Passenger Trains > Don't be a Defeatist, Be a Completist! Mile Collecting That Is!

My first Amtrak trip was WDC to Baltimore and right back with my Grandpa in 1987. In 1993 my dad and I rode from Cincinnati to Las Vegas on the Desert Wind to meet up with my mom, sister and Dr Duncan who had flown there. Coming back my dad and I rode to LA then took the Southwest Chief and Cardinal back. This leaves me with a couple sections of Amtrak that need to be updated. At some point I need to ride the new route that eliminated the part of the Santa Fe leaving Los Angeles that ran in the freeway with the famous searchlight signal. Much less famous and way shorter is the Cameron Connection between the former Santa Fe and Burlington Northern west of Galesburg. I had approached how to get the connection done from many different angles for several years now including riding buses to Galesburg or attempting to make a loop coming back on the KCY to STL segment that I also need to ride. I even considered riding to Topeka in the Summer and staying awake for the four hours between Southwest Chiefs. About three weeks ago I woke up and realized that if I woke up at 2:30 am and drove like Hell, well Heck I could get to Ft Madison Iowa in time to ride the Eastbound Southwest Chief, Amtrak 4, to Galesburg, ride Galesburg Transit to see some of the city and do some railfanning then ride 3 back to Ft Madison that evening and stay the night somewhere and come home the next day. Two weeks ago on Thursday July 23rd 2020 I carried out my plan, buying my tickets on my phone that early morning before I left. 

I actually got to Ft Madison almost an hour ahead of 4 which was running on time at that point. At Ft Madison they go held up by freight and we had to board on the second track over and left a little over twenty minutes late. We Arrived in Galesburg almost a half hour late but in plenty of time for me to walk to the Galesburg Transit 1 pm bus lineup. I rode the Central route, figuring it would give a nice overview of Galesburg which I had only been through on the trains a half dozen times and had driven only to the Amtrak station only once before. I then rode the East route to Peck Park where the former Santa Fe passes under the former Chicago Burlington & Quincy and spent an hour there in between buses and saw three or four trains and talked to a railfan from Peoria. I rode the same route to the station and found 3 was running late so I had extra time to walk around near downtown getting more pictures along the former ATSF.
1) This is actually from the next day on the Friday, Amtk 4 at Warren County Rd 11.
2) Thursday July 23 at Galesburg. The Conductor said there were just over a hundred passengers onboard between Ft Madison and Galesburg and numbers had been going up.
3) Galesburg Transit. For being a small system is interesting in that they use short full sized buses.

---

---

---

Coming back to Ft Madison Train 3 was around 40 minutes late. We got held up at the Swing Bridge which put us into Ft Madison almost an hour late. The train attendant didn't know how many people were onboard coming west but she said numbers were increasing. She also told me the low point was twelve people for the entire train on one trip. This was my first trip on Amtrak or anything else this year. Like a lot of people I cancelled trips and didn't plan any new ones other than day trips in the automobile. Not only did this short trip accomplish a bit of mileage collecting but it also refreshed my AGR points for another two years, which I expect to be riding well before that. Most of all though it made me feel good about traveling on Amtrak again, well at least on a limited basis...
4) SWC 3 arriving in Galesburg. 
5) 3 at Ft Madison. 

Thank You For Looking!

Jim

---

---

Every mile counts!

Good to hear ridership is going up. And not the normal gloom that is so often posted here. 

Here is my updated Amtrak mileage map. The red lines are routes I have not rode. The green are routes I've ridden and the blue are routes I've rode that no longer exist. I still have a lot to do. I still have the Missouri River Runner, the Heartland Flyer to do in the middle. I also need to update the Texas Eagle to the TRE route as I rode the Eagle in 2010 when it was still on Union Pacific. I have nothing in Michigan west of Flint. In the Northeast and New England I am good until Virginia where I need the route to Newport News and the Roanoke trains. The Southeast south of Virginia of course is completely untouched other than the City of New Orleans. In the Northwest I will need to ride the Port Defiance Cut Off whenever it is placed in service. In the Bay Area I need to ride the Capitol Corridor trains from Oakland to San Jose since they take a different route then the Coast Starlight. In the Los Angeles area I may actually be OK. I've rode the Coast Starlight (2016), I've rode the Sunset (2012), and I've rode LAX to San Diego (2012). Back in 1993 I rode the Desert Wind into Los Angeles so if it took the route that the Southwest Chief takes now I have all that complete. 

Jim

 

---

Props to you for trying to ride all the mileage!

I had all of Amtrak until I learned that the new Grand Rapids, Michigan station required the Pere Marquette to go an extra mile to get there.  Humph.

And of course I am awaiting the (re)opening of the Tacoma bypass.  BSB
 

This coming from the king of doom and gloom? Did the world start spinning in reverse?

andersonb109 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Good to hear ridership is going up. And not the
> normal gloom that is so often posted here.