Dan Chazin's Texas Eagle Travelogue - Information about railroad trains, railway trains and rail.
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Dan Chazin's Texas Eagle Travelogue
San Antonio-Chicago
www.trainweb.com/travelogues/chicago/1998e28.html
It's 4:45 a.m. on Thursday, May 28, 1998, and I've just
arrived at the Amtrak station in San Antonio, Texas to board
Train #22, the Texas Eagle, on my way to Chicago.
My trip began on Tuesday morning with a 7:15 a.m. flight on
United Airlines from Newark to Chicago. We arrived in Chicago
about half an hour late, and after spending 15 minutes to get
over to another terminal, I arrived at the gate just as my flight
to San Antonio began to board. The flight to Chicago was quite
full, and the San Antonio flight was sold out. Since I had
brought along three pieces of baggage, I had to check one of
them, and then it took about 25 minutes after the flight arrived
in San Antonio before my baggage arrived at the carousel. By
then, it was about 12:45 p.m., and since my meeting at the
Marriott Rivercenter Hotel was scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m., I
decided to take a cab to the hotel, located in downtown San
Antonio, where I arrived at 1:00 p.m. Despite the minor lateness
of both flights, United Airlines had succeeded in getting me to
my meeting on time, but I had no sense that I had traveled
anywhere. I was in Newark Airport, then I was in Chicago's
O'Hare Airport, and then I was in San Antonio. But I wasn't
anywhere in between. Hopefully, my train trip to Chicago will be
a very different experience!
My hotel is conveniently located in the center of town, and
after attending yesterday's meeting and then visiting the Alamo,
I walked down to the Amtrak station, located only half a mile
away. Historically, San Antonio has had a magnificent passenger
station, built by the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1902. This
rambling, pink stucco building features a beautiful blue stained
glass window, reading "Sunset Route MDCCCCII." Indeed, the Rail
Ventures book states that "a grand staircase beneath a vivid
stained glass window and an arched baroque ceiling give the
interior a feeling of opulence rarely found in American train
stations." Unfortunately, though, this station is now closed and
surrounded by a chain-link fence, and is being remodeled as an
"entertainment center." Amtrak passengers are now relegated to
an Amshack -- an unattractive, prefabricated building located to
the south of the former glorious station. The old wooden benches
from the SP station have been moved to the waiting room of the
new station, but the station is otherwise without any character.
And, apparently, even when the renovation of the new station is
complete, no part of it will be used by Amtrak. The closing of
this Sunset Station was the subject of some discussion on the
Railroad List, and I must agree that the existing station is a
disgrace.
Although the station is an easy walk from my hotel, I
decided to take a cab, in light of the fact that it was still
dark out and I had rather heavy luggage. The ride took only
about five minutes. When I arrived at the station at 4:45 a.m.,
Train #2, the eastbound Sunset Limited, was on the platform. It
departed five minutes later, or 15 minutes beyond its scheduled
departure time of 4:35 a.m. The baggageman at the station
explained that Train #1, the eastbound Sunset Limited, would be
pulling into the station next, and that only once this train had
departed would my Train #22 be ready for boarding. About 5:05
a.m., a train pulled into the station, but an announcement was
made that some switching had to be done, and the train was
therefore not yet ready for boarding. It turned out that this
train consisted of the cars for Train #22, plus the two cars
being transferred from Train #21 to Train #1. (I learned from a
passenger who had been on #21 that that train did not arrive
until about 4:00 a.m., nearly three hours late!)
Not until 5:45 a.m. did Train #1 arrive at the station. It
first pulled forward, beyond the station, and then backed up onto
the track immediately adjacent to the station. Passengers were
permitted to board, but the two cars from Train #21 still had to
be added. I learned from the conductor that, in addition, the
order of the two cars had to be switched. This had to be done
because the train came in from Chicago facing eastward. The
sleeper was in the rear of the train coming into San Antonio, but
it had to switch position with the coach so that the sleeper is
on the rear of the train going to Los Angeles. (Moreover, as a
result, the seats in the coach are now facing the wrong
direction. The conductor mentioned that once everyone wakes up
in the morning, the attendant will reverse all the seats.) And,
it seems, the switching move was further complicated by the fact
that the switch engine stationed in San Antonio had run out of
fuel! As a result, all switching had to be done by the road
power. Seeing all these complications, I mentioned to the
conductor of Train #1 that I could now understand why Amtrak
tried to eliminate the switching of cars in San Antonio from the
Texas Eagle to the Sunset Limited. He responded: "It all would
be fine if there were some coordination. But the problem is that
there is no coordination!"
Obviously, all these maneuvers took quite some time, and
Train #1 did not depart until 6:26 a.m. In the meantime, our
Train #22 was pulled forward onto the next track, so that
boarding could commence as soon as Train #1 departed. I took a
walk around the old station, and then went back into the Amshack
to retrieve my baggage and bring it over to the train.
Today's northbound Texas Eagle consists of two Genesis
engines, a baggage car, a transition sleeper, my sleeper #32084
Kansas, a diner, a Sightseer Lounge, a smoking coach, a regular
Superliner coach with a lower-level handicapped section, and two
cars which had come from Los Angeles -- a baggage/coach (with the
baggage section on the lower level unused), and the Superliner II
sleeper South Dakota. (It is interesting to note that the first
two cars of our train had previously been involved in
derailments. Our baggage car #1268 was on the Silver Star of May
2, 1995, which hit a tractor-trailer in Sycamore, S.C. The car
ended up on its side and suffered an estimated $55,000 in damage.
