RandyJay
Train Attendant
Very, very long - OK, you have been warned!
My plans for this trip started when my company was sending me to Atlanta for a one-day meeting. As I live in San Antonio, the normal mode of getting to Atlanta is by air. But of course a railfan never goes by the normal mode, so I began to put together a plan that would take me to Atlanta by train. While it would take longer, I had plenty of vacation days that I needed to use and the company would pay for my rail ticket as long as it didn't exceed the cost of a flight. Fortunately I was able to snag a SAS-ATL round trip fare in a standard sleeper room for about $20 less that Delta's air fare (what a surprise). Then I thought it would only be fair to invite the wife along as she had never been to Atlanta. So it looked like I was only going to be out her base rail fare of about $170 plus a couple of nights of hotel in NOL for our layovers. The trip would consist of the Sunset Limited from San Antonio to New Orleans, followed by the Crescent from New Orleans into Atlanta on the next day. The return would be the reverse, taking another two days and bringing us back home 6 days after we left. I was really looking forward to this trip, since in addition to a nice train ride it would be my first experience with single-level equipment and a Viewliner sleeper.
The day prior to our departure I began checking the status of train number 2, the eastbound Sunset Limited, with Amtrak's web site. As we all know, this train is well-known for not exactly keeping to schedule, and this run was proving to be no different. It was running right at 6 hours late out of El Paso, TX the night before our departure, so at least that allowed us to sleep in a little. I had pegged its arrival into SAS at about 11:00 and arranged for family to take us to the station at that time. Unfortunately the San Antonio station does not provide any long-term parking so we are always dependent on someone serving as our taxi! I was a bit surprised to the see the train already boarding when we were dropped off - it must have made up a little time during the Del Rio to San Antonio leg that morning. Not a problem as we went straight to our sleeper and were met by Robert, our car attendant. I stowed our bags in the downstairs rack and made sure the wife got to room number 5 before heading back out to the platform to get the consist. Robert assured me I had at least 10 minutes before we would move out, so I took off towards the head end. A P-42 was on the lead, but I was surprised to see a P32-8 (in Phase V) in the number 2 position, a first for me. As I got back to the first coach car, I noticed that we had not yet cut the trailing coach and sleeper that normally become part of the northbound Texas Eagle, and further in the distance I counted five express cars bringing up the rear. The Eagle had gone out on time at 8:00 and I later learned that the LAX section passengers had been bussed northward - I'm sure they were not happy. Anyway, at that point was I asked by the A/C standing beside the first coach if I was "catching" this train. When I replied "sure", he said I needed to be on it and not walking around back here! Well, OK, I suppose I get could the remaining consist later as it was obvious I wasn't going to be able to continue my rearward walk. I returned to our sleeper, grabbed a Pepsi, settled into our room and fired up the scanner.
In about 5 minutes we started moving, but only to cut the two Texas Eagle cars, and as I would later learn, two of the express cars. Apparently the two Eagle cars would sit at SAS and make an empty run back to LAX on the next #1. It seemed like more movement than was really necessary, but then I suppose it always does when you are eager to get rolling! I would have thought this work would have been done before boarding the SAS passengers but I suppose this way it allowed the crew to get the detraining passengers off and then get us on with only one opening and closing of the doors. I do believe Amtrak was trying to get us out as quickly as possible, so I can't really blame the A/C for his earlier remarks. I met him later in Houston and he turned out to be pretty nice after all. We finally received permission to enter the number 1 main and highballed out of the station at 11:58, almost exactly 6 hours late, but I wasn't complaining. There is nothing like that feeling of being on the train and watching the station disappear as your journey begins! A short 20 minutes later we were stopping in the small UP yard at Kirby, TX just east of San Antonio, which is a routine fuel stop for the Sunset. First call for lunch in the dining car was made then, so we made our way back to be seated. We were both pretty hungry since we had skipped breakfast earlier in the excitement of packing and getting ready. Our lunch companions were two delightful older ladies that were on the return leg of a combination bus and train cross country tour and they were making their way back to Jacksonville. As it was their first train ride, the wife and I did our Amtrak "public relations" part and explained why the train was so late, etc. Just about the time our train was finished fueling at 12:35, we started "fueling" ourselves! I had the Angus burger, loaded - great as always, and the wife had the Gardenburger which she always finds tasty. Over food and conversation we watched the last outskirts of San Antonio fade from view and transform into the Texas countryside. The ladies got a real treat is seeing cows and horses in the pastures we passed! After lunch we returned to our sleeper to read and relax.
Our connection to Atlanta on the Crescent didn't depart New Orleans until 7:20 the next morning, and our first intent had been to overnight in NOL at the Quality Inn on St. Charles street. That, of course, was assuming a reasonably on-time arrival of the Sunset! With us now 6 hours down out of SAS, we decided to wait and see how we were running into Houston before canceling our reservation. I am enough of a tightwad that I really didn't want to spend the bucks on a hotel room for less than 4 or 5 hours of use, so if it looked like we were going to be minus 6 into NOL I was going to cancel and spend the night in the station. Houston came at 4:25. This is a crew change stop and also serves as a smoking stop for the passengers. We detrained to stretch our legs and I finally got to walk the train and record the part of the consist that I had missed in San Antonio. The Houston station is certainly nothing impressive - more of the "early Greyhound" architectural style! I saw the A/C again as he was leaving the train, and chanced asking him a couple of questions regarding the radio frequencies in use on this route. He asked if I had something to write with, and then proceeded to give me a large list of frequencies used between HOS and NOUPT and where the changes would take place. So I guess he was OK after all - you can never tell, but usually when I have asked politely I have gotten the answers to my questions. There are some who probably feel it is none of your business, but you also find crew members who seem eager to share information with railfans too. In short, it never hurts to ask! We left HOS at 4:56, still holding to our 6 hour deficit, and I decided to cancel our New Orleans hotel via cell phone. The terrain had changed to a more swampy and marshy type as we cleared Houston, and it looked like it might rain at any time. We had dinner at 6:00 with another nice couple from the same tour group. I had the grilled catfish, which was excellent, and the wife had the baked chicken which she thoroughly enjoyed as well. A half-bottle of Merlot and a very good key lime pie rounded out the meal. Our train might have been running late, but so far the dining car service and food were more than making up for it. We returned to our room a little after 6:30 and I began to have doubts about being able to stay awake until New Orleans! About a half hour away from Beaumont, TX the rain droplets started to appear on the windows as dusk settled in on us. I could see lightning flashes in the distance, and realized that times like this are what train rides are all about.
