TexasEagle.101607

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Texas Eagle - Dallas to Chicago October 16, 2007

By Daniel Chazin, DChazin@aol.com

http://trainweb.us/vrt/DChazin/TexasEagle.101607.html

    It’s 3:33 p.m. on Tuesday, October 16, 2007, and I’ve just detrained from a Trinity Railway Express train at Dallas Union Station, where I will be boarding Amtrak Train #22, the Texas Eagle, on my way to Chicago and then to New York. I had flown down to Dallas on Sunday, attended a meeting on Monday afternoon, and spent some time riding TRE and the DART light-rail lines. This afternoon, I returned my rental car to the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, from where I took a shuttle bus to the Centreport/DFW Airport TRE station, and a TRE train to Union Station in Dallas. I had intended to catch an earlier TRE train, but missed it, so I ended up taking the train that departs Centreport/DFW Airport at 3:05 p.m. and is scheduled to arrive at Union Station at 3:35 p.m. My Texas Eagle is scheduled to depart at 3:40 p.m., but I had already called Amtrak’s 800 number and talked to “Julie,” who assured me that the train was running late.

   I walked into the station and went over to the agent who, after checking my ID, issued my ticket for the trip. She then asked me for $775.00 (the stated price of the trip by sleeper from Dallas to New York), and when I said that I had used my Amtrak Guest Rewards points, she asked me to show her my Amtrak Guest Rewards card, which I did. The agent indicated that the train should arrive between 4:15 and 4:30 p.m., so I took a seat in the waiting area and started working on these memoirs.

   At 4:05 p.m., the agent made an announcement that although Train #22 pulled out of the Fort Worth station at 3:25 p.m., “it got hit by the tower” (meaning that the dispatcher allowed other trains to precede it across the tracks at Tower 55, just outside of the Fort Worth station), and that, as a result, it did not actually leave Fort Worth until 4:00 p.m. and would not be arriving in Dallas until about 4:45 or 5:00 p.m.

   I stayed in the waiting room until about 4:30 p.m., when the batteries in my computer reached a critically low level. Instead of trying to find an outlet to plug in my computer, I decided instead to go out to the platform and await the arrival of my train. My ticket indicated that I was assigned to Room 18 in Car 2232, which I recognized as the crew dorm, so I put my belongings down near the front of the platform. Then, at 4:43 p.m., soon after I reached the Amtrak platform, a TRE train, consisting of three Budd cars, pulled into the TRE track (Track 3) (between the station and the Amtrak track), blocking the most direct route from the station to the Amtrak track (Track 5).

   The TRE train departed on time at 4:53 p.m., at which time the Texas Eagle started to approach the station. The train stopped so that the conductor could hand throw a switch, and then it pulled into the station, coming to a stop at 4:56 p.m.

   Today’s Texas Eagle is pulled by engine #4 and includes a baggage car, a transition/crew dorm car, a sleeping car, a diner, a Sightseer Lounge, and two coaches. I immediately recognized that engine #4 had some significance to me – at the 2002 NRHS convention, this engine was on the special excursion train that I took from Williams to the Grand Canyon, and then from Williams to Los Angeles via Parker, Arizona. Interestingly, today I wore the T-shirt I had obtained at that convention which features Santa Fe steam engine #3751 – the engine that powered the very same train from Williams to Los Angeles (the Amtrak engine was included in the consist just for backup and to provide head-end power to some cars that didn’t have their own generators). It was also interesting to note that the train had a baggage car, as a year ago, when I last took the Texas Eagle, the baggage car had been replaced with a 31000-series coach with a baggage compartment on the lower level. This significantly reduced the baggage capacity of the train, and apparently Amtrak has decided to restore the baggage car.

