All Aboard

Hey Speed -
There's still some great passenger train travel to be had. It's not quite as grand as it was back "in the day" but it's still pretty good. Like I mentioned back in post #9, my wife and I took a long-weekend train trip from our home in SoCal to Seattle about 10 years ago on the Amtrak's "Coast Starlight". I splurged and got us a sleeping compartment as I'd never travelled that way before and had always wanted to - plus they don't do the old sleeping berths like they used to years ago.
We had an absolutely outstanding trip! We got on a train at the little old station in Fullerton and rode it in to Union Station in Los Angeles. The "Coast Starlight" was on the next track so it was just a matter of walking across the platform. We had a little time until the scheduled departure time so my wife walked into the station (it's still a great reminder of the grandeur of rail travel) and I walked up by the engine just to look around.
The engineer was down on the platform so I said "Hi". We got to talking and I told him that my dad had been an engineer for Union Pacific and one of my fondest early-childhood memories was how my mom used to take me to the station in East Los Angeles to wave at him as he came back on his return run. Several times he stopped the train and I'd get up in the engines cab with him and the fireman and ride the rest of the way in to the railyards in downtown Los Angeles with them.
The Amtrak engineer looked both ways on the platform and then said, "C'mon up and take a look". So I followed him up into the cab of the locomotive! Wow! What a thrill and what a difference! Everything was computerized - not at all like the "good ol' days" of hand throttles and dead-man's peddles. Gotta say I absolutely loved it.
The overnight trip to Seattle was great! The train is configured with the sleeping cars in the front directly behind the baggage car, then a club car just for use by the sleeping car passengers, then the dining car, then another club car for the coach passengers. Our club car was originally from the early '50s but had very recently just been modernized but still maintained its original wood paneling and vintage light fixtures. It had several booths and tables where you could sit and play cards and just watch the scenery go by. It also had several large comfortable swivel chairs set up by large windows that gave you a great view of the passing countryside. The price of a sleeping compartment included all of your meals in the dining car and also included snacks and soft drinks in the club car. It was like a "land cruise". Between lunch, the afternoon cheese/crackers/wine-tasting, dinner; then fruit & pastries in the morning before breakfast, breakfast, snacks, lunch, and afternoon snacks, it seemed like all we were doing was eating!
We left LA mid-morning and hit the coast and a great view of the Pacific Ocean just below Santa Barbara. The tracks run right along the ocean through Vandenburg AFB with a good view of the missile launch sites and continue next to the ocean before turning inland just below San Francisco. We stopped for about 15 minutes in Oakland then headed north again. In the morning, we woke while the train was winding its way through the Cascade mountains in Oregon, travelled through some beautiful northwest scenery and arrived in Seattle that evening.
The return trip a couple of days later was equally as good. I'd recommend this trip for everybody that loves rail travel or is just thinking about it. The really great thing about it is you're not strapped in and confined to an airplane seat so you're able to walk around as you want, watch the world go by outside your window, take a nap (or whatever you might want to do in your little private "sleeping" compartment) and RELAX. Yes, it takes longer than flying but it's SO much more relaxing.
Sorry for the long post but you gotta know how great this way of travel is.