# Day Trip Niagara Falls to Albany and back.



## Long Train Runnin' (Dec 4, 2010)

There were a lot of reasons to take this trip today. I’d been 2 weeks since I last rode Amtrak :lol: I am very close on the take ten trip promo, and I am also getting very close to reaching select plus. Now that sounds like enough reasons to jump on a train to me! Personally I would have preferred boarding the Lakeshore Limited in Buffalo around midnight, then spending a few hours in Cleveland, OH, and catching the Lakeshore back to Buffalo. However, the take 10 trips promo requires a minimum of 40 dollars to be spent on each segment, so I had to work with what I could.

Train 284 is scheduled to leave Niagara Falls, NY at 6:40 AM, so naturally instead of getting up early I just stayed up all night. I spent the evening with a few of my friends, and filled in the rest of time on the internet. At 5:30 I took a shower, and packed a few things for my day trip on the rails. It’s only a 5 minute drive from my school to the train station, so I arrived with plenty of time to spare. I had gotten both legs of my trip upgraded to business class using 2 of my AGR coupon the ticket agent didn’t seem to interested in collecting them, so I of course held on to them.

At 6:25 the station agent told everyone it was okay to board, and informed me I was the only business class passenger. Which meant I had absolutely no trouble in getting a single seat with a good window, and for a little while experience the rather strange feeling of sitting in an otherwise empty train car. We departed Niagara Falls 13 minutes late for no apparent reason. It didn’t take long for my restless night to catch up with me, I dozed off almost immediately following our departure from Niagara, and awoke as we picking up passengers at Buffalo-Depew. Talk about snow there were several feet on the ground in the area around the train station. Come to think of it the train station is only a couple miles from where they had the thruway closed the other day. It was quite amazing to see that many feet of snow piled up on the side of roads.

A few minutes later I went to the café car where the LSA told me I could have ONE free drink. I asked for a hot tea, and he at least agreed with me that he could refill my cup with hot water as many times as I would like. I was kind of bummed since other than his interpretation of the free drink policy he was a very nice guy. I guess it’s also worth mentioning that there were no newspapers offered. I don’t really mind I really upgrade for the luxury of having a single seat, and an amazing amount of legroom to stretch out.

Well I stretched out and very quickly the trip evaporated. I slept straight through to Rochester where although I don’t remember doing so I pulled out my laptop, and fired up my GPS tracking software, and my battery died somewhere east of Rochester, NY. The next thing I remember is waking up about 5 minutes outside of Schenectady, and realizing we were actually on time which was an amazing stroke of luck considering my luck on the Empire Corridor. I really didn’t want to spend 3 hours in Rensselaer, so I checked on train 281, and it was running 46 minutes late. Perfect I knew I should have no problem getting a ticket on 281 even it meant paying more. We arrived right at 1:05, and I headed straight upstairs.

This was only my second time inside the station, the first was for less then 2 minutes when I was bussed from Montreal to Albany, and put on a train from Albany to New York Penn Station. So, I guess it was more like my first time in the station :lol: I had no problem locating the ticket agents, and was quite surprised that the agent handed me a business class ticket on 281 which I guess was still in the low bucket. I was pretty excited with my luck, and with my new ticket in hand I began my self guided tour of the station. Although there wasn’t a place to have a real meal I really liked what I saw. In terms of newer stations I think they did a really nice job with it. The entire station was very clean including the restrooms. The train kept loosing time which didn’t really surprise me as I’ve heard over and over on AU late trains only get later :lol: , but hey compared to today’s Empire Builder, and Southwest Chief I’d say train 281 is doing just fine. We left Albany roughly 90 minutes down since there were 2 P32 Dual Mode locomotives on point, which we swapped for a single P42.

There were 2 empty seats in BC and luckily it was a row, so for the moment anyway I don’t have a seatmate. We arrived in Schenectady at 2:41 PM 86 minutes late. I really don’t mind because even with the delay being on train 281 still has me hours ahead of my original schedule. I was quite happy with my 54 minute layover in “Albany” as opposed to my planned 3 hour wait. Since the “Albany” train station is nowhere close to downtown Albany the only things I found near the station were, a subway restaurant that was based on google maps would have been a pretty decent hike, and the Rensselaer public library. Nothing I will regret not seeing on my trip.

We kept on heading west even though things got pretty slow for awhile outside of Utica, because of some freight interference. As we were doing our station work in Utica the Adirondack Scenic Railroad’s Polar Express was just boarding.

I lost track of time as I began writing this report as well as working on school work, and listening to a Led Zeppelin bootleg I’d been meaning to listen to. We arrived in Rome one hour and 50 minutes late. I kept plugging away on my computer as the sunset, and before I knew it we were pulling into Syracuse 1 hour and 48 minutes late. After the station stop I decided it was time to have dinner, and headed to the café car. The attendant was missing in action, so I took a seat in the empty lounge car, and waited. A few minutes later he returned from one of the coaches, and apologized for his absences. I hadn’t been paying attention, but he must have been gone for awhile because when others saw I had his attention 4 or 5 people got up to order things.

I ordered a cheeseburger, and sat down with it a table away from the conductor. He made it very clear he wasn’t interested in talking to me, oh well. I finished my burger, and returned to my seat. The conductor at least told me that we should be getting to Niagara Falls around 9 PM. Meaning I still had 3 hours left onboard.

At 7:02 the conductor made announcement that certainly elevated my heart rate. He said that there was a disabled freight train in front of us, and we will be holding until dispatch gives us instructions. I suddenly had visions of sitting just outside of Rochester for hours. Somehow we only sat for about 15 minutes, and were on our way again.