   I walked over to Sandra, the sleeping car attendant, and showed her my ticket, indicating to her that I was assigned to Room 18 of the crew dorm car. She informed me that I had been reassigned to Room 10 of the sleeper, and subsequently explained that she is responsible for both the sleeper and the crew dorm, and since the sole passenger in the crew dorm car would be detraining in St. Louis, it would be simpler if I stayed in the sleeper, rather than the crew dorm. I told her that it didn’t really matter to me which room I had. I left my suitcase in the storage rack on the lower level, and Sandra took the two bags that I was carrying and said that she would be bringing them up to my room.

   While I was waiting to stow my suitcase in the luggage rack on the lower level, a young man approached our train and inquired whether this was the train to Fort Worth! We explained that he wanted the TRE train to Fort Worth that had just departed, but that another TRE train would be arriving in a few minutes. It always amazes me how so many people confuse short-distance commuter trains with long-distance Amtrak trains!

   Soon after we departed Dallas at 5:03 p.m., one hour and 23 minutes late, the conductor announced that smoking is strictly prohibited on the train, and that if anyone is caught smoking, he would stop the train, even in the middle of nowhere, call local law enforcement officials, and remove the offender from the train, with no refund. I don’t recall such a strong announcement regarding smoking ever having been made previously on an Amtrak train. The conductor subsequently announced that anyone on the train with electronic devices should not leave them unattended, noting that he is aware of two incidents that occurred this year involving the theft of such devices from Amtrak passengers. A few minutes later, the attendant came by to hand me my bags, and she informed me that she had made me a dinner reservation for 6:15 p.m.

   After I got settled in my room, I decided to walk through the train. I found that the rear coach, which had come from Los Angeles, was fairly full, with about 50 passengers aboard (including 7 on the lower level), but there were only about 15 passengers in the first coach (which had originated in San Antonio). The Sightseer Lounge turned out to be a reconditioned Superliner II car, with tables having been installed in half of the car on the upper level.

   The way the cars are arranged on today’s train is a departure from past practice. Both the sleeper and the rear coach were carried from Los Angeles to San Antonio on the Sunset Limited. In the past, both cars were coupled to the rear of the train, with the sleeper in the rear. But today, the sleeper was placed between the crew dorm car and the diner, while the coach was added to the rear of the train. Sandra explained that she is the attendant for both the sleeper and the crew dorm, and that it facilitates her duties if both cars are placed next to each other. This involves some extra switching of cars in San Antonio, but ample time is provided for this in the schedule.

   At 5:26 p.m., as we were passing milepost 204 in Mesquite, the conductor announced that we would soon be stopping to permit a freight train to pass us on the left. The freight train, pulled by five Union Pacific engines, started passing us at 5:31 p.m. It was a very long container train which was moving very slowly, and not until 5:42 p.m. did the end of the train finally go by, so that we could continue ahead.

   I decided to spend some time sitting at one of the tables on the upper level of the Sightseer Lounge car, which afforded better visibility of the countryside, so I brought my computer there and continued writing these memoirs. We passed through the town of Terrell, which features a nicely restored brick station, at 6:05 p.m., and we traversed Wills Point, whose brick station also still stands, at 6:18 p.m. These were the only two significant communities that we passed in a long stretch of flat farmland.

   At 6:24 p.m., a call was made for the 6:15 p.m. dinner reservations, so I went into the dining car and was seated opposite Don and Bill, who were traveling from Los Angeles to St. Louis (and eventually to Washington, D.C.) They had a deluxe bedroom in the sleeper, and Don related to me that the Sunset Limited arrived in San Antonio last night about 2:15 a.m., nearly four hours late. He also noted that the train departed at 6:00 a.m., one hour earlier than set forth in the printed schedule, because of track work. However, when the train arrived in Temple, where it switches from UP to BNSF, the railroad would not allow them to depart earlier than the printed departure time, claiming that they were not advised of the schedule change (apparently, today is the first day that this new schedule was supposed to be implemented). Then, between Temple and Fort Worth, the train was further delayed, with the result that it arrived in Fort Worth over an hour late.

