Riding the Rails

Vacations mean many things to many people:  An escape from a harried life; a time to sit back, read and relax; private time with a loved one; an opportunity to sight-see America the beautiful.  A western railroad trip offers all the above, time and temperament required.  Known for delays, an Amtrak long ride appeals to those who maintain a lenient state of mind.  For aficionados, train travel affords an escape to the past, and still no better way to see the country.  

Amtrak offers three western excursions from Chicago: the Empire Builder to Seattle; the Southwest Chief to Los Angeles, and The California Zephyr destined to its namesake, and this tale’s rail trail.

Back in 1949, three independents railroads took charge of a 2,525 mile course from Chicago to California, and coupled that state’s name with Zephyr, the Greek god of the gentle west wind.  The Chicago Burlington & Quincy handled the train from Chicago to Denver; the Denver & Rio Grande Western from that city to Salt Lake City; and the Western Pacific conducted its course on home to California.  The stainless steel cars, oft referred to as silver streaks, aimed for quality comfort and fine dining to attract travelers who were treated to one of the country’s most scenic rail lines. 

Alas, passenger service became losers for private railroads; in fact all three of the above carriers no longer exist. Thankfully, Amtrak took over the route, and though service fails to match the bygone days of luxury, the scenery remains wondrously the same.

The traveler’s journey begins upon entry into Chicago’s Union Station, with its bustling throngs of both commuters and long riders, which immerses travelers back to the glory days of American train travel.  The three Western routes originate from the city, as well as daily departures and arrivals to and from major points East and corridor routes to Milwaukee, St. Louis and Detroit.  

The station’s positive energy contrasts sharply with the airport angst of long lines, luggage lugging, and the gauntlet of shampoo snatching security sheriffs.  A simple baggage check and a private lounge with couches, soft backed chairs and reading lamps provides long riders a civilized alternative to await the call:  “All Aboard!”.   An escort to the train, and a personal directive to one’s private berth follows.

Illinois

The Zephyr departs timely, a slow roll out of the dark underground terminus and out to the bright daylight of the City.  The Burlington Northern line courses its way through Chicago’s urban, then suburban landscape until it finally reaches open Illinois farmland.  The rolling steel wheels connect the rider viscerally to continuous movement over firmly bedded rails anchored to the earth:   

Along the graded landscape
Balanced on ballast
Spiked astride
Perpendicular ties
Lines aligned
Parallel lines
Of forged steel rails

Cross country trains pick up and drop riders at intervals along the route so Amtrak offers options for both short line commuters and thru travelers.   Basic coach travel affords comfortable, double wide seats for short and long riders; the former endure the trials of snoozing sitting up. 

Most overnight travelers opt for private viewing rooms that double as sleeper cars.  The cozy Roomette measures  3’6” x 6’6”, which includes two seats opposite with a table between.  The larger ‘Bedrooms’ measure 7’6’’ x 6’6”—nearly twice the size at twice the price—adds a lounge chair and couch (that folds into a bed) and its own private bathroom and shower, which are not included in the Roomette sleepers who share facilities at the end of the car.   Both rooms provide quiet time seclusion to read or snooze, or to simply gaze at the passing American heartland from a private landscape window.

Unlike an interstate highway’s mile wide swath of concrete, flanking billboards, and vying vehicular traffic, the railroad follows its own narrow, unobtrusive passageway, of forest and field, along and over streams and rivers and through small old rail towns.

The iron veins of commerce bisect town centers with their two-story red brick businesses and bars, where the train rumbles past blinking red lighted cross bucks, its whistle sounds both in welcome and adieu to the town folk who stop and wave as the train pulls through. 

Spring rain watered the fields but the clouds cleared as the train passes along symmetrical rows of twin-leafed sprouts of corn, vibrant green with promised bounty. Large red barns and silos that dot the landscape evince agrarian prosperity.  

