I’m hopefully taking a long train ride later this year between Chicago and Los Angeles on the South West chief (It will include a stint between Barstow and San Bernardino, enjoying Cajon pass too). My intention is to film a fair bit of the journey, mixture of iPhone and I’m considering taking a go pro with me as well. While I’m aware of the capacity limitations of recordings depending on memory card size, along with power limitations (recharges and such), I wasn’t going to record the whole route, just a lot of it where I can. My question is whether many people in here had done anything similar (that wasn’t a cab ride), and if you had any tips or tricks you think I might find useful and might not be something obvious, other than potentially backing up a few gigabytes of footage each night. End game is a few reels of highlights of segments, including time at each end of the journey, but likely have a few long videos of epic scenery just for a long slow watch.
I've ridden the Southwest Chief quite a few times end-to-end to visit family in CA, so I can maybe offer a little. However, Reddit's Amtrak sub will have a lot more and better advice: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amtrak/ Recharges won't be a problem, as Amtrak's long distance cars have outlets at every seat. If your phone supports SD cards, picking up extras will help with capacity, as will establishing before the trip what quality level you're willing to settle for and how much footage at that level you can save. Scenerywise, Kansas can safely be skipped entirely; The Wizard of Oz was not far off. New Mexico is beautiful in spring/summer. The red cliffs in Arizona are also quite a sight, especially under a red sunset. Also, be ready to quick-draw at a moment's notice when the train staff comes on the intercom to call out a wildlife sighting. On my last trip, we got moose and buffalo, and eagles are always out around the Western cliffs. Another highlight of my early trips, though not so much lately, was the extended stop in Albuquerque, which used to have Native Americans all along the platform selling handmade jewelry and pottery. I remember once buying someone a pair of earrings made from porcupine quills. That hasn't been a thing my last couple of trips, though. Hopefully they come back. Note for the future: If you want truly epic scenery, take the California Zephyr. The Chief has some great views, as all the lines do, but the Zephyr is on another level entirely. Enjoy the trip! I tried it once just out of curiosity, and as a result haven't been on an airplane in 40 years.
This is really helpful thank you. I had been toying with the other route and I’m still a tiny bit conflicted, however as I’m over from the UK I did have a little thought about if there were to be any unforeseen delays, the extra travel from end of route to needing to be in LA for a couple of things, might risk precious time, though cost seems to be pretty much similar. Depending how long I’m over in the states for may influence which route I take.
Oh, yes, and in addition to the longer travel time, the Zephyr is prone to being delayed by rockslides and such, as it does wind extensively through the Rocky Mountains. In general, Amtrak is not what you want to take if you have to be somewhere soon after the scheduled arrival time.
