and booking the Zephyr used to cost a lot more because it required multiple segments, and therefore multiple point expenditures.

When we found out about the changes that were coming to AGR in 2016, we really wanted to take a trip on the Zephyr before out points were greatly devalued by the changes. It sounded like the best part of the trip was heading west out of Denver through the Rockies, but the good scenery seemed to be on both sides of the train. We usually stay in a roomette, but didn’t like the idea of getting stuck on the “wrong” side of the train during the most scenic parts. I know that a lot of people go to the lounge car, but during the busy summer months we’ve often found that the lounge is fully occupied during the best parts (like taking the Empire Builder through Glacier National Park).

So, we started considering taking two roomettes - if we could book them across the aisle from each other, we could just jump from one side of the train to the other whenever the scenery warranted it. Plus, that way neither of us would be stuck in the coffin-like upper bunk. The positive side of the AGR switch was that they also switched credit cards, so we got some nice signing bonus points too. We realized we had enough points for two roomettes from our home station of Waterloo to Portland via the Capitol Limited, California Zephyr, and Coast Starlight. We’ll then be in a single roomette from Portland to Montana, and then from Montana back home.

We made our reservations last fall before the AGR changes kicked in. As months went by, we heard about the changes that were going on at that station in Waterloo and the new Metropolitan Lounge in Chicago. Both projects got pushed back a bit, but fortunately both of them ended up getting completed just a few days before we left - bonus!

So, I think I’m caught up with the trip up to the Metropolitan Lounge. A few other thoughts:

I said in the earlier post that the upstairs desk at the Metropolitan Lounge was unstaffed. That was true when we arrived in Chicago at 10:00 am. Since the CL was about an hour late, we were not able to go to the FIeld Museum as we had planned. Instead, we decided to walk to Millennium Park. We originally planned on finding somewhere to eat lunch along the way, but since my spouse had found out about the free lunch in the lounge from noon until 2:00 pm, we decided to eat once we got back from our walk. Lunch was indeed provided - several different types of cold sandwiches (beef, ham, turkey, and some kind of wrap). Some condiments like mayo or mustard would have been nice, but they didn’t provide anything like that. They did have several different types of packaged snacks like crackers, pretzels, as well as the goldfish they’ve had before. They also had trays of several different kinds of cookies. The only soda machine is located downstairs, but they had the full spread of sandwiches, coffee, and snacks upstairs too.

Along with the food they were also serving wine. There was a table near the stairs that had maybe 10-20 different bottles of wine on it, and an Amtrak employee who was collecting and stamping some kind of card. I’m not sure how people obtained those cards, but they apparently entitled the bearer to 5-6 drinks, and the attendant would punch the card each time someone got a drink. That table was only downstairs.

I didn’t give much detail about the lounge setup earlier, so let me explain a little more. Many of you have probably seen the pictures that several people have posted, so you might already know that the lounge is two floors & has a rather monochromatic look. However, there’s a wide variety of chairs and seating areas available. Some are designed for large groups of 8-10, but there are many smaller groups of 2-4 scattered around. Some are couches, some are wingback chairs, and some are really large throne-like seats that reminded me a little bit of an international business-class airline seat - the type that has really large “wings” on the sides to give you more privacy. I think people who are traveling alone would really like those chairs. There were also a number of tables scattered about, as well as a large work counter along one wall. There were outlets with USB chargers EVERYWHERE, so it should be easy for everyone to charge their devices.

Secondly, the upstairs part has a couple of different “sub-levels” that are about 3-6 feet lower than the rest of the upstairs. They separated by staircases different than the main one used to go upstairs from the lower level. As far as I can tell, the reason for this is that the main Canal St. level is a bit higher than the other door (which is in the corridor leading from the Canal St. entrance to the Great Hall). There’s an exit on that corridor side, but no entrance (there’s no handle on the door outside & no desk there, so it doesn’t appear that it will ever be staffed). I know there was an elevator in there somewhere, so I think the sub-level may exist so that wheelchair-bound passengers have somewhere to go & can exit on the main station level on that side, & get from there to Canal St.

There are probably dozens of HUGE TVs scattered around the lounge, all tuned to CNN. There’s also a kids area downstairs with some kid-sized tables and chairs, different flooring, and more colorful seating. The large TV in that area was playing a kids movie. The speakers in the ceiling were playing the soundtrack from the movie, but since they were firing downward you really couldn’t hear it outside of the kids area. When the plans for the lounge were announced, it sounded like there were going to be 3-4 different themed areas, but the kids area is really the only one that looked a lot different to me. When I really think about it, I’d say that the area back to the right is more open, with more tables & counter for working, while the area to the left has more individual rows of chairs (as well as the huge Count Dracula throne chairs).

The Zephyr was scheduled to board at about 1:30, so they called our boarding at about 1:15. The Texas Eagle had already boarded, and I’m sure most of the passengers for the 2:15 Empire Builder were already in the lounge, as well as many from the 3:00 Southwest Chief. However, I’d guess that the upstairs area was only about a quarter to a third full. The downstairs area - which is also a lot larger - was mostly full, but even at 1:30 I saw many empty spaces. There’s plenty of room in this new lounge for everybody.

That’s all I can think of about the Lounge itself right now, but please let me know if you have any questions.

