Southwest Chief

As the California Zephyr departed Burlington, IA, I checked the schedule. The train was running five and a half hours late, and I was worried about my connection. I was getting off in Galesburg, IL, to get on the Southwest Chief. Normally, I'd have a six hour connection there, but if the train lost any more time, I wouldn't make that connection. I called Amtrak to check the train status on the Southwest Chief, and thankfully, it was running 45 minutes late. The Zephyr did not lose any more time, and I got to Galesburg with a little over an hour to kill. There is plenty of freight action in this small town, so I just sat down with a camera and watched freight trains go by. The Southwest Chief arrived, and I climbed on board, ready for the new adventures and the new people this train would bring.

I found my seat, next to a man holding a fireproof box. I put my stuff there and went to the lounge car, which was about 10 feet away from my coach seat. I sat there for the rest of the day, although there wasn't much to see across Illinois and Missouri. I went back to the coach seat for the night. When I sat down, the man sitting next to me got up and went to the lounge car for the night, leaving his seat empty. I lay down across both seats and slept pretty well that night. When I woke up the next morning, I went into the lounge car again. The man with the fireproof box was still there, and when he saw me come into the lounge car, he got up and went back to the coach seat, never saying a word to me. I thought this was all very strange.

That morning we crossed from Kansas into Colorado. However, this area of Colorado is much different from what I saw two days before on the California Zephyr. I actually thought I was already in New Mexico! Rather than the Rockies, I saw desert. A lot of desert. More desert than I thought existed. It was actually beautiful at first. But it did get boring after a while. However, the train didn't stay in the desert all day.

Crossing into New Mexico, the train also crosses the Continental Divide at over 7,000 feet above sea level. This area is called Raton Pass, and is a famous area on the old Santa Fe Railroad. The mountains also had trees. Notice I used the word "had." A few weeks prior to this trip, the Southwest Chief was cancelled due to wildfires in this area. Most of the trees through here were charred remains of trees. I'm sure this area is more scenic when the trees are alive and well. It was kind of gloomy and sad when I went through there.

After Raton Pass, New Mexico started looking like southeast Colorado again. Honestly, it was getting kind of boring. It was nothing but dirt, cactuses, and sagebrush as far as I could see. Occasionally there was an antelope or some cattle off in the distance. There were usually a couple mountains off in the distance as well. Every so often you'd pass a fence dividing the desert in two and you'd wonder, why do people own all this land? In the evening, the train returned to civilization and stopped in Albuquerque. This was a longer stop, so I got out of the train and looked around. There were some vendors on the platform, so I bought an Albuquerque shotglass for my grandfather, who has a very large collection of shotglasses. I also saw some of the New Mexico RailRunner commuter trains there.

After Albuquerque, I went back to the coach to sleep. Once again, the man with the fireproof box got up and went to the lounge car for the night, never saying a word to me. He got off the train during the night. I woke up the next day in southern California. We went through Cajon Pass in the morning before arriving in Los Angeles about three hours late. Honestly, I thought this train was overrated. While nothing went wrong during the trip, I think people love this train only because the Santa Fe used to run it. I think people love Raton and Cajon Passes only because the Santa Fe went through them. Those were really the only scenic areas on the train, and they weren't very scenic. But my opinion about the scenery might be because I had just ridden the California Zephyr. If I had ridden the Southwest Chief first, I wonder if my opinion would be different?

I did meet some cool people on this train though. There was a family traveling to the Grand Canyon and eventually to Los Angeles. They were going to go up the west coast and take the Empire Builder back east. They were on a 15 day rail pass. There was also a girl about my age from New York whose grandfather, a railfan, had convinced her to get a rail pass and go across the country. She got off in Arizona to visit friends there. There were also a few boy scout troops taking to train to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. They all got off in Raton, I'm not sure how far Philmont is from there. They came from all over the country. That is something I always wanted to do when I was in scouting, but my troop never went to Philmont.

Los Angeles is the furthest from home this trip takes me. 5 days and 4,000 miles separate me from my house in Nashua to where I now stand. Once again, I will board a train, the Sunset Limited, where I will see new places and meet new people. The Chief was the last westbound train I would take on this trip, the Sunset Limited is the first of three trains that will bring me back home.