Rail Trips

[yakers]

My wife & I and some friends recently returned from a week long expedition to Mexico's Copper Canyon. There are four major elements to the trip, one is the rail trip. full day trips into and out of the area is pretty much the only way to get there. While we like rail travel we were definitely in the presence of real train buffs who reveled in the train part. Then there is the canyon itself which appears to be bigger than our Grand Canyon, we stayed at a hotel right on the edge of the canyon, watched the sunrise over the canyon and went on day hikes. Another element was meeting the local Tarahumara indians who are the most amazing runners in the world and generally live isolated from even the Spanish population. And the surprise element was a half day float trip down the El Fuerte River, not even remotely challenging water wise but full of birds.

We enjoyed the trip we are looking at more rail trips. But I wonder, most of the even the ER types here are old enough to have had rail travel, maybe you can recall some older or more recent trips.

 

[Texas Proud]

Sounds like a great time.... I think my parents did that back in the mid 70s... they liked it...

But, and this is from memory.. the Grand Canyon is the largest in the world and deepest also.. I remember the guide said that if you only looked at the 'skinny' part that it would be one of the deepest in the world and you still had a few thousand feet for the wide part... but, I am sure someone will look it up...

 

[rs0460a]

Back in the late '50's my mother/I took a train (Eastern PA) several times into NYC to visit my aunt (who lived in the Jamaica & Flushing areas during that time). That train service was stopped in the early '60's.

Last fall, during our Alaska trip, we had a two-day train trip (Fairbanks to Denali; Denali to Anchorage) on the "front-end" of our cruise.

Certainly a more "civilized" way of travel.

When I traveled to Lyon, France back in the late 90's (wo*k), I would travel on the TGV (high speed) from CDG (Paris) to Lyon every 6-8 weeks (flying from the US).

My wife and I made the same trip, and then took the local train to the French Alps during a 2-week vacation last spring.

Additionally, we took the Glacier Express (Switzerland) during a vacation in the early '90's. Quite an experience in going up a "circular tunnel" to a pass with no snow in the valley to over 2 ft (.6 M) at the top, in a blizzard, in the middle of May! Quite an experience...

Anyway, the times I have spent on trains (very little, compared to my air travel) are memorable...

- Ron

 

[AltaRed]

I've experienced 2 train trips that have been memorable. The first was in the '60s when as a high school student, I took the train from Western Canada to Montreal as part of a student exchange. It was super cool to eat, sleep and generally goof off on about a 3-4 day trip. The equipment was probably 50 years old at that time but everything worked most of the time.

The second was in 1990 during Gorbie's days when DW, kids and I did an adventure tour of the then Soviet Union. One of the legs of the 2 week 5 city tour was a day long electric train ride from Kiev in the Ukraine southeast to Odessa on the Black Sea. Was highly interesting seeing the various villages and people from many walks of life use the train.

 

[2B]

I can't resist this.

When I was very young, my "uncle" (lived with my grandmother) would take us to Philadelphia to either the zoo or to see a baseball game. We'd take the train. I loved going to the bathroom. When you "flushed," you could see the tracks rushing by down below. That was in the 50s.

 

[73ss454]

2b you are easily amused.

 

[donheff]

2b you are easily amused.

Me too. When we were kids we would sneak downtown (Chicago). We would take the bus to the Englewood "El" station and then catch the "El" downtown. We would try to get the first seat in the front car -- next to the driver. When it went underground watching the lights rush toward you was like an amusement park ride.

 

[Goonie]

For many years I took the Southwest Chief from a stop just outside of Chicago to Pasadena CA, at least twice a year to visit friends. I loved it!!! Very relaxing...and met some very nice fellow travellers on board.

