[VIDEO] Well how about something different this morning. This video uploaded today by Amtrak talks about the many liveries and it's current evolution even now. Amtrak will have a new livery in the future and I've seen in some Virtual Railfan grab bags, there is a livery that celebrates Amtrak's 50th anniversary.
Oh yeah that's right Amtrak is now 50 years old. It wasn't that long ago when Amtrak was 40 years old....
Here's hoping our new President who as a U.S. Senator was known for taking Amtrak back and forth from his home to Washington, D.C. will give America's passenger railroad some TLC. It seems he's not giving much to the rest of the nation.
[VIDEO] On my other blog, the "Beta" I occasionally make reference to railcams from Virtual Railfan although this blog maintains the Railcam page established over two years ago. On one of those posts which isn't a live railcam but more of a grabbag from Ft. Madison, Iowa I made note of service changes on Amtrak where all trains will now be tri-weekly instead of daily.
For example the train you might see on the Railcam page that stops in LaPlata, MO; Flagstaff, AZ; & Barstow, CA is the Amtrak Southwest Chief as of October 12, 2020 that train is now tri-weekly instead of daily. You can read that page and if you want to check schedules for individual trains you will be redirected to this page instead.
According to the railfan YouTube channel Central Michigan Lines some Amtrak employees who would be working the many daily routes have been furloughed. Some Amtrak routes had experienced a 95% ridership drop due to this global pandemic. It's safe to say no one is traveling right now because of the coronavirus.
CML a week ago documented the last day of daily service trains coming into Chicago before the service changes. I do hope Amtrak does eventually return to daily service especially on the Southwest Chief. Right now the news will hype up the fact that coronavirus cases are going up, though thankfully we haven't seen a high number of deaths from this thing. I would like to say we're in a better position in this pandemic than we were at the start, however, let's see what happens once the weather cools off.
I hope you enjoy this change of pace on the blog for the evening. :)
[VIDEO] There is some real stuff going on in the world and at least we're no longer talking about the coronavirus. I just wanted to celebrate finally making 50 subs on my original YouTube channel which has been around since roughly the first year of YouTube.
In this case it's a train video (of course!) and it shows my arrival in California in July 2016. It hits me that using my cell phone as the primary record with a video and still camera is quite a creative boon. I can do video and a slide show utilizing iMovie and they have a trick where you can use a Ken Burns crops.
With a Ken Burns crop you can basically focus on one area of the picture and as the movie plays the camera can either zoom in or zoom out to reveal the rest of the scene. Or you see the rest of the scene and you'll zoom in on what you want the crop to focus on. It's really cool especially if you got some good background music.
In which case unless you're voice over intensive or plan to do a lot of talking find yourself some public domain music. That should save you from anyone attacking you over any copyrights.
I hope you enjoy the video. If you like what you see give me a subscribe. Perhaps one day this blogger can do more with his YouTube channels. I do have three one I announced here lbj79us and one called The Sixth Ward.
BTW, no more than I anticipated doing a 50 subscriber video I never anticipated doing a 50 subscriber post. It wasn't that long ago that I realized that my channel was one away from 50 and even then halfway towards the next goal of 100 subscribers.
[VIDEO] Well sometimes things happen in spurts, but at times I share small accomplishments. It's been seen at there that you get more attention upon posting 100 videos on YouTube. Well on my new channel that milestone hasn't been reached yet though on the channel I've had since roughly the beginning there are literally 100 videos and more including the above one.
So basically it's me on the train to Memphis, Tennessee leaving Chicago back in December 2014. This was the trip I wrote about at that time my first real trip out of town in a few years. A lot of the recent old videos I had posted to my other channel so far were recording years ago on a MiniDV camcorder. This time around I used the then new iPhone 6 at the time.
[VIDEO] Shot this video in July 2005 on my way to Los Angeles, California and had to have shot this somewhere between Albuquerque, New Mexico and Flagstaff, Arizona. As a matter of fact way before the footage of that lightning strike that occurred not long after sunset and at that point the Southwest Chief was closer to Flagstaff.
I suppose it' very fascinating to look at the geography of the American southwest. The buttes, plateaus, hills, mountains, even the dry river beds. I can tell where at one point water flowed when it rains. It seems like a hot desolation region yet, full of life which the desert adapted plants and of course human civilization within the desert.
I look forward to the day I can ride through again, but one day I need to spend some time in this desert area.
