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On my last Empire Builder trip, as we were traveling from Wenatchee to Everett, I noticed that it was almost 3 hours between the station stops. That seemed like a very long run so I got out my timetable and started looking for other long runs by Amtrak trains. I was looking for the gold, silver and bronze medal winners for the "longest run between stations" contest. But "longest" can be measured by both distance and time, so the results can be different.
By distance, the longest runs appear to be:
GOLD California Zephyr between Salt Lake City and Elko (263 miles)
SILVER Sunset Limited between Alpine and El Paso (218 miles)
BRONZE a three way tie: Texas Eagle between St. Louis and Poplar Bluff, from San Antonio and Del Rio, Southwest Chief between Needles and Barstow (all 169 miles).
However, if we rank the train runs by total elapsed time, the results are re-arranged:
GOLD Texas Eagle from Poplar Bluff to St. Louis (5'00")
SILVER Sunset Limited from Alpine to El Paso (4'46")
BRONZE California Zephyr from Elko to Salt Lake City (4'35").
Obviously I'm not allowing the Auto Train to enter the contest and I'm not guaranteeing that my calculations are correct. Can anybody add any corrections, comments or controversies to my lists before I certify the results?
notelvis Member # 3071
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Just a question if you have not doublechecked, did you calculate the running times taking into account that you have time zone changes between Salt Lake City and Elko and also between El Paso and Alpine?
George Harris Member # 2077
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The Texas Eagle Route St. Louis to Poplar Bluff may be 168.8 miles according to the mileposts, but according to the employee timetable, the actual distance is 2 miles less thanks to some relocations to reduce curves and grades in years past. The long time for the run is due to the hilly terrain and curves. The speed limit for passenger trains on this line is 60 mph north of milepost 100 and 55 mph south of it, and it has never been faster. There are also multiple reduced speeds for curves, mostly to 50 or 45 mph, but some as low as 35 mph.
Your 5h00m is the northbound and included about an hour of padding. Southbound, it is 3h57m (=42.23 mph), which is about the real run time, and about as good as the original Texas Eagle when the MoPac was serious about running passenger trains.
George
Geoff M Member # 153
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What about Houston to San Antonio on the Sunset? That's 5h10 westbound and 4h45 eastbound.
The Alpine/El Paso time is correct, taking into account the timezones.
Geoff M.
Beacon Hill Member # 4431
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Thanks for the additional info, most of my time and distance computations were done while riding in a coach seat without a calculator, so there may be even more errors or omissions.
TwinStarRocket Member # 2142
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Lest we not forget the "Grand Continental" in the Steven Seagal movie "Under Siege II". It left Denver westbound and never hit any towns or areas with cell phone reception or train dispatchers for many many hours, until it finally crashed into a freight. On second thought, maybe we should forget it.
George Harris Member # 2077
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quote:Originally posted by TwinStarRocket: Lest we not forget the "Grand Continental" in the Steven Seagal movie "Under Siege II". It left Denver westbound and never hit any towns or areas with cell phone reception or train dispatchers for many many hours, until it finally crashed into a freight. On second thought, maybe we should forget it.
And yet in the communication free zone, they still somehow manage to throw a switch from inside the train. You gotta love Hollywood.
ehbowen Member # 4317
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quote:Originally posted by George Harris: And yet in the communication free zone, they still somehow manage to throw a switch from inside the train. You gotta love Hollywood.
"Never let a little thing like reality stand in the way of the story you want to tell." Whooo. Better be careful; can you imagine the problems we would have if the politicians stumbled across that philosophy....
Uh oh...too late!
Italiancanuck89 Member # 1873
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Here! Here!
TwinStarRocket Member # 2142
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You can, however, reboard the "Grand Continental" within the communication free zone by jumping out of a pick-up flying over it. Is there a symbol for that method in the timetable?
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