Amtrak Solar Eclipse viewing April 8 2024
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SubwayNut
Conductor
I took Amtrak round-trip from South Bend to Cleveland (in couch) to see it:
The Lake Shore Limited out Sunday night (didn't leave until 3:30am due to a mechanical issues leaving Chicago and blowing a brake hose in La Porte, IN that it took the conductor an hour to fix) As a "short" passenger I managed to get two seats to myself since more people got off in South Bend than on. The conductor remarked that she had a car completely full of people going from Chicago to Cleveland to see the ecipse. I basically slept the whole journey. The wait for the train was tiresome but it was nice to get off the train in daylight 3 hours late and have everything be open!
Getting the 3 1/2 minutes of totality was amazing, even got eclipse glasses branded from the Cleveland RTA getting off the Rapid heading to the waterfront that the transit system was handing out.
I returned on the Lake Shore (after a part night, and not trying to pull two consecutive "train nighters" at the Cleveland Hyatt Regency, that I got an amazing value points redemption at), and it was crowded, also nearly 3 hours late. On this trip I got a seat mate who was going to Chicago on buissiness, was super confused when we were handed a shared seat assignment by the attendant (said she hadn't taken the train in 20 years and read on Amtrak's website that seating was open) I asked for a window, adding "please give me an odd number" when the attendant said she didn't know which seats were aisles or windows. My seat mate was taking Amtrak because flights out of Cleveland were so expensive post eclipse (her company had booked her to leave Monday morning missing the eclipse and she said no I'm not leaving until Tuesday).
Lake Shore had the bussiness cars on the back, Beach Grove, American View, ect. with the conductor asking me to take his picture in front of one of them in Toledo when I walked back for photos.
Thanks for this post to inspire me to write a little trip report!
The Lake Shore Limited out Sunday night (didn't leave until 3:30am due to a mechanical issues leaving Chicago and blowing a brake hose in La Porte, IN that it took the conductor an hour to fix) As a "short" passenger I managed to get two seats to myself since more people got off in South Bend than on. The conductor remarked that she had a car completely full of people going from Chicago to Cleveland to see the ecipse. I basically slept the whole journey. The wait for the train was tiresome but it was nice to get off the train in daylight 3 hours late and have everything be open!
Getting the 3 1/2 minutes of totality was amazing, even got eclipse glasses branded from the Cleveland RTA getting off the Rapid heading to the waterfront that the transit system was handing out.
I returned on the Lake Shore (after a part night, and not trying to pull two consecutive "train nighters" at the Cleveland Hyatt Regency, that I got an amazing value points redemption at), and it was crowded, also nearly 3 hours late. On this trip I got a seat mate who was going to Chicago on buissiness, was super confused when we were handed a shared seat assignment by the attendant (said she hadn't taken the train in 20 years and read on Amtrak's website that seating was open) I asked for a window, adding "please give me an odd number" when the attendant said she didn't know which seats were aisles or windows. My seat mate was taking Amtrak because flights out of Cleveland were so expensive post eclipse (her company had booked her to leave Monday morning missing the eclipse and she said no I'm not leaving until Tuesday).
Lake Shore had the bussiness cars on the back, Beach Grove, American View, ect. with the conductor asking me to take his picture in front of one of them in Toledo when I walked back for photos.
Thanks for this post to inspire me to write a little trip report!
fdaley
OBS Chief
We drove with a van full of family/friends and got a great view from the campus of the Vermont State U at Lyndonville.
Didn't hear about it in advance, but the Vermont Rail System ran a special train from Rutland to Burlington to deliver eclipse watchers to the Burlington waterfront by 12:30 p.m. Returning it was scheduled to leave Burlington at 4:30 p.m. and arrive back in Rutland by 6:30 p.m. -- way faster than anyone could have driven, given that most roads in the northern half of Vermont were jammed. Price for the special train was $250 round-trip per person -- or $3,500 for the tail-end business car that seated 10. We happened to see the consist of three coaches plus business car passing through the Vergennes station as it deadheaded back to Burlington, following the northbound Ethan Allen about 10:10 p.m.