I subsequently noticed a dent on the rear of the left side of the
car, which might have been caused by the derailment. Transition
sleeper #39027 was on the ill-fated Capitol Limited which was hit
by a MARC train that went through a red signal on February 16,
1996. It was damaged in the ensuing derailment. And, I later
noticed that the left side of my sleeper Kansas showed scrapes
and dents from some kind of an accident.) I boarded my sleeper
and went up to my Room #8. I noticed that the room was completely
devoid of all amenities -- no souvenir glasses, bottle of wine,
piece of chocolate, stationery, etc. Indeed, there was not even
a Route Guide in the room (or, for that matter, anywhere else on
the train, either)!
After storing my luggage, I detrained and walked down the
platform to record the car numbers. At about 6:45 a.m., I
noticed that the other cars seemed to have been closed up, so I
reboarded the train at the lounge car (against the protests of
the attendant, who said he could lose his job if his superiors
found out that I had done this!). I returned to my room, where I
took out my scanner and started listening to the conversations
between the train and the dispatcher. I heard that we would be
taking the old Katy line today (apparently, there are two lines
that this train can take north of San Antonio, and the dispatcher
can decide which one it will be). But we did not depart the
station until 7:08 a.m., over an hour late. Then we backed up a
considerable distance, passing through a deteriorated
neighborhood on the outskirts of the city.
When the conductor came by to collect my ticket, I mentioned
to him that I presumed that we would be arriving late at Chicago.
He replied that he thought that we would still arrive on time,
since there is much make-up time built into the schedule. Well,
I guess we will see who is right.
Our back-up move lasted for about 15 minutes, and not until
7:26 a.m. did we start pulling forward again, now proceeding on
the old Katy line. I now walked to the back of the train. Since
there were no express cars on the rear of the train, the rear
sleeper provided an unobstructed view out the back. I noticed
that the rear coach, which had come from Los Angeles, was quite
full, but the next coach was more than half empty, and only a
handful of passengers, all destined for Austin or other local
points in Texas, were assigned to the first coach.
I returned to my room and then went to the diner for
breakfast. I was seated opposite a couple from northern
California, who had flown to Texas for a relative's wedding in
Alpine. They took the overnight train from Alpine to San
Antonio, where they spent several days, and now were headed back
to California. They chose to take the more scenic and longer
route via Chicago, then west on the California Zephyr. The
couple was planning to take the train leaving tomorrow at 3:05
p.m., giving them only an hour and a half to make the connection.
We'll see if our train arrives in time for that!
I noticed that the breakfast was being served on plastic
plates, although regular silverware was used. My waiter was
quite friendly, and the meal was served promptly. During
breakfast, we made a brief stop at San Marcos. The old station
building here has been converted to another use, and the trains
stop at a picnic shelter with benches inside. Interestingly,
there does not appear to be a standard Amtrak sign to designate
the station. Rather, a wooden sign reading "Amtrak Stop" has
been placed at the entrance to the driveway leading into the
station.
Our next stop was Austin, the capitol of Texas. We crossed
the Colorado River and arrived at the relatively modern, yellow-
brick station at 9:24 a.m. I got off the train at the first
coach and took some pictures. A number of passengers boarded
here, and much baggage had to be loaded and unloaded. As a
result, the station stop took eight minutes. When we departed at
9:32 p.m., we were 51 minutes late. But, despite a lot of slow
running, we have already made up 17 minutes since our tardy
departure from San Antonio. The conductor does seem to have been
correct when he told me that the schedule has plenty of padding!
I returned to my room to update these memoirs. Then, at
9:52 a.m., we came to a stop, right next to a large cement plant.
On the scanner, I hear the crew commenting that there is some
switching being done ahead of us. We stayed put for five
minutes, and then continued on our way.
At 10:24 a.m., we made a brief stop at Taylor, where several
passengers boarded the train. Here, we switch from the old
Missouri Pacific trackage to the old Katy Railroad. The brick
station here is closed and bears a sign: "Private Property -- No
Trespassing -- Union Pacific Railroad." Only a faded free-
standing Amtrak sign gives any indication that trains stop here.
I then walked back again to the end of the train, where I
started talking to a woman standing there. She had boarded the
train in Tucson and was going to St. Louis, and also liked to
look out the back of the train. I took some video pictures as we
crossed a single-track truss bridge and then passed a long Union
Pacific freight train on a siding. I remarked that, for once,
the freight train was put on a siding so that we could proceed!
I returned to my room and started listening to the scanner.
First, I heard a defect detector announce our speed at 48 miles
per hour. (We certainly weren't setting any speed records here!)
Then, I heard the Union Pacific dispatcher issue a track warrant
to a freight train, which was "not in effect until the passage of
Amtrak #14" (designating the number of our train's lead engine).
I was somewhat puzzled by this, since I had recently read on the
Railroad List that UP had stopped issuing "not in effect until"
orders in light of last year's head-on collision, which was
caused by a dispatcher error in issuing such an order.