After they called us for boarding, we headed downstairs to the baggage room to collect our stuff. As we explained earlier, it’s a really awkward setup - it’s very crowded, and everyone is trying to get into & out of the same door, and then crossing the entrance area to get to the boarding hall. The shelves in the luggage room were crammed full, as well as most of the floor space as well, which only contributed to the crowded problem. We eventually wrangled our stuff and walked out to the hallway to await our boarding.

I’m terrible with directions, but let me try to clarify the boarding arrangement. When you first walk into the lounge, there’s a desk right inside the front door. If you’re in line to check in, the baggage room is immediately off to the right, the entrance to the lounge is straight behind left side of the desk, and there’s a long hallways leading off to the left of the desk - inside the lounge entrance doors, but before the lounge proper. That hallway has the restrooms and the showers, which are located inside the restrooms. I was not able to peek in the showers as they are locked, and have a keypad entrance on them. I assume you need to schedule a shower & they give you a key code, but I was not able to ask about it.

The PA system in the lounge is very clear and loud, so you’re not likely to miss your boarding announcement. They play background music when not making announcements, which is a nice touch. When it was time to board, they paged us to line up in that hallway outside the restrooms. We were then kindergarten-walked out that door, which exits immediately into a corridor. Whe turned right out of the door, then the corridor curves around to the left & we were in that hallway that leads to the boarding gates. The train gates are to the right, and the coach waiting areas were to the left. So, I’d guess we walked maybe 75-100 feet from the lounge to the coach waiting area.

Each coach waiting area has two “pens” - once closer to the tracks, and one further away. The people in coach were being kept in the further pen, while the sleeper pax for each train were waiting in the closer pen. After leaving the lounge we still had to wait 10-15 minutes before being allowed on the train, which to me defeats the purpose of being “escorted” directly from the lounge to the train. Many Amtrak employees even asked who we were and what we were waiting for - they admitted that the new sleeper boarding procedures were still a “work in progress.” The only real answer to this is to wait until the train is actually ready to board. That way, they could walk us out the lounge, down the corridor, and directly onto the boarding platform without detouring us into the coach waiting area. Let’s hope they get that sorted.

Anyway, after the usual kerfuffle trying to board the train, we quickly found ourselves being confronted by Amtrak Police. We had been randomly chosen for an additional level of security screening. They opened up our carryon luggage, but thankfully did not make us go back downstairs and go through our suitcases as well - that would have been a nightmare while everyone was still boarding our train. They asked us the usual questions you hear from the TSA - have we had our bags in our possession the whole time, has anyone asked us to carry anything for them, etc. My security guy did tell me a few stories about strange things they found in people’s bags, like a foot-long machete in one and a live rat in another. The only thing that seemed to attract their attention was our unusual itinerary - going to Montana by way of Sacramento and Portland! Anyway, it was over soon, and our train quickly departed.

We were fortunate enough to get a refurbished Superliner I, with the wood paneling and blue fabrics throughout. AFAIK, this car has the highest level of refurbishment, including the LED reading lights. It does have a fair amount of wear and tear, as all these cars do. My pull-out tray table is broken (one side of the track is just plain gone), and a fellow passenger in our car has his reading light stuck on permanently. The only solution they’ve found so far is to cover the light with duct tape. The most annoying thing so far is that the attendant call sound seems to only make a loud, repeating emergency tone, so every time someone calls for help it sounds like a fire alarm. Still, I’m quite glad to get this car. We’re in 0531 and the sleepers are in the back of the consist, so we’re directly behind the dining car. Roomettes are toward the back, and we are in numbers 3 and 4. The car behind us is also a Superliner 1, but the car at the very end is a Superliner II, and it sounds like it’s in bad shape. Passengers passing through our car on the way to the dining car have made comments about how nice our car is compared to theirs.

Another great part about our car is our attendant, Marcelo. He has been extremely friendly and continually available, unlike many attendants who seem to disappear shortly after boarding. He has even asked us a lot about AGR and our unusual setup - I guess he doesn’t often get couples traveling in two separate roomettes.

This would be a great time to bring up how amazingly awesome our two roomette setup is. During the day, we’ve been sitting across from each other, but can still talk to each other fairly easily. When one of us wants to take a nap (neither of us got much sleep in the hotel last night), we just recline the seats all the way. While we’re awake we’ve taken to reclining the opposite seat all the way, forming a sort of “chaise lounge.” And tomorrow, we can seat hop as we pass through Colorado to make sure we see the best scenery. According to Marcelo, that will mostly be on the south side.

After some afternoon naps we headed to dinner. We were seated with a couple who had just gotten married in Washington, D.C. and were spending their honeymoon on Amtrak. They were headed to Denver on a 15 day rail pass, and after some sightseeing in Colorado they were roughly planning on the same route we are via the Coast Starlight and the Empire Builder, so it was fun to compare notes.

We had the latest seating for dinner, so they were out of the special, whatever it had been. Everyone had steak and potatoes, which in my opinion is reliably good. I know the potatoes are reconstituted, but they’re buttery and salty and I still like them. We had the new chocolate torte for dessert - it reminded me of the chocolate mousse they used to serve in that square-sided clear plastic cup, but this was a lot better. It was very rich - I’m not sure I’ll get one at lunch tomorrow.

