# Just Married



## Ryan (Apr 18, 2010)

First, the reason for the trip:





We're starting on 51, we rolled out one minute early by my watch. Waiting in the Club Acela was nice, but I was a bit surprised on the prohibition on outside food and drink - it would be nice to be able to get a meal and enjoy it in peace if you were to have a longer wait.


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## MrEd (Apr 18, 2010)

congratulations.


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## JayPea (Apr 18, 2010)

Congratulations! That's a mighty fine reason for a trip!!!


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## Bill Haithcoat (Apr 18, 2010)

Congrats and best wishes.


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## Bob Dylan (Apr 18, 2010)

Ryan said:


> First, the reason for the trip:
> 
> 
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> ...


Congrats to you both! The bride is beautiful, the groom was there!(typical newspaper story re weddings!)Ive noticed that WAS seems to be the pickiest about bringing food and drink into the lounge, they wouldnt even let me bring in a Diet Coke from the food court! :blink:

Hope the trip is great, what a neat way to start a life together,my late wife and I did this in Canada and it's very cool!Please give us a trip report upon return without the personal details!   :lol:


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## the_traveler (Apr 18, 2010)

Congratulations to you both. Let me know when you roll into PDX! 



jimhudson said:


> my late wife and I did this in Canada and it's very cool!


Everything in Canada is cool much of the time - even the weather may get cold sometimes! :lol:


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## GG-1 (Apr 18, 2010)

the_traveler said:


> Congratulations to you both. Let me know when you roll into PDX!
> 
> 
> jimhudson said:
> ...


Aloha

Beside the congratulations, I must comment about LOL caused by Traveler and his comments, he has such a delightful warped mind.  :lol: 

Mahalo


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## Ryan (Apr 18, 2010)

Day 1:

380 miles behind us, we're about 40 minutes down arriving into Charleston. We sat for about 10 minutes at Afton waiting to meet 50 coming down the mountain, the other ~30 minutes of delay when we arrived in Clifton Forge and had to wait around on some CSX traffic. Our TAS apparently comes off the extra board, they told him to jump on 51 as soon as he walked into the crew base in New York. We haven't seen him since (not a problem, we told him at the beginning that we were going to be pretty low maintenance). Being 40 minutes down really put us on the edge of enjoying the New River Gorge, the sights were fantastic, but the pictures not so much because of the low light.

Stats (courtesy of my GPS):

Moving Average: 45 MPH

Overall Average: 40.5 MPH

8h30 moving time and 54 minutes (and counting) stopped.

Meals:

Lunch: Cheeseburger (her), Chicken Sandwich (me). Both delicious, the server was attentive and friendly.

Dinner: Braised Beef (her), Chicken breast w/ Pecan glaze and wild rice. Again, both delicious and the same great service.


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## Ryan (Apr 19, 2010)

First cut at pictures from the first leg from the Met Lounge in CHI.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rstavely/sets...57623766066795/

A trip up the Willis Tower, a belly full of Giordano's, the Empire Builder to look forward to. What's not to love? 

The rest of the run into Chicago was uneventful, with an on time arrival. We grew 2 cars in length while parked at Indy, from the inside they looked like Horizon coaches, I didn't make it back to check them out when we detrained.

I'm also about 60 pages into "Waiting On A Train", which is a great read (and an even better one from a train). So far everyone's advice has been spot on, thanks!!!


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## GG-1 (Apr 19, 2010)

Aloha

Nice Pictures, hope shortly you add comments, some were not obvious as where and what they were. That glass box sure give an interesting view.

Mahalo


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## Ryan (Apr 19, 2010)

I'm going to start working on that slowly - wanted to get the heavy lifting of uploading done while I had the free Wifi in the lounge.


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## sunchaser (Apr 20, 2010)

Congratulations! I hope you two have a wonderful honeymoon & great life together!!


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## Ryan (Apr 21, 2010)

40 more pictures added to the above link, with some labels. Some of them I'm going to have to pull the GPS and compare timestamps to figure out where the heck they are. Wishing that I had a GP-1 to attach to my camera to geotag everything.

My favorite:





There's a short stretch of I-5 just north of Portland that the Cascades run down the middle of - through sheer awesome timing, the train rolled out into that section about 1/2 mile in front of us. Like any good railfan, I mashed the accelerator, yelled for Amy to grab my camera from the back seat and get to work! We quickly caught up, and were suitably rewarded... 

