Travelogues of Jim Robertson
Please pardon the lack of formatting in these travelogues. I have had a lot
of work to do over the last several weeks, both for the Amtrak Pages and
for my regular work. The only hope of clearing out the backlog is to post
these pages "as is" without taking the time to correct any format problems.
I do plan to go back and restructure this particular set of travelogues into
seperate web pages since there are so many all grouped together on this one
page. I'll do that when time permits.
Date: Monday, September 9, 1996 5:01pm
From: INT:RRobert564@aol.com
To: Steveg
Re: City Of New Orleans
Steve,
Rode the City Of New Orleans yesterday between New Orleans and Chicago. Had
an economy bedroom. The sleeper was the car Missouri and had room 5. An on
time departure from New Orleans and an on time arrival in Chicago.
The menu in the diner has a local New Orleans flavor, serving red beans and
rice and things like this. In place of the Halibut, catfish is served. There
was also no prime rib on the menu, but filet mignon, or what they called
filet mignon. The food service was better than average. The Illinois Central
Gulf track which the City of New Orleans travels is some of the roughest
track I have ever seen. This is especially true between Jackson, Mississippi
and Memphis, Tennessee.
I made good use of the lay over from nine in the morning until five in the
afternoon. I stayed in the Metropolitan Lounge for awhile and then I went
shoping at Marshall Fields. There was also some kind of parade in the
downtown area, so the bus could not go back to Union Station, and I had to
walk from Marshall Fields back to Union Station. A nice walk through downtown
Chicago!
I saw many interesting railroad cars around Union Station. There were many
Amtrak ballast service cars, mail cars, and MHU's. Also saw quite an
assortment of locos. The City of New Orleans had an FP 40 and a Genesis II.
On the City of New Orleans, I was in car 5800, bedroom 5, the sleeper was the
Missouri. On the Southwest Chief I am in car 0331, bedroom 8, the sleeper is
the Maryland. There are som many passengers on this train that a transition
sleeper was added to the train. Amtrak used the lower level of this for a
type of club car, free wine and soft drinks, as well as snacks. It is nice
and restricted to the First Class passengers. The Chief of On Board Services
for this train, Charles Roebuck III is one of the best I have seen. The
Dining Car Steward leaves much to be desired. Last night he assigned an
entire tour group to the early seating in the dining car, and consequently
dinner was still being served at 10 p.m., which is a little late for my
liking. I did mention to the Chief of On Board Services that I should not be
made to suffer because a tour group of 50 people are on the train, but that
dinner reservations should be distributed in the normal manner, by the Dining
Car Steward canvassing the sleeping car passengers as is normally done.
The train just departed Lamar, Colorado, and thus far the trip has been very
nice. Last night the transition sleeper did run out of water and the shower
in this car, the Maryland, is flooding over the sill, but both problems have
been remedied.
By the way Steve, I have never seen the eastbound Sunset Limited arrive in
Lafayette on time. It is usually anywhere from one to three hours late.
This is all for now, I will write more later.
Regards,
Jim Robertson