DAY TWO - full day onboard the California Zephyr

We both had trouble sleeping, despite the restless night we also had in the hotel the night before. I think it takes me about 24 hours to get my “train legs”, so I’m sure I’ll sleep better the next few nights. It was so nice to have the roomette to myself - I didn’t have to worry about waking anybody up if wanted to read or needed to get out of bed. We soon found ourselves in Fort Morgan, running about 30 minutes behind schedule. There were a LOT of people out and about on the train, and I think some of that noise woke me up. Marcelo said that he was losing 20 passengers in Denver and gaining 28 more, so almost the whole car was turning over. Despite that, he was eager to change out our beds when we asked him, and even offered to bring us meals in our room if we wanted them. Breakfast was on a “take a number” system, so we headed to the dining car to put our names in. We planned on sitting in the lounge car while we waited for our number to be called, but it was completely packed so we headed back to our room.

When they finally called us we were only a few minutes outside of Denver. We were seated with an older couple who occupied one of the handicapped rooms. Their mobility issues were severely affecting their enjoyment of the train trip. We helped them figure out their car and room numbers for the dining car form, and they stated their room number as “H as in Horrible.” So, not the happiest of meal companions. My spouse tried to order the Engineer Special, but it wasn’t available - in fact, the dining car attendants hadn’t even heard of it. I thought this was strange, as the Engineer Special consists entirely of components they already had on hand. They did have the biscuits and gravy special, but neither of us tried it - we both got the Railroad French Toast again. As usual, it was great.

By the time we finished breakfast boarding in Denver was well under way, so we didn’t have much time to walk around outside. We watched the window washers clean the windows - they were fast and left the windows 90% clean, which was a vast improvement over the windows that had been 100% dirty. As I walked around the platform I could see into the lounge car and it was 100% full - and most of the people from Denver hadn’t even boarded yet! There’s no way we were going to get a seat in the lounge car.

We left Denver down about 20 minutes, and lost a few more in the Denver suburbs as we waited on the freight trains. I was quite happy with the schedule - as long as we got to spend daylight hours crossing the mountainsI honestly don’t care what happens during the rest of the trip. We took this trip to see the Colorado Rockies, and we’re on time to see them!

The ascent into the Rockies was amazing. It was a little hazy today, so looking down on Denver wasn’t as clear as it could be. Still, going around many horseshoe curves & through all those tunnels as the mountains got taller and taller was spectacular. I definitely recommend being on the right side if the train from Denver to about Winter Park We started following a river (I think it’s the Colorado) somewhere between Winter Park and Granby, and though the river was on both sides of the train I think it was visible on the left more often than on the right as we went through Byers Canyon. I actually spent a lot of time in the vestiblue during this portion of the trip. We’ve been sitting for almost 24 hours at this point, and I need to be on my feet for a while. Plus, it’s very easy to just walk from one window to the other.

As we went through Colorado a large number of people boarded for their return home, & I many of them knew Marcelo and greeted him warmly when they saw him again. They frequently expressed disappointment that they weren’t going to be in his car. I fully intend to write a letter/e-mail to Amtrak about his spectacular service when we get home. Marcelo said that he ends up on a variety of different routes - he was on the Lake Shore Limited last week, and I think the Sunset Limited the week before that. He said that he has to work a whole bunch of different trains because he doesn’t have seniority yet. I really hope that Amtrak considers an employee’s performance and not just senority status when assigning routes.

Lunch seemed rather abbreviated today. It started at noon, first come, first served as usual. But by about 12:45 they said they were having to start a waiting list, & if you didn’t get your name on the waiting list you weren’t going to eat. So, we quickly put our names in (one of the benefits of being the closest car to the diner), and ended up eating shortly after 1:00. I was hoping that they’d have the chicken sliders special, but since they didn’t have the salisbury steak last night I didn’t want to get my hopes up. We were seated with the least useful attendant, and when I asked him about the special he just stared at me like I had three heads. So, no special today. I went with the AmBurger, which was average. I think the Amtrak burger is right down there with McDonalds as having the worst possible meat patty on a bun. If they’d just improve the meat patty it could really be a good meal. Even the cheese, bacon, condiments, and the bun don’t mask the bad taste. On the positive side, we were going through Gore Canyon, and had a lot of fun watching all the people rafting and fishing down the river. We were seated with a nice couple who had boarded the train in Denver after flying in from Washington D.C. I can’t blame them for skipping all the cornfields in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska. That’s a lot of corn. I felt bad that we weren’t very talkative during lunch, but I was distracted by the scenery & was very tired from two nights without any sleep.

We were still running about 45 minutes late as we left Granby, but the conductor let us know that we were encountering “signal trouble.” The train is supposed to speed up after Byers Canyon, but we were at a crawl & had to stop quite often. At first they predicted that we’d be about an hour and a half late into Glendwood Springs, but I had a feeling we might be a bit later than that.

By mid afternoon we hadn not reached Glenwood Springs & were running almost two hours late. It almost got a lot worse - we just passed the eastbound #6 Zephyr, and they were stopped with engine problems. Our train stopped, and our engineer & conductor were going to go over to see if they could help them out. However, the crew on #6 were able to get things patched up before our people got over there, and both trains went on their way.

Gore Canyon was very pretty, and I thought that would be about as scenic as this route gets. I had heard that Glenwood Canyon was very nice, but I also knew that Glenwood Canyon had a road running through it, and for me that always detracts from the scenery. However, when we finally went through Glenwood Canyon it was absolutely amazing! The canyon walls must be a several hundred or even a thousand feet above the tracks. And watching the train & canyon go through so many horseshoe bends, all towering above our heads… it was stunning! The road did detract from the scenery a bit, but since the best part was way overhead it was sort of easy to ignore the road that was mostly level with the train. Plus, they did a pretty good job of staining the concrete to match the rocks.