Iowa

Amtrak’s Southwest Chief and the California Zephyr both roll into the Galesburg junction where the former veers in its namesake direction while The Z continues west where it crosses the Mississippi River, its northern blue waters reflecting the afternoon sky.  The train eases through the old rail town of Burlington, then accelerates over rolling Iowa farm country to Ottumwa, a town of red brick and Victorian architecture. Here the train sits for a 20-minute layover, time enough to exit the train, stroll and breathe in Iowa’s cool spring air.  A retired steam locomotive with tender car stands adjacent to the mainline opposite the station, its drive train wheels as tall as man.  How these behemoths shook the earth!

The Zephyr includes two diesel locomotives to pull a baggage car, four sleeper cars, a dining car, two coach class cars and the observation car with its wondrous windows running from floor level to quarter round the ceiling.  Amtrak cars measure the same height of a freight train’s car carriers so passengers ride high for enhanced sight lines.  A café car below the deck of the observation car offers sandwiches, snacks, hard and soft drinks and tables for cross seating to nosh, play cards or board games. 

The whistle calls all back aboard, and riders find themselves soon seated in the dining car for the first meal on a two-day journey. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are included in the price of the Roomette for two costing approximately $ 1250, for the two-day excursion.   But unlike air travel that exists solely as a means of conveyance, train travel serves as an integral part of the overall vacation that incidentally reaches a destination.   The train traveler’s sits like a lounger on a day at the beach, but instead of wave watching, the railroader views an ever varying continent.  Regarded as such, train travel compares favorably with costs of airfare plus two days of sightseeing, lodging and meals.

Amtrak fare satisfies, but not luxuriously as in days of yore.   Breakfast includes a standard fare with choices of eggs, pancakes, cereal and fruit. Importantly, morning coffee tastes good.  Lunches offer a variety of sandwiches and burgers. Dinner menus include Halibut, lamb, chicken cacciatore and sirloin steak.  Libations cost extra.  Diners may select ice cream, pie, or brownies for dessert.  

As an incidental benefit, the dining car’s seating arrangement adds a social aspect. Table clothed tables seat four so couples dine opposite fellow travelers, generally a delightful experience given the upbeat moods of most vacationers. 

Over a two-day journey, cross table diners ranged from two retired psychology professors; a lone Arab named Ali; a teacher; a Scottish Banker and his wife; and even a beautiful blonde with large, perfect teeth who rained her complaints to anyone within earshot.  But the wedded couple of 67 years won the door prize.  They boarded in Denver and rode coach to Reno, seeing no need for a sleeper car because the 93 year-old husband was recovering from a broken hip and could only sleep sitting up.  Spry and entertaining, they regaled with tales of dirt farming in Kansas and cattle ranching in Colorado’s San Luis Valley.

But above and beyond victuals, Amtrak provides a unique ambiance:  The feel of movement along with a window view of a varied landscape slipping by in a stream of consciousness, which makes even a commonplace meal memorable.   An after dinner nightcap sipped in the observation car tastes better when vieiwing undulating green farmland, fading blue skies and a red-streaked horizon that rolled by in Technicolor. 

Long riders return to their private room where an Amtrak attendant has transformed the room into upper and lower sleeping berths.

Nebraska

Nightfall drops its curtain.  The rhythm of the rails rocks the long riders to sleep by the time the train crosses the Missouri River and on into Omaha.  Nebraska passes by cloaked in darkness, a crescent moon vainly seeks to illuminate a midnight landscape.

Colorado

Dawn’s early light softly illuminates the flat barren landscape of Eastern Colorado where solitary farm silos stand like sentinels in a land of stark contrast to yesterday’s Eden.   Passengers awaken to a sight of a whole new world 400 miles hence, to the aroma of coffee and bacon emanating from the dining car, to the feel of 70 mile per hour steel wheels melodious roll o’er the parallel metal rails.  Rising requires no prompting. Breakfast and a moving world await in the dining car. 

