Amtrak Addiction

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the_traveler said:
KayBee said:
the_traveler said:
I've been diagnosed with SEVERE traveleritis
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Take 2 AGR and call the doctor in the morning! :lol:
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She actually said "Take 2 trains and call me in the morning"! :lol:

So I will. I've got a round trip day trip scheduled for Wednesday, and then I have a doctor appointment for Thursday morning! :p
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My round trip is tomorrow for lunch in Sacramento (and maybe a little look-see at the Railroad Museum *plus* 1104 AGR points). :p

I never even considered AGR points before but I might have to look at a few lunches at Jack London Square for around $20 r/t and 100 AGR points. :D
 
Time to change the name of this place from Amtrak Unlimited to Amtrak Anonymous, and start up a 3 step program! :lol: ;) :blink:

Hello everybody, my name is Kirk, and I am a trainaholic!
 
KayBee said:
Time to change the name of this place from Amtrak Unlimited to Amtrak Anonymous, and start up a 3 step program! :lol: ;) :blink:
Hello everybody, my name is Kirk, and I am a trainaholic!
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The three steps:

1.Book a train ride.

2.Take the train ride.

3.Repeat regularly as needed. :)
 
I use my addiction in a positive way. Today was the third time I have set aside a good amount of time to "train" some newbies on thier first Amtrak trip. My first experience with this was with Brenda and her two teenaged girls. We were going from LNK (Lincoln NE for you newbies) :rolleyes: to NYC (New York City). I went to thier house and built a "roomette" with a picture on the wall of passing scenery, tape on the floor where the width/length of the roomette was and where the top bunk was. I also had two chairs sitting in the roomette and then had them close thier eyes and switched the chairs to a sleeping bag and pillow for the "night configuration". Well, this really helped them to understand that EVERYTHING was small and we needed to pack small as well. Our second "Amtrak 101" class we went to some friends house and did the same thing. Today, my sister and her boyfriend came to my house. They are going from LNK to GJT (Lincoln NE to Grand Junction CO) in May RT with a roomette. I have a tip sheet of 48 things which may seem overwhelming but its everything I have learned here and at OTOL. I do my best with my addiction to help others "enjoy" the experience and not just think I'm a nut! :lol:
 
Cristobal said:
My round trip is tomorrow for lunch in Sacramento (and maybe a little look-see at the Railroad Museum *plus* 1104 AGR points). :p
I never even considered AGR points before but I might have to look at a few lunches at Jack London Square for around $20 r/t and 100 AGR points. :D
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Do it! As I was reading this post, I saw a restaurant on the Food Network and decided to do a quick turnaround from Fresno to San Francisco next week just to try it (and get AGR points, of course). I guess I'm officially addicted now too. :blink:
 
Get this, I have went from LNK at 12:08am to HAS (Hastings NE) and arrive at 1:30am to catch the #6 back around 2:35am to arr back in LNK at 4:20am just to get points. I did it last summer and slept most of the way, slept on a bench at the HAS station outdoors and then slept back. I think it was a triple point promotion. Now thats CRAZY!
 
RailFanLNK said:
I use my addiction in a positive way. Today was the third time I have set aside a good amount of time to "train" some newbies on thier first Amtrak trip. My first experience with this was with Brenda and her two teenaged girls. We were going from LNK (Lincoln NE for you newbies) :rolleyes: to NYC (New York City). I went to their house and built a "roomette" with a picture on the wall of passing scenery, tape on the floor where the width/length of the roomette was and where the top bunk was. I also had two chairs sitting in the roomette and then had them close their eyes and switched the chairs to a sleeping bag and pillow for the "night configuration". Well, this really helped them to understand that EVERYTHING was small and we needed to pack small as well. Our second "Amtrak 101" class we went to some friends house and did the same thing. Today, my sister and her boyfriend came to my house. They are going from LNK to GJT (Lincoln NE to Grand Junction CO) in May RT with a roomette. I have a tip sheet of 48 things which may seem overwhelming but its everything I have learned here and at OTOL. I do my best with my addiction to help others "enjoy" the experience and not just think I'm a nut! :lol:
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WOW!!!! What a great idea! A bit over the top, but great anyway! I didn't go that far.

Before we went on the first trip, I took the measurements of the bedroom & compared it to several rooms in our house.

I showed hubby the approximations so he could visualize it. It did help. He thought it would be much smaller.

One thing I would have liked to know beforehand was how narrow the stairs are!!! Every pic I saw did not give a proper perspective.
 
Today we also watched snippets of "Extreme Trains" from the History Channel. It showed the SCA making up roomettes etc and they got to see on a big screen tv the smallish nature of it. They also got to see what a Sightseer Lounge Car looked like and coach, dining car etc on that DVD.
 
Y'all are sick I tell ya!

Sick, sick, sick... :wacko:

Sorry...

I gotta go...

I have a train to catch! :p
 
Ok, as promised I'd continue this 'cause i have to; it's so us!!

I swear i'm an addict because I:

1. Once was in a debate of flying or driving vs. Amtrak, and to prove my point, i pulled out a ticket a ticket out of an empty prescription pill bottle to shock the audience that rail is just what the doctor ordered!

2. memorized every curve, interlocking, and speed limit on the route closest to me, which is the one most traveled and thus most familiar: the NECorridor between NYC and Philly. In fact i know just how the cars will bump and shake, to the point that unless track maintenance crews have redone something, i'm able to tell inside the restroom exactly where we are.

