# Our Trip on Seven Trains Summer Tour 2008



## RailFanLNK (Jul 6, 2008)

Well arrived home from our 2 week trip last night safe and sound on the first CZ permitted to traverse the rail line that has been down since June 13th. Amtrak made our trip, delighted us, made us mad, held a train for us so we could connect, gave us two sleeper cars that made us feel like we were in the desert, one that made us feel like we were in Siberia, fed us well, treated us fantastically  , great, average  and of course...rudely. :angry: (but only one employee) AGR treated us great, but was closed on the the 4th and 5th of July when we needed to change our reservations back to the CZ. A rep named "Ken" at AGR was tops. He will be complimented when I get all my facts together to call the 800 number. I think my girls (girlfriend and two daughters) are trained out for the time being, but still love travelling by Amtrak. What is so neat is the "lingo" that the girls are picking up. "OTP, FTI, Julie, Metropolitan Lounge, Club Acela, were taking a Regional" are now terms the "girls" are throwing around quite regularly.  There will be alot more to follow on our trip. I will try not to skimp, but don't want to bore you to death!

Lastly, met up with Alan B in WAS on the very end of our trip and also with rmadisonwi. Both of those guys got to see us in pretty bad shape. We were at the end of our trip. We were tired, hungering for our own beds and the girls were missing thier dogs. This trip had CURVE BALLS up the ying-yang due to midwest flooding. We had to change reservations for trains, planes and rental cars to make for sure we got from point A to point B. I had a 3 ringed notebook with PAGES of info for this trip. It almost looked like a flight manual a pilot carries with certain aircraft. I felt like a travel agent. I'm going to give out a few "shining stars" for the Amtrak employees who went way beyond the "call of duty".

1. Ken at AGR. You made our trip, you helped with our trip. You made us smile, laugh and "high five" when we realized we weren't going to have to fly ANY part of this trip. Your actions sucked out a180 lbs of anxiety that my body was holding. You also made it possible to not have to fly from Omaha NE to CHI. You provided us with the SWC, a train that was not in the "itenirary" but got us where we needed to be. That man deserves a raise! 

2. Felicia at Amtrak a clerk at WUS. You got us on the first train #5. You couldn't arrange this through AGR cuz they were closed on the 4th of July. You were trying to get us on a train that the site said was "shutdown" but the same site was selling seats for. You had to figure out a way to give us AGR accomodations instead of paid seats. You smiled when I was exhausted and you made me laugh when I was burnt out. You got my family on the train that had us de-train 30 feet from our car in our hometown of Lincoln NE, not 220 miles in KCY where we would have needed a rental car and hotel room just to get home. You cared, you treated me like a customer and not another human being passing through a large metropolitan area with a serious travel problem. This woman deserves a raise! 

3. Marcella a sleeper attendent on the "hot" SWC. "I can't believe I get paid to do this" was her first comments to us. The SWC had been opened back up only to be cancelled again and we were on one of the first "through" trains with no bussing. There had been bussing, then the whole route, then bussing and back to full route. So the train was less than soldout due to the accomodations being cancelled. You gave us the run of the lower level and pretty much catered to all our needs. Your offer to "bring us meals" to our rooms due to all the confusion of the start of our trip was a nice touch. Thank you for your smile. And thank you for telling us that "there trying to hold the LSL for all the connecting passengers on the SWC". That made us feel so much more comfortable with the start of our trip.

4. Amtrak Management! I have no clue who decides to "hold" a train for a late arrival but someone somewhere decided to hold the LSL. The SWC was 7 hours late and we were going to miss our connecting train by 30 minutes. The reason I picked the LSL to get us to the east coast was that it has a 3 hour later departure from CUS and the CZ is always running late. So...we are no longer on the CZ cuz of the flooding, we are on the SWC which has a very good OTP but on the "Chief" we boarded in KCY, it had stopped 3 TIMES for Paramedics and had kicked 2 people off for smoking. It was 3 hours behind arriving into KCY and then had slow orders due to all the flooding and FTI as well. So hats off to whomever decides to "hold" a train. Getting to NYC a day late would have made us eat $250 in off-broadway show of Blue Man Group for Friday evening.

5. Alex the dining car steward on the LSL. He hustled like I have seen no one else hustle like this. Made us laugh, amazed us how he could almost "run" on a moving train and catered to our needs. Your sense of humor was fantastic as well!


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## printman2000 (Jul 6, 2008)

RailFanLNK said:


> 3. Marcella a sleeper attendent on the "hot" SWC. "I can't believe I get paid to do this" was her first comments to us. The SWC had been opened back up only to be cancelled again and we were on one of the first "through" trains with no bussing. There had been bussing, then the whole route, then bussing and back to full route. So the train was less than soldout due to the accomodations being cancelled. You gave us the run of the lower level and pretty much catered to all our needs. Your offer to "bring us meals" to our rooms due to all the confusion of the start of our trip was a nice touch. Thank you for your smile. And thank you for telling us that "there trying to hold the LSL for all the connecting passengers on the SWC". That made us feel so much more comfortable with the start of our trip.
> 5. Alex the dining car steward on the LSL. He hustled like I have seen no one else hustle like this. Made us laugh, amazed us how he could almost "run" on a moving train and catered to our needs. Your sense of humor was fantastic as well!


