What’s your favorite passenger train?
It’s the Empire Builder and CB&Q’s Pioneer Zephyr for me!
What else? SUPER CHIEF!!! Followed by the Texas Chief.
Dick
Texas Chief
Any of the City Streamliners or the CB&QS Nebraska Zepher or the Rock Island train 7 and 8 CNW Forever Larry
My favorite are The Southwest Chief, Empire Builder and the Former Desert Wind train before amtrak cut that in 1997.[:D]
California Zephyr
The one that gets me where I want to go.
SP Daylight, TGV, ICE, Super Chief, Amtrak CA Zephyr & Coast Starlight to name a few.
EL Lake Cities, MON Thoroughbred, IC Campus (Chi-Carbondale), CNW Peninsula 400, my tastes run to secondary and mail/express trains.
My favorite is the one that goes from Marengo, IL to Rockford, IL. Too bad it isn’t running yet.
The Morning Zephyr between Minneapolis and Chicago
I WOULD HAVE TO ICK 3 OF THE NEWEW AMRAK SUERLINERS AND VIEWLINERS LSD RAINS. 'CITY OF NEW ORLEANS"-CHICAGO-NEW ORLEANS," THE CRESCENT" VEWLINER NEW ORLEANS-WASHINGTN-NEW YORK AND THE “XCAPTIOL LIMITED” SPERLINER CHIACHGO-WASHINGTON D.C., ALL 3 HAVE SUPERB SLEEPING,DINING ACCOMODATIONS.
GRAND AVE,
Without a doubt, the Talgo Cascade train sets from Seattle to Portland!
A great ride, great service and great price.
It will be nice to see the new interior with the new leather seats.
I am a Talgo and guided-axle fan myself (rode the TurboTrain once).
People tend to be divided into two camps. Some people are impressed with Talgo, others grump that anything other than 4-axle conventional passenger cars “rides roughly.”
I also understand that the Cascades Talgo has a segment between Seattle and Vancouver that is on some rough track? How much of the rough-riding attributed to lightweight trains is intrinsic to light weight or the unconventional suspension, how much is attributable to bad track? Most of the 1950’s lightweight experimental trains (John Quincy Adams Talgo, Daniel Webster Train-X, and Roger Williams RDC) ran on the New Haven, which back in the day probably had bad track owing to “deferred maintenance.”
This one!
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=9268
Why? Because it represents progress and hope. A decade before, the Shoreline was sinking into the swamp. The early Amtrak trains ran with a rag-tag mess of worn-out, threadbare, dirty, rusting equipment pulled by wheezing E units. It definitely had a bad case of the “disappearing rail road blues.”
At the point of this picture, we have nearly new Amfleet cars with AC and heat that always worked and glass windows you could actually see out of. You have a single, nearly new F40 pulling 8 coaches that could nick 100 mph a few places along the way on a ROW that had new, welded rail and concrete ties, making for a lathebed-like suface and smooth ride.
Finally, some progress and hope after decades of decline!
(and for the fuel efficiency fans, an F40 in N8 (160 gal/hr) at 100 mph with 8 Amfleet - about 600 seats, is doing 375 seat-miles/gallon. Not too shabby!)
California Zephyr/Rio Grande Zephyr
Electroliner
Congressional(s) and Senator
Silver Meteor
Panama Limited
Gulf Wind
Broadway Limited
Mowhawk (GT)
Liberty Bell Limiteds (LVT)
Super Chief
Merchants Limited
Suncook Valley Mixed
Princeton Junction and Back
Third Avenue Through Express with gate cars (open platform cars)
Twentieth Century Ltd. (as seen in North by Northwest, 1959.)
Santa Fe Chiefs/El Capitans, etc.
Washbash
Capitol Limited
Empire Builder
MOPac Eagle
Twin Star Rocket : Minneapolis - Houston
Olympian Hiawatha : Chicago - Seattle
Empire Builder : Chicago - Seattle / Portland
Black Gold : Tulsa - Fort Worth
[:-^]
It was the NH westbound “Patriot”… only because it went through my hometown in 1968 (it didn’t stop) somewhere around 3:30PM. That was time enough for me to get out of school, ride down to the station, sit down with my back to the depot wall, and stick my feet out dangerously towards the tracks. Just knowing where the train was coming from, what the name of the train was, and when it was going to do that made it my favorite.
For looks, though, my favorite is the SOUTHERN Crescent, just because I think the locomotives (steam or diesel) looked really cool.
For a traditional long-distance train, Via’s Canadian is my favourite, as it features tasty meals in elegant surroundings, classic sleepers and, best of all, the Park car dome.
Also a favourite north of the border is the Rocky Mountaineer, since it has great food and service, a dome (albeit the Park car is better for all-around views) and, great for photos, the open air platform.
As for steam, the Silverton rates high on my list. No diesel helper and great scenic views which can be enjoyed from an open-air car or window.