Wallpaper Thursday - The Southwest Chief

So we've come to another installment of Wallpaper Thursday.  In continuing my theme of the last couples Wallpapers, I've decided to do one of my travels on the Southwest Chief.

The Southwest Chief is the Amtrak line that goes from Los Angeles to Chicago (or vice versa).  It is based on a line that the Santa Fe Railroad used to run.  When Amtrak first took over, they had a number of problems and the Santa Fe would not let them use the name...eventually those problems were fixed and the Santa Fe allowed the use of the name.  For the most part, this follows Route 66.

After riding on the Empire Builder and the California Zephyr, I'd have to say the Southwest Chief is a little bit of letdown.  There are some cool parts of it especially since I don't get to see deserts in my neck of the woods but some of the scenery compared to those two is a let down.  But I would probably ride it again sometime.

General Impressions of My Trip

I have finished posting the pictures of my trip so now it is time for a little bit of reflection. Once again, I had some reservations about taking this trip and I don't know why as I had a blast last year. Maybe I was afraid that I would be bored on the Southwest Chief or maybe I was afraid that I wouldn't have as easy of a time of sleeping this year as I did last year. I don't know but my fears were soon proved to be false.

Between this year and last year, I have now taken the Empire Builder, Coast Starlight, California Zephyr (twice) and the Southwest Chief. As far as scenery goes the California Zephyr is a definate first but not by much. I think each of these routes have something to offer.

The Empire Builder offers a nice scenic trip through the northern Rockies and the Glacier Mountains. It also offers nice scenery as you pass through Washington into Seattle. I am glad that I took that trip last year as it would have proved difficult this year as there was some serious flooding.

As I have said repeatedly, if you are going to take only one train trip, I would highly recommend the California Zephyr. Of the train routes out west, it was probably the most beautiful. First there was Western Colorado but that was nothing compared to the Sierra Nevadas. I wish I would have thought about how I was going to store more pictures before that because I would have taken more pictures of it. Oh well, I think I got some nice shots.

Now that I have seen the whole Coast Starlight, I would like to take it northbound now. I think that if I did that, I would have a chance to see some of the mountains in Northern California because it was dark when I did it last year. I can definately see what it has the Coast name though as we were right on the coast as we got south of San Jose.

I think I had low expectations for the Southwest Chief but I was pleasantly surprised by the trip. It was not as scenic as the other lines but it did have something different to offer. It would be nice if I could swing work to send me to California on that but that is not likely.

Anyways, I hope that you all enjoyed my little travelogue.

Southwest Chief - Part III

The next morning found me awaking as we were coming into Kansas City, Missouri. This would mean that we were on the home stretch.
This is a shot of Kansas City from the train station. I don't think I could see much from the station. Oh well.

This was a building near the station.

Another shot of Kansas City.

This was the train station in La Plata, Missouri. It was built in the 30's by the Santa Fe railroad. You can see that they kind of kept the 30ish font.

I want to say that this is the Missouri River but then I also want to say that I may be wrong. Oh well, I can pretend, can't I?

This would be pretty typical of the scenery from Kansas City to Chicago.

We had a chance to get off the train in Fort Madison, Iowa. So I took the chance to get some pictures of a train that was parked next to ours. This particular one is from the BNSF railroad.

This is an angle that I typically wouldn't get.

I kind of like this picture looking down at both trains.

This is the train station.

I think I like this one a little more than the other.

The Mississippi River. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it as I was heading west because I was eating dinner at the time. I didn't want to miss it this time.

A barn. I kind of liked the look of this barn.

One of the gate guardians.

I think this is Mendota, Illinois.

Coming back to Chicago. One more train and then home.

A better shot of Chicago.

Southwest Chief - Part II

The next morning found me waking up just after we passed Flagstaff. I kind of wished they would have timed the departure a little better as I would have liked to see Flagstaff. Oh well.

I think this is somewhere between Flagstaff and Winslow as these were the stops. As I said in my previous post, I wasn't sure what to expect as we would be passing through desert mostly. I'll have to say that the desert was pretty neat. Maybe not as neat as some of the other terrain I passed through but still pretty neat.

This was near the train station in Winslow, Arizona. It looked like it was possibly someone's home or something.

The Winslow Train Station.

I guess when you think of desert, you don't think of green. You think of other colors, so I was suprised to see green.

It's amazing just how much color you can see in the desert. You've got the reds of the mesa, the tans and the greens.

Another mesa. Or at least, I think that's what they are called. Also, I think this was in New Mexico.

I really love this shot.

Another shot that I kind of like.

Another nice and colorful shot.

It was amazing as we passed this train. Kind of reminds me of someone's N scale train set.

Same with this shot.

Looking at another mesa.

I really like the looks of this mountain.

I love how the desert sets off against the blue sky.

I really like how this shot shows just how vast the American Southwest is.

I didn't expect to see the variation of terrain that I saw. I was expecting mountains when we reached Colorado, but I didn't expect them in New Mexico.

This shot could be used for a Mars scene.

A dry riverbed.

Passing another train. I think around this shot, we were getting pretty close to Albuquerque.

This shot was as were coming into Albuquerque.

A shot of the engine as it is getting fueled up. This meant that Albuquerque was a longer stop which was just as well.

Kind of a shot of Albuquerque.

More desert. This time set off by some trees.

Another dry riverbed.

I really love the looks of the churches in the Southwest. Takes me back to westerns.

I really love the contrast of the trees against the red.

This one kind of reminded me of Devil's Tower.

An antelope. Unfortunately, I didn't have my bigger lens on but that was just as well because I think it would have been alot blurrier.

Some cows running away from the train.

Raton, New Mexico train station.A shot of Raton.

I believe this is La Junta, Colorado.

The sun setting over the Colorado plains.

Another shot of the sun setting.