I had to go to Boston for a conference, and a coworker and I thought it would be fun to ride Amtrak out there rather than flying. Originally, we wanted to travel in a group of four, each way. However, two of the people on the trip didn't want to spend the extra time and money (would require a vacation day, plus the company only reimburses for the equivalent airfare, so the extra cost of riding Amtrak would be out-of-pocket). Also, my coworker didn't want to leave on a Saturday (when the Cardinal runs), and he wanted to return on the Lake Shore Limited.
So, what started out as a fun idea of four transit schedulers riding across the country on Amtrak turned into each person going his own way.
I started out on 50(6) from Chicago to Washington, DC. The last time I rode the Cardinal was in December 2002, when it terminated in DC (and also had a coach to Louisville on the rear out of Chicago). I wanted to do something other than the "typical" Capitol Limited/Lake Shore Limited route via Cleveland, and so this was a great opportunity.
I was (of course) running a bit late in getting packed, so by the time I got to Chicago Union Station, they were almost ready to start boarding the train.
When I got on, however, my room wasn't ready (I don't know why), so I had to wait in the diner-lounge until about 5 minutes before departure. Cleaners were still vacuuming the handicap room as late as 10 minutes before departure. I felt certain that we'd depart late, but that prediction turned out to be wrong, and we left right on time.
Dinner was in the diner lounge a short time after departure from Chicago. One half of the car was being used for dining car service, and the other half was being used as the typical cafe/lounge. I must really commend the dining car LSA (I forget her name), as she worked pretty much by herself in serving the car for the entire trip, and did so without complaint and with little delay. On the other hand, the configuration of the dining section of the car was a bit puzzling. At the very end of the car was a table with four seats, and no window next to it (just a blank wall). The very next table only had two seats. Where the other two seats would have been, was just an empty space where supplies were stored (in fact, of the six or seven tables in the car, three were used for supplies and storage). This table, naturally, had a window, leading to the obvious question of why they didn't put the seats there, and have the other table with no window used for supplies.
Despite some issues with the configuration of the car, I had no complaints about the food. I forget everything that was on the menu, but the braised beef was excellent. There were a couple of options for dessert, including some of the best cheesecake I've ever had (Amtrak or otherwise).
Of course, the attendant had already made up my bed when I got back from dinner. Only two problems, however. First, I prefer to sleep on the top bunk (especially in a Viewliner) and leave the bottom bunk set up for seats. Second, it was only 7:55 pm, and unless it has been a really long day/week, I typically do not go to bed at 7:55 pm. So, I undid the sleeper setup and stayed up a bit longer.
Out of Chicago, the train had a private car, two deadhead Horizon coaches, and two more private cars. At some point during the night, we dropped off the last four cars (the two coaches no doubt were taken off at IND, but I'm not sure if the two other private cars got off there or elsewhere). I have my notes somewhere else, but I want to say that the private car that we kept was a KATY car, and the two we dropped off were Santa Fe.
The trip into DC was uneventful, arriving about an hour late on Sunday September 7.
On Monday September 8, I did a bit of busfanning in the morning. Then, I met up with a friend that works for Amtrak in Union Station. We chatted for a while, until the arrival of the Capitol Limited (on time), when my coworker arrived.
After his arrival, we went to the Amtrak ticket counter to take care of first-class upgrades for our Acela Express trips the next day. Later on that day, we went railfanning in Alexandria, VA, watching VRE and Amtrak trains, plus the CSX garbage train which just had to stop right in the station for 15 minutes. Just think of a dumpster or a garbage truck on a hot summer day, multiplied by 40 or 50, sitting next to you for 15 minutes.
Tuesday's itinerary included two Acela trips, DC to New York and New York to Boston. The first train was 2158(9), arriving at about 11:45 am. For lunch, we met up with a friend that recently moved to New York from Montreal (actually, she used to work for the company that was hosting the conference we were about to attend). After lunch, the two of us headed to the New York Transit Museum, which is housed in an abandoned subway station in Brooklyn. I enjoyed the visit, albeit a brief one, since we had to get back to Penn Station for the 4 pm Acela.
We left around 2:45 to begin our journey back to NYP. When we got there, we relaxed in the ClubAcela until 2166 boarded.
The first-class car on 2166 was full, so we had to sit at the two-seat conference table. Other than that, the only real issue I had was that the wine was served in a plastic cup. I felt like we were a couple of kids drinking grape juice and apple juice.
We arrived in Boston eight minutes early, and took the Red Line over to Cambridge and walked over to the conference hotel.
