Many thanks to those of you who asked a question about the book via social media. I have combined these with a recent Q&A pulled together by my PR people:

What’s the book about?

In early 2020 I completed a 6347-mile trip around the United States, following up on a shorter 3400-mile trip a couple of years before. The book is all about life travelling by long-distance train, the history and workings of the railroad, and the people and places I met along the way. I have also linked many of these places to well-known Hollywood films, and tried to find the exact locations where they were filmed. I also had some fairly weird weekends trying out things off the rails that took me right outside of my comfort zone.

Why did you choose America for your latest adventure?

I’ve spent quite a lot of time on trains in Central and South East Asia. I wanted to experience something totally different. The United States has a good network of long-distance trains, and there is of course huge physical and cultural diversity across the country. Interestingly, with English as the main language, I also liked the idea of being able to talk to a wide range of people without an interpreter – that’s very different from being in the middle of Siberia.

What about Covid?

I was extremely lucky. My journey was planned for January and February 2020, long before the world knew about Covid. I heard about the virus whilst I was in California, but only isolated cases in the north-east of the U.S. were being reported in the media at that time. Within two weeks of my return home we were in the first shocking moments of the original lockdown.

Is it different from your other books?

It’s very much life on the rails with me as always. But I have been able to research the history of the railroad more easily than was possible in Russia and the Far East. This was actually the first trip I have been on when I have known I would be writing a book about it, so I came back with several notebooks full of the detail of my travels, the places and the people. Perhaps the biggest change is the inclusion of the film content, which I really enjoyed writing about.

Is this a history book then?

Not really, but it recognises the influence of the railroad on history and life in America. The development of the railroad from east to west ties up with everything I came across so neatly. The railroad opened up the west of America, which also brings into focus a lot of the western and cowboy films. The Amtrak trains of today have evolved from services by multiple smaller companies which competed to transport passengers over large distances in real style. Originally some of these rail companies even went to war with each other to capture vital routes.

What sort of films have you written about?

Lots! Most people might think of films like Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Midnight Run or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but some of the locations I come across are less immediately obvious. I also touch on some well-known television programmes like Breaking Bad. And throughout the book the plot of Silver Streak is not far away.

Do you have a favourite film?

That’s almost impossible to answer! In the book I actually talk about two of my favourite war films, Apocalypse Now and Das Boot – you have to read the book to understand how they connect with my journey. I also explore the connection of Houston to Local Hero and New York to Live and Let Die. All top films in my opinion.

Which was your favourite film location?

The search for Jim Rockford’s mobile home from The Rockford Files was great fun, but Twisters, or Los Pollos Hermanos, from Breaking Bad was just as special. From a film point of view, those stairs in Chicago Union station where The Untouchables shootout took place are just amazing. You feel that you’re right there in the movie with Eliot Ness and Jimmy Malone.

What was your route?

On the first trip I went coast to coast, via Denver, finishing in San Francisco. But on the most recent trip I set out from New York and headed first to Chicago, then south, looping around from New Orleans and Houston, and across to Los Angeles. From there I travelled all the way back to Chicago again, via New Mexico and Colorado.

Do you like Amtrak trains?

I think they’re wonderful, especially if you’re solo in what they call a roomette, a small two-berth sleeper that converts into comfy seats during the day. Of all the trains I have been on in the world they convey the closest thing to a private train experience that you can have on a regular train. They provide so much space for their passengers, who enjoy not just their seat or room, but also a sightseeing lounge with café, and of course a proper dining car.

Which was your favourite train/route?

Based on the landscape and a simply amazing crew, it was the Sunset Limited from Houston to LA. A close second would be Southwest Chief from Albuquerque to Chicago.

What sort of people did you meet on the trains?

Everyone! Film directors, start-up CEO’s, special forces, Amish groups, actors, native Americans, rocket scientists – they will all forever stick in my mind. You get to meet so many people in the dining car, because passengers get seated together as a matter of course. It’s called community seating, and it’s a proud Amtrak tradition.

You mention being pushed outside your comfort zone. Can you give us an example?

I tried to ‘deep dive’ into local ‘happenings’ whenever I got off the train. In Houston I spent time in mission control at the Johnston Space Center, in New Orleans I performed in a second line parade, and in Albuquerque I fired the most powerful rifle the world. Some of the food was a little out of my normal repertoire as well!

