Definitely get your own name on the ticket!
I figured out (after probably taking a few Amtrak segments before) that I had lost my drivers license in the middle of my last long Amtrak trip. I found out I had lost my ID trying to order a drink in a bar and getting asked, searching my wallet and realizing my license was gone and getting denied service from a sympathetic bar tender. I had previously booked the rest of my trip and paid using a credit card (that I didn't lose, just my ID, not the rest of my wallet) and AGR points. I managed to ride at a minimum 12 segments and possibly 5 additional Amtrak segments and Greyhound once before that to go all the way back to the last time I remembered being asked for and producing my ID (picking up a ticket from the agent at the Stockton station ironically). I had made it to Flagstaff without needing to show it again where I tried to have a beer with dinner and realized I lost my ID. (Every night in between in terms of lodging spent with friends or sharing hotel rooms with others who had booked them). I had everything else in my wallet and did realize I had a PDF of the photo page of my passport on my computer as a back up that I was prepared to show but I never got the dreaded ID check on the conductors iPhone Scanner. I eventually did get that PDF printed and managed to convince the second hostel I called in Chicago (the HI, when I called the Getaway they said absolutely not, you need a real ID) to accept it as an ID for the one night on the rest of my trip back to New York that I didn't spend on the train or at friends (the only lack of ID inconvenience was non-train but booze related). That night I was also planning to spend with friends but they fell through. Not once on Amtrak did they care or did I need to explain my situation.
Do you know anyone with a credit card who can buy and print you an eTicket over the internet so you skip the ticket office? If you have a ticket (your name on the ticket, any credit card can buy it) the only chance of an ID check is quite slim (in my experience and hearing other tickets checked) is the conductor getting a random alert on his iPhone to ask you for ID as he scans your ticket. I've probably ridden 60 trains in the past year and have been asked by the conductor, alerted by ticket scanner to produce an ID once on the Spingfield Shuttle. In the case of boarding at Stockton the train will already be moving and a conductor should be more apt to accept your story than an agent. (You wait on the platform there, no line-up at a gate). The trick is getting on the train without talking to an Amtrak Agent since they have to ask for ID to do anything for you. Avoiding agents for ticketing was how I made it home, using my iPhone or QuikTrak Machines, never having to use the scan of my passport.