Didn't hear about it in advance, but the Vermont Rail System ran a special train from Rutland to Burlington to deliver eclipse watchers to the Burlington waterfront by 12:30 p.m. Returning it was scheduled to leave Burlington at 4:30 p.m. and arrive back in Rutland by 6:30 p.m. -- way faster than anyone could have driven, given that most roads in the northern half of Vermont were jammed. Price for the special train was $250 round-trip per person -- or $3,500 for the tail-end business car that seated 10. We happened to see the consist of three coaches plus business car passing through the Vergennes station as it deadheaded back to Burlington, following the northbound Ethan Allen about 10:10 p.m.
xzperu42
Service Attendant
fdaley - How was traffic? I had originally considered driving up that way from NJ but figured the traffic might be a problem. I ended up going to Montreal and am actually sitting at the border right now on the Adirondack coming home. It was a phenomenal show in Montreal… glad I did it.
fdaley
OBS Chief
Traffic was very heavy. We had originally planned to head to the Burlington area, but there was a layer of clouds approaching from the south and west, so we changed our destination to northeastern Vermont. We were a bit behind the biggest crowds, arriving at our destination about 2:45, after the eclipse was already started; even so, both northbound lanes of I-91 had a steady stream of traffic from White River Junction (where we got on) northward. North of Fairlee the speed slowed to about 20 mph, so we got off and took the parallel US-5, which was moving at about 40 mph but also had a constant stream of traffic.
As predicted, the return trip was much worse, with everyone who had poured into the state for the previous couple of days trying to get out. Heading from the college campus down into Lyndonville about 5:30 p.m., we found both I-91 and US-5 at a near standstill, so headed west on a mostly dirt-road route to Greensboro, then west on VT-15 toward the Burlington area. Just west of Hardwick on VT-15, we encountered a line of stopped cars in the opposite (eastbound) lane that stretched for six or seven miles -- people who I believe were trying to get south and east to I-89 or I-91.
After bathroom and food stops, we eventually headed south from the Burlington area about 9 p.m., and even then US-7, although moving mostly at 40-50 mph, had a line of southbound cars as far as I could see fore and aft, and more amazingly, so did VT-22A, all the way down to the NYS line south of Fair Haven, which we reached after 11 p.m.
So, although I don't think it would have worked well for my group, I do think you made the right choice in going car-free.
xzperu42
Service Attendant
Was trying to upload a couple of photos from Montreal, but having issues, so 2 posts 
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xzperu42
Service Attendant
Starlight to (a first time) Eagle. Based in San Marcos and drove out to Pedernales Falls for the day.
The cloud cover added and subtracted from the viewing. Both during the partial and total times we could see the eclipse about 50% of the time, sometimes clearly. We got to observe corona and flares . . . and of course the animal behavior and darkness.
What I had not taken in before was that there was a 360-degree crepuscule on the horizon. You really can understand how an ancient could feel singled out for a divine message.
The cloud cover added and subtracted from the viewing. Both during the partial and total times we could see the eclipse about 50% of the time, sometimes clearly. We got to observe corona and flares . . . and of course the animal behavior and darkness.
What I had not taken in before was that there was a 360-degree crepuscule on the horizon. You really can understand how an ancient could feel singled out for a divine message.
My original eclipse trip was south station to Depew New York and then decide what to do from Depew if anything. Buffalo had the best totality of any of the cities in the northeast that would’ve cost me $160 bare-bones Amtrak and maybe another $40 for Lyft drivers, and if the Depew Station wouldn’t allow sleeping, then the motel I stayed at last year was just fine at $80. So Buffalo would’ve been between $160 plus to about $300.
My next choice was going to Montpelier Vermont and staying over at a hotel where prices were going through the roof. Montpelier would’ve been a little bit tricky going south station to New Haven then to Montpelier. Montpelier had a very nice view of the eclipse, but it really turned me off when one of the B&Bs went for $700.
So inside me I wanted to go to the eclipse and staying over was not an option for me. On the Friday before the eclipse I heard an NPR story about Houlton and how welcoming they wanted to pay so on Sunday the weather was right. I’ll check my car out and early Monday morning I took off for Houlton.