   Don explained that he enjoys train travel very much, and we exchanged stories about our respective train trips. I had brisket for dinner, accompanied by a salad, and fruit and tea for dessert. I very much enjoyed being able to spend an hour eating a meal in the dining car with interesting passengers for company. During dinner, we made a brief stop in Mineola at 6:43 p.m.

   About 7:20 p.m., an announcement was made that we would soon be stopping at Longview, and that although not scheduled as a smoking stop, passengers were welcome to step off the train at Longview. I decided that I wanted to avail myself of this opportunity, so I said goodbye to my companions, walked back to my sleeper, and stepped off the train when we arrived at Longview at 7:29 p.m. I walked down the platform and reboarded at the second coach. When we departed Longview five minutes later at 7:34 p.m., we were one hour and 19 minutes late.

   Our next stop would be Marshall, which features a beautifully restored station. We arrived here at 8:00 p.m. and made two stops – one for a crew change, and the other for passengers boarding and detraining. There is considerable make-up time built into the schedule between Longview and Marshall, so when we departed Marshall at 8:08 p.m., we were only 37 minutes late.

   I now walked through the train again and found that there were still about 50 passengers in the rear coach, but only about 10 passengers in the second coach. I then returned to my room and spent some time reviewing and updating these memoirs. I also received a phone call from a friend who had just obtained a new cell phone and was trying it out for the first time. Either because he hadn’t set the phone up correctly, or because of the poor “extended network” service that I was receiving in this rural area, neither of us could hear anything, but Daniel called me back as we were approaching Texarkana, and we could now hear each other.

   At 9:17 p.m., we arrived at Texarkana, a city that is split between Texas and Arkansas (in fact, the Route Guide states that “the state line bisects the center of the station platform,” so that when the train stops there, part of the train is in Arkansas, and part is in Texas!). Texarkana was announced as a smoking stop, so I briefly stepped off the train here. I noticed some rotted wood lying on the station platform, and realized that it must have fallen from the wooden canopy over the platform, which is in a deteriorated condition (luckily, no wood fell on any waiting passengers). When we departed Texarkana at 9:23 p.m., we were 40 minutes late.

   Again, I walked through the train and counted about 45 passengers in the rear coach. However, a number of people had boarded at Texarkana and were assigned to the next coach, so there were now about 25 passengers in that car, which was starting to fill up. Our train proceeded ahead at a rather steady pace, with no further delays from freight trains.

   As we approached Arkadelphia, I heard on the scanner that only sleeper passengers would be getting on here. We made a brief stop here at 10:39 p.m., and two passengers boarded. They occupied Room 8 in my car, the room directly in front of me. Arkadelphia has a fairly large brick station that appears to have been converted to some other use.

   Our next stop would be Malvern, and I heard on the scanner that we will be making a “double spot” here - “three and six.” This meant that we would have to stop twice – first, to board sleeping car passengers, who are in the third car, and then to board coach passengers, who would be boarding the next-to-last car (the sixth car on the train). We arrived at Malvern, which also has a large brick station, at 11:00 p.m., and after making two short stops to permit three passengers to board the train, we departed at 11:02 p.m., 41 minutes late.

   Throughout the evening, Sandra, the attendant, had been coming by regularly to check when I would want her to make up my room. She even let me know when she would be going to the dining car to eat, so that I might find her there if I needed her. About 11:10 p.m., she came by once more, and I told her that she might as well make up my room now. In the meantime, I headed over to the Sightseer Lounge car with my computer. There were only a handful of other passengers there, and I sat down at one of the tables and continued working on these memoirs. I had planned to head back to my room and go to sleep in a few minutes, but I wasn’t all that tired, so I decided to stay up until we reached our next stop, Little Rock.

