South Coast Train Trip!

LordFizzlebeef

So yeah, I know it's not a coast, but as a veteran of the west coast train trip I can't call it anything else.

PAX SOUTH! Is in San Antonio. Turns out there's a train route that goes from LA to San Antonio. The 422 Texas Eagle.

The bad news. It arrives at 4:50 AM, which is going to be bad pretty much no matter how you slice it. Arriving on Friday might leave you ragged, arriving on Thursday might make hotel check in a pain in the ass.

Looks like the return trip would be on the 2 Sunset Limited. Looking at prices now, it would be about $429 round trip if you purchased tickets today. Is anybody interested in spreading the magic of the WCTT to San Antonio?

O.F.Fascist

Sounds like fun, I've always thought about doing the reverse to check out LA but have not done so yet.

Ninjin

I looked into this as well. It looks like the train doesn't run every day. So arriving on Thursday morning isn't an option. And the return trip would depart at 2:45 AM on Tuesday morning. (or 2:45 on Sunday morning and miss a day of PAX)

LordFizzlebeef

I was under the impression the 22 Texas Eagle was an option, but it looks like that goes the wrong way, all the way to St. Louis, and then Kansas City, and then LA, which is somewhere around 60 hours of trainride.

I may have jumped the gun on this thread.

Beker

LordFizzlebeef wrote: »

I may have jumped the gun on this thread.

Could always fly in a few days early and get together on site making some choo choo noises. Maybe take a ride on http://austinsteamtrain.org/ and start some kind of new tradition.

O.F.Fascist

FWIW I would not choose to take a train round trip, just takes too much time. I would take it one way and then just catch a flight on the way back or vice versa.

Looking on Amtrack from LA to SA, it looks like you can take either the 422 Texas Eagle or the 2 Sunset Limited, but it appears they both depart at the same time? Leave on Jan 18th at 10pm get in SA on Jan 20th at about 4:50am. Next train from LA to SA doesnt appear to leave till the 23rd, so if you took that one for some reason you would just get be getting to SA on Sunday morning.

If you wanted to take the train on your return leg instead it looks like those might be better options if you didn't want to spend too many extra days in San Antonio. Departing on Monday the 26th at 2:45AM, you have the 421 Texas Eagle and the 1 Sunset Limited. If you carried all your cargo around Sunday or had somewhere to stash it you would not even need a hotel room that night.

LordFizzlebeef

The Austin Steam Train looks interesting, but their 2015 calendar is blank. I might email them and see if they have any idea about stuff for late January. Could be a neat pre-pax event. I'd have to rename the thread the "South Coast Train Ride".

@O.F.Fascist Part of the draw of the WCTT was that it did take so long. It was like PAX was 4 days longer. Buuuut it also arrives Thursday night around 9PM, and leaves Seattle Monday morning at 9 AM, so the times were near perfect. The window on arrivals and departures for San Antonio are crazy-inconvenient.

EDIT: Just saw where it was located. 101 miles from the convention center. I think it's a bit too far to ask people to drive, or busride.

O.F.Fascist

Well, you could always hit up the Brackenridge Park train.

http://www.sazoo-aq.org/attractions/zoo-train/

Decius

O.F.Fascist wrote: »

Leave on Jan 18th at 10pm get in SA on Jan 20th at about 4:50am.

This actually sounds like a not too bad option for someone who wants to do pre-PAX activities, though you would also be spending two days on the train.