Many of you have probably seen the show on PBS or the Travel Channel about the American Orient Express. The shows are good, but focus on only a small part of the experience. My wife and I took our first no-kids vacation in decades and we took it on the AOE’s National Parks of the West tour. I thought you might like to hear of our experience.
First – the age group. A decidedly older group; probably 90% of them were retired. However, this made for backgrounds rich in experience that anyone of any age could enjoy. A gregarious group of people; we made many friends during the trip. Some may well extend beyond the time frame of the trip itself.
The staff, on the other hand, was young and refreshingly cheerful and energetic.
Second – the train. The train consists of cars reclaimed from service during the heyday of American passenger rail service. They have all be fabulously refurbished and finished in the cream and blue colors of the Express. Our consist included an observation car from the NYC (with full bar), a lounge car from the UP (with full bar and baby grand piano staffed with a talented pianist every night), a dome car (from the Empire Builder), two diners, both from the UP, and six sleeping cars from the UP, SP and C&O. The sleeping cars have a variety of compartment arrangements. As they teach you to say, “our compartment was compact, but comfortable.” There are crew quarters cars and supply cars. It is a train of some length. While the train itself is a private concern, the motive power is provided by Amtrak and it is considered an Amtrak train (Amtrak 145) for dispatching purposes.
Amtrak 145
Both my wife and I have wonderful long distance train memories from our youth. She traveled from NYC to Chicago and onto Banff and back to Chicago with her family. My mother used to take me (and later me and my sister) from Portland, Oregon to Chicago to Miami
Congratulations on your opportunityt to ride this ‘cruise’ train. I’m glad you had such a great trip. We’ll not be in your same category - vacation with no kids - for another two decades or so
THANK YOU for taking the time to share with us your first hand experience. We have watched the PBS production a few times and it always looks like a super time, what a vacation. What I like is the idea that someone else does the driving and takes care of all the arrangements, I’ll bet you didn’t even mind the delays since the train is so elegant.
Do you think you might do this trip again in the future? One year ago this month we took a road trip to Colorado and rode three trains and had a wonderful time. There’s just something so relaxing and refreshing about riding the rails, I could go back tomorrow and do it again without much coaxing.
Could you share with me the Paddle Wheel Big Band trip? That sounds absolutely wonderful… kind of wondering if they would do that on the Mississippi? Nothing against the Columbia river but… on the Mississippi we might be able to spot Tom Sawyer or Mark Twain spinning some tales!!
You have made me green with envy, Forest! I hope they keep that service going for a good, long time into the future because it sounds like something I would very much like to experiece a few years from now. My last train trip of any real note was across Canada, from Vancouver to Toronto, aboard Via Rail, and it was a journey that I fondly remember–everything from the superb service and great food to the bedroom that afforded me hours of rest and relaxation, and the wonderful feeling of being lulled to sleep in such a gentle and soothing way. Anyone who has not traveled a long distance by train–the trains with the good reputations, that is–simply has no idea what they have missed.
Hi Budkar: Oh, I think it was great for him to share this trip with us here! Just look at all the guys positive responses & excitement. A lot of us are also interested in real train stuff, too, we don’t always get time to go to the other forums on this kind of stuff. You never know, some of us guys on the forum here could all plan a trip like this some day ! Seems a lot of good friendships & club like get togethers, started here. Plus get togethers to go to train shows, car pooling, etc. Good you brought that up, though! Thanks, John
I think the two go hand in hand, are we not after all trying to recreate real life experiences on our layouts? I know after we have taken trips we can come back and say this is the way it is and transpose that to our layouts.
ok, how’s this. after traveling on it, i am thinking about modeling the AOE [:D]
seriously, i posted here because i thought this would be of interest to CTT fans. i also posted on OGR’s Real Train forum and put a notice on the 3 rail forum than the review existed on the real train forum figuring, again, that the 3 rail crowd might be interested but not frequent the real train forum. the notice on the 3 rail forum got deleted. topic police are meaner over there.
jon, there are river boat trips down the mississippi, but they all terminated in new orleans. not sure what their situation is now.
the columbia, snake, willamette cruise stuff can be found here
I am greatly interested in taking a friend on this trip. We are both in our 50’s and both coming out of cruel and unusual divorces. I would like to know more from you on how you went about getting this trip together. We both live in the Dallas area. We are both train lovers and I thought this trip would be a great way to just take a break from life. My email is Rduncan@pisd.edu. Could you respond to me about this trip to the Grand Tetons. etc.
Becky Duncan
We are so excited… we’re leaving on May 29, 2006 for the National Parks of the West trip. First saw AOE on the Travel Channel several years ago and have been planning ever since. So glad to see this very favorable review. This week TC is featuring the National Parks and we’ve seen everywhere we’re going.
We’re flying to LA from New Hampshire, then returning from SLC after a few days of sightseeing there. We are so ready for this.