   We pulled into the Little Rock station at 11:47 p.m. Little Rock has a huge, sprawling four-story brick station, much of which is used for other purposes, with Amtrak relegated to a rather large space in the lower level, which features high-backed wooden benches that must have been moved from the original station waiting room. A rather new concrete platform has been constructed adjacent to the track nearest the station, which is several feet higher than the lower level of the station.

   I detrained and briefly walked down the platform, then reboarded the train, went back to my room, and climbed into bed. About 11:55 p.m., I heard on the scanner that the station work was completed, but that we had to wait for the signal. Then, at 12:03 a.m., we started backing up. Apparently, the track adjacent to the station does not connect at its northern end to the main track (or the connection is out of service), so we had to back up for a short distance to switch over to the main track, and then we pulled forward at 12:07 a.m. If this is considered our actual departure time from Little Rock, we are now 33 minutes late – not all that bad!

   I remained awake as we crossed the Arkansas River into North Little Rock, but fell asleep soon afterwards. The next thing I knew was that it was about 2:10 a.m., and I heard a communication on the scanner from Train #21, the southbound Texas Eagle. We were now stopped on a siding, and at 2:14 a.m., Train #21 passed us to the left. Although I’m not sure of the location of this meet, it must have been somewhere near Poplar Bluff, Missouri, and it seems that the southbound train was about an hour and a half late.

   The ride was rather rough at times during the night, and I woke up a number of times, but I did get a fair amount of sleep. At 6:27 a.m., I turned on the scanner and heard a detector announce that we were at milepost 64.2, meaning that we were about 64 miles south of St. Louis, where we are scheduled to arrive at 7:39 a.m. I know that there is considerable slow running approaching St. Louis, so it obvious that we will not arrive on time.

   At 7:04 a.m., I heard on the scanner that there are three passengers on our train who intend to connect with the train leaving for Kansas City at 8:30 a.m. (Two of those passengers were the ones who had boarded last night in Arkadelphia and occupied the room directly in front of mine.) The question was posed as to whether these passengers would make the connection. I did not hear any response, but it was subsequently announced that we should arrive in St. Louis about 8:20 a.m.

   I decided to get up at 7:15 a.m. The sun had just risen, and I was able to see the Mississippi River on the opposite side of the train, although there was still some fog. After making up the room for day occupancy and stowing my bedding in the upper berth, I went downstairs to take a shower. The water was nice and warm, and the shower was very pleasant. The only problem was that I couldn’t find any soap! Since I had already gotten into the shower before I realized that there was no soap, I decided that I would just shower without soap. I then got dressed, and at 7:45 a.m., we reached Davis Jct., where our route turns left, leaving the Mississippi River, permitting us to approach the St. Louis station from the west.

   I now went into the dining car, where I was informed that the dining car would close after St. Louis and that I should plan on eating before we arrived there. So, after briefly returning to my room, I went back to the dining car with the hope of finishing breakfast before our arrival in St. Louis.

   I was seated opposite a man who had driven with his daughter and son-in-law from his home in Mt. Morris, New York (south of Rochester) to Corpus Christi, Texas, where his children were moving. He had boarded the train in San Antonio, and was traveling back to Rochester in coach (although he mentioned that he hoped to take a trip to the West Coast by sleeper next year). I got the Continental breakfast, with Rice Krispies, orange juice and coffee.

   As usual, we were delayed in our approach to St. Louis. At 8:03 a.m., we stopped at Iron Mountain Jct. The conductor announced that we were 20 minutes out of St. Louis but had to “wait on the Union Pacific.” Six minutes later, we started moving, but when we reached the Grand Avenue Tower at 8:17 a.m., we stopped again. Soon, a long BNSF coal train – with two engines at each end – began to pass us to the left. It took eight minutes for this slow-moving train to pass us, and not until 8:25 a.m. did we proceed ahead toward the Amtrak station. I remarked that 50 years ago, it would have been unheard of for a freight train – especially a coal train – to delay a passenger train, but today, that happens all the time!

