Southwest Chief: Surviving two days and nights in coach (and loving it)

okay here we are here's my seat the next 45 hours two nights here in this seat hi where you going hello I'm going to Chicago and Coach how many one am I allowed to like choose a seat not usually but we are white okay oh I was just really hoping for a side on like a seat on the window on the South Side the right side the right side window okay we going do that thanks things are nor my ticket which I bought on Amtrak's website 3 weeks ago was $146 hello think this is me okay yeah wonderful how do I go upstairs upstairs yeah thank you MTR Southwest Chief extends over 2,000 Mi through eight states between Los Angeles and Chicago my eastbound train is scheduled to leave La at 5:55 p.m. Pacific time and if on time arrive in Chicago at 2: 50 p.m. central Time 2 days later I'll have a coach seat the entire way okay here we are here's my seat the next 45 hours 2 nights here in this seat we left La Union Station right on time okay we just started right on time to the minute see if it stays that way so far so good not many people at all on this train I do hear some people behind me playing music and somebody up here has a very small baby who's been kind of crying and yelling the whole time so okay I got some cool facts about this train Southwest Chief the top speed of this train is 90 M an hour um the average is about 52 M hour it goes 2,256 mil it's scheduled to take 43 or 44 hours I think um if it's on time it's a daily route it goes daily in each Direction and there are 32 stations total on the whole route including the end [Music] points this is Jimmy from the cafe sorry about the disruption in the air there want to welcome you folks all aboard the Southwest Chief and uh let you folks know that the cafe is open and surfing so you're aware Cafe is located on the lower level of the sightseing lounge car here have selection of snacks hot cold beverages breakfast lunch and dinner items and just so you're aware Cafe's open this evening until 10:30 at 10:30 the cafe closes down for the night but otherwise everybody on board sit back relax enjoy your [Music] journey [Music] the good thing about the departure time is that right away you're treated to a great California Sunset all this before arriving at the first stop 32 minutes into the journey which is Fullerton [Music] California [Music] before the next station though we were already experiencing one of the inevitable and Infamous aspects of an Amtrak ride a delay for another train ladies and gentlemen we are stopping there's train traffic ahead of us once they clear we'll continue into Riverside thank you on this train there's a dining car but I have a coach seat so I'm not allowed to go in it's only for Sleeper Car customers there is a cafe which sells more simple kind of Cheaper food so I'm going to go find that cuz I'm hungry and it's dinner time see what they have at the cafe good evening ladies and gentlemen this is Jimmy from the cafe folks just to answer a couple questions so everybody is aware just want to let you folks know who are traveling in coach restroom you will find restrooms on the lower level of the coach accommodations where you enter the train there are five restrooms in each coach card and folks mostoke stops will be announced um about 5 or 10 minutes prior to when there will be a smoke break so please listen and just another couple side notes when walking about the train folks we ask to you please wear your shoes this is for your safety and also folks if you're traveling with kids at ages 12 or under please make sure that they are compated at all times otherwise just sit back relax and thank you very much hello hello what you looking for the lounge the cafe wel just kind of looking around too all right it's good to know your territory that's right a lot of the stops go by merely as Curiosities something to look at from the window sometimes though you get to step off the train and look around okay we are in barow California it's about 9:50 p.m. and this is a smoke stop in which they allow people to get off the train and Mill around for about 10 minutes in this case 10 minutes and people are getting on the train too we were about 15 minutes late on some some of the earlier stations but I think we've got caught up so they turned off the lights for the night at like 8:30 so like there's like very low Lighting in the car now it's pretty chilled atmosphere a lot of people are already sleeping everybody's got two seats to themselves most people are like spread across the two seats curled up in the two seats um there are at least two babies screaming on my car it might be two it might be three I'm not sure it's either three babies or it's two babies one of them screaming one of them alternating between screaming and like babbling happily in like one minute increments it's already an exciting kind of Adventure here in coach and it's only the first night I've only been here a few hours there's two more nights of this what am I going to do all day tomorrow anyway so I'm going to go enjoy this stop here at barow this casad Del deserto was a Harvey House Harvey houses were like restaurants and hotels placed around a lot of train stations in the west 20s and 30s and 40s and stuff and this one the one here at bar is one of the nicest ones and it closed in 1971 the building Still Remains here this is the station now as one of the finest examples of the wonderful Spanish uh Revival [Music] style I kept an eye on mtr's online Train Tracker it said we were going to be a few minutes late to the next stop Needles California but with confidence that we'd be on time getting into Chicago and so I settled into the steady Rhythm Of The Rails through the mysterious Darkness for my first night of sleeping or trying to sleep in my coach seat at first light I was already awake we