# KIN-MDN 2/3



## the_traveler (Feb 5, 2009)

On Feb 3, I took a “ride” from KIN-MDN. There were 2 reasons for the ride:

1.	To just ride and earn AGR points! (The best reason!  )

2.	To “test run” my new scanner and laptop installed GPS in preparation for my cross-country journey in March.

I boarded Regional #95 in KIN at 7:16 bound for NHV. It arrived on time in KIN. Just prior to it’s arrival, an AE passed thru KIN (on the same track ) at 140 MPH! As usual, #95 (and all Regionals) had BC as the first car. What was unusual (at least to me) was that the Quiet car was the 2nd car. (I always heard announcements saying that the Quiet car was the last car.) #95 also had 5 more coaches and a café car.

The trip to NHV was quiet – as I sat in the Quiet car! :lol: We arrived into NHV Union Station on time.

While waiting the 2 hours for my next train, I discovered Union Station has free WiFi! 

About 10:35, I boarded Shuttle #470 to MDN. This had a P42, 1 coach and 1 cab car. The coach had seats where ½ faced forward and ½ faced backwards.

With only about 30 minutes layover in MDN, I chose to wait in the station. I thought the station was a nothing station. It was better than an Amshack (being a regular building), but I didn’t think it was much better. The only good thing was that NHV-MDN costs only $4.50 each way – and earns 100 AGR points! B)

About 11:30, I boarded Shuttle #493 back to NHV. It also consisted of the same cars – but this time, the coach had all the seats facing the same direction.

After about a 30 minute wait at NHV, I boarded Regional #172 back to KIN. Again, BC was the 1st car, and the Quiet car was the 2nd car. The others were the same as #95.

While listening to the scanner at NLC, the assistant Conductor called that all passengers boarded, and he was clear. The Conductor came on and said we had to wait 2 minutes. (We arrived 4 minutes early.) So we waited, and departed on time.

#172 arrived back in KIN on time.


----------



## AAARGH! (Feb 5, 2009)

Very minor request.... Please identify the full station names at least once during your report. I know I could look up the three-letter station names on the Amtrak site, but it would be helpful anyway.

Again, very minor request.

Nice report BTW! I wish I lived close to the NEC (I know, an abbreviation) so i could ride more often. Cleveland service timing STINKS!


----------



## the_traveler (Feb 5, 2009)

Sorry!  Point well taken! 

KIN = Kingston, RI

NHV = New Haven, CT

MDN = Meriden, CT

NLC = New London, CT


----------



## Sue in KY (Feb 5, 2009)

AAARGH said:


> Very minor request.... Please identify the full station names at least once during your report. I know I could look up the three-letter station names on the Amtrak site, but it would be helpful anyway.
> Again, very minor request.
> 
> Nice report BTW! I wish I lived close to the NEC (I know, an abbreviation) so i could ride more often. Cleveland service timing STINKS!


Hey -- at least Cleveland gets two trains a day! Louisville not only gets zero trains *EVER*, but it's at least *115 miles* from the nearest train station (at either Indianapolis or Cincinnati, either of which have practically middle-of-the-night service, three times a week, whoopie).

Count your blessings. 

(Oh, but I do agree with you about spelling out station/city names, at least on first reference.)


----------



## AAARGH! (Feb 5, 2009)

Sue in KY said:


> AAARGH said:
> 
> 
> > Very minor request.... Please identify the full station names at least once during your report. I know I could look up the three-letter station names on the Amtrak site, but it would be helpful anyway.
> ...


Two trains (4 if you count both directions), but three in the middle of the night (LSL westbound, CL westbound, and CL eastbound) and one at ~7:00am (LSL eastbound). It's better than Louisville for sure, but not as good as the NEC! :angry:

You could always catch a cheap Southwest flight to CHI from Louisville. That's what I have done from Cleveland. I know, sacrilege!


