# Riding the City of New Orleans



## saxman (May 10, 2008)

I'm going to try and add pictures in my website. But I wanted to get the report up first.

I’ve decided I need to write more trip reports, so I figured I’d write them while in route, so I remember what happened.

This trip will take me on the City of New Orleans from New Orleans to Chicago. I found a good deal on a sleeper, so I decided to grab it a few weeks ago. I’m now sitting here in the Loyola Room at New Orleans Union Station waiting to board my Chicago bound train. I got up at about six this morning to make an early flight from DFW to MSY, and then caught a city bus from the airport to downtown. It was pretty easy and well worth the dollar-sixty I paid rather than $30 for a cab. This will be my first time to ride the City, so I’m excited to see new things. After this I will have ridden all of Amtrak’s long distance trains, although not all from end to end. That will be a work in progress. I have room 3 booked on today’s 1:45 departure, in the 5800 car. I’ll arrive tomorrow in Chicago, scheduled to arrive at 9:00 AM. We will see how close that is.

Well now I’m sitting on the train in the middle of the bayou between New Orleans and Hammond, waiting to pass a freight. After boarding my sleeper car and finding my room I took several pictures before leaving. I got roomette number 3. It’s pretty close to the center of the car, so not too much wheel noise. This train is also pretty short, now that they’ve replaced the lounge and diner with the “Cross Country Café.” In consist is one P42 locomotive, transition sleeper, sleeper, CCC, and two coaches. So only 5 cars long. We’ve just started moving again and I’m watching all the Cajun folks pass by with their small houses scattered along the bayous, with their boats along side.

It is the next morning aboard the City of New Orleans. I just returned from breakfast. Last night I also had dinner with a six o’clock reservation. I sat with an elderly couple who were going to a military reunion in Kansas City. Turns out he was in Pearl Harbor during the attack in 1941. If I had to guess, he was in his 70’s, until he told me he was actually 90. He looked pretty good though. For dinner I had the flat iron steak. It was pretty good, nice and rare. That came with green beans and a baked potato. Then I had the red velvet cake for dessert. It was very rich. After dinner, it was starting to get dark, so I pulled up the movie Dodgeball on my iPhone and watched it. I also got my car attendant to fold down my bed for the night. It was here, we started to lose time. After leaving Greenwood, MS, they said the new conductor had not gotten his federally mandated rest, so we would have to wait about 35 minutes for him to become legal. Ok no big deal. But somehow throughout the night, we lost another 3 hours and did not leave Memphis until 1:35 AM!

I awoke here in Southern Illinois just south of Carbondale. I was up around 6:30 and I headed for breakfast. I sat by myself, and had the omelet with olives, red peppers, and artichoke hearts. It was pretty good along with sausage and hashbrowns. We pulled into Carbondale during this time. This is where Southern Illinois University is located. I had several friends that went through their aviation program. I’ve heard good things about it. We left nearly 4 hours late. Hopefully we make it to Chicago before noon. I’d like to catch a flight to New York!

Now I am writing a few days after I got to Chicago. After Carbondale, we never really gained much time nor lost much more either. Since we were so late, the crew was nice enough to feed us lunch to the entire train. The chef whipped up some beef stew and rice for us all. It was actually pretty good, and tasted homemade, as I’m sure it was. It’s kind of nice to have a home cooked meal on the train.

As we approached Chicago, I knew I was already going to miss my planned flight to New York. This would give me time to run by my crashpad in Queens, to grab some Euros I had stashed there. That night I was planning on catching a flight to Amsterdam. Well since I was on the one City of New Orleans that was 5 hours late, I had to go to plan B. My new iPhone comes in handy when I need to check flight times. I figured I could catch the 4 pm JetBlue flight from ORD to JFK and still make the Amsterdam flight. However, I would not have time to run to my crashpad to grab my Euros. I would just have to live with using ATM’s when I got there. Turns out Amtrak would lose a little more time and I would barely make even that JetBlue flight. Finally the Sear Tower and downtown Chicago came in sight as we came in over the St. Charles Airline. This rail line come in Chicago from the southeast and turns west out over the Amtrak and Metra yards. It was a great photo op. After crossing the bridge, we then back into the station crossing back under the bridge we came in on. I knew we didn’t I was cutting it close as far as time. I like to be cheap and wanted only to pay the $2 fare it is to take the El to O’hare. I knew it would take at least 45 minutes to do that trip. Luckily I made it on time and was able to skip the long security line using my employee ID. I made it to the JetBlue gate with time to spear and even ran into a flight attendant I had flown with before. She was trying to get to work while I said I was just out having fun.

Well I made it to JFK a couple hours later, and make my flight to Amsterdam with about an hour to spear. And that trip is for another story. 

Here's my web gallery. Click on the City of New Orleans. I plan on posting all my trips, so feel free to visit those too.


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## RRrich (May 11, 2008)

We boarded CONO on Friday, 5/9 in NOL and arrived in CHI 5/10 at about 930AM, not late at all.

Were we on the same train?????? We were in Room A of the 5800 car.Did they serve you lunch leaving NOL??


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## saxman (May 11, 2008)

RRrich said:


> We boarded CONO on Friday, 5/9 in NOL and arrived in CHI 5/10 at about 930AM, not late at all.
> Were we on the same train?????? We were in Room A of the 5800 car.Did they serve you lunch leaving NOL??


No this was April 23rd and 24th. No, we did not get lunch NOL. One person said we would, but we did not.


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## Radparker (May 27, 2008)

I have a suspicion that the beef stew is Dinty Moore's finest. 

This isn't the first time somebody's mentioned being fed beef stew + rice on a train that was long delayed. I suspect it's emergency food that they can get easily.


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