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Pictures from an AMTRAK train trip,
from San Antonio to Fort Worth, 3/27/04

Map & AMTRAK timetable details

The Longhorn Chapter of the NHRS decided at its February 2004 meeting to try something different. New member, Larry Walsh, suggested a "Rail Ramble," to Fort Worth and back. This seemed like an excellent way to begin adding some fun events. The chapter is keen to develop activities which, it is hoped, will lead to more members and more participation in chapter activities. Initially response from museum members in general was high but by the time the day arrived, only a handful actually showed up. These hardy few decided to go ahead with the trip and make the best of it.

The result was that we all had a very pleasant and relaxing day! And not too expensive, either. The return fare from San Antonio to Fort Worth is a very reasonable $50.00, with discounts for children and senior citizens. Parking at the depot in San Antonio is a REAL problem, however. AMTRAK passengers may not leave their cars in the lot adjacent to the depot as this belongs to the Sunset Station entertainment complex, and parking there is a major source of revenue for it. On the day we left there were two major events going on down town, one of which, The Race For The Cure, the Sunset Station people were heavily involved with. As a result, the chapter group either got a taxi or had a spouse drop them off. This would have repercussions when we needed to be picked up upon our return, but more of that later.

It is worth mentioning that your author was a frequent rail traveller in Scotland before emigrating to the United States in 1990. Although I have had the pleasure of riding some tourist trains in this country, this was to be my first trip out of San Antonio by rail. I was used to certain aspects of rail travel and was keen to compare AMTRAk to my memories of what was then British Rail. The first, most unsettling aspect of the day revealed itself immediately. We were over forty-five minutes late in departing. I was quite staggered by this, regardless of the fact that we were simply taking the trip for pleasure. What if I had been a sewrious traveller, with a deadline to make or someone waiting to pick me up at the far end?

However, everyone seemed assured that there was so much slack built into the schedule that we would, in fact, arrive in Fort Worth on time. As we would only have, we thought, an hour there before we had to catch out train home, this was unnerving but not horribly so. The train leaves the depot backwards. At this point we were on old Southern Pacific tracks. We went back maybe a mile or so and then moved forward and switched onto the old Missouri Kansas Texas line that runs along IH 35 once they have crossed the city. You get an entirely different perspective of a city from a train and it was quite pleasurable to try to figure out exactly where you were. It almost seems like a different place as the railroad follows a much more direct path, in some ways, from the more convoluted twists and turns of the freeway and surface road system.

The rail corridor between San Antonio and San Marcos is best described as congested. Union Pacific has had control of both the Missouri Pacific and Missouri Kansas Texas lines since the 1980s but the development of mile and a half long trains plus all the quarries that are served in the area give the dispatchers such nightmares you can only begin to fathom the difficulties of keeping services moving. In general, the MKT is used for movement north and the MP for southbound trains. AMTRAK, it seems, is all but an added nuisance to a situation that borders on chaos, and though it is supposed to receive priority, the fact is it doesn't and the train really crawls along, once it is allowed to get going at all.

There are certain aspects to riding on AMTRAK which are far superior to anything I experienced in the UK, I hasten to add. The 'Sightseer Lounge' cars are wonderful. They afford views infinitely superior to what you can see from a regular seat. Our group stayed in it for the entire northbound leg and for most of the southbound, too. While the seats are not as comfortable as those in the regular coaches, they were not that bad, either. On the subject of coach seats, they are simply marvelous. You can tilt them back quite a long way, and they even come with a comfortable foot rest. As we moved around the train, it was fascinating to see that most people were sound asleep most of the time. The smoothness of the ride over the long riibon rails was suprising, too. Long gone is the old rhythmic clickety-clack I have so associated with rail travel. Seated, you can see how much the next car seems to be moving around through the compartment doors, which have convenient foot switches should your hands be busy with beverages and other items. What's odd is that while the next car seems to be moving rather wildly, your own seems as level and even keeled as an ocean liner in port. Should you then go into the next car and look back through the window, the magic seems to be reversed and it is now the car you are in that is moving smoothly while your former seat looks uncomfortable to say the least.

