Funny that you mention your phone thought you were in Mexico....I visited Detroit for an FRC robotics world championship with my HS robotics team during Spring Break 2019, and my phone welcomed me to Canada....I stayed on the Detroit side of the Detroit River the whole time. Regarding transit in El Paso, it's also worth mentioning besides intercity trains across the border in their history, El Paso also once had international streetcar service too! Historically, the cities of El Paso and Ciudad Juárez relied on a unified streetcar system. Between 1920 and 1925, there were 52 miles (or 83 km) of trolley system, with 2.1 million passengers using the service in 1922! The automobile led El Paso to abandon most of their streetcars in the 1940s, except the international line. The international line formed a complete loop, which operated in one direction. This made it perhaps the only streetcar line in which a passenger boarding in either city, and returning later to his starting point, had to pass twice through customs and immigration between two countries. This line abruptly ceased operations in July 1973 as a result of a labor dispute. In May 1974, the last remaining cars in use made their final trips. Streetcars wouldn't return to El Paso until 2018. At 6:42, that's the Pima Air & Space Museum, and it features a display of nearly 400 aircraft. Just north of the museum is the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, the home of the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, the largest aircraft storage and preservation facility in the world. It is the aircraft boneyard for all excess military and US government aircraft and aerospace vehicles. Tucson's dry climate, high altitude of 2,550 feet, and alkali soil make it an ideal location to store and preserve aircraft, and more than 4,000 military aircraft are parked on the base! So what you were looking at wasn't a boneyard, but it is next to a very famous one!
That happened to me too while in Detroit. I think it’s because the service carriers have certain boundaries where they can overlap if your at a certain distance
I went eastbound on the Texas Eagle from LA to Dallas for the solar eclipse for my first (perfectly on-time) long-distance trip. Definitely worth it for the views of the American southwest alone that feels alien as a Floridian. That Mexican burrito lady in El Paso was a nice touch to the trip and would call them pretty good after 2 days on a train. We also got a 2 layover in San Antonio where I could take a stroll on the Riverwalk, albeit at 5 am.
Seeing the San Antonio Riverwalk, the National Park missions, the Alamo, Sea World, the Texas Culture Museum, there is plenty to do just to spend one full day there, if not two. I recommend everyone spend a day laying over somewhere along a long train journey, if only at terminus stations to make connections. You will never sweat whether the train will get there in time again or you will miss the next train. We have spent numerous layovers at small towns along the routes when you wish you could spend a day there when you are riding through. Almost any station or depot will do as there is usually a hotel or a B&B within walking distance... Not just see America, EXPERIENCE America...
6:42 that's the pima air and space museum! a bit different from a boneyard like the one in mojave ca, as the planes are there for historical preservation rather than for later commercial use. i hear it's a great museum and i really want to visit someday!
@@ClassyWhale OMG i just learned that this museum has the only surviving airframe of a Budd RB-1 Connestoga, a stainless steel cargo plane made during ww2 by the very same Budd company that made the amfleets 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
New Mexico fun facts: Spanish explorers and settlers arrived in the 16th century from present-day Mexico, naming the territory Nuevo México in part to evoke the Aztec legend of Aztlán, which in turn evolved into the stories of the Seven Cities of Gold. Isolated by its rugged terrain and the relative dominance of its indigenous people, New Mexico was a peripheral part of the viceroyalty of New Spain. Following Mexican independence in 1821, it became an autonomous region of Mexico, albeit increasingly threatened by the centralizing policies of the Mexican government, culminating in the Revolt of 1837. NM is famous for their Ancestral Puebloan dwellings! Construction of them began in 750 AD! Those in the Chaco Canyon were built in 800, the Taos Pueblo was built between 1000 and 1450, and the Acoma Pueblo was built between 1000 and 1200! The Acoma and Taos Pueblos are the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the country! Their famous cliff dwellings were built as the Ancestral Puebloans shifted from hunting and gathering to a more sedentary life that relied on farming. They moved their residences from the canyon floor to the canyon walls and cliffs, which provided natural protection. They constructed their cliff homes from hand-cut stone blocks and mortar made from adobe, a heavy clay soil. Dwellings often consisted of two to four stories. Each floor was set back from the one below it, giving the buildings a stepped appearance. The multiple stories of the cliff dwellings also provided further protection. The ground-floor rooms lacked doors and windows, so houses could be entered only by climbing a ladder to the higher floor and passing through an opening in the ceiling. If the town were attacked, the ladders could be pulled up to prevent enemy access. The symbol on the New Mexico flag is the sun symbol of the Zia people. The Zia regard the Sun as sacred. Their solar symbol is painted on ceremonial vases, drawn on the ground around campfires, and used to introduce newborns to the Sun. Four is the sacred number of the Zia and can be found repeated in the four points radiating from the circle. The number four is embodied in the four points of the compass, the four seasons, the four periods of each day (morning, noon, evening, and night), the four seasons of life (childhood, youth, middle years, and old age), and the four sacred obligations one must develop (a strong body, a clear mind, a pure spirit, and a devotion to the welfare of others), according to Zia belief. New Mexico's state capitol is unique in that it has a circular design, designed so it resembled the Zia sun symbol when viewed from above!
