#3 The Texas Eagle

 February 9 - 11, 2024

The Texas Eagle and the Sunset Limited are one and the same train as they depart from Los Angeles three times a week.  Arriving a day and a half later in San Antonio, they split, with the Sunset Limited going on to New Orleans, and the Eagle up to Chicago.  For that reason, they put the Eagle sleeper car at the back of the train, and the Sunset sleeper near the front.  

When I boarded that last car shortly before our 10:00 departure, I found my new attendant, Mark, had my little bed all made up.  I wasted no time in crawling in.  

The next morning I was trying to catch a few extra winks after a challenging night, when I heard a knock.  So disoriented, I opened the window curtains and peered out.  No one was there.  Then it dawned on my fuzzy brain that someone had knocked on the door.  I opened those curtains to see my attendant.  I managed the door latch, then asked in a rather annoyed tone what he wanted.  He said I was about to miss breakfast.  I had forgotten all about the time change, but he was also being overly concerned.  But I took him up on his offer to just bring me breakfast in bed.  Later I apologized for my gruffness and said that the "attendant bell" had rung many times during the night.  I've actually never heard it before.  He said that someone had been mistaking the call bell for the toilet flush.  Goodness.  

While I ate my breakfast I looked out at the gray Tucson landscape.  We were running parallel to a major highway, as I could see big trucks making their way through the rain.

Soon their were cactus of all types intermingling with the sagebrush.  Barely visible through the raindrops on my window, a single saguaro stands tall.  

Though I hadn't noticed we'd climbed in elevation, snowflakes were beginning to fall.  It wasn't long before the snow was coating the landscape. 

And then, as quickly as it came, it was gone.  For the next hour or so, snow that had accumulated on the train roof fell in big clumps that flew past my window.

Traveling by train there's always something interesting to see.  I sent the following two pictures home to my kids thinking someone might have an idea of what these are components of.  Maybe someone reading this blog will have an idea.  Some kind of farm machinery?  Some military equipment?  The colors suggest the latter but I have no clue. 

Dipping further south, the landscape changed to these beautiful golden striped cliffs.  Pocked as they were with holes, nooks and crannies, I'm sure a myriad of interesting animals were living there.

As we neared El Paso, Texas, I couldn't help but notice how very poor the area seemed to be.  For many miles before and after, the houses seemed to be built only for survival. Pretty much straight, utilitarian boxes, with no architectural detail, landscaping or anything else to make them pretty.  Some were pretty much junk nailed together.  Much of it reminded me of the slums of Mumbai, India.  

But with one exception.  Many of the homes were brightly painted in colors that would not likely be approved by any HOA, but went a long way towards cheering things up.

Researching it, I found that El Paso is indeed one of the poorest cities in the United States.  Around the freeways, they have gone to some effort to make them look pretty.  Much fancier than anything we have at home.

We had a long stop at the El Paso station so that they could do some routine servicing of the two engines.  I decided to get out and stretch my legs as there was a long platform with a lot of room to walk.  The conductor announced before we got off that there would be a lady selling burritos by the fence, and sure enough, she was there with a cooler at her feet and money changing hands.

While off the train, I took the opportunity to get some photos of different parts of the train, to send to the grandkids.  I had sent video of walking through the train, and between two cars, across the often lurching coupler plates.  Here's what it looks like from the outside. 

And a view of the outside of the observation lounge.  Lots of big windows for a great, if somewhat dirty, view.  There are seating groups with little tables, as well as booths.  Downstairs is a café with candy, drinks, snacks and packaged hot and cold foods.  People can take their goodies upstairs to the lounge or back to their seat. 

I asked the guy in the following picture a bit about the engine.  One of the maintenance tasks at stops is to remove things from the front of it that have been hit.  A pigeon had been smooshed into one of the headlights.  He told me to let them knock it out with a broom before I took my picture.  Note the location of his left boot.  He very emphatically stated that no one, even employees, are to step past that line without permission.  I guess the guys working on the engine and removing animals from the front have permission.

Here you can see all eleven cars of our train.  I had noticed that the engine looked, well, a bit old, and kind of banged up in places, so on the walk back to my sleeper, I asked a different crew member.  He showed me the sticker on the side that stated it was made in 2001.  They now have a fleet of 90 new engines that still aren't being used for this run, because, as you might guess, they just don't make them like they used to.  They have been tried out on some of the other routes, but haven't proven themselves reliable yet.  

I was also very curious about this curved metal tube down by the wheel.  I was told that it runs all the way up to that little blue door that can be seen in the photo above, just below the left windshield wiper.  When the rail is icy or too wet, it distributes a small amount of sand, to provide some traction for the metal on metal contact when braking.  Newer engines have a device that warms or dries the track ahead of the wheel. 

At last we were once again headed on our way.  Through fields, farms, and orchards, 

 

Since I still had access to the back of the train, I went for another look while it was still daylight.  I might not get a chance again for a long time.  While standing there, a crew member came and checked to be sure it was locked, then looked me in the eye and said he just wanted to be sure I didn't fall out.  It was clear he meant jump, not fall.  I assured him that I wasn't going anywhere, and was happy to just be on the train. 

At supper I was seated with a nice young couple.  There was no rush to vacate our booth, so we talked a couple of hours.  As we chatted, the sun slowly slipped down behind the low western hills.

Morning came way too quickly.  At 4:30, Mark rapped on my door to wake me up.  He was allowing me a half hour to get ready to dress and repack my things.  I've got it down to a science, so had set my alarm for 4:55.  I knew that they wouldn't kick us right off the train anyway, as they would need to do the work of separating the two trains for their different destinations.  But so be it.  I was awake now, so I just sat on my bed with a cup of coffee in the dark.  Once in station we did have to wait another half hour before disembarking.  

The station wasn't much, and was full of people.  I stepped outside into the light rain and called my hotel to see if I could come so early in the morning.  They welcomed me to come on over and they'd help me figure out what to do then.  I was glad to get an Uber ride and be on my way.  It was dark, with a security guard pacing around.  The station would soon be closing as they are only open now at train times.  But...I was in San Antonio!