Eric and Pat's 2023 San Diego-Toledo-San Diego Trip Report

[zephyr17]

I think though, we were discussing sleepers switched from one train to another, and not "through" trains...

It wasn't a "through train" it was just the same consist, a "through consist"

 

[Siegmund]

Introduction of the Superliners killed the Sunset Crescent sleeper. Not sure if the Southwest Limited-National Limited sleeper lasted until the National Limited was discontinued in 1979 in the Carter Cuts or not.

The National Limited was one of a few trains that had no sleeper at all for a while in the late 1977-early 1978 period. It did get its sleeper back sometime in the summer of 1978, but the transcontinental sleeper was not restored.

 

[railiner]

The National Limited was one of a few trains that had no sleeper at all for a while in the late 1977-early 1978 period. It did get its sleeper back sometime in the summer of 1978, but the transcontinental sleeper was not restored.

According to the timetables published here, the last 1977 timetable (June 22),
http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19770622&item=0042
and the next timetable in 1978 (Jan 8),
http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19780108&item=0033
the National Limited did have sleepers between New York and Kansas City. The connection train from Washington to Harrisburg had thru coaches to Kansas City, but you could switch to a sleeper from New York, when the trains were combined at Harrisburg...

 

[Trollopian]

There was a time after World War II when sleeping car passengers for that day’s Super Chief could board their sleepers in San Diego. These sleepers would be transported to LA as part of the San Diegan and once there, would be coupled onto the Super Chief....Back then, it was not uncommon to see passenger trains with sleepers from different railroads. The process of transferring sleepers from one line to another was complicated and, once passenger service began to fall off, coast-to-coast sleeping car service was abandoned.

The very pretty "historic railroad station" stamps from USPS (get them at your local post office, or online at https://store.usps.com/store/product/buy-stamps/railroad-stations-stamps-S_483904) feature the blurb, "One Trip from Sea to Shining Sea." Which as Eric notes, was possible in the golden age of rail travel. But which would've been a remarkable feat if striving to cover the five highlighted stations: Tamaqua (PA), Point of Rocks (MD), Richmond (VA), San Bernardino (CA), and Cincinnati (OH). (Tiny Tamaqua has a population of about 6,000, half of its peak, but according to Wikipedia, "its switching and geography makes it an important junction with tracks along both the Little Schuylkill River and others penetrating near the west-flowing Panther Creek and north into Hazleton. The town once hosted trackage of the Reading Railroad and the Lehigh Valley and New England Railroad." The Point of Rocks station is served by MARC, and you chug past it on the Cap Limited.) No sensible routing would've passed through all of them, but are railfans sensible? Ah well, we can dream.

 

[Railspike]

This morning, we got up early and called Amtrak Customer Relations about the chair that was missing from our Southwest Chief bedroom on the LA to Chicago portion of our trip. (Not having that chair really was a P-I-A since I spent most of the trip sitting on two carry-on suitcases.) The nice lady we talked with was most apologetic and sent us a credit voucher in the amount of $500.00, which we plan to apply towards our trip later this year. So, all’s well that ends well.

We must have had the same car on the Sunset about a month ago (32077). Got the same $500 voucher from Customer Relations for the same reason.
There was duct tape where the chair had been attached to the wall. Pitiful. How many $500 vouchers do you pay before someone in Customer Relations reports the issue to maintenance? Is there no internal communication? Is there not a chair in a damaged car that could be installed? Send a chair to LAX in a baggage car and let them install it when the Sunset consist is out for a day. Is this solution too simple? Or does nobody care? What a way to run a railroad!

 

[railiner]

No sensible routing would've passed through all of them, but are railfans sensible? Ah well, we can dream.

Perhaps the mythical (not the real train named for it), Wabash Cannonball, as the song says "no changes can be taken" (goes everywhere)...

