The Texas EagleThe Texas Eagle was originally a train run by the Missouri Pacific and Texas & Pacific Railways from 1948 to 1970 between San Antonio and St. Louis. Amtrak resurrected the name in 1981, with the route ultimately settling on daily Chicago to San Antonio service (1,306 miles) and tri-weekly Chicago to Los Angeles service (2,728) in conjunction with the Sunset Limited service that connects in San Antonio.
The initial part of the route through Texas is pleasant and features a number of attractive depots, but is not otherwise terribly inspiring. Much of the view of the farm fields is obscured by trees along the right-of-way. The view through Arkansas and southern Missouri is hampered by darkness in both directions.
Longview
Little Rock
This particular set of Superliner dining cars had a different seating configuration than the other cars I'd encountered on my trip. Rather than two rows of cramped 4x4 seating, alternating tables were configured as more spacious semicircular booths, presumably to accommodate full-figured American derrieres. I was seated in one of the traditional 4x4 seats, it gave me an expanded audience for my regularly-scheduled energy-efficiency-is-the-future-of-passenger-rail spiel.
My seat mate was small, quiet, young, and modestly attractive female - which is about the most you can ask for from Amtrak, or life. But she had the halitosis endemic to long-distance train travel and clung tightly to a teddy bear while furiously texting. So I elected to spend a significant amount of time in the lounge car. The lounge car is largely vacant overnight and, with wide seats, offers more options for horizontal positioning than the coach seats. The conductors generally leave you alone until the sun comes up and people actually want to use the lounge car for lounging rather than sleeping.
St. LouisSt. Louis once had a magnificent Union Station that opened in 1894 and, at its peak, serviced 22 railroads and 100,000 passengers a day. Amtrak took over passenger service in 1971 and relocated to more manageable (and much less grand) building one block east in 1978. The old Romanesque station was repurposed into a hotel and diversified shopping / entertainment facility. In 2008, the city's "Amshack" was replaced by a larger and more functional intermodal facility, the Gateway Transportation Center.
The route crosses the Mississippi River on the General Douglas MacArthur Bridge. The 18,261-foot, three-span bridge opened in 1914 as the Municipal Bridge. An upper deck opened in 1917 to carry automobiles, but was closed in 1981. On a Texas Eagle trip in 1991 I remember winding through downtown and, I think, traveling over the Merchant's Bridge (1890) further north. Springfield, IL was once served by five significant rail terminals. The grandest was the Union Station on 500 East Madison, a magnificent Romanesque building that opened in 1898 and primarily serviced the Illinois Central Railroad. The station was a stub-end terminal and when Amtrak took over passenger operations in 1971, passenger operations continued from the old Gulf, Mobile and Ohio station, located along the main line.
Near Dwight, IL, the route passes a large wind turbine installation which I think is the Top Crop Wind Farm. The first two phases of the development include 200 1.5 MW GE turbines and phases III and IV should double that capacity with expansion further south into Livingston County.
The area around Joliet contains large deposits of limestone (dolomite) that have been mined since the early 19th century. On the way into Joliet, the route passes a large quarry. (Heubner 2001)
Two notable features visible in Joliet from the train are the fortress-like Joliet Central High School, and the somewhat more festive Silver Cross Field, home to the Joliet JackHammers, a minor league baseball team unaffiliated with MLB.
Joliet is also notorious as the home of the Joliet Correctional Center, which opened in 1858. It was closed in 2002 due to obsolescence.
Most of Amtrak's Midwestern routes terminate at Chicago's Union Station, providing a nice view of Chicago's past and current infrastructure along the way.
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