Recent content by Siegmund

If you want to create a layover somewhere, sure, go ahead (and insist that stations where these connections are made have good baggage storage options.) That makes sense for multi-day trips where you want a break, or perhaps where you deliberately have one business day somewhere between a...

On a bang-for-buck basis, the nice thing about a daily Cardinal is improved utilization -- 133% more service for 50% more equipment. From the standpoint of a strong national network, no argument that the Broadway was an important part of it and could be again. I'd be more more interested in a...

Indeed it will! I've only ever seen blue ones.

Out west, that was the original intention of the coach-baggage car: they had higher density seating upstairs (still better than Amfleet I, but no leg rests and less recline than regular Superliner coach seats - 4 extra rows per car I want to say?) and you could expect to be steered toward them...

If the eastbound Empire Builder is late, you can see into Canada for a few minutes as you make a big sweeping curve to the right, just after exiting the Flathead Tunnel. You are still more than 20 miles from the border. But you a) are on the shoulder of a ridge, about 500 feet higher than the...

I had had the impression the load indicator was always wrong anyway and was only sowing confusion, so haven't missed it. If it actually worked, I'm sure people would like to have it back. (Though if it were me, I would use it to find the least-busy days, not to 'hurry and book because it's...

This is one of those areas where I expect the riders are close to evenly divided. I, personally, place much more value on consistency. If I walk into a Denny's or Applebee's today, there's a 90% chance I will order one of the same three or so things that I would have ordered in 1990. I want and...

Yes. The Superliner trains without baggage cars and transdorms (Portland Builder, Texas Eagle, Capitol; in happier times the Pioneer and Desert Wind) need a coach-baggage for checked bags and a coach for handicapped seats. On one particularly slow winter day five years ago I counted 14...

Remember too that 27 and 28 must always operate with two coaches -- so 7/8 are only short of coach space west of Spokane; over the rest of the route there are guaranteed to always be at least 3 coaches and 2½ sleepers year round whether they are needed or not. (That one coach DOES sometimes sell...

That already happened: the LaSalle, Marquette, Nicollet, and Radisson (maybe one or two more names I can't remember?) lost their names in favor of generic Hiawatha Service. And the Abraham Lincoln, State House, and Ann Rutledge lost their names in favor of generic Lincoln Service. I don't...

Boreas was the god of the north wind. It's about time he got a train named after him. His brother Zephyrus got much luckier, in that respect. And it's been almost 100 years now since you could ride a train over Boreas Pass in Colorado, though you can still drive the old roadbed.

Marias Pass was ugly, but didn't close, on Thursday, when the worst of the wind and snow came through. US-2 has been open all week. So has most of I-90, though there have been times when chains were required at the Montana-Idaho border (I-90 crosses the mountains into Idaho, like the Milwaukee...

Yes, it's a serious cold snap, and I have a lot more patience for them cancelling the Builder today and tomorrow than I do for them cancelling it anticipation of the tiny little snowstorm that mostly-didn't-happen earlier in the week. Yesterday was seriously windy with lots of blowing and...

You can put me down for derision, at least for 27/7 and for cancelling it several days in advance. I would have a lot more sympathy if they decided not to send out 27/9 or 27/10. So far we've had a little bit of snow, but not a ton of wind or cold, in Montana. I would be MUCH more worried about...

I think what you're seeing is some serious displeasure with what the rest of the world has moved on to. The 50s designs were focused on passenger comfort. The Amfleet I -> Amfleet II -> Superliner -> Viewliner sequence felt like steady improvement. Superliner coaches are the most comfortable...