Of course it's wrong to judge a city or town based on what you see from the train. After all, in many cases, the train goes through the dumpiest part of town. Nevertheless, you do get an impression when you stop in a place that may pique or curb your interest in visiting it. So I was wondering, of the cities and towns that you never saw until you saw them from the train, which one looked the most appealing to you from the train? And which one looked least appealing?
Posted by dilly (Member # 1427) on :
When it come to trackside scenery, I prefer bleak industrial landscapes and forgotten parts of town. I find them haunting and atmospheric. I travel by train, in part, just to see them.
Keeping that in mind, the towns I found most appealing from a train window when I was a kid during the 1950s and 60s (and still find appealing today) are. . .
-- Rochester, NY -- I always loved passing through this city in the dead of night when traveling via the New York Central Railroad. In the darkness, the trackside buildings were always satisfyingly spooky in a grimly industrial, 19th century kind of way. Plus the exterior of the magnificent sixteen-story Kodak building, dating from 1914, was always dramatically lit (years before this became common practice for commercial buildings in other cities).
A few years ago, I stepped off an Empire Service train at midnight to officially visit Rochester for the first time. It didn't disappoint. Like many "rust belt" cities, it hasn't physically changed much in decades, apart from grow more decrepit. For me, that made it even more appealing.
-- Buffalo, NY -- The trains of my childhood usually passed through here at roughly 2 a.m. My mother once told me that the 8 year-old me had an obsessive fascination with Buffalo Central Terminal. I'd always wake up from a dead sleep as we arrived, press my nose to the window, peer out at the deserted platforms, and announce that I wanted to get off the train and go inside the gloomy building to take a look.
Unfortunately, I never managed to see the Terminal's interior until decades later, when it was in ruins. But it was worth the wait nonetheless.
As for the least appealing places. . .
I'd gladly spend a day drinking coffee in any of the whistle-stop towns along the route of the Empire Builder or California Zephyr. But I have no desire whatsoever to visit the small towns served by the San Joaquins. When viewed from a train window, each town along the route seems blander, more boring, and more uninteresting than the one before it.
Maybe it's the California weather. But I suspect that if I was a teenager living in one of them, I'd be plotting my escape by train right now.
Posted by Room Service (Member # 2405) on :
I always suspected Los Angeles was rather unappealing, until I saw it from the train. It was then my suspicions were confirmed.
San Juan Capistrano looks great from the rails and elsewhere.
Posted by Ocala Mike (Member # 4657) on :
Just considering my recent Amtrak trips of the past few months, the town of Winter Park, FL looks the most appealing from a train window, followed closely by Helper, UT.
As far as least appealing, I really was turned off by Memphis, TN and Omaha, NE. Guess it had to do with the sad states of what passes for their train stations nowadays.
Posted by George Harris (Member # 2077) on :
Memphis south of central station as seen from the train is, to put it polietly, a dump. However, going north you have about 1/2 to 3/4 mile along the riverfront with an awesome view of the river and bridges out the west side of the train. After passing that, go back to sleep. Central station has been cleaned up, but it is down to one paltform and all the tracks used by Frisco, Rock Island, and for a few years, L&N, are gone.
George
Posted by Geoff M (Member # 153) on :
Chicago is probably my favourite approach, with all the tall buildings and the railway yards.
Pittsburgh was probably the most depressing - though interesting - for mme.
Geoff M.
Posted by TALKrr (Member # 683) on :
Let me think !
I have always enjoyed the approach into Chicago from the east. One of the first things I search the horizon are the huge billows of smoke from the National Steel plant.
Lake Michigan
All the mills on both sides of the train.
The high toll bridge.
Its just an exciting morning because I know a Western trip is just beginning. It is a major thrill for me.
Another favorite of mine is the approach into Los Angeles on the Chief---starting with Cajon Pass , San Bernadino, etc. The homes on the upper cliffs just enthrall me. I wonder what the view would be like.
Also I love the approach into Portland , through the Columbia Gorge---absolutely breath-taking.