I won't bore everyone with the details of the conference, though some on here may find it interesting to see how large transit systems schedule their bus and rail service.
I didn't get to spend as much time as I would have liked riding Boston's transit system. In fact, during my 3.5 days there, I only rode the Red and Green Lines (thanks to a full itinerary during the conference, and evenings spent either at banquets or at the Red Sox game).
Saturday, I got up early and checked out of the hotel. I wanted to get to South Station pretty early, because I was ticketed on 2251(13), and wanted to use a one-hour upgrade coupon. Besides the thought that first-class might be sold out (which it wasn't), I was also worried that some Amtrak agents may not quite know how to process those coupons (especially since the ticket was booked with a NARP discount), and I wanted to leave time for any "negotiating" that might have to be done.
Naturally, I just missed a Green Line at the Boston University Central station. The next one wasn't that much later, but it developed some kind of mechanical problems which caused a five-minute delay. Normally, I wouldn't care about small delays, but they do make me nervous when I'm watching the clock. Fortunately, the delay didn't cause any problems, and, after transferring to the Red Line, I got to South Station with plenty of time to spare. To make matters even better, the agent figured out how to properly process the upgrade, while only charging me the NARP discount (instead of the new higher-bucket fare).
I rode that Acela straight through to Washington, DC, as it was the only way (without getting up extremely early in the morning) to make a same-day connection to the Capitol Limited.
We departed DC on time on train 29, and stayed pretty much on time the whole evening.
Dinner service was quite a bit slower than it was on the Cardinal, in part because of the train being much more crowded (and thus, the dining car being much more crowded). Even still, I'd have to say that crew was not one of the quickest crews I've seen.
Despite the slow service, I can't complain about the quality of the food on that train, either.
It was pretty dark out, so I spent the rest of my evening in my room in the transition sleeper.
The next morning, I woke up and went to breakfast. Service was (again) a little slow.
We were just shy of an hour late out of Waterloo, IN, and remained an hour late as we arrived at Elkhart.
I had received a phone call from my boss a day earlier telling me that Chicago had just received the most rain in recorded history, and that there were lots of service disruptions around the system. I figured that might have an impact on my journey to Chicago.
I was right.
As we were departing Elkhart, the conductor announced that, due to flooding and possible track washout conditions, a speed restriction of 15 mph was in place from there to Chicago. Assuming the restriction wasn't lifted, and that it extended all the way to Chicago, we were facing a nearly seven-hour journey ahead of us (for a distance of 100 miles). We pulled forward from Elkhart, crawled a ways, and then stopped and sat for a while. Among the reasons we were stopped was to let the eastbound Capitol Limited pass. That train was running approximately 12 hours late. While we were waiting, the westbound Lake Shore Limited (with my coworker aboard) caught up to us.
Even though I have a scanner, I rarely ever take it with me. My coworker, however, loves listening to the scanner, and kept me up-to-date (via cell phone and text messages).
After train 49's Elkhart station work was complete, the two trains were coupled together for the remainder of the journey. We pulled forward and started our way towards South Bend at a blistering 15 mph. Before we got to South Bend, however, we had to wait for the eastbound Lake Shore Limited, which left South Bend close to 11 hours late.
We then made our South Bend stop.
After leaving South Bend, the dining car crew started working on an emergency lunch (which, like everything else, took over an hour from when we were seated until we even had our orders taken). Lunch consisted of whatever was available, since that train normally doesn't serve lunch. By the time my table got to order (we were the second-last table to order), the only food left was macaroni & cheese, a hot dog, or a turkey burger.
After lunch, I sat in the lounge for a while, then went back to my room to wait for whatever was going to happen next.
As we approached Porter Junction (where the Michigan trains branch off), my coworker alerted me to the fact that the railroad was closed up ahead due to severe flooding, and that we would be put on buses to Chicago, but at the time (I think around 2:30 or 3 in the afternoon), there was no ETA on the buses.
The first group of buses actually went to the Blue Water, train 365, which I could see from my train, as it was unloading just a couple of blocks to the north. Afterwards, they unloaded the Capitol Limited, starting with sleepers, then continuing on with the coaches. After that, the Lake Shore Limited was unloaded in a similar fashion. I was lucky enough to get on a bus that departed shortly after 5 pm. My coworker told me that, while they were unloading the rest of the train, the crew died on hours of service, so they had to get someone else to move the train so they could continue unloading (we were unloaded at a grade crossing, so they could only unload car-by-car).
The roads were an absolute mess getting back, and we couldn't even take the highways because the traffic was so bad (I-80/94 was closed due to flooding, everything else was backed up). My bus eventually got to Union Station just before 7 pm. My coworker got in after 9 pm.
