# My trip



## Trogdor (Jan 21, 2005)

To recap my trip:

334(7): Departed 3 minutes late (loading baggage), arrived on time. Train left a family behind in Sturtevant because they were pulling into the parking lot as we highballed. Not much else to say there.

90222, 54580, 54017, 54536, 54582*, 172

*remanufactured

48(7): Boarded at around 19:00. Didn’t depart until 20:17 (42 minutes late), delay attributable to crew rest. Lost time slightly, due to congestion (what else?), was as much as 1h31 late at Bryan, OH. Woke up at Cleveland, by which time we had made up quite a bit of time, and where we departed 19 minutes late. That was as close to the schedule as that train would get. We lost time slowly but surely, and spent more than our scheduled half hour in Albany. Arrived NYP just over an hour late. (unofficial tally 1h04 late)

Diner 8521 (Southern) had a horrible suspension, probably a broken spring. Really bad riding the first night for dinner. The little flower vase on the table fell over a couple of times.

16*, 205*, 716**, 1245, 2500, 62031, 62008, 8521, 28013, 25011, 25124, 25117, 74024*

*CHI-ALB only

**ALB-NYP only

2171(10): Got to NYP around 18:00 for the 19:00 train. Meanwhile, 2170, WAS-BOS, was posted for arrival on track 4. Anyone familiar with NYP would understand the problem with that.

2171 was listed as “on time” for a while, then 35 minutes late. Finally got in 46 minutes late, and left 38 minutes late. Essentially maintained that delay throughout, and arrived WAS 42 minutes late.

2000, 3206, 3504, 3520, 3303, 3506, 3402, 2002

19(12): First experience in the Washington, DC, “clubacela.” Overall, I was impressed. I wish they’d get rid of the “clubacela” name, though (too acela-centric, considering that LD train passengers can use the lounge, too). For that matter, I wish they’d get rid of the “Metropolitan Lounge” name, as well. How about “Club Amtrak” for their first-class lounges?

Train has TAs from NOL and LSAs from NYP. The sleeper attendant was pretty good, the dining car crew left some to be desired. It’s not that the diner staff was rude or uncaring. They certainly *tried* their best. But they were inefficient; they seemed inexperienced.

Overall, the Crescent was a very good train. The only long-distance train of my trip to arrive on time. I had interesting conversations with others in the dining car, and managed to meet the head of Nashville’s Metropolitan Transit Authority during the first dinner.

Arrival in NOL was 17 minutes early.

942*, 17**, 3**, 1228, 2523, 62018, 62040, 8502, 28021, 25043, 25102, 25041, 25016

*Swapped out in WAS

**WAS-NOL

N’illins: On the night of the 13th, I checked Amtrak’s website and discovered that my train, 6(17), would not be running west of Denver. This clearly presented itself as a problem. My immediate reaction was to run upstairs and rebook myself home via the Coast Starlight and the Empire Builder. Having missed an opportunity to experience the Pacific Parlour car during my previous sleeper trip on that train (bad ordered), I was hoping that there would be one on my train, and that the Starlight’s disruption wouldn’t affect the Parlour’s operation. I shall never be so naïve about Amtrak in my life again.

When I originally checked the website, it said the Starlight would be running to Oakland. My existing reservation had me on train 711(17) as far as Stockton, thence bus 3711(17) to Sacramento, where I would board 6(17) to Chicago. I decided to rebook via OKJ on 711(17), and pick up the Starlight at its point of origin.

The next day, when I went to pick up the tickets in New Orleans, the agent had trouble issuing my new reservation. The problem was that Amtrak had since decided to cut the Starlight to Emeryville rather than Oakland. Therefore, my reservation on 14(17) couldn’t be ticketed. We didn’t figure out the above (the new end point for the Starlight) for a few minutes, but once we did, the agent was able to give me new tickets without any problem.

I also assisted an agent helping another passenger who was trying to get to Davis, CA, via the City of New Orleans and the California Zephyr (he actually asked me for the best reroute).

1(13): The train pulled in six hours late. It left Sanford, FL, late because of crew rest issues, and I guess it just lost time from there (CSX really isn’t any better than UP). We pulled out just four hours late. However, an hour later, we struck a vehicle, killing the motorist. That set us back another three hours. Arrival in Houston was about 10 hours late, mid morning rather than late night. Stuck behind stalled freight near Flatonia. Then picked up the Texas Eagle through cars, about 12 hours late. The ride into Los Angeles is really beautiful, and it’s too bad there isn’t a train *scheduled* to do that trip during daytime. Final arrival into LAX 12 hours and 49 minutes late (a record for me).

