Trip Reports - UAL/Amtrak SJC-ORD-ESM-PDX-SJC

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[This message has been edited by birdstrike (edited 07-05-2002).]

Enjoying your report so far, especially the hotel view portion. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif Awaiting the next installment.

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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by birdstrike:
We also pass trains that have no name, freight yards full of old black men and many, many graveyards of the rusting automobile. </font>

That was the train on the other track. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

[This message has been edited by yyzflyer (edited 07-07-2002).]

I find it interesting that you mention malfunctioning loos in the Superliner Sleepers. When we took the Coast Starlight from PDX to SJC two weekends ago, we had the same experience. Our in-room toilet had some kind of air pressure leak. Not only did the toilet not flush, but there was this annoying whooshing sound that kept us awake most of the night. Finally, they simply shut off the flush mechanisms in all the toilets in our car and the noise went away.

That ended up being one rather smelly trip!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by EIPremier:
[BThat ended up being one rather smelly trip![/B]</font>

I can imagine http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Our car didn't smell that good either. Downs kept deferring maintenance while he promised Congress that Amtrak could make money. Bad, bad move.

Cheers,

birdstrike

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What a great report, birdstrike! I've been following it with interest as a diehard (for better or worse) Amtrak fan. You've chronicled the only two Amtrak routes that I haven't travelled, with just the right amount of humor
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by birdstrike:
I've got the scanner going in the background and trackside detectors periodically give us our axle count, outside temperature and cheerily announce "No defects, no defects". At one detector it appeared that we had lost an axle, because the count went down by one, bit I guess they managed to fix it before we hit the next detector, since it gave us the expected count.
</font> http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif You obviously have the patience it requires to deal with the variable on a cross-country rail trip. Hopefully Amtrak will stay in business long enough for me to add this mileage to my collection. Perhaps next summer. Thanks!