JAX-NYP

[Shortline]

Business took me to Jacksonville, with a follow on to Altoona, so I booked a trip on the Silver Meteor to Philadelphia, connecting to the Pennsylvanian to Altoona for a meeting, before catching the train that night to Pittsburg to fly out in the morning. Things changed, and I didn't need to go on to Altoona after all, so I changed my tickets to continue on to New York, and will fly out of Newark tomorrow afternoon.

Train arrived JAX about 20 min early, boarded and settled in. I really love the Viewliner Roomettes, they feel so much bigger than a super liner. Not a fan of the in room toilette, glad they are not included in the new ones when they come online. This is only my second Viewliner trip, previous single level trips were on a heritage sleeper, with one Charlottesville-Atlanta round trip a couple years ago. Nearly all of my trips are out West, so this is a little different.

Ice, juice, and coffee available, which surprised me, hearing about the cutbacks, and there were some mini-Twix candy bars on the ledge with bottles water. I assume the SCA did that in his own.

Looking forward to the heritage diner, an ex CB&Q, formerly Silver Diner, a few drinks, and a movie. Currently enjoying watching the territory, I used to work between Jacksonville and Savannah, and Savannah and Florence as a freight engineer, so this is my old territory, kind of neat to be back on these home rails!

 

[OBS]

Enjoy your trip!

 

[Shortline]

Had a few drinks in the lounge car, disappointed they didn't have any Gin, apparently they only get 2 bottles per trip, and the diner and lounge car both were out. The Amcafe isn't quite the experience the SSL is, but reminded me of riding as a kid between STL and KC on the amfleets. As reported, no salad for dinner, unless requested, but also as reported, when it does come, it's an improvement over the old version. No rolls in sight for our seating, though didn't ask. Did see them when passing through the diner on a later seating, so maybe those are by request as well. While the food itself was typically mediocre, the staff on board, from the SCA to the Dining car crew were fantastic, easily the best service I've experienced on any train before-Usually it's like pulling teeth to get a drink refill, but at dinner and breakfast both, the crew were proactively offering additional drinks or refills on coffee, can't even remember the last time that's happened, usually I walk back to the sleeper and get my own coffee on the TE!

Again, can't speak enough about how much I prefer the single level roomettes, the fans and vents were a welcome addition, compared to the single overhead vent in the superliners, much more airflow, and love being able to have bags in the room without being cramped, with the overhead storage area! The narrow end of the bunk is a bit cramped, would like a little more leg room when sleeping, assume with the removal of the toilets in the new ones the berths will be normal size and shape again. One thing I don't care for on the Viewliners, is the extremely bright and glaring fluorescent lighting in the hallways, coming out of a dark room into the hall is a shock, would prefer a little more subdued and less industrial lighting. Don't know if it's broken, or SCA just has it off, but it's been pleasantly quiet in the car, haven't heard a single announcement this whole trip-No endless menu rattling off, no café car rules, no station announcements, nothing. Some may like to hear what's going on, but frankly I hate the PA, it's been nice not having to hear it. Last few trips on superliners were in referbed ones without audio controls in the room, so this was a nice change. There is a "room speaker control" panel in the roomette I'm in, with a call button and some other device that doesn't seem to do anything, not even sure what it is capable of, but no matter, even the hall speakers have been silent this trip!

Really enjoying the scenery too, I don't get to the East Coast much, so seeing the water and skylines is a treat, as are the old B&O signals and electric motors. Just something different. Almost to NY, going through Philadelphia now, should have just enough time for a slice of NY pizza before catching a NJT train to Newark airport for the flight home. Was a good trip, great staff on board, and really was nice to see another part of the country for a change!

 

[jis]

Old B&O signals? Where did you travel on old B&O during this trip? Or did you mean the extremely new Amtrak color position light signals which replaced the old PRR position light signals on the NEC? Those could be mistaken for the old B&O color position light signals.

 

[Shortline]

They looked pretty old. Maybe they were old Penn CPL, no idea. Could have been new I guess but they looked old to me, but wasn't looking real close. Somewhere between PHL and Newark, don't remember.

 

[jis]

Well PRR did not have CPL. They just had PL (yellowish position lights 3 in each row). The CPLs (2 per row somewhat similar to B&O, but the two lights are further apart in each row) were installed by Amtrak replacing PRR PLs (3 per row). Usually the CPLs on the NEC now use LEDs, and are hence very bright.