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Train 4 AUGUST  2000......THE GRAND CANYON
Photo tour  by The Raley Family Passenger(guest) aboard train.
Photo Credits The Raley family from THE HOOSIER STATE OF INDIANA.
The Raley family from Indiana took a late summer
Amtrak Vacation to the Grand Canyon.  Their son, David is a  train
fanatic and so he dragged his parents along on what turned out to be
a GREAT vacation.  They all had lots of fun riding the Southwest Chief
from Chicago to William AZ.

At Williams, they were picked up at the Amtrak station.  Stayed at the
Fray Marcos Hotel the first night, then took a very neat steam train ride
to the canyon (about a 60 min trip).

Amtrak Vacations set it all up.  No driving, no finding places to eat, no
finding motels-just relaxing and having a good time!  The food on the train 
was sooooooo good.  Our expectations were that it would be similar to
airline food.  WRONG!  It was formal dining with several choices of  meals
that were better than most restaurants! 

After this great experience we will likely ALWAYS travel by rail on all of our vacations!



First engine of four pulling us up the mountains!You might notice the right front of the engine has some minor damage that was repaired except for  painting.This photo was taken at Albuquerque,NM.

Here is where we enjoyed some great meals.Nothing could be finer than dinner in the diner.
The motion of the train moved the  knife, spoon and fork out of  position on the first table to the left.
The service staff will correct this before the guests are seated.


Our sleeper car at the rest stop of Albuquerque,NM.The train stops here for about twenty minutes for inspection and servicing.The guests/passengers are permitted to get off of the train and get some fresh air and  walk around if they wish too.

DAVID the train lover and little engineer making the 'Next stop' announcement on the train PA.You don't have to be10,20,30,40,50,60,70 or older to be a" rail fan".

It's 97 degrees today in  Albuquerque hot! hot! hot!


Don't miss the train our you can kiss your vacation good by!

The Grand Canyon Railway runs on the old Santa Fe rails.  It is about a one hour trip up to the canyon.

"Squirrels aren't afraid of heights!This squirrel I named Rocky is standing on top of a rock and the entire Grand Canyon is below him/her.There are signs posted not to feed the squirrels and chipmunks.They can carry the plague.


It was raining about 18 miles away-easily viewed from the other side of the canyon.

People from all over the world are drawn to the Grand Canyon because it's,one of the seven wonders of the world!

Here is the GC Railway as viewed from a passenger car
going up the mountain with a full head of steam.Can't you hear
the whistles blowing as we climb to the South rim of the Grand Canyon.

This steam engine sits at the depot in Williams and is to be restored soon and used by the railway as their second steam engine.The depot has a small train museum as well. 
 
We had a great vacation on The Southwest Chief and Grand Canyon Railway.
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