Posted by palmland (Member # 4344) on :
My most appealing towns;
While you can no longer see it in daylight, I loved the entrance into Cincinnati over the long L&N/C&O C&C bridge over the Ohio. A great skyline topped only by the beautiful Cincinnati Union Terminal.
For the iconic small towns in the sunbelt, can't beat Santa Barbara and Winter Park, FL. Or for that matter, any small southern town particularly in early spring.
Descending the front range into Denver is hard to beat, especially if viewed from the lounge car or even better the dome car on the old CZ.
Least appealing? How abou Chester, PA or northern Indiana before you get into the Chicago area.
Posted by 20th Century (Member # 2196) on :
Traveling from Hell's Gate Bridge and viaduct into New York's Penn Station. You see magnificent Manhattan with the contrast of the borough of Queens through which the Regional travels. Also approaching and entering Philadelphia's 30th. Station(from the North). is interesting. You see the bland/bleak neighborhoods of row house after row house,after the train crosses the Schuylkill river the scenery changes to the Zoo, Museum,and charming boat houses. You also get a glimpse of the Philadelphia skyline. The best part is walking through 30th.St. Station. Now that's a "real" station compared to New York's Penn Station. It's presence encourages rail travel.
Posted by notelvis (Member # 3071) on :
Most Trackside Appeal - Tie between Ashland, VA and Winter Park, FL
Honorable mention - Burlington, IA
Least - Baltimore, MD
Posted by Beacon Hill (Member # 4431) on :
How about the contrast entering and leaving Everett, WA on the Empire Builder. From Seattle, the first hour runs along Puget Sound with great views of the Olympic Mountains and maybe a beautiful sunset. The Builder pulls into the Everett station, picks up a load of passengers and heads east, running behind the wrecking yards, trailer parks, meth labs and environmental wastelands of Snohomish County, WA. Fortunately after about 15 minutes the scenery returns.
Posted by PaulB (Member # 4258) on :
I think Houston ranks up there with least appealing. That station they have doesn't help either. There are numerous tracks through the station; it's sad to think about all the trains that must have passed through Houston, and now there's just a rickety tri-weekly train.
Posted by dixiebreeze (Member # 3224) on :
It's really hard to top the approach and departure to and from New Orleans over the Huey Long Bridge across the vast Mississippi.
The scenery along the CS in Oregon is also majestic. The night skyline in Houston is awesome and perhaps one of the most boring stretches is between JVille and the mid-Florida Panhandle. After that, it all gets interesting again.
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
For the best amongst station stops, Ocala Mike beat me to it; Winter Park, FL.
Stand on the vestibule when the train stops and "smell the $$$$".
However, I guess if the FEC were again to be used for passenger service, The "rat's mouth" (Boca) would "top 'em all'.
For the worst, let's just say I recuse.
Posted by TwinStarRocket (Member # 2142) on :
Beautiful downtown Commerce City, CO with endless refineries east of Denver is my choice for least appealing. I share Dilly's appreciation of bleak and forgotten, but this is just ugly.
Minneapolis/St. Paul where I live has a very boring train route through most of town and a station in an ugly location. Known for lakes and parks and a scenic riverfront, what you see from the train is a disappointment.
Albuquerque deserves honorable mention just for it's station alone.
East Glacier tops my list of most appealing, with a beautiful station in front of Glacier Park Lodge and the mountains. Whitefish, Flagstaff, Lamy and Winslow are close behind.
Posted by train lady (Member # 3920) on :
I really can't think of a place where I wouldn't like to visit just out of curiosity. That doesn't mean I want to live there. That's one of the resons I love the train. It opens one's eyes to different places. I must say however going through west Texas left much to be desired .
Posted by wayne72145 (Member # 4503) on :
I just love the little towns in Iowa, especially the one after crossing the Mississippi. East bound into Chicago on the LSL or Capitol Limited is a little rough but even the old steel mills have a charm all their own.
Posted by wayne72145 (Member # 4503) on :
sorry I meant west bound
Posted by Mike Smith (Member # 447) on :
quote:Originally posted by PaulB: I think Houston ranks up there with least appealing. That station they have doesn't help either. There are numerous tracks through the station; it's sad to think about all the trains that must have passed through Houston, and now there's just a rickety tri-weekly train.