were in or near the Petrified Forest in Eastern Arizona Southwest Chief is unique in that it passes through a national park even if most passengers are asleep good morning ladies and Gentlemen We Are approxim 10 minutes from Gall Mexico if G is your intended destination now would be a good time to return your coach for car comination yeah your trash in the trash and train will be a to step the TR cette you may do so allow and D car do not open as once we have gone through a time change we are currently on Mountain Time current time right now is 8:15 so if you're phone watch clock grandfather clock or has not gone ahead in 1 hour now time is 8:1 good morning we are here in Gallup New Mexico all night long we rode through California and then Arizona sometime in the middle of the night I uh woke up and we were stopped at Kingman Arizona so I knew we were in Arizona um no I did not sleep well at all I tried to curl up in the seat the two seats uh sometimes I would lean one seat back so the seat beside me was not leaned back and I could kind of lay my head on it but sitting up and and I tried everything and I slept maybe 3 or 4 hours total maybe um got cold in the middle of the night so I put my coat on uh and it's still cold it's chilly out here but so far so good Gallop New Mexico it originally was not a town it was just like a railroad office the railroad workers would come to the office here to get their paychecks from a guy named David Gallop it started saying like let's go to Gallup and get our paychecks and eventually somebody said well let's just call the Place Gallup New Mexico so that's how it got its name we're in a different time zone an hour ahead so I'm thinking it's like 8:30 in the morning it's actually 7:30 California time and Arizona time uh so it's a little early for breakfast I'm going to have it anyway my head kind of hurts from the not sleeping and the uh the hot dog for dinner last night and I'm a guy who never gets headaches but I got one now so I'm going to go find breakfast I'm going to get some like a breakfast sandwich I think from the cafe uh and some coffee and just sit and watch the scenery today scenery is going to be very very nice today today is all New Mexico and Colorado I must say the breakfast sandwich surprisingly good I don't know what they did to the bread but it's real butter sensation to it it's very good with coffee here looking at this scenery here in the morning this is by the way the um observation car so the bottom level of this car is the cafe where you buy all this stuff scenery ladies and gentlemen our next station stop coming up here in about 2 hours from now will be aler New Mexico amre is a nonsmoking train if you're caught smoking on board this does include ecigarettes you will be removed by law enforcement at our earliest convenience there are many Road Crossings between here and your intended destination and we can use any number of them to remove you from the Train [Music] a [Music] spe if you buy a sleeper compartment you get access to a shower or if you get a bedroom you get your own shower in your room if you're in a coach seat like me you do not get access to any shower so it's two nights on this train with no shower so I will show you the bathroom kind of show you around what uh what they have here in this little bathroom cuz there are plenty of these we do have access to these of course the toilet the toilet paper is out there's another one there flush button is here we got a sink um if you press one of these it just shoots out real fast only while you're pressing it there's a slight difference in the temperature of the water but it's they're both kind of room temperature some soap pretty nice soap called the attendant button both tissues and towels towels for drying and tissues for tissues that's kind of nice even got an outlet CU you want to dry your hair infant changing table let's see I can I can verify that there are infants on this train well that is a grimy looking table have some soet seat covers that's nice just a kind of the dezer thing oh more cups it doesn't say you can't drink this so I I don't know I bet you can I hope you can never like this design where you have to touch the surface to get the trash in I do that on airplanes too so there being no shower for me I'm going to do my best here I'm going to uh maybe wash and soap off my face uh dry it with the towel um brush my teeth which I didn't do last night cuz it's just kind of a hassle I didn't feel like getting up and stumbling on the train and see if I can do my best to feel refreshed [Music] the next stop was Albuquerque New Mexico one of the Train's longest scheduled breaks and we were 14 minutes early making it even longer folks if you're remaining on board just know that the cafe will be closed while we're at the Albuquerque station and it isn't T early but for those of you who are going to be leaving I just want to thank all of you very much for your patronage it's been a pleasure traveling with you and I wish you a wonderful day thank you he we're in Albuquerque we have an hour stop here it's about 11:00 local time which is mountain time we got about an hour here because the train crew has to do something to the train it's scheduled here so a scheduled 1H hour break and this is my first chance to actually go all the way to the front of the train to see the engines and stuff okay this is Albuquerque what a nice Town six apples saces challenge to eat all that before we get to Chicago thanks a lot okay I got uh some excellent lunch and snack foods from Silver Street Market based on the recommendation of uh the guy on the train the guy on the train is leaving here in Albuquerque he's getting off the train and I was talking to Jimmy in the cafe about the shifts how the shifts work in on the train he said the like service staff him the people in The Cafe