Just before 7:00, the conductor called the engineer on the radio with an emergency. Apparently one of the passengers in the diner was having a serious medical problem, and he needed to have an EMS unit meet the train as soon as possible. Contact was quickly made via the rail dispatcher and about 10 minutes later on the western outskirts of Beaumont we stopped. I could look back and see the red lights of the EMS unit and another vehicle in the vicinity of the first coach car. I never heard any details on the scanner, so I assume everything turned out OK and that the passenger was probably transported to a local hospital. While that cost us another 20 minutes, this is one delay you can't at all complain about. It is good to know that in such an event Amtrak makes a serious effort to get medical attention to the train as soon as possible, and if it were me in that position, I know I would want them to stop the train! We made it into Lake Charles, LA at 9:00, now down a full 7 hours. The old saying about late trains getting later was proving to be true. Actually it was good news for us since I would much rather spend time on a late train than sitting at NOUPT waiting for our morning connection. We lost another 10 minutes right out of Lake Charles while waiting for a CSX freight to clear. I now figured us getting in to NOL at about 3:00 a.m., and as much as I had planned to be awake when we crossed the Huey Long bridge into New Orleans, I succumbed to my drowsiness and asked Robert to make our beds for the night. Needless to say the next thing I remember was being awaked as we were backing in to NOUPT. As the brakes were set I checked my watch - 2:53 in the morning, a little over 6 hours off schedule, so we had made up some time during the night. I know it is normal to back in to the station, but of course that always puts the sleepers farthest from the terminal. We gathered our things and detrained at just before 3:00. I gave Robert a well-deserved tip as we said goodbye, and then made our way into the New Orleans station. It didn't take long to find the "Magnolia Room", the first-class passenger lounge. We found a couple of chairs to spend the next 4 hours in and decided to make the best of it. This was our first visit to NOUPT, and I suppose I was somehow expecting a little more out of the lounge. The were some mish-mash furniture pieces, a coffee maker, a water cooler, and a TV with the worst picture I think I have ever seen. We met a mother and daughter team who were making the same connection to the Crescent in the morning, so between conversation, reading, and cat-napping we managed to pass the long four hours until the agent came to get us just before 7:00 for an on-time boarding.
As I expected, the Crescent was also backed in to the station, meaning we had a long walk up the platform to reach our sleeper. I wouldn't have minded it so much I if hadn't had two 40 pound suitcases to carry! Maybe next time I will break down and check our luggage, but for now I like knowing it is with me and under my control the whole time. But seriously, the walk to our car gave me my first close-up look at single level equipment. What a difference from the Superliners we are used to. We found our car, the lead of two sleepers, and were greeted by our attendant, Eddie. I quickly found our room and stowed our suitcases, one in the top bed that we would not be using, and the other in the nice little storage area above the corridor ceiling. This room was considerably different than the Superliner standard room, with a set of windows for the upper bed position, a small flat-screen TV monitor, more controls for lights and ventilation than I could count, and of course a sink and toilet right there in the room. I headed back to the platform and made a quick jog towards the head end to record the consist. This time I got the whole train without any interruptions. Eddie was waiting as I returned to our car and seemed to get a good laugh out of this crazy guy (me) writing down the car numbers. He turned out to be the best sleeper attendant we have ever had. We left the station right on time as Eddie came by to give us a quick orientation on the features of the room and car. About 15 minutes out of the station the dining car opened for breakfast and we were practically waiting at the door. The crew got us seated quickly along with a quiet young woman who was also going to Atlanta. I had my usual French toast and the wife had the quiche. Service was quick and the food was tasty. We followed the south bank of lake Ponchartrain eastward out of the city for what seemed like a long time, then finally made the bridge crossing over the eastern end of the lake. I could see that we were paralleling the I-10 bridge to the east, and also finally got to experience that wonderful "floating on the water" sensation of a long water crossing by train. Shortly thereafter we were back on dry land and we returned to our room to watch the scenery go by. Frankly about the only scenery we saw all the way to Atlanta were trees, and lots of them, right alongside the track!
The run into ATL was smooth and uneventful. We were in Norfolk Southern country now, and I was surprised to find that the defect detectors gave out no information other than "no defects". No train speed or axle count at all as I am used to with the UP or BNSF detectors back home. However from the way the trees were going by, I would say we spent a large portion of this leg at 79 MPH or close to it. I was amazed at how well we were keeping to schedule and it was looking like we would be seeing ATL on time this evening. Another quirk of the NS trackage was that the engineer called out "clear" at every little town, switch, bridge, etc., as in "Amtrak 20 clear Mayberry" to which the conductor would acknowledge with "clear Mayberry". I later found out from the conductor this was strictly a NS procedural thing. My, the things you learn when you travel away from home! I had time to form some opinions about the Viewliner sleeper along the way. Obviously newer than the Superliners, these cars had bright fluorescent lighting in the rooms and corridor that I found "colder" and less inviting than the older Superliners. Also, the interior walls were a light bluish-gray, smooth and shiny type material that didn't seem all that inviting at first. While I did like the upper level windows, I was disappointed by the TV monitor as its location and viewing angle restriction made it decently viewable from only one of the seats. And I never fully got the knack of the multiple pushes required on the funny "membrane" type switches for the various room lights either! Let's see what else I can complain about here - the fact that the same two movies repeated over and over (the whole week!), the music selections were limited to two channels (also repeating), and the seats were narrower than in the Superliners. OK, enough nit-picking! I was on the train and enjoying every minute of it. Except - I'm not quite sure I like the in-room toilet feature of the Viewliners. While it is nice to have "your own", there is something a bid odd about having it right next to your seat. There were no odor problems as I thought there might be, and while it would be fine if you were traveling by yourself, with another person in the room it was a bit of an inconvenience. I suppose it did provide an automatic way to get each of us up and out of the room every so often, and you also learned very quickly how the Velcro closures on the door and window curtains worked!
