Trains

Factual Questions
21

Going on memory, the reason people have to change trains in going from east to west, or vice versa: Back when Amtrak was fully subsidized by the U.S.Govt., they were given a certain amount of money to either update the trains or the tracks. Since the tracks were in better shape on the western half, they updated the trains. On the other hand, the tracks needed updating on the eastern half.
That’s what I was told by Amtrak personnel when I decided to take a roundtrip trainride from L.A. to Newark, and back again. I had to change in Chicago. It was a fun trip, but, no…I’d never do it again.

“There will always be somebody who’s never read a book who’ll know twice what you know.” - D.Duchovny

22

Amtrak names routes, not trains (they may name trains also, but I’ve never seen such a name publicized in any way). “The City of New Orleans” refers to any train running the Chicago-New Orleans route.

23

Having ridden the City of New Orleans many times, and having been acquainted with the late great Stevie Goodman, (he died of leukemia in 1983), I can tell you the song was written in 1970 during a period of convulsion in the railroad industry.

The government was in the process of bailing out many bankrupt railroads via their
CONRAIL entity, and Amtrack was cutting unprofitable passenger routes by the score, The City of New Orleans included. (Amtrack rescinded that cut, and the train continues to this day though a pale shadow of its former glory).

The City of New Orleans is not about that one train, it’s about all trains from all times. Steve was lamenting the apparent death of our romance with railroading in general and passenger trains in particular.

I miss him greatly, to this day.

24

That’s not quire accurate. The ad I saw was published in the 1940s, long before jet air travel. In any case, gasoline was rationed at the time to save rubber (ref. the first Straight Dope book); we needed all the mass-transit media we could muster, and air travel hadn’t flourished yet. And the ad also pointed out that Canada, unlike the United States, was NOT 'split down the middle. The point of the ad was that rail travel should be as simple for Americans as it was (and perhaps still is) for Canadians.

25

Sorry, Torq, I missed your post, but you’re exactly wrong. There are many trains that run those tracks between Chicago and New Orleans, but there is only ONE train designated as “The City of New Orleans.” (Actually, there are two trains travelling that route in opposite directions at any given time).

Didn’t you catch the line
“Passing trains that have no name”?

26

I rode the Coast Starlight in 1982, my first train trip in 30 years. I was listening to cassettes, with headphones; at one point the conductor, a rather whimsical soul, approached and asked me what I was listening to. I handed him the index card, from the cassette box, I had filled out. He pretended to read from it, “Let me go, I’m broke.”

27

>>On to a more serious question: During the heyday of passenger train travel, you would have to chaged trains–even stations in some cases–on an east-west trip, of any length, in Chicago, St. Louis, or New Orleans. >>dougie_monty

In the “heyday” of passenger train travel, there was no Amtrak. Individual railroads handled their own passenger service on their own tracks (+rail right of ways +stations).

Early railroads in the east largely terminated at Chicago. Their lines (for the purposes of discussing transcontinental travel) simply did not extend beyond Chicago. Beyond Chicago, large western railroads completed the trip to the west.

Some of the railroads from the east to Chicago had premium or limited service which became famous as “20th Century Limited” (NY Central RR/NY to Chicago), “Broadway Limited” (Pennsylvania RR/NY to Chicago) and the “Capitol Limited” (Baltimore & Ohio RR/Washington to Chicago). From Chicago west some of the more famous premium trains were the “Super Chief” (A.T.& Santa Fe RR/ Chicago-LA), the “California Zephyr” (Burlington, Rio Grande and Western Pacific RRs/Chicago to Oakland) and the “Empire Builder” (Great Northern RR/Chicago to Pacific NW)

In Chicago, most railroads had their own terminal. Passengers had to detrain and switch to another terminal for the rest of their journey. Eventually, several railroads shared terminals (PRR, Burlington and others shared Union Station, NY Central and others shared Lasalle Station, B&O, C&O and others shared Grand Central Station, and Santa Fe and others shared Dearborn Station), but you still had to at least switch railroads, if not stations. Not until 1956 was it readily possible to enjoy transcontinental through service (via agreements between certain eastern RRs and certain western RRs.)

The eventual failure of private passenger service led to the takeover of virtually all long distance passenger travel (with a couple notable early exceptions) by Amtrak. Whatever its failings, Amtrak has consolidated passenger service (using the tracks of the private freight railroads except in the Northeast Corridor) and passenger stations, permitting through service. They even adopted (or co-opted) some of the old names, including the Capitol Limited, the California Zephyr, the Super Chief (now the Southwest Chief).

>>I asked some people I know about this; one said railroads deliberately did this to make train travelers pay more; another claimed it was because the “Superliners” used in the West were too big for Eastern railroad tunnels. Any answers from the Teeming Millions?>>

The Superliners are relatively new and of course were not around in the heyday of passenger service. The higher clearances they require make them virtually unusable in northeastern tunnels or under the catenary of the old PRR line (although the Capitol Limited route can handle the Superliners). For this reason and others, you still have to change trains in Chicago, even if you buy a ticket from Amtrak for New York to LA or Oakland

28

Another bit of info on train lengths and brakes - the brakes use air pressure to release the brakes, so if you have too many cars, you can’t generate enough pressure to release the brakes, and you can’t get moving. (At least that is what they indicated on a TV show called “Trains Unlimited”.)

Train names - the names are usually associated with a specific train that runs at a specific time. Other trains doing the same route at a different time typically have a different name, if any.

29

It would appear the City of New Orleans is in fact a single train.

“I guess it is possible for one person to make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”

30

I should mention the above quote came from http://patsweb.com/train-.htm which is a site devoted to the train in question.

31

Well, I’ll defer to those who know (and care) more about this than I do.

I will say in my defense that Amtrak certainly doesn’t go out of their way to correct mistaken opinions: their route schedule for Chicago-New Orleans prominently says “City of New Orleans” at the top, and doesn’t as far as I can determine mention that the “other” train has a different name.

Likewise, I know I was on two different trains travelling the Chicago-Boston route, but neither of them was ever identified as anything but the “Lakeshore Limited”. In fact, that particular route splits somewhere in New York (Albany, maybe?) with part going to New York City and part going to Boston, but the name didn’t change that I can recall.

32

I see where our misunderstanding lies, Torq.
In the days when I rode that train, it only left once a day (late afternoon) for its namesake. (And another train of the same name left New Orleans bound for Chicago at about the same time).

Now Amtrak has a schedule of trains on that route and they all appear to be under the heading “City of New Orleans”? I was not aware of that fact. So they have indeed debased the name and applied it to a mere set of tracks. Thanks for that info.

(Rest in Peace, Steve. You were right).

33

No, there is still only one train per day in each direction. #59 southbound leaves every evening at 8PM and is scheduled to arrive in New Orleans the next afternoon at 3:40PM. #58 northbound leaves every afternoon at 2:04PM and is scheduled to arrive in Chicago the next morning at 9:20AM. There is no other direct passenger train between the two cities. It is possible to construct a route to, for instance) Philadelphia, then to Jacksonville, and then to New Orleans. But that is not direct, you would be changing trains, and you would not have traveled on the City of New Orleans.