Unfortunately to do that Amtrak needs THREE more Superliner train sets... I agree though, the Sunset Limited needs some love from Amtrak... New Yorkers want more frequent trains, whereas Houston and Phoenix want just one DAILY train... Neither city is being well served by Amtrak, if anything Amtrak is SCREWING Houston and Phoenix...
these are some incredible views. love how many videos i've watched this week where katrina fcked things up only for them never to be repaired. go to new mexico in january
Here's a crazy idea for January, visit every state capitol building on the East Coast from Augusta, ME to Tallahassee, FL. Using only trains and buses, It would probably take at least a full week.
Those planes just outside Tuscon are the Pima Air and Space Museum, so it's an extremely wide variety of vintage aircraft of all types. Definately worth a visit for an Avgeek.
I also rode the Sunset Limited for the first time in 2021, mine was in November also on a USA rail pass. I did a massive trip. Going all the way from Minnesota to Boston to Savanah to New Orleans to LA, to Portland to Glacier National Park back to Minnesota I rode the Sunset Limited from New Orleans all the way to LA. Coming into Houston we were delayed by four hours because of a broken union Pacific freight train. So we only had a 30 minute layover in San Antonio. But the interesting thing Caleb was we actually saw more of Texas in the daylight. But since it was November was like right after we left El Paso. Luckily, I made it to my full day LA tour the following day. I only had a few minutes to spare when I made it to the Santa Monica pier because I had to drop all of my luggage at the Amtrak luggage holding room and just an Uber because I did not have time to get to my hotel. Makes a good story now, and great video as always, Caleb
Nothing beats the value of the Amtrak 30-day 10 trips Amtrak Rail Pass... Plan your journeys wisely with numerous layovers to not only see America, but EXPERIENCE America... I used mine to EXPERIENCE New England and the Mid-Atlantic states from Virginia Beach and Kitty Hawk to Portland, and to Niagara Falls...
If you mean domestic trips, I'd love to see a roundtrip Heartland Flyer video trip (Fort Worth to Oklahoma City and then back the opposite way) from you one of these days! That doesn't really get a lot of videos or trip reports or reviews IMO and it often feels like a very overlooked route. I dont know the Amtrak system very well but I could assume you could take the Texas Eagle from Chicago to Fort Worth in a sleeper car, spend some time in Fort Worth before you board for the Oklahoma City bound Heartland Flyer. I will say, it is a 5:30PM-9:30PM Central Time journey though (and Oklahoma City to Fort Worth is 8:30AM to 12:30PM, so if you wanted to make it back by Amtrak to Fort Worth, you'd have to wait half a day pretty much to do so). It is mostly a commuter route between the two so there's only Coach and a Cafe car, but it's better than nothing. Also I want to say only 2 fresh air stops but I'm not 100% on that, it could be only one. I haven't taken it myself yet but want to! I'm just also not sure on itinerary availability situations, because I know the Texas Eagle has that whole thing with the Sunset Limited going on - unless that won't affect this! I will say..... January is your current available slot. January in Texas and Oklahoma may be troublesome depending on if winter storms come in. But I'd still like to see it eventually nonetheless if not January!
I took the thruway van... it wasn't the best experience. There is only one, with 8 seats. All 8 seats were sold (unsurprisingly). It was a VERY tight squeeze for all of us and our luggage.
With speculation Amtrak is adopting single level cars for the Capitol Limited, its Superliner cars COULD be used by Amtrak to give the Sunset Limited some much needed LOVE... From California to beyond Louisiana all of the states DESIRE the Sunset Limited to be a DAILY train which should significantly increase its ridership. Amtrak why bother to add a daily train from Mobile to New Orleans without having daily services west of New Orleans? Surely Mobile passengers would like to travel further west to Texas or Arizona or California daily!
Wouldn't you count the lake shore limited split as through-car service to be honest? Sure the branching on that is 141 miles on the main route to NYC from the split at Albany & 199 miles for the separate section to Boston vs 572 miles to NO from the split and the through car section of the Texas Eagle to Chicago doing 1306 miles. But its still the same behavior at San Antonino as you get at Albany!
