After this past weekend....

Steve Caple spake thus:

Amen to that. Here in the S.F. Bay Area, with its vaunted culinary scene, 5-star restaurants and opportunities to drop big bux on meals, I can eat fairly cheaply and well at any number of places and never have to set foot in a chain of any kind. Think cafes, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, places students go to eat, neighborhood eateries. Pretty sure most American cities of any size will have these.

By the way, am I talking to the *real* Steve? (just kidding)

D "just a Steve wannabe" N

Folks:

I took the LSL as part of a trip to ABQ over Christmas. It was somewhat late going out (20 min or so) and right on the money coming back. I had a very good trip -- got a very good-riding Amfleet car on the way back, too, which is odd. Got to see a lot of the country, too, since NM had that big snow and Raton Pass was closed, and the train was detoured over the Belen route. Saw a lot, saved money (total cost was about $330 round trip each person) and in the end it took only twice as long as the plane, when you figure in that I'd have changed planes twice and had some layovers.

Cordially yours: Gerard P.

Thank you all for your replys

Meals are indeed included with sleeping accomodations , a one night stay is around $ 120,- I think, thats not bad for meals and sleeping. I'll probably do this several times but will also be staying at friends, hotels, but also spending nights in an overnight coach is possible, I don't dislike fast-food either. I was counting on spending around 100 euro ( 125 dollars ) a day including the trainpass ( 360 dollars ). Want to travel from NY to Washington to Texas then to San Diego up the coast then fron San Fransisco via north back to Chicago, then to Burrton, Newton, Winfield Kansas wich I am starting to model and then back to New York. All this in a 30 day time, am I to ambitious or is this doable in a normal way?

Greetz Jan

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On Feb 22, 1:58?pm, Fake sock Puppet> wrote: :

Fake sock puppet, I am so stoned on ludes I don't know which name I am using tonight but yours is as good as any. Keep them coming fakemanboy!

____

Steve

" snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com" (aka sockpuppetus curtus) spake thus:

[nothing worth repeating]

Peek-a-boo, "Curt", we see you!

NYC to Washington, DC by train is about 5-6 hrs. Acela Express.

WDC to San Antonio 27 hours Cresent.

San Antonio to LA 31 hours Sunset Limited or Texas Eagle.

LA to Emeryville about 12 hours Coast Starlight (Get off in San Jose and ride CalTrain to the city) (get back on and go to Emeryville, or Sacramento. You could use the Capitol Corridor)

Emeryville to Chicago 52 hours California Zephyr (gets you near Kansas)

Chicago to NY 19 hours. Lake Shore Limited

That's about 144 hours (~6 days) on the train, if it's roughly on schedule. Some delays to connect? Say 1 day per change, that's 5 days.

~11 days straight traveling, if you are lucky.

Plenty of time to do some sight seeing along the way.

Southwest Chief to Chicago to Newton 13 hours Southwest Chief to Newton to Chicago 13 hours

That leaves you 8-10 days in the Burrton, Newton, Winfield area. Should be easy modeling, Kansas is pretty flat. *8^)

Good luck and enjoy, Paul

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The restaurant at the Portland Union Station is called Wilf's. It is a fairly high class affair in my opinion - they may not have valet drivers but other than that in general they look like something Pullman patrons would have eaten in during the 1930s. Deep plush carpeting, chairs that are very comfortable, live entertainment, very attentive service, etc. Their standard dinner menu (which has far more variety than the web site shows) has a top end price of $36:

could still pay for a dinner for two there, have some fairly decent drinks, and still pay quite a bit less than $50 per person.

Every spring there is a guide there is a guide that comes out that is directory of the best affordable restaurants in the city where I live. They do not include traditional fast food restaurants, no matter if they are a local chain or a national chain. To qualify generally the typical price for dinner would have to be $10 or less, or as high as $12 if the portions are huge. There are enough restaurants listed in the book to eat out about two to three times a week for an entire year and never visit the same place twice.

