[m3047]

I can't say how the railroads treat cargo, but I can tell you how they treat humans. I got tired of flying and rode Amtrack between Tacoma and Oakland about a half dozen times between 2010-2020 (so a dozen one way rides), until my truck got stolen from their parking lot after they turned off the security cameras and patrols without telling the customers.

On the way back one time we were sitting for hours because a freight had come apart in two places on the only through track. I watched the crews hump couplers brought up from (presumably) Crater Lake past the bar car. Just a day working on the railroad.

They put the train together wrong once, without the crew car between the engines and first class. This meant that first class looked out over the engines. (They duct taped around the door to keep the snow and rain from pouring in.) About a half dozen of us stood there taking turns sharing bottles of wine and looking out the window in the dark as the train went over the Cascades en route to Crater Lake. Very cool.

On the way down one time, shortly after "lights out", there was an excited PA announcement "STAY IN YOUR ROOMS AND DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING METAL" and as I came to I noticed that the lights and ventilation were off and the train seemed to be coasting to a stop. The second announcement that anyone who saw "lights" outside the train should speak to a conductor was no more reassuring. Upshot was the dining car had suffered an electrical fire (coach apparently filled with smoke, but we were spared that in first class). They diverted to some huge rail yard somewhere in the vicinity of Crater Lake where they disassembled the train and put the wretched dining car at the end of the train; they catered in breakfast in Sacramento.

Dunno why all the best stuff happens just north of Crater Lake.

Northbound run looking out of the antique bar car: http://athena.m3047.net/train.jpg

There was a theater downstairs, I kid you not! http://athena.m3047.net/train-theater.jpg