Amtrak Sunset Limited

[Tom W]

It isn't the prettiest engine in the fleet, but it does its job. Caught a glimpse of my first Amtrak train at the Orlando, Florida terminal, taking on passingers and baggage. This is the Sunset Limited #1, which runs 3 times a week from Orlando, Florida to Los Angeles, California through several stops in Alabama, Mississippi, Lousiana, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The entire trip takes about 3 days. #2 is the return train and runs on opposing days.

http://www.pbase.com/photosbytom/image/42003988.jpg

Next time I'm in the area, I intend to catch the train at nearby Winter Park station - it is more picturesque.

[John Trogdon]

Nice shot Tom, I thought that station looked familiar. I live just north of Orlando, and yes the Winter Park station is in a nicer area. The next time I'm down there, I guess I'll have to try and get a few shots. Go there mostly for the local art shows and car shows. . . . step right over the rails, pretty much ignoring the station. . . duh!

[Belmondo]

Tom:
Great shot. So that's what the Sunset Limited looks like.

Actually, that train comes right through the desert here. At its closest point the tracks are only a couple miles from the house. For all the time I spend lurking around the tracks, though, I rarely see the Amtrak trains. Both east and westbound trains come through here in the middle of the night, and only when they are several hours late do we ever see them in the daylight. Since we're only a couple hours from L.A. the eastbound train is rarely that late. The westbound train has had a couple more days to fall behind schedule, so is a bit more likely to be running late. The last couple times it happened, is was mid-morning when they rolled into Palm Springs, and the sun was all wrong. It's tough taking pictures of highly reflective trains when they're coming out of the sun, so none of my shots turned out very well.

[Tom W]

Thanks, folks.

Odd thing that I just noticed is that the engine is labeled "2" while the schedule depicts that it is train #1. Oh well, its Amtrak - at least it was only 5 minutes late. ;)

These trains run primarily on tracks owned by freight companies such as CSX and Union Pacific. In most cases, the freight takes precidence over passinger service, since that is the bread-and-butter of the track owners (and is why Amtrak gets a pretty cheap rate for use of the tracks). Anyway, because of its position in the heirarchy, passinger service often gets delayed to let freight trains through.

[ed2150]

Good shot, Tom! The "2" on the engine is it's Amtrak road number; it's and old General Electric Genesis built just for Amtrak and may well the 2nd one they took delivery of.

[Tom W]

Good shot, Tom! The "2" on the engine is it's Amtrak road number; it's and old General Electric Genesis built just for Amtrak and may well the 2nd one they took delivery of.

Thanks, ed2150. I made the assumption that they put the train number up front, much like a bus or commuter train might have the route designation on the front of the unit.