One older fellow, I had the benefit of dining with a couple of times on one trip, had been on EVERY Amtrak route at least once per year, for the last several! He had taken EVERY side tour that Amtrak had...several times! He said his wife had passed away some years before, and he decided to go see the country to get out of the house. He said he goes home (near St. Louis) about every 5 weeks for a few days, to check the house and catch up on the mail, and visit his daughter....then off he goes again!

I noticed that all the car attendants, diner staff, conductor, etc all knew him by name, and would ocassionally recall past encounters with him. A very nice guy! IIRC, he was 84 or 85 at the time!

One of the things I have on my "To Do" list for FIRE is to travel by train again! It was a blast!

 

[kowski]

My sister and her girl friend came to visit us in Florida a week ago by train from Michigan. They said the ride from Toledo to Washington DC was nice but the ride from Washington to Orlando was very rough and the condition of the rail cars was not the best. Bathrooms dirty etc.

 

[2B]

2b you are easily amused.

Very easily amused then (about age 8) and now (much older).

 

[CyclingInvestor]

I take Amtrak from Los Angeles to Oregon on occasion and find it quite relaxing
compared to flying. I will be doing so again in a few weeks. Last year I continued
on the train up to Bellingham,WA, then took the Marine Ferry up to Alaska, just
to see what it was like. It was very nice, sleeping in the big comfortable chairs
in the movie theatre at night, walking around watching the coast go by, reading,
listening to mp3s, etc. very relaxing. Slightly cheaper than flying.

 

[bosco]

I've experienced 2 train trips that have been memorable. The first was in the '60s when as a high school student, I took the train from Western Canada to Montreal as part of a student exchange. It was super cool to eat, sleep and generally goof off on about a 3-4 day trip. The equipment was probably 50 years old at that time but everything worked most of the time.

was that the CN route or the CP route? I took the CN route in 1978 from Vancouver to Montreal. I don't think it runs any more for passengers since the merger--I think it's all the southern route now.

A short trip well worth taking is from Skagway up to Lake Bennett on the White Pass & Yukon Route RR. It's a narrow-gage, and has some of the most spectacular scenery in the world.

 

[AltaRed]

was that the CN route or the CP route? I took the CN route in 1978 from Vancouver to Montreal. I don't think it runs any more for passengers since the merger--I think it's all the southern route now.

A short trip well worth taking is from Skagway up to Lake Bennett on the White Pass & Yukon Route RR. It's a narrow-gage, and has some of the most spectacular scenery in the world.

It was the CP route, but I started in Calgary..not Vancouver.

DW and I did the White Pass RR out of Skagway in 2002. Loved every minute of it. We did a loop starting in Anchorage with a leased auto* where I was working then - drove down to the coast and took the ferry to Juneau and then Sitka, then the ferry again off to Skagway and the RR, then drove the Alaska Highway back to Anchorage via Denali and Mt McKinley. The single engined plane tours of Mt McKinley are awesome too.

*beware that Cdn residents cannot take a US rental car into Canada (Canada customs will stop you) so if any Canucks here are thinking about doing that loop, don't do it with a US rental. I only could do it because of a US work visa I had with me.

 

[bosco]

*beware that Cdn residents cannot take a US rental car into Canada (Canada customs will stop you) so if any Canucks here are thinking about doing that loop, don't do it with a US rental.

this is true, and often the Canadian customs officials aren't totally versed on the rules themselves (Betty at the Haines border is easily confused....). The key term is 'resident', not 'citizen' but sometimes they get confused. I actually called the Canada Customs 800 number to talk about this since it had been a big issue a couple of times. As a dual citizen, I now always give Canadian customs my US passport when driving a US plated car (I'm presently residing in the US). Then they want to know about criminal records etc--have to treat me as a visitor. But it's easier than all the BS about automobile plating.

This is a rule I never understood. BTW, it's waived for U-Hauls (don't ask me why).

 

[TromboneAl]

When you "flushed," you could see the tracks rushing by down below. That was in the 50s.

This was true when I was on the "Inlands Bana" railroad in Sweden in 1991.