We had another nice lunch, by ourselves this time, just after noon. A corned beef and swiss sandwich for myself and a turkey and swiss sandwich for the wife, both quite good. The Tuscaloosa, AL stop came at 1:10 (20 minutes late) then shortly thereafter we took a siding to let our southbound Crescent counterpart, #19 pass. We made Birmingham, AL at 2:30 (now down only by 10 minutes). Rolling again, I began to take notice out the window of the famous southern Kudzu vines that were growing over just about everything except the track itself. It is amazing how these fast-growing plants have taken over, covering whole trees in some cases, not to mention telephone poles and large areas of the ground. Definitely something we don't see in our native Texas! To help work up an appetite for supper we decided to take a walk back to the last coach and check out the rest of the train. It was interesting to see the glass-enclosed smoking area in the lounge car and the large mural of the New York skyline (?) on the wall by the snack bar. Not quite as nice as a Superliner Sightseer Lounge though. The coaches seemed quite nice and cozy inside with TV monitors located up in the luggage rack areas above the seats. Other than having two levels, I saw no reason to prefer the Superliner coaches over these. All in all, I think I could easily get used single level trains, especially if they ran on time like ours was! We had an early supper at 6:00, and again we were the only ones at our table. I wanted something a little lighter this time and chose the manicotti; the wife had the grilled salmon and both proved to be quite good. On the way back to our room, we met up with Eddie and the conductor in his room talking about computers. Well that was all it took for me and for the next 15 minutes we were discussing the merits of Windows XP versus 98 and other such nerdy topics. The conductor was exceptionally nice and answered my train related questions without hesitation. Before I knew it we were approaching ATL and it was time to go. We pulled in right on time - still an amazing feat for a Sunset and Texas Eagle rider like myself. I gave Eddie a well-deserved tip and began the luggage toting ritual again for the whole length of the train. Maybe the sleepers should be at the back end of the train! The Atlanta station was small but otherwise nice, sitting well above track level so you had the option of going up a long flight of stairs from the platform or taking an elevator. Guess which one we chose! We were staying the next three nights at the Fairfield Inn about three blocks from the station on Spring Street, so off we went with luggage in hand. Yikes - no one had warned me about the humidity in Atlanta - that three block walk was more like a mile back home! But we settled in for some quality time in the big city where we did the standard tourist stuff and I got in a few rides on the MARTA subway.
At about 7:00 a.m. on our departure morning I checked with Julie to see how #19 was running. Julie was anticipating an on-time departure from ATL, which was to be 9:20. Figuring (wrongly) that we would not get breakfast on the train, we packed and had a quick breakfast at the hotel before taking the walk to the station. As we arrived at 9:00, I could see that our train was already there waiting for us. There were a large number of people milling about in the station and we had to wind our way through the masses to get to the stairs leading to the platform. As my luck would have it we had another long walk down the platform to reach our car. I was thinking how I might be trying out a Viewliner shower a lot sooner than I had expected! When we reached the door of our car there was some confusion with a group of passengers. It turned out that the lead sleeper was bad-ordered the day before and deleted from the train, so some folks were getting new room assignments into the remaining sleeper. Our attendant, Phil, was coping reasonably well but it was obvious there were some first-time riders that were lost. Since our room assignment had not changed, we just stepped back out of the way until things cleared up. After finally making our way to our room, I was ready for something to drink and to rest my legs - so recording the consist would have to wait. We departed promptly on time and enjoyed an uneventful ride all the way back into NOUPT. It was a surprise to hear the announcement that the dining car was open for breakfast a little after 9:30 - but there was no way I could have eaten a thing, so I missed my obligatory French toast once again. Fortunately I made up for it at lunch with another Angus burger and apple pie for dessert. What a surprise to see Eddie again - this time he was a server in the dining car. He told us quite humorously how they had taken "his" car away and how he refused to sit idle on this run, so he decided on his own to become a waiter. His manner was superb and he had the other patrons laughing in no time. By the way, everything I had heard about the new Amtrak apple pie was true - it was truly excellent and the portion size was quite generous. Our table partner was a lady traveling by herself from North Carolina to LAX (she would join us on the westbound Sunset) and she was quite unhappy at the fact that her deluxe sleeper room was not available due to the lost sleeping car. She was now riding in coach to New Orleans, and I suppose I couldn't blame her for her attitude. Well just as we were finishing lunch, the conductor came to our table to inform her they had a deluxe room available for her after all. She was quite pleased and we all gave her a round of applause as she headed back to coach to gather her belongings. Of course, if you had asked me, it was a little late in the trip to make that much difference, but in her eyes Amtrak had at least partially redeemed itself!
Birmingham, AL came up only a few minutes late and gave us a chance to detrain and stretch our legs. I told Phil that I was going to run up to the locomotives for a quick picture and that we would be right back. He commented that normally we wouldn't be allowed to do that, but things had "loosened up" a little now. I had no idea what he was talking about and went merrily about my business of recording the locomotive numbers and snapping a couple of pictures. I did however make sure we didn't linger too long and gave Phil a courtesy heads-up that we were re-boarding. We were a whole 10 minutes late leaving Birmingham and lost a little more time later on when had to wait on a passing freight outside of Merdian, MS. There was a young couple that were first-time riders in our car that were getting off in Meridian, and Phil had totally forgotten about them. Luckily he found them at the last minute and got them off. We were down by 30 minutes now, still well on-schedule as far as I was concerned. At 5:00 there was a "first and last" call for dinner service. Apparently the diner crew wants to be totally finished with cleanup before the scheduled 7:50 arrival into NOUPT so that meant no serving after 6:00. That was OK with us and we enjoyed a nice dinner by ourselves once again. Eddie was there to serve us and almost had us rolling on the floor with laughter. And no, I didn't have the apple pie again - just a scoop of that wonderful Amtrak vanilla ice cream! We had a nice view from our room at dusk as we made the lake crossing back into the city, the kind of view that can only be had on a train. At just about 8:25 we came to a stop in the New Orleans station, and wonder of wonders, we were head-in this time! We quickly detrained and I gave Phil a modest tip as we made our way towards the terminal. Straight trough the crowd inside and out the front doors, we found a waiting cab and headed off to the Quality Inn on St. Charles. Five blocks and $12 later (New Orleans has a $10 flat-rate cab fare system) we made it to our room by 8:45. It was time to relax and prepare for the next day's journey on the Sunset.
Knowing our scheduled departure would not be until 11:55 at the earliest, we decided to sleep in a bit before grabbing a quick breakfast and checking with Julie. Although the #1 Sunset was running over an hour late, Julie again said to expect an on-time departure, and who am I to argue with Julie! So we decided to get our taxi back to NOUPT at 11:00 and enjoy the Magnolia room (!) one last time. We were pleased to see the Sunset in the station when we arrived, as we knew we were likely to get out on time after all. We met an older couple in the lounge who were very unhappy because they had just been informed the eastbound Sunset had been annulled and they were going to get a bus ride into Florida instead of a train ride. Can't say that I blame them one bit. About 11:40 we noticed the line of coach passengers in the main waiting room started filing out the "gate" (door) - there had been no boarding announcement that we were able to hear, and no agent had come to get us. I went out to check, and sure enough they were boarding our train. So I grabbed our luggage and we began that long walk down the platform, as the train was "properly" backed in to the station this time. My plan had been to get our stuff into the sleeper and then do my usual walk to check out the consist, so I didn't bother to look ahead of our car. I knew something wasn't right when I got to our room and the beds were still down, and there was no power on the car. All of the other passengers were happily settling in to their rooms and the coaches, but the wife and I detrained to see what was going on. I casually mentioned to our attendant, Ennis, that we were going to walk up front and check out the locomotives, when he replied "what locomotives"? A quick glance forward told the story - the reason we had no power is that we had no locomotives! Ennis seemed upset that that someone had started passenger boarding without giving the crew any time to clean and prep the cars. He knew our room wasn't ready and apologized. We walked up to the front end of the baggage car and met a nice station agent who explained that they were going to be deadheading a Sightseer Lounge behind the two P-42's and that they should be arriving shortly. We decided to wait outside on the platform rather than inside a car with no power. To make a long story short, the locos and lounge arrived and coupled up at 12:30. It was a rather strange sight to see that bi-level Superliner car in between a baggage car and the number 2 P-42. Once we got HEP on the train we jumped aboard and headed upstairs to our still unmade room anticipating a quick departure. Ennis was very nice and just moved us to another clean room that wouldn't be needed before SAS, across from another empty room as well. So it looked like we had a nice quiet ride in store for us all the way back home.
