Train travel! Any special or spectacular trips?

i love love love taking the train. have done most of the eastern half of the canadian routes - rimouski to kingston, kingston to toronto, toronto to moosonee (the northlander connecting to the polar bear express), toronto to thunder bay, toronto to chicago (can you tell toronto's a major train hub?). i'd like to do the via route through the mountains here sometime - i also want to do the chicago to l.a. trip - i've met quite a few people doing it while i've been on shorter trips. i like the idea of a one month train trip. an old room-mate went from toronto to new mexico by train.

i've had some amazing experiences on the train - maybe they'll make it onto a piece of paper someday.

Heading off to my first year of college, my mother and I took the Chicago to New York train. It was an overnite trip and we shared a small sleeper compartment and hung out together. It was fun. Both of us were apprehensive about me being away from home, and in NYC no less, but we didn't dwell on it too much.
My second special trip was ten years ago when I moved from Chicago to Atlanta. I decided to take the train as a way to give myself time to adjust. There is no direct route from Chi to Atlanta, tho'. You have to change trains in either New Orleans or D.C. I'd never been to D.C. so I chose that route. Being on the train, alone, free to just sit and stare out of the window was just what I needed and wanted. We had a six hour layover in D.C. It was April and stepping out of the train station, across the street, were cherry blossom trees, a magnificent stretch of them. I'd never seen cherry blossom trees before. It was a glorious site. I saw the White House, the Smithsonian, the Capitol Building, the Ben Franklin (?) hotel, Washington Monument. It was great just walking around taking pictures. We pulled out of D.C. that evening and I spent the time writing in my journal and listening to tapes on my Walkman and we pulled into Atlanta that next morning. I was ready to start my new life.
I love the train. All trains. Commuter trains, Amtrak, el trains, subways. I want to take that cross country train trip that goes thru the Grand Canyon. I saw a documentary about it and it looks like an incredible ride.

Beth
The Polar Bear Express - sounds great. But did you see bears? Toronto sounds ideal for training around! C'mon with the stories

One of my longterm wishes is to go across Canada by train. The reports are fantastic. Not happening soon, but it will happen!


eoe - great yarn. Any trips since arriving in Atlanta?

Problem with Amtrak is that it's rarely much cheaper than a plane...

No real recommendations, but remember very fondly (not all that many years ago, natch) my first long-distance train trip: the night train from Madrid to Paris. Three friends and I managed to scare everybody away from our 6-bunk couchette, so we just drank wine and played music and watched Spain roll along with the light. Waking up in the middle of the night to a strange language outside the windows (Basque) as the train was fitted for the difference gauge tracks in France, waking up again to blazing sun on vineyards and sunflowers. Not too shabby.

Worked as a conductor on the Roaring Camp and Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad for a summer, but it's just a short trip: 80 minutes, tops.

PD - so that was you

One of the best things about longer train journeys is Europe is watching the scenery change with the culture.

One of the oddest things I experienced was while travelling from somewhere in Austria to Germany (can't recall the towns). The railway track criss-crossed the border, and customs staff for each country were on the train. Each time you crossed the border into their country, they asked to see your passport again. When not in their country, they sat at the rear of the carriage. They could see that you hadn't budged from your seat - but still the passport check. This was 20 years ago- and I'd guess it probaby doesn't happen these days. Now - no-one seems to check your passport!

You know, the gf and I were marvelling recently at the passport of her deceased stepfather (it had to get mailed back to the U.S. gov't) because of the profusion of stamps from all over the world. Me, I haven't been anywhere but North American and Europe, so I've got next no stamps. (I want my stamps, damn it!)

I once rode on a narrow-gauge train on the Isle of Man, from Douglas to Port Erin. Just call me Happy Jack...

The kids would all sing, he would take the wrong key,
So they rode on his head on their furry donkey.

pd

You mostly don't get stamps these days - it's usually done electronically.

In 2001, I travelled to 7 or 8 countries, and I have 2 stamps. None for leaving Oz, 1 on arrival in UK, and 1 on leaving Sweden. In between, nothing.

Flew to New Zealand and back a month later - nothing!

My previous passports were much more colourful! Stamps, all shapes and sizes, visas, other odd scrawls from Arab countries. Pictographs. Play hunt the stamp in those countries that want to put the exit stamp on the same page as the entry stamp. Now, it's just flash under a machine, and that's it! Waaaahhhh!!!

As a child I traveled the California Zephyr many times from San Diego to Denver. As an Adult I have taken the train from Chicago to Oakland and from Chicago to Alabama. I have always love trains and they are great for kids because they can get up and roam.

Prior to Amtrak when the railroads ran their own trains I used to love the meals. Especially dinner, white linens with fresh flowers on the tables. I would order rainbow trout and the Porter would de-bone it for me at the table I loved that. The only time I was ever afraid on a train was the Zephyr used to cross the Great Salt Lake on this rickety wooden trestle - the train would slow to a crawl and it seemed to take for ever. Now the Zephyr goes around Colorado into Wyoming. Wyoming is very beautiful to but I miss the mountain trip.

This is another great Colorado railroad:

Colorado and Arizona Secnic Railroads

There are people who dedicate large chunks of their lives to riding antique trains and railways. Foamers, we called 'em. Some had come all the way from Germany to ride our little train (apparently we had the second steepest stretch of track in the U.S., and that was a big draw).

Choo choo!

The names of these long distance trains are part of the fun.

I loved the California Zephyr - it brings up such great images. And Beth's Polar Bear Express!

The Europeans are great at giving their trains names: artists, composers, philosophers, scientists, engineers, designers, and sundry others all have trains named after them: Albert Einstein, Mozart, Lehar, Verdi, Karen Blixen, Hamlet (I've been on this one! No sighting of the prince of Denmark, though ), Leonardo da Vinci, Gustave Eiffel. There's a Danube Waltzer, Etoile du Nord, Viking Express. And don't forget: Orient Express, Simplon Express.