 

[39kartma]

The very pretty "historic railroad station" stamps from USPS (get them at your local post office, or online at https://store.usps.com/store/product/buy-stamps/railroad-stations-stamps-S_483904) feature the blurb, "One Trip from Sea to Shining Sea." Which as Eric notes, was possible in the golden age of rail travel. But which would've been a remarkable feat if striving to cover the five highlighted stations: Tamaqua (PA), Point of Rocks (MD), Richmond (VA), San Bernardino (CA), and Cincinnati (OH). (Tiny Tamaqua has a population of about 6,000, half of its peak, but according to Wikipedia, "its switching and geography makes it an important junction with tracks along both the Little Schuylkill River and others penetrating near the west-flowing Panther Creek and north into Hazleton. The town once hosted trackage of the Reading Railroad and the Lehigh Valley and New England Railroad." The Point of Rocks station is served by MARC, and you chug past it on the Cap Limited.) No sensible routing would've passed through all of them, but are railfans sensible? Ah well, we can dream.

Actually, four of the stations could have been hit on a reasonably simple itinerary, way back in the golden days.

Take a NB SAL train from Richmond Main Street Station to Washington D.C. Transfer to B & O #1 the National Limited to St. Louis, which will pass through Point of Rocks and Cincinnati. At St. Louis, transfer to WAB/UP #9 The City of St. Louis, which will get you to San Bernardino.

I also have purchased these stamps, and I agree they are quite nice.

View attachment 33165

 

[Eric in East County]

As mentioned in the Epilogue of our trip report, we were hoping to make a second trip back to Ohio in September 2023. Everything was contingent upon the availability of bedrooms on Southwest Chiefs 3 & 4.

When we called Amtrak this morning, however, there were no bedrooms available for the dates we had in mind. Nor were there any bedrooms available for the fallback dates we had in October. (If the SWC was still running three (3) sleeping cars per train x seven (7) trains per week, we might have had better luck.)

We had to go out shopping today and, on the way home, stopped off at a Panda Express Chinese takeout for lunch. We both received fortune cookies and the fortune inside mine read “Now is the time to book that trip you’ve always wanted to take.” (When I read it to Pat, she thought I was kidding her, but that’s what it said!)

So, we called Amtrak back this afternoon and booked a trip for May 2024 using the $500 credit voucher we’d received for the missing chair plus another $300 credit voucher we’d received earlier in compensation for some other inconvenience Amtrak had caused us. May 2024 is far enough in advance so that we had no problems getting SWC bedrooms on Nos. 3 & 4 for the dates we wanted.

Our motto is “This or Something Better” so apparently things were meant to work out the way they did.

 

[Bob Dylan]

As mentioned in the Epilogue of our trip report, we were hoping to make a second trip back to Ohio in September 2023. Everything was contingent upon the availability of bedrooms on Southwest Chiefs 3 & 4.

When we called Amtrak this morning, however, there were no bedrooms available for the dates we had in mind. Nor were there any bedrooms available for the fallback dates we had in October. (If the SWC was still running three (3) sleeping cars per train x seven (7) trains per week, we might have had better luck.)

We had to go out shopping today and, on the way home, stopped off at a Panda Express Chinese takeout for lunch. We both received fortune cookies and the fortune inside mine read “Now is the time to book that trip you’ve always wanted to take.” (When I read it to Pat, she thought I was kidding her, but that’s what it said!)

So, we called Amtrak back this afternoon and booked a trip for May 2024 using the $500 credit voucher we’d received for the missing chair plus another $300 credit voucher we’d received earlier in compensation for some other inconvenience Amtrak had caused us. May 2024 is far enough in advance so that we had no problems getting SWC bedrooms on Nos. 3 & 4 for the dates we wanted.

Our motto is “This or Something Better” so apparently things were meant to work out the way they did.

Good Karma!

 

[TinCan782]

(Day 2: June 28th)



On our earlier trips, we’d tracked our progress across country on a route map assembled from pages copied from Steam Powered Video’s “Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America.” Being a railroad map, however, it doesn’t show any of the freeways or highways which our GPS device was displaying. This time we came prepared with trimmed down Auto Club roadmaps for the states that our trains would be traveling through. Now, between our railroad atlas map and our roadmaps, we have little trouble locating where our train is at any given time.

I use (and recommend) the Railroad Maps from Sonrisa Publications. In the case of your trip you would have needed several volumes! I have many of these and scan and print just the pages I need for my trip. They are put into a folder with the rail route high-lighted. They show many railroad features like detectors but also show major highways for reference.
https://www.djcooley.com/products.htm