I'm told that after the railroad opened up, they coupled 29, 49, 365, and 355 together and deadheaded the whole thing into Chicago.
So, what started out as a fun idea of four transit schedulers riding across the country on Amtrak turned into each person going his own way.
I started out on 50(6) from Chicago to Washington, DC. The last time I rode the Cardinal was in December 2002, when it terminated in DC (and also had a coach to Louisville on the rear out of Chicago). I wanted to do something other than the "typical" Capitol Limited/Lake Shore Limited route via Cleveland, and so this was a great opportunity.
I was (of course) running a bit late in getting packed, so by the time I got to Chicago Union Station, they were almost ready to start boarding the train.
When I got on, however, my room wasn't ready (I don't know why), so I had to wait in the diner-lounge until about 5 minutes before departure. Cleaners were still vacuuming the handicap room as late as 10 minutes before departure. I felt certain that we'd depart late, but that prediction turned out to be wrong, and we left right on time.
Dinner was in the diner lounge a short time after departure from Chicago. One half of the car was being used for dining car service, and the other half was being used as the typical cafe/lounge. I must really commend the dining car LSA (I forget her name), as she worked pretty much by herself in serving the car for the entire trip, and did so without complaint and with little delay. On the other hand, the configuration of the dining section of the car was a bit puzzling. At the very end of the car was a table with four seats, and no window next to it (just a blank wall). The very next table only had two seats. Where the other two seats would have been, was just an empty space where supplies were stored (in fact, of the six or seven tables in the car, three were used for supplies and storage). This table, naturally, had a window, leading to the obvious question of why they didn't put the seats there, and have the other table with no window used for supplies.
Despite some issues with the configuration of the car, I had no complaints about the food. I forget everything that was on the menu, but the braised beef was excellent. There were a couple of options for dessert, including some of the best cheesecake I've ever had (Amtrak or otherwise).
Of course, the attendant had already made up my bed when I got back from dinner. Only two problems, however. First, I prefer to sleep on the top bunk (especially in a Viewliner) and leave the bottom bunk set up for seats. Second, it was only 7:55 pm, and unless it has been a really long day/week, I typically do not go to bed at 7:55 pm. So, I undid the sleeper setup and stayed up a bit longer.
Out of Chicago, the train had a private car, two deadhead Horizon coaches, and two more private cars. At some point during the night, we dropped off the last four cars (the two coaches no doubt were taken off at IND, but I'm not sure if the two other private cars got off there or elsewhere). I have my notes somewhere else, but I want to say that the private car that we kept was a KATY car, and the two we dropped off were Santa Fe.
The trip into DC was uneventful, arriving about an hour late on Sunday September 7.
On Monday September 8, I did a bit of busfanning in the morning. Then, I met up with a friend that works for Amtrak in Union Station. We chatted for a while, until the arrival of the Capitol Limited (on time), when my coworker arrived.
After his arrival, we went to the Amtrak ticket counter to take care of first-class upgrades for our Acela Express trips the next day. Later on that day, we went railfanning in Alexandria, VA, watching VRE and Amtrak trains, plus the CSX garbage train which just had to stop right in the station for 15 minutes. Just think of a dumpster or a garbage truck on a hot summer day, multiplied by 40 or 50, sitting next to you for 15 minutes.
Tuesday's itinerary included two Acela trips, DC to New York and New York to Boston. The first train was 2158(9), arriving at about 11:45 am. For lunch, we met up with a friend that recently moved to New York from Montreal (actually, she used to work for the company that was hosting the conference we were about to attend). After lunch, the two of us headed to the New York Transit Museum, which is housed in an abandoned subway station in Brooklyn. I enjoyed the visit, albeit a brief one, since we had to get back to Penn Station for the 4 pm Acela.
We left around 2:45 to begin our journey back to NYP. When we got there, we relaxed in the ClubAcela until 2166 boarded.
The first-class car on 2166 was full, so we had to sit at the two-seat conference table. Other than that, the only real issue I had was that the wine was served in a plastic cup. I felt like we were a couple of kids drinking grape juice and apple juice.
We arrived in Boston eight minutes early, and took the Red Line over to Cambridge and walked over to the conference hotel.
I won't bore everyone with the details of the conference, though some on here may find it interesting to see how large transit systems schedule their bus and rail service.
I didn't get to spend as much time as I would have liked riding Boston's transit system. In fact, during my 3.5 days there, I only rode the Red and Green Lines (thanks to a full itinerary during the conference, and evenings spent either at banquets or at the Red Sox game).