I thought the good scenery was over after we reached Grand Junction, but I was wrong. The guidebook I had been reading (I forget the author & title right now) only gave one sentence to Ruby Canyon, but that was a close second place to Glendwood Canyon in my mind. The bright red rock walls that go straight up, the weird holes, scoops and swirls… it’s hard to put into words how strange it all looks. It started raining just as we went through, and we could see the rain slowly change the color of the rock as it trickled down the walls. Ruby Canyon was truly outstanding. And for reference, almost all of it was on the right side of the train. So, in my opinion, the north side of the train wins easily for the best scenery on this part of the route.

When the dining car attendant came through, we took the last reservation again - 7:15 pm. Just for kicks I asked the dining car attendant about any specials for this meal, and he actually laughed. They were already out of chicken too. I guess for the last dinner on the train we were going to get what we got. I decided to try the pasta, as it had looked better in person than in the photos. It’s actually just mac and cheese with the standard veggies ladled on top. I asked them to skip the veggies, and was not at all surprised to see the dish arrive with veggies anyway. It’s not the best mac and cheese in the world, but at least it was edible, and at least made for some variation on the standard “meat and potatoes” fare.

We spent some time after dinner in the lounge car. The scenery was mostly desert scrub land and sagebrush, with mountains way off in the distance, but the setting sun made it quite pretty. We had spent most of our trip so far in our roomettes or the dining car, so it was nice to have somewhere to hang out for a while.

We arrived in Helper, Utah about an hour and 20 minutes late. I was hoping to stay awake until Salt Lake City, but I didn’t even make it to Provo before falling asleep.

Nice continuation. Some of those mountains you can see off in the distance to the south of Green River are in Arches national Park. When I traveled this section last November, the conductor was a local and gave a wonderful travelogue.

