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

[Eric in East County]

Stage 2: Chicago to Los Angeles (Day 1: July 10th)

Aware that we had plenty of time before our Southwest Chief No. 3’s departure, we waited for our Lake Shore Limited coach to empty out before detraining.

As we were walking down the platform with our carry-on items, a Red Cap and his cart appeared, looking for stragglers. We were only too glad to have him drive us to the Metropolitan Lounge. Along the way, he picked up another “walker” who was dragging a large suitcase.

When we reached the Metropolitan Lounge, a long line of Amish folk who were apparently traveling as a group were in front of us. (One of them was towing a large cooler on wheels.) When their leader approached the Dragon Lady with their tickets, she shooed them all out, apparently so that she could finish processing the people traveling alone or in pairs.

After being issued our flash passes, we stashed our carry-on item in the shortage room and headed up to the Food Court to get sandwiches from Chic-fil-A. A large group of Amish folk were already there when we arrived. We brought our sandwiches back down to the Lounge for an early lunch. Afterwards, we retrieved our carry-on items and made ourselves comfortable in the Lounge (which wasn’t nearly as chilly as it had been when we were there on June 29th.)

Setting up the laptop, we sent e-mails to the family to let them know that we were in Chicago and to give them a “Cliff Notes” account of how we’d manage to get there in spite of having two trains cancelled out from under us. Afterwards, I worked on this trip report while Pat read.

First boarding call for Southwest Chief came at 2:15 p.m., and we had no problem getting a Red Cap to drive us and our carry-on items to our sleeper.

Arriving on the platform, both we and our driver were surprised to find that both sleepers were at the very end of the train rather than behind the engines.

Our Sleeping Car Attendant was Justin.

This time, our bedroom had the chair that’s supposed to be there. The window looked out from the right or engineer’s side of the train.

Listening on the scanner, we heard the some of the pre-departure tests being conducted: “Number 3 set the brakes.” “OK, release them,” etc.

At 2:53 p.m. we heard, “Highball 3,” and we got underway. By 3:01 p.m. we were departing Chicago at 61 mph.

The Café Car attendant made an announcement that there were a lot of people on the train and that booths must be shared.

At 3:20 p.m. Justin stopped by to brief us on how he would be handling things, since he had a lot of people to deal with.

At about 3:40 p.m., someone radioed the conductor, “What’s with all the Metrolink cars?” (We’d didn’t discover the significance of this question until the next day.)

At 4:05 p.m. someone radioed that the Scouts would have to put their gear in the coach/baggage car.

At 4:29 p.m., Justin stopped by to take our dinner orders. (Once again, we had all our meals delivered to us in our bedroom.)

A radio alarm detector reported that our train had 48 axles, 8 more than our east bound SWC had had. This worked out to two extra cars in the consist, although we hadn’t seen any “private varnish” rail cars when we’d boarded.

Dinner was delivered when requested. This time, Pat tried the Rigatoni Bolognese while I stuck with the Salmon. For dessert, Pat ordered the Chocolate Toffee Mousse while I had a large chocolate chip cookie from a Bob Evans restaurant in Findlay that I’d packed along. Pat had coffee, while I had green tea brewed using a tea bag from a supply tucked away in one of my carry-on bags.

In his videologues showing his trips made onboard Amtrak long-distance trains, travel guru Jeb Brooks recommends bringing prunes along to help make the Amtrak meals more user friendly. We’d forgotten to do this on our east-bound journey but made sure that we had them for the west-bound journey. It’s one of those little things that helps to make the trip even more enjoyable for us.

By 6:40 p.m., we’d crossed the Mississippi River and were in Fort Madison.

Going by the big Sheaffer plant in Fort Madison, we noticed that was closed. We later went on-line and learned that the company had been sold some years ago and that the Fort Madison plant had been shut down in March 2008. Sheaffer pens are now assembled in China with other operations located in Slovakia.

By our calculations, we’d logged in 454 rail miles since leaving Toledo that morning.

At 7:05 p.m., we crossed the Des Moine River and entered Missouri.