I again had the opportunity to step off the train at Temple,
where we arrived at 11:30 a.m. Here, we join the Santa Fe line
to Fort Worth. The station here is the old Santa Fe station, a
huge brick-and-stucco structure with the classic Santa Fe cross
embedded onto the facade. It seems to be way out of proportion
to the needs of this relatively minor stop, where perhaps a dozen
passengers boarded the train (the station is still served by a
agent). Of particular interest were an old engine (Santa Fe
#2301) and two passenger cars parked on a siding. One car was an
old Pullman car, with boarded-up windows, named Clover Glade.
The other was Amtrak sleeper #2986, named Pine Mesa. My records
indicate that I had observed this ex-Santa Fe car on the
Montrealer in May 1994, that it was removed from service by
Amtrak in July 1995, and that it was offered for sale a few
months later. Apparently, it was purchased by some private
individual, and now sits on a siding here along with two other
decrepit pieces of equipment. We spent four minutes in Temple,
and left at 11:34 a.m., still 54 minutes late. By now,
passengers were sitting in most seats in the second coach,
although the first coach was still largely empty. The coach
attendant assured me, though, that it would fill up once we got
to Fort Worth and Dallas.
I returned to my room and did some work. We made a brief
stop at McGregor at 12:02 p.m, but I could not see the station
since it was on the opposite side of the tracks from my room.
North of McGregor, the scenery became a little more interesting,
with some low rolling hills and a few rock cuts.
About 12:35 p.m., the first call was made for lunch. I was
getting rather hungry, so I immediately went to the dining car
and was seated at a table with a family of three (husband, wife
and young son). They lived in South Bend, Indiana and were
returning from a visit with her family in Austin, Texas (where
she grew up). All three of them were sharing Economy Bedroom #5
in my car. She explained that this is the first time they took
the train, and that the ride down was, the most part, quite
pleasant. They chose to take the train because she doesn't like
to fly. For this meal, plastic silverware was used together with
plastic plates.
After lunch, I again walked to the back of the train, and
spent some time in an unoccupied coach seat. At one point, I
clocked the train going a mile in 46 seconds, which translates to
79 miles an hour. But we generally were traveling much slower
than this. Our next stop was in the small town of Cleburne at
1:27 p.m. The station here is virtually non-existent. It
consists of a small gazebo without seats and an Amtrak sign.
There is hardly even a platform. Although I did not see any
passengers getting on or off, the stop for some reason lasted for
three minutes, and when we left at 1:30 p.m., we were an hour and
nine minutes late.
When I returned to my car, my friend from Room #5 asked if I
had seen the flood downstairs in our car. I walked down there
and found that water was dripping in a number of places from the
ceiling. Brown paper bags and towels had been placed on the
floor to partially contain the water, but it still was a mess.
I'm glad that I have an upper-level room for this trip!
(Subsequently, a cold-water pipe in one of the deluxe bedrooms
was found to be leaking, and the water to that room was shut off,
which solved the problem.)
Now we were approaching Fort Worth. We passed through the
suburban areas of the city, and then, at 2:08 p.m., we came to a
stop. After five minutes, we started moving again. The
conductor made an announcement on the loudspeaker that we were
delayed by a red signal, and that we would be in the station in
about five minutes. And, sure enough, at 2:18 p.m. we arrived at
the old Santa Fe station in Fort Worth. I got off the train and
walked into this old, cavernous station, which was now entirely
empty. It is a beautiful station, but the paint on the ceiling
is peeling, and the building -- located next to parking lots on
the outskirts of downtown -- otherwise shows signs of neglect.
There used to be quite a number of platforms and tracks at this
station, connected to the station building by a pedestrian
underpass, but now only one track is used for passenger trains
(although Amtrak express cars are stored on some others), and the
underpass is closed off. I took some pictures, checked my
messages, mailed some postcards, and then returned to the train
to get my video camera. At about 2:38 p.m., an "all aboard"
announcement was made, but there was a problem with the air
conditioning in one car, and as a result, we did not actually
leave the station until 2:54 p.m. We were still an hour and four
minutes late, not having made up any significant time since our
tardy departure from San Antonio.
We backed out of the station, soon passing the famous Tower
55 of Railroad List fame. I saw the construction of the new
highway interchange overhead -- referred to by John Smith as
"construction destruction." After about ten minutes, we stopped,
and then proceeded forward, making a sharp right turn just beyond
the tower. Now we were going east, towards Dallas. Twice, we
stopped briefly for a red signals, but quickly got clearance from
the dispatcher to proceed ahead. I also heard on the scanner a
comment regarding a gas leak that might prevent us from pulling
into the Dallas station, but the dispatcher soon assured us that
everything was clear and we could proceed straight to Dallas.
At 4:11 p.m., we pulled into Dallas Union Station. Somewhat
to my surprise (although I had heard about it on the Railroad
List earlier in the week), to our left was the Union Pacific
business train, with its cars resplendent in their yellow paint.
I detrained and talked to the attendant in the rear car of the UP
train, dressed in a spotless white uniform. He explained that
this train would just be going to Fort Worth, but it would
subsequently be going back to Omaha. He also mentioned that the
rear open-end observation car was built in 1912, but that the
other cars (including the dome car) were built in the 1950s.
Seeing this train was quite a treat!