Nothing really exciting to report, other than an on-time trip on the EB. Delicious steak for two nights, met some real nice folks, and Glacier National Park was incredible - I think that I've even gotten Amy to buy off on a 24 hours layover at Essex the next time through...


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## had8ley (Apr 22, 2010)

Ryan said:


> First, the reason for the trip:
> We're starting on 51, we rolled out one minute early by my watch. Waiting in the Club Acela was nice, but I was a bit surprised on the prohibition on outside food and drink - it would be nice to be able to get a meal and enjoy it in peace if you were to have a longer wait.


Congratulations to the both of you. may you enjoy many happy years. I'm so happy I stopped counting :lol: :lol: :lol:

BTW, Amtrak had gotten hit with an FDA order concerning rats in train cars and refrigeration in lounge cars some years back; I think they're still reeling from the Federal scolding so that may be why outside goodies are no-nos


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## Bob Dylan (Apr 22, 2010)

had8ley said:


> Ryan said:
> 
> 
> > First, the reason for the trip:
> ...


Was that OBS or pax Jay? :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## had8ley (Apr 23, 2010)

jimhudson said:


> had8ley said:
> 
> 
> > Ryan said:
> ...


Amtrak used to give out "Snax Pax" as part of the sleeper package. People would half eat the cheese crackers, beef jerky and other food stuffs and deposit them on the sleeper floors. Eventually the rodents got wise and found an unending food supply. As far as the lounge cars go they were finding spoiled food (I'm told there was a LOT of out of date products) in addition to improper temperatures with which to maintain the food in the fridges. So Jim this looks like a 50/50 proposition.


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## Ryan (Apr 26, 2010)

I'll fill in the blanks when I write up my full trip report, but a quick update from the SB Coast Starlight...

Got underway about 20 minutes late this morning from SEA, there was an unspecified problem with the train in the yard that prevented them from bringing it up on time. We made up the 20 minutes before getting to PDX, where we made our first service stop. Just north of Oregon City we tripped a defect detector, after walking the train nothing was found and we proceeded south to make an unscheduled stop at Oregon City to put off a passenger that was supposed to depart in PDX but didn't for some reason (as a crewmember said on the radio, "it's an easy stop to miss, we were only sitting there for 25 minutes!").

I'm assuming that the lady is likely on her own to find her way back up to Portland, I would hope that Amtrak wouldn't pick up the tab for a cab ride back to the city?


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## the_traveler (Apr 26, 2010)

Ryan said:


> I'm assuming that the lady is likely on her own to find her way back up to Portland, I would hope that Amtrak wouldn't pick up the tab for a cab ride back to the city?


There are a few Cascade runs that come from Eugene snd Salem that make a stop in Oregon City headed back to PDX.


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## Ryan (Apr 29, 2010)

So we're 4 hours down on the Chief because of high winds, facing a 3h20 min layover in Chicago to the Capital Limited.

Option 1: Late trains just get later, and we're hosed.

Option 2: We've got 24 hours to make up time, we'll make the connection.

Discuss!!!


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## Bob Dylan (Apr 29, 2010)

Ryan said:


> So we're 4 hours down on the Chief because of high winds, facing a 3h20 min layover in Chicago to the Capital Limited.
> Option 1: Late trains just get later, and we're hosed.
> 
> Option 2: We've got 24 hours to make up time, we'll make the connection.
> ...


Now showing 4 Hours down in Raton,NM!  I saw on trainorders that High Winds were affecting Western trains, probably gonna be hard to make up 4 HRS to CHI, perhaps theyll hold the CL for awhile or use the LSL as a clean up train? As you know, if this doesnt work out probably get a nice hotel/cash for taxi/meals etc. in CHI, catch the next days CL! Its still showing rooms available for Sat and Sunday, not sure if yall are on an AGR award or paid but if you have your trip interrupted probably can get a voucher or partial refund from AGR! Gives yall more time on the train for the honeymoon  ! The people in CHI are experts helping with arrangements, they get lots of experience! Hope the diner has enough food so yall dont get "Amstew!" :lol:


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## AlanB (Apr 30, 2010)

jimhudson said:


> Ryan said:
> 
> 
> > So we're 4 hours down on the Chief because of high winds, facing a 3h20 min layover in Chicago to the Capital Limited.
> ...


They don't need to make up 4 hours to make the connection, a hour will do, and that may well be possible on BNSF. Remember that there is a 3 hour 20 minute connection window, so all they really need to make up is 30 to 40 minutes and Amtrak will hold the Capitol for them. But an hour would give them a more relaxed connection and avoid delaying the Cap.

