Christmas Trip Question?

Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Rail Freak

Engineer
Joined
Apr 5, 2008
Messages
4,968
Location
Tampa Bay, Florida
I'd like to take a Long Distance trip that travels thru areas that would have X-Mas decorations that gets & keeps you in the Christmas spirit! I'm from Clearwater Fla. & was thinking the SS or SM may be the answer, since they are convenient & travels thru more populated areas? However, I have no problem flying to locations to board out west! BTW, I've seen Trip Reports & Youtube of Leavenworth,Wa that looks fantastic!!! Any ideas???
 
Last edited:
leavenworth is a christmas bavarian village during the holidays. very nice for a couple day visit. seattle has lighted boats on lake union. the best of the northwest, imho, is in portland where sp 4449 pulls a santa train on weekends in december. i love sitting and watching it come and go. check out the orhf.org website.
 
I traveled cross country early last December (Silver Meteor, Capitol Limited, SWC) and saw decorations out the window virtually the entire trip.
 
I think you'd find the best Christmas decoration views on the NEC between NYP and BOS, particularly in Connecticut. Lots of houses, lots of money, and charming New England towns, especially along the shore line should equal great decorations viewable from the train. The trick would be to get the conductor to dim the lights.

I'd suggest Acela first class, as the car attendant has done it a couple times while I was in FC (using an upgrade) on non-holiday season evenings. Acela has the advantage of really big windows. For best views, choose an aisle seat, not a window seat or single seat, to see equally well out both sides.

Ideally, having a roomette and turning out the lights works the best. I've watched 4th of July fireworks from my roomette a number of times on the Lakeshore Ltd tr #48 going through numerous small towns in Indiana. Once upon a time in the early '80s, I watched Indiana fireworks from the rear platform of a private car (LV 353) at the back of the Broadway Ltd on PRR tracks. The fireflies were thick that night as well. Watching fireworks from airplanes at 30,000 feet appear to be about an inch or so in diameter. I've done that a number of times as well back when I was regularly flying on business.
 
I think the routes that would be the best are the eastern route because the population density is a lot higher. The silver meteor and silver star are fairly equal even though the star might get a slight edge as it’s dark after Orlando that time of the year. And dark on the nec.

The Crescent should have good lights too in my opinion. The lake shore limited could be very good as well. Especially in upstate NY westbound.
 
Back
Top