Dumb Luck I got off of interstate 95 as I was rocketing towards Houlton with tons and tons of other cars. I could not bear any longer not to have my McDonald’s iced coffee. However, the McDonald’s was about 6 miles away and I wasn’t happy about that then instead of Doubling back, Google maps routed me on a back road for 75 miles. Not only was no one on the back road that brought me in to the other side of Houltonn.
No cars were on the other side of Holton interstate 95 was feeding a gigantic parking lot, but instead I had a parking in my car stones throw from the whole event that I had ready for us. On the way to Holden there were North South train tracks wondering if ever for passengers.
As I said, I arrived into Holton and there is virtually no traffic and so I just park my car and walked a block and that’s where it all so happening. I would say maybe 5000 people.
Two hours prior to the eclipse I noticed no one was sitting on the steps of the portico for the Elks Lodge, number 805, and two beautiful solid onyx benches.Two hours prior to the eclipse I noticed no one was sitting on the steps of the portico for the Elks Lodge, number 805, and two beautiful solid Onyx benches Soon I would witnesss an onyx moon for 3m18s.
It was definitely fun experiencing the eclipse with so many people although half the people ran to their cars before the eclipse began - because they wanted to takeoff right away. I walked over to my car and waited in line for just a minute or two to make a left turn, and then I made a right turn. There was a lot of police gathered at various entry points, including the entry port of the Canadian border, which was covered by four cruisers. A stopped roll the window down showed one of the police officers, showed my passport, and said that I was going to drive to Saint Andrews.
I decided to have dinner at a fine Thai restaurant in Woodstock, New Brunswick Canada, but then found myself having to travel south to Saint Andrew mostly in the dark. Motels in Saint Andrews turned out to be a bust. I just headed to Calais where the very nice border patrol person Mention two motels but not too highly. So I’ve been to a camp just south of there before and it’s a very nice little place and that’s why I pulled in all the feedback and woke up for sunrise.
At the event in Holton, there was regular drumming from an indigenous group. And on the portico where I was seated, there is maybe 20 or so indigenous folks. No one talked much…
My next choice was going to Montpelier Vermont and staying over at a hotel where prices were going through the roof. Montpelier would’ve been a little bit tricky going south station to New Haven then to Montpelier. Montpelier had a very nice view of the eclipse, but it really turned me off when one of the B&Bs went for $700.
So inside me I wanted to go to the eclipse and staying over was not an option for me. On the Friday before the eclipse I heard an NPR story about Houlton and how welcoming they wanted to pay so on Sunday the weather was right. I’ll check my car out and early Monday morning I took off for Houlton.
Dumb Luck I got off of interstate 95 as I was rocketing towards Houlton with tons and tons of other cars. I could not bear any longer not to have my McDonald’s iced coffee. However, the McDonald’s was about 6 miles away and I wasn’t happy about that then instead of Doubling back, Google maps routed me on a back road for 75 miles. Not only was no one on the back road that brought me in to the other side of Houltonn.
No cars were on the other side of Holton interstate 95 was feeding a gigantic parking lot, but instead I had a parking in my car stones throw from the whole event that I had ready for us. On the way to Holden there were North South train tracks wondering if ever for passengers.
As I said, I arrived into Holton and there is virtually no traffic and so I just park my car and walked a block and that’s where it all so happening. I would say maybe 5000 people.
Two hours prior to the eclipse I noticed no one was sitting on the steps of the portico for the Elks Lodge, number 805, and two beautiful solid onyx benches.Two hours prior to the eclipse I noticed no one was sitting on the steps of the portico for the Elks Lodge, number 805, and two beautiful solid Onyx benches Soon I would witnesss an onyx moon for 3m18s.
It was definitely fun experiencing the eclipse with so many people although half the people ran to their cars before the eclipse began - because they wanted to takeoff right away. I walked over to my car and waited in line for just a minute or two to make a left turn, and then I made a right turn. There was a lot of police gathered at various entry points, including the entry port of the Canadian border, which was covered by four cruisers. A stopped roll the window down showed one of the police officers, showed my passport, and said that I was going to drive to Saint Andrews.