Paul, you should have seen Union Station, before they built the ballpark on top of it! There must have been around 20 tracks back in the 60's. One of our treats, after going to Mass at the church right beside the station, was going to the restaurant and getting breakfast/lunch {whichever we wanted} and watching the trains arrive and depart.
Also, I'd classify Houston as one of the worst, EXCEPT for that pint Blue Bell ice cream vending machine inside the station.
Posted by sojourner (Member # 3134) on :
I just realized I never posted my own choices.
It's really hard to pick the place that tempted me most to visit, since like Train Lady, I'd love to go everywhere at least once. Except Houston.
But as for most tempting, hummm, Winter Park, Truckee, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Rochester NY, Little Rock, and Dodge City are all high on my list of places I'd like to visit, based on what I saw from the train (which in the case of Cincinnati and Little Rock wasn't much, it was night, but I just liked the look of what I saw) or the "vibes" I had in the station. . . .
But I think I'm going to say Tucson AZ as the place that tempted me most. We stopped there in the middle of the night, but it seemed so lively and lit up and friendly . . . I just thought it would be great fun coming back there, and I do hope I can do it soon. . .
And I have to agree with Palmland that Chester, PA, is for me probably the most horrible scary-looking place I've seen from a train. On one of my first train rides, just from NYC to Washington DC, I was dozing and awoke at Chester and felt like I'd had a nightmare. . . . there's a certain kind of industrial ugliness that I just find really creepy.
There are a couple of other contenders. Elko, NV, comes to mind. . .
One other place stands out as a place I would have great trouble visiting, because going through it was for me so incredibly sad. It's also in Pennsylvania--Johnstown. Incredibly depressed, at least from what I saw from the train. And you cannot help but picture how it might have been when the floodwaters inundated it.
BTW, Twinstar, even though not seeing Minneapolis was disappointing, I rather liked what I saw from the train of St Paul--there seemed to be a pleasant river walk and a nice downtown area nearby. In fact, it's a place I do want to visit some time, based on what I saw from the train.
And David, I don't think Baltimore looks so bad. Those row houses are interesting, remind me of the fake ones in the film Marnie.
I also didn't mind the towns the San Joaquin went though, Dilly. I liked all the vegetable farms. I kept expecting to see some of the big pods a la Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the original). Wasn't that set in one of those towns?
If I had to pick a place that would be the most horrible to live, as a teenager or otherwise, based on what I saw from the train, I'd probably pick Elko, NV, then for sure. But I think that stretch of Nevada suffers in comparison on the Zephyr because of all the beauty before and after.
Posted by notelvis (Member # 3071) on :
Hey Sojourner,
Point taken that there is much to be fascinated by from the train in Baltimore. I have some personal baggage that associates Baltimore with a failed relationship some years ago and I tend to most vividly remember the depressing aspects of Baltimore by rail. There were lots of trips on the MARC commuter trains for me back in the day.
I would add that I found Elko, NV to be pleasant in the day and a half I spent there back in 2002. There was a small casino strip near the interstate but behind that lay a clean town with tidy lawns, houses, churches, and schools. Clearly a town with a good deal of civic pride.
Can't always judge a book by the cover I suppose.
Posted by Tanner929 (Member # 3720) on :
Great Topic, Most of the problem for judging a city is that A) You don't have a front view, B) The Stations that are on the outskirts of town are away from the downtown skylines and C) In the Cities where the stations are in the downtown areas and the trains come in below street level.
Dilly it is ashame you where not able to venture into the Buffalo Terminal. The Railroad companys left buildings made so large and beautiful that they find use today as museums and municiple buildings.
What is most depressing about arriving at many cities is not the scenery approaching the stations its Amshack or 1970's structure that was built to replace the citys Union, NYC or Penn Station.
Approaching New York Penn Station is not traveling through the Burough of Queens but rather walking up the steps from the platforms and walking through that Bus Terminal that replaced the Original Pennsylvania Station. Same can be said for Buffalo, Albany and Pittsburgh.