We left NOUPT at 12:55, exactly 1 hour behind schedule. Again, we had no complaints about a late arrival into SAS, as that would only allow our "taxi" driver to wake up at a slightly more reasonable hour. We made our way to the diner right at first call and were seated promptly. I had the quiche this time which wasn't at all bad, just a little small. The wife opted for the Gardenburger again and really enjoyed it. We had wonderful company at our table with a mother and grandmother pair who had just left the grandchild in New Orleans for her first year of college. Mom was a retired Los Angeles MTA supervisor so there was train talk of one kind or another at our table. And yes, I had the apple pie with ice cream again! I also finally got to experience the famous Huey Long bridge crossing over the Mississippi from the diner, and that was a real treat for both of us. Back in our room I was content to just stare out the window as I usually do. We were back on BNSF track, so the detectors were talking again. I never got tired of the view; sugar came fields, water crossings large and small, swamps and marshes, etc. Fortunately the portions of our eastbound route that had been in darkness before were now light, and vice versa. Schriever, LA came and went at 2:15, then New Iberia at 3:40. We were running about 50 minutes behind now, so we had made up a little time. Our stop at Lafayette, LA came at just after 4:00, so now we were only down by 30. Who says the Sunset can't run on time! Although not scheduled as a service stop, Lafayette was announced on the PA as a smoking stop so we sat in the station for 15 minutes. As is our norm, the wife and I detrained to do a little walking up and down the platform. The highball came at 4:20 and we headed west again toward Texas. At around 5:55, we departed BNSF track and rejoined the UP main on the eastern edge of Lake Charles, LA. We left Lake Charles just after 6:00 running exactly one hour late. Our last meal of this trip was just as good as the first; grilled catfish for myself and pasta primavera for the wife. We coincidentally had the same nice table companions as during lunch, and as you might guess I could not pass up one last serving of Amtrak apple pie! We watched the sunset from our table (sunset on the Sunset!) and just as it was getting too dark to see outside we returned to our room for the last short leg of our journey. We were moving along at about 65 mph when we passed a detector at 9:23 p.m. and the response was "integrity failure" rather than the normally expected "no defects". To my knowledge this is really a problem with the detector itself and not the train, but the engineer brought us to a stop for a visual inspection of the train just to be sure. The conductor pronounced us fit to roll almost 15 minutes later and we were once again Houston bound, arriving there at 10:00, just short of 1 hour late. Houston brought a crew change and another 15 minute walking break for us. I said a quick hello to our departing engineer and she (yes, she!) returned the greeting with a smile. The wife was quite impressed with the fact that our train had been "driven" by a woman!
Back on board and rolling west at 70 mph in pitch darkness, we asked Ennis to put our beds down. Now here is where he really impressed me, by asking if we wanted an upper and lower in the same room, or two lower beds across the hall from each other. Since the room across from ours was not occupied, he was able to make up the lower bed on that side so neither of us had to climb to an upper. I thought that was very nice of him and we gladly took him up on his offer. That would let the wife go right to sleep in her own room while I stayed up a while longer listening to the scanner directly across the corridor. I "cat napped" off and on most of the night, and was awake when we made it back to our fuel stop at Kirby, just outside San Antonio. That was at 2:30 a.m., so once again we had made up a little time during the early hours. The familiar sights of downtown San Antonio came into view shortly thereafter and we were in the station at about 3:10. As we entered we passed the two cars from #21, the southbound Texas Eagle, waiting to become part of our train on its continuation westward. What was surprising was that nowhere did I see the Eagle itself - only the coach and sleeper, sitting there with people on board and no power! Normally they would still be with the Eagle trainset until the Sunset arrived to pick them up. The wife and I gathered up our things and made our way down to the vestibule with Ennis. This time we weren't going to be able to detrain until the two Eagle cars were coupled up, so there was more movement as we switched onto the stub to pick up those cars. Of course the HEP had to be cut and then brought back up as well, so our feet didn't actually hit the platform until about 3:25, exactly 1 hour late. I hung around for a moment, looking for someone to ask about the missing Eagle, but with no one close at hand and our "taxi" already waiting I left that as an unsolved mystery for another time and headed to the parking lot. As is my habit, I turned around for one last look at our train, glad to be back home but eager to ride again. All in all I would rate our trip a 9 on a scale of 10. I think I could learn to be quite content in the Viewliner sleepers, the food was consistently very good, and the Amtrak people we encountered were largely nice as well. Now if they would only spruce up that Magnolia room a little . . . . .
For those who may be interested, I have listed the consists below:
Train #2, SAS - NOL Aug 17:
P-42 11
P-32 507
Baggage 1264
Trans Dorm 39029
S-I Sleeper 32053
S-II Sleeper 32097 ?
Diner 38044
Lounge 33047
Coach 34139
Coach 35004
Coach 34084
Train #20, NOL-ATL Aug 18:
P-42 41
P-42 43
Dorm 2522 "Pine Creek"
Sleeper 62016 "Lake View"
Sleeper 62008 "Eagle View"
Diner 8553
Lounge 28009
Coach 25121
Coach 25041
Coach 25098
Coach 25087
Baggage 1763
Train #19, ATL-NOL Aug 21:
P-42 180
P-42 48
Dorm 2522 "Pine Creek"
Sleeper 62016 "Lake View"
Diner 8553
Lounge 28009
Coach 25121
Coach 25041
Coach 25098
Baggage ???
