Prologue

We railfans ride our trains toward distant horizons, with the tracks guiding the way forward.

Along these parallel lines that never meet, we have traveled through every station, airport, and harbor in the world...

Railfans are never alone, and never will be! Trains carry all of our memories, from childhood to the present day!

Background

With that opening verse out of the way, let’s get to the main topic. As a traditional railfan, Lizi has already experienced two Amtrak long-distance trains in the United States. See the posts below for details:

Southwest Chief 3: Chicago - Los Angeles 

Coast Starlight 11: Seattle - Los Angeles

Before this trip, Lizi’s most recent major rail journey had been on New Year’s Day in 2015, nearly seven years ago. I had thought I would never again have the chance to do another long-distance Amtrak trip, but at the end of the year, thanks to an opportunity to visit New Orleans, I was able to return to Los Angeles on the Sunset Limited. Fate and timing gave Lizi a third chance to experience an Amtrak long-distance train.

For the New Orleans trip report, see the earlier posts:

A Christmas Morning Surprise from Delta Air Lines — Part 1 of Lizi’s 2021 year-end Christmas trip.

New Orleans Day 1 — Part 2 of Lizi’s 2021 year-end Christmas trip.

New Orleans Day 2 — Part 3 of Lizi’s 2021 year-end Christmas trip.

New Orleans Day 3 — Part 4 of Lizi’s 2021 year-end Christmas trip.

What made this trip different from the previous two was that Southwest Chief and Coast Starlight both run daily, while the Sunset Limited operates only tri-weekly, with three departures each week (departing New Orleans on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday; departing Los Angeles on Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday). That meant there was not much flexibility in picking travel dates. Since the scheduled running time is 46h, I chose the 12.29 9:00AM departure from New Orleans so that I could arrive in Los Angeles on the morning of 12.31, rest for two days, and then go back to work on 1.3 after New Year’s.

One more thing: if anyone wants to try the sleeper on this train, be sure to book early. Recently, this train has had only one through sleeper car, and I only realized that last month when I was trainspotting at night in Los Angeles and saw the originating Sunset Limited 2. That also explains why, right after I redeemed my ticket, the system immediately showed sleeper space as OOS.

First of all, it must be said that the Sunset Limited is the oldest train in Amtrak history, not just one of the oldest. The train was first launched by Southern Pacific in 1894, giving it a history of 128 years. Just look at this poster... after all these decades, the scheduled travel time from New Orleans, LA - Los Angeles, CA has barely changed (though I would guess the amount of sitting around en route has increased a lot).

Its current route is New Orleans, LA - Los Angeles, CA. I say “current route” here because this train once ran all the way from Miami, FL - Los Angeles, CA. However, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 destroyed the tracks east of New Orleans, and they still have not been restored. As a result, for the past 16 years, the Sunset Limited has continued operating in this shortened form.

The route map and timetable are shown below.

And here’s a bit of background: aside from the Northeast Corridor, which Amtrak owns itself, Amtrak trains operate over tracks leased from other railroad companies. That is one major reason Amtrak is so often delayed. The section used by the Sunset Limited belongs to Union Pacific, and it is very much a freight railroad. If that still doesn’t make sense, just think of it as running passenger trains on one of China’s heavy coal freight lines.

The last two times Lizi redeemed Amtrak tickets, awards were still based on Zones. Times have changed, and now 1 Points is worth about 2.9 cents toward the fare. Since I procrastinated a bit, by late September the small private room, the Roomette, was already OOS, and only the larger Bedroom was left — and it was the last one... So I had no choice but to burn about 70,000 points to book it.

That one redemption really hurt. Lizi’s points balance dropped directly from 100,000 to a little over 30,000, basically back to where it was five years ago. I was almost cleaned out!

Train Consist and Its Relationship with the Amtrak Texas Eagle

The train I was taking this time was Amtrak Sunset Limited 1 from New Orleans to Los Angeles. But that also means I have to mention another Amtrak train: the Texas Eagle 21 from Chicago to Los Angeles.

