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I remember seeing a map of individual Amtrak routes that showed which parts of the train route were traversed in daylight for each direction. I've looked on Amtrak's website and checked the schedules and route guide PDFs but can't find it. Are these still available? Where can I find them?

I believe the maps were in official Amtrak pamphlets for a given route. Along each side of the route map it had a red line for day and blue for night.

I'm considering taking a cross-country trip, but flying one way in the interest of time. I was hoping to use these maps to evaluate different routes and what direction I might want to travel to see some of the prettiest sights.

I could use schedules, but that might be a bit tedious to do for each of the long distance routes and also "a picture is worth a thousand words". I do realize that sunrise/sunset changes from day-to-day and trains can be late, but I imagine it'd still be fairly useful.

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    Sunrise and sunset change dramatically across the seasons. For example, at middle latitudes in the US, the amount of daylight varies from about nine hours in mid-winter to about fifteen hours in mid-summer.
    – David Richerby
    Dec 29, 2016 at 20:37
  • An Amtrak station (one where you can buy tickets) should have a copy the entire country's time table.
    – Carl
    Dec 31, 2016 at 1:27

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I found a non-official map of the Amtrak trains that ride during the night or the day.

Since daylight changes every day, the day picked for this map is the autumnal equinox.

This map was published in November 2003 by Trains Magazine.

Amtrak trains by night and day

Since it changes every day, if you want to know precisely where you are supposed to be (given there is no delay), you should probably compare the schedule of your train to the sunrise/sunset time wherever you will be along your trip.

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    Here's the official picture: juckins.net/misc_au/amtrak_western_routes.png. It's on page 81 of the pdf found by googling "Amtrak time table book". Note, page 81 of the pdf, not page 79 of the actual book.
    – Carl
    Dec 31, 2016 at 1:24
  • I've never seen an official picture of the east coast.
    – Carl
    Dec 31, 2016 at 1:25

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