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With the Cardinal, when you start to approach Chicago (and Illinois in general), there's lots of open land with great scenery as well. I know it's interesting to see that when you pass through Lafayette, IN, there's miles of wind farms that you pass through as well. The cafe car opens up right...

Please forgive me if this was mentioned earlier on within the thread and I've somehow missed it, but there is no direct Amtrak route that runs from Chicago to Florida, correct?

Glad to hear that your family had a good time (minus the sleeping)! What made the sleeping not so pleasant (bumpy, uncomfortable, noisy, etc.)? Are you heading back to NJ by train? If so, what are things you will do differently?

This past weekend (Aug 2023), I had a family-related event that happened near Altoona, PA (that only happens there once in a blue moon). Due to some scheduling conflicts, I was unable to take the train there, and this was the first time I've ever been to Altoona (instead of just passing through...

Welcome to the forum! What Amtrak routes do you usually travel on?

Very impressive layout there @Joe from PA! I love the attention to detail.

Thank you @Sauve850 and @Ziv ! Yeah, the wiring for O gauge can be a pain. That was cool about the 300sqft room of track though.

Thanks for the response on this @AmtrakBlue ! The tweet was posted not long after I posted on here.

I noticed that tonight's (7/28) westbound Cardinal 51 is stopped in White Sulphur Springs, WV. According to TransitDocs, it states that it has encountered a service disruption, but I'm not seeing any reports on the AmtrakAlerts Twitter feed regarding its disruption. Just curious, does anyone...

Welcome to the forum - glad to have you! I concur with @tgstubbs1's statement that Chicago is a great place for Amtrak. Lots of great places to railfan Amtrak there as well. (The Empire Builder is one of my favorite routes to railfan) It's also great to know that you are a common Amtrak rider...

I've never done business class on the Pennsylvanian before, but I always ride coach out of Pittsburgh. I do agree with the statement above that since you're leaving out of Pittsburgh itself, you'll be able to claim a good coach seat (if you actually do coach). I always aim for the window seat...

If you are talking about doing a trip report, I would post that here: Rail Travelogues / Trip Reports

Glenview is such a great station. I love railfanning from there when I'm in the area. I've observed that Glenview is a heavily trafficked Empire Builder destination as well. I'm assuming to avoid the congestion of CUS. Hoping you enjoy your trip on the EB!

While doing some online railfanning earlier this afternoon, I noticed that one of the Hiawatha trainsets had venture cars on them (shown below). Not all of the Hiawathas have them, but just this one trainset. I'm unsure if that these venture cars will stay on them, but it was pretty interesting...

I drove from Columbus to Cincinnati. It's approximately 1.5 hrs drive time. I also fully understand your position about Amtrak not being that feasible from Columbus. I feel your pain.

During my trip to Chicago (trip report here), I was able to do some railfanning in Glenview, IL and Golf, IL, where I got see the Empire Builder and the Hiawatha routes.

It had been approximately 15 years since I've been to Chicago to see family there, and where I live now (in Columbus, Ohio), I wanted to take the train there instead of driving, especially since I was able to get the time needed off work in order to make this happen. I haven't ever taken the...

I wasn't able to actively view it on railcams yesterday, but did anyone else see that #30(11) had a phase.7 charger leading it from Chicago onwards? I have posted a capture from a railcam in Chesterton, IN below. From what I've been seeing from posts, this was the first run of the charger...

As an addition, Steel Highways recently released a railcam in Chicago that oversees the lines at Ogilvie Transportation Center and the lines to Milwaukee West and North. The camera mostly sees Metra traffic, but also now sees the Amtrak Hiawatha routes which run frequently to and from Chicago...

Yes. Usually, the extra sleeper/coach is a deadhead, but sometimes you get lucky and they actually use it as a revenue car. It's hard to say when these cars are actually on the CL too.