Westbound, when Amtrak Sunset Limited 1 departs New Orleans, the consist is two P42 diesel locomotives pulling 1 sleeper (pay attention: there is now only one through sleeper car) + 1 dining car + 1 sightseeing car + 2 coaches. On the afternoon before this train departs, the Texas Eagle also leaves Chicago and heads for San Antonio. After Sunset Limited 1 arrives in San Antonio, TX, it has to wait for the Texas Eagle. There, the Texas Eagle does one important thing: it detaches one coach and one sleeper from its own consist and adds them to the rear of the Sunset Limited, which then continues on to Los Angeles.

Of course, in the opposite direction, if you are riding Amtrak Sunset Limited 2 eastbound from Los Angeles, then after reaching San Antonio, it also drops off two cars — one sleeper and one coach — for the Texas Eagle, while the remaining cars continue on to New Orleans.

As you may have already realized, this creates two issues:

The first is the ticketing issue — when booking, make sure you know whether your ticket is for a through car or whether you need to “change trains.” If your hand slips and you accidentally buy a ticket that goes from Train 1 to Train 21, then sorry — once the train reaches San Antonio, you will need to get off, wait in the station, and then reboard once those two Texas Eagle cars have been attached, sitting in the newly attached cars for the rest of the trip (the legendary 2B transfer?).

See the image below — the first row is the through car option, and the second row is the legendary 2B transfer.

The second is the delay issue — even though the Texas Eagle departs a day earlier, it still has to cover more than 2000km from Chicago, IL to San Antonio, TX, so it is hard to guarantee an on-time arrival. If the Texas Eagle is late, then the Sunset Limited, even if it arrives in San Antonio first, has to sit at the platform and wait seemingly forever until the cars are attached before it can leave again (and yes, I ran into exactly this problem on this trip, which I’ll explain later).

Day 1 - Louisiana:

On the morning of 2021.12.29, after checking out of the hotel, I took a Lyft straight to New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal.

The station clocks here had already gone dummy, and the big Departure board in the station showed only a lonely three trains. Once we got to the station, we checked the biggest suitcase first, which made things a lot easier.

Sleeping-car passengers could wait in a small room next door. Here, Chestnut and Bunny discovered a terrifying fact: people riding long-distance sleepers were either parents traveling with train-fan kids, or elderly grandpas and grandmas who had long since transcended the concept of time and achieved total peace with the world... So which kind of railfans are we? I’d like to think we’re the former, haha.

It was finally time to board.

One thing to watch out for when taking this train: don’t board the wrong one.

Because the Amtrak Cresent departs only 15min later than ours, it’s inevitable that both consists would be sitting in the station at the same time. If you’re new to Amtrak, just remember this: the Sunset Limited uses bi-level Superliner cars; the Cresent is a single-level consist made up of Viewliner and Amfleet equipment. Remember that and you won’t get it wrong. And if someone asks, “Isn’t the one on the left double-decker too?” then let me educate the newcomers a bit: you clearly haven’t seen the CRH2E sleeper EMU. Both of these are “look double-deck, but are actually single-level.”

Let me also explain why the Crescent uses single-level cars: tunnels on the eastern routes are older, and the loading gauge is too tight. A bi-level Superliner would have its roof shaved off going through. So to this day, Amtrak generally uses bi-level cars in the West and single-level cars in the East.

As a quick bit of railfan trivia, here are a few factors that determine whether a type of passenger car can run on a given route:

The first factor is track gauge, which everyone knows. For example, both China and the United States use standard gauge, 1435mm; Japan’s Shinkansen uses 1435mm, while most conventional lines use 1067mm; and Russia uses 1520mm. Gauge changes are not necessarily a huge problem, either... you can just jack the car up and swap out the bogies and wheelsets together, as on Beijing–Moscow K19/20 and Beijing–Ulaanbaatar–Moscow K3/4.

The second factor is loading gauge. Otherwise, if the car is too tall or too wide, it’ll get its roof sliced off in a tunnel, or scrape its shoulders off at the platform.

Signal systems and the rest come after that.

Up front were two GE P42DC locomotives, Nos. 54 and 194. Our sleeper was Superliner No. 32027, one of the oldest first-generation Superliner cars. It was built in 1980 by Pullman Company, making it 41 years old at the time—seven years older than Chestnut. Hard to say how many more years this car has left in it, but based on my impression of Amtrak, a refurbish and another 5-10 years of service probably wouldn’t be a big problem.

