Speaking from the Train – Part 2

Train Depot at Sanderson, Texas

Paperback books were tucked away in my luggage on this trip because I expected to lounge around our room reading. I didn’t read much at all because the view from the window was so interesting and hypnotizing. We saw lots of deer blinds and feeders between El Paso and San Antonio put up by hunters, old farms and ranch houses, some in use others in ruin in the desert. We tried to imagine how early settlers in this area managed to survive in the harsh climate and even wondered about current day residents and why they stay in some of these remote hot dry areas. We noticed basketball courts, parks and soccer fields at the schools in several small towns but did not see any kids playing outside in the 100+ degree weather. The train followed along the Rio Grande for a while where we watched U.S. Border Patrol vehicles driving through the desert. For reasons know could explain to me, the desert is littered with tires tossed out among the cactus and sand. From El Paso we could see across the river to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Truly a horrible sight and imagining what life is like in those slums was not pleasant. What a difference a few yards can make in a person’s life.

Pecos River, Texas looking South

West of Del Rio is the dramatic Pecos River crossing. The view is dramatic although the train crossed on the “new track bridge” built in 1947. Just west of the Pecos is the town of Langtry, Texas where famed Judge Roy Bean was the “law west of the Pecos” dispensing his own unique brand of justice. He apparently also ran a pretty good bar out of the same building as his court.

I was surprised to see vast pecan groves in West Texas near El Paso. We passed acres and acres of pecan trees, some tall and probably putting out nuts each year and others newly planted. All of the groves were irrigated of course. We also saw some cotton fields and a little corn.

We met a variety of people on the train. Many travel by train because they don’t like flying. If you have the time, the train is good alternative. Others lived near rail stations and had family near other rail stations so it was convenient. We seemed to be the only folks riding for the heck of it.

Depot at Alpine, Texas
(Gateway to Big Bend National Park

The Sunset Limited met with the Texas Eagle line that runs between Chicago and San Antonio. On the way out to LA, during our stop in San Antonio, two cars containing people, luggage and all from the Texas Eagle were added to the end of our train for the rest of the trip. On the return trip, two cars were detached from the Sunset Limited train in San Antonio and those two cars were to be attached to another train in the night and those passengers would then head up to Chicago.

We enjoyed meals in the diner car where the wait staff seats passengers four to a table community style. We enjoyed meals with several interesting couples: a pair of Germans on a three week vacation to see Texas, a woman and her elderly father, a young pair of students attending college in New Orleans and a couple from Santa Fe Texas who custom built their house and claimed it was hurricane proof and able to withstand 300 mile an hour winds.

Conductors adding water to our train car in El Paso

Unfortunately, on our return trip, Amtrak suffered another blunder. Our air conditioning worked fine however on Saturday morning when I wanted to shower and was in the shower stall, there was no water at all in our car. We had to wait until we stopped in El Paso for the conductor to fill the car with potable water so we could brush teeth and shower. In the meantime, we used bottle water provided by the porter. Even after El Paso, we never had hot water. On top of that, for several hours after leaving El Paso the toilets in our car didn’t flush. These problems diminished the carefree enjoyment of just riding the train for the heck of it.

Our wine cooler with a remnant of ice

One of the reasons for these problems in accommodations is that Amtrak clearly has not upgraded its cars since the 1960s. These are not the plush accommodations found on high speed trains in Europe or Canada. The cars’ age showed as the rooms rattled, vibrated, shook, squeaked, and loudly clanked as we chugged along. If Amtrak dreams of a day large numbers of Americans, particularly younger generations, consider rail a legitimate means to travel across our vast country, upgrades are sorely needed. For one, the basic services of AC while crossing the desert in August, hot and cold running water and toilets that reliably flush are the bare minimum of improvements passengers expect. More modern designed and more efficient accommodations are also needed. For instance, instead of having an ice dispenser in the self-serve coffee and drink bar for the sleeper car, the porter had a Styrofoam cooler with a bag of ice in it that was kept nearby. After a few hours it is was more water with a few cubes of ice swimming in it so there was really was only ice available shortly after Los Angeles. Until improvements are made, Amtrak riders will remain a very small slice of America and primarily limited to people who, for whatever reason, don’t like travelling by airplane.

