Pre-Amtrak roll call

[trainman203]

Log in, those of you who are old enough to have, in the days of private railroad passenger service in the United States:

1. Ridden overnight in a Pullman car.
2. Eaten meals in a full-service white-tablecloth diner.

I'm working on a narrative of several overnight trips my family took by train in those long-gone days

[Terry Toenges]

In 1954, when I was 4, my Aunt's friend Shirley took me out to Colorado to visit my aunt and uncle. My Uncle (who was in the Army) was stationed there. We went by train from St. Louis. The only thing I remember about the whole trip was having a ham sandwich and I guess it was in the diner. We had bologna sandwiches at home so ham was real treat. I don't know if and where we slept.

[Len]

In 1952, when I was 5, we moved from St. Louis to Connecticut. After the house was packed out, we took the train from St. Louis to New London, CT. Mostly what I remember is having to share an upper bunk in the Pullman car with my brother at night and the car being switched to another train twice. In New York we had to change trains to a New Haven train for the final leg to New London. I also remember being real happy to finally not to be on a moving train when we finally got there.

Len

[jward]

While I never had the opportunity to ride overnight in the pre Amtrak era, I did ride a privately owned name train (Southern's Asheville Special) on several occasions. They were a class act, and Amtrak could learn alot from Southern's trains. I am also old enough to have ridden all three of Pittsburgh's commuter railroads.

[Terry Toenges]

The last train ride I took (aside from tourist trains) actually going somewhere was when 20 of us went from St. Louis to Chicago and back on Amtrak for the Vietnam Welcome Home Parade in 1986.

[trainman203]

In 1988 I was invited to be part of the staff serving  a tour group aboard three private varnish cars coupled to the rear of the Sunset Limited, riding all the way from New Orleans to Los Angeles and back. It will be the subject of an entire story by itself.  There were many great moments, many exciting moments, and one particularly scary one.