Riding the full route of Texas Eagle

Anyone has done it? How was your experience? Did you get cabin stirred by the end of the trip?

I got an opportunity for a trip from LA to Phl later this year and the price for a roomette for two is not as inhibitive as I feared. Exact time and length is not a big factor for this particular trip. Nor is food or dining car.

I am very tempted by the TE to Cardinal (same day connection) possibility. I know there are many other shorter routes but I want as much train time with as fewer connections as possible, thus this particular combo. What is the worst case scenario if I miss the connection? Bus? LSL? One night hotel and next day coach?

I rode the Texas Eagle LAX-CHI a couple years ago. I didn't go stir crazy. The trip isn't *all* that much longer than other Western long distance trains.

As for missed connections in CHI, it sort of depends just how late the train is. There's a bus connection between Normal, IL and Indianapolis, leaving BNL at 7:15pm (Texas Eagle is scheduled into BNL at 11:08am, so that gives you about an 8 hour buffer at that point).

Did the TE LAX to CHI two years ago...nice trip. Good connection in Chicago to the Capitol Limited and on to DC. Returned on the SWC. Bedroom entire trip paid with three zones of points each way.

Chessie said:

Anyone has done it? How was your experience?

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I'm sure tons of members have done it, including yours truly, although I didn't do it all in one go. I live in the middle of the route so my trips have been SAS-LAX and SAS-CHI but not LAX-CHI. In my experience the Texas Eagle is a middle of the road train. It's neither great nor terrible. The scenery is occasionally interesting but rarely outstanding. The dining staff is better than some routes and worse than others. The service levels and timekeeping run the gamut from good to bad. Just depends on your particular train. Like I said, it's just kind of in the middle.

Chessie said:

Did you get cabin stirred by the end of the trip?

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If I was traveling between LA and Chicago I would stop somewhere along the way. Maybe twice if I had the time. Making the whole trip in a single run would not be appealing to me. For me it would become too much of a good thing and eventually I would get tired of being cooped up in such a tiny space.

I've done it twice. Lax to Chicago. I did it to maximize train time. If the sunset limited is running late they may send the Texas eagle out of San Antonio on time and bus you to Dallas to catch up to it. This happened to me in 2003 or 4 iirc and I was not happy at all. The sunset limited was about 2 hours late at the time.

The time I was on the train completely was quite enjoyable. No spectacular scenery but desert was interesting imho. The switching move in San Antonio is the only one that occurs in San Antonio. Rail fans would enjoy it.

What would happen depends on your destination. If it was someplace like Cincinnati, most likely it would be a bus. Since you're going to Philadelphia, you will probably be put on the CL or LSL with a connection to PHL.

I did the TE westbound, Chi to LA. Not too much in the way of scenery. The other 3 Chi to west coast routes have much more interesting scenery. IMHO.

I did this trip as part of my first Amtrak trip adventure, back around 2004.

The train timings were different, and the East bound portion that I was on from LAX was meant to be connected to the North bound main Texas Eagle at San Antonio. We were very late into San Antonio, so the North bound train had already departed. We we put on a bus and met the train at Dallas. I guess they had a spare sleeper at San Antonio, as I was able to have the same at Dallas, despite leaving the original at San Antonio.

I remember being surprised to be able to "overtake" the train on a bus... In the UK the trains are faster than the bus!

You can move around on the train, sit in the lounge, eat in the dinner, grab a cafe coffee or snack, read and enjoy meeting new folk, so it is what you make it, no need to just sit in your cabin!

Ed.

These days the 3 days a week between LA and SAS Sunset Limited and the Texas Eagle are the same train.

2 locos, baggage, transdorm, Sunset Limited sleeper, dining car, SSL, Sunset Limited coach, Texas Eagle coach, Texas Eagle sleeper.

I'll ride the route LA to CHI in a couple of weeks.

Steve4031 said:

I've done it twice. Lax to Chicago. I did it to maximize train time. If the sunset limited is running late they may send the Texas eagle out of San Antonio on time and bus you to Dallas to catch up to it. This happened to me in 2003 or 4 iirc and I was not happy at all. The sunset limited was about 2 hours late at the time.

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Interesting, and like you, I would not be happy about the bustitution. I'm wondering how the coach and sleeper from the late train catch up. (Insert vision of train cars being transported on the highway.)

caravanman said:

I did this trip as part of my first Amtrak trip adventure, back around 2004.

The train timings were different, and the East bound portion that I was on from LAX was meant to be connected to the North bound main Texas Eagle at San Antonio. We were very late into San Antonio, so the North bound train had already departed. We we put on a bus and met the train at Dallas. I guess they had a spare sleeper at San Antonio, as I was able to have the same at Dallas, despite leaving the original at San Antonio.

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Well, that answers that. I suppose the sleeper that arrived on the late 422 then became the spare in San Antonio.

I have done the TE from CHI connecting in LAX to the CS for SEA. Yes, the long way, but wanted to see how four consecutive nights on the train would be, It was great. Even though the scenery is not as spectacular as the other routes, it has its own flavor, one of gradually changing landscape. If you have the time, this was a terrific opportunity. Only the 4 hours in LAX was I not on the train, and that was like a long service stop.

I tried to do CHI-SAS a few summers ago. Got bustituted south of Ft. Worth. Not fun, but we arrived earlier than if we were on the train.

I did it a year and a half ago. We were hit by a very severe storm (2 tornadoes & 15 inches of rain in three hours) that washed out the tracks north of San Marcos, TX and we spent 30 hours there before we were bussed to Fort Worth. I made it to Chicago 25 minutes after the next day's Pere Marquette left and was put up in a hotel then caught the PM and got home two days later than planned.

We took the TE CHi-Lax a few years ago. Had an excellent SCA to SAS. He never sat down, always working including sweeping the carpet. But, would never do it again. Our early 0430 LA arrival sucked. I'll take the TE again, but just eastbound. Interesting trip especially having the rear window as the Chi- La sleeper was the last car. Also enjoyed seeing St Louis, FTW, Texas hill country, double track, smooth ride with lots of freight west of ElPaso.