Train #1, NOL-SAS Aug 22:
P-42 2
P-42 43
Lounge 33044
Baggage 1755
Trans Dorm 39013
S-II Sleeper 32080 "Idaho"
S-II Sleeper 32073 "California"
Diner 38048
Lounge 33043
Coach 34093
Coach 34138
My plans for this trip started when my company was sending me to Atlanta for a one-day meeting. As I live in San Antonio, the normal mode of getting to Atlanta is by air. But of course a railfan never goes by the normal mode, so I began to put together a plan that would take me to Atlanta by train. While it would take longer, I had plenty of vacation days that I needed to use and the company would pay for my rail ticket as long as it didn't exceed the cost of a flight. Fortunately I was able to snag a SAS-ATL round trip fare in a standard sleeper room for about $20 less that Delta's air fare (what a surprise). Then I thought it would only be fair to invite the wife along as she had never been to Atlanta. So it looked like I was only going to be out her base rail fare of about $170 plus a couple of nights of hotel in NOL for our layovers. The trip would consist of the Sunset Limited from San Antonio to New Orleans, followed by the Crescent from New Orleans into Atlanta on the next day. The return would be the reverse, taking another two days and bringing us back home 6 days after we left. I was really looking forward to this trip, since in addition to a nice train ride it would be my first experience with single-level equipment and a Viewliner sleeper.
The day prior to our departure I began checking the status of train number 2, the eastbound Sunset Limited, with Amtrak's web site. As we all know, this train is well-known for not exactly keeping to schedule, and this run was proving to be no different. It was running right at 6 hours late out of El Paso, TX the night before our departure, so at least that allowed us to sleep in a little. I had pegged its arrival into SAS at about 11:00 and arranged for family to take us to the station at that time. Unfortunately the San Antonio station does not provide any long-term parking so we are always dependent on someone serving as our taxi! I was a bit surprised to the see the train already boarding when we were dropped off - it must have made up a little time during the Del Rio to San Antonio leg that morning. Not a problem as we went straight to our sleeper and were met by Robert, our car attendant. I stowed our bags in the downstairs rack and made sure the wife got to room number 5 before heading back out to the platform to get the consist. Robert assured me I had at least 10 minutes before we would move out, so I took off towards the head end. A P-42 was on the lead, but I was surprised to see a P32-8 (in Phase V) in the number 2 position, a first for me. As I got back to the first coach car, I noticed that we had not yet cut the trailing coach and sleeper that normally become part of the northbound Texas Eagle, and further in the distance I counted five express cars bringing up the rear. The Eagle had gone out on time at 8:00 and I later learned that the LAX section passengers had been bussed northward - I'm sure they were not happy. Anyway, at that point was I asked by the A/C standing beside the first coach if I was "catching" this train. When I replied "sure", he said I needed to be on it and not walking around back here! Well, OK, I suppose I get could the remaining consist later as it was obvious I wasn't going to be able to continue my rearward walk. I returned to our sleeper, grabbed a Pepsi, settled into our room and fired up the scanner.
In about 5 minutes we started moving, but only to cut the two Texas Eagle cars, and as I would later learn, two of the express cars. Apparently the two Eagle cars would sit at SAS and make an empty run back to LAX on the next #1. It seemed like more movement than was really necessary, but then I suppose it always does when you are eager to get rolling! I would have thought this work would have been done before boarding the SAS passengers but I suppose this way it allowed the crew to get the detraining passengers off and then get us on with only one opening and closing of the doors. I do believe Amtrak was trying to get us out as quickly as possible, so I can't really blame the A/C for his earlier remarks. I met him later in Houston and he turned out to be pretty nice after all. We finally received permission to enter the number 1 main and highballed out of the station at 11:58, almost exactly 6 hours late, but I wasn't complaining. There is nothing like that feeling of being on the train and watching the station disappear as your journey begins! A short 20 minutes later we were stopping in the small UP yard at Kirby, TX just east of San Antonio, which is a routine fuel stop for the Sunset. First call for lunch in the dining car was made then, so we made our way back to be seated. We were both pretty hungry since we had skipped breakfast earlier in the excitement of packing and getting ready. Our lunch companions were two delightful older ladies that were on the return leg of a combination bus and train cross country tour and they were making their way back to Jacksonville. As it was their first train ride, the wife and I did our Amtrak "public relations" part and explained why the train was so late, etc. Just about the time our train was finished fueling at 12:35, we started "fueling" ourselves! I had the Angus burger, loaded - great as always, and the wife had the Gardenburger which she always finds tasty. Over food and conversation we watched the last outskirts of San Antonio fade from view and transform into the Texas countryside. The ladies got a real treat is seeing cows and horses in the pastures we passed! After lunch we returned to our sleeper to read and relax.
Our connection to Atlanta on the Crescent didn't depart New Orleans until 7:20 the next morning, and our first intent had been to overnight in NOL at the Quality Inn on St. Charles street. That, of course, was assuming a reasonably on-time arrival of the Sunset! With us now 6 hours down out of SAS, we decided to wait and see how we were running into Houston before canceling our reservation. I am enough of a tightwad that I really didn't want to spend the bucks on a hotel room for less than 4 or 5 hours of use, so if it looked like we were going to be minus 6 into NOL I was going to cancel and spend the night in the station. Houston came at 4:25. This is a crew change stop and also serves as a smoking stop for the passengers. We detrained to stretch our legs and I finally got to walk the train and record the part of the consist that I had missed in San Antonio. The Houston station is certainly nothing impressive - more of the "early Greyhound" architectural style! I saw the A/C again as he was leaving the train, and chanced asking him a couple of questions regarding the radio frequencies in use on this route. He asked if I had something to write with, and then proceeded to give me a large list of frequencies used between HOS and NOUPT and where the changes would take place. So I guess he was OK after all - you can never tell, but usually when I have asked politely I have gotten the answers to my questions. There are some who probably feel it is none of your business, but you also find crew members who seem eager to share information with railfans too. In short, it never hurts to ask! We left HOS at 4:56, still holding to our 6 hour deficit, and I decided to cancel our New Orleans hotel via cell phone. The terrain had changed to a more swampy and marshy type as we cleared Houston, and it looked like it might rain at any time. We had dinner at 6:00 with another nice couple from the same tour group. I had the grilled catfish, which was excellent, and the wife had the baked chicken which she thoroughly enjoyed as well. A half-bottle of Merlot and a very good key lime pie rounded out the meal. Our train might have been running late, but so far the dining car service and food were more than making up for it. We returned to our room a little after 6:30 and I began to have doubts about being able to stay awake until New Orleans! About a half hour away from Beaumont, TX the rain droplets started to appear on the windows as dusk settled in on us. I could see lightning flashes in the distance, and realized that times like this are what train rides are all about.
