Long Train Runnin'
Engineer
This trip had been in the works since last June when my friend John and I traveled to Chicago and back by train. He wanted to see New Orleans and wanted to ride different trains. I booked the trip at exactly 10 months out and got us low bucket rooms on all 3 trains we would be traveling on.
After 10 months of waiting, the day of departure finally rolled around. I woke up at 8 AM hitched a ride with my dad who was heading to CT for business, so he dropped me off at Metropark Train Station around 9 AM. The Crescent doesn’t leave until 2:15 PM so I was in no hurry, and let a New York bound train pass me, before getting on an express train into New York. I got to New York Penn Station around 10:15 AM, and thought about walking around New York. It was over 90 degrees on the streets, so I quickly returned to the station, and instead walked through the maze of Penn Station. At 11:30 I decided to check into the New York Club Acela. I sat around had lunch at Subway and they finally called for boarding at 2 PM. I was the first person out of the Club Acela and became the first person in line to go down to the train. As I rode the escalator down I couldn’t help but laugh, 10 months ago I was the first person to book a room, and now I would be the first one aboard. I met the Sleeper Attendant at the door, and got settled in room 2.
We pulled out of New York Penn Station at exactly 2:15 and the journey was officially underway. The attendant came around and introduced herself I made sure she knew my friend was boarding at 30th Street, and she said she would make sure the door was open. We were on the left side of the train, so after Newark I enjoyed my favorite part of the Northeast Corridor as we rocked and rolled through my home state. We made our stop in Trenton and several minutes later were arriving Philadelphia and I stepped out on the platform and my friend John climbed aboard.
We hadn’t seen each other since the trip to Chicago last year so we spent the rest of the time from Philly to Washington DC catching up. We pulled into Washington pretty close to on time, and hit the platform to take some pictures of the power change. It wasn’t too hot so we spent almost the entire layover on the platform, and when we turned around we realized only one door was still open so we ran to it and boarded without too much time to spare.
We headed to dinner after Alexandria and were seated with 2 gentlemen heading home from a grateful dead tribute concert so they were quite entertaining to chat with. They were very proud about getting kicked out of their hotel room at 2 AM. After we finished our salads we stopped on the mainline. We had dinner and dessert and we still hadn’t moved. Finally it was announced we hit some signal problems, and we would be moving again once they were clear. We lost over an hour just sitting a few miles outside Charlottesville. This time we would never make up, and the classic AU mantra of, “A late train only gets later” rang true.
After dinner the beds were made up, so we laid down and stayed awake so we could get out in Lynchburg and take a short stroll. After we left Lynchburg I dozed off and woke up around 3:15 when we made our station stop in Greensboro, NC and I got really nervous I knew we should have hit Charlotte at 2:20 and we still had a long way to go. Of course in my groggy 3 AM state I simply rolled over and went back to sleep.
I guess we made up a lot of time over night, because we had breakfast at 6:30 and at 8:05 central time I called Bill Haithcoat and said we were leaving Gainesville. We pulled into Atlanta and I walked up the stairs and into the station found Bill and was given a quick tour of the station and the surrounding area. We then headed down to the platform where we chatted for awhile longer, and soon the all aboard was given. I said good-bye to Bill and hope to see him in St. Louis for the IV Annul Amtrak Unlimited Gathering.
We then continued on through Georgia and into Alabama. We started losing more time on our way to Birmingham. We decided to have lunch before we got there because we were both going a little stir crazy. Luckily we timed it just right. As we finished dessert we pulled into Birmingham. The crew didn’t seem to have any desire to try and make up time. We spent 20 minutes in Birmingham. I just spent the dwell time chatting with our SCA and found out she has been with Amtrak for 13 years, and it was her second career she could retire but she just loves the job.
I took a shower after Birmingham and I have to say I prefer the Superliner shower. The Viewliner shower was smaller, and you had to push a button every so often to keep the flow going. After that I went to the café car and had a soda. Eventually, we got to Meridian, MS and I stepped off for a little while. It was the last long stop and we would soon be in New Orleans.
I think the scenic highlight of the trip was crossing Lake Pontchartrain. Out one side you could see nothing but water, and the other just the interstate bridge and more water. It was really neat. Since we were running so late they decided backing in wasn’t worth it, so we stopped a switch was thrown and we proceeded into New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal with the engines on point. We came to a stop at 9:15 PM about 90 minutes late. We had no problem getting a taxi to our hotel. Over all I enjoyed the Crescent the service staff was excellent and they were what I wish every Amtrak crew was like.