[VIDEO] Still uploading video from many years ago taking the Southwest Chief. Today I just want to show this video of my train in 2005 going through the desert between Colorado and New Mexico (or it could be New Mexico) I just don't remember.
This video which I uploaded by lbj79us on YouTube probably had an echo from many years ago as part of this long ago footage was used on my first YouTube video. It was an attempt at a "Lumiere" style vid which seemed popular amongst videobloggers during the mid-2000. And certainly around the time when YouTube was becoming established. Here it is below. [VIDEO]
I hope you'll consider subscribing and watching. Constructive feedback is needed. I'm only getting started and as in all things in life the best thing to do is to just get started. That's what I'm attempting to do with this new journey. Just get started and hopefully the progression leads to something gaining traction.
[VIDEO] I want to take my mind off of this pandemic. The posting as of late on this blog almost always involved any news on the pandemic. Indeed anything that lets me know that we're closer to the down curve with regards to coronavirus infections.
I started yet another YouTube channel which I've branded to my old Yahoo! GeoCities username which was lbj79us. Right now I plan to post old video shot by myself over the years that has never before uploaded. My original YouTube channel that I have shared with you in the past, I don't have much plans for it beyond posting more current videos.
What develops beyond that who knows, however, as I've often said the point is to just get started if one wants to gain traction especially with YouTube. Feel free to subscribe and even have a box for that purpose in the sidebar.
This could be one of those "My Mind's Eye" episodes that I had been talking about doing lately. My videography wasn't very good in July 2005 when I shot this video on board Amtrak's Southwest Chief. I was sitting in the observation lounge going through the Arizona desert - probably on the way to Flagstaff, Arizona. I knew to keep any eye on the sky because there were lightning strikes, and made sure to record a few near the end of this almost ten minute video, if you want fast forward to about 8:30 in this video.
[VIDEO] On July 17, 2019 I rode Amtrak's Silver Star through Ashland, Virginia which surprisingly is one of the sites of many Virtual Railfan webcams around the country. I expect this won't be the last time this happens. It was cook to see some of the landmarks especially the storefronts that I've only seen only if I tune into one of these cams.
I tried to see if I can find my train on the site, but I had failed to find the time frame where the train passed through. Bummer, but as I stated this probably won't be the last time. Who knows I might be going to the west coast again in the future. You can check out the three cams that I do show on this blog of three stops on the way...
Here's the live webcam from Ashland, VA. On VR's YouTube channel they do show some interesting things such as bears or even cars running onto the tracks for example. Of course you will see special trains or what not also.
[VIDEO] I've been trying to just post videos to my YouTube channel more lately. When I do post it's often video shot from my iPhone.
So far I've been posting video from my latest vacation. So I took a train to DC changed trains there to take a train to Jacksonville, Florida (there is a pro-wrestling reference here as the owners of the upstart company All Elite Wrestling are based in Jacksonville as they own the local NFL club there). Then took a bus from Jacksonville, FL to Savannah, Georgia to take another bus to Atlanta, Georgia where my family had a family reunion.
Then we left Atlanta by train from a picnic to return to DC so that we can take the Amtrak Train back to Chicago. So basically the trains we took to get to and from Chicago to our various points we started out trip on the Capitol Limited and then transferred to the Silver Star we took Greyhound to our next destination and then later took the Crescent back to DC and finished our riding with a ride on the Capitol Limited back to Chicago. Whew!
So anway, I wanted to share this vid of my day at DC's Union Station where I saw the hustle and bustle during the week. It's super raw footage and this I didn't edit much, but it's an excuse to utilize my YouTube channel. It's time to come up with a real plan.
I probably should've started this process earlier, but after getting some notice with blogging this is probably the next step beyond that. As I said come up with a real plan to utilize YouTube and create some content people could enjoy.
[VIDEO] Virtual Railfan now has a live video camera in Texarkana, Arkansas (there is also a Texarkana, Texas btw). Texarkana is a stop on Amtrak's Texas Eagle which is one of those city's I have passed through on my way to Dallas, Texas over the years. It's probably time I pass through again.
Also just as an added bonus one of my favorite YouTube channels - YouTuuba - showed his years ago journey on the Texas Eagle which not only terminates in San Antonio, Texas it goes even further attached to the Sunset Limited and takes you to Los Angeles. He shows the full journey from Chicago to Los Angeles. [VIDEO]
[VIDEO] If I believe the YouTube page this live cam became active April 25, 2019. You can also access this cam on my railcam page when you see the below image once you press play.