Just before 7:00, the conductor called the engineer on the radio with an emergency. Apparently one of the passengers in the diner was having a serious medical problem, and he needed to have an EMS unit meet the train as soon as possible. Contact was quickly made via the rail dispatcher and about 10 minutes later on the western outskirts of Beaumont we stopped. I could look back and see the red lights of the EMS unit and another vehicle in the vicinity of the first coach car. I never heard any details on the scanner, so I assume everything turned out OK and that the passenger was probably transported to a local hospital. While that cost us another 20 minutes, this is one delay you can't at all complain about. It is good to know that in such an event Amtrak makes a serious effort to get medical attention to the train as soon as possible, and if it were me in that position, I know I would want them to stop the train! We made it into Lake Charles, LA at 9:00, now down a full 7 hours. The old saying about late trains getting later was proving to be true. Actually it was good news for us since I would much rather spend time on a late train than sitting at NOUPT waiting for our morning connection. We lost another 10 minutes right out of Lake Charles while waiting for a CSX freight to clear. I now figured us getting in to NOL at about 3:00 a.m., and as much as I had planned to be awake when we crossed the Huey Long bridge into New Orleans, I succumbed to my drowsiness and asked Robert to make our beds for the night. Needless to say the next thing I remember was being awaked as we were backing in to NOUPT. As the brakes were set I checked my watch - 2:53 in the morning, a little over 6 hours off schedule, so we had made up some time during the night. I know it is normal to back in to the station, but of course that always puts the sleepers farthest from the terminal. We gathered our things and detrained at just before 3:00. I gave Robert a well-deserved tip as we said goodbye, and then made our way into the New Orleans station. It didn't take long to find the "Magnolia Room", the first-class passenger lounge. We found a couple of chairs to spend the next 4 hours in and decided to make the best of it. This was our first visit to NOUPT, and I suppose I was somehow expecting a little more out of the lounge. The were some mish-mash furniture pieces, a coffee maker, a water cooler, and a TV with the worst picture I think I have ever seen. We met a mother and daughter team who were making the same connection to the Crescent in the morning, so between conversation, reading, and cat-napping we managed to pass the long four hours until the agent came to get us just before 7:00 for an on-time boarding.
As I expected, the Crescent was also backed in to the station, meaning we had a long walk up the platform to reach our sleeper. I wouldn't have minded it so much I if hadn't had two 40 pound suitcases to carry! Maybe next time I will break down and check our luggage, but for now I like knowing it is with me and under my control the whole time. But seriously, the walk to our car gave me my first close-up look at single level equipment. What a difference from the Superliners we are used to. We found our car, the lead of two sleepers, and were greeted by our attendant, Eddie. I quickly found our room and stowed our suitcases, one in the top bed that we would not be using, and the other in the nice little storage area above the corridor ceiling. This room was considerably different than the Superliner standard room, with a set of windows for the upper bed position, a small flat-screen TV monitor, more controls for lights and ventilation than I could count, and of course a sink and toilet right there in the room. I headed back to the platform and made a quick jog towards the head end to record the consist. This time I got the whole train without any interruptions. Eddie was waiting as I returned to our car and seemed to get a good laugh out of this crazy guy (me) writing down the car numbers. He turned out to be the best sleeper attendant we have ever had. We left the station right on time as Eddie came by to give us a quick orientation on the features of the room and car. About 15 minutes out of the station the dining car opened for breakfast and we were practically waiting at the door. The crew got us seated quickly along with a quiet young woman who was also going to Atlanta. I had my usual French toast and the wife had the quiche. Service was quick and the food was tasty. We followed the south bank of lake Ponchartrain eastward out of the city for what seemed like a long time, then finally made the bridge crossing over the eastern end of the lake. I could see that we were paralleling the I-10 bridge to the east, and also finally got to experience that wonderful "floating on the water" sensation of a long water crossing by train. Shortly thereafter we were back on dry land and we returned to our room to watch the scenery go by. Frankly about the only scenery we saw all the way to Atlanta were trees, and lots of them, right alongside the track!
The run into ATL was smooth and uneventful. We were in Norfolk Southern country now, and I was surprised to find that the defect detectors gave out no information other than "no defects". No train speed or axle count at all as I am used to with the UP or BNSF detectors back home. However from the way the trees were going by, I would say we spent a large portion of this leg at 79 MPH or close to it. I was amazed at how well we were keeping to schedule and it was looking like we would be seeing ATL on time this evening. Another quirk of the NS trackage was that the engineer called out "clear" at every little town, switch, bridge, etc., as in "Amtrak 20 clear Mayberry" to which the conductor would acknowledge with "clear Mayberry". I later found out from the conductor this was strictly a NS procedural thing. My, the things you learn when you travel away from home! I had time to form some opinions about the Viewliner sleeper along the way. Obviously newer than the Superliners, these cars had bright fluorescent lighting in the rooms and corridor that I found "colder" and less inviting than the older Superliners. Also, the interior walls were a light bluish-gray, smooth and shiny type material that didn't seem all that inviting at first. While I did like the upper level windows, I was disappointed by the TV monitor as its location and viewing angle restriction made it decently viewable from only one of the seats. And I never fully got the knack of the multiple pushes required on the funny "membrane" type switches for the various room lights either! Let's see what else I can complain about here - the fact that the same two movies repeated over and over (the whole week!), the music selections were limited to two channels (also repeating), and the seats were narrower than in the Superliners. OK, enough nit-picking! I was on the train and enjoying every minute of it. Except - I'm not quite sure I like the in-room toilet feature of the Viewliners. While it is nice to have "your own", there is something a bid odd about having it right next to your seat. There were no odor problems as I thought there might be, and while it would be fine if you were traveling by yourself, with another person in the room it was a bit of an inconvenience. I suppose it did provide an automatic way to get each of us up and out of the room every so often, and you also learned very quickly how the Velcro closures on the door and window curtains worked!