I failed to note the time we arrived in Buffalo-Depew but we arrived at Buffalo Exchange Street at 8:04 PM which was exactly 2 hours late. I had to remind myself that I was still hours ahead of my original schedule and I was sure glad I wasn’t on train 283. There are 3 people here in the business class car that are going all the way to Niagara Falls.

Just as the conductor predicted a few hours ago we backed in, and stopped half a car length from the bumper at 8:55 PM. We were something like 1 hour and 40 minutes late. It was something like 22 degrees outside and according to my phone the temperature with wind chill was 11 degrees. I walked quickly to my car, and was back in my dorm room by 9:10. It was a long but very fun day on the train. I was lucky getting 2 BC upgrades, and lucky to catch train 281.

Sorry I didn’t bring my camera along on this trip since I was traveling light, and bringing a DSLR hard qualifies as keeping things light :lol:

Thanks for reading!


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## Tracktwentynine (Dec 4, 2010)

Thanks for the report. Sounds like a fun trip. One of these days, I'm going to ride the Empire Corridor.


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## abcnews (Dec 4, 2010)

Great trip report... As I started reading this, I thought for just a moment, that you might sleep through the entire trip. Glad to see that you woke up...


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## jimhudson (Dec 5, 2010)

Nice point run Stephen! Too bad you have to spend the winter up in the Snow Capitol of America but at leastr there are daily trains in both directions to get away, do point runs, go home etc. And as to the staying up all night, at your age it's easy, at mine Id probably sleep the whole way! Good snag on the Biz Class, sounds like the New York Conductors are still living up to their billing!  BTW-Remember to do some studying for school once in awhile, not just train related stuff! :lol:


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## pennyk (Dec 5, 2010)

Great trip report Steven. Even though my train choices here in Florida are limited, I would rather be here than there this time of year. (even though seeing snow through the train window sounds nice, but getting there is not easy)

Don't forgot to study for exams!


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## Pastor Dave (Dec 5, 2010)

LTR,

Appreciate the report. As much as I enjoy LD travel with a roomette or bedroom, some of my most memorable trips have been on short-distance turnarounds. Sounds like you had a good experience.

Dave


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## guest lsa (Dec 5, 2010)

hey it sound like you had good trip. Now that I am on lakeshore limited I am hoping one day I run into on my train (ps I wont be back to work until mid jan.)


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## the_traveler (Dec 5, 2010)

jimhudson said:


> Too bad you have to spend the winter up in the Snow Capitol of America


FYI Jim - the real heavy snow belt areas are from Buffalo south. Niagara Falls is north of BUF. I'm not saying it doesn't get it's fair share, but not as much as areas south!






I know you Texas boys call 1/2" a major snow storm!


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## jimhudson (Dec 6, 2010)

the_traveler said:


> jimhudson said:
> 
> 
> > Too bad you have to spend the winter up in the Snow Capitol of America
> ...


 Thought you were the one that told me that Dallas had more snow last winter thasn Rhode Island!


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## the_traveler (Dec 6, 2010)

jimhudson said:


> Thought you were the one that told me that Dallas had more snow last winter thasn Rhode Island!


That;s very true, but most of last winter, RI had brown grass, and except for 1 "major" storm of 8-12", most "storms" IIRC were less than 1/2"!

In the snow belts south of Buffalo, 3-6" is a daily event, and 15" is a "light snow"!


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## Long Train Runnin' (Dec 6, 2010)

Thanks everyone for the kind words.

Today Niagara Falls got its first dose of a real storm. I think there is around 8 inches on the ground.


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## Shanghai (Dec 6, 2010)

*Good report Stephen. I thought you were going to sleep through the Albany stop and wake up at NYP!!*

*Did you make your 10 trips for 10,000 points??*

*You should be able to make some good money with 8 inches of snow.*


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## GG-1 (Dec 8, 2010)

Long Train Runnin said:


> There were a lot of reasons to take this trip today. I'd been 2 weeks since I last rode Amtrak :lol: I am very close on the take ten trip promo, and I am also getting very close to reaching select plus. Now that sounds like enough reasons to jump on a train to me!


Aloha

Gee LTR is starting to sound like ??????? oh The_Travler. :lol:  :lol:  :lol:


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## the_traveler (Dec 8, 2010)

GG-1 said:


> Long Train Runnin said:
> 
> 
> > There were a lot of reasons to take this trip today. I'd been 2 weeks since I last rode Amtrak :lol:
> ...


I resemble that remark!





But I'm doing better - I've gone *THREE* whole week!



But I know it won't last!


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## Long Train Runnin' (Dec 9, 2010)

Thanks everyone for the nice comments. It was certainly a nice day, I was just bummed I rode all that way, and had to jump off in Albany, and miss the best scenery on the line I'm sure glad I caught that earlier train Rensselaer would have been a pretty drab place to spend 3 hours.

1 more trip, and I'll hit the 10 for 10 promo.

2 more acela round trips, and I'll hit select plus.

Its been quite an amazing year on the rails to say the least. Last December I had traveled on Amtrak roughly 15,000 miles in my life. This year alone I have logged 16,027 miles! Its going to be hard to top this year in terms of miles traveled and routes covered.


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## Shanghai (Dec 9, 2010)

*Congratulations Stephen. I hope your Acela trips work out well for you later this month.*

*Just remember if you need directions, Penny will be happy to help!!*


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