Posted by sojourner (Member # 3134) on :
I guess I was kind of sleepy both times when I saw Elko, David. I don't remember the clean, tidy part of town--can you see it from the train? All I remember was the casino strip, looking very tawdry and forlorn.
Was it here that someone told the story of the Nevada town that was insulted by some eastern writer, who called it the armpit of America, and got even by renaming their little mountain . . . oh, I cannot remember but it was something very funny and clever on the town's part.
Posted by notelvis (Member # 3071) on :
I'm not sure what you can see of Elko from the train! I've ridden the CZ through there 5 or 6 times but have never been awake.
My stop in Elko was while driving a bus for the Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps. We arrived mid-morning after driving overnight from Oakland, CA and left at dark the following evening for Cheyenne, WY. The neighborhood around the high school was very midwestern......very Iowa....in an American Gothic kind of way.
Posted by Cozyharbor (Member # 4868) on :
Though I am not as widely traveled as most posters here, I'll put my two cents in anyway .
Some of the most beautiful locations I've passed were while on the EB. In fact there were so many I'm finding it hard to pick just one. So I'll write about a few!
Parts of the trip through Montana and North Dakota were breathtaking. So much open space; so many cattle and horse ranches; and miles of sunflowers in full bloom during an August trip were some of the most beautiful.
Closing in on the Rockies at sunset was a site to behold.
Approaching Vancouever and Seattle and all along Puget Sound was stunning.
The trip from Seattle to Portland on the Cascade was wonderful also.
Almost every area the EB's travels through is interesting whether it be Chicago, Minneapolis-ST. Paul, big sky Montana, the Mississippi River, and on and on.
I've yet to travel another line on AMTRAK but it sounds like the next trip should be on the CZ, though I have to say the EB has really been quite the wonderful experience for the most part.
The worst? I really can't think of any areas that were absolutely awful. Of course there were plenty of depressed/industrialized spots but that's also part of the adventure of traveling by train. You see it all, good and bad, stunning, and not so stunning...
Thanks sojourner for starting this thread. I found it very informative and fun to read .
Cozyharbor
Posted by Henry Kisor (Member # 4776) on :
My favorite station stop is Glenwood Springs, Colorado, on the California Zephyr route. For an hour or so the eastbound Zephyr wends its way through spectacular Glenwood Canyon, then emerges from a tunnel to the picturesque Amtrak station at Glenwood Springs. Right across the tracks is Glenwood Hot Springs, a lovely complex of two hot springs pools with an attached motel that is worth a couple of days.
My second favorite is Essex, Montana, where the Empire Builder stops. The Izaak Walton Inn there is famous among railfans, and so are the helper engine yards next door. I'll be spending three days at the Izaak Walton this week after a ride on the Builder there, and will report about it in my blog at henrykisor.com/blog.
I never saw a railroad town I didn't like, but the smelliest I ever encountered was Lovelock, Nevada, back in the 1990s a crew change point for the Zephyr. The tracks abut a huge feed lot whose odor of cowflop (and maybe pigpoo) is absolutely overpowering.
Posted by dilly (Member # 1427) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tanner929: Dilly it is ashame you where not able to venture into the Buffalo Terminal. The Railroad companys left buildings made so large and beautiful that they find use today as museums and municiple buildings.
Actually, I finally saw the inside of Buffalo Central Terminal a few years ago, on one of the few days each year that the building is open for tours. Local preservation groups have cleaned up the interior, but the huge structure remains an empty ruin -- largely because its remote location (in a poor neighborhood several miles east of downtown) makes it unsuitable/undesirable for new uses.
Sadly, I never had the chance to see the place in operation, back when it was a functioning railroad station.
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Posted by Bob from MA (Member # 4686) on :
Regarding towns and landscapes viewed from the train: I find trips to be most satisfying if I have some sort of route guide to follow. With regard to the EB route, I want to call attention to the very detailed guides prepared by the North Dakota Geographic Alliance at Minot State University. These discuss landscape features, abandoned or nearly abandoned towns, Lewis & Clark, agriculture and other things related to the route. They often go into the recent history of the area.