Since we’d been awake since 3:00 a.m., after departing from La Plata we rang for Justin and had him make up our beds. (Our bedroom had the new Amtrak blankets, which we found to be of excellent quality.)

Once the beds were made up, we both took showers and called it a night. On our previous trips, we were always sound asleep by the time our train reached Kansas City and this year was no exception.

 

[Eric in East County]

(Day 2: July 11th)

The smell of breakfast being prepared woke me up while No. 3 was in Dodge City.

It was still dark outside and, being careful not to wake up Pat, I got up, dressed, and turned on the scanner and GPS device.

Departing Dodge City, US Route 400 was on our right.

By 5:53 a.m., it was just starting to get light in the east.

We arrived in Garden City at 6:21 a.m., only 13 minutes late.

We went by Holcomb at 6:29 a.m. Pat and I were both in college when Truman Capote’s book “In Cold Blood” first came out. A non-fiction novel, it described events that had taken place in Holcomb in 1959. A movie based on the book was later filmed in Holcomb using many of the actual locations where the events had occurred. (One of the actors later admitted feeling “squirrely” while filming his scenes in the Clutter family’s house.)

Just west of Kendall, Kansas, we entered a new time zone and had to reset our watches and digital clock to Mountain Time.

When we crossed into Colorado at 6:21 a.m. MT, the sky was overcast, and it was starting to get foggy.

We went passed Granada, Colorado at 6:37 a.m. Located four miles east of here was Fred Harvey’s XY Ranch where once grazed ample herds of cattle bearing the Fred Harvey OIO brand. (It was these cattle that provided the choice cuts of beef for Fred Harvey restaurants and Fred Harvey dining cars.)

By 6:43 a.m., the skies began to clear and there was no more fog.

We arrived in La Junta 4 minutes early.

In his book “The Super Chief . . . Train of the Stars,” Stran Repp describes how in La Junta, caught-that-morning trout packed in ice would be loaded onboard the Super Chief’s dining cars under the watchful eye of a steward, who held them in a close state of trust from the time they came aboard until they disappeared off the passengers’ plates.

By 8:46 a.m. we could feel the change in atmospheric pressure on our ears as we began the climb towards Trinidad. Twelve minutes later, we had a good view of the Twin Spanish Peaks and could see why Native Americans referred to them as the “breasts of the earth.”

While making the climb up to the summit of Raton pass, SWC No. 3 had to stop briefly until a bridge ahead of us had been inspected.

It was during the climb up to the tunnel that an announcement was made that windows were not to be opened in order to smoke. If you did so, you would be put off the train.

We arrived in Raton 16 minutes behind schedule. During the “fresh air break,” we saw a woman walking a little dog and wondered if she was a passenger. (We later saw her walking through our sleeper, carrying the dog.)

While waiting to depart from Raton, someone on the radio reported that “No. 3 still has one Scout looking for something.”

Five miles south of Raton is the former site of Otero which was once a busy railroad town. Although no traces of it remain today, its name still appears on our railroad atlas map (but not on our roadmaps.) According to Stan Repp’s book “The Super Chief . . . Train of the Stars,” Otero was where, on December 7th, 1941, the conductor of the westbound Super Chief was handed a note informing him of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

When we arrived in Las Vegas, we were 24 minutes behind schedule.

At 1:03 p.m. a high wind warning was received, and No. 3 had to slow down to 25 mph.

The slower speed might have helped to avert what could have been an unpleasant situation when, at 1:37 p.m., we went by some loose cattle that were quite close to the tracks.

Going through the S-curve, we got our first look at the front end of the train. Coupled behind the engines were two Metrolink cars, apparently being transported to California. (That explained the “What’s with all the Metrolink cars?” question we’d heard yesterday.)

At 2:06 p.m., just east of Glorieta, we stopped to allow Southwest Chief No. 4 to go by. Then we began the slow descent down to Lamy, arriving 47 minutes behind schedule.

By the time No. 3 departed from Lamy, the high wind warning had been lifted and we were soon moving out at 79 mph. Then, at 3:29 p.m. we had to slow down again, this time because of hot weather operating restrictions. When we arrived at Albuquerque, the outside temperatures was 103 degrees.