I don't mind riding in coach for a day trip, but for a overnight or multiple overnight journeys, a sleeper accommodation is very nice and a luxury I choose to afford...
@@ronclark9724 I've watched so many video documentaries of overnight journeys by train, and although I haven't yet done one myself, I do look forward to riding in a sleeper compartment should I get the opportunity to take an overnight train journey (hopefully only with people who I know should I not ride alone).
Thru car operation is also on the Empire Builder. Train 28 combines with 8 at Spokane WA. Sunset Limited is kind of a pointless route to me since it no longer goes to Orlando Florida
Albany-Rensselaer, NY does a thru car operation, for the Lake Shore Limited. One branch runs east to Boston, and the other branch runs to NYC. At this station, both branches combine to run west to Chicago.
2:02 I remember that
😂
Finally a group of East Coast creators coming to the West. Can't wait for more. Transit is sure not the same in the West, but they do what they can.
Funny that you mention your phone thought you were in Mexico....I visited Detroit for an FRC robotics world championship with my HS robotics team during Spring Break 2019, and my phone welcomed me to Canada....I stayed on the Detroit side of the Detroit River the whole time. Regarding transit in El Paso, it's also worth mentioning besides intercity trains across the border in their history, El Paso also once had international streetcar service too! Historically, the cities of El Paso and Ciudad Juárez relied on a unified streetcar system. Between 1920 and 1925, there were 52 miles (or 83 km) of trolley system, with 2.1 million passengers using the service in 1922! The automobile led El Paso to abandon most of their streetcars in the 1940s, except the international line. The international line formed a complete loop, which operated in one direction. This made it perhaps the only streetcar line in which a passenger boarding in either city, and returning later to his starting point, had to pass twice through customs and immigration between two countries. This line abruptly ceased operations in July 1973 as a result of a labor dispute. In May 1974, the last remaining cars in use made their final trips. Streetcars wouldn't return to El Paso until 2018.
At 6:42, that's the Pima Air & Space Museum, and it features a display of nearly 400 aircraft. Just north of the museum is the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, the home of the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, the largest aircraft storage and preservation facility in the world. It is the aircraft boneyard for all excess military and US government aircraft and aerospace vehicles. Tucson's dry climate, high altitude of 2,550 feet, and alkali soil make it an ideal location to store and preserve aircraft, and more than 4,000 military aircraft are parked on the base! So what you were looking at wasn't a boneyard, but it is next to a very famous one!
That happened to me too while in Detroit. I think it’s because the service carriers have certain boundaries where they can overlap if your at a certain distance
I went eastbound on the Texas Eagle from LA to Dallas for the solar eclipse for my first (perfectly on-time) long-distance trip. Definitely worth it for the views of the American southwest alone that feels alien as a Floridian. That Mexican burrito lady in El Paso was a nice touch to the trip and would call them pretty good after 2 days on a train. We also got a 2 layover in San Antonio where I could take a stroll on the Riverwalk, albeit at 5 am.
Seeing the San Antonio Riverwalk, the National Park missions, the Alamo, Sea World, the Texas Culture Museum, there is plenty to do just to spend one full day there, if not two. I recommend everyone spend a day laying over somewhere along a long train journey, if only at terminus stations to make connections. You will never sweat whether the train will get there in time again or you will miss the next train. We have spent numerous layovers at small towns along the routes when you wish you could spend a day there when you are riding through. Almost any station or depot will do as there is usually a hotel or a B&B within walking distance... Not just see America, EXPERIENCE America...
Congrats on 10k! You deserve it!
6:42 that's the pima air and space museum! a bit different from a boneyard like the one in mojave ca, as the planes are there for historical preservation rather than for later commercial use. i hear it's a great museum and i really want to visit someday!