118, 838, 38058*, 1172, 39022, 32093, 32092, 38061, 33034, 34098, 34139, 31529**, 34075***, 32042***

*Deadhead NOL-LAX

**Unoccupied

***Texas Eagle through cars

592(16): I had until 1:25 to catch a bus to Bakersfield, so I decided to kill some of the time by doing a quick turn on a Pacific Surfliner. I didn’t have enough time to make it all the way to San Diego, so I bought a round trip ticket to San Juan Capistrano (as far as I could go and still make it back in time for the bus). I gave the ticket agent my NARP card and my Guest Rewards card, and she gave me neither the NARP discount nor Guest Rewards credit. I might as well have used the machine.

We departed on time, but lost about 10 minutes stopping for some unknown reason (possibly slight congestion out of LAX). We met an approximately 1h30 late eastbound Chief at Fullerton.

We were about 14 minutes late into San Juan Capistrano.

453, 6805, 6300, 6451, 6400, 6903

597(16): Apparently the track work due to the BNSF wreck a month ago is still slowing the trains down a bit (that’s my guess, anyway). The train arrived in SNC 15 minutes late. I rode in a business class car subbing for a coach. Nothing major happened on this trip. Arrival was 8 minutes late.

458, 467*, 6807, 6302, 6804, 6402, 6900.

*Cascades paint scheme

5811(17): The bus from Los Angeles to Bakersfield wasn’t exactly comfortable, made worse by the fact that it departed at 0125, and I hadn’t slept since about 6 the previous morning. I maybe dozed off for a few minutes here and there, but was generally uncomfortable, even with two seats to myself. Made a couple of stops to pick someone up (possibly even to drop off, not sure). I couldn’t find those stops in the schedule, though there must have been some other schedule which I didn’t have, which listed those in-between stops (the timetables I saw implied it was a nonstop bus). I woke up at one point to find the fog so thick I couldn’t see more than one bus length in front of the windshield. It was pretty eerie. Arrival Bakersfield 45 minutes early (thruway buses have tons of padding in the schedules so they don’t miss the connection).

63142

711(17): The crew let us board (thankfully, it was practically freezing in Bakersfield at that hour) around 4:15. I picked a four-seater on the upper level. The Surfliner cars were very nice cars. By contrast, the California cars (same body) absolutely sucked. They don’t recline (the Surfliner has seats similar to those found on the Acela Express) and are fixed so they can’t be turned (if such was desired). They also don’t have electrical outlets at each seat.

I struggled to sleep in the uncomfortable position I was in. I maybe managed to get 20 minutes to a half hour of shuteye during the ride. Arrival in Emeryville was two minutes early.

C2004, C8009, C8809, C8004, C8309

I killed some time in Emeryville, then hopped a bus over to San Francisco, rode Caltrain down to San Jose, thence a Capitol Corridor train back to Emeryville.

544(17): I actually found a wireless internet connection on board the Capitol Corridor train. Unfortunately, it went away once we started moving. The train was filled with students heading to Davis (UC-Davis, I presume) after a long weekend. It was generally a decent ride, despite being on California cars. Arrival in Emeryville was exactly on time.

C8302, C8020, C8006, C8810, C8015, C2052

14(17): Train originated in Emeryville. I downloaded an e-mail message sent from a friend of mine dated 15 January telling me that the consist for the truncated Starlight would be one sleeper and two coaches, diner, lounge. Go figure. Once again, I don’t get a Parlour car.

Anyway, the train pulled in at 21:30 for the 22:12 scheduled departure. We all wandered down the track to board. I got in, went upstairs to my room 3, put my bag away, then went back outside to walk along the platform for a minute. When I got back, there was a couple with a ticket for 03/1430. One small problem. My ticket showed 03/1430. I took a look at their ticket, and noticed that it was for the previous day’s train. This couple had been on my Sunset, and had waited in the Tucson station for 10 hours. They were supposed to make the connection the previous morning (yeah, right!) for the Starlight, but the train was way too late for that to be possible. They were put up in a LA hotel, then bussed to Bakersfield to catch the San Joaquin to Emeryville. During this time, not a single Amtrak employee thought to give them a new ticket.

Meanwhile, a few others wandered up looking for the 1431 car. There wasn’t one. As I noted earlier, I received a message (from someone that isn’t even an Amtrak employee) on 15 January that the train would be running with one sleeper. AMTRAK HAD OVER TWO DAYS TO FIGURE OUT WHAT TO DO. Yet, the crew acted as if they were totally surprised by the situation. Maybe they were. Somebody within Amtrak dropped the ball big time. Further still, the “Superior (sic) Service” Coast Starlight crew absolutely refused to accommodate downgraded passengers in the Transition Sleeper, despite the fact that there were only six OBS crew members that would have needed rooms up there. They’d rather throw away a couple thousand dollars in revenue rather than accommodate a few passengers in a more-than-half-empty sleeping car. Absolutely pathetic.

