Ryan
Court Jester
As I've alluded to in several other posts, I recently returned from my first trip on the Auto Train, and first trip in First Class. The g/f (Amy), her son (Alexander, 5) and I rode in a family bedroom down, and a regular bedroom back home.
Before we get to the train, a brief story about getting to the train - the Auto train departs precisely at 4 pm (usually a few minutes early even). All vehicles must be checked in at 3, larger vehicles (like my Tahoe) need to be checked in at 2, and I made a goal of arriving at the station at 12 noon (wanting to have enough time to check the place out, get some pictures and be able to board the train right away). Being a 1 hour drive, I planned on leaving the house at 1030, giving 30 minutes extra on the road.
Now, Amy thought that I was slightly insane for wanting to leave for the train nearly 6 hours before it departed, but once I convinced her of my logic and the need for padding, we set out precisely at 1030. As an aside, I also recently acquired a Garmin Nuvi 760, which comes with a built in traffic receiver (which becomes important momentarily).
As we left DC, the GPS kept telling me to take every exit off of the interstate for some strange reason. Being "smarter" than the GPS, and knowing that I could just continue on the interstate to Lorton, I ignored these directions and stayed on the interstate. I was rewarded for ignoring the GPS by traffic coming to a complete stop. I was able to take the next exit with little difficulty and was led on a GPS led wild goose chase of side roads that allowed us to bypass the traffic and arrive at the station precisely at 1200 as planned.
Lessons Learned:
1. Trust the GPS.
2. Always leave a little extra time.
3. Thank heavens that I'm not driving any further down I-95.
Now on to the train part. Checking in at the booth and picking up the tickets was without trouble, and the importance of being ORGANIZED when you arrive became apparent. Once you pull into the unloading/transfer zone, everything happens FAST. In the time it took to stop the truck, unhook the GPS and stow it in Amy's purse and get our 3 bags out of the truck, the Amtrak folks had shot a video of the entire exterior, folded the mirrors in, placed a auto-repair-shop-style paper floor mat and plastic seat protector in the drivers seat, and was ready to drive the truck onto the train. Once inside, we selected the 5:00 dinner seating, and settled in for the wait. Due to extra passengers needing special help (wheelchairs and the like), boarding for the general population was delayed from 2:30 to 2:45. At 2:45 we went down to our sleeper ("Virginia", 5345) and got settled into the family bedroom. There was plenty of space for the 3 of us, and I proceeded to break out the scanner, snapped some pictures of the yard crew pulling the autoracks out of the yard to hook to the train and teach Alexander how to play Uno. Our attendant stopped by and introduced himself, and we asked him to return at 8:00 to make the beds up - he also let us know to just hit the call button if we needed anything, and when we went to breakfast in the morning, and he would make the beds back up while we were gone.
The passenger section of the consist (which was the same layout each direction was (from North to South) trans dorm, 2 regular sleepers, deluxe sleeper, lounge, diner, deluxe sleeper, 2 regular sleepers, 4 coaches, lounge, 2 diners). Going South, the coach diners were on the head end, and the autoracks followed the trans dorm. Going North, the sleepers (behind the trans dorm) were on the head end, and the autoracks were behind the coaches. Worth noting (since I hadn't read it anywhere, odd numbered sleepers (5x41, 5x43, 5x45) were on the North end, numbered out from the lounge and the even numbers (5x40, 5x42, 5x44) were south of the diner. So, if you've followed my convoluted description, the deluxe sleepers are the 5x40 and 5x41.
Dinner approached, and we dined on the Surf and Turf (Amy), the Salmon with a creamy crab sauce (me) and the Choo Choo Chewies (Alex) - a delicious meal was had by all. As we were 3 cars away from the diner, and had to pass through the lounge, we were seated in the end of the lounge car, not the actual diner for dinner - no big deal. Returning to our room, we played some more Uno, and our attendant returned precisely at 8 to make the beds up. I stayed up until 11 watching a DVD on the laptop and finally turned in just after 11 as we made our service stop in Florence, SC (sharing the yard with a northbound LD train, presumably 98?).