----------



## AG1 (Feb 5, 2009)

the_traveler said:


> On Feb 3, I took a “ride” from KIN-MDN. There were 2 reasons for the ride:1.	To just ride and earn AGR points! (The best reason!  )
> 
> 2.	To “test run” my new scanner and laptop installed GPS in preparation for my cross-country journey in March.


Thanks for the report. How did the "test run" go?(scanner and gps)


----------



## the_traveler (Feb 5, 2009)

RRRick said:


> the_traveler said:
> 
> 
> > On Feb 3, I took a “ride” from KIN-MDN. There were 2 reasons for the ride:
> ...


The scanner worked great and earning the AGR points are great! :lol:

For some reason the GPS did not work for me.  Maybe it's something I did (or didn't do). It worked for me around the house and around town, so I thought it should work on the train. But it did not!  Because my time on the train was so short (under 1½ hours for 2 trains and about 30 minutes for the others), I didn't hook up the power cord and just used batteries. So I may not have left it on long enough.

Surprisingly, when I returned to KIN, I tried it. (I had used it there, so I know it would work.) It worked!

In it's defense (although it's not a good excuse), when I used my handheld GPS, I could not get a reading in this stretch either. Until I was near KIN. So maybe it is the coverage itself.

I'll try it on my trip for real!


----------



## Sue in KY (Feb 5, 2009)

AAARGH said:


> You could always catch a cheap Southwest flight to CHI from Louisville. That's what I have done from Cleveland. I know, sacrilege!


And that's exactly what we're going to do on our (maiden) long-distance train trip next month. Kinda defeats the purpose of "the ease of traveling by train," though, when we still have the problem of "no liquids larger than 3 oz.," etc., on the plane hop to get *to* the train. (And not that cheap a flight, either -- $367 for the two of us for an hour's flight, by the time you add on all the fuel surcharges and whatnot....)

[grumble,grumble]


----------



## AAARGH! (Feb 6, 2009)

Sue in KY said:


> And that's exactly what we're going to do on our (maiden) long-distance train trip next month. Kinda defeats the purpose of "the ease of traveling by train," though, when we still have the problem of "no liquids larger than 3 oz.," etc., on the plane hop to get *to* the train. (And not that cheap a flight, either -- $367 for the two of us for an hour's flight, by the time you add on all the fuel surcharges and whatnot....)
> [grumble,grumble]


That's odd. I have flown CLE-CHI-Louisville 6 times in the past year on Southwest and never paid more than $99 one-way.


----------



## MrFSS (Feb 6, 2009)

AAARGH said:


> Sue in KY said:
> 
> 
> > And that's exactly what we're going to do on our (maiden) long-distance train trip next month. Kinda defeats the purpose of "the ease of traveling by train," though, when we still have the problem of "no liquids larger than 3 oz.," etc., on the plane hop to get *to* the train. (And not that cheap a flight, either -- $367 for the two of us for an hour's flight, by the time you add on all the fuel surcharges and whatnot....)
> ...


Louisville airport designator is one of those strange ones. SDF - the original airport was known as Standiford Field, hence the SDF has remained over the years.


----------



## the_traveler (Feb 6, 2009)

AAARGH said:


> That's odd. I have *flown* CLE-*CHI*-Louisville 6 times in the past year *on Southwest*


I know Southwest tries to keep fares down - but I didn't think they flew to *Union Station* (CHI)! :lol: I always thought that they went to Midway airport (MDW)!

BTW - Don't the tails on the 737's touch the roof on the platforms? :huh:


----------



## AAARGH! (Feb 6, 2009)

the_traveler said:


> AAARGH said:
> 
> 
> > That's odd. I have *flown* CLE-*CHI*-Louisville 6 times in the past year *on Southwest*
> ...


The way they fly into MDW (the approach), I wonder if they DO fly through Union Station!

BTW: I chose not to use "SDF" just to avoid the abbreviation! 

