Joe Hohmann posted: Thanks for the "thanks". We travel on Amtrak at least 3 times a year from Philadelphia to Boston (Rt128). Frankly, the scenery is more interesting on that trip than it is on the New Orleans (Crescent) or Florida (Silver Meteor) runs. Seeing the NYC skyline, Queens neighborhoods, going over the Hell Gate Bridge, traveling along the Long Island Sound, water and boats sometimes on both sides of the train, and neat railroad stations along the way, makes for a nice trip.On the Florida run . . . you ride through solid pine trees. Entering Florida, you ride through solid regular trees for hours. After Seebring, you ride through an Orange Grove for 5 minutes. From West Palm on down, interesting stuff to look at. On the New Orleans run, much of the same, except the trees are growing in swamps. The run to the West Coast has more interesting scenery, but by Arizona, it's dark again.
I'm glad you were able to enjoy the trip, Joe. Yes, the great southeastern pine forest does seem to go on forever, and the Louisiana portion of the Sunset Route is largely through swampland. It has a large number of small drawbridges, and until the late 1990's it had some Magnetic Flagman wig wag crossing signals, but they're gone.
A nice, fairly short trip on Amtrak, with scenery, is the Montrealer, on my bucket list for a week-long getaway with Mrs. Number 90. You already know the train scenery is mostly (though not all) west of the Mississippi, because, over a large part of the west there are few trees and each western Amtrak long-distance train has to cross at least one mountain range. But that's the reverse of my situation -- a long way to travel. Don't wait too long, though, things are a bit on edge this year, and could get worse. Bring your own duct tape for the squeaks in the Superliners, haha.