In Australia, we have the Indian Pacific - ho-hum, goes from one ocean to the other, right across the country; The Ghan, which runs from Adelaide (and now Sydney) to Alice Springs and is being extended to Darwin - named after the Afghan cameleers who provided the only way of getting through to the Alice before the train; The Sunlander, which runs up the coast of Queensland to Cairns.

We used to have much more interesting train names - The Southern Aurora and the Spirit of Progress went overnight from Sydney to Melbourne - now much more romantically names "Melbourne XPT". The commuter trains from Sydney to the Blue Mountains used to be called "The Fish" and "The Chips" - they are now much more prosaically names by their due departure time from Sydney

Let's see how good my memory is. The very first train ride was when WWII started, and the government sent us to concentration camps. We rode a train from Sacramento to Southern Oregon. I was six years old. My next train ride was when I shipped overseas when I was in the US Air Force in 1956 from San Francisco to New York. June 1980, we took a train from New York City to Washington DC on vacation. Oct 1981, my wife and I took the Shinkansen from Hiroshima to Tokyo. Our group took the train from Tokyo to Nikko. February 1987, I took the train from Kings Cross in London to York. In March 1999, took the Karunda train in Australia. In August 1999, took the Eurail from Shiphol Airport in Amsterdam, through Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany. In December 2001, while on a trip to India, we took the train from Jhansi to Kajuraho. In March 2002, on my second visit to Egypt, we took the train from Cairo to Aswan. In November 2002, I took the End of the World train ride in Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. In April of this year, I'll be taking the train from Cuzco to Machu Picchu and back, staying over night in Machu Picchu. There's a book there someplace. c.i.

Whoa, a ride to a concentration camp for your first train experience. I'd imagine that would be memorable, c.i.! To think that mine was probably a dorky trip to Montauk Point on the LIRR. Still, I can't say I envy you your first taste of rail travel...

D'art, As a child of six, it was a new and exciting experience. Unfortunately, all the shades were closed, and we couldn't see anything outside. However, on our return trip to Sacramento four years later, the windows were open, but the only thing I remember is the black man sitting in the same car, and I continued to stare at him, because he was different from what we had in the camps; all Japanese Americans and whites as teachers, guards, and camp administrators. My brother kept telling me not to stare. c.i.

Shades closed so no one knew where they were going, no doubt. What a wonderful chapter in U.S. history.

Of course, nothing like that could ever happen again, unless, of course, you happen to be of the Islamic persuasion and the feds think they may have something on you. Bye, bye...

several years ago we took the regular via-rail train from vancouver to calgary(via rogers pass and banff) SPECTACULAR ! via -rail now runs from vancouver via jasper to edmonton which is not quite as spectaclular, but still pretty nice. the run via banff can now only be done by the special train operated privately at pretty steep prices.........c.i. - i hope you have a chance to stopover in jasper on your trans-canada trip; from jasper you can take a sidetrip to the columbia-icefield in jasper national park - DON"T MISS IT ! it's quite a sight.. hbg

hbg, Thanks for that heads up. Will make a note to myself so we won't forget. c.i.

c.i. : make sure you have a ticket that allows stopovers or a railpass would be even better. there is also a train that branches north from somewhere in british-columbia(have'nt taken it). assume you have the full via-rail schedule. another train(day-train) runs from victoria, b.c to the north-end of vancouver island to connect to the ferries going up the coast. please advise if you need more info. hbg

margo - i didn't need to take the Polar Bear Express to see bears - they occasionally wander into villages near where i grew up (and where hamburger still lives). Not polar bears of course. I did see a pair of baby polar bears about 25 years ago, when i was a student working in Northern Ontario. Twin cubs had been rescued after their mother was killed by hunters and brought to the Ministry of Natural Resources for care while a home in a rehab zoo was found for them. Our group shared lab space with MNR, so we went over to see the infants. Hard to believe the little white (stinky) fluff balls would grow up to be bigger than my car.

The Polar Bear Express is a ride worth experiencing. You have to appreciate trees and rocks and water to enjoy it. It's interesting to watch the trees get tinier and tinier as you head north. Kids still come out to hang off the side of the water tank and wave as the train goes by.

I particularly 'enjoyed' my trip as I had the lovely opportunity to tell off some particularly offensive German tourists and mortify my friends. There were 4 rather boisterous, middle-aged German fellas sitting behind us - carrying on at great length about how they planned to smoke in the car, although they could read and understand the No Smoking signs. They were planning to pull the 'no speak english' card when the conductor came by and told them to move to another car - it seemed they had done this with some success on other trains in North America. I waited until i could hear the rustling of cigarette packages - turned around - stood on my seat and started to harangue them in German (it comes back with great ease when i'm angry) - told them I was no longer surprised about why Germans have such a bad name as tourists, why no one likes them, how awfully rude they were being, how i hated liars and GET OUT OF THIS CAR IF YOU WANT TO SMOKE!

They laughed and lit up their cigarettes. When I stood up again and went to their seats, they laughed again and said they'd go to the bar car. They left. After about 10 minutes, one of them came back to ask me to join them for a drink. They'd decided they liked me for not being afraid to stand up to them, and wanted to talk to this interesting woman who spoke with the unusual dialect (apparently i'd gone into Platt in my harangue). I told him i might have, if they hadn't put me off Germans for the day. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

They were delightfully friendly to me and my friends for the rest of the trip. I'm not sure which part of it distressed my friends most - my harangue, or the persistent attentions of the middle-aged lads.

Trains. Great for the people, the view and the opportunity to act up!