More Red Wing, MN

The post http://discuss.amtraktrains.com/index.php?/topic/68923-pretty-red-wings-pretty-amtrak-depot-pics/reminded me that I'd never gotten around to writing up this little trip my wife and I took last year on the Capitol Limited and the Empire Builder.

You can read my full report and see all the photos here: https://snvboy.exposure.co/red-wing-mn



A long weekend trip back to Minnesota, where I grew up, to celebrate my grandmothers 90th birthday. I made the usual deal with my wife, where she would be willing to take the train one way if we flew first class on the way home. The party would be in Rochester, MN though my folks live in the Twin Cities. The air connections to Rochester aren’t that great, so I started the planning by working on our return flight options. We have a great and growing airport at home in Charlottesville, VA, but we still need to make a connection to get just about anywhere. Flying back to Charlottesville would also mean leaving on the train from Charlottesville, though that didn’t really come into the equation this time.

I found a VERY reasonable first class fare on Sun Country airlines flying direct from Minneapolis to Washington National (DCA) airport. With the return leg booked I can now work backwards on the rest of the travel plan. We will drive up to DCA and leave our car at the airport, take Metro in to the city to Union Station. From there, we will take Amtrak’s Capitol Limited overnight to Chicago. After a layover in Chicago, we would continue on Amtrak taking the Empire Builder north to… where?

The obvious choice seems to be Winona, MN which is the closest Amtrak station to Rochester. But my folks won’t be driving down to Rochester until the next day, leaving us on our own for transportation from the station to Rochester. So, why not travel to St. Paul and spend the night with my parents? That seems to make the most sense, except for the late arrival of the Empire Builder, and then a thirty minute drive across the Twin Cities. We decided the best plan is to treat ourselves to a night in a nice hotel in St. Paul, and my folks will pick us up in the morning on their way to Rochester. So, this is the plan that I start to book.

Then I start thinking it through more. I skipped over the idea of overnighting in Winona because there were not any “treat” worthy hotels near the train station. What I had totally overlooked was Red Wing, which is the stop between Winona and St. Paul. The St. James Hotel there is a short block from the Amtrak station, and the stop is 1+ hour earlier than St. Paul.

Our drive from the farm near Charlottesville up to D.C. was uneventful. We parked at National Airport and headed in to the Metro station there. It’s been a few year (ok, maybe ten?) since I’d taken Metro, and I guess a few things have changed. No longer can you get a paper ticket - you first need to get a SmartTrip card which you then add money to. This seems like a good concept, except there are only two fare machines working, only one of them sells the actual SmartTrip card, and myself and a dozen tourists are all thoroughly confused. I’m not sure how this is an improvement on anything. But it works itself out and we’re on the train.

Just as we are getting onto the escalator up to the platform a Blue Line train is arriving. A few people start to hustle, but I want to wait for a Yellow Line train. The Blue Line goes under the river, the Yellow Line goes across it on a bridge. On paper the Blue Line is a little faster to where we are going, but we are touristing so we’ll take the scenic route.

We arrive at Union Station and head to the Metropolitan Lounge. This is the Amtrak version of a “first class” lounge you would find at an airport. We drop our bags and head back out into Union Station to pick up a few supplies. A quick stop at the liquor store for some beverages (in an Amtrak sleeper you can BYOB) and at the CVS for some snacks.

The Capitol Limited boards right on time. We get settled in to our roomette sleeper compartment, pour a drink, and wait for the journey to begin. Down the hall, there is a very unhappy customer - a man with a wife and infant traveling to Portland. He is insistent that he is in the wrong compartment, that he should be in a larger bedroom with a private toilet, and that Amtrak has totally screwed this up and he demands to be moved immediately. Oh, the poor sleeper car attendant that has to be the front-line customer service face for this. I mean, she’s got her room manifest and doesn’t have any authority to move people around. And I’m guessing her bedrooms are already booked somewhere down the line - which this customer doesn’t seem to comprehend as some of them are empty right now. The attendant passes the problem to the conductor, who tells the customer to call customer service.

This guy is pretty loud, so we get to hear the whole call. Though we’re only getting the customer side of the conversation, we piece the following together:

• customer initially made a reservation for a Bedroom (larger room with private toilet/shower)
• customers wife later checked prices online, found ‘cheaper’ price, calls Amtrak to change the reservation
• it was cheaper because it was in a Roomette (smaller room, no toilet)
• wife changes reservation, Amtrak refunds difference in fare
• husband is now on train, in the room the wife changed the reservation to, and is demanding that Amtrak upgrade them to a bedroom, that having to use public toilet & shower for their trip to Portland is entirely unacceptable and not what they had booked
• Amtrak doesn’t have any bedrooms available from Washington to Chicago, but does have one available Chicago to Portland. They can upgrade for the difference in fare - which since it’s last minute would be more expensive than had they kept their original reservation.

At this point we kind of tune the whole thing out. The guy is being [synonym of donkey]l unreasonable, and we feel bad for his wife that she has to live with him. While outwardly appearing to be pretty ‘granola’ my gut tells me the guy is a computer programmer / tech person and can certainly afford to upgrade if he wanted to. He’s just being an [synonym of donkey]. So, enjoy your Roomette, [synonym of donkey].

And then a real tragedy occurs!...
Read the rest of the story and more photos at https://snvboy.exposure.co/red-wing-mn

I did click through to read the full report -- in regard to your experience upon arrival at Red Wing, I was once boarding the CZ at Fraser-Winter Park, Colorado, was the only "business" that day, and the conductor spotted the train with the door to my sleeping car exactly where I was standing on the platform. Yes, I noticed.

Hope you've since gotten a new camera, or at least a phone that can take pictures!

Thanks for checking out the full report.

Yup, new camera in hand and has already made a couple more trip reports, starting with https://snvboy.exposure.co/christmas-2015-train-advenutre- upgraded from the Sony RX-100 mark II to the mark III.

I really enjoyed Red Wing, and the next time I'm visiting Rochester, MN I think I'll do the same and get off here instead of Winona.

Here's one more Red Wing photo - not from this trip, but destined for Red Wing. This was on the eastbound Empire Builder a year or two earlier. A traveler who I think had spent the night in the lounge, but dutifully brought his chit with him. I think this was taken around Hastings, MN - just south of St. Paul.

Great report....for those not wanting or unable to walk up the hill on Bush Street to get to the St. James Hotel's lobby, you can walk into the parking ramp across the street from the RDW depot...there's an elevator there that'll take you right up to the lobby level.

snvboy said:

I really enjoyed Red Wing, and the next time I'm visiting Rochester, MN I think I'll do the same and get off here instead of Winona.

Click to expand...

I'm from a town on the Mississippi somewhat south of Red Wing; and I am always envious of what Red Wing has done to its downtown and waterfront. My town is great in a lot of ways. Its only problem is that no one will shop or patronize a business unless they can see a corn field from the parking lot. Of course the corn fields are on the opposite side of town away from the river, so that gets neglected.

Even our Amtrak station is next to a cow pasture.