Dallas Union Station has changed tremendously since I was
last here in 1994. Then, only Amtrak trains (one train a day in
each direction) operated to the station, and passengers just
walked out from the station to the track to board the train. At
that time, there were only two tracks used by Amtrak, and the
rear of the station was used for parking. Now, there are five
active tracks, with two used by Amtrak (the UP train was on one
of these tracks), two used by DART, the local light-rail system,
and one used by the commuter Trinity Rail Express. I saw several
DART trains go by while our train was in the station. Although
walkways at grade remain between all the tracks and the station,
there are also stairways and elevators to a pedestrian underpass.
Indeed, it was necessary to use the underpass while our train was
in the station, since the train blocked the at-grade walkway
leading to the station. I would have liked to spend some time
exploring the newly-expanded station, but we spent only ten
minutes at the station, and pulled out at 4:21 p.m.
But we didn't go very far. We moved forward a short
distance, then backed up. The conductor explained that we were
adding express cars to the rear of the train. We briefly moved
forward, and then sat still again. It seemed that radio
communications were on some frequency that I hadn't set my
scanner for (and that was not included in Steve Grande's route
description, where I had gotten my radio frequency information
from), so I walked to the back of the train again. On the way,
the conductor told me that we were waiting for some other train.
From the back of the last sleeper, I could see a silver express
car, which almost completely blocked the view from the rear. (It
seems that these new express cars are somewhat higher than the
old baggage cars and MHC's. When those cars were coupled at the
end of a Superliner train, you could still see above them.)
I returned to my room and did some work on the trail
descriptions for the New Jersey Walk Book. It was rather
frustrating having no idea what was happening with the train, but
I was using the time quite productively. Finally, at 5:07 p.m.,
we started moving forward again, and departed from the station.
We had spent close to an hour in Dallas, and were now nearly two
hours late. Quite a number of passengers had boarded in Fort
Worth and Dallas, and by now, most of the seats in the first
coach were occupied by at least one passenger.
While in the station, I noticed what appeared to be some
passenger cars at the end of the train. Now that we were moving,
I could see, as we rounded a curve, that there were three silver
express cars at the rear of our original consist, and these were
followed by three passenger cars. They consisted of a car
painted in non-Amtrak colors, a full-length dome in Amtrak
colors, and a car with an open-air observation platform. Of
course, the three express cars were placed between these
passenger cars and the rest of the train, and in any event, there
would have been no way to access these single-level cars from the
Superliner sleeper at the rear of the train.
The scenery east of Dallas is nothing really special,
although we did pass through some interesting little towns. I
remained in my room, continuing to work on the New Jersey Walk
Book. I did notice, at 5:50 p.m., that we were passing the
beautifully restored brick station in Terrell (of course,
passenger trains no longer stop here).
The dining car attendant had previously gone through to take
dinner reservations and, since I was rather hungry, chose the
6:00 p.m. dinner sitting. So I now went to the dining car, where
I was seated next to an older woman who was traveling from Fort
Worth to Michigan to visit her children. She would be taking
this train to Chicago, where she would transfer to a train to
Grand Rapids, where she would be picked up. She mentioned that
she had never flown, and much preferred the train to the bus.
Opposite me were two women going from Dallas to Chicago, but they
didn't talk very much during the meal.
Tonight, the meals were being served on plastic plates, but
there were linen tablecloths in addition to the metal silverware.
As was the case with the other meals, only half of the dining car
was being used, with the ten available tables providing space for
40 people to be seated. The attendant explained that there were
not enough staff to utilize more than half of the car, and stated
that there would probably be three sittings for dinner. If that
ends up being the case, the use of half of the car is probably
adequate, although some people might have a rather late dinner!
We arrived at Mineola at 6:38 p.m., having lost some
additional time since leaving Dallas. This is a relatively new
stop for Amtrak, due largely to the persistence of the mayor of
the community, who was also a leading figure in the fight to save
the Texas Eagle last year. Interestingly, the town is not even
mentioned in the Rail Ventures book! There is a rather quaint
main street facing the tracks, with the yellow-brick station
serving as a combination railroad museum and Amtrak waiting room.
We made two stops here, and pulled forward to leave at 6:44 p.m.
But, again, we didn't get very far. We moved ahead a short
distance, and then started backing up, finally stopping west of
the station. In the process, we had switched to another track.
Soon an announcement was made over the loudspeaker that we had to
wait for a freight train to come by, and then we would be moving
again. Sure enough, after about a 15-minute delay, the freight
train passed to our right, and we finally started moving again at
7:10 p.m. We had lost another half an hour, this time due to the
host railroad's decision to give a freight train priority over
us. Now, we were nearly two hours and 45 minutes late. As I had
figured when we left San Antonio, it is now nearly inconceivably
for us to arrive in Chicago on time. I just hope that we don't
lose much more additional time on the way!
Our next unscheduled stop was at Big Sandy, about halfway
between Mineola and Longview. There is a junction here and, at
7:40 p.m., after taking the left fork, we came to a halt. We
remained here, not moving. I noticed that at the front of the
train there was a Union Pacific office, and that several crew
members appeared to be walking around outside, next to the train.
I walked towards the back of the train and took some video
pictures. I was fascinated by this small town, with a tiny City
Hall and adjacent community center. But I still couldn't
understand why we were waiting here so long.
