Navigating a Route

To follow any route, first select the North American Region that you wish to explore from the "Route Guides" pulldown menu. You may choose from "USA Long Distance", "USA Regional", "Canada", or "Mexico". Once you are in a Region, click on the link to the route you wish to follow. This will open the Webpage for the guide you have selected.

From the Route's Webpage you may choose  to open the first page of the detailed Route Guide Slide Show, or the city slide of your choice along the route within the Slide Show. (Note: The slide shows are best viewed in the "Full Screen View Mode".  Most browsers allow the use of function key F11 to toggle back and forth between the Full Screen and Normal Views.)

A cluster of navigation buttons is provided in the upper left hand corner of each slide of each Route Guide Slide Show.

        Route Navigation Cluster                           
Go back to previous slide Go forward to next slide
Return to previous slide viewed Return to Overview Page
Return to Route Overview page (Slide 2 of each show)
Amtrak Logo Go to Route Amtrak Links Page (Slide 3 of each show)
 You may exit the Slide Show and open 
our Home Page in a new browser tab or window at any time by clicking on
  RPUSA Home Link 
Slide Show Route Overview (Slide 2)

The Slide Show Route Overview Page contains an overall route map similiar to the map on the Route's Webpage and a list of all of the Station Stops along the Route. These Station Stops are numbered sequentially from the "Starting City" (Green) through the "Intermediate Stops" (Yellow) to the "Destination City" (Red). For example, the third Station Stop on the Capitol Limited is Harpers Ferry, WV and clicking on it will open page "Capitol Limited Harpers Ferry P.1"  ...  go ahead and try clicking on one of the links below then come on back here.

29_30 (WAS)     29_30 (HFY)    29_30 (CHI) 

Anytime you want to get back to the Route Overview Slide just click on Return to Overview

Description of Station Stop - Page 1  

OK. I clicked on 29_30 (CHI).  There's a lot of information on this "Capitol Limited Chicago P.1" slide. First of all there's the neighborhood station area map itself. If you click anywhere on the map, you'll open a local city government link, in this example it's CityofChicago.org

There's also the square 29_30 Chicago ID and Aerial Link that has been overlaid on the map at 225 Canal Street, the street address of Chicago Union Station. Clicking on the square will open a Google or Bing map of the station area. There's also a picture of the Station. The station photographs are generally linked to "USA Rail Guide", and if you click on the photo you will find many more photos of the station contained on that excellent site.

On the left hand side of the slide you'll find links and contact information to local transportation information such as taxicabs, bus and local rail lines.  If you click on the Amtrak Logo  Amtrak Logo on this page you'll open the Chicago Station Information Page of the Amtrak Website.  If you want to make reservations or need other detailed Amtrak supplied information you can navigate there from their Station information page. (Note: for station stops on routes serviced by other railroads, VIA Rail Canada for instance, the logo and link will change appropriately).

You can also change trains at a station. Across the bottom of the page, beneath the station area map you may see green highlighted boxes like this one zephyr cross link. In our example, this one means that the California Zephyr also stops in Chicago. If you click on the box you will go to Chicago P.1 of the California Zephyr Slide Show. 

If you see a blue highlighted box like this, Wolverine Cross Link it means that the train named in the box also stops in Chicago, but that we haven't completed the slide show for the route yet. In this example, if you click on it you will go to a temporary placeholder page for the Wolverine that contains links to the operating railroad's site.

Description of Station Stop - Page 2

Capitol Limited Chicago P.2 is a lot simpler, but still contains some hidden information. If you click on the photograph itself, you'll go to a site that contains information on the local history or a site that contains information on a local attraction. In our example, it happens to be a link to the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893

For photographs not shot by Rail Passenger USA a credit generally appears near the upper right hand corner of the photo. In this example for the shot of the Chicago Skyline it's Wikipedia Commons - J. Crocker

A general Google "Chicago,Illinois" search link is included in the title box beneath the photograph. 

Click on

 chicago hotels 

for a list of hotels in the area.

Description of Station to Station Pages

Between "Station Pages"  there are "Station to Station Pages". In our example, since Chicago is this last stop on the route, we need to select previous slide from the "Capitol Limited Chicago P.1" slide to go back to "Capitol Limited SOB to CHI" (South Bend to Chicago Station to Station Page).

On this Station to Station page you will find a detailed map of the Capitol Limited Route between South Bend and Chicago; Indiana and Illinois State maps with the counties that you'll pass through highlighted, and Wikipedia links to those counties. You'll also see boxes 

SOB Boxlink        and       Navbox 16

Clicking on a box numbered 15 will take you to South Bend, the 15th stop on the route and clicking a box numbered 16 will take you to Chicago, the 16th stop on the route.

Amtrak and Selected External Links (Slide Show - Slide 3)

Slide 3 of each Route's Slide Show is an information slide containing links to the Amtrak Schedule, the Amtrak Route Guide and Amtrak's Interactive Route Guide for the selected Route. Just click on the associated pictures and you will be connected to the associated Amtrak website location. 

There is also a Rail Passenger USA External Links File associated with each route. Click on the picture below to connect to the Capitol Limited External links file for example.

External Links

In addition, Slide 3 of each show contains links that allow you to download a couple of Google Earth Data sets (.kmz files) that allow you to "Fly" the route from station to station in either direction. Select "Fly Me First Help" from the Navigation Tab of the Menu above to learn more about this feature. 

That's All Folks - All Aboard and Enjoy Your Trip!