The Southwest Chief runs Superliner train sets. Trains typically consist of two P40 or P42 locomotives, a baggage car, three or four sleeper cars, a dining car, sightseer lounge and three coach cars.
Two Amtrak trains run this route on a daily basis with one starting off early in the morning and the second one in the late afternoon.
We chose the late afternoon schedule because it gave us the opportunity to be in "daylight" when traversing some of the more scenic areas of the country.
The Southwest Chief is Amtrak's fastest train from Chicago to California. Traveling at an average speed of 79 mph, the Southwest Chief goes through Chicago - Kansas City - Topeka, Kan.-Southern Colorado - Santa Fe, N.M. - Albuquerque - Flagstaff (Grand Canyon) and finally Los Angeles.
The Chicago Union Station is one of the largest and busiest train stations in the country. On a daily basis approximately, 120,000 travelers and visitors pass through the doors of this ten city block station.
The present station opened in 1925, replacing an earlier union station on this site built in 1881. One of the attractions of this huge station besides the Amtrak train lines and the Metra commuter lines movements at the station, is the Great Hall with its 219-foot-long barrel-vaulted skylight that soars 115 feet above the ground. Many a photographs and movies have been created within this beautiful hall.
While I have been one of the "few" who has spent time taking pictures of this elaborate hall in the past, on this particular day I decided to just hang around and take photos of the activities and people who traversed the Great Hall.
What follows are photos taken with my Z7 and the 24-120 mm lens.
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