ON DIFFERENT TRACKS

There are no bouquets, brass bands or crowds. Still, the American Orient Express arrives at this small town near the Utah border like visiting royalty. Its brakes shriek, and burnished blue and gold cars slow to a stop alongside the Union Pacific Customer Special, a vintage train the freight company uses for wining and dining VIPs. This is a golden moment for train aficionados, a rare chance to see these two grand old luxury trains together.

Trains that recall the time when railroad travel was a pleasure are an all-but-extinct breed. Nowadays we want to get where we’re going fast, never mind the sights we miss along the way, the fellow passengers we don’t get to know and the incivility that seems an unavoidable part of air travel.

For nostalgic people like me, only a few deluxe, overnight excursion trains still exist, like Europe’s fabled Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, the Royal Scotsman and the Palace on Wheels in Rajasthan, India.

In this country, there’s the American Orient Express, or AOE, which I rode in June on a tour called “Rockies and Yellowstone.” AOE aims to give travelers a taste of the pampering that was common on long-distance routes during the glory days of American railroads and to help travelers reclaim the rewards of seeing the country by train. Owner Henry Hillman Jr. modeled the AOE experience on cruise ships. “Cruising is a pleasant way to see things,” he says. “I want people to be able to see the U.S. the same way.”

And there are similarities between a high-end cruise and a ride on the AOE. There’s no swimming pool or putting green on board, of course, but a pianist plays old standards in the club car during cocktail hour. A cabin steward leaves the next day’s itinerary, with a chocolate, on your pillow at turndown. And every day there are bus tours that serve the same purpose as cruise ship shore excursions, giving passengers a chance to see sights that aren’t on the train line.

In fact, on my trip, it sometimes seemed we spent more time touring by motor coach than by railroad, which satisfied some passengers. But if you love trains and can’t think of a better way to pass the time than by sitting idly watching the scenery while a steward attends to your every whim, a ride on the AOE could be frustrating.

Seeking a blissful railroad experience, I’ve ridden on lots of Amtrak trains, which offer many scenic excursions, particularly in the West. Tracks on Western routes were laid a century ago with an eye toward scenery and to promote tourism, according to Alfred Runte, a train historian and author. Trains belong in the Western landscape in a way that airplanes, buses and automobiles don’t, he said.

But Amtrak discontinued two historic Western routes several years ago--the Desert Wind from L.A. to Salt Lake City and the Pioneer from Denver to Portland, Ore. Moreover, the company’s long-distance trains are often subject to delay. And even the most expensive Amtrak sleeping compartments bear little resemblance to the posh American Pullmans of yesteryear. For people who’d like to be treated the way Lillie Langtry, Andrew Carnegie and Oscar Wilde were when they rode American trains a century ago, Amtrak may not be the best way to go.

AOE has just one train, which runs seven itineraries, including a 10-night transcontinental journey between L.A. and Washington, D.C., a seven-night exploration of the national parks of the West and a nine-night cross-Canada trip. Its 16 cars, restored for $1 million each, date to the ‘40s and ‘50s and are lined with mahogany, polished brass, murals and faux marble. Bus trips to attractions such as Yellowstone (which, like several other national parks in the West, can no longer be reached by rail), lectures and musicales, accommodations (both on and off the train) and sumptuous meals are included.

My trip, the seven-day, six-night “Rockies and Yellowstone” tour, began in Salt Lake City. It went north overnight to Idaho Falls, Idaho, where we took a two-day bus tour of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks (staying both nights off the train at the Lake Hotel in Yellowstone). On the fourth night, we turned around and headed back to Salt Lake City by train. The next day we took bus tours of the Utah capital and a nearby copper mine. The AOE left the Salt Lake station in the wee hours of the morning, so by breakfast time on the sixth day, we were crossing eastern Utah. Those who wanted to take a bus tour of Arches National Park and the canyons of the Colorado National Monument got off in Thompson, Utah, then met the train in Grand Junction.

From there the train and a full complement of passengers chugged up the western slope of the Rockies, over the Continental Divide via Moffat Tunnel and into Denver in the dark, a 268-mile final ride that partly paralleled the feisty Colorado River. There was no need for buses here; the tracks slice through one beautiful canyon after another--Ruby, Glenwood, Gore, Byers--as the scenery yields from red rocks and cactus to pine forests and snowcapped peaks.

