rtabern
Conductor
I and my traveling companion Mike P. got to ride on the first trip of the Cardinal with the Great Dome on it... Train #50(30) from Chicago all the way to New York-Penn.
While I generally just post my collection of photos and not an actual trip report since I believe a picture is worth 1,000 words... I decided to do a little bit of a text report and photo report this time around because of the special nature of the trip.
First, the good stuff. The dome was just incredible. I spent from 6:00PM-Midnight on Saturday night and from about 6:50AM until they cleared it out in Alexandria, VA on Sunday. So, pretty much the whole trip except for about 6 hours of sleep and bathroom brakes in there. I couldn't justify hanging out in the roomette when you had the Dome. The coolest thing was Saturday night out of Chicago sitting up there and watching the signals change. My dad who rode the rails in the 40's and 50's as a little boy always told me the tales of going in the domes and watching the signals change... it's something I never thought I would experience myself. He's now 75 years old... and I called him up to tell him about what I was seeing and how I remembered his stories as a boy... and I think we were almost both in tears!!
Good tears though!! I ate just about every meal up there too and enjoy spending time with the 5 other AUF members who were along for the ride... very good time chatting with all of you!
The trip was such a remarkable experience I just cleared my calendar and used up all my remaining vacation days for 2010 to book 2 more trips with the Great Dome on it. I am now going on both the westbound trips... #51(05) and #51(12).
The food was okay... better than I remembered it the last time I took the Cardinal in December 2007. Mike P and I didn't experience much of it though... we just had breakfast and lunch and opted to catch a little nicer dinner before leaving Chicago and after arriving in New York. I am sure I will get to experience a little more of it on my other 2 upcoming trips on the dome.
And finally... I just have to say something about some of the conductors on this trip. First off, I have traveled Amtrak enough across the country to know how conductors personalities and work habits vary grately... like many professions and workers. For example, just on the Empire Builder (my "home train" here in Milwaukee) the conductors on the CHI-WIN leg vary from folks who are just totally awesome and will do whatever they can to make your journey great -- and a few of them are actually my very close friends and we hang out doing even non-train stuff when we are off work -- to just grumpy/miserable people out to make everyone's life miserable on the train (there are 2 in particular on the CHI-WIN leg of the Empire Builder who are like this).
Unfortunately, most of the conductors I experienced on #50(30) were of the later category... very snippy and not helpful in the least. As reported on other forums and from another poster, the CHI-IND conductors thought the Dome was part of the private car consist behind the Dome (including the Hickory Creek and Mount Vernon). They were very insistant that the Dome was not open to the public and they refused to open it at first. Finally they were confronted by myself and about 5 other people -- all who were trying to tell them what the Dome was there for. The male CHI-IND conductor (or AC?) finally opened the Dome... and went to call CNOC. He came back to the Dome about 5 minutes later and profusely applogized for not opening the Dome and giving us a hard time. I don't lump him into the "bad apple" category because he probably wasn't told about the dome by his superiors -- and was nice to admit he was wrong and kept coming up to the Dome and appologizing for the miscommunication. The real jerks were both the male conductors who either got on in Indianapolis or Cincinnati and got off in Huntington, WV. Just some of THE WORST Amtrak employees I have ever met in my life!! Here is what happened: My travel partner went to the dome around 6:25AM while I was finishing up getting ready in the room. I went back to the Dome around 6:40AM -- but saw him sitting in a coach seat. He told me that the conductor told him the dome was going to open at 6:30AM... so he went and had a seat and waited 5 minutes. He went back to the conductor at 6:30AM when the conductor said it was going to open... and the conductor snipped back that he changed his mind and it still wasn't going to open at all, or not atleast to Huntington ... so my traveling partner decided to be non-confrontational and have a seat in coach and wait for me to come down to discuss what to do. I had enough of this -- and knew the Dome was NOT supposed to close at all overnight (this was confirmed by an Amtrak employee who I know at CNOC!!). So I approached one of the 2 conductors sitting in the cafe and asked what was going on. He told me that he didn't want to open up the Dome. He told me that he wasn't going to open it and that I could go and have a seat back in my sleeper and wait for the new crew in Huntington to get on to ask them to open it. I told him he was wrong -- it was never supposed to close -- and that there was a group of 50+ people getting on in HUN and I wanted to get in there before then. He finally told me to speak to the main conductor who was seated next to him and who was on the phone with someone. I waited for him to get off the phone and got the same answer from him. I told him again the Dome was not supposed to close -- and finally had to threaten him by saying I'd call CNOC myself if he didn't open it. Finally, I think that did it and he opened the dome... mumbling innappropriate comments under his breath the whole way to the car. I usually don't like to pull rank with the people I know... but I also didn't drop $600 on this trip not to be in the Dome either!
I could see Mr. Grumpy Conductor not being told about the car being on the consist which seemed pretty typical for the trip -- but for this conductor to make up his own rules out of thin air (dome opens at 6:30AM -- which was against CNOC's policy) -- and then change his mind and not even open the car at 6:30AM when asked -- was TOTALLY unacceptible. What was the worst thing in my book was that this guy was trying to pass off work (opening the Dome) to the next conductors who got on in Huntington. Dude... just do your job. It didnt take him more than 2 minutes to open the dome car -- all he did was unlock the door and lift the bar going across the door.
The new conductors on in Huntington weren't more friendly either -- one of them told me that there were NO smoke stops on the entire route of the Cardinal. Ummmm.... NOT TRUE. I rode the train well enough to know you can get off in Charleston and Charlottesville at the very least.
But, overall, great trip and I look forward to doing this 2 more times.