3. I live in Queens, not far from Hell Gate Bridge and Sunnyside yard; whenever i hear the distinct Nathan 5-chime horns blast the person next to me gets startled by my sudden seizure of excitement.

4. think a vacation to beautiful Florida would be incomplete without taking trains to and fro; in fact it would feel like one of my arms or legs were amputated.

5. tap into the divine and supernatural when Amtrak is in bad times i burn candles around in a makeshift shrine that has timetables and ticket stubs in the middle.

6. have every ticket stub of every trip on Amk, from 1981 to the present, archived along with every National Timetable and route schedule. Also brochures and items such as menus, travel guides, specific services like the defunct River Cities, Metroliner (incl. the time it once was tried in Boston and even Los Angeles), leaflets explaining certain car types like the introduction of Amfleet, Superliner, Viewliner, and Acela, and so on.

7. instead of an outfit, i refer to the clothes i'm wearing on any given day as a 'consist'.

8. wear a headlight when walking (intended as a camping and/or biking tool)

9. listen to my archived train recordings to relax or excite me, as needed.

10. feel the two Amtrak logos are sacred: both the classic inverted arrow, and the present day triangle rails into the horizon.

11. in high school i risked suspension for theft when i removed an eight page 1980/1 advertisment in the Readers Digest about the hundreds of new cars and locomotives arriving (my only lament is that we are all dying to see a 2010 version of this right now from Joe Boardman). Seeing the paisly designs of the Amfleet cars, bright red of Turboliner interiors, and the sight of bilevel Superliners wrapped around the curve of a mountain will blow anyone of us away. Ditto for one of Amtrak's saviors, a brand new F40, in original phase 2 paint, is something that brings out a box of tissues.

12. detailed a concept that almost got mailed to then Pres. and CEO W. Graham Claytor, about the idea of building a swimming pool car that would have a 3 to 4 ft. tub and changing area plus emergency drains along with a dance club built into a modified Amfleet I cafe.

Well that's it for now. Thank you, enjoy, and keep telling us your personal accounts on this very intriguing subject!!

NE933
 
It's nice to be back amongst like-minded folks.

When my son called me this morning and asked what I was doing I said, "I'm riding the train to Sacramento to go have lunch in 'Old Town'."

He said, "Why?"

I said, "Because I can..." :D

He called me a 'train nerd'.

Should I be offended? :p
 
Cristobal said:
It's nice to be back amongst like-minded folks.
When my son called me this morning and asked what I was doing I said, "I'm riding the train to Sacramento to go have lunch in 'Old Town'."

He said, "Why?"

I said, "Because I can..." :D

He called me a 'train nerd'.

Should I be offended? :p
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Nope. Get a button saying "Train Nerd" to irritate him! :lol:
 
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I once knocked somebody out in football practice because he kept saying "Amtrak s@#$ks." I had been looking for him for three weeks, and when we were both on the football field, he could run, but not hide. He caught the ball on a screen pass, and I read the play, and ran right through him as I tackled him. He did not get up. I stood over him and taunted him too. Didn't here anything from him again.
 
sunchaser said:
Cristobal said:
It's nice to be back amongst like-minded folks.
When my son called me this morning and asked what I was doing I said, "I'm riding the train to Sacramento to go have lunch in 'Old Town'."

He said, "Why?"

I said, "Because I can..." :D

He called me a 'train nerd'.

Should I be offended? :p
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Nope. Get a button saying "Train Nerd" to irritate him! :lol:
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Just wait until he gets wind of my next trip. San Jose to Fresno (to visit my sister and her husband) via Sacramento. It's about 8 1/2 hours (1 1/2 layover in SAC, time to eat again!) vs about 2 1/2 by driving. Spend a day or two with them and then return via Oakland-Jack London Square (another layover of a little over an hour but just in time for dinner!).

Two of the best things in the world (food and trains) is all it takes to keep me happy. :D
 
Cristobal said:
Just wait until he gets wind of my next trip. San Jose to Fresno (to visit my sister and her husband) via Sacramento. It's about 8 1/2 hours
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After leaving STL from the gathering, I will be going via CHI to get back to the east coast. But I depart STL on Oct 10 and don't get to CHI until Oct 15! I'm traveling STL-CHI via KCY, LAX and PDX! :lol: (It's only a little out of the way! :p )
 
Cristobal said:
Just wait until he gets wind of my next trip. San Jose to Fresno (to visit my sister and her husband) via Sacramento. It's about 8 1/2 hours (1 1/2 layover in SAC, time to eat again!) vs about 2 1/2 by driving. Spend a day or two with them and then return via Oakland-Jack London Square (another layover of a little over an hour but just in time for dinner!).
Two of the best things in the world (food and trains) is all it takes to keep me happy. :D
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If you have some time to kill while you're in Fresno (and really want to make your family think you're sick), you can do a quick turnaround to Hanford and get 200 AGR points for $6.76 rt with the V611 code. I'm guessing that's one of the cheapest segments in the whole Amtrak system. (There's also a nice little bakery across from the train station. I'm actually posting this from Hanford right now as I wait for my train home from a cheesecake/AGR run :p ).

And to stay on-topic...you know you're addicted when you spend hours on amtrak.com looking for the shortest possible turnarounds so you don't have to waste time walking around the destination city between train rides. So far my shortest has been 23 minutes in Merced, then right back on the train.
 
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