Trails and Rails on the EB

[PennCentralFan]

I had the good fortune to be on the Empire Builder from CHI to MSP on Monday the 21st and enjoyed the trails and rails program put on by Robert and John. I've been on that route before, but I learned a lot and had fun on the trivia quizes. Honestly, they went beyond the call of duty and provided an informative discussion. A lot of neat stuff I didn't know before. Such as we went through the only railroad tunnel in Wisconsin among other things. Please support this program.

 

[Chessie Hokie]

I did the eastbound EB from PDX to CHI last week. I believe it was the first time for the husband and wife team that did the Trails and Rails...I had to correct them on which side of the train to look for the Izaak Walton Inn at Essex, MT (they were appreciative).

On the eastbound Cardinal I took this past weekend, the PA speaker at my end of the coach didn't work...so I heard very little of the script through West Virginia...a shame.

My westbound California Zephyr didn't have a Trails and Rails speaker...though apparently it normally does, as the conductor apologized.

 

[tubaia]

When I looked at NPS's Trail & Rails site last year, it mentioned specific days of the week that the program ran on each train. However, that information is not currently listed, that I can find. I'm assuming that they don't run this program every day on the EB now, do they? How do we find out? It'll probably be my luck that I'll hit it in both directions on the days that have no program.

I was really looking forward to the program on my last trip, but never heard anything about it on the trip. Then I discovered much later that they didn't run the Trail & Rail program in the winter. None of the Amtrak nor NPS literature is very specific about the schedule.

This does seem like a great program, and I agree that it must be supported as much as possible. However, similar to Amtrak, most programs in the National Park Service are severely underfunded, especially in the last few years.

 

[rtabern]

Thanks for the nice post PennCentral... it was nice to meet you on the train. Thanks for keeping us company all the way from Chicago to Winona. I'm still shocked your recognized me from this forum!

To the other posters...

There are a couple husband and wife Trails & Rails teams. Our Chicago crew has about 60 people in it, including 3 couples. I think Amtrak and the NPS like couple T&R teams because they only have to pay for one hotel room in Winona then those days!! Hahaha.

And on the EB, the Chicago to Winona T&R program runs 7 days a week from May 16-September 16. The only times you might not see us is if the train is running over a detour route. They will usually pull the guides... I made up scripts for the 2 possible detour routes over the UP or BNSF, but most guides aren't comfortable doing those routes. I went out on #7 on 6/30/08 and narrated the UP detour.

Anyhow, the North Dakota T&R group only goes 3 days a week -- they don't have as many volunteers.

And, the Shelby, MT to Seattle, WA T&R group is also 7 days a week during the summer.

I believe my group and the SEA group are the only 2 T&R groups that go 7 days a week.

And... this trip I did on Monday/Tuesday was interesting... because we did #7 from Chicago-Winona... but #8 was running over the BNSF detour route. I was thinking of riding/narrating the detour, but I had to be back in Milwaukee at a certain time last (Tuesday) night for something -- so I took the "on time alternative transportation" bus from Winona-Milwaukee.

I guess they were running 3 buses yesterday. One went express from MSP to CHI for people who had connections to the Cardinal and Capitol Limited since Amtrak didn't know what time they would be getting in with the BNSF detour. Didn't even see that bus since it ran express. Then there were 2 buses -- both made stops in La Crosse, Tomah, and Wisconsin Dells -- then 1 went to Milwaukee express and the other to Chicago express. According to the agent, she says no one was getting off at either Portage or Columbus that day -- which was weird.

I did limited narrration on the bus -- maybe pointing out 10 or so things along the way to passengers. The bus had a microphone so I just sat in the seat behind the driver and did my thing. Since I knew the traveling trunk would be going back with my partner to Chicago, I grabbed an empty box in Room 341 at Union Station and filled it with Wisconsin and Milwaukee maps -- folks on the bus liked those so they could follow the intertstae highway system.

Folks generally were pretty cranky on the bus. In Winona, two "old bags" came up to John and I and said "You aren't going to be talking on the bus, are you? We don't like listening to you guys on the train... but atleast on the train we have a choice... on the bus we don't". I see their point and that's why I did very limited narration on the bus, but they didn't need to put it like THAT. So my response was, "Actually, we are going to be talking EVEN more on the bus today! Probably non-stop! John (my T&R partner) and I wrote a new 115-page script that we are itching to test out for you guys". Hahahaha.

The other bad thing was the conductors went to the BNSF yards in La Crosse to catch #8 -- so there were no Amtrak officials on the bus. And the bus driver was just some chartered guy and didn't know anything about Amtrak. So that left me trying to field dozens of questions and complaints from some pretty irate passengers. They were really pissed that when we stopped at Burger King in Wisconsin Dells that Amtrak would only pay for $5 of their lunch -- and anything beyond that they had to pay for. All I did was keep telling them to call 800-USA-RAIL when they got home or go to the passenger services in Chicago.

Fun, fun, fun!

I have 3 more T&R trips in August -- either going out on Mondays or Tuesdays... maybe I'll see more folks from the forum on there.

So far, I've run into 2 people -- PennCenn and a nice guy from LaCrosse who was at the gathering in Chicago.

RT

 

[Rail Freak]

And on the EB, the Chicago to Winona T&R program runs 7 days a week from May 16-September 16.
RT

I was wondering about that. Does T & R use those dates on the other routes as well?