Next month we are taking Amtrak to CA. DC to Chicago on Floridian. Chicago to Sacramento on Zephyr. Zephyr to Chicago. Chicago to Staunton VA (where we live) on Cardinal.
I figure that on Floridian, I’m on NS, right? On Zephyr, BNSF. On Cardinal, CSX.
Am I right? Am I missing anything?
Floridian goes north from DC on CSX (Cardinal route)
Floridian to Chicago should be CSX (B&O) and Chicago to Sacramento should be the Overland Route (UP-SP). I could be wrong.
Floridian out of DC runs to Pittsburgh on former B&O trackage, from Pittsburgh to Chicago it is on NS trackage (PRR & NYC)
The Cardinal operates out of DC on former SOU trackage to Orange, VA where it gets on the old C&O to head West and thence a multiplicity of carriers between Huntington and Chicago.
Balt is correct, although ISTR when this train was announced it ran partly on ex-P&LE and then west via the infamous East Palestine. I could swear it used to run west of Cleveland to Elyria, but it now goes across via the Water Level Route to Cleveland and through Elyria east-west.
The California Zephyr runs on BNSF between Chicago and Denver (ex-CB&Q), then UP between Denver and Emeryville, CA (ex-D&RGW to Salt Lake City, then former SP Overland Route to the West Coast).
Thanks guys! I knew y’all could fill in some blanks. I should have remembered that Cardinal Wash-Orange is NS. 
The CARDINAL used to run on the C&O from Chicago to Cincinnati. Now, it is quite the convoluted alphabet route that includes MONON, PRR, NYC, and B&O. IINM, it also takes a trip across the Buckingham Branch RR in Virginia.
Cardinal from Orange to Clifton Forge, VA is on trackage Buckingham Branch leases from CSX. This is the only trackage for Amtrak on a Class III railroad.
Its been years since I’ve taken it, but I believe the B&O tracks through McKeesport were torn up so the train crosses the river to use P&E tracks to get around McKeesport.
When did the B&O get trackage rights over the P&LE that were so instrumental in ruining the PRR Liberty Limited in the mid-1950s? I’d suspect that would reflect when a detour around McKeesport might have first occurred…
About 1932 the B&O got the trackage rights over the P&LE. Not being from McKeesport, I don’t know the exact date when the city running was rerouted - but I think it was the middle 1960’s.