Your thoughts on SL/CS/EB/CONO

[the Other Mike]

SO, I've been wanting to do this trip for awhile but wonder what order to take it in

New Orleans to New Orleans with a layover at Issac Walton Inn

Should I do:

1) Sunset Limited / Coast Starlight / Empire Builder/ City of New Orleans

2) City of New Orleans / Emipre Builder / Coast Starlight / Sunset

I want to do the trip as a Christmas trip with 3-5 day stop off at the Issac Walton Inn ( in winter I can find fares that are as low as the $1500 range using a roomette all the way )

I've done the CONO both directions and the SL both directions.

I have never done the CS or the EB.

I have no desire to layover in LA, but also wonder about taking a layover in Seattle

Any and All comments welcome

 

[oregon pioneer]

The Isaac Walton is lovely in winter. Hubby and I stayed over for 24 hours on our first westbound LD train trip (to break up a coach trip with a real bed!). Good place to look at the railroad memorabilia, catch up on your reading, drink hot chocolate and watch trains go by (mostly freights, and one EB each direction per day). If you are at all athletically inclined, you can rent some of their skis and walk acrosss the tracks to their trail system, as we did. Nice, well-groomed loops through tall evergreen forest.

I think a layover in Seattle would be wonderful too. Of course, I'm a bit prejudiced (I used to live there, and I liked it). The ferry rides are a wonderful way to spend a misty, moisty afternoon. King County Metro, their public transit system, is great (the trip planner spans three counties).

Have fun, be sure and submit a trip report and let us know how it turned out!

 

[chakk]

Winter trips can often find the CS late into LAX and missing the direct connection with the eastbound SL. Since the SL is on a 3-days per week trip, the crew may well bus you from an earlier CS stop such as Burbank to a later SL stop such as Ontario. So my recommendation would be to make this trip clockwise, instead of counterclockwise.

 

[saxman]

Definitely go north on the Starlight and east on the EB. This pretty much guarantees seeing the ocean, the Cascades, and Glacier Park in the daylight

 

[Bob Dylan]

Definitely go north on the Starlight and east on the EB. This pretty much guarantees seeing the ocean, the Cascades, and Glacier Park in the daylight

Ditto, in Winter this is your Best Bet!

 

[tomfuller]

After you roll into Los Angeles about 5:30AM PT, take the 761 Surfliner about 7:30 AM to Santa Barbara. You can spend 2 hours in Santa Barbara while waiting for the Coast Starlight. Have a nice early lunch in Santa Barbara within walking distance of the station.

You could also only take the CS to Portland and spend some time there before taking a Cascades train to Seattle.

In winter you stand a better chance of being on time on the eastbound EB IMO. The van from the Isaac Walton comes up to meet both EB trains each day.

 

[Notelvis]

Option 1 - the Clockwise Direction - is the one I would do. Especially in winter. I like Tom's idea of taking the 7:30am Surfliner for a couple of hours in Santa Barbara before getting the Coast Starlight there also.

By going clockwise you'll definitely get the California coast running and the climb over the Cascades by daylight. You'll get Glacier Park and Marias Pass by daylight. You'll get the delightful (and often overlooked) ride down the upper Mississippi River St. Paul to Lacrosse, WI by daylight. With the shorter winter days (and the risk of a late train in the case of the California coast) these sights would be covered by darkness.

 

[Aaron]

Winter trips can often find the CS late into LAX and missing the direct connection with the eastbound SL. Since the SL is on a 3-days per week trip, the crew may well bus you from an earlier CS stop such as Burbank to a later SL stop such as Ontario. So my recommendation would be to make this trip clockwise, instead of counterclockwise.

Is this really much of a risk? For fun, I pulled up the arrival and departure times for #11 and #2 for the last 6 months, and I could only find one time where #11 was late AND #2 left before #11 arrived. All other times it appeared that they were holding #2 to wait for #11 (including just about a week and a half ago, when #11 was almost 2 hours late into LAX).

I agree that clockwise is still the way to go for other reasons, but a broken connection doesn't seem too likely here. That said, I'd much rather miss a connection to a daily train from a 3 day train than vice versa!

 

[crescent2]

My thoughts on this trip? I wish I was going!!

Have fun and let us know how it goes!