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Just a little over 6 hours remains until my 3:49AM (scheduled) departure on the Empire Builder. Just thought I'd say that I appreciate all the questions that have been answered by the members here so far. I may or may not try to post a trip report when I'm back. It depends on if I feel like I have a good enough memory of things in detail and know what exactly to report on. I'm not going to be taking notes as the trip goes along or anything like that.
boyishcolt Member # 3001
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did you read the Empire Builder 75 years trip report?
Grandma Judy Member # 3278
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Take along a little hard-cover journal to record random notes as you travel. Later you can use it to jog your memory to write a full report. I cut up a timetable for my trip & pasted it on a page so that I could note our actual times at various points. When I got home, I also pasted in photos that I had taken. It's a make-your-own souvenir!
Geoff Mayo Member # 153
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I took some photocopies of the relevant SPV Rail Atlases and marked small notes on that. I had a scanner with me and so marked the transmissions on there too. Those maps give you some idea of what's coming up, so they're useful for being on the right side of the train, too!
Geoff M.
EmpireBuilder Member # 2036
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Well I'm going to try a stream of random thoughts here to see what I can recall from the trip so far. The train was supposed to leave at 3:49AM and didn't actually didn't arrive until 5:15. The station in Fargo looked about like I'd imagine a bus station to look like, more than a train one. Once we finally got going we seemed to make good time on the way to Grand Forks, since I only saw one vehicle go past us when the route parallelled Interstate 29. At Devils Lake we lost some time because a guy couldn't find his baggage despite the fact he brought his own on. The track between GFK and Minot seemed awfully rough, and eating in the diner at that time emphasized it, watching people trying to move around there. Oh yeah that reminds me of a diner worker accidentally spilling a cold coffee onto the back of the seat across from me in which a woman was sitting from me. I think that pretty much sumarizes the trip up through North Dakota, and I wouldn't do the trip any justice to further describe it due to my "train lag." I'll try to be a bit more interesting in this later.
City of Miami Member # 2922
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Geoff - What are SPV rail atlases and where do you find them to look at? John Andrew
George Harris Member # 2077
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I'm not Geoff, but SPV = Steam Powered Video, find them at www.spv.co.uk
These things are GREAT! most of the country is covered usually in multi state books. US$23.95 each except a few at US$24.95 each.
They have advertized in Trains.
There are a few errors that I have noticed, generally minor and related to facilities no longer there. Tehre are also a few minor line changes not shown. But for 99%+ they are absolutely trustworthy. One minus for the US user: The pages are European A4 paper size, which is slightly narrower and taller than US standard 8 1/2 by 11, so if you copy a page to mark on, you either have to reduce the size slightly or decide which end of the page to lose. There is some overlap between pages, so I generally go for choice 2.
They do not show roads, so if you wnat roads you need another set of map books.
If you don't want to jump in the deep end, buy one first, but, chances are you will end up buying all of them the budget can stand.
(I made exactly $0.00 off this bit of advertizing.)
City of Miami Member # 2922
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Thanks, George. I saw some of those in the gift shop of the RR Museum in Sacto last week. I thought that might what was referred to but I wasn't sure. Yeah, too bad about the awkward size. JA
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