greatcats
Engineer
I posted my Flagstaff-Chicago-Pittsburgh Trenton portions over two weeks ago. Here is what happened after my arrival in New Jersey, staying at a hotel just outside of Princeton, NJ with a rental car. The morning after I arrived, I awoke to learn of the terrible tragedy in Philadelphia, which occurred less than six hours after I passed through on Train 42. That in itself is another topic which I am following closely, as I'm sure many of you are. I was in town mainly to attend the Alumni activities for my alma mater, Westminster Choir College in Princeton. It is always wonderful to meet up with old classmates, share funny stories, and hear great music. The Commencement ceremony, iis held in the Princeton University Chapel, a gorgeous Gothic edifice and the student body forms a huge choir of glorious voices. As one classmate stated, " It is still the best show in town. "
I was curious as to what the new Princeton station for the Dinky train looked like. There had been much controversy over moving the station location, but my conclusion is that it is an improvement. A new spacious waiting room building has been constructed and has the benefit of a 24 hour convenience store and rest rooms. I also used the services of my former employer three times during my eastern visit: Trenton to Princeton Junction, Montclair Bay St., to Hoboken, and Newark Airport to New York Penn, which served their purpose satisfactorily, The latter part of my stay was in north Jersey at the home of friends, and a night at the new home of my former NJ Transit crew dispatcher colleague, Roger, at his new home in Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania. Also, went to a choral concert in Greenwich Village and even went to the service at the Presybyterian Church in Madison, NJ, the church where I grew up. That was pretty interesting, as I believe I last went to a service there over 40 years ago. Plus, other friends in northern New Jersey were visited, amounting to time well spent.
On the afternoon of May 20, the car which I had picked up in Princeton was dropped at Newark Airport and then I took the train into New York Penn for Train 49, the Lakeshore, to Chicago. I hung out in the Acela Lounge for over two hours, which was fine, and a brief spin around the rest of Penn Station, which is generally underwhelming. The redcap took me down to the train and I was greeted by Leroy, my SCA, the most low key of my car attendants on this trip, but he did his job courteously. I have not ridden a Viewliner sleeper in two years and it has been awhile since I used the upper bunk. The equipment, while obviously not brand new anymore, was not as bedraggled as some other Viewliner cars I've seen and everything in my room was in order. The Boston sleeper was on the rear, due to trackwork around Albany, and a separate train had run from Boston, for whatever logistical reasons. I had dinner going up the Hudson, served by Kwami, who I had met several years ago eastbound when this train had the diner lite. This car was one of the old Heritage diners. Those reading my various comments in recent months about the food service quality have seen a rather negative set of commentaries from me on this subject. However, while I do not care for some of their not so bright economy moves, I will go on record by stating that the food on this lengthy trip was generally quite good and I did not experience any poor service. What does annoy me, is the serving of coffee and tea in a paper cup with plastic lid like it is some fast food restaurant. Call me snobbish if you will, but this is TACKY! The salmon dinner on this train was really delicious, with the possible exception of the mashed potatoes. No complaints about breakfast the next morning.
I went to bed around Syracuse and awoke around 1am and noticed we were stopped, thinking this must be Erie. No, consulting my phone, we were only in Rochester! I never did hear what had happened, but it probably had to do with freight trains We continued onward to Chicago, with only a slight additional delay due to a switch problem, and arrived 2'15" late at 12 noon, which was not a problem. This trip on the Lakeshore, I'm pleased to say, was quite enjoyable, not an aggravation. Stopping for sushi, I rolled my baggage over to the Hyatt Regency on East Wacker Drive, because of a favorable rate through Priceline. This is said to be the largest Hyatt hotel, with 2000 rooms in two towers. My stay was OK and it served my purposes, but I am not a big fan of huge convention hotels, and I do find it strange that such a large hotel has no pool. The two towers, in my opinion, are rather ugly, and if the windows were narrower it would resemble a prison - just add barbed wire. I was in town to perform in a choral concert with the Flagstaff Master Chorale and other choirs from around the Midwest, at Orchestra Hall, home of the Chicago Symphony, which took place on on Sunday, May 24. It was a successful affair an now I can say I have sung in that famous auditorium! Also, I went to a great concert of the Chicago Symphony, spent an evening at the Jazz Showcase housed in the old Dearborn Station headhouse, and went to a theater production at Profiles Theater up on Broadway, reached via the Red Line Sheridan stop. Plus, I was in and out of the Chicago Art Institute,.