Finally, at 8:01 p.m., as I was walking through the diner on
the way back to my room, we started moving again. I saw Michael,
the On-Board Chief, there, and asked him what was going on. He
replied that the line we were supposed to take via Longview and
Marshall was washed out, and therefore we had to detour on
another line. Because our regular crew was not qualified over
this line, we had to wait for a Union Pacific pilot crew. And we
would be skipping the scheduled stops of Longview and Marshall,
with all passengers to those stops having been taken off the
train in Mineola and bused to their destinations. Michael also
mentioned that an announcement to this effect had been made, but
because the loudspeaker in my sleeper was not working properly,
the announcement was barely audible, and I had not heard it.
Well, at least that explains what is happening. And, now I
will be covering some rare mileage! Moreover, from the map, it
would appear that the route we will be taking is more direct than
our normal route via Longview and Marshall. So we might possibly
make up a little time. But, it is already after 8:00 p.m., and
we are scheduled to arrive in Texarkana at 7:56 p.m. And we have
over 100 miles to go before we get there!
In the meantime, I happened to discover on my scanner --
more by luck than anything else -- the correct channel. It turns
out that the line we are on now, an ex-SP line, uses Channel 14
(160.320). For the first time in about four hours, I heard some
communications on the scanner. It was certainly frustrating not
to be able to listen to the scanner during the long delays that
we had just experienced -- especially since the conductors hang
out in the transition sleeper, which is supposed to be off-limits
to regular passengers.
I might add that in the four hours that had elapsed from the
time we arrived in Dallas to the time we left Big Sandy, we had
covered only about 105 miles, thus averaging 26 miles an hour!
Now I heard an announcement on the defect detector that we were
going 46 miles an hour. We clearly are not setting any speed
records tonight.
It was now getting dark, and the scenery consisted mainly of
trees and fields. I turned the lights out in my room, and
noticed that at 8:43 p.m., we passed through the town of
Pittsburg, with a brick station still in good condition. There
were frequent grade crossings along this line, with the horn of
the engine constantly sounding a warning. Soon, it became
completely dark.
About 9:30 p.m., I walked back to the lounge car, intending
to sit there for a while at a lower-level table. But I found
that there was some movie playing, and the lights throughout the
car had been dimmed. I wanted to do some reading, but that was
not possible in the lounge car given the absence of light. So,
although there were plenty of empty seats in the car, I just
purchased a bag of pretzels and returned to my room, where I ate
the pretzels along with some beer I had brought with me. To me,
these movies are nothing more than an annoyance which prevents me
from enjoying the facilities of the lounge car.
I turned on the scanner again, and heard the crew reporting
to the dispatcher that they had observed a broken rail at
milepost 450.6. They indicated that our train (luckily!) had
passed over it without any problems, but wanted to warn the
dispatcher to have it fixed. Sometime later, at 10:05 p.m., I
hear the defect detector at milepost 443.1 announce that we are
going only 16 miles an hour! Apparently, we have had to restrict
our speed because of the poor condition of this section of track.
At about 10:40 p.m., I heard on the scanner the engineer
calling the dispatcher to obtain permission to enter the yard in
Texarkana. We were granted the requested permission, but then we
were informed that there was a freight train in front of the
depot, thus blocking access to the station. I then heard the
train crew calling the station on the radio and asking if the
people waiting for the train could be transported by van down to
a place where the train would be accessible. It looks like we
will be encountering even further delays as a result!
We came to a stop at 10:52 p.m., and didn't start moving
again for eight minutes. Then, we moved forward a short distance
and again stopped. In the meantime, I went back to the lounge
car. I found that the upper level was freezing and completely
deserted, while there were some passengers at the tables on the
lower level, with the snack bar still open for service. I
returned to my room. Then, at 11:10 p.m., a van pulled up to the
right of the train. However, it appears that the van could not
get to the station unless our train moved. On the scanner, I
heard various suggestions as to how we could possibly move the
train to permit the crossing to be unblocked.
Finally, permission was obtained to move the train, and we
pulled onto a track directly in front of the station. Indeed,
the massive station was visible to the left through some open
freight cars. But there was a freight train on the track between
us and the station, and as a result, all passengers had to board
at the rear of the train, some distance to the south, after
having been transported there by van. This process, as might be
expected, took some time, and we did not leave Texarkana until
11:49 p.m., having lost close to an hour due to the complicated
arrangements for boarding passengers. All of this could have
been avoided had the Union Pacific Railroad found some way to
move the freight train that was parked directly in front of the
station.
I had hoped to step off the train during our stop in
Texarkana, but in light of the unusual method followed in
boarding the train, I figured that I better just stay on the
train. It was now close to midnight, and I decided that I should
try to go to sleep. A little while earlier, the attendant had
come by and told me that he assumed that I knew how to make the
bed myself, and therefore there would be no need for him to
perform this service for me. He was correct, of course, but I
felt it was a little presumptuous of him to make such an
assumption. Actually, I haven't traveled in a Superliner Economy
Bedroom in some time, but I remembered the steps necessary to
make the bed. (You have to push down both facing seats, then
open the upper berth and take the bedding down from there.) I
climbed into bed, and fell asleep rather quickly.