[SIZE=14.6667px]DAY THREE - California Zephyr arrives in Sacramento[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]We woke up this morning somewhere between WInnemucca and Reno. We had made up some time overnight, and were now running about 20 minutes late. The conductors announced that there was a bit of padding in our schedule at this point, and by the time we got to Reno we’d probably be on time again.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]It was about 6:30 am Pacific time, so we headed straight to the dining car for breakfast. I had the Railroad French Toast again (surprise!). I just don’t get tired of that, at least for 2-3 days. We asked the dining car attendant about the breakfast special again, and he said that they had the biscuits and gravy at some point, but weren’t serving it since they wanted to save the biscuits for people who ordered the other meals. This seems a little silly to me, as the people who order eggs and stuff can always have a croissant, whereas the people who want to try the biscuits and gravy now don’t even have that entree as an option. Plus, if they had the gravy onboard, when exactly were they planning on serving it? It seems to me that they are being given options but just want to simplify their service as much as possible. Once again it seems like the dining car staff is cutting corners to make their jobs easier.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]We then made a brief stop in Reno. This is a rather unattractive stop, as you’re below grade level in a concrete trench. Still, it was nice to get off the train for a while. I had expected it to be roastingly hot, but it was very pleasant outside.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]We soon reached Truckee and the start of our ascent into the Sierra Nevada Mountains. I suddenly remembered a detail I found when planning our trip - by the time we got to Truckee, we’ll have traveled 20,000 miles on Amtrak. I know that’s a paltry sum compared to those who have traveled a million miles, but it seems like a lot to us.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]They announced that a volunteer from the Sacramento Train Museum was onboard to give a commentary in the lounge car. We were able to find half of a table empty, and sat there for most of the trip across the mountains. The commentary was interesting - the speaker told us all about the construction of the transcontinental railroad through this region, as well as the history of the small towns that we passed along the way. He really made it sound interesting, and as we’re now running basically on time we’d probably have time to visit the Sacramento Train Museum this afternoon.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]I loved the trip across the mountains. The Sierra Nevadas are the type of mountains I love, with long lake-filled valleys and tall sun-dappled trees. It reminded me of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks further south, only without the enormous redwoods. Many Amtrak trains go through towns and cities, and those are interesting sometimes, but I greatly prefer the natural, unspoiled lands. I think I could ride through the Sierras all day & be completely happy.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Lunch was announced at about 11:30. As it was the last meal on the train, they were selling out of a lot of stuff. However, they did have the pork shanks, and I really like barbecue so I thought I’d try it. It was… okay. The sauce was more bland than I had hoped. I thought they’d pick a sauce (or a derivative) like K.C. Masterpiece or Bullseye that sells well nationally, but I didn’t recognize it. It was both a less sweet and less spicy than most popular sauces. So, it’s not something I would order again.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Lunch service was rather poor. I know it’s their last meal & they’re trying to prepare for arrival, so I understand the abbreviated service and lack of choices. However, we were seated with the worst of the three dining car attendants. The lead attendant Armando and the other attendant Sean were fine, but we got an older gentleman (I’d rather not name him) who has been less than stellar throughout the trip (he was the one who previously told us that they had the biscuits and gravy but wouldn’t serve it). At lunch today, he told many tables that they were out of certain dishes, but I overheard the other two servers offering them to other tables. When one of our tablemates finished her meal first, he said they were out of the tart, and only had cheesecake left. Yet two minutes after that Armando walked through with a full tray of cheesecakes and and chocolate tarts! We hadn’t finished our meals yet so he didn’t offer desserts to us, but when we were done he never came by to ask us about dessert. The remaining three of us wondered how long we could sit there before he at least came back and offered SOMETHING - dessert, more drinks, clearing the plates, etc. But nothing. We had been somewhat ambivalent about dessert anyway - if we really wanted it, we would have called to him, it was more curiosity on our part as to how long he’d ignore us. Well, after a loooong time we blinked first, and gave up and left.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]We soon arrived in Sacramento - 30 minutes early! Like most routes there’s a lot of padding at the end. It was HOT - over a hundred degrees. We stored our luggage at the desk, and started to make plans for our 10+ hour layover. We planned on walking around Old Town, and the first place we encountered was the railroad museum. It was hot, the museum had air conditioning, so we went in.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]The museum was amazing! If you’re in Sacramento you should definitely see it. I’m not really a history buff, but I found all the exhibits to be truly fascinating. We started with the movie, which was a little hokey but gave a good overview of the history of trans-continental rail. The really fun part was looking at (and sometimes boarding) the old rail cars. I think my favorite part was the sleeping car / dining car walk through. The sleeping car actually rocks back and forth like you’re really moving, and lights flash by like you’re going through the countryside at night. Having spent the last three days in roomettes, I was particularly interested in looking at their sleeping accommodations. Modern day roomettes are so obviously descended from those old sleeping cars, with the fold-down upper bunk and the two seats that slide together. Yet over time, modern cars have become more enclosed and private (with more walls and personal luggage space), and less segregated (no separate women’s rooms and men’s rooms anymore).[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Having just left the California Zephyr, I found the history of the Union Pacific to be particularly relevant. Seeing how those Chinese laborers worked so hard - often carving through solid granite at a rate of inches per day - made me appreciate how easy rail travel is today.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]So the railroad museum was a real winner. It’s only about $10 per person, and we spent about two hours there (and could have spent a lot more if we had really looked at all the exhibits in detail). Even if you’re not a train buff I highly recommend it.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]After the railroad museum, we walked around Old Sacramento for a while. It was about 4:30 pm at that point, but it was still roastingly hot out. We quickly returned to the Sacramento station and decided to buy round-trip tickets to Davis. The Davis station, unlike Sacramento, has air conditioning, as well as a greater variety of restaurants and other things to do (and thanks to all the AU members who pointed us in that direction). We thought we could make the 4:40 train and hurried out to the platform, only to watch the train roll away right when we got there. So, we headed back to the station to wait an hour for the next train.