Thank you so much for reading!
Pictures from the trip can be found here
After 10 months of waiting, the day of departure finally rolled around. I woke up at 8 AM hitched a ride with my dad who was heading to CT for business, so he dropped me off at Metropark Train Station around 9 AM. The Crescent doesn’t leave until 2:15 PM so I was in no hurry, and let a New York bound train pass me, before getting on an express train into New York. I got to New York Penn Station around 10:15 AM, and thought about walking around New York. It was over 90 degrees on the streets, so I quickly returned to the station, and instead walked through the maze of Penn Station. At 11:30 I decided to check into the New York Club Acela. I sat around had lunch at Subway and they finally called for boarding at 2 PM. I was the first person out of the Club Acela and became the first person in line to go down to the train. As I rode the escalator down I couldn’t help but laugh, 10 months ago I was the first person to book a room, and now I would be the first one aboard. I met the Sleeper Attendant at the door, and got settled in room 2.
We pulled out of New York Penn Station at exactly 2:15 and the journey was officially underway. The attendant came around and introduced herself I made sure she knew my friend was boarding at 30th Street, and she said she would make sure the door was open. We were on the left side of the train, so after Newark I enjoyed my favorite part of the Northeast Corridor as we rocked and rolled through my home state. We made our stop in Trenton and several minutes later were arriving Philadelphia and I stepped out on the platform and my friend John climbed aboard.
We hadn’t seen each other since the trip to Chicago last year so we spent the rest of the time from Philly to Washington DC catching up. We pulled into Washington pretty close to on time, and hit the platform to take some pictures of the power change. It wasn’t too hot so we spent almost the entire layover on the platform, and when we turned around we realized only one door was still open so we ran to it and boarded without too much time to spare.
We headed to dinner after Alexandria and were seated with 2 gentlemen heading home from a grateful dead tribute concert so they were quite entertaining to chat with. They were very proud about getting kicked out of their hotel room at 2 AM. After we finished our salads we stopped on the mainline. We had dinner and dessert and we still hadn’t moved. Finally it was announced we hit some signal problems, and we would be moving again once they were clear. We lost over an hour just sitting a few miles outside Charlottesville. This time we would never make up, and the classic AU mantra of, “A late train only gets later” rang true.
After dinner the beds were made up, so we laid down and stayed awake so we could get out in Lynchburg and take a short stroll. After we left Lynchburg I dozed off and woke up around 3:15 when we made our station stop in Greensboro, NC and I got really nervous I knew we should have hit Charlotte at 2:20 and we still had a long way to go. Of course in my groggy 3 AM state I simply rolled over and went back to sleep.
I guess we made up a lot of time over night, because we had breakfast at 6:30 and at 8:05 central time I called Bill Haithcoat and said we were leaving Gainesville. We pulled into Atlanta and I walked up the stairs and into the station found Bill and was given a quick tour of the station and the surrounding area. We then headed down to the platform where we chatted for awhile longer, and soon the all aboard was given. I said good-bye to Bill and hope to see him in St. Louis for the IV Annul Amtrak Unlimited Gathering.
We then continued on through Georgia and into Alabama. We started losing more time on our way to Birmingham. We decided to have lunch before we got there because we were both going a little stir crazy. Luckily we timed it just right. As we finished dessert we pulled into Birmingham. The crew didn’t seem to have any desire to try and make up time. We spent 20 minutes in Birmingham. I just spent the dwell time chatting with our SCA and found out she has been with Amtrak for 13 years, and it was her second career she could retire but she just loves the job.
I took a shower after Birmingham and I have to say I prefer the Superliner shower. The Viewliner shower was smaller, and you had to push a button every so often to keep the flow going. After that I went to the café car and had a soda. Eventually, we got to Meridian, MS and I stepped off for a little while. It was the last long stop and we would soon be in New Orleans.
I think the scenic highlight of the trip was crossing Lake Pontchartrain. Out one side you could see nothing but water, and the other just the interstate bridge and more water. It was really neat. Since we were running so late they decided backing in wasn’t worth it, so we stopped a switch was thrown and we proceeded into New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal with the engines on point. We came to a stop at 9:15 PM about 90 minutes late. We had no problem getting a taxi to our hotel. Over all I enjoyed the Crescent the service staff was excellent and they were what I wish every Amtrak crew was like.
Thank you so much for reading!
Pictures from the trip can be found here
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:lol:
