AmtrakWPK said:
Saw today's northbound special go past today at the A783.0 MP, which is about 4 miles north of WPK. 2 ponies and 20 cars, ending with a superliner transition sleeper, which was a little wierd. 88 axles, verified by the Longwood DD a few minutes later. OLD coaches, most of them, and two diners. The really strange thing was that it was northbound, but the train number was P959, rather than the even-number that it should have been. Wonder what happened there. Also, can that superliner actually make it all the way to D.C. (i.e. low overpasses)? Or are they going to drop it off in Va somewhere?
Currently spending layover in WAS. Trip north went well as can be expected. All the kids were very excited to see snow on the ground in NC. The kids are all cute and well behaved for the most part (but the chaperones do have their hands full, though)! I am assigned to the assist in the lounge. We mainly handle feeding the teachers, chaperones, and school board supervisors (which they have their food and beverage catered independently) we serve their food as it is put on the train nd have a small sanck buffet for them. And for the doctors/medics, OBS, mechanical, T&E, and the couple of RR supervisors were supplied with food from the standard Amtrak lounge car menu. We cheated a little bit. Some of the chaperones wanted to eat from the Amtrak menu so we let them if they desired, and likewise they shared their catered menu with us. Basic goal to keep everyone happy, and we were/are successful so far. As far as my working with the kids, I don't see much of the girls, but I am assigned to help in the boys section of the train (such as loading and unloading) as well as help load the food at the food stops for the boys as well. So I hang out between the lounge and the boys section (mainly the lounge) of the train (and yes boys will be boys)! The nice part, the chaperones (and the kids, too, they like to help ya know) do all the work at meal time passing out the meals and cleaning up. We (the whole OBS crew) all work together to upkeep the transisition Superliner. When we got to WAS, Mr Gunn was there to meet us this week!
Ok, as I have been rambling with a so so trip report, to best answer your inquirery. Our actual Amtrak assigned train number for this week is #948. But CSX assigns its own ID to the train. They do so similar to their unit trains. The OUC coal trains as an example is assigned its ID up in coal country and it keeps that ID in one or both directions. Well, for us it is the same situation, CSX assigned our train numbered #948 an ID of #P959-20. Returning south Amtrak IDs us as train #949 and CSX will operate us as P960-23.
Our consist is: 2 locos, 9 Horizon coaches plus 1 Amfleet 2 coach (for the girls section), 1 Horizon lounge, 1 Heritage (former 10-6) crew, 7 more Horizon coaches (for the boys section), and lastly 1 Superliner transition sleeper (for the school board supervisors, doctors/medics). I will provide details of the return trip if anything real interesting occurs.
It is snowing heavily here in WAS at this time. I hope the kids are able to do everything they set out to do today. At least they are getting to see and play in snow (I am sure they are playing in it anyway)! OBS....
