kochleffel

My longest train trip was from Old Saybrook, Conn., to Portland, Oreg., in 1994 . At that time there were two possible routes, and I used one in each direction:

Westbound: Northeast regional (the trains still had individual names then, but I don't remember this one) to Philadelphia (connection was too close at New York but feasible at Philadelphia), Broadway Limited to Chicago, California Zephyr to Denver, and Pioneer to Portland.

Eastbound: Empire Builder to Chicago (a section running from Portland joined the main section from Seattle at Spokane), Lake Shore Limited to Boston Back Bay (connection at South Station was too close), Northeast regional to Old Saybrook.

jrl767

1994 Amtrak timetable shows the Mayflower, Patriot, and Minute Man operating southbound through OSB

in July 1963 my mom and sister and I took a Union Pacific train from San Bernardino to Chicago; we had lunch with a great-uncle, his wife, and her sister during a four-hour layover … we had to go from Northwestern Station to Grand Central Station, then continued on the Baltimore & Ohio to Washington DC

kochleffel

Thanks.

In August I had the somewhat strange experience of taking an Amtrak bus from Seattle to Bellingham. Passengers just wait in front of King Street Station until the bus arrives. There are actual trains on that route, but the midday run, the one needed to connect to the Alaska Marine Highway System ferries, is a bus.

WHBM

Slightly surprised myself, because Taipei-Singapore-Bandar S B is more than a bit of a dogleg. But they probably got far more business to Singapore. And at the time widebodies were ubiquitous on international Far East flights. Hong Kong, with no domestics, had hardly any.

I think we discussed Royal Brunei before. When they first got the 757s in the late 1980s they even started their London route with them, later moving on to 767s and various others since, like Cathay Pacific traditionally crewed almost wholly by Brits and Australians.. It was probably the last narrowbody you could take all the way from London to Sydney. They seem to have fallen on rather difficult times recently, and their traditional baseload of the cheapest fare from London to Australia has been lost in the last two years of course. I see they have been into London just once this year so far, in three weeks. But their country's oil is still good, and they will doubtless bounce back.

jlemon

Since there have been no takers for the two bonus quiz items I recently submitted, I have now removed them but shall resubmit both as part of a new batch of quiz questions in the future....

jrl767

replaced by following post

jrl767

the promised 1999 trio
(jlemon having removed his prior post by editing meant that the “latest post” info didn’t change )

1999(a)- You’ve had a wonderful week in Trinidad, but it’s hardly a surprise when you receive a message that you have to be at Luke AFB, some 30 miles west of Phoenix, at 1pm Monday. After a flightline orientation meeting with the Operations Group staff, you’ll meet separately with first and second shift maintenance supervisors, and then attend a 7pm dinner meeting with the contractor operations support manager.

The problem is that the message arrives while you’re at a Sunday afternoon happy hour, and there’s no way that you’ll be able to get to the airport in Port of Spain to catch the 6pm BWIA flight to JFK.

To your great surprise, you discover there’s a not-terribly-inconvenient way to get to PHX — two nonstop flights with a 1+45 connection. Please identify both airlines, both equipment types, and the connecting airport.

1999(b)- The other problem with the LAFB meeting is that you still have a 2pm meeting at the Lake Placid Camp & Conference Center on Tuesday. Unfortunately, the nearest major airport is approximately a two-hour drive from the conference center, and the airline you would prefer to fly is of no help: their most direct redeye leaves at 1050pm, and the midnight departure via their secondary hub is completely sold out. Another carrier has First Class availability on their 1130pm departure, but the connecting flight arrives shortly after noon.

Aha! Here’s a 1215am departure with a 1+25 online connection, putting you in at 1045am. Unfortunately, you’ll have to slum it in coach on two different single-cabin jets. The usual details, please.

1999(c)- What was your original Monday afternoon itinerary from POS to the arrival airport? One airline, three nonstop flights, each on a different type, 2+25 and 2+36 connections.