The coffee is better, too, though I dare say you may not be surprised to hear that. During our time on the train the dining car was only open briefly for breakfast, and not at all on the return from Fort Worth to San Antonio. The dining car was scheuled to re-open after Fort Worth, for passengers making the long haul all the way to the mid-west and beyond. Our first stop was in San Marcos, where there seems to be a modern, modest, depot. Our rate of travel picked up once we got under way again and we arrived in Austin around 10:30 AM. This, in a nutshell, is why such a trip is made impractical by the circumstances under which AMTRAK is forced to operate in this neck of the woods. From our scheduled time of departure, with the difficulties in parking in San Antonio I have already mentioned, to Austin in two and a half hours is pretty bad. Plus, once you get there, you would need to get a bus or taxi to your ultimate destination. Even with traffic as bad as it is on IH 35, you'd probably get there much, much quicker by car without having to pay for parking at one end and additional transportation at the other. It seems a shame that there is no will to make it better.

I think that it is a much better situation between Austin and Fort Worth. We fairly zipped along. Although it was not a brigh day, it was delightful to watch the countryside in the spring time. There were knowledgable Texas Parks and Wildlife volunteers on board, and they provided a running commentary on the towns we approached and the general history and geography of the areas we were passing through. A delightful and unexpected bonus to our day came in the form of a talented young performer by the name of Lucky Tubb, who is the grandson of the notable country singer, Earnest Tubb. Lucky was kind enough to sing us a few songs including one of his grandfather's and one of his own, plus a railroad song, the kind that was once a standard part of the repertoire of any country singer worth his salt. How cool is that!

We did indeed reach Fort Worth more or less on time, which is almost shocking, given the circumstances. We were supposed to only have an hour to spend in Fort Worth so we could not stray too far but we checked out the all new "InterModal" station that has been built that handles mainline trains, buses and Fort Worth's light rail system. It is very nicely done indeed. What was surprising is that apart from a street vendor and some snack machines, there was nowhere nearby to get a cup of coffee or a snack. Sort of nearby, however, is the old Santa Fe depot, although it is a bit longer of a hike than most would care to make if they thought their bus was coming soon. The depot itself is padlocked, but you could just see inside enough to get a glimpse of the huge stained glass window on one wall of the waiting room. It is to be hoped that this historic building will be restored and returned to some kind of public use. The adjacent Santa Fe offices and warehouse has been restored and several restaurants occupy it, along with some tourist type shops. I was disappointed to be unable to find any pictures of the Santa Fe depot in its heyday. It seemed like a stange omission to me.

Back on board, I was not surprised when we left Forth Worth significantly behind schedule. This must be how things are on AMTRAK on this section of its operations. The train arrived late to begin with. However, we were soon rolling along at a cracking pace and as is so often the case, it seemed like the return journey was going much faster than the one outward bound. We stopped in all the places we had on the way up. Of particular interest to me was a place called McGregor. It was so nice to se an old fashioned country depot still in use for daily travel. As night fell, they began showing some movies in the Sightseer car and our group decided to move to a quieter and more comfortable lounge car. We got into some interesting conversations with other passengers and the two children travelling with us became part of a larger group of kids who really provesd the point that it is much nicer to travel by train. All things considered, I was absolutely delighted with the day, or at least I was until we came back into San Antonio

What happened next was frustrating and hard to believe. AMTRAK does this every single day and pays a bonus to the railroad to get on time service and yet it seems that they are just the red headed step child as far as the Union Pacific is concerned. We came into town right on time. We were now on the old Missouri Pacific line and, as such, got the chance to see the Texas Transportation Museum from the train as it trundled along the tracks parallel to Wetmore Road. To our surprise and then consternation, we came to a halt just before the top end of Broadway, opposite from the airport, and there we stayed for almost an hour. Both I and one of my travelling companions had already called our wives to come and pick us up at the depot. The schedule said an arrival time of 11:45 PM, and we thought we were going to be early but even so, we had not called until we actually were within San Antonio limits. Once we finally did get moving again, we inched through the city. By car from where we had stopped it might have taken twenty minutes to get to the depot. By train it took almost ninety minutes. After we had passed the old Missouri Pacific depot we still had to make a virtual 'U' turn to get ourselves onto the old Southern Pacific lines that lead to the AMTRAK depot. We did not get ther until after 1 AM. It was a disturbing end to what had otherwise been a pretty good day. It is hard to blame AMTRAK itself for the situation. It seems this happens relatively often, accordingly to the crew. What makes it so much worse, in my opinion is that, as I have said, AMTRAK runs this train every day. How can it be that such a regularly scheduled event can blinside the dispatchers so often? Of course, if there really was an answer to that question, AMTRAK just might be able to offer a far faster and more reliable service than it seems is possible today, in 2004.

Hugh Hemphill

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