We had these two in the opposite order you did. We had Alex on the LSL and yes, he was mentioned in my e-mail to Amtrak. We also had Marcella on our SWC run back West. Did you know she was a rookie? Your trip was her first on her own and ours was her second. She was quite good and also got mentioned.

It will be cool that Amtrak will get two letters for these two people.


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## Steve4031 (Jul 6, 2008)

Thank you for he nice report. . What does FTI stand for?


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## Rail Freak (Jul 6, 2008)

RailFanLNK said:


> Well arrived home from our 2 week trip last night safe and sound on the first CZ permitted to traverse the rail line that has been down since June 13th. Amtrak made our trip, delighted us, made us mad, held a train for us so we could connect, gave us two sleeper cars that made us feel like we were in the desert, one that made us feel like we were in Siberia, fed us well, treated us fantastically  , great, average  and of course...rudely. :angry: (but only one employee) AGR treated us great, but was closed on the the 4th and 5th of July when we needed to change our reservations back to the CZ. A rep named "Ken" at AGR was tops. He will be complimented when I get all my facts together to call the 800 number. I think my girls (girlfriend and two daughters) are trained out for the time being, but still love travelling by Amtrak. What is so neat is the "lingo" that the girls are picking up. "OTP, FTI, Julie, Metropolitan Lounge, Club Acela, were taking a Regional" are now terms the "girls" are throwing around quite regularly.  There will be alot more to follow on our trip. I will try not to skimp, but don't want to bore you to death!Lastly, met up with Alan B in WAS on the very end of our trip and also with rmadisonwi. Both of those guys got to see us in pretty bad shape. We were at the end of our trip. We were tired, hungering for our own beds and the girls were missing thier dogs. This trip had CURVE BALLS up the ying-yang due to midwest flooding. We had to change reservations for trains, planes and rental cars to make for sure we got from point A to point B. I had a 3 ringed notebook with PAGES of info for this trip. It almost looked like a flight manual a pilot carries with certain aircraft. I felt like a travel agent. I'm going to give out a few "shining stars" for the Amtrak employees who went way beyond the "call of duty".
> 
> 1. Ken at AGR. You made our trip, you helped with our trip. You made us smile, laugh and "high five" when we realized we weren't going to have to fly ANY part of this trip. Your actions sucked out a180 lbs of anxiety that my body was holding. You also made it possible to not have to fly from Omaha NE to CHI. You provided us with the SWC, a train that was not in the "itenirary" but got us where we needed to be. That man deserves a raise!
> 
> ...


WOOOOOWWWW!!!!!!

I think I know the answer, if I asked you if it was all worth it.

I hope my 1st trip is as awesome!!! ( & a little less hectic :lol: )


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## RailFanLNK (Jul 6, 2008)

Freight Train Interference or Freight Traffic Interference.


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## MrFSS (Jul 7, 2008)

Here are some of the flooding pictures Al took at the Mississippi River area.


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## MrFSS (Jul 7, 2008)

And, more.


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## RailFanLNK (Jul 7, 2008)

Thanks so much for posting those! I still just shake my head at how bad that area STILL is. We can't figure out how the water is gonna leave since there's so much.

Al


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## wayman (Jul 7, 2008)

RailFanLNK said:


> Thanks so much for posting those! I still just shake my head at how bad that area STILL is. We can't figure out how the water is gonna leave since there's so much.


If we could just engineer a way to make automobiles run on water instead of unleaded, it'd solve _everything_....

Wow, those are some scary pictures.

Al, you're definitely no "rookie" anymore :lol:


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## RailFanLNK (Jul 7, 2008)

Thanks Wayman....BTW, the picture with the grain bins in it has a house to the right of the grain bins. The water is only a couple feet below the roof of this house. Its kinda hard to see the house, but its to the right of the bins.


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## SharonLPK (Jul 7, 2008)

Thanks for posting those pictures, how terrible for the area. And, I'm not going to lie, I would have been a nervous wreck on that train... I'm not sure how the track is there, but I'm thinking you were on a bridge of some sort?


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## RailFanLNK (Jul 7, 2008)

We had heard through the "Amtrak Forum Grapevine" that BN had been using those track for 3 days prior to Amtrak being given the go ahead to travel through there. I know Amtrak isn't going to OK a train if its dangerous. The whole rail bed was new rock and rails with all the old ties thrown off to the side. To be truthful, we were sitting in our roomettes and BOOM! Major amounts of water. We grabbed our camera's and I know my girlfriends daughters were nervous. The water under the bridge (the last photo) was interesting. Because the water isn't EVER this high. We arrived 2 hours late into LNK but we were in roomettes so that wasn't a big deal. When we got into Burlington, the train was just so quiet. Everyone was sitting around just shaking thier heads. Even the crew was looking out the windows. This whole trip I drilled into my travelling party that all the situations we were encountering was "inconvienences" and not "problems". The "problems" was the loss of life and property for the residents of Iowa.