Did you have a favourite meal?

I had many excellent meals. Bar food in Chicago was dominated by their love of hot and spicy (chicken) wings. The Creole and Cajun food of Louisiana was perhaps the most interesting, followed closely by New Mexico and its love of chili! I love the bar scene in America – it’s so friendly, and the quality of food and locally brewed beer is simply amazing.

Will you be going back to America?

Definitely. I really want to try the Empire Builder, and also the Alaska railroad. I’d like to go back to New Mexico too. Something just clicked with me there. I like everything about the place, almost even more because no one seems to understand why!

What’s next for you?

I’ve got so many ideas. I had to postpone a trip to the iron ore railway in Mauretania at the start of the year, so I’d like to get that done. I also wanted to do some train stuff in Myanmar next, but that’s looking like it’s on hold right now. Maybe Indonesia or the Philippines.

What advice would you give someone wanting to take their first big rail adventure?

There are some great resources available on the internet allowing a lot of research to be completed from the comfort of your armchair. But don’t ignore the help of destination country travel agents. They can often help when railway ticket systems don’t work well. Try not to think of it as one trip, but several legs, so that you can focus on the next stretch rather than worry about the whole thing. Then you can just sit back, talk to fellow passengers and have some fun! Oh, and bring a book too.

Where do I buy the book?

It’s on sale right now at Amazon, both as a paperback (£9.95) and a Kindle book (£3.99).

If you have any other questions, please do let me know.

The cover has has been designed by Jake Colling. It’s a deliberately simpler look than some of my past books, but I feel it conveys what the book is about beautifully. I really hope you like it too? Please let me know.

What is the book about?

In early 2020 I completed a trip around the United States, following up on a shorter trip across America a couple of years before. The book is all about life travelling by long distance train, the history and workings of the railroad, and the people and places I met along the way. I have also linked many of these places to well known Hollywood films and tried to find the exact location that they were filmed. I also had some fairly weird weekends trying out things off the rails that took me right outside of my comfort zone. The back cover copy can be found on my book page.

There seem to be lots of interesting trains in the cover design. I thought all the Amtrak trains were the same?

Most long distance Amtrak trains run with a pair of Genesis locomotives up front, and a set of either single deck Viewliner carriages or duplex Superliners behind. However, the United States has many heritage railroads where you can enjoy a variety of classic trains, many of which are steam. In addition to Amtrak, there are also a couple of other rail operators, for example the amazingly cool New Mexico Rail Runner – it really does go ‘meep meep’!

Why did you choose to go to America?

After three big trips across Siberia into Asia, I needed something very different to write about. The United States seemed to fit the bill, with the combination of real scale, huge diversity, and for the first time a language which I mostly understood. America has a totally different dialect for its railroad though, so I have included a whole chapter on ‘rail speak’ in the book.

Were you travelling during COVID-19?

No, I returned to the United Kingdom just a few days before everything kicked off. I was very lucky that my trip was in normal times. Back then ‘The Donald’ was talking about some bug from China that he’d done a pretty good job making disappear.

Which route did you take?

All the detail will be coming along with a more detailed Q&A in the run up to the book launch – today I’m just pleased to have the cover officially revealed. However, a look around my blog will give you some good clues!

When is it being released?

I hope to have the date finalised by my publisher shortly, but I understand that it will most likely be on Monday 15th March 2021. As soon the book has gone to print it will be available for pre order on Amazon.

When will we hear more?

I’ll keep you posted on this blog and social media. You can also sign up to receive direct updates to your inbox on my homepage. Twitter is the best place to find me online – @OnTheRails .

We were called before the train had been reversed onto the platform, I think mainly as the red cap attendants needed several journeys to get passengers who needed assistance to the train. It arrived 30 minutes before departure, and I quickly settled into my roomette, upstairs in carriage 0430, one of two sleepers on the train. You might think of long-distance trains as enormous, but this one consists of just two sleepers, two coach cars, a baggage car, a dining car, and a sightseeing lounge car. On some routes, extra carriages get taken on and off, but this is the core of every Amtrak long-distance train set.

Once I had a dinner reservation made I unpacked my small bag and set the room up how I’m used to doing, in a way that I know where things are in the dark and the more confined space once the bed is made up from the two seats. I actually hang my bags up, leaving more floor space and I also have a way of stacking devices between the table and the window. This is another one of the slightly older sleepers, so it has an ‘open’ closet cupboard making it feel slightly more spacious inside the roomette. Elsewhere you only really notice its age in the toilets, which are a bit worn out.

The observation car, or ‘sightseeing lounge’ has two different configurations downstairs, but is pretty much the same up top. One version LA to ABQ has a bar-style service counter, the other from ABQ to CHI is a self-service one, with a cashier area.

The food and drink offering is the same. The attendants down here have to ‘sell’ their wares to the coach customers, whereas food is included in the dining car to those in the sleeper coaches. This means a bit too much activity on the intercom with discounted deals and frequent opening and closing announcements.

Coach customers are welcome to come into the dining car, and can pay the prices on the menu.

Overnight California gives way to Arizona, and the cowboy country I wake up to is strangely familiar from all those western movies. But nothing prepares me for the big sky and little fluffy clouds. I surprise myself and get up for an early breakfast, even though we have changed a time zone overnight, back to mountain time. Time zones on Amtrak trains can be tricky if you have a dining car reservation around the time of the change – clarification is needed. Before long we are in New Mexico. It’s cold at night here, and snow lies in shaded areas.

In the late morning, I get off the train in Albuquerque for a planned side trip and get back on the same carriage 3 days later. My off the rails experience were to do with research for my next book, which I’m really getting immersed in at the moment. You will have to wait to see what I got up to!

Back on board in time for lunch, the train gets refueled before setting off east. I meet a man in a white biohazard suit on the lower deck, and he’s clearly trying to fix a plumbing problem in the limited time we have left at the stop. He runs out of time and leaves us with just one of the thee toilets in working order. The shower is fine though, and there are more toilets than needed for the number of people in the adjacent sleeper.

I munch on a Ceasar salad for lunch and discuss all things Amtrak with my fellow passengers. I love the afternoons on a long-distance Amtrak route, I often take a nap after lunch and then spend the rest of the afternoon watching the sun get lower which can make for some good photographs. We reach Colorado in the early evening and its time to freshen up for dinner. I book a community seat at a table for 7.30 pm, about the time we reach La Junta for a crew change. But there is something else going on here. The Engineer says there will be an ‘equipment change’ and the power will go out. What he doesn’t tell us is how long this will take, so I sit alone at a table in the dining car sipping a couple of glasses of wine in the darkness for two hours, when new locos are finally added back on. My steak is a late-night feast, and well worth the wait.

Over breakfast, the really nice lady who serves in the dining car introduces me to the man who fixed the train last night. Its something to do with pumps and flooding, but I avoid technical questions. I eat my usual three-egg omelet with cheddar cheese and mushrooms and enjoy the views of the Kansas prairie.

On the platform at Kansas City I chat with one of the Amish travelers who points out that we have acquired a couple more locos, now four in total as well as some other carriages, the mighty Chief must be quite a sight, but I can’t get far enough to photograph it and the attendant warns me to stay close as we are shortening stops to make up time.

I have lunch with a couple of high school girls on a class trip to Washington. I good chance to ask questions about the latest mobile phones – mine is eight years old. I also get to try out the new Amtrak BBQ pork wings, which are great. More on this in an Amtrak menu post.

We catch up nearly an hour crossing Missouri and into Ilinois. The rail towns are pretty and they all seem to have museums with steam engines trackside. Tempting, but no time to do anything more than a cursory photograph. Eventually, we pull into Chicago Union Station at 4.20 pm. The Chief has covered 2265 miles in around 44 hours. All in all a great run, even though the toilets didn’t work and a two-hour wait for my steak on the run from Albuquerque. It’s all about the staff on a train like this, and the crew on the Chief have been totally first class.

Waiting for the 09.35 train, passengers mill about in the pre-sunshine cold of the desert morning until the doors of the duplex carriages open 20 minutes before our departure. They are talkative, friendly and really interesting.

Onboard the train is clean and comfortable, laid out over two decks and a mezzanine level at each end. A flurry of walkie talkie activity and we are good to go, the fireman releases the handbrake. ‘Meep, meep’, the Railrunner sets off up the line to Santa Fe ‘on the ball’. The conductor sells me a ticket as she does her rounds, $10 for a return journey, free if you are over 62, and reduced if you are a student or a veteran.

There is no catering on board and I wish I had picked up a cup of coffee before hopping on.

Out the window, there is a massive amount of open space and we pass towns and Navaho reservations en route. Life here is single story and simple. I read that the Navaho don’t like photographs being taken of their reservations, so I have respected this.

Sticking to our timetable we arrive into the Santa Fe railyard on time at 11.18. I’m greeted by freezing temperatures – no one told me it was much colder than Albuquerque here!

I spend a pleasant few hours shopping, eating and drinking in North America’s oldest capital before getting the Railrunner back ‘home’. The railyard district is really interesting but quiet today as it’s a cold February morning. It’s really busy here at the weekends, especially in the summer with farmers’ markets and street vendors.

Its fun to be on something very different from Amtrak today, but that’s not a criticism of Amtrak, just the fun and excitement of a bit of variety. If anything I’m now a bit bored of silver covered trains, and as a retired marketing man, I love the branding of the Railrunner. I had heard that it even had a ‘meep meep’ sound like the roadrunner cartoon, but I didn’t hear it today!

I’ve got used to watching ‘Wheel of Fortune’ on the television in the Amtrak lounge before catching trains at this time of the day. I’m getting good at it. The Sunset Limited is running half an hour late, so time to watch the whole show. It’s a friendly place, and everything is straightforward here.

I’m greeted by Melinda on the platform outside carriage 0130, which turns out to be an older design than I have seen before. It looks similar to the more common Superliner, but the toilets, switches and roomette design is slightly different. However, it’s biggest shortcoming is that although there are controls, the aircon system is either on jungle or iceberg setting, and no one in the carriage can agree which is better. The most obvious way to tell its an older coach is that it does not have an enclosed cupboard with coathangers in the roomette.

I make the last sitting in the dining car, which is run by the dream team, Eggi on announcements, seating and jokes, and John serving the food and wisecracks. Lovely people and it made the journey great fun. Next door in the sightseeing lounge, another John runs the cafe car.

I hopped off at a late-night stop in San Antonio, which I discovered to be full of dodgy people. Law and order here is down to armed guards on the platform. I had to answer a string of questions to get anywhere back near our train and wasn’t allowed to move freely to take my usual nightly photo of the engine.

When I wake early the next morning to Eggi whispering ‘waffles, coffee, pancakes’ on the intercom. I’m greeted by the sight of great plains, and glimpses of the Rio Grande over breakfast. Each meal on this train involves meeting three new people at the table, and you never know who you might sit next to. All but one of my fellow diners were really interesting, but you will have to read the book to find out what I did!

I hoped off in Alpine, Texas for some fresh air and almost had a heart attack when the train double-stopped. This is a procedure when on shorter platforms the train stops twice, moving forward a 100m or so. But the feeling of seeing the train slowly roll away from you isn’t for the faint-hearted!

We reached El Paso in the afternoon, and the infamous wall and the lawless Mexican town of Juarez over the border were right by the side of the line. As we set off, something was wrong back in the sightseeing lounge – we had left one passenger behind, but his partner and luggage were still on board. The sentiment amongst passengers here was mixed. The golden words are ‘always stay close to the train’, but you had to feel for him. Apparently he didn’t like flying, but now he would have to take a flight to Phoenix as the next train wasn’t for another three days.

We rumbled out of Texas after 20 hours crossing one state, and into Arizona to a train wide communal ‘yeee-haaa’. I have to say at this point I was in rail nirvana, and happily spent the afternoon taking photos of the amazing landscape and doing some writing.

A beer to watch the sunset, another fine meal in the dining car and bed after a stop in Tucson. Sleep came very easy, and I woke to the announcement we would be in LA in less than 10 minutes at 05.18 Pacific time ‘on the bumper’. See how I’m learning to speak Amtrak!

Union Station is quiet and well ordered, the only problem is there are no taxis at this time of the morning. But the team in the Amtrak lounge somehow got me one and sneaked it round the station to a secret lounge door. I have a long weekend in LA before getting back on the rails. Next stop hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque.

The Sunset Limited is a Superliner bound for LA, a not inconsiderable 1995 mile trip in over 48 hours. I was just on for the first 363 miles and 8 hours to Houston, Texas today.

I’m not going to beat about the bush, this was one of the best train journeys I have ever been on. The best Amtrak kit (a Superliner with full catering), amazing passengers and lovely professional and helpful Amtrak staff. An 8-hour trip seemed to last 8 minutes. What a day!

Good Amtrak staff set the tone, and here onboard everyone was keen to help, and it felt amazing. But the best moment of the day was when I asked my carriage attendant Paul about the dining car. ‘We got a Chef onboard’  he said proudly – my spirit lept!

Paul had his own supply of coffee on the go in the carriage and everything set up. Simple things like fresh pillows were in the roomette for my use during the day. He had time to announce extended stops and explain what was going on to me. This is the Amtrak service that I love.

I had lunch with a Mexican film producer & his wife, who was a rafting guide, and a quick dinner with an amazing US Marine Corp vet heading to San Diego before hopping off. You meet interesting people on trains, and they have time to talk. All thanks to the community seating system. I’ll share some of these stories in my book. But what about the food? Such a difference. Real food cooked by a chef. How many scheduled (regular) dining cars in the world ask the question ‘How would you like your steak cooked?’.

Mine was cooked perfectly to my request. I declined the obligatory ‘A1 sauce’ and enjoyed it with mustard, which the attendant couldn’t understand. He’d never tried mustard. The desert was equally good, cheesecake with strawberries and optional whipped cream.

Returning from a long lunch, a quick nap and some writing, and soon it was dinner time. Then far to soon we arrived in Houston on time at 18.20. I was sad to say goodbye to the attendants, chefs, fireman, and engineers who had all looked after me, answered my questions, and forgave my ‘East Texas’ accent. I’m back on board this train once I have completed my astronaut training, so really looking forward to it. Imagine getting on a train at about 18.30, and being asked what time you want to have a table for a freshly cooked dinner. Time to freshen up and have a drink in the observation lounge and get dressed! This is living ‘on the rails’ and it is what will make me want to return to try all the Amtrak routes west of the Mississipi in the USA. Thank you, Amtrak!

In 2017 I took a trip across the USA by train. I had very low expectations at the time, mainly because social media had brainwashed me into believing that Amtrak was no longer any good and that American citizens were too busy with political infighting and building walls to welcome visitors. I’m glad I went, as I discovered this was totally false. I loved travelling with Amtrak, and everyone I met along the way was so positive, interesting and friendly. In just a couple of weeks, I was a changed person. I found myself discussing literature over lunch with deep thinking Amish people, ‘high-fiving’ conductors and talking about NFL score predictions to total strangers over amazing craft beer. So I vowed back then to come back and spend more time discovering more of what makes America tick, on and off the rails. As Ringo Starr once said, ‘America: It’s like Britain, only with buttons’. So true.

I think there is a book in this, so I’m planning several trips so that I can travel on as many of the iconic routes as possible. My second of these is almost a coast to coast and back to the first coast again, a long loop from NYC and Chicago down south and then west before returning to Chicago. I have set up a USA Southern Loop page in the ‘adventures’ section of my website, which contains a route map and the trains I am planning to take. Looking at the distance, it’s a lot further than my first coast to coast trip, which was around 3400 miles. This one is 6347 miles on the rails. Nearly all my journeys are on sleepers, both east and west of the Mississippi, so I will experience viewliners, superliners, full community restaurant eating and also the new stripped-back catering style. My thanks to John Blower at Trailfinders, for his assistance with the rail and ground arrangements. He has made my travel plans so easy that I have been able to work on researching the history of the American railroad and making contacts in some of the places I plan to visit.

If you have read any of my books you will appreciate that some of the fun stuff stays out of the blog, so it’s more fresh and fun when I can reveal the full story. So I plan to blog as I travel with the nuts and bolts of the journey, but save the ‘experiences’ that I have planned along the way for the book. I have a working title for it in my mind, but I’m not revealing it just yet. So what goes on tour will stay on tour until the book gets published! I have a particular interest in linking local culture – books, films, food and music – to the trains. Looking at my route do you have any suggestions for things that are a ‘must-see’?

