by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
ONBOARD AMTRAK
WITH TED AND SYLVIA BLISHAK
October 10, 2000: Glenwood Springs, Colorado.
It is pitch dark by the time we reach Winnemucca; we don't pause long enough to detrain but when I stick my head out the vestibule, it's raining.
We are trying to stay in touch with our clients on this trip via Email and voicemail; we've brought along our new Sprint PCS cell phone which is supposed to enable us to download Email and access our reservation system wirelessly. However, this isn't working the way it should and I forgot to bring my old reliable Motorola flip phone with me. While we don't expect to get cell-phone signals in the mountains with the underpowered Sprint PCS, we are able to retrieve our voice mail in Reno. However we can't get our email here, so we set our alarm to wake up at our scheduled 3:50 AM arrival in Salt Lake City. We arrive about an hour and a half late and are able to log on and get our e-mail and book an Amtrak reservation for a new client who had left a message on our answering machine. While we work inside there is a quiet bustle of activity outside our bedroom window. Garbage is offloaded, supplies are loaded, and forklifts hover around the five material handling cars behind our sleeper.
Travel Tip: The Family Bedroom makes a great work station. Fold up the child seat, fold down the table, and set up your laptop. Fold down the upper child's bunk and place your luggage up there out of the way. This area is completely out of the way of the sofa bed, so your traveling companion can continue sleeping while you work. The only drawback is that you have to string your battery charger cord across the floor to the only outlet across the room.
By the time we pull out, it's time for first call for breakfast at 6:30 AM, and still pitch dark. Soon we're climbing into the Wasatsch Mountains. Daylight reveals views of stunning desert cliffs in buff and red colors. After a morning nap to recover from our pre-dawn labors, we reach Grand Junction where we have about 15 minutes to walk the platform. An enterprising vendor sets up a stand here selling snacks, travel-sized medications, etc. He is mobbed; ice-cream sandwiches are the big seller today. There is also a railroad hobby shop, which is jammed wall-to-wall with CZ passengers.
Travel Tip: Every Superliner sleeping car has a public shower room on the lower level for the use of passengers in the standard, accessible, and family rooms. There is a small changing area with a bench and a stack of bath towels, washcloths, and soap. The shower control reads Off, Cold, and Hot. This control should be labeled Off, Very Hot, and Scalding. Be careful. We changed to a Deluxe Room in the same car at Grand Junction. The shower control worked as it should in our room.
The American Orient Express is parked on an adjacent track, resplendent in cream and blue livery. It is on a one-week rail cruise including "shore excursions" to various national parks by motorcoach; the train is waiting for its passengers to return from one such expedition today. Two Genesis engines, provided by Amtrak, furnish the motive power.
We have a ticket for Deluxe Bedroom D from Glenwood to Chicago; so while we go to early lunch our attendant moves our belongings upstairs. Our 633 sleeper is a Superliner II; the others are the older Superliner I cars, and there are some interesting refurbishment touches in those. Car 632 has gray corrugated plastic wall paneling in the hallway, making look like the interior of a Quonset hut. However, there is evidence of deferred maintenance on all the equipment, with vinyl and carpeted floors and stairways showing wear, and a broken door latch on one of the bedrooms in the 631 car.
Travel Tip: Make your sleeping-car reservations eleven months ahead of travel if you can. Even with three sleepers, this popular train's first-class accommodations are sold out months ahead.
We lunch with a couple from Portland, Oregon. He sells high-tech fishing gear, which involves sonar equipment to find the fish and weights to descend to the level of the fish. They describe their recent visit to the Cook Islands in the South Pacific. They are on their way to Washington DC to visit an exhibition of impressionist paintings.
Travel Tip: You will be seated with other people in Amtrak dining cars, and that is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the trip. Strike up a conversation and you are guaranteed to learn about interesting people and what they do often people who would never meet in your usual social encounters back home.
It's interesting to hear snatches of conversation from adjacent tables in the dining car.
Some examples: "I think everybody on this train dislikes airplanes." "If airlines were run like this they'd go broke in a minute." "Why would anyone choose to travel any other way just look at the scenery outside the window. You couldn't see it by air or automobile!"
Our table companions at lunch tell us that they breakfasted with a young man in his twenties with a shaved head. They asked where he was headed.
"Maine," he replied. They asked if he was going to school there.
"No, I'm one of those Silicon Valley dot com millionaires, and I'm going to retire there because it's a cheap place to live and I won't have to work any more."
They weren't 100% convinced that this was a true story, but it certainly is an interesting one, and we all look at him with curiosity every time we see him.
We're in the heart of the Colorado Rockies now, with the Colorado River adjacent to the track. We observe the occasional fisherman in hipboots as fall foliage and Juniper trees grace the slopes.
Although Amtrak has issued a number of press releases about their "satisfaction guaranteed" policy, which is now system-wide (it was pioneered by the Coast Starlight several years ago) there is no mention of it, either written or verbal, on the train. Neither have we heard any complaints from passengers, as the service is good.
Travel Tip: If you do have a complaint on an Amtrak trip, try to get it resolved immediately by consulting with the onboard staff. If it's a small matter (such as missing out on a meal) they may provide you with a voucher for $10 or more on the spot. If it's a large complaint (such as a malfunction or repair issue in your sleeping accommodation),
notify your travel agent upon your return. Amtrak's Customer Service Department will be consulted and you'll need your ticket stub. A voucher for future travel will then be calculated and mailed to you.
As afternoon approaches, we see the snow-dusted, ragged peaks of the massive Front Range to the east. The maitre 'd comes through to take dinner reservations; we judge that by the time we're seated we'll have a great view of the train making its precipitous descent towards Denver and the Great Plains.
I have time for a shower in our combined toilet/shower stall in Bedroom D. This time, the water temperature is adjustable.
We head through the lengthy Moffat Tunnel, and pull out of it a 6 PM. We head to the dining car for a dinner with a menu that is traditional on this train, even back in the pre-Amtrak era when it was operated by the Burlington, Rio Grande, and Western Pacific a cooperative effort by three railroads. It is Rocky Mountain trout, and it's delicious.
As dusk falls, we see the lights of Denver spread out below us. Or arrival in Denver is on time, as the schedule is "padded", and our trailing freight cars are switched off. Then passengers are invited to get off to stretch their legs.
Windows are being washed by a group of youngsters with lengthy poles topped with squeegees. Ted and I remember when the old California Zephyr, run by the three railroads named above, was pulled by streamlined E or F-unit diesels. The vintage Vista Dome consist was put through a giant car-wash here in Denver, and it was fun to sit in the dome while the big brushes cleaned the curved glass windows.
It's time for bed, the Zephyr is pulling out of Denver at 8:35pm, thirty minutes behind schedule .
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