I decided to have dinner at a fine Thai restaurant in Woodstock, New Brunswick Canada, but then found myself having to travel south to Saint Andrew mostly in the dark. Motels in Saint Andrews turned out to be a bust. I just headed to Calais where the very nice border patrol person Mention two motels but not too highly. So I’ve been to a camp just south of there before and it’s a very nice little place and that’s why I pulled in all the feedback and woke up for sunrise.
At the event in Holton, there was regular drumming from an indigenous group. And on the portico where I was seated, there is maybe 20 or so indigenous folks. No one talked much…
mwmnp
Service Attendant
I guess I could mention that I was on the 391/392 combo from Chicago to Carbondale and back on the day of the eclipse. That's how I knew of the schedule adjustment the day the change was made.
Going down, a crew from CBS 2 Chicago was roaming about the boarding line and platform at Chicago Union Station, getting video of eclipse watchers about to board the train. The Charger locomotive had SPECIAL written out on its display. I was seated in the last car, one of the three cars that otherwise would have been along for the ride to maintain CN's axle-count requirement had Amtrak not announced several days beforehand that they would open up an extra car to increase capacity on this trip. As the Trains article about the increased capacity predicted, the additional car was a coach-café. It was spotlessly clean and in great shape from what I could tell.
The train, as noted, was fully sold out. The conductors filled up three cars just with people going from Chicago to Carbondale. The remaining two operational cars were used either for "shorts" or people headed to Carbondale from stations beyond Chicago. Homewood and Champaign seemed to be the only places where we took on sizeable numbers of people. There were also a fair number of people traveling to Champaign, unfussed about the eclipse, I guess.
The train was essentially on time until we got to Laclede, where we had to stop for a while to let a slow CN freight train ahead of us get in between the switches at Tonti so we could run around them there. That whole process set us back about 30 minutes, a delay that couldn't be made up by Carbondale. Nevertheless, thanks to the adjusted schedule, we still arrived in Carbondale with plenty of time to spare before totality.
Arriving in Carbondale was fun. There were a lot of people with chairs or beach blankets set up to watch the eclipse from the open space just north of the station. Many were waving to us as the train slowed down on arrival. At the station, there were Amtrak personnel welcoming us to Carbondale. They also had complimentary eclipse glasses and bottles of water available. Local businesses and the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce had turned the street surrounding the station into a festive atmosphere.
In the evening, the soon-to-be-replaced, undersized Carbondale Amtrak station was packed inside and out with people waiting to board train 392. An Amtrak VP for, I believe, Midwest operations was there. He made an announcement over the speaker thanking us for traveling to the eclipse via Amtrak. The station agent was welcoming people to come grab the remaining complimentary bottles of water. In spite of all the people, Amtrak employees loaded everyone on the train in an efficient manner and we departed on time.
Riders going to Chicago or Homewood were placed into one of three cars. Many people who had taken the train down earlier in the day were doing what I was and taking the train back the same day, though there were also a good number of people who had stayed a night or two in Carbondale beforehand.
We took on big groups of presumptive eclipse watchers at Du Quoin and Centralia, both of which were also in the path of totality. By Centralia, people traveling as a group were being told they could sit in the SSL at the front of the train that was there for the axle-count. Past Effingham, which was right on the edge of totality, there appeared to be few or no people boarding at any of the stations except for perhaps Champaign, but there were people exiting the train along most of the route.
Anyone familiar with this route may know that the tracks parallel Interstate 57 rather closely for roughly 200 miles from north of Centralia to the outer suburbs of Chicago. I had heard numerous times that roads heading to Chicago were jam packed with traffic following the 2017 eclipse, during which the path of totality also happened to pass through southern Illinois. I would occasionally glance out the windows to see if I could see traffic conditions on the interstate. Most of the time, what I could see was that the northbound lanes, while not bumper-to-bumper, did indeed have a heavy number of vehicles. Additionally, we were traveling notably faster than they were, not just slightly faster as might be expected by the 79 mph rail limit vs. 70 mph interstate limit.