and Restaurant stuff they stay for the whole ride LA to Chicago but the drivers and conductors and people operating the train there's like five shift changes I thought that was insane I was like five why and then I did the math I was like oh yeah well eight or nine hour shift 40 45 hours makes sense I also heard him saying to some other passenger that here in Albuquerque there's like seven people getting on the train but in Kansas City there's going to be I think he said 107 but anyway probably after that it's going to be completely 100% full he said every seat full so when we get to Kansas City someone will definitely by then be sitting beside me and I'll lose my little two- seat Kingdom another thing is that it might be possible for me to go to the dining car and pay the price for the meal but I've decided not to do that on this trick I'm not going to take any meals in the dining car it's going to be all cafe or this market for me in an effort to save money and because that's my fate I paid for the coach seat that's what happens but according to the uh the staff I asked him yesterday if it's not that many people like it was last night then it's no problem a coach customer can go into Dining Car pay the price on the which is $30 or $40 for a meal but you can do it today's lunch is tuna sandwich cheddar and sour cream Ruffles an applesauce with no spoon and Dr Pepper zero sugar visitors or baggage handlers this is the last call for Albuquerque if you want to get off in Albuquerque you need to come downstairs right now thank you [Music] e [Music] a quick thank you to everybody who's subscribing to my free email newsletter behind the scenes info and early links to new videos before they're published and thanks to everybody on patreon who is helping support this Channel and my travels and my videos and super special thanks to omire rayin and will Phillips the Southwest Chief got quiet and relaxing in the afternoon the tracks were even smooth I had to keep my voice down when recording but the next stop was on my mind because it's an especially notable one in about half an hour we're going to be at Lamey New Mexico and about a 100 years ago or whenever back in the day there was a railway company called aeson Topeka in Santa Fe and they wanted to build a train line to Santa Fe New Mexico there was not one at the time and everybody called the railway Santa Fe for short so Santa Fe was kind of their guiding Spirit it was in their name it was the whole point of the line so they built out west but they got to Santa Fe they got near Santa Fe in New Mexico and they realized that the terrain was not good for the type of tracks they were using so the best they could do was they could go to Lamey which is like 25 miles or something south of Santa Fe and they built a separate Spur Line from there so you'd have to change trains at Lamey which no one had ever heard of and go up to Santa Fe and it's still that way today so the the Southwest Chief doesn't go to Santa Fe it still stops at Lamey and you can still have to take a shuttle between Lamey and Santa Fe if you want to go there it's a bus now so a little strange Quirk of American railroad history and I got to say the scenery may have caused the uh Railway company some headaches but as a passenger here today unbelievable the American West is always unbelievable no matter how many times you've seen it and the Southwest Chief is really a great way to see it I mean this been going on like this for a long time and it just never gets old by the way let me show you how this seat reclines for sleeping at night so you got your two louches here pull this one up for the back and this one for your feet so if you pull the one for the back back like that and then the other one and allows you to pull this out for your legs you do it as much as you want I had it pretty much horizontal last night had both of them out so I could kind of lay on the whole thing it's me if stoping need to come off and get off the train Ling [Music] at one point the westbound Southwest Chief number three was coming towards us just ahead and it was our turn to divert to a sighting and wait for it to pass how neighborly of us have to leave the main track and go into the sting here at bu we are going to have to meet our sister train and track train number three today unfortunately this is single track to go into the sighting and unfortunately today is our day to go into the sighting just as soon as number three passes our location we will be able to leave the sighting and make our way back onto the main track and towards our next station sou of Las Vegas New Mexico I do apologize for the delay ladies and gentlemen if anything else changes I will keep the updated and I do appreciate your patience thank [Music] you [Music] and ladies and gentlemen that station stop was Las Vegas in New Mexico our next station stop in about 1 hour and 40 minutes will be Ron New Mexico thank you okay so the free water thing faucet downstairs for free drinking water is out in my car I was hoping they might have refilled it at the shift change but they didn't so see I going fill this in the next car drinking water is a good idea on a long train ride like this and with a bottle from the cafe cost you more than $2 or 350 if you're dumb enough to buy a pelo I was hoping for something cheaper nothing doing hey how are you doing hey how are you just chilling with a cup of coffee yes a good idea I know right I would like to get um a pelino of water if I could take care for some ice oh no thanks that's going to be that makes four and then we got five okay you have a great afternoon all right thank you hope you're enjoying your trip it's great yeah just sitting here in the observation car watching the endless yellow and green fields and cows go by waiting for what might be a really nice Sunset I wanted to say that