I'll admit to being tardy in writing up this first return leg of our trip. As anyone who's come to ride Amtrak more than just as a novelty will attest, every single trip and every single train is an adventure!
It was going to be hard to top our initial trip out, but I had both high-hopes and crossed fingers that the trek home would have more high points than low ones. On Sunday December 16th, we checked out of the Holiday Inn and headed the block or so to the Rosslyn MetroRail station. The trip was uneventful, including a transfer from the Blue line to the Red line in Metro Center and onward to Union Station. The que for check-in at the Amtrak counters was moderately busy for a Sunday morning, so I attempted at standing in the empty First Class line because we were in sleeper. After an incredulous look from the sole agent standing at the window (she saw our baggage and quickly figured we were not traveling Acela,) we were waved up and asked where our destination was. “Sacramento.” A laugh, then a point toward the regular coach line. “This is only for Acela First Class. You're traveling sleeper, sure, but that is not First Class. Go over there.” She got a frown from me, and at least one passenger in the regular line snickered at us as we walked over to wait our turn.
We successfully got our large bag checked for SAC and then headed for the Club Acela lounge to spend the 40 or so minutes it was supposed to be until Train #51 arrived from New York. The agent inside logged us into the lounge, pointed to the storage room for us to keep our smaller carry-on bags, and then said with a sigh that we'd be spending a bit more time as #51 was running late. Seems there was a fire in Newark, NJ alongside the tracks and the fire department had shut down the NEC for two hours. Our train, and four others (it was Sunday, afterall, and thankfully not a weekday) were held up. Who would have suspected that the one piece of track where no substantial delays usually occur would be where things got hung up? So, we waited.
The Cardinal is scheduled to leave WAS at 11:05AM, but as 2:00PM approached, I patiently watched Status Maps as it left BWI. I went and gathered our things from the storage room, then reminded the lounge attendant that we were still there. He smiled and said a Red Cap should come and get us when the train arrived. No such thing would happen, though. I glanced just off-chance at a status screen a few minutes later to see that #51 was showing BOARDING all of a sudden instead of simply DELAYED. No audible announcements or anything, and so me and Mrs. Blackwolf walked briskly up to the counter again. I had to wait for the attendant to finish checking another passenger into the lounge before asking again if we should sit tight or head for the gate. He looked confused, and began to say that when the train arrived we would be summoned. I pointed to the boarding announcement on the screen, and he quickly began typing into his computer. Then he yelled at us to “GO! Gate H, now!” No sooner than we opened the lounge door to the concourse, we could hear the PA address through the rest of the station announcing “Last Call for #51, GATE CLOSING!”
And so, we ran! The agent was actively closing the door when I arrived, my wife following closely behind, and started to say we were too late when I interrupted him while thrusting the E-Ticket into his hand. We were sleeper, not coach, and were getting on our train! He rolled his eyes, opened the door, and we went down the stairs to find our train beside a deserted platform with one exception: a bedraggled woman by the name of Paulette standing next to the 5100 sleeper with a manifest.
No smile or remark, just a glare before asking for my name. Yes, there we were on the reservation; the only sleeper passengers boarding at WAS. “Do you know where your room is?” I nodded, “Number 5, yeah.” A point up the stairs, “Then get going. We're running late, afterall.” That was our introduction to the lovely Miss. Paulette, of which you can read all about her (mis)services here in a thread I started in frustration soon after we arrived back at home. They don't come much more rotten than this one for On-Board Staff!
But aside from our particular SCA, the Cardinal was not too bad a train. I had low aspirations considering it is the true ******* child of Amtrak; even the Sunset Limited is a better train in terms of amenities. But I wanted to say we took it, and to go down that beautiful stretch of track it travels. Unfortunately, we were very late heading into the West Virginia darkness. Over three and a half hours down while traversing the infamous Buckingham Branch, which meant the scenery was a moot point. The clickity-clack that came from long stretches of jointed rail was a very nice attribute!
SCA Paulette was very displeased with our desire to have dinner in the room. Enough so that she pretty much refused to do it, an issue that was remedied with LSA John when I went to go get a cup of coffee (Paulette refused to make sleeper coffee too, which meant the cafe was our only source; John did not charge.) I politely asked him if he could do something about our request, and he did just that. Gave me a menu to look over, then took down our twin orders of the Beef Brisket, and said that Paulette would deliver them to our room promptly at 7PM. You know what, she did have them to us by then too! I imagine he just made up the tray and called her into the cafe, then told her to take it to our room. In the morning, John was the recipient of my tip; Paulette did not get a dime.
Mrs. Blackwolf wanted to try the upper bunk that night, so I took the rare opportunity to sleep on the lower bunk and rocked quite easily into a very deep sleep. We both awoke in Cincinnati just as day was breaking, which was not the best omen for our schedule keeping. Yup... we'd remained pretty steady at 3 hours late, and now there was the smallest little cringe at the potential for a missed connection in Chicago to #5. Smart phone at the ready, I verified that a large portion of the Southwest Chief was still unsold for sleeper space, and was very close to calling AGR (as this was a 3-zone redemption) to shift our travels to the SWC and then to the CS for our trip home.
But we did make up some time running through Indiana (somehow!) Our last bit of fun was having Paulette knocking on our door 15 minutes before Chicago to make up the room for arrival... Not anything I usually have issue with, but she had neither turned down the room the night prior or made up our room that morning, and in this last minute panic kicked us completely out of the sleeper and back into John's cafe realm. We were passing the locomotive shops when we both had enough waiting and walked back to the sleeper... Only to find Paulette had finished our room but neglected to come get us. Oh well! A touch over 2:30 late into CHI, and we disembarked from the Cardinal. You know what? Paulette never said goodbye...