This past Monday I hauled the bags across town, stopping at Giordano's It was convenient, but I've decided that I am not too crazy about their pizza. Then I walked into the Metro Lounge at 1 pm and they announced the boarding of Train 21, the Texas Eagle, so I spent no time in the lounge. Out we went to the train and met Marcelo, a Mexican who has one year with Amtrak. What a great work ethic this guy has, setting an example for others! I was headed for Austin to visit the distinguished Mr. Hudson and he had been advising me of the terrible weather and flooding his region had been having, even suggesting that I return home via the Southwest Chief. The sleeper fare for that was out of sight, so I told him I was coming regardless of Hell, High Water, or the Black Holes of Arkansas or Calcutta. We had numerous private messages flying back and forth on this forum! I went to bed around 10pm and could not sleep. At 11:55 pm I heard my phone vibrate and it was Jim, advising me that it looked like buses south of Fort Worth, due to a washout at Taylor. Then, I slept fitfully after receiving this unwelcome news. I told Marcelo the next morning what I heard and he said " Shhhhhh" as he did not want to get the passengers upset, some of whom would take the news out on him in frustration. Approaching Dallas while having lunch and having heard no word, we asked the conductor, who confirmed the situation and said he would announce it as we left Dallas. Bags were packed to detrain at Fort Worth and except for some garbled messages, were handled fairly well in boarding two charter buses and we left on the train schedule with the conductor on board. It was a very comfortable bus - only problem was I went in the rest room and shut the door, to find that the door handle was missing, trapping me inside. I managed to pry it open before pounding, hollering, and setting off alarms. Conductor and driver were promptly notified! McGregor station is way off the Interstate highway, so we stopped there and at Temple, plus a rest stop. Heavy traffic was encountered entering booming Austin, so it took nearly five hours to reach Amtrak in Austin. Some passengers were complaining, but hey, Amtrak took care of us and provided the alternate transportation.
Jim met me and advised that due to a loss of power and a broken water main, we could not stay at his apartment. He had made arrangements with his lovely 91 year old mom, Olivia, to stay at her apartment on the north side of Austin. The next morning I played the piano for her, which seemed to go over well! Jim drove me all over Austin the next day. The character of the city is changing and property values have skyrocketed. Old buildings and neighborhoods and small businesses are being replaced with upscale condos all over the place. Not necesserily a wonderful thing. Evidence of the high flood water of a few days before was much in evidence and the popular Barton Springs pool ( which I visited many years ago ) was closed due to high, turbid water. Jim then dropped me late in the afternoon after a great BBQ lunch at the station and I spent my time watching a movie as about 15 passengers waited for the bus to San Antonio, which arrived after 9pm. The bus ride was uneventful and arrived SAS shortly before 11pm. The station crew could have done better job informing the arriving bus passengers of what was to be done. As I had figured the through coach and sleeper for 421 were in San Antonio, having been there since Tuesday morning, as they could not go north due to the washout. After awhile it was made clear that the cars were east of the station across Commerce Street on a siding and we could ride a golf cart, which could only take three at a time, or walk. Down the platform we trudged and were greeted by Cathy Bush, one of the hardest working SCAs I ever met. Making my way up the stairs, I promptly went to bed, along with most everybody else.
At around 2am came a loud pounding on the door. " All passengers must leave the train immediately. There is an emergency station. " I dressed and made sure my phone was with me, but left the bags and the two carloads of passengers, sleeper and coach,gathered on the platform where we spent nearly three hours. Four police cars were there and bomb sniffing dogs were called. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but it seems a coach passenger eiither left a package in a coach rest room or scrawled a threatening message on a mirror, causing this situation. The dogs sniffed the train and then checked out luggage that some had brought to the platform. I believe the culprit, that stupid fool, was hauled away and trust that he is having a fun time cooling his heels in the Bexar Couny Jail.
