If you get a chance to visit the US again on the west coast, take the Coast Starlight, especially if you can take it northbound out of Los Angeles. It's one of Amtrak's long-haul routes, so, especially going southbound, plan in a few hours of delay in getting to your destination, but it's one of the most beautiful trips you can make. You'll see the ocean, wind through the mountains, see farmland, see deltas, see a lot of the country for what it really is.
One of the things to keep in mind about rail in the US is that, unfortunately, freight rules, and passenger rail is kept a distant second. So any scheduling problems, and the passenger trains get bumped back farther and farther, leading to the problems you described. If you're on one of the corridors that are handled mostly by passenger consortiums -- the Northeast Corridor, or Southern California -- you tend to get much better quality of service, but when you're out of those areas, it does get pretty craptastic, unfortunately. It's better than the dark days of the late seventies to early nineties, but it's still not nearly as good as it should be.
One of the things to keep in mind about rail in the US is that, unfortunately, freight rules, and passenger rail is kept a distant second. So any scheduling problems, and the passenger trains get bumped back farther and farther, leading to the problems you described. If you're on one of the corridors that are handled mostly by passenger consortiums -- the Northeast Corridor, or Southern California -- you tend to get much better quality of service, but when you're out of those areas, it does get pretty craptastic, unfortunately. It's better than the dark days of the late seventies to early nineties, but it's still not nearly as good as it should be.