51–60 of 101 posts
> If you want to see tourist America, rent a Cadillac, get on Route 66 and stop off at a few cutesy diners and motels. If you want to see the real America in all its spectacular, crazy, kooky glory, get on the train. I call BS, and am wondering if he has indeed taken Route 66, or just telling some vague impression he has of what it would be to do so. I've travelled Route 66 several times (and highway 1, Highway 61 -L…
I wanted to enjoy this post, but I couldn't help but wonder what was plagiarized[0] this time around. Perhaps it was a stupid mistake back then, but tough to look past it. [0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/2huw34/what_its_... EDIT: Looks like a lot of it. Sigh.
* http://landscapevoice.com/the-california-zephyr-trip-recap/
* http://wheresmybackpack.com/2012/08/16/i-survived-the-lake-s...
A number of the images are direct copies from the first link (ie: sleeper car pictures)
The Lakeshore limited image was awkwardly cropped (to remove watermark) from the second link. Side by side: https://i.imgur.com/hu9viqf.png
The dining car photo came from: http://www.baune.info/train.html
Another dining car photo came from: https://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/tag/cleveland-amtrak-stati...
The Emeryville station came from: http://subwaynut.com/california/amtrak/emeryville/emeryville...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why? It isn't blocking anyone else's view, it doesn't disturb anyone else, and it is unlikely to damage the window frame. Who is the victim, aside from you?
It's a difference in cultural expectations. As I found out recently, putting one's feet on the table is considered rude in Germany. If you come from a culture where picking your nose in public is impolite, then it might disturb you to see someone really going at it. In the US, using the middle finger is generally considered rude or offensive, but the act on its own is meaningless and not especially prone to damage an…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sadly this is very common. The freight companies own the rails, and if there's ever a route conflict their trains get priority over passenger trains. This means long delays in shitty railyards, and you have no way of making an itinerary.
Federal law mandates Amtrak priority over freight, even when operating on freight railways, but my understanding is that the law is not often followed.
I once took the train from Chicago to Denver and back.
On the return trip, our train was delayed 24 hours total. We spent an entire extra day stuck on sidings in the middle of nowhere, as freight cars passed us by.
Ofttimes in those situations, the passengers are offloaded onto coach buses, but there were no paved roads nearby.
The U.S. just doesn't do passenger rail well. This wasn't the first time I had a bad Amtrak experience. I have, in fact, never been on an Amtrak train that has arrived at my destination before 150% of the scheduled travel time has elapsed.
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I've taken the chicago-NY route he mentions in the story. He has no pix because its dark both ways. The eastbound leaves around late dinner time in CHC (no point eating before boarding) and arrives before lunch in NYC, and westbound leaves NYC in mid-late afternoon right before lunch hour and arrives around rush hour in CHC. Unless they've changed schedules again. So the time "cost" of taking the train isn't 12 hours…
Chicago is abbreviated CHI, not CHC You may have seen CHC in baseball CHC is the Chicago Cubs CHW is the Chicago White Sox CHC is also Christchurch, New Zealand which looks lovely
This looks fun. However given how congress is trying to defund everything, the infrastructure this runs over is probably dangerous as hell.
For the most part Amtrak runs on rails owned and maintained by private companies. Plenty of exceptions - especially the Northeast Corridor - but the vast majority of track is outside government control.
I couldn't help but compare this to my experiences of driving coast-to-coast. Note that about half of the article and far more of the words are dedicated to the first day. The second gets some space, but the third and fourth are barely there. What little there is is all about things other than the view. That very much mirrors my memories of my drive (vancouver-seattle-boston x6, mostly all i090/94). In short: The coa…
I've found that each vertical slice of the country has it's best parts. I love the hill country in Texas, the painted desert in NM, the Great Lakes, the Louisiana bayous, New England meadows, the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The real problem here is that it is very difficult to take one trip and hit all of these points while traveling.
I wanted to enjoy this post, but I couldn't help but wonder what was plagiarized[0] this time around. Perhaps it was a stupid mistake back then, but tough to look past it. [0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/2huw34/what_its_... EDIT: Looks like a lot of it. Sigh.
Doing a reverse google image search seems like he googled for lots of train trips and combined photos from various sources. He's a great marketer, but bad photographer. * http://landscapevoice.com/the-california-zephyr-trip-recap/ * http://wheresmybackpack.com/2012/08/16/i-survived-the-lake-s... A number of the images are direct copies from the first link (ie: sleeper car pictures) The Lakeshore limited image was awk…
