Anybody ride this thing?

We have decided to try it.
It has been almost 50 years since I have been on a train, and my wife has never been on a train.
We will drive about 4 hours to VA, then we and the cadilac are on the train for a bit over 800 miles, and that will put us within 3 hours of home the next day.
I had to pay a few dollars extra for the Caddie as it is considered "oversized"!
Actually anything over 182 inches is considered oversized.
I wonder if they would even take a 1959 Caddy Fleetwood. Now THERE was oversized!

I have not ridden the auto train, but it sounds like fun.
That is a GREAT idea...taking the car with you.
I never thought of that.

I need to check to see if Amtrak has one like that going from Texas to S. California.
Been wanting to go, but not drive all the way out there and back, and didn't really want the hassle of renting a car.
I like to have "MY" car. :) :)

If I could ride the train "AND" take "MY" car...already packed with all of our stuff... that would be perfect.

Thank you for the idea.

Texas Jim

Sorry Jim, but there is only one.
Goes from Lorton VA to Sanford FL.

Sorry Jim, but there is only one.
Goes from Lorton VA to Sanford FL.


Darn it, I was already thinking about it.
It is a really good idea.
Too bad it isn't offered in more places.

Texas Jim

First I've heard of it. Sounds like fun. Enjoy your trip. Bob

A friend drove from New Hampshire to Lorton, then got on the train with his car and family. When he told me how much that cost, I asked him why he just didn't keep on driving. He said next time he will.

It is NOT cheap!

Sounds like fun, have a good trip

Nice trip. Expensive. Comfortable. Wine, silver and linen with poached salmon in the dining car at 7. A Bourbon and water in the Club car at 10. The conductor wakes you at 6:30 with coffee and a breakfast menu. Smell the roses.

Too bad everyone now has to get there yesterday and needs instant gratification.

I will admit that the Quality Inn and Waffle House (OJ, eggs, toast, hash browns, grits, sausage, coffee, $4.75) in Manning, SC is a twice-a-year car stop.

To be honest, it is ashame the train stops in Lorton as you're coming to the part of the trip up the East Coast that really could use an alternative ..... from Lorton VA north to Boston. The drive from Miami to Lorton is a piece of cake compared to the drive north through the traffic on 95 to New England. But as Sub says it is a chance to have a unique train experience before it too disappears.

My old boss did it in his Excursion. It made sense since he had the petrol V-10 and only the 4-speed auto (There was a 5-speed that got much better mileage), and therefor got 10 MPG no matter what you did. He is a crazy MoFo and drove it all from MA to VA in one shot and then just slept on the train. Good fun working with that dude. It was really comfortable and in the case of that car made good sense to pay versus the gas and the hotel rooms.

The biz model would not support a Boston terminus.
The whole idea is to have a terminus on one end that is central to the most folks.
The other end goes to Disney and other FL locs.
Ideally, the northern end would be closer to NYC.................while still being within an easy drive from Philly/Balt/DC. I know that I would have liked a south Jersey or Philly terminal!
However, the superliner only makes sense if you can stack the cars two high............The train is already the largest regularly scheduled train in the US. Loaded, it is 1/2 mile long!
And once you get deeply into the older, more urban area of the US, there are too many underpasses, etc that would have to be redone to allow a high train like this. Amtrak tells me there are areas where they have 40 or 50 underpasses in a hundred miles. ALL would have to extensively reworked to fit the superliner.........

We are paying $479 for the two of us, plus the oversize car, in a roomette, with two meals included.
We consider that quite reasonable. We could have saved about $120 or so if we were willing to set up in the big first class airline seats overnight. We were not.

Isn't a car of 182 inches rather small? That isn't the size of your average midsize. That mean's all of our cars would be oversizes. How much extra would it cost for it be oversize?

Yeah, my car is about 205inches

The biz model would not support a Boston terminus.
The whole idea is to have a terminus on one end that is central to the most folks.
The other end goes to Disney and other FL locs.
Ideally, the northern end would be closer to NYC.................while still being within an easy drive from Philly/Balt/DC. I know that I would have liked a south Jersey or Philly terminal!
However, the superliner only makes sense if you can stack the cars two high............The train is already the largest regularly scheduled train in the US. Loaded, it is 1/2 mile long!
And once you get deeply into the older, more urban area of the US, there are too many underpasses, etc that would have to be redone to allow a high train like this. Amtrak tells me there are areas where they have 40 or 50 underpasses in a hundred miles. ALL would have to extensively reworked to fit the superliner.........

We are paying $479 for the two of us, plus the oversize car, in a roomette, with two meals included.
We consider that quite reasonable. We could have saved about $120 or so if we were willing to set up in the big first class airline seats overnight. We were not.

Well, that makes a lot of sense as to why the train stops in Lorton. Sounds like you'll have a great trip. Good luck!