We made our connecting California Zephyr, which was a good thing!
I'll write that leg of the report in a few days time.
It was going to be hard to top our initial trip out, but I had both high-hopes and crossed fingers that the trek home would have more high points than low ones. On Sunday December 16th, we checked out of the Holiday Inn and headed the block or so to the Rosslyn MetroRail station. The trip was uneventful, including a transfer from the Blue line to the Red line in Metro Center and onward to Union Station. The que for check-in at the Amtrak counters was moderately busy for a Sunday morning, so I attempted at standing in the empty First Class line because we were in sleeper. After an incredulous look from the sole agent standing at the window (she saw our baggage and quickly figured we were not traveling Acela,) we were waved up and asked where our destination was. “Sacramento.” A laugh, then a point toward the regular coach line. “This is only for Acela First Class. You're traveling sleeper, sure, but that is not First Class. Go over there.” She got a frown from me, and at least one passenger in the regular line snickered at us as we walked over to wait our turn.
We successfully got our large bag checked for SAC and then headed for the Club Acela lounge to spend the 40 or so minutes it was supposed to be until Train #51 arrived from New York. The agent inside logged us into the lounge, pointed to the storage room for us to keep our smaller carry-on bags, and then said with a sigh that we'd be spending a bit more time as #51 was running late. Seems there was a fire in Newark, NJ alongside the tracks and the fire department had shut down the NEC for two hours. Our train, and four others (it was Sunday, afterall, and thankfully not a weekday) were held up. Who would have suspected that the one piece of track where no substantial delays usually occur would be where things got hung up? So, we waited.
The Cardinal is scheduled to leave WAS at 11:05AM, but as 2:00PM approached, I patiently watched Status Maps as it left BWI. I went and gathered our things from the storage room, then reminded the lounge attendant that we were still there. He smiled and said a Red Cap should come and get us when the train arrived. No such thing would happen, though. I glanced just off-chance at a status screen a few minutes later to see that #51 was showing BOARDING all of a sudden instead of simply DELAYED. No audible announcements or anything, and so me and Mrs. Blackwolf walked briskly up to the counter again. I had to wait for the attendant to finish checking another passenger into the lounge before asking again if we should sit tight or head for the gate. He looked confused, and began to say that when the train arrived we would be summoned. I pointed to the boarding announcement on the screen, and he quickly began typing into his computer. Then he yelled at us to “GO! Gate H, now!” No sooner than we opened the lounge door to the concourse, we could hear the PA address through the rest of the station announcing “Last Call for #51, GATE CLOSING!”
And so, we ran! The agent was actively closing the door when I arrived, my wife following closely behind, and started to say we were too late when I interrupted him while thrusting the E-Ticket into his hand. We were sleeper, not coach, and were getting on our train! He rolled his eyes, opened the door, and we went down the stairs to find our train beside a deserted platform with one exception: a bedraggled woman by the name of Paulette standing next to the 5100 sleeper with a manifest.
No smile or remark, just a glare before asking for my name. Yes, there we were on the reservation; the only sleeper passengers boarding at WAS. “Do you know where your room is?” I nodded, “Number 5, yeah.” A point up the stairs, “Then get going. We're running late, afterall.” That was our introduction to the lovely Miss. Paulette, of which you can read all about her (mis)services here in a thread I started in frustration soon after we arrived back at home. They don't come much more rotten than this one for On-Board Staff!
But aside from our particular SCA, the Cardinal was not too bad a train. I had low aspirations considering it is the true ******* child of Amtrak; even the Sunset Limited is a better train in terms of amenities. But I wanted to say we took it, and to go down that beautiful stretch of track it travels. Unfortunately, we were very late heading into the West Virginia darkness. Over three and a half hours down while traversing the infamous Buckingham Branch, which meant the scenery was a moot point. The clickity-clack that came from long stretches of jointed rail was a very nice attribute!
SCA Paulette was very displeased with our desire to have dinner in the room. Enough so that she pretty much refused to do it, an issue that was remedied with LSA John when I went to go get a cup of coffee (Paulette refused to make sleeper coffee too, which meant the cafe was our only source; John did not charge.) I politely asked him if he could do something about our request, and he did just that. Gave me a menu to look over, then took down our twin orders of the Beef Brisket, and said that Paulette would deliver them to our room promptly at 7PM. You know what, she did have them to us by then too! I imagine he just made up the tray and called her into the cafe, then told her to take it to our room. In the morning, John was the recipient of my tip; Paulette did not get a dime.
Mrs. Blackwolf wanted to try the upper bunk that night, so I took the rare opportunity to sleep on the lower bunk and rocked quite easily into a very deep sleep. We both awoke in Cincinnati just as day was breaking, which was not the best omen for our schedule keeping. Yup... we'd remained pretty steady at 3 hours late, and now there was the smallest little cringe at the potential for a missed connection in Chicago to #5. Smart phone at the ready, I verified that a large portion of the Southwest Chief was still unsold for sleeper space, and was very close to calling AGR (as this was a 3-zone redemption) to shift our travels to the SWC and then to the CS for our trip home.
But we did make up some time running through Indiana (somehow!) Our last bit of fun was having Paulette knocking on our door 15 minutes before Chicago to make up the room for arrival... Not anything I usually have issue with, but she had neither turned down the room the night prior or made up our room that morning, and in this last minute panic kicked us completely out of the sleeper and back into John's cafe realm. We were passing the locomotive shops when we both had enough waiting and walked back to the sleeper... Only to find Paulette had finished our room but neglected to come get us. Oh well! A touch over 2:30 late into CHI, and we disembarked from the Cardinal. You know what? Paulette never said goodbye...
We made our connecting California Zephyr, which was a good thing!
I'll write that leg of the report in a few days time.