It’s also worth noting that this was among the last batch of passenger cars built by the century-old Pullman factory. A few years later, the historic railcar manufacturer was merged into Bombardier, which is why second-generation Superliners carry the Bombardier logo.

One note here: on Amtrak cars, the first two digits of the car number indicate the train number. So the train number on our car was marked incorrectly: it should have been 0130, not 0230.

First-generation Superliner bogie!

The bogie turned out to be German-made in 1978. I looked it up, and Wagon Union GmbH was headquartered in Hamburg, which at the time was in West Germany. Meanwhile, China’s old Type 24 and Type 18 passenger cars were built by Deutsche Waggonbau, which at the time was in East Germany, the DDR.

The consist behind us: one dining car, one Sightseer Lounge, and two coaches. So departing New Orleans, the train had only five cars in total.

Our good-luck aura struck again: because Amtrak was short-staffed, Chestnut’s room still hadn’t been cleaned by this point... well then.

So we had no choice but to hang out in the lounge car for a while first. On the left, you can see the Cresent’s single-level Amfleet cars.

After waiting about half an hour, Chestnut’s room was finally ready, so let’s head down the corridor.

The layout of an Amtrak Superliner bi-level sleeper is shown below. Chestnut was in Room A, so we were upstairs. The five rooms A through E all have the same interior setup: upper and lower berths for two people, plus a chair by the window for the person in the upper berth to use during the day. Each room also comes with its own toilet and shower—not the idiotic bedside toilet setup found in first-generation single-level Viewliners, so rest easy.

We discovered that not a single train number on this car was correct: outside it was marked 0230, while inside it was marked 1130... 1130? Train 11 is the Coast Starlight, come on.

Our sleeper was directly behind the locomotives, so the power was right in front of us.

What makes Room A different from the other rooms is that, because of the corridor alignment outside, the toilet and shower have to be reversed and open outward. So when showering, do not forget to lock the room door and pull the curtain closed.

There was also a small closet next to the room door for hanging clothes, which was actually pretty practical.

More than half an hour after departing New Orleans, we finally crossed the Huey P Long Bridge, the No. 1 railroad bridge in the United States.

Because we got stuck at a red signal on the bridge, the train started running late not long after departure.

First stop: Schriever, LA. By the time we got here, we were already running more than thirty minutes late... rundown as it is, the station building still had Amtrak’s old arrow logo.

Passing through Morgan City, LA, it felt clearly much larger than Schriever, yet the train didn’t stop there at all.

This is the site of an old drilling platform on the Atchafalaya River. I looked it up and, surprisingly, it’s now a museum—the International Petroleum Museum & Exposition, Inc.

A cargo ship on the river.

Second stop: New Iberia, LA. The platform here wasn’t long enough for the whole train, so the train first stopped to let sleeping-car passengers get on and off. Then the locomotive sounded the horn and pulled forward by about three car lengths so the coach passengers could board and alight. This was my first time ever seeing an operation like that, and we’d see it several more times at later stops!

Once again, there were parents boarding with their kids. Riding along with these passengers made me feel 20 years younger all of a sudden!

When it was time to eat, we headed to the dining car. Honestly, Amtrak’s dining car is always something to look forward to, and it never disappoints. Compared with boxed meals on China’s high-speed trains, it’s better by a mile.

Inside the dining car I spotted this sticker: “Beech Grove Shops, Serving Amtrak for over 100 years.” Beech Grove Shops is a rail equipment maintenance center in Indiana—basically the kind of place that handles heavy overhaul work for passenger cars.

Here’s the menu. It felt like the paper menu had been simplified, and the tableware had also been switched to disposable utensils.

Doesn’t this look cozy?

A quick note on my gear:

Phone: iPhone 13 Pro; camera: Canon 6D Mark 2; lenses: Sigma 24-105mm F4A in the daytime, and the trusty EF 35mm F2.0 IS USM prime at night.

Salad.

Amtrak’s burger. To be honest, it was pretty generous on the meat!

For dessert, Bunny ordered the Carrot Cake.

I ordered the Cheesecake. You can see Bunny in the background already digging in!

With our stomachs full, we went back and continued the journey. Next stop: Lafayette, LA.