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Hurrying to the platform and back hadn’t done much for our overheating issues. We sat in the small sleeper-class waiting area, but that little corner of the station wasn’t getting any air. When that hour went by we were really glad to get on that train to Davis and its air conditioning![/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Davis was a quick 10-15 minutes away. We enjoyed the station’s air conditioning for a few minutes as we worked out a plan. We had wanted to walk through the UC Davis Arboretum, but it was still way too hot for a walk to be enjoyable. We decided on dinner and a movie (Davis has two theaters within walking distance). A local Mexican place had received good reviews online, and it was decent but not great. The only movie that was showing at that time that was guaranteed to finish in time for us to get back on the train was “Finding Dory.” I don’t watch too many kids’ movies, but it was fairly entertaining.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]We got back to the Davis stations, and then soon caught the returning train to Sacramento. The northbound Coast Starlight was due in about two hours. We sat and read for a while, and noticed that the CS was losing time as it approached Sacramento. By about 11:30 it was running 30 minutes late. However, it pulled in at 12:07, less than 10 minutes late. It’s possible that the delay was in the departure time, as we didn’t leave the Sacramento station until about 12:45 am. We were both very tired and quickly fell asleep.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]DAY FOUR - Coast Starlight Sacramento to Portland[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Despite going to bed at 1:00 am, I still woke up at about 5:30 as the light entered my room. As I rolled over & looked outside, we were descending through a beautiful mountain valley, filled with tall trees and a stream tumbling over the rocks about 50 feet away, and the sun was lighting up the trees on the mountain tops. Nothing beats waking up to awesome scenery on a train! I was still very sleepy, but didn’t want to miss this. I didn’t know where we were, but a quick look out the other side of the train showed Mt. Shasta fast approaching, so I had a general idea. I spent the next hour or so taking pictures of the sunrise over the mountains, and then we headed to breakfast.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]The dining crew on this trip is… efficient. Plenty of other passengers are finding the lead attendant’s demeanor to be off-putting, but I understand that she’s just trying to run things smoothly. For example, she has made several announcements asking people to send one member of their party to the dining car to be put on a waiting list, and to wait at the end of the car until you are called. Instead, whole groups are showing up and just wandering around the dining car asking various staff members questions about available tables. She’s shooing them back to the parlour car rather curtly - and I wouldn’t be surprised if it leads to some complaints. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]They had the Engineer’s Special available, and after all the Railroad French Toast over the last few days I was ready for something different. Of course, it’s only a little different, as the Special still includes a half serving of french toast. It was delicious! The eggs were creamy, the potatoes were crisp and pleasantly spicy, and the biscuit tasted fresh - they’re a lot better than the dried out dinner rolls. The French Toast on this train was the best yet! The bacon was only okay, but Amtrak bacon isn’t all that great. Still, mediocre bacon is still bacon! For a dish with 5-6 different components, I was surprised that I thoroughly enjoyed all of them.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]We were just arriving at Klamath Falls when they finally made an announcement about our delay. Details on the track work have been sparse - Amtrak had told us that the train would be completely stopped in Klamath Falls for 2 hours. The staff in Sacramento yesterday said that the two hours’ worth of padding was just an estimate, and we’d basically have to stop a whole bunch of times throughout the day for a total of 2-3 hours. When we boarded last night the new Conductor crew hadn’t even heard about it! So, we really had no idea what to expect. It turned out that the original information from Amtrak was correct - we stopped completely in Klamath Falls at about 8:00 am. It ended up being closer to 2 ½ hours as we didn’t get going until about 10:30 am, but the great thing was that we had the two hours as a whole, and at a station. We just walked to downtown Klamath Falls and back. The weather was very pleasant - I’d guess upper 60s. Klamath Falls is a nice little town, and both of us said that we could see ourselves living here someday. On the whole, this was the best “delay time” we’ve had on the train.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]We returned to the train & I headed to the Parlour Car to see if the WiFi was running. I’m not normally a big fan of the Parlour Car - I usually like to sit at the swivel chairs, and those are almost always full on our busy summer trips. On this trip I brought my laptop, and I’ve been enjoying sitting at one of the booths and watching the Oregon scenery go by. Another good thing is that the Parlour Car attendant is a lot better than the others I’ve seen in the past - if you want to eat a meal there she’ll let you! Unfortunately, the meals they’re serving really don’t appeal to us, but it’s nice to know it’s available. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]That’s not to say anything bad about our sleeping car or attendant - they’re both very good so far. We have yet another refurbished Superliner I - it’s not as good as the last two, but it’s fine. I started hearing a buzzing noise as I was falling asleep, and as I crawled around trying to track down the source I realized that it was the old radio / intercom, for which this car still had controls. The volume dial was at its highest setting, & when I turned it to zero the buzz went away.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]We had lunch reservations for 1:00 pm in the dining car. They had seats / meals available in the PPC, but none of the options appealed to us. I had another boring AmBurger, but brought along my emergency condiments from home to make it more palatable. About 15 minutes before we were seated the train came to a stop in the middle of a forest. We sat there for almost an hour without any announcements or explanation from the crew. In fact, the lounge attendant & several of the car attendants paged the conductor overhead for an explanation, stating that passengers had been asking them what was going on & they had nothing to tell them. Still, the conductors did not respond. After about an hour, the conductor came on the intercom & said that UP had delayed them with more track work. The work window was supposed to close at 2:00 pm, so they expected us to get going shortly after that. We finally got going at about 2:15 pm, about an hour and a half after we had stopped. So, losing that 90 minutes put us about four hours behind schedule.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]My Love / Hate Relationship with the Parlour Car, Part 3652:[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]I had no trouble finding a table in the parlour car in Klamath Falls, and enjoyed my time watching the scenery go by & typing up this trip report. I began to think that I’m complaining too much about the lack of available seats in the PPC. However, I tried to find a swivel chair many times throughout the afternoon & evening and there was never an open seat. In fact, the same group of people was seated there throughout the day. I thought that surely someone would have to go to the dining car, restroom, etc. and a seat would open up. Nope. On one of my last passes through the car, I saw their secret. Three of the seats were open, but the passengers who had been camping there all day had left their stuff on the seats - carry ons, sweaters, knitting bags, etc. That’s how they managed to hold the seat all day. If you know other people want your seat and you’ve been hogging it all day, perhaps you should turn it over to someone else after a few hours. I find that sort of behavior rather rude. