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Rail-world journey

Patience and conversation make taking the Southwest Chief from Newton a rewarding rain ride

BY MIKE HUTMACHER

The Wichita Eagle

With sunrise still hours away, passengers amble into the lobby of the Amtrak station in Newton. The Chicago-to-Los Angeles Southwest Chief is scheduled to arrive at 3:01 a.m. I'll board the train for San Bernardino at 3:25 to see a new granddaughter.

"Well, it's supposed to be here at 3:25," said the station master as she jotted down my name. "It's not usually that precise." The tidy and slightly campy Newton station maintains a graveyard schedule, only open between 1:30 and 4 a.m. every day.

It's the beginning of spring break, and the station fills with the muffled sounds of excited children being shushed by bleary-eyed parents and the shuffling of people and baggage.

I notice some are toting blankets, pillows and grocery sacks along with their luggage, and realize this is going to be a different kind of travel than I am accustomed to.

The Chicago-bound Chief rolls in first, about 3:20, and a few dozen passengers exchange places between the platform and the train. Twenty minutes later the California-bound Chief arrives and I join the mosh-pit of travelers as we make our way up the tiny, spiral-like staircase from the lower level to the upper coach deck full of snoozing passengers who boarded on earlier stops.

The stop takes less than five minutes but does not seem at all hurried, unlike the adrenaline-stoked running of passengers through airport security corrals.

"Patience," said one veteran train traveler, a television advertising producer, when I asked what advice he would offer a first-time rider. "It's a great way to travel, but you can't be in a hurry. Bring a book."

Well, I did better than that - I brought two books. Plus two magazines, three or four movies, a laptop, a couple of little cameras, some notebooks and pens and a big wad of cash for drinks in the lounge car. With the prospect of a 24-hour trip stretching before me, I was prepared to meet boredom head-on.

But boredom eluded me. I didn't open either book, I read exactly half of a short magazine article and I didn't even consider watching a movie.

Let me say for the record: Train travel isn't boring. If you are bored while traveling by train, you are probably a boring person and you would be bored whether on a train or not. Certainly, it takes a fair amount of stamina and patience. Add to that a measure of tolerance, a pinch of curiosity and, most necessarily, the skill to converse - and to graciously end conversations - with strangers.

Now, I'm a journalist by trade and training. I enjoy sticking my nose into other people's business and, even better, I get paid to do it. So it's no big deal for me to sidle up to folks and ask them to tell me their life stories or poke a camera in their faces.

Perfect strangers on trains will chat like family about pretty much anything, I think, because hours of containment in a chain of steel carriages rocking and swaying down the tracks, with everyone sleeping and eating and bouncing along together, causes a family-like rapport to develop.

And it's a great way to test your equilibrium. I would wander from coach to the lounge and dining cars bobbing and lurching as though I had spent most of my morning swilling tequila in the lounge car. It was an amazing thing to witness dining car attendants pour hot coffee into my cup and not into my lap as the car pitched unpredictably.

The dining car experience is certainly a highlight of rail travel. Full menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner were as elegant or as simple as one would expect in most fine restaurants, as were the prices. I had a wonderfully cooked, medium-rare flatiron steak, baked potato, vegetable medley, dinner roll, a very fresh spring salad, a glass of wine, all followed by a miraculo usly poured cup of coffee for under $35.

Breakfast is a sort of come-as-you-are, whenever-you-want affair, roughly between 6 and 9 a.m. Lunch and dinner are by reservation in 15-minute incremen ts, made a few hours before the dining car opens for business. It was refreshi ng that I could choose when, what or if I wanted to eat, as opposed to being offered a tray with a stale ham sandwich, a cup of fruit, a bag o' nuts and can of soda.

On the other hand, if one is prone to a more casual, convenience-store style of dining, Amtrak has that base covered, too. The Cafe is below the Observation Deck, collectively known as the Lounge Car. Old- timers refer to it as the Club Car. Whatever it's called, it rides behind the dining car and ahead of the coach cars.

Cafe customers appeared to be of the college student variety or families with kids in tow, whose dining habits are more spontaneous, whose hunger is less predictable or perhaps whose economic situation is more humble than patrons of the dining car. However, if one is inclined to spend $12.50 on a cold beer, a shot of whiskey and some M&Ms to munch while watching the scenery go by at 60 miles an hour from the observation deck, the cafe is where to find it.

And the observation deck is the place to be when you're in a social frame of mind. The seats face both starboard and port and swivel to encourage -- or discourage -- conversation, whichever is your wont. The scenery is as good as any you would find in whatever state you'd be driving through if you were in your car, except there's no concrete and the traffic is moving in the same direction.

Many people spend all day on the observation deck playing cards, conversi ng, taking pictures of their reflections in the windows or talking on phones.

The sleeping cars offer three options, from dinky but functional sleepett es, about the size of a kitchen pantry, to smallish, camper-size bedrooms, which Amtrak claims can sleep four, complete with sink, shower and toilet.

The sleeping cars ride forward, between the engine and the dining car where there is less wobble and sway - think of the conga line at your last office party - and the coach cars ride toward the rear.

Many predict an increase in passenger rail traffic over the next decade, primarily due to ever increasing fuel prices. If that is so, my fellow Americans, we need to get to the gym. Our ever-increasing girth, mine included , is going to determine who can comfortably ride cross-country in a train and who is better off traveling to San Bernardino in a Lincoln Town Car.

There is a fixed amount of space: to maximize comfort, sacrifices have been made in the width of aisles, the space between dining car seat and table and the distance between a toilet and the door your knees are almost touching. When two people meet going fore and aft, one usually has to back up and suck it in.

I found the crew to be professional and efficient, thoroughly outgoing, helpful, friendly, courteous and kind. Most are as gregarious as any passenger.

Amtrak is compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act, but the amenities are fewer. The lower levels of most coach cars have wheelchair tie-downs, and assistance is provided for necessities.

Amtrak's Web site, www.amtrak.com/, is a good resource for information beyond making reservations. There is advice on how to plan your trip, a description of the coach, dining and lounge cars and a virtual tour of a sleeper car. There are route maps, schedules and even a list of classic train-themed movies to get you in the mood.

Now, if I can just get that Arlo Guthrie song out of my mind... .

TIPS

1. Bring an extension cord and/or power strip if you'll also be toting a cell phone charger, laptop, iPod, DVD player, camera, whatever. Sleeping cars have one 120-volt outlet in each room. Coach has one outlet, total, per car; I saw three outlets in the lounge car. Bring a two- to three-prong adapter.

2. Ear plugs. Especially if you expect to get some sleep in coach. My fellow travelers were extremely considerate, but babies do cry, children will get restless, people snore, passengers board in the middle of the night and, believe it or not, some seem to think that 2 o'clock in the morning is the perfect time to talk on the phone.

3. One word: breath mints. OK, that's two words, but you get my point.

4. Organize your bags according to what you'll need on the train. Luggage for your primary destination may not be accessible. Keep the stuff you'll want in an en route bag stowed overhead.

5. Bring a blanket and pillow. The conductors pass out pillows the size of large marshmallows but they are essentially useless for anything beyond being a nice gesture.

6. Food. Yes, you can bring food on board. Alcohol, too, if you're in a sleeping car or only take your nips in the lounge car.