@@bucketcreature if that whole thing is a museum I am literally going to get on a plane to Tucson
@@ClassyWhale OMG i just learned that this museum has the only surviving airframe of a Budd RB-1 Connestoga, a stainless steel cargo plane made during ww2 by the very same Budd company that made the amfleets 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
New Mexico fun facts: Spanish explorers and settlers arrived in the 16th century from present-day Mexico, naming the territory Nuevo México in part to evoke the Aztec legend of Aztlán, which in turn evolved into the stories of the Seven Cities of Gold. Isolated by its rugged terrain and the relative dominance of its indigenous people, New Mexico was a peripheral part of the viceroyalty of New Spain. Following Mexican independence in 1821, it became an autonomous region of Mexico, albeit increasingly threatened by the centralizing policies of the Mexican government, culminating in the Revolt of 1837. NM is famous for their Ancestral Puebloan dwellings! Construction of them began in 750 AD! Those in the Chaco Canyon were built in 800, the Taos Pueblo was built between 1000 and 1450, and the Acoma Pueblo was built between 1000 and 1200! The Acoma and Taos Pueblos are the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the country! Their famous cliff dwellings were built as the Ancestral Puebloans shifted from hunting and gathering to a more sedentary life that relied on farming. They moved their residences from the canyon floor to the canyon walls and cliffs, which provided natural protection. They constructed their cliff homes from hand-cut stone blocks and mortar made from adobe, a heavy clay soil. Dwellings often consisted of two to four stories. Each floor was set back from the one below it, giving the buildings a stepped appearance. The multiple stories of the cliff dwellings also provided further protection. The ground-floor rooms lacked doors and windows, so houses could be entered only by climbing a ladder to the higher floor and passing through an opening in the ceiling. If the town were attacked, the ladders could be pulled up to prevent enemy access.
The symbol on the New Mexico flag is the sun symbol of the Zia people. The Zia regard the Sun as sacred. Their solar symbol is painted on ceremonial vases, drawn on the ground around campfires, and used to introduce newborns to the Sun. Four is the sacred number of the Zia and can be found repeated in the four points radiating from the circle. The number four is embodied in the four points of the compass, the four seasons, the four periods of each day (morning, noon, evening, and night), the four seasons of life (childhood, youth, middle years, and old age), and the four sacred obligations one must develop (a strong body, a clear mind, a pure spirit, and a devotion to the welfare of others), according to Zia belief. New Mexico's state capitol is unique in that it has a circular design, designed so it resembled the Zia sun symbol when viewed from above!
Hello Dear Leader
Great trip report. I hope they can make the Sunset a daily train soon!!
Unfortunately to do that Amtrak needs THREE more Superliner train sets... I agree though, the Sunset Limited needs some love from Amtrak... New Yorkers want more frequent trains, whereas Houston and Phoenix want just one DAILY train... Neither city is being well served by Amtrak, if anything Amtrak is SCREWING Houston and Phoenix...
these are some incredible views. love how many videos i've watched this week where katrina fcked things up only for them never to be repaired. go to new mexico in january
looking forward to the phoenix video! :)
@@alteredstate42 on Patreon now!
Here's a crazy idea for January, visit every state capitol building on the East Coast from Augusta, ME to Tallahassee, FL. Using only trains and buses, It would probably take at least a full week.
Those planes just outside Tuscon are the Pima Air and Space Museum, so it's an extremely wide variety of vintage aircraft of all types. Definately worth a visit for an Avgeek.
how did i miss this AGAIN
There’s no “Western, Eastern, Southern, or Northern Texas.” We just say West Texas, East Texas, etc.
I also rode the Sunset Limited for the first time in 2021, mine was in November also on a USA rail pass. I did a massive trip. Going all the way from Minnesota to Boston to Savanah to New Orleans to LA, to Portland to Glacier National Park back to Minnesota
I rode the Sunset Limited from New Orleans all the way to LA. Coming into Houston we were delayed by four hours because of a broken union Pacific freight train. So we only had a 30 minute layover in San Antonio. But the interesting thing Caleb was we actually saw more of Texas in the daylight. But since it was November was like right after we left El Paso.
Luckily, I made it to my full day LA tour the following day. I only had a few minutes to spare when I made it to the Santa Monica pier because I had to drop all of my luggage at the Amtrak luggage holding room and just an Uber because I did not have time to get to my hotel.
Makes a good story now, and great video as always, Caleb
Nothing beats the value of the Amtrak 30-day 10 trips Amtrak Rail Pass... Plan your journeys wisely with numerous layovers to not only see America, but EXPERIENCE America... I used mine to EXPERIENCE New England and the Mid-Atlantic states from Virginia Beach and Kitty Hawk to Portland, and to Niagara Falls...
If you mean domestic trips, I'd love to see a roundtrip Heartland Flyer video trip (Fort Worth to Oklahoma City and then back the opposite way) from you one of these days! That doesn't really get a lot of videos or trip reports or reviews IMO and it often feels like a very overlooked route.