Here are the photos (along with pictures from a round-trip on the Acela from BOS-NYP... and a one-way on the Lake Shore Limited BOS-CHI. (Dome pictures are towards the middle to end of the picture set)
http://rtabern.shutterfly.com/13811
While I generally just post my collection of photos and not an actual trip report since I believe a picture is worth 1,000 words... I decided to do a little bit of a text report and photo report this time around because of the special nature of the trip.
First, the good stuff. The dome was just incredible. I spent from 6:00PM-Midnight on Saturday night and from about 6:50AM until they cleared it out in Alexandria, VA on Sunday. So, pretty much the whole trip except for about 6 hours of sleep and bathroom brakes in there. I couldn't justify hanging out in the roomette when you had the Dome. The coolest thing was Saturday night out of Chicago sitting up there and watching the signals change. My dad who rode the rails in the 40's and 50's as a little boy always told me the tales of going in the domes and watching the signals change... it's something I never thought I would experience myself. He's now 75 years old... and I called him up to tell him about what I was seeing and how I remembered his stories as a boy... and I think we were almost both in tears!!
Good tears though!! I ate just about every meal up there too and enjoy spending time with the 5 other AUF members who were along for the ride... very good time chatting with all of you!The trip was such a remarkable experience I just cleared my calendar and used up all my remaining vacation days for 2010 to book 2 more trips with the Great Dome on it. I am now going on both the westbound trips... #51(05) and #51(12).
The food was okay... better than I remembered it the last time I took the Cardinal in December 2007. Mike P and I didn't experience much of it though... we just had breakfast and lunch and opted to catch a little nicer dinner before leaving Chicago and after arriving in New York. I am sure I will get to experience a little more of it on my other 2 upcoming trips on the dome.
And finally... I just have to say something about some of the conductors on this trip. First off, I have traveled Amtrak enough across the country to know how conductors personalities and work habits vary grately... like many professions and workers. For example, just on the Empire Builder (my "home train" here in Milwaukee) the conductors on the CHI-WIN leg vary from folks who are just totally awesome and will do whatever they can to make your journey great -- and a few of them are actually my very close friends and we hang out doing even non-train stuff when we are off work -- to just grumpy/miserable people out to make everyone's life miserable on the train (there are 2 in particular on the CHI-WIN leg of the Empire Builder who are like this).
Unfortunately, most of the conductors I experienced on #50(30) were of the later category... very snippy and not helpful in the least. As reported on other forums and from another poster, the CHI-IND conductors thought the Dome was part of the private car consist behind the Dome (including the Hickory Creek and Mount Vernon). They were very insistant that the Dome was not open to the public and they refused to open it at first. Finally they were confronted by myself and about 5 other people -- all who were trying to tell them what the Dome was there for. The male CHI-IND conductor (or AC?) finally opened the Dome... and went to call CNOC. He came back to the Dome about 5 minutes later and profusely applogized for not opening the Dome and giving us a hard time. I don't lump him into the "bad apple" category because he probably wasn't told about the dome by his superiors -- and was nice to admit he was wrong and kept coming up to the Dome and appologizing for the miscommunication. The real jerks were both the male conductors who either got on in Indianapolis or Cincinnati and got off in Huntington, WV. Just some of THE WORST Amtrak employees I have ever met in my life!! Here is what happened: My travel partner went to the dome around 6:25AM while I was finishing up getting ready in the room. I went back to the Dome around 6:40AM -- but saw him sitting in a coach seat. He told me that the conductor told him the dome was going to open at 6:30AM... so he went and had a seat and waited 5 minutes. He went back to the conductor at 6:30AM when the conductor said it was going to open... and the conductor snipped back that he changed his mind and it still wasn't going to open at all, or not atleast to Huntington ... so my traveling partner decided to be non-confrontational and have a seat in coach and wait for me to come down to discuss what to do. I had enough of this -- and knew the Dome was NOT supposed to close at all overnight (this was confirmed by an Amtrak employee who I know at CNOC!!). So I approached one of the 2 conductors sitting in the cafe and asked what was going on. He told me that he didn't want to open up the Dome. He told me that he wasn't going to open it and that I could go and have a seat back in my sleeper and wait for the new crew in Huntington to get on to ask them to open it. I told him he was wrong -- it was never supposed to close -- and that there was a group of 50+ people getting on in HUN and I wanted to get in there before then. He finally told me to speak to the main conductor who was seated next to him and who was on the phone with someone. I waited for him to get off the phone and got the same answer from him. I told him again the Dome was not supposed to close -- and finally had to threaten him by saying I'd call CNOC myself if he didn't open it. Finally, I think that did it and he opened the dome... mumbling innappropriate comments under his breath the whole way to the car. I usually don't like to pull rank with the people I know... but I also didn't drop $600 on this trip not to be in the Dome either!
I could see Mr. Grumpy Conductor not being told about the car being on the consist which seemed pretty typical for the trip -- but for this conductor to make up his own rules out of thin air (dome opens at 6:30AM -- which was against CNOC's policy) -- and then change his mind and not even open the car at 6:30AM when asked -- was TOTALLY unacceptible. What was the worst thing in my book was that this guy was trying to pass off work (opening the Dome) to the next conductors who got on in Huntington. Dude... just do your job. It didnt take him more than 2 minutes to open the dome car -- all he did was unlock the door and lift the bar going across the door.
The new conductors on in Huntington weren't more friendly either -- one of them told me that there were NO smoke stops on the entire route of the Cardinal. Ummmm.... NOT TRUE. I rode the train well enough to know you can get off in Charleston and Charlottesville at the very least.
But, overall, great trip and I look forward to doing this 2 more times.
Here are the photos (along with pictures from a round-trip on the Acela from BOS-NYP... and a one-way on the Lake Shore Limited BOS-CHI. (Dome pictures are towards the middle to end of the picture set)
http://rtabern.shutterfly.com/13811
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