    After paralleling the light-rail line for some distance (I observed that a light-rail train was traveling faster than we were!), we finally came to a stop at the St. Louis Amtrak station at 8:35 a.m. As we pulled into the station, I noticed that the Kansas City train was still in the station. This train was headed by engine #33 and included an Amfleet Business Class/café car and two Horizon coaches. A conductor was standing at an open door facing our train, indicating that he was waiting for the connecting passengers from our train.

   I detrained and watched as the connecting passengers boarded the Kansas City train, which departed at 8:39 a.m. I then walked into the “new” temporary Amtrak station at 8:41 a.m., just as the boarding of our train was announced. Unlike last year, when another coach was added to the train to accommodate passengers boarding in St. Louis, today all passengers would be assigned to the two coaches that were already on the train.

   When I walked outside again, I noticed that construction was underway for the permanent Amtrak station, which was being built just northeast of the former Amshack. The elevated walkway and stairways leading down to two platforms (each of which would serve two tracks) was under construction, and it was evident that the old Amshack would have to be demolished before the new platforms could be constructed. St. Louis is a service stop, so a truck was refueling the engines, while another truck was emptying the holding tanks from the toilets in the sleeping cars (my sleeper had experienced “toilet failure,” apparently because the holding tanks were full). After taking a few pictures, I reboarded the train and returned to my room.

   We departed St. Louis at 9:01 a.m., 31 minutes late. As had been previously mentioned on the scanner, we turned left upon leaving the station and followed the “high line” along the west bank of the Mississippi River, passing under the historic Eads Bridge (now used for the light-rail line) and then traversing an area of abandoned warehouses and junkyards. This was an interesting change, as last year, when I took the Texas Eagle, we crossed the river on the MacArthur Bridge, directly east of the station. In order to better observe the passing scenery, I decided to move to a table on the upper level of the Sightseer Lounge car, where I spent the next two hours or so.

   At 9:17 a.m., we swung to the right and crossed the river on the Merchants Bridge. I now walked through the coaches again and found that at least one passenger was sitting in every group of seat in both coaches, with about 100 coach passengers aboard the train.

    After a brief stop at 9:28 a.m. at WR Interlocking, during which the conductor announced that we are “waiting on a signal to get on the next railroad,” we moved ahead, joining the route that we would have taken had we crossed the MacArthur Bridge, and soon picking up speed. A few minutes later, we passed a detector that announced that our speed was 55 miles per hour, but we briefly slowed down as we passed the abandoned abutments for an old Illinois Terminal bridge and approached Lenox Tower at 9:42 a.m. And we were further delayed at the next junction, Wood River, from 9:55 to 10:03 a.m.

   We finally reached Alton, our first stop out of St. Louis, at 10:08 a.m. When we departed a minute later, we were 51 minutes late, having lost another 20 minutes due to the slow running out of St. Louis. The industrial area around St. Louis has ended by now, and for the next several hours, we traversed open farmland, broken only by occasional small towns (and a few larger ones).

   At 10:40 a.m., we briefly stopped at Carlinville, which features a small brick shelter for waiting passengers. Only one person boarded the train here. Two minutes later, though, still in Carlinville, we came to a stop. No announcement of the reason for the stop was made, but a few minutes later, I heard on the scanner an order giving our train permission to proceed ahead. Apparently, we had to await this order before we could go any further, and we continued ahead at 10:49 a.m.

   In the meantime, while we were stopped, I succeeded in connecting my computer to the Netgear network, and I managed to read a few of my e-mail messages. This was the first time that I had succeeding in connecting to the Internet since I left my motel yesterday morning! However, the batteries in my computer were running low, and the computer soon hibernated. Thus, I had to return to my room and plug in my computer.

