Moonlight Dome to Roanoke

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Twin Star Rocket

Service Attendant
Joined
Oct 14, 2012
Messages
189
Location
Texas
To celebrate my birthday and upcoming retirement, I booked the May 10th trip of the Amtrak Northeast Regional train to Roanoke with private car Moonlight Dome (ex-B&O) on the rear. Culinary highlight of the trip was a 4- or 5-course meal (I lost count!) and a port tasting session after supper.

Needless to say, the scenery was commendable, especially as we approached the Blue Ridge. We had a mix of rain, misty clouds, and clearing night skies to complement the train ride.

Since rooms were booked and expensive in Roanoke with college graduations happening, I stayed just one night and returned on the Moonlight Dome the following morning with breakfast aboard. Patches of cloud shrouded the landscape so much so that as we exited a tunnel and trestle after leaving Lynchburg, it seemed we were riding on the clouds ! Neat.
 
It's interesting to think Roanoke has Amtrak service now. Good to hear that a NE Regional Amtrak train to Lynchburg was expanded to there. Did this city ever briefly have Amtrak service for a short period of time, say back in the 1970s or 1980s?
 
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It's interesting to think Roanoke has Amtrak service now. Good to hear that a NE Regional Amtrak train to Lynchburg was expanded to there. Did this city ever briefly have Amtrak service for a short period of time, say back in the 1970s or 1980s?
I'm pretty sure that they've been serving Roanoke for a while.
 
The current Amtrak service to Roanoke started in October 2017 as an extension of Northeast Regional service.

Prior to that, there was the Mountaineer that ran through Roanoke over N&W tracks. That service started in 1975.

That train's route was truncated around 1977 and ran as the Hilltopper until 1979.
 
The current Amtrak service to Roanoke started in October 2017 as an extension of Northeast Regional service.

Prior to that, there was the Mountaineer that ran through Roanoke over N&W tracks. That service started in 1975.

That train's route was truncated around 1977 and ran as the Hilltopper until 1979.
I'll need to look up the Mountaineer, and also the Hilltopper to see which cities/towns those Amtrak trains used to serve. I would guess these 2 trains served places west of Roanoke, when they operated? And I see I was right, that the extension of the NE Regional service from Lynchburg to Roanoke is less than a year old.
 
I'll need to look up the Mountaineer, and also the Hilltopper to see which cities/towns those Amtrak trains used to serve. I would guess these 2 trains served places west of Roanoke, when they operated?.

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Just click on the two links I gave you in post no. 6, above....
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