Texarkana Amtrak Depot....(one of the saddest Stations I have ever seen.) Somewhere in NE TEXAS Dining Car, our server Chris setting our table. Breakfast Special Mineola Texas, loved the Texas & Pacific Cabosse there.
DALLAS, TX Dallas Union Station is the White building in the foreground. TRE on one side... TRE on the other side. Dealey Plaza, Dallas. School book depository is the building on the far left, grassy knoll is on the left, JFK's car drove under this bridge after he was shot. COWBOYS Stadium, looks like a UFO from "independence day" to me
Fort Worth, TX AMTRAK 200 on the point! ATSF Freight house LUNCH! Chipotle Veggie Burger, tasted excellent. Here comes the Heartland Flyer
It does seem to be on the sorry side. I see plenty of police cars parked. Does this mean it is located in a seedy part of town? Nice looking T&P caboose.
It looked to me like the Police Station was close by, on the West side was a Prison, parts of which were very rudimentary made up of quonset huts, shacks and razor wire...as sad as it was, my thoughts did cross to hmmm I could model that! https://maps.google.com/maps?q=33.4...35&spn=0.000831,0.001196&num=1&t=h&gl=us&z=20
Was the Temple station still in RR (ATK) use? BTW- That view of a can of MUG root beer made me thirsty.....
Temple was used as a Station, Museum and store/gift shop...at least that is what the signage said, I did not get to go in....
MOPAC EAGLES while riding the TEXAS EAGLE...LOVE IT! AUSTIN, TX....Holy cow you have grown in the last 12 years....was surprised to see the AMTK station was smaller than I expected, and that the new Austin DMU line did not share its station with AMTK. Dinner, BBQ Ribs and Cheesecake! I dont even really like cheesecake , but this was soo good we ordered a second one! A Texas sized sunset from the dining car, cant get any better than this...
San Antonio, TX Old SP Sunset Route Station, (next to Amtrak) MDCCCCII = 1902 SP 784, adjacent to the Station Riverwalk The Alamo at 2AM!
Well there you have it, all in all a great 24 hour trip. Two additional observations: 1. I listened to my scanner for probably 70-80% of the trip. I was surprised at how little discussion was going on between engineer/conductor and dispatchers. Mst other trains did not even discuss roll by inspections of the other's trains. 2. iPad maps app was awesome. unfortunately we figured this out too late in the afternoon. The app tracked us along at speed the entire trip. The map has a function in the lower left that provides a field of view icon in any direction you orient the iPad. This worked out great to see what was coming up on the right or left side of the train.
Amtrak only uses a small portion of the lobby. There is a good size museum in it now plus the archives of the Santa Fe Modeling and Historical Society. We had our annual convention in Temple last year and had a barbeque on the grounds one evening.
Awesome trip ... Great fotos and the comentary was spot on indeed ! Thanks for taking us along Charger !!! Paul