They are much better than Amtrak's own guides that are (sometimes) available on the train and those from the Rail Ventures book that has been mentioned in this forum.
I would advise any railfan on the Empire Builder to detrain briefly at the Minot, ND station (it's a service stop so there's time) and pick up these guides, usually available on a rack in the station along with other brochures. They're in an 8 1/2 by 11 format, sometimes colored, sometimes just white copies. They give details of segments of the route from Minot to Glasgow, MT. They are best used on a westbound trip.
Posted by jp1822 (Member # 2596) on :
Ah - I was waiting for someone to mention Glenwood Springs. I passed through this town at least three times, before I made it a destination for myself, as part of a larger trip heading out to the Pacific Northwest. Every time I passed through I used to say - that would be a nice town to stay in for night or two. That's all I needed!
Enjoyed Glenwood Springs.
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
quote:Originally posted by dilly: Buffalo, NY -- The trains of my childhood usually passed through here at roughly 2 a.m. My mother once told me that the 8 year-old me had an obsessive fascination with Buffalo Central Terminal. I'd always wake up from a dead sleep as we arrived, press my nose to the window, peer out at the deserted platforms, and announce that I wanted to get off the train and go inside the gloomy building to take a look.
Here is a site of interest regarding Buffalo Central Terminal:
I had two occasions to board trains from the station during the '60's. It looked on the "way out' even then. I also had occasion to use the Lackawanna Terminal, which I understand has found an "afterlife".
Central Terminal is simply "in the wrong part of town' to be much of an economic development success story such as Wash or St Louis has become. But even those stories can be "dicey". Indianapolis, hardly a 'decaying city", had scant success, in fact failure, developing their "right downtown" Union Station into a commercial venture.
Posted by yukon11 (Member # 2997) on :
I would agree with Mr. Kisor regarding Glenwood Springs, Colorado. It is one of my very favorite Amtrak station. Glenwood is a fun place to stop and spend a day. My favorite, of all Amtrak train stations, is Whitefish, Montana:
Also, the town of Whitefish is a great place to spend a day. The train station has, within it, a Great Northern RR museum.
Richard
Posted by 20th Century (Member # 2196) on :
Glenwood Springs is a delightful stopover.We did Denver-Glenwood Springs and return to Denver on the CZ. For me it was an amazing climb up the Rockies. Another exciting part of the trip was white water rafting on the Colorado River. That was the first time for me. I guess it was a tame version but exciting enough. Someone fell out of the tube raft into the river. We were all attached with survival lines. I was able to retrieve the fallen party.
Posted by Railroad Bob (Member # 3508) on :
quote:Originally posted by dilly: When it come to trackside scenery, I prefer bleak industrial landscapes and forgotten parts of town. I find them haunting and atmospheric. I travel by train, in part, just to see them.
I'm with Dilly. I like the gritty, industrial neighborhoods that trains traverse on entering big cities. Ghettoes and barrios are part of America too. The approach to the glittering skyline of LA, ringed to the east by snow-capped San Gabriels on a clear morning on #3, is pretty moving by my accounts. Yes, you have to go through huge industrial yards, toxic-waste incinerators, cat food factories, lard-rendering plants, massive recycling yards, etc., but I still love it. You will end up at Union Station in one of America's most interesting big cities. (Well, my opinion anyway!)
I also like railroad approaches to smaller midwest cities like Galesburg IL, after blazing over the ATSF (er, BNSF) through endless swathes of 10-ft. green corn and the crossings of lazy rivers like the Spoon... Nothing encapsulates it all like the Railroads! Certainly NOT the interstate highway system...
Posted by Bob from MA (Member # 4686) on :
We have traveled on the SC many times. I think one of the nicest stretches is the part beyond Lamy (eastbound) where the train climbs through various canyons toward Glorietta Pass. Beyond the pass, the steep front of Glorieta Mesa is seen on the right and on the left an expansive view down across a wide valley.
Then the train crosses the Pecos River, negotiates the famous double-S curves and continues past Starvation Peak to Las Vegas, NM
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