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Dan Chazin's Trip on the Amtrak Sunset Limited
Houston-New Orleans
TrainWeb.com/travelogues/dchazin/1999b09a/1999b09a.html
It's 9:40 a.m. on Tuesday, February 9, 1999, and I've just
arrived at the Amtrak station in Houston to begin my rail journey
back to New York. On Sunday, I flew to Dallas to attend a
meeting which took place on Sunday afternoon and Monday. Then,
last night, I flew (on an American Eagle turbo-prop plane) to
Houston Hobby Airport, and I stayed over at the home of an old
friend of mine. This morning, I returned my rented Avis car to
the rental location at the Galleria. That facility is about five
miles from the Amtrak station downtown, but -- thankfully -- a
courtesy shuttle service is provided during the hours the
facility is open (which would presumably not include the time at
which the westbound Sunset Limited is scheduled to arrive).
About 9:35 a.m., on our way to the station, as we proceeded
across the railroad crossing on Richmond Avenue, the crossing
bells started ringing, and I noticed an Amtrak train approaching
the crossing. That was our train, scheduled to arrive at the
Houston station just about now! The last report had indicated
that the train was 35 minutes late, so it seems to have made up
some, but not all, of the lost time. The shuttle driver assured
me that we would beat the train to the downtown station. And he
was right. When we arrived at station five minutes later, the
train was nowhere in sight.
The Amtrak station in Houston is a small, modern,
unattractive building in a fringe area on the outskirts of
downtown. The shuttle driver told me that there used to be a
large station here that was heavily used during World War II, but
the present station is little more than an Amshack. The only
thing attractive about it is the old wooden benches, which seem
to have been salvaged from the original station. There is also a
private car, named "Intrepid," parked on the other side of the
tracks, behind a chain-link fence.
But I didn't have long to wait, for Train #2, the Sunset
Limited, pulled in at 9:45 a.m., only ten minutes late. By
standing on the platform as the train passed by, I was able to
record all of the car numbers. Today's train is pulled by
Genesis I engine #808, assisted by "Pepsi-Can" engine #508.
Behind the engines are a deadhead Superliner diner, a baggage
car, a transition sleeper, two Superliner I sleepers, a diner, a
Sightseer Lounge, a coach with a smoking section downstairs, a
regular coach (with a section downstairs for handicapped people),
and three express cars. After a short wait, I was allowed to
board the smoker coach #31503, where I was instructed to take
seat #45. The train was not full, and I had two seats to myself.
Indeed, only about a dozen or so passengers boarded the train
here at Houston.
We left Houston at 10:01 a.m., but proceeded very slowly for
about 20 minutes, stopping for several minutes at a railroad
junction a few miles to the east. We then continued through the
outskirts of the city and did not cross the San Jacinto River
until 10:50 a.m. (according to the Rail Ventures book, it should
take only half an hour to cover the distance from the Houston
station to the San Jacinto River).
I remained at my seat for a while, and commenced writing
these memoirs. Then I went down to the lower level of the lounge
car, where I got a cup of coffee and ate two donuts that I had
bought the previous evening at a supermarket in Houston. I was
soon joined at my table by a man who was traveling in a sleeper
all the way from Los Angeles to Orlando. He was also a rail
buff, and showed me the GPS receiver he had brought along on the
train. He actually succeeded in getting a reading on the lower
level of the lounge car, and showed me how his receiver displayed
a map showing the nearest city! I was really amazed.
In the meantime, I entered the car numbers of this train
into my database, and discovered that both the lead engine (#808)
and the lounge car in which I was sitting (#33044) were on the
Empire Builder that I took from Portland, Oregon to Chicago this
past December. Indeed, I spent part of that ride sitting in the
very same seat at one of the two "good" tables in the lower level
of this Superliner II lounge car! This time, there was
background music being played in the car, but, thankfully, no
movie was being shown.