Some minor freight train interference and a few longer-than-scheduled station stops due to the number of people leaving the train put us about 30 minutes behind schedule after Kankakee. Nonetheless, with no major delays past that point, and about 20 minutes of padding in 392’s scheduled Chicago arrival, we arrived at Chicago Union Station only about 10 minutes late.
All in all, the Saluki and Illini proved to be quite an enjoyable, comfortable, and useful means to view the total solar eclipse.
Going down, a crew from CBS 2 Chicago was roaming about the boarding line and platform at Chicago Union Station, getting video of eclipse watchers about to board the train. The Charger locomotive had SPECIAL written out on its display. I was seated in the last car, one of the three cars that otherwise would have been along for the ride to maintain CN's axle-count requirement had Amtrak not announced several days beforehand that they would open up an extra car to increase capacity on this trip. As the Trains article about the increased capacity predicted, the additional car was a coach-café. It was spotlessly clean and in great shape from what I could tell.
The train, as noted, was fully sold out. The conductors filled up three cars just with people going from Chicago to Carbondale. The remaining two operational cars were used either for "shorts" or people headed to Carbondale from stations beyond Chicago. Homewood and Champaign seemed to be the only places where we took on sizeable numbers of people. There were also a fair number of people traveling to Champaign, unfussed about the eclipse, I guess.
The train was essentially on time until we got to Laclede, where we had to stop for a while to let a slow CN freight train ahead of us get in between the switches at Tonti so we could run around them there. That whole process set us back about 30 minutes, a delay that couldn't be made up by Carbondale. Nevertheless, thanks to the adjusted schedule, we still arrived in Carbondale with plenty of time to spare before totality.
Arriving in Carbondale was fun. There were a lot of people with chairs or beach blankets set up to watch the eclipse from the open space just north of the station. Many were waving to us as the train slowed down on arrival. At the station, there were Amtrak personnel welcoming us to Carbondale. They also had complimentary eclipse glasses and bottles of water available. Local businesses and the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce had turned the street surrounding the station into a festive atmosphere.
In the evening, the soon-to-be-replaced, undersized Carbondale Amtrak station was packed inside and out with people waiting to board train 392. An Amtrak VP for, I believe, Midwest operations was there. He made an announcement over the speaker thanking us for traveling to the eclipse via Amtrak. The station agent was welcoming people to come grab the remaining complimentary bottles of water. In spite of all the people, Amtrak employees loaded everyone on the train in an efficient manner and we departed on time.
Riders going to Chicago or Homewood were placed into one of three cars. Many people who had taken the train down earlier in the day were doing what I was and taking the train back the same day, though there were also a good number of people who had stayed a night or two in Carbondale beforehand.
We took on big groups of presumptive eclipse watchers at Du Quoin and Centralia, both of which were also in the path of totality. By Centralia, people traveling as a group were being told they could sit in the SSL at the front of the train that was there for the axle-count. Past Effingham, which was right on the edge of totality, there appeared to be few or no people boarding at any of the stations except for perhaps Champaign, but there were people exiting the train along most of the route.
Anyone familiar with this route may know that the tracks parallel Interstate 57 rather closely for roughly 200 miles from north of Centralia to the outer suburbs of Chicago. I had heard numerous times that roads heading to Chicago were jam packed with traffic following the 2017 eclipse, during which the path of totality also happened to pass through southern Illinois. I would occasionally glance out the windows to see if I could see traffic conditions on the interstate. Most of the time, what I could see was that the northbound lanes, while not bumper-to-bumper, did indeed have a heavy number of vehicles. Additionally, we were traveling notably faster than they were, not just slightly faster as might be expected by the 79 mph rail limit vs. 70 mph interstate limit.
Some minor freight train interference and a few longer-than-scheduled station stops due to the number of people leaving the train put us about 30 minutes behind schedule after Kankakee. Nonetheless, with no major delays past that point, and about 20 minutes of padding in 392’s scheduled Chicago arrival, we arrived at Chicago Union Station only about 10 minutes late.
All in all, the Saluki and Illini proved to be quite an enjoyable, comfortable, and useful means to view the total solar eclipse.
Kudos to Amtrak for their handling of this. Perhaps there might be some new riders as a result of a good train experience by those who otherwise might not have considered going by train.
