The picture is from 2018. In 2017 Amtrak went into partnership with the rideshare company Lyft where you could order a Lyft ride through Amtrak's app for transportation at your destination. They did wraps to advertise the program called From Station to Destination.
Winter Park Express, formerly known as the Ski Train from Denver-Winter Park, CO. Nice catch! One of the last normally-scheduled Amtrak 7 trains I have captured before the schedule change. Train 7 leaves Chicago around 50 minutes later than previously, so it arrives in Minot, ND at around 0900 versus 0800. The eastbound train 8 also leaves Seattle later, and makes its Minot stop after 2200 now.
Dinner in the diner on the Cardinal. This was a former Southern dining car #3309, built by Budd in 1949. Amtrak renumbered it to 8549. It went through the same program in the early 2000s as the SP diner we are restoring where the kitchen was replaced as well as the dining room furniture and all the windows. The new kitchens had massive banks of freezers and refrigerators and microwaves as well as conventional ovens to heat all the prepared food. There were grills to cook some things like burgers and pancakes but little cooking otherwise. Here is a photo from 2015 showing 8524 with all the kitchen windows covered over and the new dining room windows.
Sitting at a restaurant on the San Clemente Pier has got to be one of my favorite places to watch the trains. Amtrak Surfliner heading towards San Diego.
In early June of 2016, the Brazos River had risen to a record flood stage due to what has become known as the Memorial Day Flood. The bridge over the river at Richmond was damaged requiring all traffic on the UP including Amtrak to make a back up move off of the Sunset Route onto BNSF Galveston Subdivision at Rosenberg and then proceed south to Alvin, Texas where it could then switch over to another line to enter Houston from there. Here train #2 is on the BNSF and crossing the UP Sunset Route which it has just departed. A KCS container train is on the Macaroni Line coming up from Victoria waiting for Amtrak to clear before it can make the same moves and follow it. June 7th showing the Brazos flood. One of the piers was undercut by the scouring action of the river current causeing two spans to sag. The next day, UP contractors were on site to begin repairs. On June 21, I rode the #2 from San Antonio to Houston. I was at the back door of the last car looking out when we arrived in Rosenberg but the conductor ran me off as he had to be there to provide the eyes for the back-up move. After he was finished and buttoned up, I was able to return to my post and took this photo of the diamond after we crossed it. Another KCS train is waiting on us and will do the same dance to follow.
Amtrak Lounge Car 3124 at Montgomery, AL, 10/27/1989. Former PRR 7145, built by Budd in 1952. Removed from service July 1995.
In June of 2016 when UP was busy repairing the Brazos River bridge mentioned above, I hitched a ride to San Antonio with my daughter who lives there and had been visiting us in Sugar Land. It was a good time to get some rare mileage over the detour on the BNSF trackage to get into Houston. She was gracious enough to drop me off at the Amtrak station at 4AM on a workday morning for her so that I could catch the train. Both the Sunset Limited and the Texas Eagle were getting ready for an early morning departure.
A new Charger leads #7 into Minot, ND near milepost 201, BNSF KO Sub. The track diverging at left is the lead to the old GN yard and a seed elevator.
I need to take a look at Google Earth and get a better feel for how the tracks are situated in and around Minot.
I went back and expanded the Amtrak page on my website. Some links to earlier pictures here may now be broken. Anyhow, forty some years ago, I was out chasing trains with my friend Al Currier. We caught F40PH #217 with the Pacific International coming through Fairhaven, Washington. Wish I could remember the old train numbers for this route! (Back during Great Northern days this location was known as South Bellingham.) It had been a dark day, with on and off drizzle. Also dark, as our favorite Milwaukee Road was only a couple of days from final embargo.