Saturday, I got up early and checked out of the hotel. I wanted to get to South Station pretty early, because I was ticketed on 2251(13), and wanted to use a one-hour upgrade coupon. Besides the thought that first-class might be sold out (which it wasn't), I was also worried that some Amtrak agents may not quite know how to process those coupons (especially since the ticket was booked with a NARP discount), and I wanted to leave time for any "negotiating" that might have to be done.
Naturally, I just missed a Green Line at the Boston University Central station. The next one wasn't that much later, but it developed some kind of mechanical problems which caused a five-minute delay. Normally, I wouldn't care about small delays, but they do make me nervous when I'm watching the clock. Fortunately, the delay didn't cause any problems, and, after transferring to the Red Line, I got to South Station with plenty of time to spare. To make matters even better, the agent figured out how to properly process the upgrade, while only charging me the NARP discount (instead of the new higher-bucket fare).
I rode that Acela straight through to Washington, DC, as it was the only way (without getting up extremely early in the morning) to make a same-day connection to the Capitol Limited.
We departed DC on time on train 29, and stayed pretty much on time the whole evening.
Dinner service was quite a bit slower than it was on the Cardinal, in part because of the train being much more crowded (and thus, the dining car being much more crowded). Even still, I'd have to say that crew was not one of the quickest crews I've seen.
Despite the slow service, I can't complain about the quality of the food on that train, either.
It was pretty dark out, so I spent the rest of my evening in my room in the transition sleeper.
The next morning, I woke up and went to breakfast. Service was (again) a little slow.
We were just shy of an hour late out of Waterloo, IN, and remained an hour late as we arrived at Elkhart.
I had received a phone call from my boss a day earlier telling me that Chicago had just received the most rain in recorded history, and that there were lots of service disruptions around the system. I figured that might have an impact on my journey to Chicago.
I was right.
As we were departing Elkhart, the conductor announced that, due to flooding and possible track washout conditions, a speed restriction of 15 mph was in place from there to Chicago. Assuming the restriction wasn't lifted, and that it extended all the way to Chicago, we were facing a nearly seven-hour journey ahead of us (for a distance of 100 miles). We pulled forward from Elkhart, crawled a ways, and then stopped and sat for a while. Among the reasons we were stopped was to let the eastbound Capitol Limited pass. That train was running approximately 12 hours late. While we were waiting, the westbound Lake Shore Limited (with my coworker aboard) caught up to us.
Even though I have a scanner, I rarely ever take it with me. My coworker, however, loves listening to the scanner, and kept me up-to-date (via cell phone and text messages).
After train 49's Elkhart station work was complete, the two trains were coupled together for the remainder of the journey. We pulled forward and started our way towards South Bend at a blistering 15 mph. Before we got to South Bend, however, we had to wait for the eastbound Lake Shore Limited, which left South Bend close to 11 hours late.
We then made our South Bend stop.
After leaving South Bend, the dining car crew started working on an emergency lunch (which, like everything else, took over an hour from when we were seated until we even had our orders taken). Lunch consisted of whatever was available, since that train normally doesn't serve lunch. By the time my table got to order (we were the second-last table to order), the only food left was macaroni & cheese, a hot dog, or a turkey burger.
After lunch, I sat in the lounge for a while, then went back to my room to wait for whatever was going to happen next.
As we approached Porter Junction (where the Michigan trains branch off), my coworker alerted me to the fact that the railroad was closed up ahead due to severe flooding, and that we would be put on buses to Chicago, but at the time (I think around 2:30 or 3 in the afternoon), there was no ETA on the buses.
The first group of buses actually went to the Blue Water, train 365, which I could see from my train, as it was unloading just a couple of blocks to the north. Afterwards, they unloaded the Capitol Limited, starting with sleepers, then continuing on with the coaches. After that, the Lake Shore Limited was unloaded in a similar fashion. I was lucky enough to get on a bus that departed shortly after 5 pm. My coworker told me that, while they were unloading the rest of the train, the crew died on hours of service, so they had to get someone else to move the train so they could continue unloading (we were unloaded at a grade crossing, so they could only unload car-by-car).
The roads were an absolute mess getting back, and we couldn't even take the highways because the traffic was so bad (I-80/94 was closed due to flooding, everything else was backed up). My bus eventually got to Union Station just before 7 pm. My coworker got in after 9 pm.
I'm told that after the railroad opened up, they coupled 29, 49, 365, and 355 together and deadheaded the whole thing into Chicago.