   At 11:12 a.m., just north of Auburn, we passed southbound Amtrak Lincoln Service Train #301, which had taken the siding. This train was scheduled to depart Springfield at 10:15 a.m. and was apparently running about half an hour late. North of there, I noticed that the abandoned Illinois Terminal right-of-way to our left has been converted into a bike trail.


    We arrived at Springfield at 11:30 a.m. and departed at 11:34 a.m., one hour and four minutes late. As we were departing Springfield, I walked to the last car and spent a few minutes looking out of the back of the train. Soon, I returned to my room.

   We made a brief stop at Lincoln at 12:02 p.m. Lincoln’s brick station has been converted to a restaurant, but even more interesting is the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio freight station on the opposite side of the tracks, a brick building with a stone foundation. Unfortunately, the freight station has been severely damaged by fire, and although the brick walls and stone foundation appear to be intact, most of the roof has collapsed.

   The steward had announced that the dining car would close upon our arrival in Bloomington-Normal, our next stop, so I decided to go for lunch. I was seated opposite a woman who had boarded the train in Tucson and was traveling to Cumberland, Maryland. She had a sleeper on the Sunset Limited/Texas Eagle, but would be traveling in coach on the Capitol Limited from Chicago to Cumberland. She soon finished her meal and returned to her room, leaving me at a table by myself. Since there was no one sitting with me, I went back to my room and retrieved my computer, so I could do some work while eating.

   During lunch, at 12:17 p.m., we slowed down and then came to a stop so that Lincoln Service Train #303 could pass us. That train was supposed to have arrived at Lincoln at 12:10 p.m., so it was operating about 25 minutes late. At 12:22 p.m., we proceeded on our way, and we arrived at Bloomington-Normal at 12:41 p.m. When we departed four minutes later, we were just over an hour late.

   After lunch, I returned briefly to the Sightseer Lounge car, where I found that all but two of the tables on the upper level were occupied by other passengers. Soon, I began to feel a little tired, so I returned to my room and took a little nap. I woke up about 1:45 p.m., and we stopped at Joliet – our last stop before Chicago – at 2:00 p.m. When we left the station at 2:02 p.m., we were 51 minutes late, having made up a little time.

   As we passed through Lockport, a few miles north of Joliet, I observed, to our left, the interesting remains of the historic Illinois and Michigan Canal. Besides the canal itself, there are several stone locks and a collection of historic buildings (including a museum). Then, at 2:23 p.m., we passed the southbound Texas Eagle, Train #21, which was scheduled to depart Chicago Union Station at 1:45 p.m. Since this section of the line (just south of milepost 13) is double-tracked, the meet took place at track speed. This was the third Amtrak train that we had passed since we departed St. Louis this morning! Two minutes later, we passed the station of Summit, served by Metra commuter trains and by Amtrak Lincoln Service trains. We were now only 12 miles from Chicago.

    We had been running at track speed all the way from Joliet to here, but soon began to slow down. At 2:31 p.m., the conductor announced that we would be coming to a stop because a freight train would be crossing in front of us. We stopped for five minutes and then continued ahead, crossing over the line of the Belt Railway of Chicago, where the freight train had delayed us. But, at 2:45 p.m., we proceeded across the Brighton Park rail crossing without stopping. Until a month or two ago, this crossing had been controlled by manual signals, and all trains had to stop before proceeding across. The crossing was recently modernized, with new automatic signals allowing trains to proceed across without getting clearance from an operator.

   An announcement was now made that we would be arriving on Track 28, with “west side unloading.” We proceeded ahead and, after making a brief stop, crossed the Chicago River and continued to our final stop at Chicago Union Station, where we arrived at 3:03 p.m. We were 49 minutes late. After giving my attendant a small tip in recognition of her superior service, I walked down the platform and over to the Metropolitan Lounge, where I would await the departure of my connecting Train #30, the Capitol Limited to Washington.

   My trip from Dallas to Chicago on the Texas Eagle was quite pleasant and relatively uneventful. I’m now looking forward to the rest of the trip!

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