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.
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Go back to previous slide |  |
Go forward to next slide |
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Return to previous slide viewed |  |
Return to Route Overview page (Slide 2 of each show) |
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Go to Route Amtrak Links Page (Slide 3 of each show) |
our Home Page in a new browser tab or window at any time by clicking on
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.
Anytime you want to get back to
the Route Overview Slide just click on .
Description of Station Stop - Page 1
OK. I clicked on .
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 
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
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 
.
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, 
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
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 
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
and
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.
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.