Morning came near St. Augustine, we dressed, left the room hitting the call button on the way out. Breakfast was again in the lounge and delicious, and then beds were magically gone when we returned. Shortly after getting to the room, we came to a stop outside Sanford at 7:25 am. It was explained that we had to wait for the yard crew to be ready for us, and we sat for about 30 minutes, then proceeded into the yard. We made it off the train at about 8:15, and the first cars were rolling off by about 8:45. Luck was on our side, as the truck was one of the first 20 vehicles off the train, and by 9:10 we were out of the station, stopped for gas, and rolling south on I-4 (20 minutes before the train was even supposed to be in the station!!!).
The return:
Pretty much a mirror image on return - we arrived at the station at noon, soaked up a last 2 hours of sun before boarding our deluxe sleeper (the "W. Graham Claytor, Jr", car 5240) at 2:30. One thing that I liked better about Sanford, is that the station seemed to be more "open" - folks were walking up and down the platform the whole time, so by 2:15 or so, many folks had placed themselves just outside their cars, so instead of the mad rush from the station, the boarding process was a lot more smooth. Our attendant (JC) directed us to our room (J), and was along shortly for the into/info. Same 5:00 dinner, 8:00 turn down, breakfast reset. Dinner this time was the Chicken (Amy) and the Vegetarian Chili loaded Baked Potato (me). Again, the meals were delicious. Since Amy wasn't feeling well, we all called it a night early when the beds were put down at 8:00, and we slept in a little longer in the morning. Amy elected to skip breakfast, and we arrived in Lorton at 8:00, detrained smoothly and had to wait about 45 minutes for the truck to be unloaded.
Overall, the trip was AWESOME!!! Even with the sleeper accommodations, it was cheaper than flying+renting a car for the 8 days were down there, plus it was much more relaxing and enjoyable. Like I mentioned elsewhere, it hooked Amy on train travel, so I think that we'll be getting the AGR credit card to start building up towards some free train trips in the future. Thanks to everyone here for the great info (I didn't have to ask a lot of questions because of all the great discussions that have happened here before). I'll have some pictures once I dig out the cable for the camera and get some shots uploaded. Incidentally, in raving about what a great trip I had, I've got several coworkers looking at Amtrak for future travel plans.
Before we get to the train, a brief story about getting to the train - the Auto train departs precisely at 4 pm (usually a few minutes early even). All vehicles must be checked in at 3, larger vehicles (like my Tahoe) need to be checked in at 2, and I made a goal of arriving at the station at 12 noon (wanting to have enough time to check the place out, get some pictures and be able to board the train right away). Being a 1 hour drive, I planned on leaving the house at 1030, giving 30 minutes extra on the road.
Now, Amy thought that I was slightly insane for wanting to leave for the train nearly 6 hours before it departed, but once I convinced her of my logic and the need for padding, we set out precisely at 1030. As an aside, I also recently acquired a Garmin Nuvi 760, which comes with a built in traffic receiver (which becomes important momentarily).
As we left DC, the GPS kept telling me to take every exit off of the interstate for some strange reason. Being "smarter" than the GPS, and knowing that I could just continue on the interstate to Lorton, I ignored these directions and stayed on the interstate. I was rewarded for ignoring the GPS by traffic coming to a complete stop. I was able to take the next exit with little difficulty and was led on a GPS led wild goose chase of side roads that allowed us to bypass the traffic and arrive at the station precisely at 1200 as planned.
Lessons Learned:
1. Trust the GPS.
2. Always leave a little extra time.
3. Thank heavens that I'm not driving any further down I-95.
Now on to the train part. Checking in at the booth and picking up the tickets was without trouble, and the importance of being ORGANIZED when you arrive became apparent. Once you pull into the unloading/transfer zone, everything happens FAST. In the time it took to stop the truck, unhook the GPS and stow it in Amy's purse and get our 3 bags out of the truck, the Amtrak folks had shot a video of the entire exterior, folded the mirrors in, placed a auto-repair-shop-style paper floor mat and plastic seat protector in the drivers seat, and was ready to drive the truck onto the train. Once inside, we selected the 5:00 dinner seating, and settled in for the wait. Due to extra passengers needing special help (wheelchairs and the like), boarding for the general population was delayed from 2:30 to 2:45. At 2:45 we went down to our sleeper ("Virginia", 5345) and got settled into the family bedroom. There was plenty of space for the 3 of us, and I proceeded to break out the scanner, snapped some pictures of the yard crew pulling the autoracks out of the yard to hook to the train and teach Alexander how to play Uno. Our attendant stopped by and introduced himself, and we asked him to return at 8:00 to make the beds up - he also let us know to just hit the call button if we needed anything, and when we went to breakfast in the morning, and he would make the beds back up while we were gone.
