I just got back from a family vacation to the Southwest. We spent about a day and a half riding in the sleeper section of the California Zephyr. I tried to take pictures of everything that I saw, but there was just so much to see! Here are some of the high points.
We stopped briefly at Galesburg, IL on our way out of Chicago. They have a nice little train station with a collection of vintage rolling stock, including this CB&Q boxcar.
We crossed over the Mississippi River into Iowa while we were chowing down in the dining car. There's quite a bit of BNSF rolling stock around Burlington, IA, including a number of these interesting center-beam flatcars. I saw one that had an entire track switch on it-- I was too slow to get a picture, but it looked just like the ones from the MTH catalog a few years back!
I woke up about 2AM to find we were idling in front of what I presumed was Union Station in Omaha, Nebraska. I did some half-asleep window-watching as we rolled through the state. Strangest thing I saw in Nebraska was how active the agricultural towns were in the middle of the night. Combine harvesters and tractors working in the fields with headlights on, trucks moving around in town, even joggers getting their laps in several hours before sunrise! I guess that a lot of farmers and their families work the third shift during the harvest season.
In Denver the following morning, we passed by what appeared to be a BNSF diesel maintenance shop. Lots of engines scattered around here, including a battered Canadian Pacific and a Ferromex unit (I took a picture but it's too blurry to see anything).
Denver appears to have a lot of light rail service, the commuter trains paralleled the mainline for a good 15-20 miles outside of the city center.
My first trip west of the Mississippi and my first Amtrak rail journey. It was a fun experience overall. I didn't sleep much on the train, but the food was good, the crew were friendly and the views were really spectacular. It's really eye-opening to see what the interior of our great country looks like!