Anyone rode Amtrak for fun?

[Baron Von Crowder]

The "station" I got on and off at in WA was like you describe, just a slab of cement next to the tracks. I believe there was actually a building there at some point, but it was long gone even in the 80's.

I was always the only one getting on / off.

If I ever have to take a boring assed train ride, Im going to buy you a ticket to sit next to me. That way Ill always have a story to listen to.

[03mustangdude]

I work for railroad and it amazes me people would ride trains here if your not getting paid for it. Yes we get out of the way of passenger trains all the time since they pay more to use the rails than any customer that we have.

But sometimes we do have delays/train breakdowns. I've sat before during a train breakdown for 10hrs and had to be recrewed. Amtrak was right beside us fussing and bickering the whole time since it was out of there control. 10hrs+ stopped somewhere and nowhere to go just kills the mood. They let them disembark and explore town of west for little while but that gets boring quickly too.

[The King]

TRE train > driving locally amongst fools

[Frank]

My Mom never knows what to get me for Christmas and even when I tell her not to get me anything, she comes up with things like a random DVD about trains she saw in a Lillian Vernon catalog. I was watching one last night about traveling from like NY to LA. Most of it was pretty dated I figured. Of course they played it up with all these smiling passengers and pretty scenery. Traveling through CO and UT was the only part I really thought might be neat.

[JP135]

In 98 when my wife and I were childless, we got a special deal on Amtrak at the state fair. We settled on going from Fort Worth to Alpine TX. We got a one of the smaller sleeper berths and had one end of the car to ourselves. On the outbound leg, we ate like kings. We had an overnight layover in San Antonio then on to Alpine the next day. We kicked around Alpine fora couple of hours then hopped on for the return ride back to Fort Worth. There was an observation car with the huge panoramic windows and we spent lots of time in there just watching the scenery pass by. The train coming back to Fort Worth was at the end of a longer run, so the food was pretty well picked over. We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for one meal. Still, it was a great trip.