Bill's Rail Adventures
Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:23 pm
In a thread on the Marching Band forum, a poster made comment about the little electric train I am now using in my signature. It was completely off topic but I want to say more. So this is the appropriate place.
My dad was an employee of the Santa Fe Railroad for over 30 years before retiring in 1991. One of the perks they used to give to rail employees was a passenger pass. I tried to get a job a few years ago as a conductor for Union Pacific and was disheartened that this isn't one of the benefits anymore (that wasn't the reason why I didn't take the job.)
Dad started in San Diego, where he worked for about a year before he transferred to Oceanside. During that time, we used to ride the San Diegan from either San Diego (1962) or Oceanside (1962-66), where we walked to Philippe's and rode the train back home. This was back in the days when Santa Fe ran the train.
In summer 1965, we took the went from Oceanside to Norman, Oklahoma. Now, believe it or not, in those days, that was a very doable trip.There were restrictions. We couldn't take a "premium" train, like the "Chief," "Super Chief," or "El Capitan." The El Cap was an all chair train (no beds) but it cost extra.
Instead, we took the train called the "Grand Canyon." This was a completely no frills train. It stopped everywhere, including about ten stops between Barstow and Needles! Where the Super Chief went from Los Angeles to Chicago in 39 hours, the Grand Canyon did it in almost 50 hours.
We took the San Diegan from Oceanside to Fullerton, where we got on the Grand Canyon. It took two days to get to Newton, Kansas, where we had to wait almost four hours to catch the Texas Chief. Being seven at the time, for a kid from Southern California it was amazing to see insects in the middle of the night in Kansas that were the size of an average bird!
Going back to California was easier. When we got to Newton, we only had a two hour wait. It seemed the time on the Grand Canyon was longer, but maybe that's just because I was a little kid.
They didn't hook up the dining car at the beginning or the end of the trip. I never really understood why that was. We got to Barstow about 5:30 in the afternoon and we were there for maybe an hour and a half. They served meals in the Harvey House there (Fred Harvey, which was also the company that serviced the dining cars on Santa Fe trains.) When we came back, the train arrived in Barstow about 7:00 in the morning and it was the same thing. The menu at the Harvey House was almost identical to what they had on the train, except the prices were higher on the train.
I wouldn't take another long train trip for ten years until I went to the First National Tuba Symposium-Workshop at the University of Illinois in May 1975. And that was Amtrak.
My dad was an employee of the Santa Fe Railroad for over 30 years before retiring in 1991. One of the perks they used to give to rail employees was a passenger pass. I tried to get a job a few years ago as a conductor for Union Pacific and was disheartened that this isn't one of the benefits anymore (that wasn't the reason why I didn't take the job.)
Dad started in San Diego, where he worked for about a year before he transferred to Oceanside. During that time, we used to ride the San Diegan from either San Diego (1962) or Oceanside (1962-66), where we walked to Philippe's and rode the train back home. This was back in the days when Santa Fe ran the train.
In summer 1965, we took the went from Oceanside to Norman, Oklahoma. Now, believe it or not, in those days, that was a very doable trip.There were restrictions. We couldn't take a "premium" train, like the "Chief," "Super Chief," or "El Capitan." The El Cap was an all chair train (no beds) but it cost extra.
Instead, we took the train called the "Grand Canyon." This was a completely no frills train. It stopped everywhere, including about ten stops between Barstow and Needles! Where the Super Chief went from Los Angeles to Chicago in 39 hours, the Grand Canyon did it in almost 50 hours.
We took the San Diegan from Oceanside to Fullerton, where we got on the Grand Canyon. It took two days to get to Newton, Kansas, where we had to wait almost four hours to catch the Texas Chief. Being seven at the time, for a kid from Southern California it was amazing to see insects in the middle of the night in Kansas that were the size of an average bird!
Going back to California was easier. When we got to Newton, we only had a two hour wait. It seemed the time on the Grand Canyon was longer, but maybe that's just because I was a little kid.
They didn't hook up the dining car at the beginning or the end of the trip. I never really understood why that was. We got to Barstow about 5:30 in the afternoon and we were there for maybe an hour and a half. They served meals in the Harvey House there (Fred Harvey, which was also the company that serviced the dining cars on Santa Fe trains.) When we came back, the train arrived in Barstow about 7:00 in the morning and it was the same thing. The menu at the Harvey House was almost identical to what they had on the train, except the prices were higher on the train.
I wouldn't take another long train trip for ten years until I went to the First National Tuba Symposium-Workshop at the University of Illinois in May 1975. And that was Amtrak.