Amtrak Routes You Should Ride with a Film Camera, My Rankings

The moment the California Zephyr train from Chicago enters the Colorado Rockies section, the light outside the window changes completely. The broad, uniform rays of the plains bend through the canyons, creating sharp, three-dimensional shadows. At that moment, I pressed the shutter of the Mamiya 7 resting on my lap almost instinctively. That was the moment I got completely hooked on the combination of train travel and analog film.

Over the past few years, I've ridden several Amtrak long-distance routes with a film camera in tow. Each route differs entirely in the quality of light, the variety of scenery, and the compositional possibilities offered by the windows. With digital you can fire the shutter endlessly, but film limits you to 10 or 36 frames per roll, so what matters is how often a given route throws you a scene worth spending one of those limited frames on. With that criterion in mind, here's my breakdown of the routes I've personally ridden.

California Zephyr, Chicago to Emeryville

This route takes first place, no question. Over the course of 51+ hours, it passes through the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the Sierra Nevada. From a photography standpoint, the key sections are Glenwood Canyon in Colorado and the Utah segment. In Glenwood Canyon, the Colorado River flows right alongside and red rock walls rise up on both sides, so if you pass through in the late afternoon, warm-toned light reflects off the river and leaves beautiful colors on Portra 400. The Utah desert section is often traversed at dawn. If you load ISO 800 film in advance, you can capture mesa silhouettes in the twilight.

One window-seat tip. The Sightseer Lounge car on this route has large windows that extend up to the ceiling, making it much easier to frame your shots. However, glass reflections can be severe, so it's best to wear dark clothing and press your lens as close to the glass as possible. I push a rubber lens hood directly against the glass to block reflections.

Photo: inkknife_2000 (7.5 million views +), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Coast Starlight, Seattle to Los Angeles

This route runs north to south along the Pacific coast, giving it a unique light direction. If you take the southbound train, the western light coming in from the ocean side fills the interior of the car at an angle during the afternoon. When you place the coastal cliffs and waves within the frame created by the window sill and seats, you get a natural "landscape within a window" composition. The inland side with views of the Cascade Range in the Oregon section is also too good to pass up.

My favorite segment is the coastline near Santa Barbara. The tracks run nearly parallel to the beach, so in the evening the sunlight sinking toward the horizon is captured on film with a natural grain. Shooting with a high-saturation film like Ektar 100 can make the ocean colors come out too intense, so for this section I preferred Fuji Pro 400H (bought before it was discontinued).

Empire Builder, Chicago to Seattle/Portland

The Great Plains sections through Montana and North Dakota are the true appeal of this route. The scenery itself may look monotonous, but the sight of cloud shadows drifting across the endless plains produces dramatic tones when shot on black-and-white film. Load Tri-X 400 and attach a red filter, and the sky contrast intensifies so that the silhouettes of grain elevators on the plains come sharply to life.

This route is best ridden in late spring or early fall. The midday summer light is too harsh and flat, yielding lackluster results on film. Around late September, the post-harvest fields shift to golden hues that pair well with warm-toned color film.

Southwest Chief, and Other Contenders

The Southwest Chief crosses the southwestern desert from Chicago to Los Angeles. The afternoon light pouring over the red sandstone terrain in the New Mexico section is truly impressive, but the problem is that the schedule has you passing through the most dramatic stretches in the middle of the night. Be sure to check the timetable before you ride.

The Sunset Limited passes through the West Texas desert, but the scenery remains similar for long stretches, and honestly I didn't get many film frames out of it. Still, one shot I took after waking at dawn near El Paso, the purple twilight spreading over the desert, remains in my portfolio to this day.

The Auto Train isn't meant for landscape photography, but it was decent for shooting the interior light of the cars and the passengers in a documentary style. I remember quietly taking snaps with just a 50mm lens.

The rhythm of train travel is curiously similar to the rhythm of shooting film. Both are slow, both are fundamentally about waiting, and with both you can't see the results right away. Next time I'd like to ride the Canadian and cross the Rockies, but since that isn't Amtrak, I'll have to save it for a separate post.