I was entitled to the room, as I had the proper ticket and my name appeared on the manifest. Meanwhile, there were folks that had these tickets for months, and they were being dicked around while an Amtrak manager somewhere out in Wilmington ran around with his head up his rear end. I made a deal with the crew that I would get access to the shower and receive free meals in the diner, and I would downgrade myself to coach.

The coaches were packed full. I’m not sure if everyone actually had a seat. There were only two coaches, and you had folks rebooked off the Zephyr, folks rebooked off a misconnected Sunset, and folks downgraded from sleepers. Some camped out in the lounge, though people do that anyway. I saw a few seat checks indicating that there were three people to a seat pair (hopefully they included small children). There was absolutely no excuse for this nonsense, considering the reduced equipment requirements for the short-turns, there were plenty of cars in the Oakland yard.

I was worried about a possible bus connection to catch up to the Empire Builder in Portland. However, they (thankfully) decided to hold the Builder at PDX for the connection. Arrival in Portland was 1h14 late.

113, 466*, 1171, 39021, 32117 “Wisconsin,” 38044, 33026, 34030, 34504

*Cascades paint scheme

28(18): America’s train. The good, ol’ reliable Empire Builder. Departed 40 minutes late because of connections with the Starlight. Maintained that through Washington. Went to sleep, got a good 8 or so hours of sleep. Woke up after 4:00 the next morning, with HEP off, and hearing people talking in the halls. I went outside and saw that the train was complete (Seattle section added), HEP seemed to be having problems. Finally pulled away at 4:50, 3h35 late.

Had breakfast. HEP went off a couple of times again. Returned to my room and took a nap. Woke up just outside of Whitefish. We pulled into the station at 11:13, 3h47 late. HEP was off. I stepped outside and walked around a bit. Saw that they were working on the engines and the HEP. HEP was short-looped between the diner and first Seattle coach. Sat and waited, and waited, and waited. “All Aboard” finally called around 13:00. The dining car apparently had an uncorrectable electrical problem. We departed at 13:23, 5h37 late. We only moved a few feet, though, up to a switch. Then stopped to switch the dining car to the rear of the train.

Meanwhile, a station agent had gone to the grocery store, and the crew made turkey sandwiches, pot pies, and salads for the passengers to eat.

HEP still kept going off and on. There were actually two faults with the HEP. One was with the diner, and the other was with the HEP engine (not sure which unit was providing HEP, but we had three of them). Eventually they “fixed” that problem, perhaps by switching HEP to a different engine.

At Shelby, a woman got off, and didn’t make it back on when the train departed. She had kids on board (actually, she was their aunt, and their mother was still on the train as well), so we stopped a couple miles down at a grade crossing, and someone drove her up to the train.

Dinner (fried chicken, probably from the KFC a few blocks from the station, but not packaged in KFC boxes when we received it) was loaded in Havre, MT. “Vegetarian meal” consisted of a slice of lettuce and tomato on a piece of bread. There were six vegetarians in our car. The lounge car was accommodating to their dietary needs.

Past Malta, we stopped again for an hour or so. All three engines not loading. Problem was traced to a fault with the cruise control in the lead unit. Radio relays between the mechanical department and the crew via a BNSF dispatcher (no cell phone coverage in the area) corrected the problem.

We picked up another diner that had been set out at Minot, ND, a week earlier due to bad wheels. So, we had two “deadhead” diners and no functional diner.

Breakfast consisted of a nice ham and cheese croissant, with cereal and fruit. Lunch consisted of Arby’s loaded in Fargo, ND. Dinner was Subway in St. Paul.

Arrival in Milwaukee was 23:48, 9h53 late.

100*, 142, 157, 1237, 39029, 32062, 38035**, 34010, 34079, 33028*, 34037*, 31028*, 32032*, 74098, 38016***

*Portland-Chicago

**Switched to rear of train in Whitefish

***Added behind 38035 in Minot.


----------



## MrFSS (Jan 21, 2005)

Great report, Robert - glad I had my Builder trip, which went off without a hitch last fall, before reading this report. I may have cancelled> B)


----------



## EmpireBuilderFan (Jan 22, 2005)

Wow! I really admire your willingness to stick with this trip! A 12+ hour late Sunset Limited, a too-short Coast Starlight, and problem after problem on the Builder. I think most people would have run to the ticket counter in Emeryville to get their money back for the rest of the trip and flown home. I'm really surprised by the Builder's performance, it's usually much more reliable than that, but I suppose if equipment goes bad enroute, there's not much they can do about it.


----------