Despite the heat, we walked the length of the train to write down the car numbers: 817 (lead engine), 136 (engine) 631 (Metrolink Car), 626 (Metrolink Car) 61036 (Baggage Car), 34135 (Coach), 34058 (Coach), 34038 (Coach) 33000 (Sightseer/Lounge Car), 38044 (Dining Car), 32059 (Sleeper Coach) 32048 (Sleeper Coach).

Also walking around outside in the heat were Amish folk dressed in their traditional 19th Century garb. The men all wore long sleeve shirts and vests, while the women wore long dresses and black bonnets.

We departed at 5:12 p.m., 53 minutes behind schedule. Someone radioed, “We have a heat restriction in effect,” which limited our speed to 60 mph.

Not long after leaving Albuquerque, an announcement was made warning passengers that if they were caught smoking on the train, they would be put off by law enforcement. Passengers were also advised to keep all their valuables with them as Amtrak was not responsible for lost or stolen items.

By dinner time that night, the Diner had already run out of a number of items. Instead of the salads we’d ordered, we received Caprese Skewers. (After trying them, we both agreed that we would much rather have had the salads.)

It was raining when we reached Gallup. We were now running 1 hour and 24 minutes behind schedule.

Earlier, Justin had informed us that he would be delivering breakfast orders at 5:00 a.m. the next morning. We took this as a cue to call it an early evening, remembering to first set our watches and digital clock back an hour.

 

[Eric in East County]

(Day 3: July 12th)

We were up by 4:00 a.m.

It was still dark outside, and we had no idea where we were since the landscape was devoid of inherent identification with modernity or specific geographical locale.

We were, in fact, west of Needles.

During the summer of 1942, this area had been used by General George S. Patton’s Eighth Army for desert warfare training in preparation for the November 8th invasion of French North Africa. (Patton chose this area because it was convenient to the railroad.) When his troops complained about the heat, Patton responded, “I know it’s hot out here. But let me tell you, it’s cold compared to what you’re going to run into later on.”

We arrived at Barstow at 5:30 a.m., 1 hour and 50 minutes behind schedule.

At 6:02 a.m., approaching Victorville, we had a nice view of the Roy Rogers Ranch.

After traversing the Cajon Pass, we arrived at San Bernardino at 7:21 a.m. (The San Bernardino station was used as a stand-in for the La Junta station in the 1952 Noir film “The Narrow Margin” starring Charles McGraw and Marie Windsor.)

When we reached Riverside, No. 3 was running 1 hour and 40 minutes behind schedule, which wasn’t bad considering the speed restrictions of the previous day.

When we’d made our reservations, we’d planned on connecting with Pacific Surfliner No. 770 which wasn’t scheduled to depart Los Angeles for San Diego until two hours after SWC No. 3 had arrived. Ordinarily, missing No. 770 due to a late arrival wouldn’t have been a major concern to us since Pacific Surfliner trains normally depart LA every 60-90 minutes or so. If our No. 3 arrives late – even as much as 7 hours late – we merely catch the next scheduled Pacific Surfliner for San Diego and still get there before it’s dark. Because of the bus bridge, however, Amtrak was only offering three weekday trains with connections to San Diego. The last of these departed from Los Angeles at 5:10 p.m. (If we ended up missing that one due to a late arrival, we’d have to spend the night in LA.) To give ourselves a slight advantage in the event our SWC No. 3 was running late, we’d downloaded and printed out the arrival and departure times of all three of the southbound Pacific Surfliner trains from Fullerton. If it appeared that No. 3 would miss connecting with No. 770 in LA, we still might be able to catch it in Fullerton. (That’s another one of the reasons that we were glad we didn’t have any checked luggage that needed to be reclaimed in LA.)

By the time we left Riverside, however, we felt confident that SWC No. 3 would arrive in LA in enough time for us to catch Pacific Surfliner No. 770. This of course was depended upon the trip from Fullerton to Los Angeles going smoothly with no delays caused by freight interference, “police activity,” being involved in an encounter with a vehicle or a pedestrian, etc. All went as planned, however, and we arrived at Los Angeles Union Station at 9:27 a.m. with 43 minutes to spare before our 770 train was scheduled to depart.