We had another nice lunch, by ourselves this time, just after noon. A corned beef and swiss sandwich for myself and a turkey and swiss sandwich for the wife, both quite good. The Tuscaloosa, AL stop came at 1:10 (20 minutes late) then shortly thereafter we took a siding to let our southbound Crescent counterpart, #19 pass. We made Birmingham, AL at 2:30 (now down only by 10 minutes). Rolling again, I began to take notice out the window of the famous southern Kudzu vines that were growing over just about everything except the track itself. It is amazing how these fast-growing plants have taken over, covering whole trees in some cases, not to mention telephone poles and large areas of the ground. Definitely something we don't see in our native Texas! To help work up an appetite for supper we decided to take a walk back to the last coach and check out the rest of the train. It was interesting to see the glass-enclosed smoking area in the lounge car and the large mural of the New York skyline (?) on the wall by the snack bar. Not quite as nice as a Superliner Sightseer Lounge though. The coaches seemed quite nice and cozy inside with TV monitors located up in the luggage rack areas above the seats. Other than having two levels, I saw no reason to prefer the Superliner coaches over these. All in all, I think I could easily get used single level trains, especially if they ran on time like ours was! We had an early supper at 6:00, and again we were the only ones at our table. I wanted something a little lighter this time and chose the manicotti; the wife had the grilled salmon and both proved to be quite good. On the way back to our room, we met up with Eddie and the conductor in his room talking about computers. Well that was all it took for me and for the next 15 minutes we were discussing the merits of Windows XP versus 98 and other such nerdy topics. The conductor was exceptionally nice and answered my train related questions without hesitation. Before I knew it we were approaching ATL and it was time to go. We pulled in right on time - still an amazing feat for a Sunset and Texas Eagle rider like myself. I gave Eddie a well-deserved tip and began the luggage toting ritual again for the whole length of the train. Maybe the sleepers should be at the back end of the train! The Atlanta station was small but otherwise nice, sitting well above track level so you had the option of going up a long flight of stairs from the platform or taking an elevator. Guess which one we chose! We were staying the next three nights at the Fairfield Inn about three blocks from the station on Spring Street, so off we went with luggage in hand. Yikes - no one had warned me about the humidity in Atlanta - that three block walk was more like a mile back home! But we settled in for some quality time in the big city where we did the standard tourist stuff and I got in a few rides on the MARTA subway.
At about 7:00 a.m. on our departure morning I checked with Julie to see how #19 was running. Julie was anticipating an on-time departure from ATL, which was to be 9:20. Figuring (wrongly) that we would not get breakfast on the train, we packed and had a quick breakfast at the hotel before taking the walk to the station. As we arrived at 9:00, I could see that our train was already there waiting for us. There were a large number of people milling about in the station and we had to wind our way through the masses to get to the stairs leading to the platform. As my luck would have it we had another long walk down the platform to reach our car. I was thinking how I might be trying out a Viewliner shower a lot sooner than I had expected! When we reached the door of our car there was some confusion with a group of passengers. It turned out that the lead sleeper was bad-ordered the day before and deleted from the train, so some folks were getting new room assignments into the remaining sleeper. Our attendant, Phil, was coping reasonably well but it was obvious there were some first-time riders that were lost. Since our room assignment had not changed, we just stepped back out of the way until things cleared up. After finally making our way to our room, I was ready for something to drink and to rest my legs - so recording the consist would have to wait. We departed promptly on time and enjoyed an uneventful ride all the way back into NOUPT. It was a surprise to hear the announcement that the dining car was open for breakfast a little after 9:30 - but there was no way I could have eaten a thing, so I missed my obligatory French toast once again. Fortunately I made up for it at lunch with another Angus burger and apple pie for dessert. What a surprise to see Eddie again - this time he was a server in the dining car. He told us quite humorously how they had taken "his" car away and how he refused to sit idle on this run, so he decided on his own to become a waiter. His manner was superb and he had the other patrons laughing in no time. By the way, everything I had heard about the new Amtrak apple pie was true - it was truly excellent and the portion size was quite generous. Our table partner was a lady traveling by herself from North Carolina to LAX (she would join us on the westbound Sunset) and she was quite unhappy at the fact that her deluxe sleeper room was not available due to the lost sleeping car. She was now riding in coach to New Orleans, and I suppose I couldn't blame her for her attitude. Well just as we were finishing lunch, the conductor came to our table to inform her they had a deluxe room available for her after all. She was quite pleased and we all gave her a round of applause as she headed back to coach to gather her belongings. Of course, if you had asked me, it was a little late in the trip to make that much difference, but in her eyes Amtrak had at least partially redeemed itself!
Birmingham, AL came up only a few minutes late and gave us a chance to detrain and stretch our legs. I told Phil that I was going to run up to the locomotives for a quick picture and that we would be right back. He commented that normally we wouldn't be allowed to do that, but things had "loosened up" a little now. I had no idea what he was talking about and went merrily about my business of recording the locomotive numbers and snapping a couple of pictures. I did however make sure we didn't linger too long and gave Phil a courtesy heads-up that we were re-boarding. We were a whole 10 minutes late leaving Birmingham and lost a little more time later on when had to wait on a passing freight outside of Merdian, MS. There was a young couple that were first-time riders in our car that were getting off in Meridian, and Phil had totally forgotten about them. Luckily he found them at the last minute and got them off. We were down by 30 minutes now, still well on-schedule as far as I was concerned. At 5:00 there was a "first and last" call for dinner service. Apparently the diner crew wants to be totally finished with cleanup before the scheduled 7:50 arrival into NOUPT so that meant no serving after 6:00. That was OK with us and we enjoyed a nice dinner by ourselves once again. Eddie was there to serve us and almost had us rolling on the floor with laughter. And no, I didn't have the apple pie again - just a scoop of that wonderful Amtrak vanilla ice cream! We had a nice view from our room at dusk as we made the lake crossing back into the city, the kind of view that can only be had on a train. At just about 8:25 we came to a stop in the New Orleans station, and wonder of wonders, we were head-in this time! We quickly detrained and I gave Phil a modest tip as we made our way towards the terminal. Straight trough the crowd inside and out the front doors, we found a waiting cab and headed off to the Quality Inn on St. Charles. Five blocks and $12 later (New Orleans has a $10 flat-rate cab fare system) we made it to our room by 8:45. It was time to relax and prepare for the next day's journey on the Sunset.
Knowing our scheduled departure would not be until 11:55 at the earliest, we decided to sleep in a bit before grabbing a quick breakfast and checking with Julie. Although the #1 Sunset was running over an hour late, Julie again said to expect an on-time departure, and who am I to argue with Julie! So we decided to get our taxi back to NOUPT at 11:00 and enjoy the Magnolia room (!) one last time. We were pleased to see the Sunset in the station when we arrived, as we knew we were likely to get out on time after all. We met an older couple in the lounge who were very unhappy because they had just been informed the eastbound Sunset had been annulled and they were going to get a bus ride into Florida instead of a train ride. Can't say that I blame them one bit. About 11:40 we noticed the line of coach passengers in the main waiting room started filing out the "gate" (door) - there had been no boarding announcement that we were able to hear, and no agent had come to get us. I went out to check, and sure enough they were boarding our train. So I grabbed our luggage and we began that long walk down the platform, as the train was "properly" backed in to the station this time. My plan had been to get our stuff into the sleeper and then do my usual walk to check out the consist, so I didn't bother to look ahead of our car. I knew something wasn't right when I got to our room and the beds were still down, and there was no power on the car. All of the other passengers were happily settling in to their rooms and the coaches, but the wife and I detrained to see what was going on. I casually mentioned to our attendant, Ennis, that we were going to walk up front and check out the locomotives, when he replied "what locomotives"? A quick glance forward told the story - the reason we had no power is that we had no locomotives! Ennis seemed upset that that someone had started passenger boarding without giving the crew any time to clean and prep the cars. He knew our room wasn't ready and apologized. We walked up to the front end of the baggage car and met a nice station agent who explained that they were going to be deadheading a Sightseer Lounge behind the two P-42's and that they should be arriving shortly. We decided to wait outside on the platform rather than inside a car with no power. To make a long story short, the locos and lounge arrived and coupled up at 12:30. It was a rather strange sight to see that bi-level Superliner car in between a baggage car and the number 2 P-42. Once we got HEP on the train we jumped aboard and headed upstairs to our still unmade room anticipating a quick departure. Ennis was very nice and just moved us to another clean room that wouldn't be needed before SAS, across from another empty room as well. So it looked like we had a nice quiet ride in store for us all the way back home.