At least the weather was rather pleasant outside and I do give the station people credit for shuttling some back and forth to the station building for rest rooms and bringing out a cartful of water bottles. Then, the police departed and the two cars were switched onto Train #1 and we boarded, finally departing SAS three hours late. I did sleep a few more hours after this, but everybody had their rest disrupted, which was not the least bit humorous.
Off we went across Texas and I had breakfast around Del Rio. I've been on this route before, but the area west of Del Rio over to Sanderson ( where we picked up 1 passenger! ) is extremely remote. Signs of civilization other than the railroad are few and far between. One of the features of this trip across the country and back, other than some minor faults, was that we had no major equipment failures: No locomotives dying, no non-functioning plumbing or ventilation quitting. That is how it should be, but we have all experienced these or read the horror stories. On and on we went across Texas, enjoying the chats with an 18 year old returning to school in Alpine. I decided to skip lunch in favor of some snacks I'd brought with me and the hummus and pretzels from the lounge car. I did enjoy the steak dinner with red wine and that was a fine conclusion to my long rail journeys. The best part of all this were the four very fine SCAs, and Cathy was really special. We felt badly for her, as she had had no sleep in San Antonio due to the unnecessary disruption and was up all day long scurrying around the car. The sunset across the desert of New Mexico leading into Arizona was an aesthetic delight. Arrival in Tucson was at 10 pm, about 3'15" late. I walked across the street to spend the night at the Hotel Congress in one of the " quieter " rooms. Conclusion: In spite of the problems, faults, lack of funding, etc. etc., I say LONG LIVE AMTRAK!!!
I have now taken Greyhound from Tucson to Phoenix on my way home and am now sitting in the not very busy, rather drab Greyhound station near Sky Harbor Airport. The bus to Phoenix was kind of beaten up; the driver, a recent hire, was very talkative and friendly and conversed on a wide variety of subjects the whole way up Interstate 10 with me and the other gentleman up front. Later tonight I will arrive home and I will not comment further on Greyhound unless something unusual happens before here and Flagstaff. Thanks for reading. Home to my kitties!
Postscript: The bus to Flagstaff, which was destined for Albuquerque and St. Louis, left Phoenix at 4:50 pm and made a stop in suburban Glendale and then all the seats were filled. My seatmate was a lady of Russian origin, who was friendly, or should we say too friendly, or at least overly chatty. She was nice up to a point, but it made me want to leave the coach seats and go to a roomette and close the door! This driver was a gentleman and brought us swiftly to Flagstaff almost on time at 7:40. While Greyhound is not my trasnportation mode of choice, it did the job today and was not a horror show. Certainly a great place for people watching.......
I was curious as to what the new Princeton station for the Dinky train looked like. There had been much controversy over moving the station location, but my conclusion is that it is an improvement. A new spacious waiting room building has been constructed and has the benefit of a 24 hour convenience store and rest rooms. I also used the services of my former employer three times during my eastern visit: Trenton to Princeton Junction, Montclair Bay St., to Hoboken, and Newark Airport to New York Penn, which served their purpose satisfactorily, The latter part of my stay was in north Jersey at the home of friends, and a night at the new home of my former NJ Transit crew dispatcher colleague, Roger, at his new home in Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania. Also, went to a choral concert in Greenwich Village and even went to the service at the Presybyterian Church in Madison, NJ, the church where I grew up. That was pretty interesting, as I believe I last went to a service there over 40 years ago. Plus, other friends in northern New Jersey were visited, amounting to time well spent.
On the afternoon of May 20, the car which I had picked up in Princeton was dropped at Newark Airport and then I took the train into New York Penn for Train 49, the Lakeshore, to Chicago. I hung out in the Acela Lounge for over two hours, which was fine, and a brief spin around the rest of Penn Station, which is generally underwhelming. The redcap took me down to the train and I was greeted by Leroy, my SCA, the most low key of my car attendants on this trip, but he did his job courteously. I have not ridden a Viewliner sleeper in two years and it has been awhile since I used the upper bunk. The equipment, while obviously not brand new anymore, was not as bedraggled as some other Viewliner cars I've seen and everything in my room was in order. The Boston sleeper was on the rear, due to trackwork around Albany, and a separate train had run from Boston, for whatever logistical reasons. I had dinner going up the Hudson, served by Kwami, who I had met several years ago eastbound when this train had the diner lite. This car was one of the old Heritage diners. Those reading my various comments in recent months about the food service quality have seen a rather negative set of commentaries from me on this subject. However, while I do not care for some of their not so bright economy moves, I will go on record by stating that the food on this lengthy trip was generally quite good and I did not experience any poor service. What does annoy me, is the serving of coffee and tea in a paper cup with plastic lid like it is some fast food restaurant. Call me snobbish if you will, but this is TACKY! The salmon dinner on this train was really delicious, with the possible exception of the mashed potatoes. No complaints about breakfast the next morning.
