Plans in a cocked hat! In the process of thinking about this whole train trip extravaganza I felt that trying to do it in one massive undertaking was a bit too much and so I started plan in segments. The first was relatively easy, go west, up the coast and back to Chicago. Repeating some trips, and exploring new territory. ( I had taken the Empire Builder as far as Grand Forks, North Dakota once and then crossed the border and had gone the other direction in Canada.) Now it was time to look into the other trips. As soon as I started, things have continued to come up to frustrate the plans. Such as, last year I found out about the “Pullman Tours” and their special trains to New Orleans- expensive but classy and soon as I found out about them they discontinued them! ( something about a disagreement with Amtrak since they were just attaching their “old Varnish” to the “City of New Orleans.”) Then I thought I should look into the “Texas Eagle.” ( I had ridden this train too, as far as Dallas and had found out that it actually went much further!) So I started to plan a trip on that train only to find out that there was a strange 6 hour lay over in San Antonio, Texas in the middle of the night! When I explored the details it turns out that the “Eagle” terminates in San Antonio and part of the train is attached to the “Sunset Limited” coming from New Orleans. And the reason for the strange layover is that the “Limited” doesn’t run every day. So if you are careful you can plan to stay on the train coming from Chicago and sleep through the layover. While the car you are on is switched to the other train.
Then there was the “Gulf Hole.” I was aware that after a major hurricane had come through the Gulf of Mexico, the track infrastructure had been pretty much wiped out. Only in the last few years has it be restored and now at least the freight trains were using it again. Amtrak had abandoned any use of that route which used to be from Tampa to New Orleans. Last year they ran a test train on the route and this year there is more action about restoring the route for passenger traffic. Of course, since it is a National rail system that means that the congress will have its fingers in the pie and that will slow the restoration process down considerably. There is hope that, finally I can actually make a circumnavigation of the USA on the train from New Orleans to either Tampa or Orlando!
( Go East, Young Man!)
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