I think I slept through our stops in Arkadelphia and
Malvern, but woke up about 2:45 a.m., during our stop in Little
Rock. I quickly recognized the huge station building to the
right of the train. When we departed from Little Rock at 2:49
a.m., we were precisely four hours late. I woke up again at
about 4:30 a.m., when we seemed to be stopped in the middle of
nowhere. From the transmissions on the scanner, I gathered that
the conductor was inspecting the train (perhaps a defect detector
had given a false positive reading). When we began to move a few
minutes later, I heard the conductor state that 13 minutes of
delay should be allocated to this inspection.
Having slept over four hours pretty solidly, I was now wide
awake. I stayed in bed for over an hour, as it gradually got
lighter. Periodically, I would look out of the window, but
unfortunately the lower bunk in a Superliner Economy Bedroom is a
little too low to permit you to look out the window without
raising your head somewhat. We made a brief stop at Walnut
Ridge, Arkansas at 5:05 a.m. Finally, I got out of bed around
5:45 a.m., got dressed, and walked back to the last coaches. I
noticed that almost every pair of seats in all three coaches was
occupied by at least one passenger. A few minutes later, we
stopped for ten minutes to wait for the southbound Texas Eagle to
pass us. I saw the Eagle go by at 6:06 a.m., and then we stopped
at Poplar Bluff, Missouri at 6:15 a.m. Although two passengers
boarded my car here, we stopped for only a minute, and I didn't
have a chance to step off the train. Now we were four hours and
22 minutes late. The conductor indicated to me that we should
not lose any more time on our way to St. Louis (the next stop),
but that we shouldn't expect to make up any time, either.
Now we were passing through the Ozarks of southern Missouri.
The terrain becomes hilly, with a number of rock cuts and many
curves. This is actually the most scenic part of the ride, but
it is normally covered in both directions during the hours of
darkness. So, in a sense, we have the good fortune to cover this
stretch in daylight, due to our late running. (Actually, this is
the second time I've covered this piece of track during daylight
hours. In 1991, when I first traveled on the Texas Eagle from
Dallas to Chicago, the train ran about eight hours late!)
I went downstairs and took a shower, with the water being
quite warm. Then I got dressed and went to the diner for
breakfast. I was seated opposite a couple from Stevens Point,
Wisconsin who were returning from a trip to Dallas. They were
quite upset at our late running, as she was active in her church
and had agreed to serve as an usher for a wedding to be held
tomorrow. Their plan was to take the 3:15 p.m. Amtrak train from
Chicago to Milwaukee, where they would catch a Greyhound bus to
Stevens Point. But it now appeared very unlikely that they would
make the 3:15 p.m. train to Milwaukee, and although there are
later trains, there apparently is no later bus to Stevens Point.
So they didn't know what they would do when they got to Chicago.
The wife also mentioned to me that they were occupying Deluxe
Bedroom A in my car, and stated that she does not like this room
because a small piece has been cut off to provide increased space
for the corridor.
Seated next to me was a man from was returning to Pontiac,
Michigan after visiting his son in Texas. He and his wife had
boarded the train in Dallas, and were assigned to the Los Angeles
sleeper at the end of the train, where they occupied a Deluxe
Bedroom. (He mentioned that his wife liked to sleep late, and
that is why he showed up for breakfast without her.) He was also
concerned about the lateness of our train, since their connecting
train was scheduled to leave at 5:15 p.m., and it appeared rather
unlikely that they would make it. Both couples had done
extensive traveling by Amtrak, with the woman from Stevens Point
relating to me how she once took about ten children and
grandchildren on an Amtrak trip to California, including a ride
on the Coast Starlight.
After breakfast, I took some video pictures from the lounge
car, and then returned to my room, where I took out my computer
and continued updating these memoirs. Soon, we began running
directly alongside the Mississippi River, signifying that we were
quite near St. Louis. Then we began to enter the trackage of the
Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis. This stretch of
track is always a bottleneck, and we crawled along at a very slow
rate of speed.
Once we arrived in St. Louis, I wanted to check out the
freight and private cars that had been added at the rear of the
train. So I decided to get off at the last coach, where I would
be quite close to these cars. While waiting in the vestibule of
this coach as we approached the station, the conductor told me
that the private cars on the rear had been used by Amtrak for a
special inspection train running through Oklahoma to Fort Worth,
and were now being deadheaded back to Chicago.
We finally arrived in St. Louis at 10:08 a.m., almost
exactly four hours late. For the first time since we arrived in
Dallas nearly 16 hours previously, I got off the train and
immediately walked back to inspect the private cars. The first
car, lettered for the Pullman Company, was named Miami Beach, and
was assigned the Amtrak number 10020. The next car was the full-
length dome Mountain View, painted in Amtrak colors and assigned
the number 10030. The last car was named Georgia. I took some
video and still pictures of these cars. In the meantime, I had
been informed by an Amtrak worker that another car had to be
added at the back of the passenger section of the train. To
enable this to happen, a Genesis engine was assigned to pull the
express and private cars off the train. It turned out that the
car being added was a Superliner coach, for use of local
passengers boarding in St. Louis. Interestingly, it was added at
the rear of the last sleeper, so that the coach passengers would
in this car would have to go through that sleeper to get to the
lounge and dining cars. It seems to me that it would have been
just as easy to add the additional coach in front of the last
sleeper, thereby obviating this problem. Indeed, in San Antonio,
time was wasted moving cars around just to avoid the very same
problem!