I went to bed around Syracuse and awoke around 1am and noticed we were stopped, thinking this must be Erie. No, consulting my phone, we were only in Rochester! I never did hear what had happened, but it probably had to do with freight trains We continued onward to Chicago, with only a slight additional delay due to a switch problem, and arrived 2'15" late at 12 noon, which was not a problem. This trip on the Lakeshore, I'm pleased to say, was quite enjoyable, not an aggravation. Stopping for sushi, I rolled my baggage over to the Hyatt Regency on East Wacker Drive, because of a favorable rate through Priceline. This is said to be the largest Hyatt hotel, with 2000 rooms in two towers. My stay was OK and it served my purposes, but I am not a big fan of huge convention hotels, and I do find it strange that such a large hotel has no pool. The two towers, in my opinion, are rather ugly, and if the windows were narrower it would resemble a prison - just add barbed wire. I was in town to perform in a choral concert with the Flagstaff Master Chorale and other choirs from around the Midwest, at Orchestra Hall, home of the Chicago Symphony, which took place on on Sunday, May 24. It was a successful affair an now I can say I have sung in that famous auditorium! Also, I went to a great concert of the Chicago Symphony, spent an evening at the Jazz Showcase housed in the old Dearborn Station headhouse, and went to a theater production at Profiles Theater up on Broadway, reached via the Red Line Sheridan stop. Plus, I was in and out of the Chicago Art Institute,.
This past Monday I hauled the bags across town, stopping at Giordano's It was convenient, but I've decided that I am not too crazy about their pizza. Then I walked into the Metro Lounge at 1 pm and they announced the boarding of Train 21, the Texas Eagle, so I spent no time in the lounge. Out we went to the train and met Marcelo, a Mexican who has one year with Amtrak. What a great work ethic this guy has, setting an example for others! I was headed for Austin to visit the distinguished Mr. Hudson and he had been advising me of the terrible weather and flooding his region had been having, even suggesting that I return home via the Southwest Chief. The sleeper fare for that was out of sight, so I told him I was coming regardless of Hell, High Water, or the Black Holes of Arkansas or Calcutta. We had numerous private messages flying back and forth on this forum! I went to bed around 10pm and could not sleep. At 11:55 pm I heard my phone vibrate and it was Jim, advising me that it looked like buses south of Fort Worth, due to a washout at Taylor. Then, I slept fitfully after receiving this unwelcome news. I told Marcelo the next morning what I heard and he said " Shhhhhh" as he did not want to get the passengers upset, some of whom would take the news out on him in frustration. Approaching Dallas while having lunch and having heard no word, we asked the conductor, who confirmed the situation and said he would announce it as we left Dallas. Bags were packed to detrain at Fort Worth and except for some garbled messages, were handled fairly well in boarding two charter buses and we left on the train schedule with the conductor on board. It was a very comfortable bus - only problem was I went in the rest room and shut the door, to find that the door handle was missing, trapping me inside. I managed to pry it open before pounding, hollering, and setting off alarms. Conductor and driver were promptly notified! McGregor station is way off the Interstate highway, so we stopped there and at Temple, plus a rest stop. Heavy traffic was encountered entering booming Austin, so it took nearly five hours to reach Amtrak in Austin. Some passengers were complaining, but hey, Amtrak took care of us and provided the alternate transportation.