the the way the stops are spaced out here on the Southwest Chief um is really nice we'll stop somewhere it's kind of exciting when there's a stop cuz it's something happening then after that happens anyway then we have like an two hours an hour and a half 2 hours 3 hours to ourselves so it's just enough to sort of break up the rhythm of the train every now and then you stop and you can kind of see some buildings and see some people and stuff and then you go again and then it's all yours again and no one can get on or off kind of in this big long cocoon together I like the I like the pace of it our next fresh air and smokeing stop will be return to Mexico you'd like to exit the train and stretch your legs get some fresh air or enjoy eight cigarette watch from all right thank youy we're now here in r tone New Mexico this is the last stop in New Mexico and just north of here is something really cool it's the highest point of the whole route it's a tunnel that goes through the SR Crystal mountains and as soon as you go through the tunnel as soon as you emerge on the other side that's the state line of Colorado the tunnel one of the highlights of the [Music] trip the grades to get up to the tunnel which is a M and a half over sea level the grades are really steep it's like 3 and 1 12% in some places so the train struggles up freight trains don't do this anymore they have a different route they go so I think amtr is the only one that uses this section of the track here to get up to the tunnel and over the Raton [Music] Pass [Music] [Music] [Music] in the 30s there was a train company called Santa Fe and they had a bunch of lines everywhere and they had a passenger service between LA and Chicago basically on this route it was called Super Chief and it was sleeper cars only they also had a train called El Capitan and it was coach seats like this only and they ran on Alternate days so they merg into just one service that ran every day and it was just called Super Chief SL L Capitan simple enough so when Amtrak took over in 1971 they decided to continue it they dropped the L Capitan part of the name in 1973 unfortunately in 1974 Santa Fe said Amtrak you have to stop using the word Chief because Chief we invented the word chief for train services and it means something it means a certain level of service and niess and you guys don't have it Amtrak's not providing so stop calling it Super Chief amra said okay so they called it the Southwest Limited in 1974 and the 1984 service had improved and it was a nicer train nicer ride so Santa Fe said okay you can call it Chief again so rather than revived the old name in ' 84 they called it the Southwest Chief and that's what it's still called today for 2 years in the late 90s it actually connected with another train in Chicago and the capital Corridor and it continued all the way to Washington DC so for those two years it was possible to go between Los Angeles and Washington DC in with one train without getting off the train it was only two years and they discontinued it in 1998 I don't know why ladies and gentlemen this is Lun Colorado this is your very last opportunity of the night to step off the train stretch your legs and have a SI break your first opportunity will be tomorrow morning at Kansas City all right this is the last stop where we can actually get off and take a smoke break or fresh air break uh until tomorrow morning Kansas City this is Lun Colorado and when I get back on it's dinner time cheeseburger uh hummus with pretzels applesauce banana Stella good morning it's uh about 6:00 local time here in Kansas we are all the way across Kansas been all night in the darkness through Kansas 6:00 a.m. here is 5:00 a.m. yesterday and 4:00 a.m. of California time this specific hour really has no meaning in a trip like this but the good news is that thing is I slept really really well um just deep sleep hardly woke up finally at deep sleep and it is possible to get a good sleep here on the chief so we're going to be in Kansas City very soon uh I can see the sun coming up now it's still quiet everybody's still sleeping here but one more breakfast one more lunch we just left Lawrence Kansas and we were an hour late there but according to Amtrak's website we're scheduled to be only 19 15 minutes late when we get to Kansas City and then on time after that so we'll see anyway good morning what's for breakfast all right I'm the only one here in the lounge car uh it's 6:30 I just got some big intelligence from Jimmy in the cafe downstairs is a football game Chicago versus Kansas City no wonder there's going to be so many people so it's not normally like this normally I guess the Southwest Chief maybe a lot of people get on to Kansas City but not like a whole train load so that's the day I chose to do this anyway here's my breakfast got a blueberry muffin which I'm told to eat with a spoon excellent big coffee and my applesauce which I'm still getting through the thing is I'm trying to avoid yesterday's Atlanta Falcon score cuz I want to watch it tonight and I don't want to hear I don't want to know what the score was cuz it would ruin the game for me hoping to watch it in my hotel room tonight in Chicago yesterday some people behind me started talking talk about the NFL and one of them had seen the score so they were talking about all these teams I was like oh no please and I was trying not to listen but of course I was listening the good thing is that nobody ever talks about the Falcons so of course I was safe but now we're going to get a whole train load full of NFL fans chattering about football that's what I imagin now so the the the competition is on can I avoid the score ladies and gentlemen have your attention please in just a few minutes we will arrive to the downtown Kansas City station so once we arrive into Kansas City you're more than welcome