This had been alluded to in earlier videos on Virtual Railfan's YouTube channel where they had planned to place a 360 live video camera on a former railroad embankment east of the LaPlata, Missouri Amtrak station. Having seen the train come and go with the cams at the train station seeing the train from this embankment is a very interesting perspective. It's one I hope you would want to check out also.
[VIDEO] You will once again be able to see both Amtrak and commuter trains from San Juan Capistrano, California for at least the next week. It was a demo live cam sometime last year and wrote about it back then. It's cool to see train come through at a nice train station and under that wonderful California sun especially during the day.
Enjoy it while it lasts or do what I should've done purchase a subscription to Virtual Railfan. Who says that their YouTube channel offers the only action as far as live webcam trains running through?
BTW, feel free to enjoy my railcam page which now includes a webcam at the Amtrak station in Barstow, California. All of the webcams represents different legs of the journey between Chicago and Los Angeles on Amtrak's Southwest Chief train.
[VIDEO] I had to share this video of a model train running over simulated jointed rails. It's a cool effect and just shows how I'm still learning about different aspects of railroading.
I didn't realize that during the course of the past decade, I've been through an area that still has jointed rails. That among other antiquated aspects of railroad technology. Like I said I'm still learning and as you see in the above video you might see some aspects of this along the Raton/Glorieta pass which is the route of Amtrak's Southwest Chief. [VIDEO]
I just feel the need to share the more common video of an Amtrak train doing through New Mexico on jointed rail and this time from the inside. [VIDEO]
Finally, here's a video about jointed rails vs. welded rails. As I figured would be the difference a quieter and smoother ride. I would imagine welded rails are what CTA uses for the L especially when there are opportunities to rehab the infrastructure. [VIDEO]
[VIDEO] Having been wrestling obsessed over the weekend, I just wanted to share this vid from Virtual Railfan. Two Amtrak Southwest Chief trains back-to-back in LaPlata, Missouri train #4 was very late coming from Los Angeles, it would normally get into LaPlata in the morning. I'm curious what happened although I see it was pulled into the station by a BNSF freight locomotive.
That happened 20 minutes after train #3 pulls out of the LaPlata station near it's regular time. Sometimes (perhaps often) the train is late pulling into LaPlata especially when I'm able to see train #3 at night. I rarely get to see Train #4 it seems I'm more of a night owl when I watch the Virtual Railfan cams on YouTube.
[VIDEO] Another live rail cam to follow Amtrak's Southwest Chief. This time on YouTube Virtual Railfan now has a demo cam in Barstow, California. Unfortunately according to the schedule the train arrives in Barstow overnight on the way to Los Angeles and at night perhaps before bed time (at least for me) on the way back to Chicago. Just remember if you look at the Amtrak schedule the times for Barstow will be pacific time.
Just remember a few months ago I shared a live cam also from Virtual Railfan of the Cajon Pass another route the Southwest Chief takes between Los Angeles and Chicago. On occasion you can see that cam on Virtual Railfan's YouTube, however, it might be seen as a cam of the week when it is up. Also bear in mind that with many of these cams you won't only see Amtrak trains you will often see freight trains also.
It's time to look into a subscription to this very exciting site to see all the rail cams they offer beyond the live cams we see on YouTube. Sometimes I wish I can request some cams in urban areas. Perhaps there are some places in the Chicago area where Virtual Railfan can figure out how to place some live cams.
As always feel free to check out my Railcam page. As I wrote this I see it's raining and storming in LaPlata, Missouri.
[VIDEO] Here is footage from a drone over LaPlata, Missouri. LaPlata is the Amtrak stop if you're traveling aboard the Southwest Chief. That's the significance of the above footage.
BTW, if you follow the LaPlata live feed via Virtual Railfan - and you can watch both Amtrak and freight trains roll by daily on my railcam page - you get to see the station where the train stops. It seems like a small stop with a medium sized station but a small platform to board the trains.
To be honest on my two trips on the Chief I really don't remember this stop. So since discovering Virtual Railfan on YouTube increasingly I've been curious about this stop. Now I'm somewhat satisfied!