I dont know the Amtrak system very well but I could assume you could take the Texas Eagle from Chicago to Fort Worth in a sleeper car, spend some time in Fort Worth before you board for the Oklahoma City bound Heartland Flyer. I will say, it is a 5:30PM-9:30PM Central Time journey though (and Oklahoma City to Fort Worth is 8:30AM to 12:30PM, so if you wanted to make it back by Amtrak to Fort Worth, you'd have to wait half a day pretty much to do so). It is mostly a commuter route between the two so there's only Coach and a Cafe car, but it's better than nothing. Also I want to say only 2 fresh air stops but I'm not 100% on that, it could be only one. I haven't taken it myself yet but want to! I'm just also not sure on itinerary availability situations, because I know the Texas Eagle has that whole thing with the Sunset Limited going on - unless that won't affect this!
I will say..... January is your current available slot. January in Texas and Oklahoma may be troublesome depending on if winter storms come in. But I'd still like to see it eventually nonetheless if not January!
idea for vid: take every north east corridor amtrak train
Doesn’t the Lake Shore Limited also have through running cars? Or do you mean from a completely different train?
Completely different train
You mentioned it's the only through car service left in the system. How does the empire builder to Portland OR work?
@@GumiRokkaku that's the same train, it just splits in half
@@ClassyWhale oh alright yeah I see the distinction. Thanks for spelling it out for me.
When did you take this trip? This looks simmilar to the trains I got via drone in San Antonio
@@eyezak_m 2021! Would still love to see that drone footage, is it on your channel?
I love the sunset limited
I have a request, should Amtrak reroute the Southwest Chief via Amarillo, TX?
7:18 wait that looks like toronto union platforms thing
That 5 hour gap is ridiculous. Long distance rail ladies and gentlemen
I took the thruway van... it wasn't the best experience. There is only one, with 8 seats. All 8 seats were sold (unsurprisingly). It was a VERY tight squeeze for all of us and our luggage.
I have a feeling it will be Ciudad Juárez.
Oh funny, in my case they didn't kick people off the through cars! (But there was a lot of shunting.)
I, of course, went to downtown.
Classy🐳 😃
With speculation Amtrak is adopting single level cars for the Capitol Limited, its Superliner cars COULD be used by Amtrak to give the Sunset Limited some much needed LOVE... From California to beyond Louisiana all of the states DESIRE the Sunset Limited to be a DAILY train which should significantly increase its ridership. Amtrak why bother to add a daily train from Mobile to New Orleans without having daily services west of New Orleans? Surely Mobile passengers would like to travel further west to Texas or Arizona or California daily!
Wouldn't you count the lake shore limited split as through-car service to be honest? Sure the branching on that is 141 miles on the main route to NYC from the split at Albany & 199 miles for the separate section to Boston vs 572 miles to NO from the split and the through car section of the Texas Eagle to Chicago doing 1306 miles. But its still the same behavior at San Antonino as you get at Albany!
@@fishmecha a through car goes between two different trains - LSL and EB are just two halves of the same train
THAT RAIL LINE IS BOILING AT 104
What
@@ClassyWhale the rail line gets super hot..
Did you meet the burrito queen?!
Nope, someone on the train gave me one of her wraps
My question too!
i took the entire length from LAX to Chicago. took 4 days.
What do you recommend it?
@@ClassyWhale just not in coach.
I don't mind riding in coach for a day trip, but for a overnight or multiple overnight journeys, a sleeper accommodation is very nice and a luxury I choose to afford...
@@ronclark9724 I've watched so many video documentaries of overnight journeys by train, and although I haven't yet done one myself, I do look forward to riding in a sleeper compartment should I get the opportunity to take an overnight train journey (hopefully only with people who I know should I not ride alone).
I did it twice both directions! Awesome trip.
Man why don’t they at least make that Maricopa station bigger 😭😭 just throwing salt in the wound
@@mmrw ikr there's like nothing next to it???
✌🏾
Should really go to Europe and Germany the weird mix of soviet and western infrastructure and the reason behind trams subway lines!
I have taken the Sunset Limited twice. Never again. Unless you enjoy endless boring desert, just fly.
@@RobertH-qb5it how is it boring???
Planes? Better call Sam from Wendover!
HAHAHA the list of people who've made historic dramatizations of why Amtrak doesn't serve Phoenix must continue to increase!
Wait I forgot did you make one?
@@ClassyWhale Yeah, in the Scottsdale video
It somehow feels more insulting than the fact that Amtrak doesn't have any train service to Vegas.
As for the first rail service, my money is on Juarez.
Thru car operation is also on the Empire Builder. Train 28 combines with 8 at Spokane WA.
Sunset Limited is kind of a pointless route to me since it no longer goes to Orlando Florida
Albany-Rensselaer, NY does a thru car operation, for the Lake Shore Limited. One branch runs east to Boston, and the other branch runs to NYC. At this station, both branches combine to run west to Chicago.