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]On the positive side, as I mentioned earlier the PPC attendant had no problem offering reservations for meals in the dining car. Normally we should have detrained by now, but as we weren’t expected into Portland until about 8:00 pm they allowed us to eat dinner on the train. The dinner options in the PPC sounded okay, so we decided to eat there - our first meal ever in the PPC! I had the pasta bolognese, and my spouse had the chicken with rice. The chicken dish was brought over from the diner, but the pasta was exclusive to the PPC. We both enjoyed our meals, and the service wasn’t too bad. After so many meals with strangers it was nice to eat by ourselves.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]We finally arrived in Portland at about 8:00 pm. Our hotel was in the Lloyd Center area, so I was a little concerned about being kind of far from Union Station. However, the MAX train made it a fast trip - only 15 minutes from Union Station to the hotel, including walking time & waiting 5 minutes for the next MAX train. I wouldn’t hesitate to stay in that area again. However, by the time we got to our hotel, checked in, unpacked a bit, it was already about 9:00 pm, so we didn’t get a chance to do any sightseeing that night.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]DAY FIVE (and a half)- Sightseeing in Portland, night on the Empire Builder[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]We slept in quite a bit this morning. I like sleeping on the train, but we generally don’t sleep for very long, so we were both pretty tired after four days of traveling. Since we got a late start we only had about 4-5 hours of sightseeing before heading to Union Station to catch the Empire Builder. We decided to try walking the 4T trail, which allows you to take four different modes of transportation: Trails, Trams, Trolleys and Train. You start off from Pioneer Square downtown, taking the MAX train to the Portland Zoo. You then walk a few miles of trails, take the aerial Tram downhill towards the river, and finally pick up a Trolley to return to Pioneer Square.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Overall I enjoyed the 4T trail, but it wasn’t quite the tour of Portland that I had expected. The mechanized portions were quite fun; the aerial tram gave some great views of the mountains surrounding Portland, as did a portion of the hike to Council Crest. The MAX and trolley lines were a great way to see a good portion of downtown streets. However, most of the hike was not that interesting. It started with a steep climb through some woods, which might have been interested if not for the roar of the freeway nearby. The views from Council Crest once we finally got there were amazing, but the hike downhill to the tram was on an unpaved shoulder of an unremarkable residential street. So, 3 of the 4 “T”s were worthwhile, and if you have 4 hours or so to devote to it on a layover it’s not a bad way to spend the time.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]We got back to Union Station at about 4:00, and train 28 departed on time at 4:45 pm. We quickly reached the Columbia River Gorge. We had gone through the gorge once before on Train 27, but that had been in the middle of a rainy afternoon. This time through was clear and sunny, and approaching sunset. The views of the gorge (with Mt. Hood in the background) were spectacular. Many people were out enjoying the river via windsurfing, jet skis, and other fun pursuits. If you’re taking the Empire Builder eastbound I highly recommend the PDX-SPK portion of the route - it’s amazing![/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Our car attendant was Flo, who did an adequate job (I think we’re spoiled after Marcelo’s fabulous service). The most memorable aspect of Flo’s performance was her extremely graphic intercom announcements regarding the restrooms’ abilities to deal with our various bodily functions. I know some people have been offended by the threads on this forum that have dealt with “skid marks” in the toilets and such - if you’re one of those people, cover your ears if you get Flo as your car attendant![/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]We were served our cold meals shortly after departing Portland. Previous passengers have received meals from a catering company called Outtakes, but ours were labeled “On the Go”, and the label states that they were prepared at the “PDX Amtrak station.” I believe that’s the name of the little cafe in the PDX station, so it looks like they’re a new supplier of Amtrak’s new cold dinners. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]They had chicken dinners available at some point, but they were out by the time they got to our car, so we were offered beef or shrimp. We both chose the beef dinner. It was Greek themed, with some beef, veggies, feta cheese, Greek ranch sauce, fruit, and a dessert. I’ve never really had Greek food, but I thought this was really good. I think I probably prefer the steak and mashed potatoes for dinner, but this cold Greek meal was my second choice over everything else offered in the dining car. It probably wasn’t all freshly prepared, as I know I’ve seen that exact dessert (a chocolate fudge cake in a distinctive wrapper) offered in other places. However, it was tasty and abundant. If they got rid of the dining cars & lowered the prices (a la the Silver Star) but offered these for sale I’d take that option in a second.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]We were due into Whitefish, Montana at 7:15 the next morning. If we wanted to shower and/or eat breakfast before our arrival we’d have to get to bed early, and our attendant Flo made up our beds at about 9:30 pm. Unfortunately, a large family in our car (8 passengers who took up several roomettes) let their kids run around unsupervised and loud until almost midnight! This was in spite of Flo’s repeated announcements about quiet times earlier in the evening. She even scolded those kids for running several times, to no avail. The short night plus some rough tracks led to some very fitful sleep, which is unusual for us on Amtrak.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]We woke up at about 6:00 the next morning, and got to the dining car right when it opened for breakfast at 6:30. I think our attendant was new - she kept getting the the train numbers mixed up (27 vs 28), and was rather slow. It ended up taking about 30 minutes for our food to arrive, so we really had to rush to finish before our arrival. I had the Engineer Special again, only the EB served it without a biscuit - I’m not sure why. We just finished our last bites as we pulled into Whitefish, so we had to high tail it back to the Portland sleeper at the other end of the train to grab our stuff and get off the train.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]We rented a car from Hertz, who have a counter right there inside the station building. In fact, the Whitefish location is Hertz’s longest running franchise - the same family has been running the business for something like 70 years! Our train had arrived about 7:10 am, about 10 minutes early, but the Hertz guy was running late and didn’t get there until almost 7:30. Once he arrived we quickly got our car and were on our way. For reference, Budget and Dollar also have representatives in Whitefish - we’ve used both of them as well, and renting has been painless. If you’re traveling to the Glacier area by train, Whitefish makes a great stop if you need to rent a car.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]We’ll be spending about a week here visiting family and exploring Glacier National Park, then returning to Waterloo via the eastbound Empire Builder and Capitol Limited. So, I’ll post a report about our return trip in about a week and a half. Meanwhile I'll try and get some photos of our trip over the next few days.[/SIZE]