[VIDEO] From YouTuuba he posts the last leg of his "train odyssey" starting in Chicago to Los Angeles aboard Amtrak's Southwest Chief. Then he leaves Los Angeles to take the Coast Starlight train along the California coast to Portland, Oregon. Then he leaves Portland on the Empire Builder to return to Chicago.
Thus in the above video you see another version of the trip depicted in another video shared here. A British tourist travels from Portland to Chicago on the Empire Builder and most of the sound track are contemporary music and it sounded great. Of course, this one is more of a documentary with "YouTuuba" doing a lot of talking with regards to what we're seeing in his videos.
I'm aching for a trip to the pacific northwest at least though I know it'll probably be a lot like what's going on in LA. Portland and Seattle has been in the news for a burgeoning homeless population. I remember being in Skid Row in LA in 2016 and it wasn't entirely pleasant. Don't know what I brought that up, I just recognize that Portland and Seattle are nice places to visit but not without their issues. There probably isn't a place on this planet that doesn't have their local issues.
Duration of the above vid is just about 4 hours. A long one but to see various streetscapes and landscapes, it's worth it
[VIDEO] I posted earlier this month as he records his vacation in May to Los Angeles. Now he has a part two were he travels along the Pacific Ocean coast to go up through the Pacific Northwest via Amtrak's Coast Starlight. Then in another video to be posted at a later time he leaves the Pacific Northwest I think he says from Portland, Oregon via Amtrak's Empire Builder.
I look forward to a future trip to the Pacific Northwest on the Empire Builder and perhaps at another time a future trip along California Pacific Coast on Amtrak. Perhaps I should accept donations for that to record that for your benefit. :P
[VIDEO] A few posts discussed my 2016 trip on Amtrak's Southwest Chief to Los Angeles. A YouTuber named youtuuba documents his recent trip this year to Los Angeles via the Southwest Chief. This is almost a 3 hr video.
As I type this post out what I've seen is from him taking Metra into Union Station and then Amtrak pulling off from Union through the western suburbs intro rural western Illinois and then across the Mississippi River into Iowa. Whatever else you see well if you have the interest you will see for yourself, I'm just going to watch the rest of this later.
You can still check out my Railcam page to see two stations along the Southwest Chief La Plata, Missouri & Flagstaff, Arizona.
BTW, I hope you all are enjoying your 4th of July holiday.
I published another version of this post over at My Mind's Eye on Thursday. So today's post will be slightly different. It was video I shot going through Arizona on the way to California.
[VIDEO] Unlike the other video which shows the landscape outside of the train through the windows of the observation lounge, this video is of the inside of the consist that most Amtrak passengers will have access to. Seems to be a fitting video to give you an idea of what you can expect aboard a train. I shot this on the way to the west coast in 2016 aboard the Southwest Chief.
I start off in a coach car on the lower level where I take a shot of the rolling landscape. I head up stairs where you see the coach accommodations before heading towards the observation lounge. The observation lounge is where many passengers sit around to look at the landscape or often socialize with other passengers. What I didn't document was the cafe downstairs where passengers can purchase snacks and beverages from the lounge attendant.
Beyond the observation lounge is the dining car where passengers take their meals. If you have coach accommodations your meals are extra, when I travel by coach I wouldn't be as willing to eat in the dining car. They won't cost an arm and a leg but often they're not cheap. However, you will at least have breakfast, lunch and dinner and often require a reservation. As you may see in another video shared here on this blog, the seating is often communal meaning you will be meeting your fellow passengers as you take your mean. Well that is assuming you're not seating with a young person who is more interested in their mobile phones as happened at one point during my trip....
Anyway if you travel by coach you will have to pay for your meals, however, if you have a sleeper car accommodation meals are complimentary. The accommodation fee for a sleeper is what pays for your meals although think of a dining car as a restaurant. You may not have to pay out of pocket for your meals, however, you still should tip your server just to let them know you like the service. I would like to explain at length making your train reservations at a later time.
Beyond the dining car are the sleepers here I go through two of them until I had downstairs to look out both sides of the train at the rolling landscape. On this trip I was in a roomette with my mother and it was definitely cramped space. It was adequate though I would've liked my own roomette just didn't work out for this trip. The cramped space meant I'd have to take the upper bunk while my mother slept on the lower bunk. At least there were another place on the car for other carry-ons that it wouldn't be feasible to put in the roomette. I would like to explain the sleeper accommodation also at a later time.
This three minute video in a nutshell is documentation of riding a long-distance Amtrak train.