 

[Eric in East County]

Stage 3: LA to San Diego (July 12th)

On the track directly across the platform from Southwest Chief No. 3, northbound Coast Starlight No. 14 was due to arrive shortly. When we detrained, the platform was already crowded with passengers waiting for No. 14 to pull in.

We had to go down a ramp into the pedestrian tunnel and then go up the ramp for Platform 11 from which our Pacific Surfliner No. 770 would be departing.

Once there, we only had a short wait until No. 770 pulled in and came to a stop. We had no problem finding seats together in the lower level of the Business Class coach.

When the conductor scanned our ticket, we asked if the bus bridge was still in effect and she said that it was, but that it would be ending at the beginning of next week. (This appeared to suspiciously coincide with the start of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Racing Season when Pacific Surfliner trains are usually crowded with racing fans.)

We departed on time at 10:10 a.m.

For some reason, Business Class snack packs were not distributed on this run. Pat was able to order coffee and a chocolate croissant.

The trip down to Irvine went by quickly. When we detrained, three buses were already waiting to take passengers to Oceanside.

Once again, bus company personnel stowed our larger bags under the bus, and all we had to do was have our ticket verified and then board.

We found two seats together near the front of the bus. The seats closest to the bus driver were identified as being reserved for Amtrak personnel only.

Expecting the bus to be as chilly as the one we’re ridden on earlier, I’d brought my jacket with me. This time, however, the temperature inside the bus didn’t require a jacket. (It was an exceptionally hot day, so maybe that had something to do with it.)

Seated on the bus with us were a number of Amish folk. Pat later talked with one of the women and found out that they were from Iowa and that they were heading down to Mexico.

The trip to Oceanside went by quickly and, when we arrived, Amtrak 1770 was already there waiting for us.

When we asked the conductor which was the Business Class coach, we were told that there was no Business Class on this train.

We found two seats together on the lower level of the Café car. (Since the Café was closed, no one objected.)

The trip from Oceanside to San Diego also went by quickly.

We detrained at the Old Town Transit Center which is only a short distance from the long-term parking lot where our car was parked. In what was the shortest wait we’d ever had for a shuttle to arrive, ours pulled up at the Transit Center’s taxi pick up curb within minutes after we’d called for it. Thirty minutes after we’d arrived in San Diego, we were reunited with our car and were on our way home.

Epilogue

Even while we were still on SWC No. 3 traveling west, we’d decided to try for another trip to Ohio in 2023. We’d missed out on our trip last year, so why not? It’s been some years since either of us has been to an old time agricultural-type county fair, and the Wyandot County Fair, which takes place not far from Findlay, is supposed to be a particularly good one. What better reason for another long-distance train trip. We should know more in a week or so if this idea is feasible. (It will all depend upon the availability of bedrooms on the Southwest Chief.) If things work out as we’d like them to, then we’ll be submitting another trip report later this year. Stay tuned.

Eric & Pat

 

[user 6862]

Thoroughly enjoyed your rail travelogue Eric and Pat, superb format too. Thank you indeed for so much pleasure.

 

[Eric in East County]

Thoroughly enjoyed your rail travelogue Eric and Pat, superb format too. Thank you indeed for so much pleasure.

Thank you so much for your kind comments. Trip reports allow us to document and share what happened during our train trips. (It is always fun for us to go back and re-read them after several years have passed.) Reading the trip reports submitted by others is one of our favorite pastimes.

 

[railiner]

Nice read, thanks for “taking us along”!

 

[Palmland]

Thanks for the well written report. I especially enjoyed the historical references sprinkled throughout. I’m still wrapping my head around the NYC need to swap out diners on the 20th Century. Not sure what that accomplished except to return the crew to home base sooner. You certainly handled well the many curves Amtrak threw at you - riding Amtrak is almost like playing a wack- a- mole game.

 

[Old MM]

A second trip in 2023, hope you go for it!

 

[Eric in East County]

You certainly handled well the many curves Amtrak threw at you - riding Amtrak is almost like playing a wack- a- mole game.

