Introduction to the Southwest Chief
I rode the Southwest Chief from Chicago, Illinois, to Los Angeles, California, stopping in Flagstaff, Arizona. The train travels 3,645 km alongside Route 66, following the famous Santa Fe railroad. The scenery on this trip was stunning and far outweighed that on the Cardinal and Silver Meteor/Palmetto. When researching my trip, I had seen that the Southwest Chief consistently ranked behind the Coast Starlight and California Zephyr in terms of scenery. This made me even more excited for these trips, as it was hard to imagine how the scenery could get even more interesting than what I was observing on the Southwest Chief.
Traversing 8 states, the train passed through wheat fields, ranches, wide plains, canyons, mountains, and deserts. The scenery going through Colorado and New Mexico was particularly noteworthy. There was again a large number of Amish people travelling on this route.
Chicago to Flagstaff
Shortly after leaving Chicago, the train passed through Princeton – the ‘pig capital of the world’ – and Galesburg, the former home of the inventor of the Ferris wheel, and the inventor of popcorn. Interestingly, both Princeton and Galesburg were once “stations” on a covert railroad for escaped slaves. An estimated 100,000 slaves escaped via the “Underground Railroad” during the early-to-mid 1800s.
The Southwest Chief then crossed the Mississippi river from Illinois into Iowa, before passing through the town of Marceline where Walt Disney lived as a child. In fact, Mickey Mouse was apparently invented whilst Walt Disney was riding on the Southwest Chief’s predecessor. A couple of hours later, the train stopped in Kansas City, Missouri (which is larger and more famous than Kansas City, Kansas which lies on the other side of the Missouri river). Whilst I did not stop here, my guide book informed me that Missouri’s Kansas City rivals Paris for its boulevards and has more fountains than Rome.
Somewhere in the evening, a middle-aged man travelling to Albuquerque boarded the train and sat behind me. He was shortly joined by a scruffy looking elderly man who was travelling to Lamy (the closest station to his home in Santa Fe). Mr Santa Fe was not happy with this seating arrangement, repeatedly stating that he could not believe the train attendant would force two big men to sit together during the night. Meanwhile, I happily enjoyed having the seat next to me remain free. I awoke as the train stopped at Dodge City, which was once known as ’the wickedest little city in America’, where no laws existed and the cowboys were in charge.
The following morning, drama unfolded in the carriage when Mr Albuquerque politely asked Mr Santa Fe and a man he was talking to across the aisle to lower their voices as it was still early and he was trying to sleep. A range of insults were then hurled at Mr Albuquerque and, immediately following this altercation, Mr Santa Fe decided to move seats and sit next to me. After politely listening to him speak for half an hour or so (during which time he repeatedly apologised for his country, Trump, and people like Mr Albuquerque), I relocated to the observation lounge where I happily remained for the next 17 hours. I spent quite a few of these hours speaking with a man from Flagstaff who had a degree in political science and was keen to share some interesting observations about the USA’s current political climate. When we reached Raton, New Mexico, a large group of Boy scouts alighted from the train. The cafe attendant on the train made an announcement that if anyone intended to purchase food, they better do so before the next lot of ravenous boy scouts boarded.
At some point during the day, I returned to my seat to retrieve something from my luggage (which was locked and stored in the rack above my seat). As I approached my seat, I saw Mr Santa Fe was still sitting in the adjoining seat and was using my blanket. Although I hadn’t deemed the blanket important enough to lock away, I was still unimpressed with this situation. Upon my approach, Mr Santa Fe opened his eyes and asked if the blanket was mine. I answered in the affirmative at which stage Mr Santa Fe proceeded to stuff the blanket into his backpack. Sensing my glare, he looked up again and uttered words to the effect of: “oh do you want it back?” After locking my blanket up this time, I swiftly returned to the observation lounge.
Albuquerque, New Mexico, was one of the longer stops, allowing passengers the opportunity to get out and stretch their legs.
A couple of hours after Albuquerque, we passed through Grants – the ‘carrot capital of the USA’ – before stopping in Gallup – the ‘Indian capital of the world’. Half the population of Gallup are native Americans.
Flagstaff
The Southwest Chief was about 3.5 hours late arriving into Flagstaff, making the total journey time just over 35 hours. Flagstaff station has a webcam streaming live to the Virtual Railfan YouTube channel, allowing my family in Australia to watch as the Southwest Chief pulled into the station and I alighted from the train.
Flagstaff is 7,000 ft above sea level. I had two days here – one which I spent in Flagstaff itself, and the other which I used to take a day trip to the Grand Canyon. I had not appreciated the size of the Grand Canyon before visiting: it is 446 km long and up to 29 km wide in places.
