Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Workin' on the railroad . . .



Amtrak No. 4, the eastbound Southwest Chief, stops to pick us up at Winslow, Ariz.

. . . all the livelong week. That's why I've been missing in action for so long. The Lady Friend and I took a brief trip aboard Amtrak's Southwest Chief to La Plata, Mo., and Winslow, Ariz., and the trip report for Trainweb is here.

4 comments:

  1. Love the train stuff (as you know by now). Wish I could ride more often. Two months from today I'll be on the Crescent from B'ham. to DC going to the national Hearing Loss Assn. convention. Question for you: Why are so many train depots called "Union Station"? I have a couple ideas but they are probably wrong. (So far, still no rooms for my return; even the suites, etc., all are booked, and I booked my trip a couple months ago!)

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  2. I'm still working on reading your 5-parter on the train web ... it's slow going. The Times New Roman font is the WORST, even if you have good eyesight. I finally gave up and moved it to Word and Arial to read it! I'm enjoying every voyeuristic minute of your trip!

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  3. Netagene, Union Stations are called that whenever two or more railroads share a single depot. Even when only one railroad is left, the depot retains its old name.

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  4. Thanks! That was ONE idea I had (a "union" of trains); the other idea was more far-fetched (that the Union Pacific had built/owned them). I'm not much of a shopper, but I love to wander around the station in Washington, DC! Don't remember much about the one in Chicago. Amtrak had to put a lot of riders up there Nov. 04 when the aux. locomotive on the EB lost power in Minot, ND. I enjoyed my almost 3 day stay in an old hotel on Michigan Ave. the week before Thanksgiving that time! Regrettably Birmingham has only the Crescent passing through, which I understand is the only "single level" because of a low tunnel just NE of here. It's better than NO passenger trains. Lucky for me, too, not seeing well, it's across the street from the city bus's Central Station.

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