In May 1981, I traveled to Austin, Texas from Fort Wayne, Indiana by Amtrak.
Between Fort Wayne and Chicago I took a set in a roomette. At that time, it cost only a few dollars more than a seat in a coach and provided a quiet, more comfortable ride than a coach seat. Amtrak discontinued that practice because demand for sleeping-car space often exceeded availability, and because some rude and self-absorbed passengers abused the privilege by using the towels and washcloths and sometimes even using the beds.
A roomette seat was especially nice when returning to Fort Wayne from Chicago, because the trip was at night. In coaches the bright overhead lights were kept on so that the crew wouldn't have to wake passengers when they arrived in Fort Wayne, and it was impossible to see out the windows because of the reflection. In a roomette, I could turn off the light and shut the door and enjoy the nighttime views.
The roomette's washbasin folds down from the wall.
Arriving in Chicago
Chicago Union Station
Long before 9/11, this was the first time I was admonished against taking pictures in a station
Power for the train to Texas. I stopped to ask the engineer a question, and got an invitation to come up and see the cab.
Superliners were pretty new then. I had ridden a coach before, but this was my first time inside a Superliner sleeper
Settled in for the long haul
Joliet? It's been 24 years, and I can't remember all the details that I didn't write down.
St. Louis Amshack – a sorry replacement for magnificent Union Station.
The train on the other track, with the Amfleet coaches, was a train that ran between St. Louis and Kansas City. I think they called it the Mule.
I think this is Texarkana
Rolling across Texas. A storm the previous night had knocked out the signaling system in the Longview-Marshall area, and we ran and much-reduced speed for many miles.
In that era, the Missouri Pacific (MoPac) was worthy of its screaming eagle herald. Their mainline track was good, and their freight trains were some of the fastest I had seen.
Coming into Dallas
Dealey Plaza and the Texas Schoolbook Depository. The Grassy Knoll is obscured by the wooden fence.
We had to wait a little while for the northbound train to arrive before we could head south on the single track to Temple
Santa Fe depot in Temple, Texas
Southbound, two cars for Houston were switched out at Temple. Northbound, they were switched in here.
I don't have pictures of my arrival in Austin, because a heavy rain started just as I got off the train. My aunt's housekeeper took me to the airport to pick up my rental car, and as we headed for the house the rain turned into a torrential downpour. We parked atop a bridge for quite a while to wait it out. The next morning on the news I saw that flash floods had done terrible damage, and three people had died when their car was caught in flood waters in an area that we had driven through just minutes before.
The view from my aunt's back yard. The blotchy colors in the sky were a result of the film getting wet; the weather was hot, and I was keeping my film in a jar in an ice chest as I drove around the area. I dropped one roll into the ice/water as I changed film.
Railroad action around the station before my departure for home. MKT stood for Missouri-Kansas-Texas, affectionately known as Katy. After abandonment most of the Katy route across Missouri was purchased by Edward D. Jones, who donated it for conversion to a bike trail known as the Katy Trail.
The Amtrak train was late arriving in Austin from San Antonio, and north of Austin we came up behind a stalled freight train on the Santa Fe and lost even more time.
Back in Temple, where we picked up the two cars from Houston
Headed north to Fort Worth
By the time we left Dallas in the evening, we had accumulated forty-five minutes in delays.
The ride over the MoPac that night was the fastest I've ever gone outside the Northeast Corridor. My sleeper was the first car benind the locomotives, and when the engineer blew the air horn for the crossings in the small towns, the doubling-up of the Doppler effect made the echo coming back off the grain elevators eerily shrill. The scenery was really flying by, and the ride was smooth and steady.
We arrived in St. Louis ten minutes early the next morning.
Headed for Chicago past a familiar landmark. On the last segment of the trip, every seat was full and some people were standing or sitting in the aisles.
I could admit that I messed up on this shot and delete it, or I could say that it's art that conveys speed and motion, and leave it in. I think I'll call it art. Pretend you don't know better.
That's all.