to step off the train get some fresh air or use this time to smoke please keep in mind ladies and gentlemen that this train will leave on time at exact 7:28 once again this train will depart in Kansas City at exactly 7:28 a.m. also folks for my passengers sitting in the coach cars this every seat on this train is going to be taken after we leave Kansas City so that means if you're traveling by yourself please make the seat next to you available once again we are taking on a lot of passengers at this next station stop Kansas City station next upop if you do not allow passengers access to the seats that they were assigned you will be removed once again please do not make us remove you from the train this train will be at capacity if you do not allow passengers their seating assignment you will be removed once again Kan citya 728 [Music] [Music] a.m. [Music] well a lot of people got on but I just walked through the train and there a bunch of empty seats still so I don't quite know what the situation is but I came here to the lounge car got another cup of coffee as if I'm not wired enough already and enjoying the Early Morning Mist on these fields outside very very nice here and there's actually space in the lounge car I thought my lounge car days were over for this trip here we are a lot of people with Kansas City Chiefs uh C uh Uniforms on her shirts jerseys so a festive atmosphere but my car is actually pretty [Music] quiet [Music] we have one more stop in Missouri we go all the way across Missouri but there's only two stops um Kansas City and llea and then there's one stop in Iowa and then the rest are all in Illinois we are in these vast agricultural fields of Central North Central Missouri and this is one of my favorite things to see on a train there something kind of special about the agricultural field these big fields there's just a few birds flying around sometimes those big long like sprayer machines and stuff there's Mist on the distant trees cuz it's still early and everything's super bright and [Music] sunny [Music] [Music] by the way somebody did get the seat next to me uh they sat here for a little bit and then they took off to the cafe car I thing so it's been pretty much the same every now and then they'll come back for a little bit but pretty much got the place to myself still in fact most people are sleeping or in the cafe car and so quiet like I thought everybody was going to be chatty but forgot that it was 7:30 in the morning and nobody's interested in chatting so it actually got quieter when all the NFL people got on the train anyway way we're about to hit Iowa this train goes just a little bit into the far Southeastern corner of Iowa stops at one station called Fort Madison right after that we cross the Mississippi River a long bridge across the Mississippi River that's I think probably the main thing [Music] today okay this is Fort Madison Iowa the only stop in Iowa in just a few minutes we're going to be crossing over the Great Bridge across this very wide part of the Mississippi River and then we'll be in Illinois final state of this trip [Music] once in Illinois mtr's train tracker said we were going to be a mere 7 minutes late to Chicago and it was time for my lunch my final Southwest Chief meal okay I just had my final meal in the cafe it was the ham and swiss cheese sandwich on a pretzel roll it was very good I would like to point out that I've had uh different food except for drinks had all different food each time I went to the cafe so I kind of got a good sampling of the cafe and I had no problem with the cafe it was just microwave heated up in microwave type food but it was actually quite good so let people tell you that the cafe is terrible on Am track I think it's pretty good ask that if you're sitting upstairs on the s b car that you please return to your assigned coach accommodations or sleeping car accommodations once again this will give me time to clean up the car prior to arrival into Chicago as you near Chicago the last few stops are closer together there's a sense of excitement on board for me anticipation of arrival after such a long journey but also sadness that the adventure was coming to an end and at this time folks I do want to thank all of you very much for bringing joy to my work day and also thank you for your patronage down here in the cafe on behalf of the staff and myself we also want to thank you for choosing and practice your mode of transportation and hope to see you in the near future so to everybody on board I wish you a beautiful wonderful amazing afternoon thank you very much and it is you ladies and gentlemen we are on our final approaching to our last and final station stop of Chicago Union Station all right we're here Chicago uh we're 20 minutes late arriving so it's 3:10 p.m. right now that's very good for a 45h hour train now it's kind of an ordeal being on that train for two days two nights in coach um a good in a good way a good ordeal but still you need stamina to do it and um I've given myself a little reward for being on that train I was on it for 45 hours it felt like about 5 days really um but I've given myself a reward something something to to offset all of that and it's right up here look at this this is my room at the Buckingham Hotel on the 40th floor a few blocks away from Union Station in Chicago but the thing is look at the view outside Lake Michigan on a sunny day so I'm going to sit here and relax and look at this all evening and get over the discomfort of sleeping in the coach seat but with many fond memories of that Great Southwest Chief so thanks for coming with me and I'll see you on the next [Music] trip

Channel: T1D Wanderer

Views: 88,919

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Id: eFXwZZbI0KM

Length: 42min 23sec (2543 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 22 2023