This morning was one of those rather odd mornings. I've actually been up since yesterday afternoon, not wanting to risk an overslept-and-missed situation. Inaugural runs only happen once, after all.
At about 0320, I headed out to pick up rrdude from a local Embassy Suites. Once I collected him, he and I headed to the Norfolk station, talking about lots of railroady stuff (The Tide, old train services, etc.). We got to the station at about 0410, and I was able to find a parking space right by the Thruway stop to park at. Parking will normally be $5, but Amtrak seems to have made it gratis for the inaugural.
I do have to say...Norfolk probably has the nicest trailer-and-platform station in the country right now, and for an open platform without a permanent building, the site is impressive. It should be even nicer once the station gets built. Likewise, the Norfolk skyline is a nice sight to see at night, and crossing the Elizabeth River with the skyline's reflection shimmering in the water was a treat.
There were free doughnuts and coffee (and newspapers) courtesy of the Virginian-Pilot (the local Norfolk paper), and the press was out in force (I know I saw at least two of the networks present). The station was reasonably swamped; the Amshack (a double-wide trailer until they get the "actual" station built) would never have held everyone (all 200+ folks that were there; there was a long, winding line that formed approaching the platform), but even though it was cold and breezy, no real rain fell. Everyone was upbeat; I ended up seated almost across from Thelma Drake, and I did get the chance to congratulate her on the rapid establishment of the route.
The train pulled in at about 4:45 and everyone boarded. The train was 10 cars long (it will normally be 8 cars; apparently only two of the four additional cars were needed), and it was full but not swamped. This was likely because you had about 80 or so passengers boarding at RVR, as well as one or two at PTB; still, the lines in the cafe filled half of that car. There were a ton of Amtrak officials, plus a bunch of Norfolk Southern employees, all of whom were returning from the ceremonial train from yesterday.
Grabbing some cereal and hot chocolate, I joined a couple of other railfans at a table, and we started swapping stories (them about watching freights in VA over the last 40 years, me about grabbing the special Adirondack, the usual stories). One of the gentlemen I was with had been on the last train out of Norfolk back in '77, so there was some interesting "bookending" there. I also got my (spare) paper ticket punched for framing; I'd toyed with whether to have it preserved un-punched or not (I got an e-ticket as well...that's $19 to Amtrak for a priceless memento), and decided to get it punched. One of the conductors was quite willing to comply (though I had to explain that yes, I understand that I was giving up any possible refund on the ticket), so I've now got the railfan version of a first-day cancelled stamp.
We were a little late getting out of the station due to the crowds, but only a few minutes behind. We lost a few more minutes to slow orders and a disabled freight forcing us to switch tracks at one point, but we got to PTB only about 10 minutes behind schedule, and seemed to be more or less on time by RVR, where I got off.
I've now got another two hours or so to kill before my return train (67, followed by the 6067 Thruway); I'd have gone to WAS and back, but I have an exam this evening and hoping that the evening train is on time is something that I can't really risk for obvious reasons.
At about 0320, I headed out to pick up rrdude from a local Embassy Suites. Once I collected him, he and I headed to the Norfolk station, talking about lots of railroady stuff (The Tide, old train services, etc.). We got to the station at about 0410, and I was able to find a parking space right by the Thruway stop to park at. Parking will normally be $5, but Amtrak seems to have made it gratis for the inaugural.
I do have to say...Norfolk probably has the nicest trailer-and-platform station in the country right now, and for an open platform without a permanent building, the site is impressive. It should be even nicer once the station gets built. Likewise, the Norfolk skyline is a nice sight to see at night, and crossing the Elizabeth River with the skyline's reflection shimmering in the water was a treat.
There were free doughnuts and coffee (and newspapers) courtesy of the Virginian-Pilot (the local Norfolk paper), and the press was out in force (I know I saw at least two of the networks present). The station was reasonably swamped; the Amshack (a double-wide trailer until they get the "actual" station built) would never have held everyone (all 200+ folks that were there; there was a long, winding line that formed approaching the platform), but even though it was cold and breezy, no real rain fell. Everyone was upbeat; I ended up seated almost across from Thelma Drake, and I did get the chance to congratulate her on the rapid establishment of the route.
The train pulled in at about 4:45 and everyone boarded. The train was 10 cars long (it will normally be 8 cars; apparently only two of the four additional cars were needed), and it was full but not swamped. This was likely because you had about 80 or so passengers boarding at RVR, as well as one or two at PTB; still, the lines in the cafe filled half of that car. There were a ton of Amtrak officials, plus a bunch of Norfolk Southern employees, all of whom were returning from the ceremonial train from yesterday.
Grabbing some cereal and hot chocolate, I joined a couple of other railfans at a table, and we started swapping stories (them about watching freights in VA over the last 40 years, me about grabbing the special Adirondack, the usual stories). One of the gentlemen I was with had been on the last train out of Norfolk back in '77, so there was some interesting "bookending" there. I also got my (spare) paper ticket punched for framing; I'd toyed with whether to have it preserved un-punched or not (I got an e-ticket as well...that's $19 to Amtrak for a priceless memento), and decided to get it punched. One of the conductors was quite willing to comply (though I had to explain that yes, I understand that I was giving up any possible refund on the ticket), so I've now got the railfan version of a first-day cancelled stamp.
We were a little late getting out of the station due to the crowds, but only a few minutes behind. We lost a few more minutes to slow orders and a disabled freight forcing us to switch tracks at one point, but we got to PTB only about 10 minutes behind schedule, and seemed to be more or less on time by RVR, where I got off.
I've now got another two hours or so to kill before my return train (67, followed by the 6067 Thruway); I'd have gone to WAS and back, but I have an exam this evening and hoping that the evening train is on time is something that I can't really risk for obvious reasons.