The passenger section of the consist (which was the same layout each direction was (from North to South) trans dorm, 2 regular sleepers, deluxe sleeper, lounge, diner, deluxe sleeper, 2 regular sleepers, 4 coaches, lounge, 2 diners). Going South, the coach diners were on the head end, and the autoracks followed the trans dorm. Going North, the sleepers (behind the trans dorm) were on the head end, and the autoracks were behind the coaches. Worth noting (since I hadn't read it anywhere, odd numbered sleepers (5x41, 5x43, 5x45) were on the North end, numbered out from the lounge and the even numbers (5x40, 5x42, 5x44) were south of the diner. So, if you've followed my convoluted description, the deluxe sleepers are the 5x40 and 5x41.
Dinner approached, and we dined on the Surf and Turf (Amy), the Salmon with a creamy crab sauce (me) and the Choo Choo Chewies (Alex) - a delicious meal was had by all. As we were 3 cars away from the diner, and had to pass through the lounge, we were seated in the end of the lounge car, not the actual diner for dinner - no big deal. Returning to our room, we played some more Uno, and our attendant returned precisely at 8 to make the beds up. I stayed up until 11 watching a DVD on the laptop and finally turned in just after 11 as we made our service stop in Florence, SC (sharing the yard with a northbound LD train, presumably 98?).
Morning came near St. Augustine, we dressed, left the room hitting the call button on the way out. Breakfast was again in the lounge and delicious, and then beds were magically gone when we returned. Shortly after getting to the room, we came to a stop outside Sanford at 7:25 am. It was explained that we had to wait for the yard crew to be ready for us, and we sat for about 30 minutes, then proceeded into the yard. We made it off the train at about 8:15, and the first cars were rolling off by about 8:45. Luck was on our side, as the truck was one of the first 20 vehicles off the train, and by 9:10 we were out of the station, stopped for gas, and rolling south on I-4 (20 minutes before the train was even supposed to be in the station!!!).
The return:
Pretty much a mirror image on return - we arrived at the station at noon, soaked up a last 2 hours of sun before boarding our deluxe sleeper (the "W. Graham Claytor, Jr", car 5240) at 2:30. One thing that I liked better about Sanford, is that the station seemed to be more "open" - folks were walking up and down the platform the whole time, so by 2:15 or so, many folks had placed themselves just outside their cars, so instead of the mad rush from the station, the boarding process was a lot more smooth. Our attendant (JC) directed us to our room (J), and was along shortly for the into/info. Same 5:00 dinner, 8:00 turn down, breakfast reset. Dinner this time was the Chicken (Amy) and the Vegetarian Chili loaded Baked Potato (me). Again, the meals were delicious. Since Amy wasn't feeling well, we all called it a night early when the beds were put down at 8:00, and we slept in a little longer in the morning. Amy elected to skip breakfast, and we arrived in Lorton at 8:00, detrained smoothly and had to wait about 45 minutes for the truck to be unloaded.
Overall, the trip was AWESOME!!! Even with the sleeper accommodations, it was cheaper than flying+renting a car for the 8 days were down there, plus it was much more relaxing and enjoyable. Like I mentioned elsewhere, it hooked Amy on train travel, so I think that we'll be getting the AGR credit card to start building up towards some free train trips in the future. Thanks to everyone here for the great info (I didn't have to ask a lot of questions because of all the great discussions that have happened here before). I'll have some pictures once I dig out the cable for the camera and get some shots uploaded. Incidentally, in raving about what a great trip I had, I've got several coworkers looking at Amtrak for future travel plans.