Jim met me and advised that due to a loss of power and a broken water main, we could not stay at his apartment. He had made arrangements with his lovely 91 year old mom, Olivia, to stay at her apartment on the north side of Austin. The next morning I played the piano for her, which seemed to go over well! Jim drove me all over Austin the next day. The character of the city is changing and property values have skyrocketed. Old buildings and neighborhoods and small businesses are being replaced with upscale condos all over the place. Not necesserily a wonderful thing. Evidence of the high flood water of a few days before was much in evidence and the popular Barton Springs pool ( which I visited many years ago ) was closed due to high, turbid water. Jim then dropped me late in the afternoon after a great BBQ lunch at the station and I spent my time watching a movie as about 15 passengers waited for the bus to San Antonio, which arrived after 9pm. The bus ride was uneventful and arrived SAS shortly before 11pm. The station crew could have done better job informing the arriving bus passengers of what was to be done. As I had figured the through coach and sleeper for 421 were in San Antonio, having been there since Tuesday morning, as they could not go north due to the washout. After awhile it was made clear that the cars were east of the station across Commerce Street on a siding and we could ride a golf cart, which could only take three at a time, or walk. Down the platform we trudged and were greeted by Cathy Bush, one of the hardest working SCAs I ever met. Making my way up the stairs, I promptly went to bed, along with most everybody else.
At around 2am came a loud pounding on the door. " All passengers must leave the train immediately. There is an emergency station. " I dressed and made sure my phone was with me, but left the bags and the two carloads of passengers, sleeper and coach,gathered on the platform where we spent nearly three hours. Four police cars were there and bomb sniffing dogs were called. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but it seems a coach passenger eiither left a package in a coach rest room or scrawled a threatening message on a mirror, causing this situation. The dogs sniffed the train and then checked out luggage that some had brought to the platform. I believe the culprit, that stupid fool, was hauled away and trust that he is having a fun time cooling his heels in the Bexar Couny Jail.
At least the weather was rather pleasant outside and I do give the station people credit for shuttling some back and forth to the station building for rest rooms and bringing out a cartful of water bottles. Then, the police departed and the two cars were switched onto Train #1 and we boarded, finally departing SAS three hours late. I did sleep a few more hours after this, but everybody had their rest disrupted, which was not the least bit humorous.
Off we went across Texas and I had breakfast around Del Rio. I've been on this route before, but the area west of Del Rio over to Sanderson ( where we picked up 1 passenger! ) is extremely remote. Signs of civilization other than the railroad are few and far between. One of the features of this trip across the country and back, other than some minor faults, was that we had no major equipment failures: No locomotives dying, no non-functioning plumbing or ventilation quitting. That is how it should be, but we have all experienced these or read the horror stories. On and on we went across Texas, enjoying the chats with an 18 year old returning to school in Alpine. I decided to skip lunch in favor of some snacks I'd brought with me and the hummus and pretzels from the lounge car. I did enjoy the steak dinner with red wine and that was a fine conclusion to my long rail journeys. The best part of all this were the four very fine SCAs, and Cathy was really special. We felt badly for her, as she had had no sleep in San Antonio due to the unnecessary disruption and was up all day long scurrying around the car. The sunset across the desert of New Mexico leading into Arizona was an aesthetic delight. Arrival in Tucson was at 10 pm, about 3'15" late. I walked across the street to spend the night at the Hotel Congress in one of the " quieter " rooms. Conclusion: In spite of the problems, faults, lack of funding, etc. etc., I say LONG LIVE AMTRAK!!!
I have now taken Greyhound from Tucson to Phoenix on my way home and am now sitting in the not very busy, rather drab Greyhound station near Sky Harbor Airport. The bus to Phoenix was kind of beaten up; the driver, a recent hire, was very talkative and friendly and conversed on a wide variety of subjects the whole way up Interstate 10 with me and the other gentleman up front. Later tonight I will arrive home and I will not comment further on Greyhound unless something unusual happens before here and Flagstaff. Thanks for reading. Home to my kitties!
Postscript: The bus to Flagstaff, which was destined for Albuquerque and St. Louis, left Phoenix at 4:50 pm and made a stop in suburban Glendale and then all the seats were filled. My seatmate was a lady of Russian origin, who was friendly, or should we say too friendly, or at least overly chatty. She was nice up to a point, but it made me want to leave the coach seats and go to a roomette and close the door! This driver was a gentleman and brought us swiftly to Flagstaff almost on time at 7:40. While Greyhound is not my trasnportation mode of choice, it did the job today and was not a horror show. Certainly a great place for people watching.......
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). Hope the water soon recedes in Texas. Best wishes RRB