The price for all this was $4,490, single occupancy, for a vintage Pullman compartment, AOE’s standard class of accommodation, with a sink, toilet and, for each car, one shower shared by a dozen people. The same sleeping compartment would have cost a couple $3,190 per person. The prices may seem high, but they’re similar to those of top-of-the-line cruises and other all-inclusive luxury train trips. A four-night trip from Paris to Istanbul on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, made famous by mystery writer Agatha Christie, costs $5,155 per person.

Considering the prices, one has Ritz and QE2 expectations. I worried about the battered look of my luggage and my lack of evening dress. As it turned out, I had no need for concern; my fellow travelers were almost all casually turned-out, middle-aged Americans, celebrating anniversaries and other special events, hoping for the trip of their lives.

Alas, our “Rockies and Yellowstone” rail tour fell short. There was too much bus touring for railroad romantics like me. We went through some particularly beautiful spots, such as the 7,440-foot Soldier Summit in Utah’s Wasatch Range, at night. (AOE uses tracks owned by railroad freight companies and must adhere to their schedules.)

Service on the train, carrying 112 passengers and 45 AOE crew members at full capacity, was uneven. That was especially unfortunate at meals because the food was excellent--hot, sustaining breakfasts and five-course dinners artfully presented on elegant china. (Most lunches were off the train, during bus tours.)

I’d have enjoyed a few more on-board activities, like the occasional bridge tournament or morning walking tour in towns where the AOE was stabled. I loved sleeping on the train, though some passengers complained they awoke every time it rocked, bumped or squealed and thus were sleep-deprived for most of the trip. And others, like a family of three from Maryland, who had paid more than $10,000 for the 7-by-12 foot Presidential Suite with a private bath, thought the accommodations were airless and cramped.

Of course, a vintage train isn’t a hotel or a cruise ship. You must learn how to make your way down the 2-foot-wide corridor, holding on to the walls while the quarter-mile-long train is in motion, and it takes a good 10 minutes to get from front to back. Space and amenities are limited. (The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express doesn’t even have showers.) But for train lovers like me, such details are all part of the AOE experience.

I was pleased with my 7-by-6-foot sleeper, in the Vienna car, with its patterned carpeting and mahogany paneling. On one side was a toilet cubicle, overhead shelves and a sink; on the other, a paisley-covered couch with drawers at the base. While I was at dinner each evening, the steward made the couch up into a crisply sheeted berth, where I liked to lie under the little reading light in the terry-cloth robe provided, gazing through the big, spotlessly clean window. Sometimes I read late into the night while sipping chamomile tea, brought to me by my cabin steward, Joyce Williams.

She and other stewards went about their work with punctuality and skill. Pennye West, a fellow traveler from Dallas, told me her steward found her lost room key and adjusted the water temperature in the shower at the end of the corridor before she entered.

Bartenders in the three club cars, where we gathered for lectures, piano serenades and cocktails, were just as assiduous. Michael Lockhead, the bar manager in the New York observation car at the tail end of the train, mixed perfect dry martinis and told me that on one 10-night transcontinental trip, the AOE used $15,000 worth of alcohol. (Alcoholic beverages weren’t included in the price of the trip, except on the first and last nights.)

But the youthful staff in the passenger services office and in the lovely Zurich and Chicago dining cars, which had tapestry-upholstered chairs, damask tablecloths and a little lamp and a fresh rose on each table, seemed at times harried and forgetful. When a waiter failed--twice--to bring cream to a well-traveled New Yorker at the breakfast table next to mine, the man turned to me and said, “This is unacceptable.”

Besides that, I got tired of the Yellowstone-Grand Teton bus tour, though our guides were knowledgeable and we saw bison, Old Faithful and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. Many people slept more soundly at Yellowstone’s rambling Lake Hotel than on the train. The next day, we all got out to take pictures when the bus stopped in a field of sagebrush and wildflowers beneath the awesomely sheer flanks of the Grand Tetons. Later, we toured the Colter Bay Visitor Center Indian Arts Museum in Grand Teton National Park and lunched in Jackson, Wyo., where there was just enough time to do a little shopping before heading back to the train, still parked in Idaho Falls.