The train language of the rest of the world has had limited chance to interbreed with the U.S, leaving America with a unique set of rail words. Most make some sense to English speakers, but a variety of carriage (sorry, car) types and multiple names for the same thing can at times become confusing. In addition, the first time traveller may be surprised by the way the jargon is phrased up with words not heard very often on the other side of the pond. Tickets might be inspected “presently” and the dining car might open “momentarily”. The language is both polite and direct. Once introduced, expect to be called Mr or Miss and then often your first name, and also frequently as just “Sir” or Ma’am”.

Here is my introductory Amtrak language lesson. Please read and repeat until fluent!

ACAT Menu Specials – Amtrak Culinary Advisory Team dishes are interesting looking dinner choices on the restaurant menu of some of the Superliner trains. They are never actually available to order though, so don’t get too excited by reading about them. Take my advice and stick to steak or chicken with baked potato.

All Aboard! – always shouted by the conductor before he signals for the doors to be closed by the car attendants. It’s hard not to join in the fun and shout “all aboard” too.. it can feel a bit like “Von Ryan’s Express” at times with smoking stops on a long journey.

Amfleet Coach Car – standard single deck seated coach car.

Baggage – luggage. Occasionally weirdly used in the plural, like “your baggages must not be left in the corridor”. Travel with as little carry on baggage as possible as there might not be room for both you and your suitcase in a Roomette. You can store it on racks located on the lower level if it won’t fit though.

Bedroom – a room with two beds and an en suite toilet and shower in a Dorm Car. This as luxurious as it gets on an Amtrak train, and you can imagine being in a classic train film like “Silver Streak” whilst you dress for dinner. (N.B. No one else will be dressing for dinner though)

Bed – it’s a bed, not a berth. The lower bed in a Roomette is much better than the upper one. It is bigger and more padded. Negotiate well with your partner if you are sharing.

Bedroom Suite – Two twin Bedrooms with separate en suite rooms joined together by an interconnecting door. The sort of room James Bond would have with the beautiful woman next door if he were travelling on Amtrak, obviously.

Brakeman – old fashioned name for the Conductor, sometimes still used to describe the person responsible for the running of the train.

Breakfast – served in the restaurant, or delivered to your room by the car attendant if you are in a Sleeper and they are in a good mood. Avoid the Creole sauce and grits with your eggs unless you are very adventurous.

Bumper – the end of the line. For example, Conductor: “that’s us up on the bumper at 12.36”

Business Class – rarely seen upgraded coach class car with inclusive benefits like food and wifi. Probably used more on regular non Superliner trains. Most business people in America travel by plane, so not in great demand.

Cafe Car – the lower deck of the Observation Car has a bar and snack shop and a few tables. Open longer hours than the restaurant. Mainly serving passengers in coach class as those in Sleeperettes have meals in the restaurant included. Unlimited supply of ice and often run by a barman who has trained at the Amtrak equivalent of Butlins.

Car – a rail carriage, not a road based car – that would be a “vee-hicle”..

Coach Attendant – confusingly sometimes also called a Conductor. Responsible for rooms on Sleeper cars and anything you might need during your time on the train. Be polite and tip well for the best possible service.

Coach Class – regular daytime seated car that has comfortable seats in Amtrak Coach Car. The Viewliner and Superliner versions feel like first class when compared to many European trains, but with no inclusive benefits like food or drink.

Community Seating – the dining car policy is to place diners together by a reserved dining time. You get to hear the amazing life stories of your fellow table guests. There is no choice in this matter. Most Americans eat early, so usually by 19.45 the dining car will be half empty on its last sitting if you want more peace and personal space.

Cord – the thing you use to plug your phone into the plentiful 120 volt electrical sockets in nearly all the cars. The power supply may not be stable and can be prone to surges, so protection is worth considering.

Conductor – usually a car based attendant responsible for ticketing on a regular train.

De-board – to get off the train.

Depot (“Dee-po”) – often a large junction that may well also be a station. May involve backing in to the platform and lots of tooting of the horn.

De-train – same meaning as “deboard”.

Double Spot – Not a snooker or pool word. This is where the train is longer than the platform, and it stops twice to let passengers from every carriage “deboard”.

Dorm Car – Superliner car which is half used for staff accommodation (lower deck) and connects to baggage car. This isn’t Hogwarts though.

