L4 SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2019 LATIMES.COM/TRAVEL
“I stay positive,” said Mary Lou,
the sleeper attendant on Amtrak’s
Southwest Chief bound for Chi-
cago from Los Angeles on a two-
night journey.
As we chatted on the station
platform in Gallup, N.M., after the
first night, I asked how she had
weathered recent uncertainty
about the train’s future. Like other
crew members I asked, she skirted
the question.
The winds of politics have buf-
feted Amtrak for most of its 48
years. Like most rail passenger
services worldwide, it requires gov-
ernment support to survive, let
alone flourish.
But for those who ride Amtrak
and those who work for the com-
pany, 2018 was especially worri-
some because of rumblings about
changes that seemed unwise to me,
a train buff.
I put aside those worries. It was
a bright, sunny morning, and I
couldn’t have been happier. My day
had begun at 5:45 when the train’s
stillness woke me. We were in
Flagstaff, Ariz.; the moon was low
in the sky, and I could smell bacon
in the adjacent dining car.
Chiefly superior
The Southwest Chief, successor
to Santa Fe’s Super Chief, the
“train of the stars,” has both distin-
guished heritage and present util-
ity. It provides service to 30 com-
munities between Chicago and Los
Angeles, many with no other public
transportation options. For those
in expensive sleepers, it is a travel
experience, rich in scenery, history
and camaraderie, unknown to
most Americans.
The previous evening’s dinner
had been satisfactory and more
than ample: a land-and-sea combo
of flatiron steak and crab cake: $39
for coach passengers but included
in my roomette fare.
The company at the table was
as memorable as the food. “We
practice communal seating,” the
lead service attendant in charge of
the diner said over the public ad-
dress system.
Bruce, a frequent Amtrak rider,
was headed for his vacation home
in Santa Fe, N.M. His wife was fly-
ing (mine too). Two women, Am-
trak newbies, were across the ta-
ble. “We’ve never taken a train,”
Katie said. Rhonda, sporting a
black, bold “Notorious RBG” T-
shirt, nodded. They were going to
Orlando, Fla., round trip, a four-
night, three-train journey each
way.
They were happy and remained
so after two nights in their train
bedroom (twice the size of my
roomette) when I chatted with
them again. “It’s meditative watch-
ing the countryside roll by,”
Rhonda said. “Almost cleansing.”
Ahead was a fine day of rail riding.
We’d already begun to flirt with the
remnants of Route 66, the Mother
Road, and Bobby Troup’s song was
my earworm soundtrack as I got
my kicks.
As we rolled into Gallup, N.M., I
spotted along the old road some
wonderfully kitschy souvenir
stands, tepee included, selling
Route 66 and Native American
trinkets. In town, the sign for a
street paralleling the tracks read
“Historic Route 66.”
A long midday stop in Albu-
querque allowed smokers to in-
dulge (there are periodic smoke
stops along the route because
smoking is not allowed aboard), a
pair of washers to clean the train’s
windows, and passengers to pe-
ruse Native American wares on ta-
bles on the platform.
This tradition extends back
more than a century, when the rail-
road belonged to the Atchison, To-
peka & Santa Fe and the Fred Har-
vey Co. operated the Indian Room
in Albuquerque, where Native
Americans could demonstrate and
sell their crafts.
“I’m Veronica Yellowhorse. I’m
Navajo,” one vendor said, scram-
bling to set up her table because
the train had arrived 25 minutes
early. “I make some of the jewelry
myself and get some from others.
All authentic.” I bought a pair of
earrings.Belt-tightening
Among the diminutions of Am-
trak service last year the most
alarming was the elimination of full
meals on the Capitol Limited and
Lake Shore Limited, the East’s
prestige trains.
On Oct. 1 this retrograde move
will spread to the New York-Miami
Silver Meteor and the New York-
New Orleans Crescent.
Sleeper passengers will get
packaged meals to be eaten in the
dining car or in sleeping compart-
ments. Among other things, this
eliminates the dining-car fellow-
ship central to the Amtrak experi-
ence.
Did the new menu I’d received
mean that packaged meals were
unlikely to come to the Southwest
Chief? The attendant confirmed
that real meals were still in the
cards on the Chief.
I was in the diner when we
stopped in Lamy, N.M., at its Mis-
sion Revival depot, built in 1909.
Last year Amtrak pulled agents
from 15 stations, including Lamy,
but volunteers have made the de-
pot in some ways better than ever,
with new decor, cheerful attend-
ants and a microbrew branch in the
former baggage room.However,
they can’t sell tickets or check bag-
gage.
We were in Las Vegas, N.M., in
less than two hours. I was in the
broad-windowed Sightseer
Lounge, watching for the Castañ-
eda, a trackside hotel opened in
1898 by Fred Harvey.
Fellow traveler Todd and I rec-
ognized each other as Harvey dev-
otees. He brought me up to date on
the restoration of the Castañeda,
which reopened in April. That
morning, in the predawn darkness,
we had paused at La Posada, the
beautifully restored Fred Harvey
hotel and restaurant that serves as
the Winslow, Ariz., depot.
We had begun to hit scenic high-
lights before Las Vegas, snaking
through the red rocks of Apache
Canyon and then cresting Glorieta
Pass. About this time I noticed an
old-fashioned clickety-clack; we
were jouncing over “jointed” rail,
track assembled of 39-foot seg-
ments. This was a rarity, because
since the latter years of the last
century American railroads typi-
cally have had smoother welded
rail.
The clickety-clack was emblem-
atic of the Southwest Chief ’s prob-
lems. In recent years BNSF, Am-
trak’s “host” freight railroad, has
rerouted its trains, leaving Amtrak
responsible for the line’s upkeep.
(Amtrak owns the tracks it runs on
only in the Northeast.)
Amtrak proposed using a bus
instead of a train on the 550-mile
Albuquerque-Dodge City, Kan.,
segment of the route. This “busti-
tution” has been deferred at least
for this year. Senators from Col-
orado and New Mexico, citing a
$180-million loss in revenue for the
affected communities, blocked it.
As a result, I could watch from
the lounge as the train climbed to
Ratón Pass, a National Historic
Landmark on the east side of the
Sangre de Cristo Mountains,
where we were greeted by a historic
track-side billboard: “Ratón Tun-
nel. Highest point on the Santa Fe,
7588 feet elevation.”
At breakfast the next morning I
sat with Juan and Yolanda, who
had boarded the train in Lawrence,
Kan., and were traveling to Chi-
cago.
“First time I’ve been on a train
since I was a kid,” he said. “I’m glad
not to be up in the sky, but instead
seeing the country roll by and hav-
ing a real meal.”
I couldn’t have agreed more.CHIEF’S AT A
CROSSROAD
Amtrak’s L.A.-to-Chicago
route faces an uncertain
future. But for now, sit back
and enjoy the scenery.
By Karl Zimmermann
THE SOUTHWEST CHIEFis rolling eastbound here near
North Guam, N.M.; for now, it’s almost like business as usual.
John BennerIf you go
Southwest Chief, (800)
872-7245, amtrak.com
/southwest-chief-train. Fares
are based on predicted demand.
A representative Los Angeles-
Chicago coach fare for a
September departure is $143;
a roomette is $677, including
meals.THE HIKE from Boca de Tomatlán to Colomitos Cove, above, takes about 45 minutes, with some