As seniors ages 77 and 78 who hadn’t made a long-distance train trip in two years, we undertook this trip not knowing for certain if we were still up to dealing with the stresses and physical demands that we’d be encountering. Fortunately, we’d made ten previous trips back to Ohio on Amtrak and were not novices at this game. That, plus the information we’d picked up from reading AU posts with other’s people’s experiences in dealing with unexpected and/or stressful situations on their Amtrak trips allowed us to take the bus bridge, missed connection, and train cancellations more or less in stride. We now feel quite confident that we’ll be up to taking another long-distance train trip later this year which, hopefully, will not have as many unexpected occurrences as this last one.

 

[Eric in East County]

Not sure what that accomplished except to return the crew to home base sooner.

The best description of what all was required (the people, equipment, and processes) to produce a single New York to Chicago run of the Twentieth Century Limited can be found in Edward Hungerford’s 1930 book “The Run of the Twentieth Century.” After reading about what all was involved, it becomes even more mind boggling when you consider that this was just one of many New York Central long-distance passenger trains, all of which required an equal amount of people, equipment and processes to operate.

Copies of “The Run of the Twentieth Century” were once sold and/or given away to Twentieth Century Limited passengers. While original copies in good condition are now quite pricey, low-cost reprints are readily available through various on-line sources.

Highly recommended to those who want to know more about how long-distance passenger service was handled back when commercial air travel as we know it today was still in the unimagined future.

 

[Eric in East County]

I especially enjoyed the historical references sprinkled throughout.

In our collection of train books, we have several telling the histories of famous “name” trains like the Twentieth Century Limited, the Santa Fe Chief and Super Chief, the Mercury, etc. Much of the appeal of riding on Amtrak long-distance trains is that we’re traveling over the same routes used by these famous trains from yesteryear; seeing many of the same sights and experiencing many of the same things that passengers saw and experienced back then. It’s about the closest thing to being able to travel back in time that we know of.

 

[Eric in East County]

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.

 

[railiner]

Thanks for the well written report. I especially enjoyed the historical references sprinkled throughout. I’m still wrapping my head around the NYC need to swap out diners on the 20th Century. Not sure what that accomplished except to return the crew to home base sooner.

I never realized that practice occurred. The schedule reliability had to have been good for that to work. I don't think they would risk that in today's environment of severe delays, that might find a train at mealtime mid-route, with no diner...

 

[jis]

I never realized that practice occurred. The schedule reliability had to have been good for that to work. I don't think they would risk that in today's environment of severe delays, that might find a train at mealtime mid-route, with no diner...

That is indeed very true. If you study the time tables even in the '50s you'll find many many examples of Diners operating only part of the route that would have adequately served all dining needs at standard meal times.

I don't have much experience with the details of such in the US, but in India the railways did something similar. They also were relatively good at handling irregular ops, where at a pinch they could juggle drop off and pickup point for the Diners, and they had enough additional standby equipment to deal with all but the most extreme cases. This was backed up also by a very rich network of static kitchens at many stations en route, so worst case food could be delivered from static kitchens when a Diner could not be found due to late operation and such.

 

[railiner]

In addition to the above differences, the practice of adding or dropping cars at various locations was much more widespread than it is currently. And took much less time, partly because of differences in operating rules.

 

[Eric in East County]

In addition to the above differences, the practice of adding or dropping cars at various locations was much more widespread than it is currently. And took much less time, partly because of differences in operating rules.

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.

At about this same time, the New Central and the Santa Fe offered coast-to-coast sleeping car service so that passengers didn’t have to change trains in Chicago. A NYC sleeper would arrive in Chicago and be coupled onto a Santa Fe passenger train, allowing it to continue on to LA. A Santa Fe sleeper arriving from LA would be coupled onto a NYC passenger train and continue on to New York. Other railroads might also have done something similar. 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.

 

[tgstubbs1]

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.

At about this same time, the New Central and the Santa Fe offered coast-to-coast sleeping car service so that passengers didn’t have to change trains in Chicago. A NYC sleeper would arrive in Chicago and be coupled onto a Santa Fe passenger train, allowing it to continue on to LA. A Santa Fe sleeper arriving from LA would be coupled onto a NYC passenger train and continue on to New York. Other railroads might also have done something similar. 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.

