CHICAGO'S Union Station is one of those massive grand old train stations that hark back to the gilt-edged glory days of train travel.So impressive is its great hall, with a ceiling some six storeys high, that a long list of corporate, charitable and private individuals rent it for everything from wedding receptions to charity dinner parties.

It's an appropriately glamorous launching pad for the adventure of a cross-country expedition. And the choice of the word expedition is a deliberate one because training off across the country is an experience a world removed from flying over it.

Several major US cities have special lounges for their First Class passengers, just as airlines do. Los Angeles, Washington, New York, Boston and Chicago are among them.

In Chicago it's the sizeable Metropolitan Lounge where tickets are checked and passengers settle down to relax until their train is announced. Meanwhile, there's coffee, an assortment of soft drinks and bag of such nibbles as pretzels and goldfish. There are also immaculately clean washrooms that put anything O'Hare Airport has to shame.

Many passengers also opt to bring in food from the variety of take-out restaurants in the depot and enjoy it at one of the lounge's tables.

The station bustles with activity since it also serves as a centre for local trains reaching Chicago's commuter suburbs.

As is our custom when checking details for a feature, we had driven into town days earlier to check out the situation. And that's where we met Amtrak employee Terry Herkel of Amtrak Passenger Service.

There are several places in the lower departure area where passengers can stop for information. At one of them, we asked several questions and were immediately taken under her wing as though passenger car was her prime goal in life. Meeting her on subsequent departures and arrivals there since was like a reunion with an old friend.

I definitely hadn't felt that way when I called to ask Amtrak's Chicago public relations man a few questions about Union Station. The top man in Washington had given me his private telephone number along with the recommendation that I call with any specific questions about the station for use in this article. Since I can count my few visits to Union Station ages ago, I had a number of them.

You know the feeling when you connect with someone who truly cares about what they do and has genuine concern for the company where they work. Terry Herkel had it but this man instead gave the distinct impression he had taken the job several years earlier waiting for something better to come along.

You soon will find true railroad people are definitely different . . . whether it's employees or devoted passengers who use every opportunity to travel by train. The genuine article is so enthused with railroading, it permeates not just part of their life but all of it. They exude enthusiasm.

We were soon to find out why. For now our main interest was learning about logistics and specifics of making the experience effortless as possible.IN<$> the case of employees, it's a complicated schedule with so many days on, then days off. It's not unlike the airline industry in that respect, but even more intense for porters caring for sleeping accommodation passengers around the clock if necessary and a dining room staff dishing up three meals daily on the cross-country run.Arriving at the station, we observed there was no obvious check of carry-on luggage nor request for our identification. But my brother Jim's trained eagle eye picked out a trio of men he felt were security, carefully analysing passengers.

The lounge was such a busy place, we felt lucky to locate the last two seats. They varied from an especially popular collection in front of a large screen television to those overlooking an attractive fireplace . . . obviously not in use because of balmy spring weather.

New, clean green carpeting covered the floor and a highly polished inlaid marble floor led to the exit area where passengers departed to board trains.

It was May 15, school still in session, and the crowd tended to be older.

"Just wait a few weeks and it will be an entirely different scene, with lots of families," confided an Amtrak employee.

When departure for the Empire Builder to Seattle was called, the room virtually emptied. Turns out it's Amtrak's most popular route and we'll be telling you about it in a few weeks.

We learned several "rules of the rails" very quickly. First Class passengers are led out to the train by an official and the wise passenger lingers to the rear, being last to board.

On our departure, passengers crowded into the train's boarding hallway. Obviously, the lone sleeping car porter couldn't carry everyone's luggage up the narrow, winding staircase to upper-level bedrooms and roomettes all at once. So both luggage and people jammed together in mass confusion.

We corrected that mistake en route back and on our subsequent trip via the Empire Builder, and boarding was much easier, far more relaxed. It is possible to leave some of your carry-on luggage in that boarding and departing hallway, but this traveller doesn't feel comfortable doing that.

It probably harks back to a forgettable personal experience travelling from Paris down to the French Riviera on a French government press trip via train with five other journalists.

A newspaper travel editor, unusually tall at six foot six inches and very slim, had the misfortune of having his luggage stolen before that train even left Paris. In the chaos of departure, there hadn't been room to place it in the compartment, so he'd trustingly temporarily left it in the hallway outside the compartment.