On the way back to my seat, I walked through the coaches,
and counted about 90 coach passengers aboard the two coaches on
the train (with a total capacity of about 130). Passengers
traveling no further than New Orleans were put in the coach with
smoking lounge, while those traveling further than that were
assigned to the rear coach with the lower-level seating.
Upon approaching Beaumont, we again slowed down
considerably, and stopped several times. As we entered the
outskirts of town, I noticed regular gas priced at an Exxon
station along the highway for 77 cents a gallon. I haven't seen
gas so cheap in years! We finally pulled into the station at
12:12 p.m. I had hoped that a friend of mine might meet me here
to say hello, but he didn't show up. The station here is a
small, modern building, located some distance southwest of the
downtown area. There is no Amtrak ticket agent, but the building
is apparently used for Union Pacific Railroad offices.
Although only two passengers detrained here and no one got
on, our stop lasted for four minutes because the conductor went
into the station, apparently to make a report of some sort. The
attendant, however, said to me that no one would be allowed to
get off the train. In light of his statement, I stayed on the
train, but another "hippie-type" passenger stepped off. He was
promptly ordered back onto the train by the attendant, who used
very harsh language. (I should say, though, that both the
attendant and the conductor were very nice to me. It seems that
the "hippie" passenger had been acting rather obnoxiously, and
that is why they treated him so harshly.) When we left Beaumont
at 12:16 p.m., we were 38 minutes late, having lost a full half
hour due to some very slow running since we departed Houston.
The batteries in my computer were now running low, so I
walked down to the lounge car, where I was able to plug the
computer into an outlet located near the top of the stairway in
the center of the car. The car was largely deserted, with many
passengers eating lunch in the diner. At 12:50 p.m., we passed
through the town of Orange, near the Louisiana border. The
beautiful, old brick station on the right side of the tracks is
boarded up and unused, but appears to be in pretty good
condition. Soon we crossed the Sabine River and entered
Louisiana.
It was now 1:00 p.m., so I went into the dining car for
lunch. I was seated opposite a woman who lived in Houston, where
she worked as a nutritionist in a local veterans' hospital, and
was returning to Philadelphia, her birthplace, to visit her
parents. She was traveling on this train to Jacksonville, where
she would change to the Silver Meteor. She mentioned to me that
this was her first time on a train in 19 years, and was
pleasantly surprised to find out how nice the train was.
Apparently, she made the decision to take this trip at the last
minute, and found out that the one-way fare from Houston to
Philadelphia would have been $750! Therefore, she decided to
take the train, which was much cheaper.
As I was finishing the meal, at 1:36 p.m., we stopped at
Lake Charles. The old brick station here is closed, and the
plastic Amshack provided for passengers has been severely
vandalized, with almost all of the plastic panels -- including
those which comprise the roof -- having been shattered,
apparently by rocks thrown by vandals. It is the least
attractive Amtrak facility I have ever seen! Our stop here
lasted for four minutes, and when we departed at 1:40 p.m., we
were still precisely 38 minutes late.
After lunch, I returned to my coach seat, where I rested for
a while and did some reading. It was very quiet and peaceful in
the car, with a number of passengers having detrained in Lake
Charles. The country we passed through was very flat, with
rice -- grown in flooded fields -- being the main crop. (In
fact, the AAA Guide states that one-quarter of the rice produced
in the United States grows within 50 miles of Crowley, one of the
towns that we pass through between Lake Charles and Lafayette.)
We arrived at Lafayette at 3:17 p.m. This time, the rear
car was opened for passengers getting on and off. Some boarding
passengers had considerable heavy and bulky luggage which had to
be carried from their car to the train, with the assistance of
the conductor, so the stop took three minutes. The station here
is nothing more than a shell of a brick building, which
(according to the conductor) was destroyed by fire several months
ago. The metal stanchions which formerly supported the roof over
the platform remain, but the roof no longer exists, presumably
also having been destroyed in the fire. Here, I was able to step
off the train, with the permission of the conductor, and took a
few pictures of the bleak, burned-out station and platform. We
departed Lafayette at 3:20 p.m., and were now 47 minutes late.