It's amazing they could do this with different railroads, yet Amtrak can't do it despite their monopoly.
But there probably wouldn't be enough demand to do it today.

 

[zephyr17]

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.

At about this same time, the New Central and the Santa Fe offered coast-to-coast sleeping car service so that passengers didn’t have to change trains in Chicago. A NYC sleeper would arrive in Chicago and be coupled onto a Santa Fe passenger train, allowing it to continue on to LA. A Santa Fe sleeper arriving from LA would be coupled onto a NYC passenger train and continue on to New York. Other railroads might also have done something similar. 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 CZ had transcontinental sleepers, to my certain knowledge the Pennsy bought Budd sleepers as part of the CZ consortium purchase which had "California Zephyr" letterboards and "PRR" on the small road name board on the car ends.

UP also offered transcontinental sleepers in conjunction with with the NYC and Pennsy just as Santa Fe did.

The transcontinental sleepers were largely phased out in the late 1950s when business travel was in steep decline due to airline competition. The transcontinental sleepers were targeted at the business travel market, more so even than sleepers in general were.

Finally, I understand that during World War II there was a San Diego-Washington, DC sleeper interchanged with B&O. There was a lot of travel between Pacific Fleet HQ and DC.

 

[railiner]

It's amazing they could do this with different railroads, yet Amtrak can't do it despite their monopoly.
But there probably wouldn't be enough demand to do it today.

Early Amtrak did it both ways...Amtrak only, the National Limited/Super Chief connection at Kansas City; and the Southern Crescent/Sunset Limited Amtrak-Southern Railway-Amtrak at New Orleans....

 

[zephyr17]

It's amazing they could do this with different railroads, yet Amtrak can't do it despite their monopoly.
But there probably wouldn't be enough demand to do it today.

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.

We may see some transcontinental sleepers return if the new LD fleet ever materializes and is single level. There are generally quite a few passengers making connections from the western LDs to the Lake Shore and Capitol, so the demand just may be there. Of course, in addition to equipment that can meet eastern clearances and passenger demand, you'd need more consistent OT performance, by the western LDs in particular, so the equipment could make the connection.

 

[railiner]

The CZ had transcontinental sleepers, to my certain knowledge the Pennsy bought Budd sleepers as part of the CZ consortium purchase which had "California Zephyr" letterboards and "PRR" on the small road name board on the car ends.

PRR bought one car as its contribution to that pool...the "Silver Rapids"
https://www.calzephyrrailcar.com/silver-fleet/silver-rapids.html
Since the thru car for a time alternated on days between the CZ and either a PRR or NYC Chicago/New York train, it was interesting to see on occasion, a PRR sleeper in Grand Central Terminal - New York...

NYC's contribution to the pool, was an Overland Limited liveried 10-6, that alternated between the Overland, and either the NYC or PRR on alternate dates during the same period...so yes, you would occasionally see an NYC sleeper in Pennsylvania Station - New York...

 

[jiml]

Early Amtrak did it both ways...Amtrak only, the National Limited/Super Chief connection at Kansas City; and the Southern Crescent/Sunset Limited Amtrak-Southern Railway-Amtrak at New Orleans....

Don't forget the run-through Capitol Limited/Southwest Chief with Superliners. It only lasted about a year but was certainly an interesting experience. I'd have to go through some boxes to find the dates, but we rode it in both directions.

 

[zephyr17]

Don't forget the run-through Capitol Limited/Southwest Chief with Superliners. It only lasted about a year but was certainly an interesting experience. I'd have to go through some boxes to find the dates, but we rode it in both directions.

Yes, but could you occupy it during the Chicago servicing and layover? It was mainly an experiment in equipment utilization efficiency running the same consist through as two different trains. It was never advertised or promoted as a through service, IIRC. Failed because of timekeeping issues, too often the inbound train was late, delaying the outbound severely.

 

[railiner]

What was advertised as a thru train, was the coast to coast Sunset Limited, when it ran thru Los Angeles to Miami...

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