Nostalgia & History > Circling North America in ’75 (Part 2)

Back in October 1975 I set out on a rail adventure that would circle North American. The first part was essentially a straight shot across Canada from Nova Scotia to Vancouver that included a ride on CN’s Super Continental.....then it was on down the US west coast to LA and San Diego......Back east through New Orleans and onto Washington, north to Montreal then a flight home to Halifax.

Here’s a link to the first part of the trip I recently posted:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3894747

After a couple of days in Vancouver.....I boarded Amtrak’s “Pacific International” (.....and long before US pre-clearance and that caged platform at Pacific Central Station)

---

---

---

I was in Seattle only long enough to change to the Coast Starlight. This was my first time to the US west coast and I was looking forward to the scenery through Washington, Oregon and onto California the next day. Since I would be on the train only for one night, I decided to save a little cash and just go coach. The train had several and wasn’t full at all so I had a double seat to myself. The Bay Area was quite foggy the next morning but once south of there we were into the California I had expected……sun and heat! It was a great afternoon rolling down into San Luis Obispo where we met the northbound Coast Starlight......then along the coast to Santa Barbara and onto Los Angeles.

---

---

---

>

---

---

---

I spent a couple of days in LA doing all the tourist things and then on the last day.....did a round trip to San Diego. I even thought about a quick trip to Tijuana....but decided not to.

---

---

---

I was taking the Sunset Limited out of LA that evening so caught the 4:30pm San Diegan back.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/15 00:39 by ghCBNS.

---

Rolling up the coast at dusk......all of a sudden there was a jolt and the train came to a quick stop……we had hit something! After a few minutes we were allowed to get off (and just along the track…..no station/no platform……I can imagine this being permitted today!) Wrapped around the front of our SDP40F was an AAA Tow Truck. No injuries…..the driver had been out when we hit.

---

They brought in another tow truck to haul the first one off and after a two hour delay we were underway again. I started to worry about my connection but the Conductor said the Sunset would be held as several others were connecting also.


The Sunset Limited and a Roomette in the “Transcontinental Sleeper” were to have been the highlight of my trip. For a few years Amtrak operated a through sleeper from Los Angeles to New York: 4 nights (and for awhile .....all the way to Boston) it was handled in the Sunset to New Orleans where it sat overnight. You could occupy the sleeper as your Hotel.....then it was attached to Southern Railway’s Southern Crescent to Washington the next morning. On the last day Amtrak forwarded it onto New York.

Amtrak #2 Sunset Limited at Los Angeles October 14, 1975
568 SDP40F
570 SDP40F
1064 Baggage
9926 Hi-Level Coach
9961 Hi-Level Coach
9917 Hi-Level Coach
3393 Dorm Bar Lounge
8041 Diner
2753 Palm Leaf Sleeper
2217 Indian Pony Sleeper
2619 Pacific Meadow (Transcontinental Sleeper)

---

……but what a disappointment when I stepped into my Roomette in exUnion Pacific “Pacific Meadow” ! The outer window pane had been replaced with “Lexan” and if anyone can remember these cars……nick-named “Lexan Lovelies”......after a few trips through the car washer, the lexan became so scratched and yellowed..... the windows were almost opaque. Leaving LA a bit late at 10 pm, all I could make-out were halos around the lights outside and then putting up the shade the next morning was no better……the views of the desert I had been so looking forward too were nonexistent! A far cry from the clean glass windows on the Super Continental just a few days earlier that were actually washed at station stops while crossing the country.

A visit to the dining car and breakfast put me in a better mood so I decided to make the best of it and found a seat in one of the ex Santa Fe Hi-Level Coaches (my first time in a Hi-Level). I spent most of my time there during the day......only returning to the roomette at night.

---

---

My sleeper was the last car on the train and I remember stopping for a meet out in the desert…..I asked the rear brakeman when he got off if I could step out too for a picture …..”Sure....but watch for rattlers!” I enjoyed the desert scenery ……something I hadn’t seen before. There was a service stop in El Paso where I get off for a few minutes and here’s a nice shot of the sunset from the Sunset near the Mexican Border.

---

---

The next day was on across Texas and into Houston. The third night out we arrived in New Orleans at 7:30 pm and as the sleeper was my Hotel for the overnight stop…… plenty of time to go out for dinner and a look around the city.

---

---

---

Just as I woke the next morning we were starting to move......now part of the Southern Crescent. The Southern Railway had stayed out of Amtrak and continued to operate their own trains until 1979 when they joined Amtrak. The Southern Crescent even had an xWabash RR Parlour Dome running between New Orleans and Atlanta and again, certainly a better place to be sitting for the view then in my Roomette. We stopped in Birmingham then into Atlanta that evening where the engines were changed and we picked up some additional cars.

---

---

Here’s a couple of night shots (at Greenville, I believe) ..... then on to Washington for an 8am arrival the next morning.

---

---

I was leaving the Transcontinental Sleeper at Washington and not continuing onto New York. I spent the day touring the city……Monuments, The Smithsonian ( got a photo of Southern #1401)....then I was back at Union Station for the 5pm departure of the Montrealer. This was my last night on the train and I would be home tomorrow afternoon so decided to save a little and just travel coach. After the coaches thinned out at New Haven, I had a double seat to myself.

---

---

---

I arrived back in Montreal on a Sunday morning.... two weeks after I set out on my trip. I had to be at work the next day so it was out to Dorval and a ride home on an Air Canada L-1011. Here’s the Rolls Royce RB-211 lifting us out of Montreal for the quick 70 minute flight to Halifax.

---

---

What a fantastic trip and series of photos! Thanks for sharing with us.

B&OB

I'm thankful for a subscription to TO, and all these cool photos you posted!
 

Thanks!

Fabulous story and pictures!   Thanks for putting it together.  

Really great photos...thanks for posting.  (I wonder if AAA covered the towing for the tow truck!  LOL)

Wow, thanks for this travelogue of your circle trip.  Amazingly, I did almost exactly the same circle trip nine years later, in October, 1984, except I started and ended in New York, and travelled across Canada on the Via's Canadian.  Also, I had to take a bus from Vancouver BC to Seattle because the Pacific International had been discontinued by then.  When I did my turn to San Diego, I DID opt to go to Tijuana on the light rail line, which had opened up just a few years before.  And they were still running the transcontinental sleeper LA to New York with an overnight in New Orleans.  

One of these days I will get my slides organized and scanned, and will try to put together something similar to what you have done, though I would be hard pressed to match the quality of what you have done!