Texan Eagle
Conductor
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2011
- Messages
- 1,705
This is a trip report that I had written five months back but posting it now since I joined this forum only today.
Prelude: On January 25-26, 2011 Philadelphia was ravaged by a huge snowstorm with over 15 inches of snow accumulation overnight. I was to take a bus operated by Megabus from Philadelphia to Washington DC and change over to another bus from Washington DC to Christiansburg, VA to head to Virginia Tech, but the snowstorm threw everything out of gear and the bus out of Philadelphia was cancelled.
* * *
Early morning, I had called for a taxi at 6:45am to take me to Philadelphia 30th Street station but with so much snow, no taxi was operating. The city transit buses had also ceased operations. Now there was only one option left- walk! So here we were, me and my friend, out on the snowed out streets of Philadelphia, making our way to the station trudging along two big bags. It took us 30 minutes and was quite an exercise. Once at the station, I realised the Megabus service from Philadelphia was cancelled! And now enters the savior- the huge Amtrak schedules indicator board in the middle of the majestic concourse of 30th Street Station was showing all services running and 'On Time'. Immediately I bought a ticket from the counter for the 7.43am Northeast Regional service to Washington DC and waited in peace for its arrival. At 7.50am passengers were asked to go down to the platform and after ten minutes of wait, a 6 car train arrived completely covered in snow as if it had just played snowfight, led by a shiny HHP-8 engine, with the sound of ringing bells. I boarded one of the coach class cars and found a window seat next to the empty luggage space, effectively giving me infinite legroom to stretch out and immediately after departure, the train picked up speed and at times went up to over 100 miles per hour, blowing snow from the tracks all around, almost like a mini snowstorm following the train all along!
We had a perfect run until Baltimore and a few minutes after departure from BWI Airport station, the train came to a sudden halt in the middle of nowhere. First I thought it must be a signal ahead, nothing unusual. But five minutes later, the conductor announced over in the coach- "Sorry folks. One of the pantographs of our engine has broken and we have lost power. Since the engine has two of those, we will now try getting the other one up and restart the train!" Damn! The most powerful modern railway engine in America is also not immune to failure! This could not have come at a worse time. The train was scheduled to reach Washington DC at 9:45am and I had an 11:45am bus to take from DC. If I miss that connection I would be stranded in DC for one full day! 15 minutes passed, no luck. Meanwhile a DC bound Acela Express sped past us on the adjacent track, without stopping to help us. That's when I realized we were on four track section, shared by MARC trains. Another 20 minutes passed by and another Amtrak train came on the adjacent track, but this one slowed down and stopped right next to our train. The conductor announced after ten minutes- "We are evacuating this train and everyone will transfer to the adjacent train. All passengers are requested to come to the Cafe Car for evacuation!" I picked up my bags and rushed to the Cafe Car which was right next to my car. They had put two small tables on the snow covered ground and all passengers were to climb down stairs, onto the two small tables and climb up into the Cafe Car of adjacent train. Our rescuer was the Carolinian, heading to Charlotte and had quite a few empty seats to every passenger from our train managed to find one in the new train.
The whole procedure took half an hour and we departed at 10.35am. Now every minute was crucial if I was to make the connection. The conductor announced we would be reaching DC at 11.05am and that made me feel a bit better. After a brief halt at Carrilton, we slowed down and the conductor announced- "We are reaching Washington Union Station. We will have a crew change here. Also, we will change from electric power to diesel power." The rail-fan in me wanted to wait and see this engine change procedure but there was no time. I ran up the concourse and straight to the taxi stand and asked the first available cab to take me to the Megabus bus stop. The driver dropped me there at 11.30am and a long queue of passengers waiting to board the 11:55am bus to Christiansburg was a happy sight to see, thereby ending my rather adventurous first Amtrak ride from Philadelphia to Washington DC.
Last edited by a moderator:
