ALC Rail Writer
Engineer
After my mom wrote her account... I felt compelled to write one of my own.
The Capitol Limited hop from ALC-PGH went by with no sleep, as usual, I can never sleep during that and I hate the early morning layover in PGH. But I ventured out a little bit to get some lattes for mom while she waited in the station. I slept through horseshoe curve, she didn't and enjoyed it. It was nice to point out the little minor attractions along the way, the exhibits at Altoona and the GG1 in HAR. I went up into the station at PHL and got a cheesesteak for mom and me to split-- enjoyed being able to walk right down to the platform before the regular boarding call with nobody batting an eyelash. The TSA can go to hell.
New York was fun, I haven't played tourist there in so long-- but we had so little to do I'll just bullet list the activities we did.
Times Square
Subways (1, 4, 6, A, F, B, D, Q)
Columbus Circle
Time Warner Center
Central Park, the pond, at night
UES
Bagels
Central Park, Jackie O Res.
Walking tour of museum mile
Union Square
Christmas Market
LES
Katz's Deli
Radio City
Christmas Spectacular
Rockefeller Center
Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center
Times Square past midnight
Chelsea Galleries
West Village
Washington Square, the arch
The Stonewall Inn
Macy's on 34th Street
Rush to Penn Station
Less than 48 hours, not bad if I do say so myself.
Red Cap at Penn was invaluable when boarding our regional to Washington. Being an evening train it gave both of us a chance to relax and rest. After a nap, near Baltimore I went up to the lounge and discovered the oddest thing. The door was open. I stood there for a second and watched as we sped down the NEC and the wind blew my hair back-- I couldn't believe that I had managed to stumble on to such a (hopefully) rare mistake. I walked in to the lounge and looked at the C and AC and just walked up and told them, plainly, "you left the door open one car back." They looked at each other and then to me, the C asked me if I was serious. I nodded and pointed back. The AC shrugged and went back, probably thinking I was joking around, and I placed my order at the lounge. After the microwave was done making my burger the AC came back and told the C that he couldn't believe it, and assured me there must have been a fault in the indicator system as "we never run trains with doors open" I simply nodded and he asked the LSA to comp my order. I refused the comp and paid, just saying I was doing my "job" and went back to my seat.
As I was not familiar with Washington as I am NYC we took an Open Top Sightseeing 48-hour tour and used Union Station as a base of operations. It was convenient to grab a quick lunch or get some photo ops in.
The Washington Metro is cleaner and nicer, but I like the MTA. I think part of the reason it is not as well patronized as the New York system. That and as the new trains start rolling out.
Last October I was in DC for the Rally to Restore Sanity and I printed out the low-bucket roomette tickets I snagged for 29 (12/24) however, the room charge was on my mother's ticket and not my own. Back then I went to the Club Acela agent and two regular agents. None of them could fix it, each one giving me some BS about how being on the same reservation was enough. I bided my time and in the hour in the Club Acela I had the attendant fix my reservation. Ironically he was the SAME one who told me the first time that it didn't matter. After a few assertive words and guiding him through START, screen by screen, he was able to correct the error (much to his surprise). It was a simple matter of canceling the reservation and re-booking it, making sure that P1 was 'Micah' and that P1 used their rewards number.
Our attendant on the way home was a nice one named Arthur, very polite. Everybody was wearing Santa hats and the diner was decked up with holiday decorations, even a miniature Christmas tree and chocolates. Somebody brought the portable radio up from the kitchen to play christmas music. We opted for a late dinner time, which we later came to regret as the food and service had spiraled out of control. Everything was SNAFU, no dressing for the salad, the steaks weren't cooked right and instead of the ordered rice I received a long-too-done potato without sour cream. The SA was apologetic and offered means of correcting mistakes, each and every one. Each time she seemed to have forgot. I decided not tipping her was 'punishment' enough as I didn't want to spoil what mood was left in the diner. The LSA didn't even check us out by then, it was close to 9:30 and I went back to the lounge-- got a burger, and did the walk of shame with paid food through the diner and back to our sleeper with dinner service still winding down.
