Hmmm... So many choices: The LAST true RGZ Denver to Salt Lake, then returning on the Ewe - Pee via Wyoming; The 1984 New Orleans Worlds Fair Daylight return trip Phoenix to Yuma to Los Angeles w/ SP 4449; PRS Mountain Outin over Tehachapi in 1979.
But my favorite train trip was my 1st long distance trip, on Amtrak North Coast Hiawatha from Billings Mt., to Seattle, WA., then the Coast Starlight from Seattle to Los Angeles, CA., August 20 - 21 - 22, 1979. I had flown up to Billings to stay with my sister for a month, and I had to really talk my folks into letting me ride the train home. The extra cost & 3 days alone onboard trains at age 15 were concerns. I had read in Trains magazine where the NCH might be cut; looking back I'm sooo glad they let me. Of course the Westbound train was late into Billings, so I missed some of the scenery though I did get to vestibule Homestake Pass before the car attendant corralled me. Didn't get much sleep that night; didn't care either. Arrived in Seattle with a little time to check out King St. Station between trains; I remember the TV - equipped seats inside the waiting room. What a dump; still is !!! I don't remember the entire Starlight consist, but I do remember eating in a lunch counter diner @ riding in an ex - Santa Fe pleasure dome; the swivel seats were better than the fixed seats in the NCH budd dome. Stayed up all night in the dome necking with a girl who boarded in Eugene; didn't get much sleep; didn't care either. Again I was booted out of the vestibule near Oakland; wish I'd waited till Cuesta. By the time I arrived in Fullerton, CA., on the San Diegan I was exhausted; fell asleep in the back of my pickup on the way home. I was also bummed because I had to wait ONE DAY past my 16th birthday to take my driving test, which I aced. In SoCal having wheels meant everything; still does.