We left NOUPT at 12:55, exactly 1 hour behind schedule. Again, we had no complaints about a late arrival into SAS, as that would only allow our "taxi" driver to wake up at a slightly more reasonable hour. We made our way to the diner right at first call and were seated promptly. I had the quiche this time which wasn't at all bad, just a little small. The wife opted for the Gardenburger again and really enjoyed it. We had wonderful company at our table with a mother and grandmother pair who had just left the grandchild in New Orleans for her first year of college. Mom was a retired Los Angeles MTA supervisor so there was train talk of one kind or another at our table. And yes, I had the apple pie with ice cream again! I also finally got to experience the famous Huey Long bridge crossing over the Mississippi from the diner, and that was a real treat for both of us. Back in our room I was content to just stare out the window as I usually do. We were back on BNSF track, so the detectors were talking again. I never got tired of the view; sugar came fields, water crossings large and small, swamps and marshes, etc. Fortunately the portions of our eastbound route that had been in darkness before were now light, and vice versa. Schriever, LA came and went at 2:15, then New Iberia at 3:40. We were running about 50 minutes behind now, so we had made up a little time. Our stop at Lafayette, LA came at just after 4:00, so now we were only down by 30. Who says the Sunset can't run on time! Although not scheduled as a service stop, Lafayette was announced on the PA as a smoking stop so we sat in the station for 15 minutes. As is our norm, the wife and I detrained to do a little walking up and down the platform. The highball came at 4:20 and we headed west again toward Texas. At around 5:55, we departed BNSF track and rejoined the UP main on the eastern edge of Lake Charles, LA. We left Lake Charles just after 6:00 running exactly one hour late. Our last meal of this trip was just as good as the first; grilled catfish for myself and pasta primavera for the wife. We coincidentally had the same nice table companions as during lunch, and as you might guess I could not pass up one last serving of Amtrak apple pie! We watched the sunset from our table (sunset on the Sunset!) and just as it was getting too dark to see outside we returned to our room for the last short leg of our journey. We were moving along at about 65 mph when we passed a detector at 9:23 p.m. and the response was "integrity failure" rather than the normally expected "no defects". To my knowledge this is really a problem with the detector itself and not the train, but the engineer brought us to a stop for a visual inspection of the train just to be sure. The conductor pronounced us fit to roll almost 15 minutes later and we were once again Houston bound, arriving there at 10:00, just short of 1 hour late. Houston brought a crew change and another 15 minute walking break for us. I said a quick hello to our departing engineer and she (yes, she!) returned the greeting with a smile. The wife was quite impressed with the fact that our train had been "driven" by a woman!
Back on board and rolling west at 70 mph in pitch darkness, we asked Ennis to put our beds down. Now here is where he really impressed me, by asking if we wanted an upper and lower in the same room, or two lower beds across the hall from each other. Since the room across from ours was not occupied, he was able to make up the lower bed on that side so neither of us had to climb to an upper. I thought that was very nice of him and we gladly took him up on his offer. That would let the wife go right to sleep in her own room while I stayed up a while longer listening to the scanner directly across the corridor. I "cat napped" off and on most of the night, and was awake when we made it back to our fuel stop at Kirby, just outside San Antonio. That was at 2:30 a.m., so once again we had made up a little time during the early hours. The familiar sights of downtown San Antonio came into view shortly thereafter and we were in the station at about 3:10. As we entered we passed the two cars from #21, the southbound Texas Eagle, waiting to become part of our train on its continuation westward. What was surprising was that nowhere did I see the Eagle itself - only the coach and sleeper, sitting there with people on board and no power! Normally they would still be with the Eagle trainset until the Sunset arrived to pick them up. The wife and I gathered up our things and made our way down to the vestibule with Ennis. This time we weren't going to be able to detrain until the two Eagle cars were coupled up, so there was more movement as we switched onto the stub to pick up those cars. Of course the HEP had to be cut and then brought back up as well, so our feet didn't actually hit the platform until about 3:25, exactly 1 hour late. I hung around for a moment, looking for someone to ask about the missing Eagle, but with no one close at hand and our "taxi" already waiting I left that as an unsolved mystery for another time and headed to the parking lot. As is my habit, I turned around for one last look at our train, glad to be back home but eager to ride again. All in all I would rate our trip a 9 on a scale of 10. I think I could learn to be quite content in the Viewliner sleepers, the food was consistently very good, and the Amtrak people we encountered were largely nice as well. Now if they would only spruce up that Magnolia room a little . . . . .
For those who may be interested, I have listed the consists below:
Train #2, SAS - NOL Aug 17:
P-42 11
P-32 507
Baggage 1264
Trans Dorm 39029
S-I Sleeper 32053
S-II Sleeper 32097 ?
Diner 38044
Lounge 33047
Coach 34139
Coach 35004
Coach 34084
Train #20, NOL-ATL Aug 18:
P-42 41
P-42 43
Dorm 2522 "Pine Creek"
Sleeper 62016 "Lake View"
Sleeper 62008 "Eagle View"
Diner 8553
Lounge 28009
Coach 25121
Coach 25041
Coach 25098
Coach 25087
Baggage 1763
Train #19, ATL-NOL Aug 21:
P-42 180
P-42 48
Dorm 2522 "Pine Creek"
Sleeper 62016 "Lake View"
Diner 8553
Lounge 28009
Coach 25121
Coach 25041
Coach 25098
Baggage ???
Train #1, NOL-SAS Aug 22:
P-42 2
P-42 43
Lounge 33044
Baggage 1755
Trans Dorm 39013
S-II Sleeper 32080 "Idaho"
S-II Sleeper 32073 "California"
Diner 38048
Lounge 33043
Coach 34093
Coach 34138
