TrainTimes Logo

June 2010

     In This Issue:


Third Anniversary Issue 

Mapping in the Colorado Rockies
 
This month Rail Passenger USA is starting its fourth year of operation on the web. Volume 1, Number 1 of our newsletter appeared on June 28, 2007.  

Thanks to those of you that have stuck with us from the beginning and to all of the new subscribers that have boarded along the way.

Rail Passenger USA was founded by grumpy old Ray while recuperating from a back injury suffered in '06. As an escape from his cave, and to maintain his sanity, he started riding the train extensively.

He always enjoyed his rail adventures, but was invariably disappointed by the lack of readily available detailed rail maps and local area information for the routes that he planned to travel. So he decided to 'gps' his own maps, extract pertinent local transportation and history information from the internet, and publish the consolidated information in the form of web based route guides to share with fellow rail passengers.

California Zephyr GJT

Eventually Rail Passeger USA made its debut, but not without a lot of encouragement and help. Ray still insists that html is an abbreviation for hot tamale. 

When the site was launched in June, 2007 it consisted of a home page, a few other  pages, and three Route Guide slide shows (the California Zephyr, the Capitol Limited and the Crescent). 

Today's  Rail Passenger USA website library includes thirty four Route Guides covering twenty one USA long distance routes, eleven USA regional routes, and rail maps for two Via Rail Canada routes.

Our website has grown considerably and its appearance changes often, however our Mission remains unchanged. We intend to keep the route information flowing your way and continue to have some nostalgic fun with it as we move on down the line. In fact we've added a couple of new features since our May 2010 Newsletter was issued.

Video

Music      Video

We've eliminated most of the old video links in our guides and replaced them with unobtrusively placed embedded videos.  Now when one of the symbols on the left appears on a slide it indicates that there is an accomanying video embedded on the slide. 

To view the video, scroll down. To ignore it just page on.

As a cardinal rule, we keep the videos pertinent to the locale we are visiting.  However,  if Ray... ahem....  occasionally  finds something  that he particularly enjoys, he's not above fenagling the page to make it fit.  In the spirit of our very first home page, the images below are linked to some representative pages on which we have embedded videos. Click on an image or two below for a sampling of what we've been up to.

SW Chief WLO P2 small
Southwest Chief
Winslow (WLO)
 California Zephyr SLC P2 small
California Zephyr
Salt Lake City (SLC)
 Adirondack SAR P2 small
Adirondack
Sarasota Spgs  (SAR)
City of New Orleansf KKI P2 small
City of New Orleans
Kankakee (KKI)
 Sunset Limited San Antonio to Del Rio small
Sunset Limited
Texas - SAS to DRT 
 Capitol Limited CLE P2 small
Capitol Limited
Cleveland (CLE)
Maple Leaf BFX P2 small
Maple Leaf
Buffalo Exch (BFX)
 Sunse Limitedt Palatka P2 small
Sunset Limited
Palatka (PAK)
 Empire Service NYP P2 small
Empire Service
New York (NYP)
SW Chief LRC P2 small
Southwest Chief
Lawrence (LRC)
 Coast Starlight Santa Barbara to Oxnard small
Coast Starlight
SBA to OXN
 Carolinian QAN P2 small
Carolinian
Quantico (QAN)
City of New Orleansf MEM P2 small
City of New Orleans
Memphis (MEM)
 Texas Eagle PBF P2 small
Texas Eagle
Poplar Bluff (PBF)
 Southwest Chief LAX P2 small
Southwest Chief
Los Angeles (LAX)
Lake Shore Limited NYP P2 small
Lake Shore Limited
New York (NYP)
 Coast Starlightf SNS P2 small
Coast Starlight
Salinas (SNS)
 California ZephyrWIP P2 small
California Zephyr
Frazier (WIP)
California Zephyr WNN P2 small
California Zephyr
Winnemucca (WNN) 

p.s. If your work place blocks video content because your boss actually expects you to get something productive done while you're there, you may want consider providing  a second subscription email address that allows viewing video content. Click Here 

Guide Preloading 

For the fast fingered internet users among you this feature speeds up browsing through any given  route guide slide show by preloading the uncached slides from that guide whenever the slide show cover page is opened.

This only works if you have the patience to wait  a minute or two (or sometimes three) for the preloading to finish. Otherwise you can go ahead and "Board Here" to skip the preload step,  but each subsequent page will then load separately slowing you down a bit.

We've added a note to all of the Route Guide home pages similar to the City of New Orleans Home Page note below (note revised 6-20-2010):

If it is desired to bypass guide preloading click on the "Board Here" arrow when the slide show cover page appears.

Board Here  Go to City of New Orleans Overview Page

Have a Great Trip!

 
Ray
 
Ray York
Rail Passenger USA

Editor's Disclaimer - Despite our repeated advice to the contrary,  Ray maintained that inclusion of the current Palatka page is a legitimate byproduct of local area research.  Then he grumbled  some expletive about Amtrak and the Sunset Limited and wondered out loud if he'd ever be able to get back to Palatka on the train again.  

__________________________________________________

Click here to send us an email or subscribe to our newsletter

Rail Passenger USA is a free website founded by Ramblin' Ray, an old train travel addict who devotes most of his time to mapping USA passenger railroad routes and preparing route guides to share with others via his website.

www.railpassengerusa.com