I then went into the station, called my cousin Debbie to
inform her of my expected late arrival, and then checked my
messages. By now, it was 10:35 a.m., and the final boarding call
had already been made. So I quickly returned to the train. At
10:41 a.m., the blue flags were removed, and we pulled up to
enable the rear cars to be watered. And then, at 10:48 a.m.,
this operation was completed, and we pulled forward to depart.
But, again, we only moved a few feet. We stopped, and on
the scanner I heard the engineer calling the dispatcher for
permission to proceed. A few minutes later, he replied that we
could start moving once some other trains had cleared the bridge
ahead. To our right, I could see two long freight trains
proceeding westbound. Apparently, we were being held for these
trains to clear the track that we would have to use. Again, we
had been delayed by freight trains that were given priority over
us. Not until 11:02 a.m. did we get permission to resume our
journey to Chicago. We are still just over four hours late. If
we don't make up any more time, we'll be arriving in Chicago
about 5:30 p.m.
In the meantime, the new conductor informed me that once we
start moving, it should take us about five and one-half hours to
reach Chicago. That would mean that we should get there about
4:30 p.m., and that we would be making up an hour of lost time.
I hope he is right. Debbie informed me that my cousin Aaron is
planning to take the 5:30 p.m. Metra commuter train to Edgebrook,
and it would be nice if I could join him on that train, since he
will have his car at the station.
We proceeded directly east and crossed the MacArthur Bridge,
then swung around to the north. Although the route along the
western shore of the Mississippi which leads to the Merchants
Bridge was recently reopened (with the trestle in front of the
Gateway Arch having been completely rebuilt), the conductor
explained that there was some track work on this route, so we
were routed the other way by the dispatcher. He also mentioned
that we are restricted to 30 miles an hour on the next stretch of
track, owned by the Gateway Western Railroad, but that our speed
will increase once we pass Lenox Tower and proceed along Union
Pacific trackage. And, indeed, once we passed that tower, our
speed increased significantly.
But then, at about 11:50 a.m., we stopped again, this time
to wait for a freight train to get out of our way. After wasting
another ten minutes, we began to move again, and at 12:09 p.m.,
we arrived at Alton, Illinois. I went back to the last car and
stepped off the train briefly to take some pictures. We left two
minutes later, and were now four hours and 23 minutes late.
One would have assumed that, due to the late arrival of the
train in Chicago, a complimentary lunch would be served to all
passengers. Or, at the very least, one would expect that the
dining car would remain open to serve lunch. But neither was the
case. No lunch service at all was provided for passengers --
even for first-class passengers in the sleepers! Instead, at
12:15 p.m., an announcement was made that the dining car is still
open for breakfast! And another announcement was made that the
lounge car still has two kinds of sandwiches left. I was quite
surprised by this. Indeed, I think that Amtrak should serve
lunch on this train even when it arrives on time in Chicago at
1:35 p.m.! But not to provide lunch when the train does not
arrive until after 5:00 p.m. is inexcusable.
On the way north from St. Louis, I looked at the Great Lakes
West volume of the Steam Powered Videos that I had brought with
me, and noticed that an abandoned line of the Illinois Terminal
Railroad was running parallel to us on the left. The right of
way was distinctly visible, with even telegraph poles and rails
remaining in some places. It was nice being able to utilize this
book, which I acquired only recently.
We made a brief stop at Carlinville at 12:44 p.m. This stop
had never been made by the Texas Eagle until last year.
Apparently, when Amtrak decided to discontinue the Eagle south of
St. Louis, they figured that the remaining train north of St.
Louis might as well make all the local stops. And then, when the
decision was made to continue the entire train to San Antonio,
the local stops remained in the timetable. The number of
passengers boarding here is minuscule, and it would seem that
Amtrak should consider eliminating this and the other two local
stops recently added (Pontiac and Dwight) so as to speed up the
operation of this train. At 1:09 p.m., we passed the southbound
Ann Rutledge, on its way to St. Louis. We had to slow down for
the meet, but never came to a stop.
When we arrived in Springfield at 1:27 p.m., I stepped off
the train briefly. Here, a number of passengers who were
connecting to the California Zephyr detrained, since our late
arrival in Chicago would have resulted in them missing their
connection. Instead, Amtrak provided a van to shuttle them to
Galesburg, where they could catch their train. (Actually,
looking back at my memoirs from my 1994 trip, it seems that this
van is provided all of the time, even when the train is on time.
It seems that Amtrak feels that even if the train is on time
leaving Springfield, it might be delayed on the way to Chicago,
and much distance is cut out by this van shuttle.)
On the way back to my room, I stopped in the lounge car,
where I started talking with a boy and his grandmother who were
traveling from Walnut Ridge, Arkansas to Chicago, and then to
Michigan. They were trying to connect to the 5:15 p.m. train in
Chicago, and I told them that the train would probably be held
for them (and for others). The boy mentioned to me that they
ended up waiting last night at the Amtrak station in Walnut Ridge
for about four hours, and got no sleep. They did try to check
with Amtrak in the afternoon as to the timeliness of the train,
but were informed at that time that we were only an hour late
(which, at the time, was true). The boy mentioned to me that he
would just as soon have flown, but the grandmother refuses to
fly.
We arrived at Lincoln at 1:58 p.m., and at Bloomington-
Normal at 2:34 p.m. The stop at Lincoln was very brief, but the
train made two stops at Bloomington-Normal. When we departed
there, we were four hours and 11 minutes late.