On my last two long-distance Amtrak trips, like Sue from KY, I also flew to CHI (from Cleveland) to pick up the train instead of leaving way-too-dang-early-in-the-middle-of-the-night on the CL or LSL. I flew once to MDW on Southwest and took the Orange line into the city. The other I flew Continental (regional jet) into O'Hare (ORD - so there) and took the Blue line.

As far as the difference between MDW and ORD, six of one as far as I am concerned. I am one of the weird people who does not mind ORD. They both take about the same amount of time to get from the gate to the train, to the city, to Union Station (CUS - again with the abbreviation  ) and the flight costs from Cleveland are the same. The only advantage with MDW is that Southwest flys 737's while Continental and American fly mostly regionals. United has both, but not enough frequency.


----------



## AlanB (Feb 6, 2009)

the_traveler said:


> What was unusual (at least to me) was that the Quiet car was the 2nd car. (I always heard announcements saying that the Quiet car was the last car.) #95 also had 5 more coaches and a café car.


As posted elsewhere on the net:

As of Jan 28th, Amtrak changed things around a bit. All quiet cars on the NEC are now next to the BC car on Northeast Regional trains and next to the First Class car on Acela Express trains. They also added quiet cars to a few more trains, including the 140 series trains that run through to Springfield, as well as trains that run to Richmond.

The shuttles to Springfield still don't have quiet cars to my knowledge. Additionally the Keystones still don't have quiet cars, the LD's don't, and most Empire Service trains don't. Only 240, 242, 246 on the Empire line run with quiet cars.


----------



## AlanB (Feb 6, 2009)

the_traveler said:


> For some reason the GPS did not work for me.  Maybe it's something I did (or didn't do). It worked for me around the house and around town, so I thought it should work on the train. But it did not!  Because my time on the train was so short (under 1½ hours for 2 trains and about 30 minutes for the others), I didn't hook up the power cord and just used batteries. So I may not have left it on long enough.


Did you put the receiver right up flush to the window? That's usually a must, as all the glass and steel knocks down the signal. Additionally many people find that it can take 2 to 3 minutes before you aquire signal, so make sure that you give it time to find the satellites.


----------



## the_traveler (Feb 6, 2009)

AlanB said:


> The shuttles to Springfield still don't have quiet cars to my knowledge.


The 2 shuttles I took only had 1 coach and 1 cab car. So if they had a quiet car - it would be 1/2 the train! :lol:

Thanks. Next time I'll try it longer. Being only on each train less than 1/2 an hour or 1 1/2 hours, I didn't want too pull out the cords and just used the batteries. But next time will be 4-7 days  - so I'll leave it on!


----------



## Sue in KY (Feb 6, 2009)

AAARGH said:


> That's odd. I have flown CLE-CHI-Louisville 6 times in the past year on Southwest and never paid more than $99 one-way.


We-e-e-e-l-l-l-l-l ... there are two of us, and we do have to get home after our adventure (so, round trip tickets ....)


----------



## Sue in KY (Feb 6, 2009)

MrFSS said:


> Louisville airport designator is one of those strange ones. SDF - the original airport was known as Standiford Field, hence the SDF has remained over the years.


Yeah, it was Standiford when we moved here in the '80s; we still think of it that way, so SDF comes easily. (Actually, to my knowledge the only "international" flights into and out of "Louisville International Airport" are the freight planes UPS flies to Europe and whatnot, so we've always thought that International part just a tad pretentious.)


----------



## MrEd (Feb 6, 2009)

the_traveler said:


> ½ faced forward and ½ faced backwards.



Did you ride backwards on the train ?

I heard some people don't like the backwards seat.


----------



## the_traveler (Feb 6, 2009)

MrEd said:


> the_traveler said:
> 
> 
> > ½ faced forward and ½ faced backwards.
> ...


I don't mind riding backwards, but I knew which way we were going (even though I never took that route before), so in fact moved my seat to a different seat to one of the opposite direction. However many people did not move. When they boarded, most took the backward facing seats.


----------

