pdxjim
Service Attendant
I left PDX on EB #28 (7) in roomette 4 of car 2830. I enjoyed the cold poached salmon dinner as we traveled up the Columbia River gorge and luckily had a great view from my room for a short time. The cold dinner options were beef, chicken and salmon and are prepared by a local deli.
2830 was a refurbished Superliner I car and it was a very comfortable ride. I thought being at the rear of the train might cause more sway, but it was a great experience. Walking through 4 coaches and the lounge to the diner for meals was good exercise.
My SCA was D. Smith, a very energetic Chicago based young man who has worked for 4 years with Amtrak. He was always available and kept checking on his passengers throughout the trip.
I went to bed before we hit Spokane. I use a CPAP and was prepared for the power outage when the trains merge in Spokane, but it was still enough to make me wake up. The power wasn't out too long and my CPAP restored itself when the power came back on.
The 2830 car had a clean rear window for taking pictures so I took advantage of that while we went through Glacier Park. Two bald eagles sat together in a pine tree close to the tracks.
Food service was great in the diner, except for one server "Richard" who clearly didn't want to be there. The rib "special" with chipotle sauce was very good and the chocolate bunte cake with vanilla ice cream ended a great meal. It was nice having buttermilk pancakes for breakfast.
Wine and cheese were served on the afternoon of the second day and trivia winners enjoyed free Washington state wine. I have always liked the Rogue Valley blue cheese. I was given a bottle of red Snoqualmie wine and shared it with my dinner table that evening.
We had great on-time or ahead of schedule times until we got to North Dakota and waited for multiple freight trains. We ended up three hours down at one point and made up an hour before we got to St. Paul.
The conductor relayed the bad news about a lot of the connecting trains in Chicago, but was confident that those connecting to the Capitol Limited would be ok.
We were about 4 miles from Union Station in Chicago when a switch broke in front of us and had to be manually repaired. It was very frustrating to have Metra trains flying past on either side as our connection time began to evaporate. We arrived at 6:28pm and were scheduled to depart on the CL at 6:40pm.
Amtrak personnel on the platform directed us to the waiting CL so I hiked at a rapid pace and I found my next sleeper 3001 room 7. This car was the "Missouri" and was not refurbished and showed the wear and tear of many years of service. My SCA suggested I go to the diner to get a reservation so I dropped my bags and went to the CCC (cross country cafe). We didn't make it inside the station at all.
I was immediately seated and enjoyed my first experience in the CCC with a nice lady from North Dakota. She was on the way to Toledo, Ohio to see her son who had been hospitalized for injuries during a hockey game. As we began to eat, the train departed about 25 minutes late.
We both enjoyed the steak and vegetables with a scrumptious peanut butter pie for dessert. I liked this better than the key lime crumb cake that was served on the EB.
I returned to my roomette and discovered ALL toilets were disabled in my sleeper and had to use the adjoining sleeper where a line had begun!
The toilets were out of service my entire trip to Pittsburgh.
I made up my bunk and went to sleep early because we were due in to Pittsburgh about 4:40am. It was very hard sleeping as the track seemed very rough and I was being tossed side to side.
We arrived in Pittsburgh at 5:17am. I'll be heading back to PDX via Seattle in a few days. All in all, a great trip with lots of fun memories. It is always fun to meet and socialize with passengers throughout the train.
2830 was a refurbished Superliner I car and it was a very comfortable ride. I thought being at the rear of the train might cause more sway, but it was a great experience. Walking through 4 coaches and the lounge to the diner for meals was good exercise.
My SCA was D. Smith, a very energetic Chicago based young man who has worked for 4 years with Amtrak. He was always available and kept checking on his passengers throughout the trip.
I went to bed before we hit Spokane. I use a CPAP and was prepared for the power outage when the trains merge in Spokane, but it was still enough to make me wake up. The power wasn't out too long and my CPAP restored itself when the power came back on.
The 2830 car had a clean rear window for taking pictures so I took advantage of that while we went through Glacier Park. Two bald eagles sat together in a pine tree close to the tracks.
Food service was great in the diner, except for one server "Richard" who clearly didn't want to be there. The rib "special" with chipotle sauce was very good and the chocolate bunte cake with vanilla ice cream ended a great meal. It was nice having buttermilk pancakes for breakfast.
Wine and cheese were served on the afternoon of the second day and trivia winners enjoyed free Washington state wine. I have always liked the Rogue Valley blue cheese. I was given a bottle of red Snoqualmie wine and shared it with my dinner table that evening.
We had great on-time or ahead of schedule times until we got to North Dakota and waited for multiple freight trains. We ended up three hours down at one point and made up an hour before we got to St. Paul.
The conductor relayed the bad news about a lot of the connecting trains in Chicago, but was confident that those connecting to the Capitol Limited would be ok.
We were about 4 miles from Union Station in Chicago when a switch broke in front of us and had to be manually repaired. It was very frustrating to have Metra trains flying past on either side as our connection time began to evaporate. We arrived at 6:28pm and were scheduled to depart on the CL at 6:40pm.
Amtrak personnel on the platform directed us to the waiting CL so I hiked at a rapid pace and I found my next sleeper 3001 room 7. This car was the "Missouri" and was not refurbished and showed the wear and tear of many years of service. My SCA suggested I go to the diner to get a reservation so I dropped my bags and went to the CCC (cross country cafe). We didn't make it inside the station at all.
I was immediately seated and enjoyed my first experience in the CCC with a nice lady from North Dakota. She was on the way to Toledo, Ohio to see her son who had been hospitalized for injuries during a hockey game. As we began to eat, the train departed about 25 minutes late.
We both enjoyed the steak and vegetables with a scrumptious peanut butter pie for dessert. I liked this better than the key lime crumb cake that was served on the EB.
I returned to my roomette and discovered ALL toilets were disabled in my sleeper and had to use the adjoining sleeper where a line had begun!
The toilets were out of service my entire trip to Pittsburgh.
I made up my bunk and went to sleep early because we were due in to Pittsburgh about 4:40am. It was very hard sleeping as the track seemed very rough and I was being tossed side to side.
We arrived in Pittsburgh at 5:17am. I'll be heading back to PDX via Seattle in a few days. All in all, a great trip with lots of fun memories. It is always fun to meet and socialize with passengers throughout the train.