Although the interstate highway from Lafayette to New
Orleans follows a more northerly route through Baton Rouge, our
train takes a southerly route, paralleling the Bayou Teche. The
rice fields that we had passed since Lake Charles were now
replaced by sugar cane fields, with their characteristic mounds.
Our next stop, in little more than 20 minutes, was New
Iberia. Although the stop lasted for only about a minute, I was
able to step off the train briefly here. The beautiful old brick
station, although no longer housing a ticket office, was open for
waiting passengers. One family boarded the train here. As we
left town, we passed by an interesting above-ground cemetery on
the right.
Since the batteries in my computer were now dead, I moved
back to the upper level of the lounge car, where I was able to
plug in my computer. Unfortunately, the attendant soon started
playing a movie, but the volume was not all that loud, and it
didn't materially interfere with the work I was doing. Hardly
anyone was watching the movie, though. I went back to my seat
and brought back some potato chips and soda that I had purchased
in Houston.
Soon we crossed a long, single-track truss bridge over the
Atchafalaya River and passed through Morgan City. To our left,
there were two massive highway bridges. Morgan City featured
some quaint storefronts from the early part of this century, and
one store had a sign advertising that "gator meat" was available
there! South of Morgan City, we began to pass through some
cypress swamps. We proceeded through the swamps on raised fill,
but to our left a new highway was being constructed on concrete
pilings.
At 5:15 p.m., we arrived at Schriever. This is a rather
small community, but the station also serves the adjacent, larger
towns of Houma and Thibodaux. The station here is a simple
building with white asbestos shingles. Although it is in
relatively good condition, it appears to be used by signal
maintainers and is not open to the public. A family of five got
off here, and no one got on. Although the stop lasted for only
about a minute, I did manage to step off the train briefly and
get a picture of the station. We had lost some more time, and
were now almost an hour late. However, there is close to an hour
make-up time built into the schedule, so we might actually arrive
in New Orleans on time!
Since were scheduled to arrive in New Orleans at 6:50 p.m.,
I decided to go to the diner for supper. I was seated next to a
man who was traveling (in coach) from Los Angeles to Pensacola,
Florida to visit his aunt. He doesn't like to fly, and prefers
the train. Soon we were joined by the man who had previously
shown me his GPS receiver. My pot roast meal was very good, and
we lingered for quite a while, talking about various topics.
By the time we started our climb up the 4.4-mile-long Huey
Long Bridge, leading into New Orleans, at 6:15 p.m., it was
already dark. You get a panoramic view of the City of New
Orleans from this high bridge, and even in the dark, it was quite
spectacular.
After dinner, I went down to the lower level of the lounge
car and purchased a Sunset Limited cap. Then I returned to my
seat and started packing up my belongings. We started our back-
up move into the New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal at 6:50
p.m., and came to our final stop at 7:01 p.m. -- just 11 minutes
late. The make-up time built into the schedule certainly came in
very handy tonight! I detrained, and walked back to the front of
the train to check the numbers I had recorded for the consist (I
had missed one of the sleepers when I wrote down the numbers in
the Houston station). Then I went into the station and called
the Best Western motel, where I would be staying tonight, to
arrange for them to pick me up. I was told to wait in the
waiting area in front of the Magnolia Room (the first-class
lounge) and that the van should arrive at about 7:35 p.m. I
actually had to wait until about 7:50 p.m. before the van finally
arrived.
My trip on the Sunset Limited from Houston to New Orleans
was uneventful but quite pleasant and relaxing. The scenery is
certainly not spectacular, but it is interesting, and the
uncrowded atmosphere of the train made for a very enjoyable trip.
Now, I will be back here again tomorrow morning to board the
Crescent to complete my rail journey back to New York.
Many more rail travelogues for you to read:
Dan Chazin /
Other Writers
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