printman2000
Engineer
My family and I decided to spend a few days in Dallas for Spring Break, so naturally, I planned a little train time while there (since I have no trains I can ride here in Amarillo).
On Tuesday, March 16th, we parked our car at the LBJ/Central DART light rail station and rode the red line down to Union Station. The TE was scheduled to arrive at 11:30 and we arrived around 10:30. I met up with Saxman who was going to ride along with us. I used the Quik-Trak machine to print our tickets. As Saxman and I were talking inside, the TE #21 snuck in and arrived very early at 10:52. I missed getting to see it arrive!
My family and I went on outside and after a few pictures and recording the consist, we went ahead and boarded. The conductor was standing on the platform taking tickets and an attendant wrote out our seat checks. They sent us to the very last coach which was totally empty. A few people filtered in, but not many. We sat around there for quite a while. Saxman joined us just before departure. As we departed, we headed up to the lounge for the rest of the journey. We took a couple of booths (which were very dirty!) and we all had some lunch from the snack bar and enjoyed the trip.
We arrived in Fort Worth at 12:52 (schedule arrival was 1:25). The Heartland Flyer was being moved out of the station when we arrived. It had four coaches and a SIGHTSEER LOUNGE. I have never seen nor heard of the HF running with a lounge. Wish they had that when I rode it last Spring Break. I guess they configured at least one lounge for push/pull service.
That is the loco from the TE in the foreground and the Heartland Flyer in the background.
Shot of the Heartland Flyer with the Sightseer Lounge
After deboarding the TE, I noticed a weird sanding pattern on the side of our coach. Not sure what it was from, but it was only on one side and ran the whole length of the car.
We were all catching the Trinity Railway Express (TRE) back to Dallas but it did not leave until 1:43 so we hung out for a while at the station.
TRE was right on time and was in push mode back to Dallas.
We grabbed seats so we could see out the front window. It was cool to watch basically what the engineer was seeing. They were obviously in training (there was a second guy up there critiquing). We had to back up at a couple of station stops.
We arrived back at Dallas Union Station just about on time. We parted ways with Saxman and the family and I ran over to Dealey Plaza. We returned in time to see #22 arrive had it been on time, but it was running 45 minutes late so we boarded the next Northbound Red line DART train and headed back to our car.
It was a fun little day trip and I appreciated Saxman joining us.
On Tuesday, March 16th, we parked our car at the LBJ/Central DART light rail station and rode the red line down to Union Station. The TE was scheduled to arrive at 11:30 and we arrived around 10:30. I met up with Saxman who was going to ride along with us. I used the Quik-Trak machine to print our tickets. As Saxman and I were talking inside, the TE #21 snuck in and arrived very early at 10:52. I missed getting to see it arrive!
My family and I went on outside and after a few pictures and recording the consist, we went ahead and boarded. The conductor was standing on the platform taking tickets and an attendant wrote out our seat checks. They sent us to the very last coach which was totally empty. A few people filtered in, but not many. We sat around there for quite a while. Saxman joined us just before departure. As we departed, we headed up to the lounge for the rest of the journey. We took a couple of booths (which were very dirty!) and we all had some lunch from the snack bar and enjoyed the trip.
We arrived in Fort Worth at 12:52 (schedule arrival was 1:25). The Heartland Flyer was being moved out of the station when we arrived. It had four coaches and a SIGHTSEER LOUNGE. I have never seen nor heard of the HF running with a lounge. Wish they had that when I rode it last Spring Break. I guess they configured at least one lounge for push/pull service.
That is the loco from the TE in the foreground and the Heartland Flyer in the background.
Shot of the Heartland Flyer with the Sightseer Lounge
After deboarding the TE, I noticed a weird sanding pattern on the side of our coach. Not sure what it was from, but it was only on one side and ran the whole length of the car.
We were all catching the Trinity Railway Express (TRE) back to Dallas but it did not leave until 1:43 so we hung out for a while at the station.
TRE was right on time and was in push mode back to Dallas.
We grabbed seats so we could see out the front window. It was cool to watch basically what the engineer was seeing. They were obviously in training (there was a second guy up there critiquing). We had to back up at a couple of station stops.
We arrived back at Dallas Union Station just about on time. We parted ways with Saxman and the family and I ran over to Dealey Plaza. We returned in time to see #22 arrive had it been on time, but it was running 45 minutes late so we boarded the next Northbound Red line DART train and headed back to our car.
It was a fun little day trip and I appreciated Saxman joining us.