And the padding into Chicago is about an hour and a half anyhow, so as long as BNSF can keep them from losing anymore time, it should be very easy to make up the needed hour for the connection.


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## Bob Dylan (Apr 30, 2010)

Well as usual Alan is correct!  Since so many of our delays down this way are the UP back-of-the-hand to Amtrak, :angry: we forget that BNSF usually treats Amtrak really well! I see as of 1:15AM CDT that they have made up an hour so if everything goes well crossing the praries of Kansas, quick service in KCY, maybe they can make their connection! :unsure: With the weekend coming up and the increasing pasenger loads on the LD trains I know Amtrak will do all they can to make connections including holding the CL if necessary!  Wish BNSF ran all the Amtrak routes, the OTP would really be spot on as compared to the bad old UP who must have learned to hate passenger trains from one of their acquisitions, the SP!


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## AlanB (Apr 30, 2010)

I hate to disapoint you Jim, but believe it or not of late UP is doing just as good as BNSF, if not even better. Here's the stats from Feb 2010.

BNSF:

Empire Builder - 83.9%

Southwest Chief - 91.1%

Up:

Sunset - 83.3%

Eagle - 80.4%

Starlight - 94.6%

Here's the worst performer, a combined BNSF-UP run:

Zephyr - 50.0%

Now, in all fairness, I will say that Amtrak trains on UP have far more recovery time built into their runs by comparison to BNSF, which with the lighter freight traffic is no doubt helping UP out considerably. Here's the breakdowns on recovery minutes per 100 miles of running.

BNSF:

Empire Builder - 9.3

Southwest Chief - 8.9

Up:

Sunset - 15.4

Eagle - 20.8

Starlight - 18.4

Combined:

Zephyr - 12.3


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## Ryan (Apr 30, 2010)

I wrote this up this morning and then couldn't post because I lost service:



> Just woke up in Hutchison, KS - by my "I just woke up" math, we're 3h37 down (time table says 2:21, we departed at 5:57), so we're slowly chipping away at it. I noticed when I downloaded the timetable that 4 has a hew schedule starting on 5/10 that departs 10 minutes later and gets into CHI 10 minutes earlier, so they're taking some of the padding out, but we're going to need it on this trip!!!
> The winds were fearsome in AZ - I'll write it all up when we get home, but we went past a 13 mile backup on the interstate, had to stop and pick up 3 dead on the law BNSF crews outside Winslow and drop them at their crew base there, then add in the wind warnings for us and a dark signal and we had to be sent a relief crew about 40 min outside ABQ. I know that some on here say "Why can't they do better about going dead on the law?", and this crew was on the ball! Lots of conversation between the engineer and the conductor about thier hours, and it sounds like the conductor was in constant phone contact with ABQ and the relief crew once they hit the road. We stopped to pick up the crew about 30 minutes before the old crew died, so kudos to them for being proactive and not causing any further delays.


Now we're in KCY, we got in 3h10 down and are leaving 3h05 behind. Hopefully with a little bit of padding at the end we'll have a leisurely stroll from one train to the next. The conductor just announced that we'll be in at 7PM and "may make up some time", so we'll see.


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## Bob Dylan (Apr 30, 2010)

Sounds like they are going to make it IF there are no long switching/backing etc. moves in CHI! Guess the CL will be held if it's that close, it's always good when you have a scanner and OBS that keep you informed!  (Julie and agents should have such good info!  ) And I'm SHOCKED!SHOCKED! to see UP actually dispatching Amtrak trains in a timely manner!  (Guess the slowdown in freight hasnt turned around that much yet! OR: UP had someone in a position of power lay down the law to the dispatchers to actually follow the law, perhaps Joe Boardman may even be actually doing something in WAS besides making speeches and riding Beech Grove!  ) Be that it may, hope this keeps up, currently weather and vehicle/pedestrian hits train delays seem to be the prevailing reasons for delays/cancellations! trainorders had a post that #27 hit and sent a fisherman to that great boat in the sky yesterday on the way to PDX! I hope they make their connection, sounds promising as of now! (11:05 AM CDT)


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## Ryan (Apr 30, 2010)

Looks like we're going to make it with about an 1805 arrival into CHI.

