Sunset Limited Route Guide

New Orleans, Louisiana to Los Angeles, California
Amtrak Train Numbers 1 (westbound) and 2 (eastbound)
(Also describes the currently inactive portion of the route between Orlando and New Orleans)

map of Sunset Limited Route from Orlando to Los Angeles

Numbers 1-17 represent the station stops on the Sunset Limited route that are currently inactive.  Amtrak suspended service to these stops, located in the States of Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi, in 2005 due to Hurrican Katrina damage and has not yet restarted the service.  Numbers 18-39 on the map represent the currently active scheduled stops the train makes between New Orleans and Los Angeles.  Using the links below, you can choose to take the complete virtual trip from Orlando to Los Angeles, or you can hop on the train at any station along the route and proceed in either direction from there.  Each "station stop" includes a photo of the station, a local street map, local transportation options, and links to many more items of local interest. Between station stop pages there are detailed station to station maps and links to all of the counties that you pass through along the way.

Clicking any link below will open a separate browser window (or another tab on your browser) where you'll find the route guide.  Climb aboard, and then.....
click the "next" next-arrow (toward /Los Angeles) or "previous" previous-arrow (toward Orlando) arrow on any page of the guide to take the virtual rail journey at your leisure.  Enjoy the ride!

If you want to start with the first slide of this route guide, click here -

- or click a link below to start at any station along the route.

Stations on Amtrak's Sunset Limited Route

Note that once you get on the train, clicking on Overview Button takes you to a separate "Route Overview Page" within the Guide. So, instead of returning to this page to select another station stop, you may alternatively choose to select other station stops from there.

Amtrak Route Description

The following has been extracted from Amtrak's "Sunset Limited" Route Guide.  Ramblin' Ray's Route Rhetoric will come later!

"The Sunset Limited is North America's only transcontinental train. If you're traveling all the way from Los Angeles to Orlando, you'll pass within just a few miles of both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans."

"While many of the great transcontinental rail lines were forged from east to west, the Southern Pacific's Sunset line had its beginnings in California. Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins, Collis P. Huntington and Leland Stanford, all of whom were involved in creating the first transcontinental railroad, achieved a second transcontinental rail link in 1883 with the completion of the route you're now traveling between Los Angeles and New Orleans. East of New Orleans, the Sunset Limited follows the route of the Louisville & Nashville and Seaboard Railroad's Gulf Wind to Jacksonville, and then heads southwest across Central Florida to Orlando, its final destination. The Sunset Limited is the oldest continuously operated named train in America, dating back to 1894. The Sunset Limited originally ran between San Francisco and New Orleans. Passengers on early trains could continue from New Orleans to New York by sea, with connecting passenger steamers owned by Southern Pacific."

"Nearly a century later, the Sunset Limited still provides a unique view of the South and Southwest."

The May 2009 Amtrak published rail travel distance between New Orleans and Los Angeles via the Sunset Limited is 1995 miles. The published rail travel time is 23 hours and 45 minutes.