Therefore: I could say that you are the one that needs to experience more variety as well if you think that a good meal in a good restaurant has to cast $50 per person - depending on the city of course. New York or one of the other big east coast cities I could understand. But as a general rule for anyone traveling anywhere in the USA? One would have to be using a tourist guide published by the restaurant industry to spend that much in most places.

Oh, and I don't do national chains if I can avoid them, and we don't have Sambos in the west anyway - at least not yet. If I absolutely have to have fast food due to time limitations, I eat at Burgerville. They are a local fast food chaing that is a bit more expensive than the national chains, but in my opinion has better food.

Paul Newhouse spake thus:

That's one way to do it (by the way, "the city" here is San Francisco). Another way, if you feel like taking another type of train, is to take the Coast Star-late all the way to Richmond, where there's an easy intermodal connection to BART. You can then take BART to SF. (Keep in mind that the Caltrain station is a bit south of downtown--7th & Townsend--so you'd either have to take a cab, or jump on the Muni N line to get downtown, assuming you're staying somewhere north of Market Street.)

Sacramento is very much worth visiting for 2 reasons: one, the official railroad museum within walking distance of the Amtrak station, and two, the unofficial tour you can take by tresspassing on what's left of the Sacramento Locomotive Works just across the tracks at the station. That's my preferred entertainment there. (Of course, I haven't been there for a few years and don't know how much of that once-great place is still left standing ...)

It was. But I've said yes a few too many times since then, and have had too many volunteer commitments to do it again. Will be getting out of most of that this year, so expect to get to Brownsville January-February next year. Be a "winter Texan".

Good point. I tend to be a bit San Jose centric.

Jan was asking about overall time so I didn't worry too much about how to negotiate the Bay Area.

Very worthwhile. Old Sacramento is an interesting place as well but, on your first visit one could easily spend two days in the museum.

A short walk under the freeway. A few hundred yards at most.

I believe there is some redevelopment plan in the works but, I don't know the details.

Paul

Too bad Acela is not included in the Trainpass, i would have liked to go on the American equivalent of TGV

In some ways yes easier ( no mountains to make etc. ) but other things make it harder ( Frisco, MoPac and Santa Fe cross at several towns I want to model and its pretty hard hiding where the trains come from, as opposed to mountains where you have them coming from tunnels ). I want the Super Chief on my layout and I want some industries for switching . Seems to me I don't have much choice other then Kansas. I can't find much industry in other parts of the US where the Super Chief runs, or have I overlooked something.

Thank you , these replies have all gone into a file that I'll use next year.

Greetz Jan

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Jan(Bouli)Van Gerwen spake thus:

Well, at least what we *pretend* is the equivalent of TGV ...

Jan,

The smiley face was to indicate that I wasn't being particularly serious. Lived near Paola, KS for ~5 years. The old Frisco route nipped off a corner of the property. Driving to my place you would swear you were on a giant pool table. A quarter mile off the main highway and you were down in a broad ravine in some heavily wooded and hilly terrain. NOT what most folks expect in KS. You might find it easier than you think to disquise things. A little selective compression you could have Denver on one side and KC on the other and just past that the Appalachian range ... might work?

Good luck and enjoy, Paul

[...]

Check whether an upgrade charge will let you onto the Acela.

HTH

There's a conversation about that little issue going on in misc.transport.rail.americas right now. Something about "it would be nice if we could get the average speed above 70 mph"

" snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com" skriver:

Some reading about acela

Klaus

*What?* Five or six hours by train between NYC and Wash., D.C.? By what, 4-4-0? LOL The current Amtrak Acela schedule on their website is under 3 hours...2hr 48m being a common time. Even the slower conventional trains are 3hr 15m. Boston to Washington is more like 5-6 hours...not NY to Washington.

Paul A. Cutler III

************* Weather Or No Go New Haven *************

Ok, Jan you have an additional 2-3 hours you can spend somewhere else.

Enjoy, Paul

Wow this is good news , now I don't have to cancel my appointment with President Bush :-))

Greetz Jan

Who will be asking a lot more questions next year. Thanks guys for your replies.

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