Trainsets, consists, accomodations, and connections

This post is for those of you who enjoy the technical side of machinery, travel and logistics.  Since we will be taking Amtrak to the west coast, I thought I would provide some information about the trains that we will be traveling on, our accomodations onboard, and the connections we must make.



The map above shows the route of our first train except that we will be boarding in Staunton instead of New York.  Except for the Capitol Limited which runs between Chicago and Washington, DC and the Auto-Train which runs between Northern Virginia and Sanford, Florida, all other long distance trains east of Chicago are single-level trains.  This is because the larger, bi-level trains do not fit in the tunnels around Baltimore and New York.  The train we will be taking between Staunton and Chicago is called the Cardinal and is a single level train.  The Cardinal is pulled by a diesel engine and the consist includes a heritage baggage car, a viewliner sleeper, a combined lounge/diner car, and three coach cars.  When we start our trip, we will be in one of the coaches until Cincinnati.  At Cincinnati, we will move to a bedroom on the sleeper car.  For a tour of a viewliner sleeper car, click Here.  Estimated time for this portion of our trip is around 20 hours.



This map shows the route of our next train,  The Southwest Chief.  The Southwest Chief is a bi-level Superliner train.  These trains are very large and very impressive.  The Chief is also pulled by diesel engines and is made up of the following consist:  heritage baggage car, transitional sleeper, superliner sleeper, superliner sleeper, superliner diner, sightseer lounge, and three superliner coach cars.  The sightseer lounge car is my favorite train car.  For a really cool virtual tour of a superliner train, click Here.  We will have a bedroom in a sleeper car for this section of our journey which is schedule to last around 43 hours.

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The next leg of our trip finds us going from Los Angeles, CA to Oakland CA on another Superliner train, the Coast Starlight.  The consist for the Coast Starlight includes a baggage car, transition dorm, three superliner sleepers, a Pacific Parlour Car (more about this in a minute), superliner diner, sightseer lounge, and three coach cars.  The Pacific Parlour Car is specific to this train and is an old, restored lounge car used specifically for sleeper passengers.  Here is a picture found on the web of the car:


The Coast Starlight is also known to be very scenic as it travels along the California coast and beaches and the Pacific ocean.  Here is a photo of the Coast Starlight found on the Web:



Once we arrive in Oakland after a journey of eleven hours, we will transfer to a bus which will take us across the bay bridge to San Francisco.  We will have a bedroom for our trip on the Coast Starlight, too, even though it is a daytime journey.

Our return journey home will take a slightly different route:



This will be on the California Zephyr which is also a Superliner train.  We will have a bedroom for this portion of our journey which is scheduled to last approximately 52 hours.  The California Zephyr is considered one of the top ten scenic trains in the world.  The consist of the Zephyr includes:  baggage car, transitional sleeper, three coaches, sightseer lounger, diner, and three sleepers.

Our final leg of the trip will be on the Cardinal once again from Chicago to Staunton.  We will enjoy a bedroom for this portion of the trip, too.

As far as connections, we should be fine for making most of our trains.  We will have a five hour layover in Chicago going out and plan on seeing a little of the city during this time.  The connection I am most worried about is the connection in Los Angeles.  Because we arrive in LA on the same day that Daylight Savings time begins, we will lose one hour of our two hour connection.  Keep your fingers crossed for us.  Returning home, we will have another layover in Chicago of three hours.

So, this wraps up the technical and logistical summary.   One week to go . . . . . .