The Roomette has been a standard on any train for one or two traveling passengers. The word roomette means,"A private single compartment in a railroad sleeping car." Now I will be traveling myself in a roomette when I take the Empire Builder from Chicago to Portland. The roomette is 3'6"x6'6" in dimension and offers to passengers traveling in one many amenities such as turn down service, meals are included but tipping the waiters is a must, bottled water, a table for you to play games on and towels and linens which are fresh everyday. Roomettes are very small but if you're traveling by yourself or another person it is the best choice. It is best to book your room months before because they are a hot commodity on a train. The rooms are expensive and are not worth it if you are traveling on a budget. The roomette on a Superliner is different than the ones on a Viewliner, due to the fact that the Viewliners have two windows on both top and bottom bunks, this was done since travelers on board would feel claustrophobic and Amtrak decided to change the design so that passengers wouldn't feel so claustrophobic. Many of the Roomettes are located on the first floor of the Superliners but others are available on the second floor. I will be adding more about the rooms later but this is some of my knowledge.
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The Capitol Limited is a major artery route in my opinion between Chicago and Washington D.C., it is also one of the names that Amtrak has kept over the many years. The train itself is unique in the fact that it is the only Superliner car run train on the East Coast since many of the cars are usually Amfleet coach cars and Viewliner sleeping cars. The journey goes through many cities such as Toledo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cumberland, Harpers Ferry, and Rockville. Interesting fact is that the Limited crosses the state of Maryland twice, once in Cumberland before entering West Virginia and again in Rockville before entering Washington D.C., that is just something that the state of Maryland can do since it has a small pan handle near Harpers Ferry. Back on February 16th, 1996 a westbound Capitol Limited collided with a MARC train heading towards Silver Springs, Maryland. Now the route is an overnight train and it crosses through Pittsburgh in the evening when train number 29 from Washington D.C. and passes through early in the morning on train number 30 from Chicago in time for businessmen to arrive at work rested and ready to go. The Capitol Limited was created by the B&O railroad but the train originated in New York City and reached Washington D.C. later in the evening while the train would arrive at 8 in the morning into Chicago.The Capitol Limited received streamlined heavyweight sleeping and dining cars in 1938. A typical consist included the following: baggage-dormitory, 8-section 1-drawing room 1-compartment sleeping car, dining car, three to four 8-section 5-double bedroom sleeping cars, 14-section sleeping car, two 12-section 1-drawing room sleeping cars, and a sleeper-buffet-lounge with a drawing room and three compartments. In 1941 these cars were augmented by several lightweight 10-roomette 5-bedroom sleeping cars. Now a days the train is run by two P42 engines following behind are a baggage car, transition sleeper, two sleeper cars, dining car, sightseer lounge, and three coach cars. I will be taking trains number 30 and 29 but on the way there I will be ending up in Rockville and on the way home I will start from Washington D.C. Union Station. In the coming weeks I will post some pictures of the train and its old owner the B&O. Next will be the Empire Builder and I will post on this train in two weeks.
The California Zephyr has a glamorous history with many different railroads, from Union Pacific to Rio Grande. Most of the route that the train takes is through picturesque areas of Colorado and through the mountain ranges between California and Nevada. The original plan for Amtrak was to use the route it originally took between San Francisco and Chicago but it ran into difficulty due to the fact that the Rio Grande did not want to join Amtrak in fear of loss of certain entities. 1983 brought Amtrak the route they had been wanting and the California Zephyr was reborn. The California Zephyr was originally the San Francisco Zephyr and Denver Zephyr, the San Francisco Zephyr would travel from San Francisco to Denver where passengers would board the Denver Zephyr and continue onto Chicago. The route of the California Zephyr is 2,438 miles and takes about two days to travel either way. The train is one of the longest journeys you can take with Amtrak, while the longest one in North America is VIA rails Canadian which travels from Vancouver to Toronto and is 86 hours or 3.5 days long compared to the Zephyrs 51hr. 20min. journey. The train leaves Emeryville daily and by late that evening it is already in Nevada closing in on Utah, where the train stops shortly after midnight in Salt Lake City and continues on to Colorado which is a full day travel going through Moffat Tunnel which cuts through the Continental Divide and that evening the train arrives in Denver for a small cleaning and continues on through the night passing through Nebraska and Iowa. The next morning you arrive into the great state of Illinois where you make a few stops before arriving into Chicago in the early afternoon. The train is pulled by two P42 engines and behind it follow a baggage car, one transition sleeper for the staff, two sleeper cars, a Superliner Diner car, a Superliner Sightseer lounge car, and three coach cars. I will be traveling on the California Zephyr at the end of May and will be writing about the service and posting many pictures of the gorgeous scenery that entails this magnificent train and route.
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