We may take another Amtrak trip but I think I am partial to looking at Canada’s rail trips next time.

Windmill someplace in West Texas

Speaking from the Train – Part 1

Sunset Limited Stop in El Paso, Texas

All aboard! All aboard the Sunset Limited! I’m not speaking from the Ranch today. I am speaking from Amtrak’s Sunset Limited, passenger train service from New Orleans, Louisiana to Los Angeles, California. This vacation was more about the journey than the destination. Our objective was to relax with little hassle, no sitting around airports or driving long distances. A few hours after we de-trained in LA, we got back on the train and came home to Houston.

The service used to run from Orlando, Florida but parts of the track east of New Orleans washed out during Hurricane Katrina. The track has not been replaced. We heard rumors from other passengers that the track, if rebuilt, may be further inland to avoid another washout in the next hurricane. Since the tracks are owned by the freight lines and not Amtrak, the decision of where to put the line is out of Amtrak’s hands.

Our Sleepliner "Room"

We boarded in Houston and the train pulled out of the station at about 10 p.m. on Wednesday. We booked a “sleepliner” room with the deluxe accommodations all the way to LA and back. “Deluxe” is a relative term in two ways: 1) relative to coach, it is deluxe, and 2) the quarters are so tight, I advise only sharing a sleeper with a spouse or very close relative, because you will be close one way of the other! When we boarded, the room was set up for sleeping with the couch pulled out into a bed, which took up most of the room. The room was barely big enough for one person to turn around much less two. The first night was hot and miserable. It turns out the air conditioner compressor for half of our car froze during the night, thus no cold air. Our room never cooled off as we crossed the deserts of the southwestern U.S. in August with temperatures above 100 degrees F, so late the next day, the porter arranged for us to stay in another room. I think he was just tired of hearing us complain.

After stopping in San Antonio at 2 a.m. on Wednesday to pick-up more passengers, the train chugged out across West Texas to El Paso where we woke up on Thursday. The scenery out there is interesting, I like it. What I found interesting about the vegetation is how it changed as we moved west and the mix of colors. The grass was mostly light brown or yellow, sage brush was a silvery grey-green while the yucca, mesquite and huisache were darker green. The retama trees had nice yellow flowers. The further west we travelled, the smaller and more compact the vegetation. The soil became sandier. By the time we got to New Mexico and Arizona, the vegetation was mostly scrub of some short, low to the ground with some patches of grass. No trees, not even mesquite.

Old Telephone Line with Glass Insulators

Through much of West Texas, an old telephone line followed the train track. The line was not used anymore and most of it did not have any line strung at all. Many of the poles still had the old blue and clear glass insulators on the cross post. These glass insulators are now sold in antique shops from 99 cents to $30 a piece. Some must be more rare and worth more than others. I have two at home that I used as bookends for years. I suppose the reason those along the track are still peacefully sitting on the poles is due to the remoteness of the area and difficulty of getting to them. The train track and telephone line were not always right along the highway so someone would have the hike a distance from the road to the poles. The would be glass insulator collector would contend with all the prickly and poking things of the desert – yucca, mesquite brush, prickly pear cactus and desert critters just to get close to pole. We tried to get some photos which were difficult to do from a speeding train.

We did not see much wildlife on the entire trip, just a few deer, some antelope, and a rabbit hopping into the brush as well as a few hawks and other birds. The train probably scarred most of the wildlife away from view. The bulk of the wildlife was spotted roaming, grazing and sleeping in the train station, Union Station, in Los Angeles – the two-legged kind of wildlife which is fascinating to watch!