SWC Route vs. Santa Fe CHI-LAX

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iplaybass

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How close is the the current route to the historical route? Yes, I know Dearborn instead of Union Station - I never got the chance to transfer elsewhere from

the PRR, it was Milwaukee Road to NP or C&NW (?) to UP.
 
Very close.  The deviations are between. Chicago and Cameron Jct just west of Galesburg where the SWC uses former Burlington rails rather than former AT&SF.  Between KC and Emporia, where it diverts onto a secondary mainline to serve Topeka, a deviation that occurred at the inception of Amtrak.  Finally between San Bernardino and LA where it takes what was  AT&SF's former 3rd Subdivision through Fullerton rather than the former 2nd Sub through Pasadena.  Large parts if the 2nd Sub are now LA Metro's Gold light rail line.
 
Any chance you happen to recall when it was rerouted east of Galesburg? It stayed on ATSF through Joliet and Streator for Amtrak's first 20 years... I was fascinated by the puzzle of tracks with two Amtrak routes and another freight route crossing, when I first rode through Galesburg on the CZ as a kid.
 
Not terribly long after the merger after BNSF made major improvements to the junction at Cameron.  BNSF wanted to downgrade/abandon the connection east of Corwith that provided the connection Union Station from the former AT&SF.
 
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Very close.  The deviations are between. Chicago and Cameron Jct just west of Galesburg where the SWC uses former Burlington rails rather than former AT&SF.  Between KC and Emporia, where it diverts onto a secondary mainline to serve Topeka, a deviation that occurred at the inception of Amtrak.  Finally between San Bernardino and LA where it takes what was  AT&SF's former 3rd Subdivision through Fullerton rather than the former 2nd Sub through Pasadena.  Large parts if the 2nd Sub are now LA Metro's Gold light rail line.
Minor correction...at the inception of Amtrak, the Los Angeles train still bypassed Topeka, and ran thru Ottawa...the Houston train served Topeka until it was discontinued in the 1979 cuts.

Then the Los Angeles train was rerouted to serve Topeka.

Here's a link to the schedule before the change...

http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19790729&item=0045
 
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- I never got the chance to transfer elsewhere from

the PRR, it was Milwaukee Road to NP or C&NW (?) to UP.
I am not quite sure of what you are saying (or asking) in this part of your post.....

Are you referring to the time that the UP "City" trains were rerouted Chicago to Omaha from C&NW to MILW in 1955?

Or the Empire Builder was rerouted from the BN to the MILW from Chicago to St. Paul upon Amtrak's start? :unsure:
 
I am not quite sure of what you are saying (or asking) in this part of your post.....
Are you referring to the time that the UP "City" trains were rerouted Chicago to Omaha from C&NW to MILW in 1955?
Or the Empire Builder was rerouted from the BN to the MILW from Chicago to St. Paul upon Amtrak's start?
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My trips west went through Union Station, Montana on the North Coast Limited, and the City of Los Angeles. IIRC, neither the UP or NP operated into Chicago, instead, other roads carried their cars, operating as through trains. I was trying to remember which RR operated which train out of CUS.
 
In the classic streamliner days, the Union Pacific City trains were operated out of Chicago Union Station to Council Bluffs/Omaha by the Milwaukee Road from 1955 on. Before 1955, they were operated by the Chicago and North Western out of North Western Station (now Ogilvie).

The Hill Road trains (Northern Pacific and Great Northern) were operated from Chicago Union Station to the Twin Cities by the Burlington Route for essentially all of the 20th century.
 
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