Thursday Proto Photo, Jan 18/18

[peteski]

Jbub wonderful pictorial of his Amtrak trip brought back memories of my transcontinental Amtrak trip from Boston to LA in April of 2005.  While not new, I think you will enjoy seeing some photos (the Southwest Chief section, from Chicago to LA).  While there were some typical Amtrak glitches (like no hot water for the shower), the trip was thoroughly enjoyable.   It is so much fun to see our country from the ground level, and be able to freely walk around the train and be able to mingle with the other passengers.


Leaving Chicago.


Enjoying the panoramic view and lots of elbow room.


Our train's motive power.


Crossing the Continental Divide.


Um, Raton. 


The Southwest Chief at Raton.


Somewhere in New Mexico(I think).




I should have taken a left turn at Albuquerque . . . 


The rear end.






BNSF country!


Early morning in Fullerton.


Getting close to LA.




We have arrived - LA's Union Station.

[MK]

Great great pictures Peteski!  Do you have a website with more photos of your trian travels?  I would like to do a similar cross country trip one of these day.  Do they not wash the windows or are they all scratched up as the pics that you took through them looked "blah"?

[Jbub]

The windows have a tint and they reflect the interior petty bad. It was hard to take pictures from inside the train.

[Jbub]

Pete, if you took the southwest chief then you crossed the Mississippi on this bridge.



 There is a stop just after the bridge in Fort Madison, IA and there is a Santa Fe 4-8-4 on display there. It's a cool little station. I wish I had had the time to explore and get pictures. I probably would have if i hadn't been stuck on the bridge for 30 minutes or so.


 
BNSF operates it and they were doing maintenance. If you look closely through the latice of the first picture you can see the swing section sticking out.

[pnolan48]

Combining my two interests in Decatur, AL.

[peteski]

Pete, if you took the southwest chief then you crossed the Mississippi on this bridge.



 There is a stop just after the bridge in Fort Madison, IA and there is a Santa Fe 4-8-4 on display there. It's a cool little station. I wish I had had the time to explore and get pictures. I probably would have if i hadn't been stuck on the bridge for 30 minutes or so.

BNSF operates it and they were doing maintenance. If you look closely through the latice of the first picture you can see the swing section sticking out.

Yeah, that looks familiar (except for the highway deck of course). I didn't take any photos (I probably left the camera in our compartment and was walking around in the train).

Great great pictures Peteski!  Do you have a website with more photos of your trian travels?  I would like to do a similar cross country trip one of these day.  Do they not wash the windows or are they all scratched up as the pics that you took through them looked "blah"?

Thanks MK!   Like Jbub wrote, the "bad" pictures were either due to the reflections in the heavily tinted glass and/or dirty windows. That photo of the locos at the Continental Divide were taken at really sharp angle in order to get the locomotives in the photo, that exaggerated the problem.  The digital camera I had at the time was not the greatest either.  But regardless of the photo quality, they bring up some nice memories for me.  I do have bunch more photos but I haven't put them online yet.  I might post a better writeup here at some point.

The trip is much more expensive than airplane tickets (and 3 days long). But if you think of of it as a mini-vacation with sightseeing, it is not that bad.  Meals are included too (or were back in 2005).

[eric220]

Meals are still included with sleeping accommodations. If you compare it against staying in a hotel each night and going out for each of your meals, the price really isn’t that bad.

[Mark W]

Since we're talking memorable rides aboard Amtrak.  I had a big one August 2012 aboard the California Zephyr, heading home to Nebraska for a semester break. 
Everything was routine through SLC, then we woke up to find a visitor on the front end.


https://i.imgur.com/OolUbyl.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/HnPP1c3.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/TDFHlFP.jpg


Every once and a while, we'll run Amtrak with UP 1989 at a show.  When we do, there's always one person that comes up and excitedly says "Hey, did you know that actually happened once?!"   

[Jbub]

Mark, those are some cool photos.

And I've got more to post this week. We had a good snow storm on Saturday with about 8-12 inches of snow.  I snapped a couple pictures at a crossing from my plow truck for you winter loving guys.

Big west oil refinery, I thought the snow sliding off the tankers looked cool.



Looking south down the main

[peteski]

Since we're talking memorable rides aboard Amtrak.  I had a big one August 2012 aboard the California Zephyr, heading home to Nebraska for a semester break. 
Everything was routine through SLC, then we woke up to find a visitor on the front end.


https://i.imgur.com/TDFHlFP.jpg


Every once and a while, we'll run Amtrak with UP 1989 at a show.  When we do, there's always one person that comes up and excitedly says "Hey, did you know that actually happened once?!"   

Very nice Mark. Seeing the UP 1989 next to to the P42s, shows that how much taller it is.  I never realized that until now.

[trainforfun]

Pictures are great this week !!!
I so want to take a train trip now !!!!!!!!