The conductor got on and just told folks "if you miss your connection, see passenger services in the station and they'll help you out". Rather unhelpful, IMO. Since they'll be just starting to board 30 when we get there I was kind of hoping for them to tell us what track to head to (and how to get there) or something like that. The Met lounge is easy to find, so I guess that we'll be going in the front door and then right out the back to the train...


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## Ryan (Apr 30, 2010)

Arrived CHI 1756.

Seated in car 3000 on 30 at 1806 - WAY TO GO CHI!!!

As an added bonus, we walked past brand spankin' new P40 #821 on her way to WAS after refurb at the Grove. Looks like there's an extra superliner coach and diner lounge on the tail end as well. Pictures at the first daylight smoke stop.


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## Ryan (May 22, 2010)

OK, time to get my butt in gear. Made it through the first chunk of pictures. 61 pictures from WAS to CHI on the Cardinal here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rstavely/sets...57623985957659/

I know that I've said it here a few times already, but I LOVED THE CARDINAL. Hate to see such a great train get a bad rap.

So, the first day of married life started out hectic. We started the day in our hotel in Annapolis, where the wedding was the day before. We had to get up, load the truck with all the junk that seemed to get stashed in our room, leave the tux at the front desk for my best man to come by and get later to return for me, then it was back to the house. Drop old bags, pick up new ones and say goodbye to the kid for 2 weeks (harder than I thought). My sister and her husband live about 10 blocks from Union Station, and were nice enough to make the 30 minute drive out into the suburbs to get Amy and I and haul us to the train station. We arrive comfortably on time around 10:00 for the 11:15 departure (I was an absolute nut over getting to the station and leaving plenty of time for Mr. Murphy to screw things up and still make the train safely. Print tickets, check. The poor lady in font of us in the baggage line tried to check her bag to somewhere in WV, only to discover that the Cardinal did not (yet!) have baggage service - if only she had waited a few weeks). The baggage clerk was only mildly confused by my tickets from WAS-CIN, CIN-CHI, CHI-PDX and took the trouble to make sure that I knew that my bags weren't going to be on the same train as me but would make it to CHI before I did and be checked all the way through to PDX.

I've been in the Club Acela at WAS a handful of times for MARC Rider's Advisory Council meetings, but it was "special" to check into the lounge with first class tickets on an outbound train. We waited a bit, put tags on our backpacks and tied shut the pocket that the CHI-PDX tickets were stashed in (the only thing that scared me more than being late and missing a train was losing a ticket). At the appointed hour, we were walked out to the train and directed to the sleeper on the rear. The lady in front of us seemed a little put off that the car attendant wasn't waiting for us at the door - I helped her get her bag up the stairs and we found our room without issue. Shortly after the attendant appeared, apologized for just coming up to speed and told us that he literally had one foot in the door at the crew base in New York and was told to turn around and get down to the Cardinal. Overall though, he did a fine job - got us some bottled water, put the bed down when we needed (a skill a quickly acquired on my own) and back up when we were at breakfast.

Got the Mobile Command Post (GPS, laptop, jailbroken-tethered iPhone) set up and we departed on time. Not too much to report about the actual trip other than the pictures that I linked. Having the scanner was great, we lost a little bit of time when we came off the Buckingham Branch onto CSX, it seemed like the dispatcher had no idea that were were going to be showing up. Being 40 minutes down meant that it was a little too dark to get decent New River Gorge pictures, but left enough light to enjoy it by. The upper windows in the Viewliner were well used for this stretch. The LSA in the lounge/diner was extremely friendly, the food was tasty and hot, I really couldn't find much to complain about at all.

We arrived in CHI more or less on time - from the GPS, we travelled 913 miles at an overall speed of 38 MPH (23h52 min, 3h06 of which we were stopped for).

Not a bad start to the trip. My goal for the weekend is to process the Chicago and EB pictures and post a brief report this weekend - we'll see if I succeed.


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## Bob Dylan (May 22, 2010)

Great pics, good job Ryan! I agree about the Cardinal, I rode it from CHI-PHL for NTD, can't wait to ride it again and see the pics and report from the rest of yall's great trip!


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## Sue in KY (May 22, 2010)

Ryan -- The purple flowering "bushes" in your Cardinal set are redbud trees -- along with dogwoods, they bloom all over the (usually rural) South in the early spring. The woods behind our house are just lousy with them in late April/early May.

Nice pictures!


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## Ryan (May 22, 2010)

Thanks, Sue! The redbuds really are beautiful!


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## Dan O (May 24, 2010)

A bit late but congratulations on your wedding!

Sounds like a great trip too.

Dan


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