W hen it came time for more motor coach tours of Salt Lake City and the canyon lands of Utah and western Colorado, about a dozen passengers and I opted to stay on the train, which is why I was on board to see it next to the Union Pacific Customer Special in Grand Junction. (The U.P. train left before the buses returned from their excursions.)

Many passengers enjoyed the bus tours, especially those who had never seen these parks and monuments. “People can decide what to do on a day-to-day basis. Lots of passengers never get off the train,” AOE owner Hillman says.

Never getting off the train wasn’t exactly encouraged but would have been my idea of nirvana, because I love to sit back and let the scenery flow by. While the train moved from Thompson, where most passengers started their Arches National Park bus tour, to Grand Junction, where the AOE met them, this is exactly what I did. Together with the routes of Western railroads, which are in many places far more interesting than those of highways, idly taking in the scenery is what makes old-fashioned, inconvenient train travel such a joy. “On a train you get to sit back and relax, with no tension or responsibility,” says historian Runte. (According to AOE vice president Peter Boese, those who prefer train riding to bus touring--and have the time--should choose the AOE trips that cover the most ground, like the transcontinental and trans-Canada tours.)

Despite caveats, I will long remember a handful of events from the “Rockies and Yellowstone” trip, all of which have to do with staying on the train. The first was on our initial night out, when we left Salt Lake City about 6 p.m. and clattered 220 miles north to Idaho Falls, skirting Promontory Point, where the tracks of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads met on May 10, 1869. By the time I’d finished dinner, a salad of mixed greens with candied walnuts, followed by a lamb chop and raspberry sorbet, my berth was ready. So there I lay, writing raptures in my journal as the sun kissed the western horizon and the train passed through sinuous Bear Canyon just south of the Utah-Idaho border.

Seeing the AOE with the U.P. Customer Special was another peak experience, as was taking pictures in the open companionway between cars as we passed through exquisite Glenwood and Gore canyons in western Colorado.

But for me, the trip reached its zenith--and truly recalled the golden age of the railroads--at dinner on the last night, when we caught our first glimpse of the Rockies. It didn’t hurt that I was tucking into a lobster tail doused with cognac butter at the time.

Big meals make me sleepy, so I was out cold by the time we crossed the Continental Divide and plunged down the eastern slope of the Rockies. The next morning, late-nighters told me that the train’s approach to lit-up Denver was like a plane landing. But I didn’t care for the simile. When the conditions are right, who needs planes?

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GUIDEBOOK

Deluxe Training Courses

Getting there: Air fare to embarkation points for the American Orient Express is not included in the price. For the “Rockies and Yellowstone” excursion, nonstop service from LAX to Salt Lake City is available on United, Delta and Southwest, and direct service with one stop is available on America West. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $150.

Riding the rails: The American Orient Express offers seven itineraries in the U.S. and Canada from February to early November. Trips for the rest of 2000 are fully booked, except for two recently added ones to western U.S. national parks on Nov. 4 and 11. Itineraries for 2001, below, are a day longer than they were in 2000 and include one day in the city of embarkation (all itineraries also operate in reverse).

Eight-day itineraries:

* “Antebellum South,” from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans.

* “Pacific Coast Explorer,” from Seattle to Los Angeles.

* “Northwest and Glacier National Park,” from Seattle to Salt Lake City.

* “Rockies and Yellowstone,” from Salt Lake City to Denver.

* “National Parks of the West,” from Phoenix to Salt Lake City.

Longer itineraries:

* Ten-day “Great Trans-Canada Rail Journey” from Montreal to Vancouver.

* Eleven-day “Great Transcontinental Rail Journey” from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles.

Rates begin at $2,590 in 2001 on the “Antebellum South,” the lowest-priced trip (with early-booking discount). Rates begin at $2,890 for the “Rockies and Yellowstone” trip in 2001, which will be a day longer than it was in 2000.

Trips can be booked through AOE or a travel agent.

For more information: The American Orient Express, 5100 Main St., Suite 300, Downers Grove, IL 60515, telephone (800) 320-4206 or (630) 663-4550, brochure requests (877) 854-3545, fax (630) 663-1595, Internet https://www.americanorientexpress.com.