Please call CR when you get home about the poor service from that Diner wait person, no real excuse for that kind of service!

I've ridden these same trains many times, glad yall enjoyed Davis ( far as I'm concerned the Rail Museum is the Only reason to visit Sacramento)and the view of Mt Shasta as the sun comes up is spectacular, as is the Columbia Gorge bit I still prefer the Cascades route from Seattle to Spokane along Puget Sound and thru the Cascade Tunnel!

Hope Glacier is fun,I look forward to reading about the rest of your adventure!

Really enjoyed your trip reports. Its always fun to relive the CZ trips. We have been on several and it never gets old. Sounds like you are having a good time despite a few incompetent Amtrak employees. But the good ones usually help us remember why we love riding Amtrak. Want to get back on the CS soon. Hope you have a good time in Glacier NP.

Nice report.

The river between Winter Park/Fraser and Granby is the Fraser River that runs through Fraser Canyon.

A copy of the CZ Route Guide is usually in each sleeper berth and on page 6 the guide mentions going through Fraser Canyon and following the Fraser river.

Two miles west of Granby the CZ crosses the Fraser river for the last time and looking out the right side of the train we can see the Colorado and Fraser rivers merge about 1300 feet from the train and near the Windy Gap Reservoir coming up on the right side of the train.

The Colorado River empties out of the west end of the Windy Gap Reservoir.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tributaries_of_the_Colorado_River

The railroad unions determine seniority status and Amtrak has to accommodate union rules.

The Sacramento Train Museum [SIZE=14.6667px]volunteers between Reno and Sacramento speak from a standardized script.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Somewhere on Amtrak's web site Amtrak notes that Sightseer lounge and PPC seats are not reserved and leaving a personal item in a vacant seat does not 'save' the seat.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]​And you are right, the practice is rude and childish.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]However, it seems most passengers honor such a 'saved' lounge car seat, likely because a minor confrontation is less desired than holding a fellow passenger to a high standard of behavior.[/SIZE]

I rode the zephyr a few weeks ago and I thought I had a lackluster diner crew... At least they served the specials! Same style of service though. Order a salad... You may or may not get it. Dessert? Ain't no one gonna offer it! Ha.

I rode the zephyr a few weeks ago and I thought I had a lackluster diner crew... At least they served the specials! Same style of service though. Order a salad... You may or may not get it. Dessert? Ain't no one gonna offer it! Ha.

Sounds like a pretty good trip over all.

Aaaand we're back! This post will cover our two day return trip from Whitefish, Montana to Waterloo, Indiana. Fortunately for us, the trip was uneventful, but unfortunately there isn't much to write about - we mostly sat and looked at the scenery until it was time to eat. So, there's a even more of the dining car in this report than usual!

DAY ONE

We had checked the status of eastbound 8/28 before going to bed the night before, and it was on time. It was still running well when we woke up early Monday morning. Fortunately, we were staying about a mile from the station (and only a hundred yards from the tracks - we saw and heard the Empire Builder twice a day all week, as well as every freight train that BNSF sent through. Our car rental return with Hertz went smoothly - all you have to do there is put the keys inside your rental agreement, record your mileage on the outside, & drop the whole thing in a mail slot. They e-mail you your receipt. Easy peasy.

We boarded & found ourselves in roomette 5 of car 0831. As the roomettes were facing forward, we were on the north side of the train, and close to the transition sleeper. I have never been in the transition sleeper before, but it was really strange to look into that car and see all the way to the other end.

We were once again in a fairly decently refurbished Superliner I car. Our attendant was decent - not bad, but no Marcelo (as we'll probably say with most attendants from now on). As it was 7:40 am we headed straight to breakfast. Our server told us they had the biscuits and gravy special - the first time any of the specials had been present on our trip! I still ordered the Engineer Special, but one of our tablemates order the biscuits and gravy. She said it was really strange - it tasted like chicken gravy, rather than a typical breakfast sausage gravy that she expected. I later found out that she was correct - it's a chicken gravy. Anyway, the Engineer Special was as good as ever, but again no biscuit.

After breakfast we headed to the Sightseer Lounge to listen to the Trails & Rails speaker as we passed through Glacier National Park. The lounge was pretty packed, but a nice couple at one of the tables allowed us to join them. Going through Glacier on the train was not as fun as it normally is for me, for a variety of reasons. First of all, the weather was very rainy and cloudy, so you couldn't see very far into the mountains. Secondly, we had just driven Route 2 a few days before, and we had traveled along this same scenery (and throughout Glacier) for the previous week. Lastly, I was starting to get sick, so I was feeling pretty sleepy. Still, assuming the westbound train is on time, I prefer the sunset / evening trip through Glacier.

We headed back to our room after East Glacier, and soon it was time for lunch. The Empire Builder was clearly stocked with the specials, as we were offered the Chicken Sliders for lunch. As I had tired of the other lunch offerings I was eager to try the sliders. The bun was actually quite tasty, but the chicken itself was a little strange - it had an almost chemical taste to it that was rather off-putting. Also, the sandwich consisted of just the roasted chicken breast, bun, and a slice of cheese - no sauce or anything. None of the table condiments (mustard, ketchup, or mayo) really went well with the sandwich IMHO. I think it needs something else. Still, I'd order it again.

It was still rainy and cloudy as we traveled through eastern Montana and headed into North Dakota. We napped, we read, and soon it was time for dinner. As we were on a roll with specials, I decided to try the Salisbury Steak that was on offer as the special. It was... okay. Honestly, it was exactly what I thought it would be - a frozen meat patty that had been thawed/cooked in a convection oven rather than a microwave. I'm glad I tried it, but I think I'll stick with the steak from now on.

After returning to our room the attendant stopped by and asked when we wanted our beds to be made up. We prefer to have them done at 10:00 pm, but 9:00 pm was as late as he'd go. Marcelo didn't have a problem with 10:00 pm... Anyway, we headed to sleep - my first time in the upper bunk for this trip!

This is a great trip report that includes a lot of the little things that are typically experienced during a cross-country train trip. If you want to know what riding on the train is really like, take the time to read this report through thoroughly. Highly recommended!

Great trip report. Thank you for sharing. How did you like your stay at Glacier?