Denver looms in the distance as the tracks followed the South Platte River into the city.  The conductor’s announces that a rockslide blocked the mountain path across Colorado necessitating a diversion north to Cheyenne, then west across southern Wyoming to Utah.  That means no ride through the Moffet Tunnel, no Glenwood Canyon, no meander astride the Colorado River’s whitewater, no traverse through Ruby Canyon–some of the promised highlights of the excursion.

Wyoming

The detour ride north out of Denver carried a somber mood of disappointment that matched the high, parched plains that rolled by dull and dry. But spirits brighten when the Zephyr switches track back west again as that line proves scenic with the white crested Medicine Bow Mountains beckoning in the aspiring distance. This ‘new’ route follows the historic transcontinental route, rolling across Wyoming’s wide width, between narrow, rocky defiles, over endless expanses, past shadowed snow patches, crossing small riparians, and straight on through small western towns. 

The iron horse finally pauses allowing its passengers a leg stretch and fresh, crisp western air at Green River, Wyoming,  After a brief stop, the whistle calls all aboard.  Movement remains travel’s byword, though interruptions prevail with many stops on sidings to await a freighter’s passage.  Find another means of conveyance if punctuality proves paramount. 

The track reaches Granger junction where the line continues due west to California. Eighty trains per day run the junction including the line from the northwest out of Seattle which parallels the transcontinental route some 800 feet apart prior to that line’s merger at the junction. Hence, for a few miles one can watch from afar a Seattle freighter running parallel in the opposite direction instead of the typical whooshing blur of rail cars passing three feet from a viewing window.  Nothing like train watching from a train.

Utah

The Unitah Range stand in the distance as the Zephyr picks its way forward, repeatedly criss-crossing the aptly named Muddy River, swollen by Springtime’s thaw.  The train runs through several long tunnels, then follows a long descent into a red-walled  canyon and into lush valley, a glittering green gem in the angled evening light.   Thus describes the view from a windowed dinner theater seat.                 

The train arrives in Salt Lake City timely at midnight, but departs an hour late for an unannounced reason that portends slower movement ahead.  The train would roll into the Bay Area four hours late. 

Neveda

Morning’s first light illuminates the land somewhere in nowhere Nevada, the train rambling towards Winnemuca, skirting the barren Cortez and Shoshone Ranges, the rails toe-holding their way through narrow canyon passages along the Humboldt River.  The gain of another hour on the westward roll eases an early rise made exciting by a new day in a new world. 

On to Reno, where the track dissects a poor man’s Vegas with its glitzy gambling parlors and show house facades on either side, the slick-sloped end of the line with their coffee-stained rugs, smoke filled dens and one armed bandits.  The train rolls by slowly on a still Sunday morning revealing a Reno that seems a hard place without its neon nightlights in which to hide.

California

California at last—first stop Truckee, a quaint old western town with new Western money.  The track follows the Truckee River out of town and beyond for some 50 odd miles.  The Observation Car affords a sunlit view of the cascading river below running its white-capped course with chutes, falls and fly-fisherman.  

The locomotive works a steep climb over the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada range with sweeping views of Donner Lake below and the surrounding mountains on up to Donner Pass.  The train passes through several long tunnels dug and blown by Chinese Coolies 160 years ago.  The wetter, western side of the mountains bears dense forests of pines and large deciduous trees.   The Zephyr brakes its way down the mountainside to the San Joaquin Valley to one final short stop in Sacramento.  A short walk and a look-see of the burnt orange brick of the historic Southern Pacific Depot gives passengers a spot to walk and stretch before the final run to the rails’ terminus.

Down the homestretch, the Zephyr crosses the wide American River, rumbles through wide wetlands, rich California farmlands and along the shoreline of San Pablo’s back bay, which extends far into California’s interior.  The bay’s waters reflect the setting sun’s orange streaked skies as the train rolls into Emeryville located on the extreme eastern edge of the San Fransisco bay, and the terminus of the 2500-mile rail odyssey. 

San Francisco, and part II of the vacation beckon from across the bay.