I can thank my oldest son's early obsession with Thomas the Tank engine for my newfound passion for riding the rails.
When my two Thomas loving boys were 2 and 5, I suited them up in matching Oshkosh train engineer overalls and boarded the Amtrak at KC's Union Station for a spring break visit to their grandpa's house.
Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, it was common for many of my friends to have fathers who took the train to the city to work every day in the 1970s as many households only had one car. My parents were never commuters, always holding jobs in neighboring suburbs. Our family took the commuter trains on occasion to avoid the hassles of the highways, but I'd never realized the dramatic difference between those commuter Metro trains and the Amtrak.
We arrived at the station just fifteen minutes before it was time to board. I snapped a few photos for the scrapbooks, receiving all kinds of compliments on my two tow-headed overall clad boys who were wearing genuine smiles on their faces. There was no limit on the baggage we could bring and no strip-down-empty-your-pockets security checks. It was hassle free travel at its best!
We found our seats on that first trip, aboard the Big Chief, all three of us traveling for the price of one airline ticket to the same city. We realized we'd have reclining seats that didn't put you in the lap of the person behind you, all kinds of leg room, spacious washrooms, a snack bar, a dining car and a fully windowed observation car. This was going to be great!
In less time it would have taken me to drive, we arrived at our destination rested and ready to see the sights of Chi-town. No need to rent a car because we were deposited at Chicago's Union Station in the heart of downtown. First stop, the Sears Tower observation deck, just across the street from the train station. When we were ready to leave the city for the suburbs, we jumped on one of the aforementioned Metro trains and arrived just blocks away from my childhood home.
There are very few complaints of boredom when you can get up from you seat and grab a soda or snack at the snack bar or watch a family friendly movie in the observation car. Occasionally we enjoy a meal in the dining car where hot food is served restaurant style. I think I read an entire book and knitted a scarf on that first round trip. Now I take my laptop and plug it in to the outlet near my seat and work away while the boys enjoy a DVD or hand held games.
I enjoy seeing the backyards of America every time we ride the rails. I've got the stops between KC and Chicago memorized (La Platta, Fort Madison, Galesburg, Naperville....) and I share all kinds of geography related trivia with my boys as we take in the sights of the farms, rivers and bridges along the way.
We're now a family of frequent rail riders and we'd love to have you join us! Most train passengers are a happy, chatty group- it's probably because of all the leg room they enjoy... or the fact that they can snack and walk their boredom away, but either way, it's a trip worth trying!
Editor's note: The best way to travel to the Windy City is the cross country bound Big Chief which travels through Iowa. The St. Louis bound Anne Rutledge is a smaller train with fewer amenities and is well-known for travel delays caused by freight traffic.