Family Room – 4 bedded room suitable for two adults and two children on lower deck of sleeper car with lots of space, but no en suite.

Gate – entry point to platform, sometimes where tickets are checked.

IC – the intercom, not the PA. The private comms system between carriage attendants for the resolving problems and telling of jokes.

Observation Car – two level car with mix of seating and panoramic windows on the upper deck, bar and cafe below. Usually the social centre of the train and a place to chat with fellow passengers. Just don’t mention politics though.

Lead Service Attendant – the person who supervises service in the dining car. Often heard on the PA announcing dining times and moving people on and off the wait list, depending on his or her mood.

PA – Public address system. Used for all sorts of passenger communication, including dinner reservations, and occasional banter.

Parlour Car – see Dining Car. More specifically the part of the dining car where the on duty service attendant sits and puts together the community seating plan.

Quiet Car – unreserved coach car with no noise, no phone policy. Mainly seen on single deck corridor trains.

Redcap – porter who deals with checked luggage. All big bags are checked in similar to at an airport. The redcaps transfer them to the baggage car.

Restroom – the toilet. On Superliners there is one upstairs and three downstairs per sleeper car.

Resties – a trip to the Restroom.

Roomette – small compartment with two chairs that converts into an upper and lower berth at night. Cosy for one, bit tight for two. Its not a cabin or a compartment.

Service Attendant – person who serves meals and drinks in the dining car.

Shower Room – one per sleeper car located on the lower deck of the Sleeperettes.

Sightseeing Car – see Observation Car.

Smoke Stop – longer stops where baggage is being handled and the conductor invites passengers to stretch their legs on the platform.

Superliner – a two level long distance Amtrak car used on some routes. Deeply impressive.

Surfliner – same as a Superliner but hippyfied and a sign that you are in California.

Sleeper Car – car made up of overnight accommodations – roomettes, family rooms and bedrooms (with en suite toilet). Sometimes also called a Sleeperette.

Transition Car – car set aside for use by crew, usually a sleeperette.

Viewliner – single level/deck version of Superliner used on some Amtrak routes.

Wi-Fi – supposed to be available on most Amtrak trains, but usually impossible to log in to.

To make any sense to your Conductor you should aim to stop using words like “luggage”, “the gents” and “compartment” as soon as possible and embrace speaking Amtrak as fluently as you can. Please do share any new words that you discover and I will add them (“presently”) to this list.

I might have misled you in my last post by saying I was going to San Francisco today. I am actually going there, but to be more specific, my train is not. The Coast Starlight is a daily service between L.A. and Seattle. This takes about 36 hours. My plan is to get off after 11 hours at Oakland and then travel by bus to San Francisco. It should take less than an hour once I’m off the train.

At about 09.40 the train backs into Union Station on platform 10B, supervised by a man in dungarees that I’m convinced was once in “The Dukes of Hazzard” (the early 1980’s version). This train runs with allocated specific seats, and I’m up top in coach 14, seat 4, then seat 57, and seat 55 as I find one I like better. If you are thinking of taking this train the best views by far are out of the left hand side (towards the ocean). Eva, the carriage attendant, is seemingly tolerant of my seat moves and keeps track of me on her paper based passenger seating plan. Many seats are “occupied” but yet empty on trains like this one. This is because people prefer to sit in the observation car or the bar, and stay there for hours. Amtrak tried to get rid of observation cars, but their passengers revolted and they were reinstated.

Today the Starlight is made up of two locomotives, a baggage car, two sleepers, two observation cars, a dining car and two regular coaches. I’m right at the back in the last coach – no roomette for me on this journey, as I’m getting off at about 21.00. It’s very comfortable here in coach. The seats are business class sized and there is more leg room than I need. Well designed tables pull out and every seat has a 120 volt plug. Perfect.

Before long the café is open (underneath the observation car) and reservations are being taken for lunch in the dining car. There is some comedy value in this, as the diner supervisor announces the progress of bookings over the P.A. “Garcia, party of four, your table is ready”.. then cancels anyone who is a moment late “Garcia, bad luck, you’re now on the waitlist”..

After a couple of hours we stop at Santa Barbara and I have time to get off and stretch my legs. Eva tells me that I don’t have time for a swim (the water looks good) so I wait in the sun on the spotless platform with the posh station building. I must come back here one day.