Yesterday, I (along with every other passenger in the
sleepers) was given a coupon good for one free soft drink in the
lounge car. I hadn't used it yet (although I often took
advantage of the free juice available in our car). So I went
down to the lower level of the lounge car, where I redeemed the
coupon for a free Pepsi. I brought along material for our new
Catskill map set, and for the first time on the trip, I spent
some time sitting at a table in the lounge car. We made brief
stops at Pontiac at 3:06 p.m., and at Dwight at 3:26 p.m. The
conductor confirmed that we should be arriving in Chicago about
an hour and a half after we leave Dwight, so that would put us
into Chicago at 4:56 p.m. Maybe this is a little optimistic, but
there does seem to be a chance that I will make my 5:30 p.m.
Metra train.
At about 3:45 p.m., I walked to the back of the train for
the last time. By now, quite a few passengers had boarded the
train at stops north of St. Louis, and I counted 42 passengers
occupying the 60 upper-level seats in the rear coach, besides
three on the lower level. Then I returned to my room. We now
were approaching Joliet, our last stop before Chicago. At 4:00
p.m., we came to a stop, some distance south of the station. The
engineer asked for permission to proceed into the station, but
was told by the dispatcher that he would have to wait for a Metra
train to clear the diamond. I heard him tell the train crew: "I
think we should have been out of there by now, but you know,
Metra runs this outfit." We waited there for about six minutes,
and then pulled into the station, where we made one very brief
stop, and departed at 4:09 p.m. Our train was routed onto the
track furthest away from the station, so the detraining
passengers had to cross the other tracks on a wooden walkway to
reach the station.
Soon, we would be arriving at Union Station in Chicago, so I
started putting all my belongings away and brought my suitcase
downstairs to prepare for our arrival. At about 4:35 p.m., I
heard on the scanner an instruction to our train to "pull
everything into Track 26." In other words, we would be coming in
without a back-up move, and without having to stop in order to
remove the express cars and private cars from the rear of the
train. I was glad to hear that we will not be further delayed by
such moves. Then an announcement is made over the loudspeaker
regarding passengers who have connections to make in Chicago. We
are told that Amtrak will have a van to transport to stations up
to Minneapolis those passengers who have missed the Empire
Builder, but that passengers for stations west of Minneapolis
will be put up in a hotel at Amtrak's expense and will be taking
tomorrow's train instead. As for passengers heading to Michigan
on Train #354, we are informed that this train (scheduled to
depart at 5:15 p.m.) is departing from Track 18, and will be held
pending the arrival of our train. So everyone headed to Michigan
will make their connection! I wonder, though, how my friends
from Stevens Point will fare. (As to those passengers making
connections with trains to New York and Washington, those trains
do not leave until after 7:00 p.m., so there will not be a
problem making those connections.)
Next, I hear a message on the scanner from the dispatcher
that a certain 87-year-old man was supposed to get off the train
at Joliet but did not, and his family, who was waiting for him at
the Joliet station, is very concerned about his welfare. A
search was made of the train and, sure enough, the elderly
gentleman who was traveling from Springfield to Joliet, was found
safe and sound in one of the coaches. The train crew said that
they would bring him to station services in Chicago where,
presumably, he could be put on the next train back to Joliet.
One wonders how something like this could have happened. The
coach attendants are responsible for making sure that all
passengers get off the train at their designated stops, and one
would think that special efforts would be made to ensure that an
elderly passenger detrains at his destination. Very few
passengers got off at Joliet, but this should only make it easier
for the car attendant to ensure that the few passengers who are
supposed to get off here in fact do so. In any event, the family
must have been relieved to hear that he was just fine and still
aboard the train.
At 4:58 p.m., a few miles south of the station, we came to a
stop, and waited about ten minutes. But once we started moving
again, we proceeded straight ahead into the station without
further delay, and we came to a stop on Track 26 at 5:13 p.m. I
promptly detrained and proceeded into the station (it was
certainly convenient that I was in the first passenger car on the
train!). I went to the Metra ticket window where I purchased a
ticket for Glenbrook, and then boarded the rear car of the 5:30
p.m. Fox Lake train on Track 15. The whole procedure took less
than ten minutes, and by 5:21 p.m. I was aboard the train. A few
minutes later, my cousin Aaron boarded the same car (I had
remembered that he always rides in the last car), and we arrived
at the Glenbrook station about 25 minutes later. By 6:10 p.m.,
we were at my cousin's home.
My trip from San Antonio to Chicago was very enjoyable. It
was enhanced by the opportunity to see the Union Pacific train in
Dallas, the addition of the private cars at the end of the train,
and the "rare mileage" due to the detour from Big Sandy to
Texarkana. The delays -- which were due to the fault of both
Amtrak and the freight railroads, primarily Union Pacific -- did
not bother me significantly, but quite a number of passengers on
the train were seriously inconvenienced as a result. The action
of the UP dispatcher in putting us on the wrong track in
Texarkana was particularly incredible! And I found it really
hard to believe that Amtrak would not serve any lunch to
passengers on the train when we didn't arrive in Chicago until
after 5:00 p.m. But I certainly had a very nice trip, and I'm
looking forward to my trip next week back to the east coast on
the Cardinal.
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