My Photo Albnum
The Capitol Limited hop from ALC-PGH went by with no sleep, as usual, I can never sleep during that and I hate the early morning layover in PGH. But I ventured out a little bit to get some lattes for mom while she waited in the station. I slept through horseshoe curve, she didn't and enjoyed it. It was nice to point out the little minor attractions along the way, the exhibits at Altoona and the GG1 in HAR. I went up into the station at PHL and got a cheesesteak for mom and me to split-- enjoyed being able to walk right down to the platform before the regular boarding call with nobody batting an eyelash. The TSA can go to hell.
New York was fun, I haven't played tourist there in so long-- but we had so little to do I'll just bullet list the activities we did.
Times Square
Subways (1, 4, 6, A, F, B, D, Q)
Columbus Circle
Time Warner Center
Central Park, the pond, at night
UES
Bagels
Central Park, Jackie O Res.
Walking tour of museum mile
Union Square
Christmas Market
LES
Katz's Deli
Radio City
Christmas Spectacular
Rockefeller Center
Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center
Times Square past midnight
Chelsea Galleries
West Village
Washington Square, the arch
The Stonewall Inn
Macy's on 34th Street
Rush to Penn Station
Less than 48 hours, not bad if I do say so myself.
Red Cap at Penn was invaluable when boarding our regional to Washington. Being an evening train it gave both of us a chance to relax and rest. After a nap, near Baltimore I went up to the lounge and discovered the oddest thing. The door was open. I stood there for a second and watched as we sped down the NEC and the wind blew my hair back-- I couldn't believe that I had managed to stumble on to such a (hopefully) rare mistake. I walked in to the lounge and looked at the C and AC and just walked up and told them, plainly, "you left the door open one car back." They looked at each other and then to me, the C asked me if I was serious. I nodded and pointed back. The AC shrugged and went back, probably thinking I was joking around, and I placed my order at the lounge. After the microwave was done making my burger the AC came back and told the C that he couldn't believe it, and assured me there must have been a fault in the indicator system as "we never run trains with doors open" I simply nodded and he asked the LSA to comp my order. I refused the comp and paid, just saying I was doing my "job" and went back to my seat.
As I was not familiar with Washington as I am NYC we took an Open Top Sightseeing 48-hour tour and used Union Station as a base of operations. It was convenient to grab a quick lunch or get some photo ops in.
The Washington Metro is cleaner and nicer, but I like the MTA. I think part of the reason it is not as well patronized as the New York system. That and as the new trains start rolling out.
Last October I was in DC for the Rally to Restore Sanity and I printed out the low-bucket roomette tickets I snagged for 29 (12/24) however, the room charge was on my mother's ticket and not my own. Back then I went to the Club Acela agent and two regular agents. None of them could fix it, each one giving me some BS about how being on the same reservation was enough. I bided my time and in the hour in the Club Acela I had the attendant fix my reservation. Ironically he was the SAME one who told me the first time that it didn't matter. After a few assertive words and guiding him through START, screen by screen, he was able to correct the error (much to his surprise). It was a simple matter of canceling the reservation and re-booking it, making sure that P1 was 'Micah' and that P1 used their rewards number.
Our attendant on the way home was a nice one named Arthur, very polite. Everybody was wearing Santa hats and the diner was decked up with holiday decorations, even a miniature Christmas tree and chocolates. Somebody brought the portable radio up from the kitchen to play christmas music. We opted for a late dinner time, which we later came to regret as the food and service had spiraled out of control. Everything was SNAFU, no dressing for the salad, the steaks weren't cooked right and instead of the ordered rice I received a long-too-done potato without sour cream. The SA was apologetic and offered means of correcting mistakes, each and every one. Each time she seemed to have forgot. I decided not tipping her was 'punishment' enough as I didn't want to spoil what mood was left in the diner. The LSA didn't even check us out by then, it was close to 9:30 and I went back to the lounge-- got a burger, and did the walk of shame with paid food through the diner and back to our sleeper with dinner service still winding down.
My Photo Albnum