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## the_traveler (Jul 7, 2008)

I think someone left those irrigation sprayers on a little to long! 

But seriously, I feel sorry for those affected by the floods. Even though it made me cancel a rare mileage trip, my travels can be easily rescheduled. I may have lost a trip - but it is *NOTHING* like what those flooded out have lost!


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## GG-1 (Jul 7, 2008)

Aloha

I don't know if I created or stole this line bit I firmly beleive

"without Problems there are No Solutions"

Mahalo for your reports as they fill in the void between my trips.


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## dan72 (Jul 7, 2008)

Wow! Sounds like you had quite an adventure. Thanks for sharing those pictures. Can't wait to hear more details. And no, you will not be boring us! 

Dan


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## jackal (Jul 7, 2008)

the_traveler said:


> I think someone left those irrigation sprayers on a little to long!


Yup...they sprayed enough water to grow a rice crop instead of a corn crop!



RailFanLNK said:


> ...$250 in off-broadway show of Blue Man Group for Friday evening.


Cool! What did you think of them? My grandfather and I were fortunate enough to see them in Boston a few years ago, and I must say that I thought it was the best show I'd ever seen! Even my grandpa, who is not at all interested in modern music (especially techno or electronica), would not stop raving about how great they were.

Definitely looking forward to any more reports you post on this trip!


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## RailFanLNK (Jul 7, 2008)

In the year 2000 I was newly divorced and the KC Chiefs were playing the Chicago Bears in CHI. A buddy and I decided to go to the "big city". Some guy on my UPS route told me about Blueman Group. I ended up getting tickets and WAS NOT looking forward to going. Also, the Huskers were playing the California Bears on ESPN and we had front row seats for the "game" at the ESPNzone in Chicago. Mind you...we are two jocks that don't know squat about theater. We had dumped $100 into tickets and decided..."we will go to this Blue Man thing and if it stinks...we will walk out and come back and watch the Husker game". Well lo and behold, the Blueman Group was the BEST part of our trip and the NYC gig was the 4th time I have seen them now. It was the first time my girlfriend and her daughters saw them. The one daughter said it was the highlight of her trip!


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## GG-1 (Jul 7, 2008)

RailFanLNK said:


> Well lo and behold, the Blueman Group was the BEST part of our trip and the NYC gig was the 4th time I have seen them now. It was the first time my girlfriend and her daughters saw them. The one daughter said it was the highlight of her trip!


Aloha

Guess the next time I am in Vegas I beater spend the $70 to see the show. I get to see so many shows free that I sometimes get stingy, For years I have enjoyed their act (first time on Johny Carson)


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## jackal (Jul 7, 2008)

RailFanLNK said:


> The one daughter said it was the highlight of her trip!


Blasphemy! The only correct answer is that every last single mile of Amtrak travel was the highlight of the trip! 

(The BMG is a very close second, however... :lol: )


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## The Metropolitan (Jul 7, 2008)

Hey there, Brother Al!

Glad to know you made it through it all with only a few bumps along the way. I was checking in a few times to see if you'd report your progress!

I did want to cross paths with you when you took #29 through Pittsburgh, but we had experienced some hiccups with Port Authority Transit the previous day, so when we got off the Light Rail at 11:00pm and a 61B bus was actually right there and loading, we jumped on the chance to scatter back to the side of town our hotel was on! 

I am definitely curious of your first impressions of our little electric speedway we call the NEC. While not quite the down home friendly environment you probably find on many LD trains, it does move a lot of people daily. Also curious how your trip on the Capitol went and how you liked the scenery on that line into Cumberland!


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## RailFanLNK (Jul 8, 2008)

Metropolitan, I was (maybe) sound to sleep when we hit Pittsburgh. I don't know. The route the Cap is on is beautiful but the tracks were rough as ****! My party didn't sleep real well on that part of the route and neither did I. Definately a route that all of us need Tylenol PM! :lol: Was impressed with the NEC. Took train #79 from NYC-WAS, joyrided on Acela 2212 from WAS-BWI and road back on Regional 143. All the trains were clean, sights really cool and Acela was FAST!!!!!


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## Guest (Jul 8, 2008)

Those are _amazing_ pictures. I hope that the engineer is the kind who passes on his stories (in writing) to his kids and grandkids. (Did I see a thank you to him?).

I would have been looking for a life preserver and getting caught up on my prayers.


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## Cascadia (Jul 9, 2008)

Thanks for the stories, I enjoy reading about how you met all these setbacks with a positive attitude, that is, with help from those lovely Amtrak employees!

Those pictures are something else. The juxtaposition of the irrigation equipment . . . wow.

I'll go read your part two now.


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