And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel

Our day began bright and early. We boarded the train for Los Angeles at 12:01 a.m. – two hours after its originally scheduled departure. The porter showed us to our room in the sleeper car. Our room included a bath with shower, a small sink and two beds – and upper and a lower berth. Sounds spacious and cool, right? Now think of all of those room elements squeezed into a 7’x7′ box and the glamour dims. The bathroom (toilet and shower) is half the size of an airplane bathroom. The entire bathroom serves as a shower stall. There is a drain in the floor. The advantage is that you and your toilet get clean at the same time.

The beds had already been made up when we boarded so we bumped and thumped as we tried to stow our luggage. The conductor came around to scan our tickets and wish us a good night. By 1:00 a.m. we were in our respective berths, Betty above and me below.

One would think a sleeper car would be filled with sleeping travelers. Maybe they are. But in our case sleep was ragged and elusive. My bed was at least six inches shorter than my God-given upright frame. Betty’s bed was sufficiently long but somewhat narrow. To guard against the possibility that she might roll off in the night Amtrak provided a webbed net that locked into the ceiling. As you might expect her safety came at the expense of freedom of movement. A nocturnal trip to the bathroom requires full awake status just to detach the net from the ceiling.

The water supply on trains requires pressurized water tanks. There are no gravity fed water lines running from a water tower on the top of the cars. Whether by fault or design the water pressure in our sleeper car was turbo charged. When I attempted to fill a cup the stream of water knocked the cup from my hand, hit the bottom of the sink and ricocheted two feet from the bottom of the sink into my face. The toilet flushed with explosive force. You could hear the sound of toilets flushing two rooms away even over the sounds of the train.

Several times in the night I awoke to find our train sitting quietly on a side track waiting for a freight train to come thundering through. Those sideline detours account for the recurring delays. Freighters have priority. They generate more income for the railroads than passengers, so they are allowed to keep to their schedules to the on-time detriment of the passenger trains.

We woke with the sun the next morning as we arrived in Barstow, California. There was a brief stop in Barstow to allow smokers to disembark for a quick nicotine infusion. We stayed on the train, but had a quick look out the windows at Barstow. It was dilapidated, dusty, and brown. I saw nothing through the windows of the train as we moved through town that would recommend a future visit to Barstow.

We headed off to the dining car for breakfast. At our table we were joined by Jo from Bolton, England. She was traveling from New York to Los Angeles. She said that she had always wanted to see the U.S.  This trip gave her the perfect opportunity. However, she did acknowledge that after five days she was very much looking forward to being off of the train. Next we were joined by Dominick from London. He has business in New York and in LA that he has to attend to once a year, so he has done the NY to LA run on Amtrak several times. He said that he enjoys the empty days that allow him to work without interruption. So, just to be fair, our Brit friends find America’s rail system to be incapable of keeping to a schedule, but otherwise a pleasant traveling option.

Before Dominick arrived at our table, Jo warned us that if we ever travelled from Chicago to LA there was a perfectly awful experience to be had as the train crossed Kansas. “My god, Kansas goes on forever!” She was appropriately chagrined to learn that we were originally from Kansas and tried to make amends by telling us what a wonderful movie The Wizard of Oz was.

During our conversation with Dominick he amiably ventured that the worst part of the NY to LA run was the interminable trek across Kansas. He failed to catch Jo’s warning glances before stepping on his tongue. So we observed our second mocking Brit of the day. To his credit Dominick was familiar with Garden City and its proximity to the site of the In Cold Blood murders. He professed his admiration for the work of Truman Capote and seemed reasonably conversant on the topic of the Clutter murders.

In keeping with the earlier delays in the schedule the Southwest Chief arrived in Los Angeles two hours behind schedule. Fortunately for us, less so for the Coast Starlight travelers, our Coast Starlight connection for our trip up the coast was also running behind schedule. We made our connection without the expected two hour layover in Union Station.