“California Zephyr” trip, Part 1 (Chicago-Denver)

Since childhood, one of my dreams has been to ride Amtrak train #5, the westbound “California Zephyr” on the entire route, from Chicago, Illinois, to Emeryville, California. On July 29th, I finally was able to fulfill that dream, with a trip out to California for my niece’s birthday. This section of the route, between Chicago and Denver, is on the BNSF Railway’s tracks, which were formerly operated by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and later, the Burlington Northern. On the day that I traveled, the train wound up leaving around 50 minutes late, as we were waiting for Amtrak’s westbound “Lake Shore Limited” (train #49/449) from Boston & New York, which had been running several hours behind schedule, and had around 50 passengers connecting to the “California Zephyr.” Despite the best efforts of the crew to make up time, in the end, we wound up arriving in Denver, on a cold and dreary morning about 4 hours late, due largely to freight train interference, and “slow orders” along the line. Between Chicago and Denver, the train makes stops in: Naperville, IL, Princeton, IL, Galesburg, IL Burlington, IA, Mount Pleasant, IA, Ottumwa, IA, Osceola, IA, Creston, IA, Omaha, NE Lincoln, NE, Hastings, NE, Holdredge, NE, McCook, NE, and, Ft. Morgan, CO.