Track

I realize this site is meant primarily for discussion of air travel, so I, as an ardent railfan, make a point of including air connections in my posts, that center around train travel. I hope not too many readers take exception at this. Anyhow, living in foreign countries for several years at a stretch, one has a better insight into foreign cultures than a two-week tourist does and also gets to travel around to obscure places . In 1991 while living in Burundi, I thought a trip to South Africa would be enlightening, to see first-hand what apartheid looked like, albeit as a two-week tourist, and to ride the famous Blue Train. Since South Africa of course had no diplomatic or consular representation in Burundi, getting a visa (I was traveling as a tourist, not officially) was a problem. Conveniently, a Belgian auto mechanic in Bujumbura served as the unofficial consular contact for Republic of South Africa and arranged visas, rumor had it also for Burundian government officials needing to travel to RSA, for what reason I have no idea.
A Kenya Airways 757 brought me to Nairobi and a Swissair 747 to Johannesburg. After a few days I was on a South African Airways A300 to Capetown. There were always many Black and "colored" people on the streets and in the shops, but we knew after nightfall they had to leave town. The flight was all-white.
I had booked a suite on the Blue Train, with a sitting room/bedroom and an adjoining bathroom - with a bathtub! and this on a narrow-gauge train (Cape gauge: 1067mm, standard is 1435mm). The staff was all white, but there was one mixed-race couple in the dining car. I don't know whether they were South African (unlikely), foreign business types or foreign diplomats. From Johannesburg I took the Trans Natal to Durban and then the Trans Oranje to De Aar. From Kimberly to De Aar the train was pulled by one of South African Railways big Class 25 4-8-4 steam locomotives, a real and rare treat. After a couple of hours on the platform of De Aar I boarded the Suidwester to Windhoek in Namibia, a train trip no longer possible. In Windhoek the main post office had its name plastered on the side in big letters in English, Afrikaans and German! The rest of the trip was standard: South African 737 to Johannesburg and Swissair 747 to Nairobi. The Kenya Airways flight to Bujumbura was cancelled, with no good reason given. When I inquired about hotel accommodations, the clerk refused, saying, "If we did it for you, we would have to do it for everyone." Right! Anyhow the next day Kenya Airways took me to Bujumbura via Kigali on a 757 (they also used DC-8s and A310s on this route). The Blue Train today is a once-weekly tourist train, allowing off-train excursions, but it still offers an accommodation with bathtub, according to the advertising. It is no longer a normal travel option.

Bluehen1

1999(b) This is throwing me for a bit of a loop with the single class flights and connection. The major airports near Lake Placid are BTV or ALB. I don’t think Southwest was flying to either one and I don’t think they were flying the overnight flights at that time. UsAirways’ Metrojet was around at that time and it was single class.

So, for my first guess let’s propose PHX-MDW on an ATA 757-300 connecting to Metrojet’s 737-200 for MDW-ALB

jrl767

1999(b)- this is also a geography quiz

WHBM

Didn't BWIA used to do overnight flights from the Caribbean to Canada ? I recall seeing them in Toronto Pearson early morning once. Probably still a Tristar 500 then, from Trinidad to Toronto, then I guess Air Canada had done their big expansion to US ports by then, bit of a long run for a DC9, let's say an A320. I suppose it depends when in the year it is done - Phoenix used to be a significant winter destination from Vancouver and Calgary, even with Wardair 747s, but by 1999 their time had long passed.

kochleffel

I'm not suggesting that it matters for this question, but I think that YUL is closer than ALB.

jlemon

I also recall weekend nonstops between Vancouver and Palm Springs during the winter months flown by CP Air with the DC-10.

jrl767

1999(a)- a month or so ago Seat 2A posed a question about a St Lucia-to-Phoenix itinerary on a pair of A320s; when I offered AC over YYZ (obviously incorrectly) he allowed that he wasn't aware of them ever operating the route .. which prompted some research on my part

Bluehen1

Yeah, this is the part where growing up partially in upstate New York means you automatically default to NY when someone mentions Lake Placid. Now that I realize we’re talking about Florida..

PHX-MDW on an ATA 757-200 connecting to MDW-RSW on a 727-200.