I think I might have picked up a good American habit. I’m talking to absolutely everybody, and it feels quite normal. Last night I got chatting to a bus driver and before I got off he gave me a high five. I don’t think I have ever done a high five in public before, and certainly not with a public transport employee.

The rest of the journey is fairly uneventful until I head for a beer in the observation car. I’m quickly embroiled in debate with lots of people sat around me, and after a few minutes I wonder if I’m to be the new English Jerry Springer. I have a concept for a talk show, filmed in a train carriage – a quirky Englishman hosts and moderates debate between a very mixed bunch of Americans. Tonight’s debates for my fist show include taxes, native Americans, tobacco, guns and liberalism. Fortunately I’m rescued by some fellow Brits I’m dining with before things get out of hand. Two of my chat show guests are close to war, and I suspect that one of them might be carrying a concealed weapon.

As the sun goes down outside the views are of a mixture of crops – pumpkins, turf (miles of it) and oil. I’m supposed to be getting off at about 21.30 – in Amtrak terms this is to “de-train”. Generally I don’t like long day train journeys, but this one has been great – not just the amazing scenery, the great people, but the space on a train like this make 11 hours a real pleasure.

I shall write a further wrap up, but this is the end of my U.S. train based adventure – one I would commend to you. I hope you have enjoyed my blog – let me know what you thought. If you have a spare moment, please do join my mail list if you would like to stay in touch.

I return to the station after a quick dinner to discover that tonight the train is just ten minutes behind schedule, so I ready myself on the platform. This is the first time that I have seen a Superliner (the double deck long distance trains) approach in the dark. It looks pretty special. First you hear it, the rumble, the tooting and the sound of nearby level crossings closing. Then you see the lights and its monsterous scale. Finally, you get to see just how shiny it is – every light in the station reflects off the silvery sides and bounces back at you.

A chap called Art will be my conductor tonight. He shows me upstairs where I’m in roomette number three. My bed is already made up, but it’s too early for bed, so I remove the bed roll, store it in the top bunk and pull the seats back up. With a glass of wine in one hand, I complete my usual procedure of downloading and editing the photographs that I have taken during the day. Then I start to charge up all my devices ready for tomorrow morning. I’m getting good this, and have even now worked out how to send my pictures wirelessly from my camera to my iPad, then after editing, to airdrop them onto my Macbook. There is no IT department at Matthew Woodward Adventure!

A glance of my watch and I remember that we are already on Pacific time, so I remake my bed. Sleep comes easily, and I wake the next morning to hear Art encouraging passengers to visit the dining car for breakfast at 06.00. I’m skipping this culinary treat and will grab something in L.A.

The landscape has changed overnight. Passing through the outskirts of the city Los Angeles the houses are low and Spanish styled. Palm trees grow in their gardens. As we get into the downtown area the empty concrete canals remind me straightaway of two Hollywood films. The classic alien ant film “Them”, and more recently, “Terminator II” – the scene where Arnie escapes from the T1000 killer cyborg made of liquid poly metal on his Harley with John Connor.

Union Station is much calmer than I had anticipated, and although there are plenty of vagrants wandering about, it looks fairly safe to me. There are no obvious gangs waiting in the concourse looking to recruit passengers or indeed any angry people shooting at each other. A couple of friendly cops observe what people are up to, ready to deal with any problems. “To protect and to serve”.

This has been my final Amtrak overnight journey. I have very much enjoyed travelling on the Superliners. Not only are the Roomettes great for one person, there is a real sense of space with several places to enjoy the journey – the cabin, the dining car, the observation car, and even the café. The food has also been quite reasonable, and the company great. Americans love to socialise on train journeys. Amtrak may not always be on time, but they are comfortable and fun.

I’m off to Long Beach now for a quick stay on the Queen Mary. This is a reminder that I have finally reached the Pacific Ocean. Just sixteen days ago I was looking out at the Atlantic from a boat in New York harbour. I have therefore successfully completed my U.S coast to coast rail challenge. But my train adventure isn’t over yet though. Tomorrow I’m getting on to a day train to San Francisco. It’s called “The Coast Starlight”, not as I keep telling people at the bar, “The Starlight Express”!