Within minutes it was gone and police later told him it was not uncommon for thieves to walk through trains there looking for just such a situation.

It left him in a terrible dilemma since it's rare to find anyone in France that tall and he found it impossible to buy replacement clothing. And the person who stole it was probably equally disappointed to find they'd made off with the travelling wardrobe of what appeared to be a giant.THAT'S only one of many observed incidents that taught me to keep a careful eye on my luggage. What's that old saying, "A fool and his money are soon parted." It can equally apply to luggage, so that storage option didn't appeal to us since any passenger can walk through the train, then down those steps to that area, and off. My motto is: "Better safe than sorry."Our porter, Julio, was from Guatemala and not only had a great personality but was excellent in every aspect of his work.

The hallway coffee pot perked with perpetual persistence, orange and apple juice were both available, as was ice. Two bottles of water were beside the foldout table and Julio stopped by frequently to inquire if we needed anything.

Soon after boarding, the maitre 'd stopped by to take our dinner reservations, a courtesy that would be repeated for next day's lunch. Then an announcement would be made over the communication system telling diners when their table was ready.

It was a hard-working, personable crew. Short-handed in the dining room, some of the porters came up to help serve. Food was good, especially a beef bourguignonne dinner at $19.

Meals are included in first-class sleeping accommodations, but for coach passengers prices were modest, ranging from Angus beef burgers at $8.25 to pork shank braised in red wine for $18.50 and roast chicken $14.50. Luncheon quiche Lorraine was $9, chicken Caesar salad $6.

On this route, the dishwasher had been removed as a cost-cutting measure so good imitation plastic "china" in a railroad pattern had replaced it. However, there was still silverware, unlike the airline's plastic and a bud vase of fresh flowers decorated each table.

Relaxing in bedroom D was so comfortable, we rarely left except to access the coffee urn or dining room. Sitting back and watching scenery glide by was a very special experience.Amtrak's brochures are not exaggerating when they describe it as "a journey that's as exciting as the destination". Or "some things are simply better when seen through the window of a train".

And there was certainly much to see . . . scenery on this route ranged from lush green irrigation to parched-earth grasslands, on to dramatic southwest mountain vistas. There were prosperous ranches, then small vintage pioneer homesteads mouldering away on the frontier.

Landscapes continually varied from harsh to lush. For a considerable distance tracks followed the historic Santa Fe Trail, the famous and legendary route chosen by so many westward-bound pioneers. It was actually easily visible for many miles to any interested observer.There would be miles of pine forests, then bluffs rising sheer beside the rail route. Small, interesting- looking towns flashed by, their main streets unchanged over the years.

Herds of cows rushed away from the steaming "Iron horse" as though rehearsing for a movie stampede. New-born calves unused to passing trains were especially excitable.

Intending to read and write en route, those plans were soon abandoned. There was simply too much to see and if you looked away for a minute some unique sight was missed.

"Did you see those antelopes racing across the field?" Jim would ask after I returned from the coffee station. "Look at those rodeo grounds with stands out in the middle of nowhere."

There had been scenery to ooh and aah over on many of my European train trips. But nothing had the vast, over-the-horizon panoramas of such open space as seen here. Viewing the world from ground level is indeed a marvellous experience.

So mesmerising, in fact, that I warned Jim he would be unable to resist peering out at stops along the way as we travelled through the night under a full moon.

That's exactly what I used to do returning from ski trips via train, propped up by pillows and gazing out from my sleeper at a frozen landscape. Next trip we'll have maps along or an atlas.

And indeed it was a fulfilled prediction. From the vantage point of his lower berth, he finally decided to leave the curtains open in order to see the passing sights through the bedroom's picture window.

Dozing and waking through the night, you felt you were enjoying a moving course in geography. And people you meet sharing a table in the diner is yet another course in the cross-section of travellers enchanted by train travel. We'll be introducing you to some of them during the course of this series.

Everything from Los Alamos researchers and a State Department official to a World War Two veteran fulfilling a life's dream travelling First Class to erase his troop train memories and a Canadian couple returning from a one-year sailing adventure on their catamaran.

q Next week: Adventuring north of Albuquerque

All aboard for Albuquerque