The route map created by Chuck Weinstock for the official trip shirts

In early January, High Iron Travel (otherwise known as Clark Johnson and Nona Hill) announced an excursion from St Louis to Tulsa and Fort Worth over the former Frisco, continuing to El Paso over the former Texas and Pacific, and returning to Kansas CIty over the Golden State Route. Many mileage collectors considered this excursion to be the rare mileage trip of recent (or perhaps all) time. And some even consider the Golden State route to be the holy grail of main line rare mileage. All of these routes lost regular passenger service by the mid 60’s, and except for a few small segments, there has been no practical opportunity in the form of detours or excursions to ride this coveted mileage.

Four months later a group of about 40 mileage collectors gathered at the St Louis Amtrak station ready to depart on this trip of a lifetime. Major congratulations to Clark and Nona for organizing this trip, arranging for the private cars, and just making it happen. And much appreciation goes to Amtrak, for operating the train, and to the host railroads, BNSF, the Union Pacific, and the Texas-New Mexico (for the side trip from Monahans to Hobbs) who warmly welcomed us onto their rails.

And finally many kudos to the on-board staff:

1. ★ Donna and Steve and the dining car crew who kept us well fed for the trip
   

2. ★ John and Bill in the lounge car who kept us well beveraged
   

3. ★ and the various sleeping car attendants
   

Photos and commentary by Neil Lang (unless otherwise credited)

If you are interested in a table of distances and running times, contact neillang@calzephyr.com

© 2012 Neil Lang                                              email comments and questions to neillang@calzephyr.com