This station finally looked somewhat decent—at least it had a station sign, and downtown didn’t look too bad either.

Is this a rice field?

American's Favorite Brands — looks like a flour mill.

Lake Charles, LA — the last stop in Louisiana. By the time we got here, it was already 2: 30 pm, nearly 40 minutes behind schedule. Of course, this delay was only the beginning. Bigger surprises were still waiting for us ahead!

In short, Amtrak is a form of entertainment, not transportation. If you care about being on time, don’t choose Amtrak. That said, sometimes it can also be bizarrely punctual—so punctual it scares you, like when I rode the Southwest Chief over Christmas in 2013.

The Calcasieu River Bridge after leaving the station. The lake in the distance is the so-called Charles Lake.

The weather during these two days on the train wasn’t great, so I couldn’t get the kinds of shots I wanted. Please bear with me!

Louisiana’s most distinctive feature is its low-lying terrain and humid climate, so the view outside the window was dominated by wetlands and swamps like this.

Not long after that, we quietly rolled out of Louisiana.

Day 1 - Texas:

The first sign that we had entered Texas was spotting this building with “Orange” written on it. A quick check confirmed that we were now in TX.

From the architectural style, it was easy to tell that this used to be the old train station in Orange, TX. But there’s no passenger service here anymore, leaving only this lonely station building standing guard and telling the story of its former glory.

The Texas state flag made it crystal clear that we had entered Texas territory!

Tank cars at a nearby refinery. American tank cars are a bit slimmer and longer than the ones back home.

A cargo vessel on the Neches River. After crossing the river, it wasn’t far to Beaumont, our first stop in Texas.

First stop in Texas: Beaumont, TX.

Watching the sunset aboard the Sunset Limited—it was probably going to be fully dark by the time we reached Houston.

As the sun went down, this was probably our last chance on this trip to see wetlands in eastern Texas. After one night, the train would be running into the desert and arid regions of western Texas, and the scenery ahead would be completely different.

We decided to eat in the dining car first so we could finish dinner early and get off to walk around a bit during the stop in Houston. This time, I noticed that the dining car was actually a relatively new second-generation Superliner car, numbered 38068.

For the appetizer, we ordered the Crab Cake.

For the main, I went with the steak.

Bunny ordered the chicken.

As the train was about to pull into the station, we decided to pack up dessert and take it back to our room, then get off first and take a quick walk around.

After getting off, we first took a photo of Houston’s station sign together with the locomotive.

The connection between the second locomotive and our car. That window in the upper right is Chestnut’s roomette!

Another shot of a first-generation Superliner truck.

A shot of the platform and the older folks who got off to stretch their legs.

And finally, a photo with the station sign and the nighttime Downtown Houston skyline.

After wandering around for a bit, it was about time to head back on board and finish the dessert brought over from the dining car.

I pulled out my phone to see where the Texas Eagle that was supposed to be added to our train had gotten to... and wow... the dessert instantly stopped tasting so good.

Gray status? Service Disruption? That’s basically the worst-case scenario. It could mean the Texas Eagle’s locomotive had broken down, and a double-digit-hour delay was totally possible!

Oh well, nothing I could do about it. Time to wash up first.

PS: Please once again ignore the fact that Chestnut barely has any chestnut burr spikes left on his head. Thank you!

After washing up, I noticed that the Texas Eagle status had turned black... well... at least that was better than gray.

But judging from the trend, we could easily be more than three hours late tomorrow!

Only after the lights were turned off did I realize the sticker on the glass was actually glow-in-the-dark.

I dozed off for a while and vaguely felt the train stop. Then the locomotive sounded its horn and started backing up... What? If we’re backing up, that means we must be getting close to San Antonio. This is Sunset Limited’s SOP for entering San Antonio (it also backs in when entering Houston; besides that, the California Zephyr also backs into Denver).

I got off to take a look, and sure enough, we had arrived at the home turf of the Spurs!

Summary

Since Amtrak Texas Eagle 21 was already running very late, Chestnut figured this thing probably wouldn’t reach San Antonio to be coupled onto our train until sometime after 3 a.m., which meant departure after the cars were joined would likely be after 4 a.m.

Anyway, enough of that. Back to sleep!