printman2000
Engineer
I planned this trip from Lamy, NM to Boston back in January 2008. It was to be our first trips in roomettes instead of bedrooms and also our first time on single level equipment.
A week before our trips, flooding in the Midwest started threating our trip. Sure enough, we were called the night before and told of our bustitution on train #4 from Kansas City to Chicago.
We left Lamy, NM (which has free wi-fi by the way) just about on time. We (my wife, two kids 10 & 7 and me) got our roomettes, 4 & 5 on a refurbished Superliner I sleeper. Our attendant, was great. He did not speak English real, real well, but was around when needed him. While I have glanced into roomettes before, I had never been into one. I was pleasantly surprised by their size. There was plenty of room for two people in day mode.
We got 5:30 reservations for dinner and I was excited about trying the steak. My steak came out cooked to order (medium) and was nice and juicy. However, it did not seem to have any seasoning on it so I added plenty of salt and pepper which helped. My older son had the kids hot dog which was one of the nicest, juiciest hot dogs I have ever seen. The dog was hot and the bread was soft. It was a surprise to have something I would eat on the kids menu.
We hung out after dinner in our rooms. This was a sold out train so room in the lounge was almost impossible to get. We stepped off the train in La Junta for about 20 minutes. After that, we had our rooms changed to sleeper setup. This is where the roomettes suffer. You have about 1 square foot of floor space and it is hard to change clothes. The beds, though, are nice and wide. The bottom bed mattress is about ¾ inch thick and took me a while to get comfortable on.
I usually don’t get a lot of sleep the first night on a train and I do not mind at all. I love looking out and seeing America passing by. I also brought a scanner for the first time. It has been quite interesting to listen to. At one point in the night, the power went off. I heard the conductor and front end guys talking about it. They said they were working on it and it came back on after maybe 20 minutes.
Our train, due to the flooding, was being terminated in Kansas City. What was going to happen in KC, was unknown to me. When Amtrak called, they said we would be on a bus to Galesburg, then a stub train to Chicago. The agent in Lamy said the people connecting to the LSL & CL were actually bussed from KC all the way to Toledo the day before us (that would have been a freakin nightmare). However, they had it set up so one of the buses was taking passengers to Galesburg and stops before, and then had 4 or 5 buses going all the way to Chicago.
We were the first ones off the train in KC and I asked the agents there where we were suppose to go. One quite rudely told us to stay in the terminal until they announced the buses. Course, most people never hear that and went on out to the buses. We did as we were told and waited inside. Next thing I realized, that dad-gum agent was out getting people on the buses while we were still inside waiting for her to make an announcement. By the time we got out, the first three buses were full and took off. We got on the 4th one and ended up sitting in KC on the bus for an hour. They were putting the checked baggage on the bus behind us and held us there in case it did not all fit. We finally got away around 9:30 for what would be a 9.5 hour bus trip.
After stopping at a McDonalds for lunch I took it upon myself to provide entertainment and fired up the video system in our bus. I played three movies during the rest of the trip. Sure did help time pass. I also arranged a show by the Navy Blue Angels. We saw them flying all over, not sure if there was an air show going on or if they were just practicing, but it was cool. They flew right over us at one point.
We arrived into Chicago at about 7:00. We went straight to the lounge and checked in there and left two bags in the check room. We ran upstairs and grabbed some food and took it to the lounge to eat. They did not call to board #48 (LSL) until 8:45. Walking past our train, I noticed it did not have a horizon snack car. It was another Amfleet car that looked like it might have been a second Diner Lite car. I guess it is just a normal Amfleet lounge, though. We got moved in to our two roomettes and went straight to the “dining car” for the wine and cheese. We all had sparkling cider and they brought us a cheese/cracker/fruit tray. The staff was extremely nice. In fact, Amtrak will be receiving feedback on this crew. Alex and Carmel were great!
My first impressions of the Viewliner roomettes compared to the Superliner were good. In seating mode, I like the extra space of the toilet for storage, The toilet on the room is another thing. I am not sure I like it. I love having a sink (even though you cannot use it without splashing everywhere), It is a pain to have someone taking a leak so close to your seats and luggage. Another downside is both seats seem to be less roomy that the Superliner.
In night mode, the upper windows are nice, however, the beds are less roomy. Even on the wide ends of the bed, both my sides touched the walls where that did not happen on the Superliner. The ride seemed a whole lot smoother in the Viewliner. Course, this could be because the track is better. The track in Kansas and Colorado was horrible.
The next morning, I got up early so I could step off at the Cleveland stop. I got up about 5:30 and took my first train shower. It went well and I felt a lot better. We arrived in Cleveland early so we were there around 30 minutes.
Breakfast was good, lunch, to my surprise, they were still offering the appetizers. So as of 6/20, the LSL had appetizers.
We arrived in Albany on time and I saw #448 pulling in as we did. They did not let us board right away so we waited over the tracks and watched them move our luggage from one train to the other in the pouring rain. There was real no effort to cover the luggage and by the time they grabbed our suitcases, one actually had a puddle on it. Needless to say, one of our bags had everything wet inside. We also watched the loco change on 48 from two P42's to one P32ACDM.
We finally got the call to board 449 and we went to our business class car. We took the two front rows on the 2 seat side and settled in. It was a nice quiet ride. We went back to the snack bar and bought some food for our dinner. Selections were slim, but we were okay. We all grabbed some sleep before arriving into Boston early at 9:30.
At the South Station, we bought two 7 day T passes and boarded the Red line to State, then the Green B line to Washington where we walked one block to our hotel. We spent 5 nights in Boston and used the T exclusively for transportation and loved it.
Monday before our return trip on the 25th, I got a call from Amtrak (uh, oh). CSX has extended their track work time and we would be bussed on 449 from Boston to Albany. I was depressed! At this time, I still was not sure if the SWC would be running on the 26th so we had the prospect of two buses on the return trip. However, the day before leaving Boston, the SWC was running the full line again. Were we ever happy!
We arrived at South Station for our return trip at about 10:00 (for 12:00) departure. I went to the agent to check my bags and to get a refund for our business class tickets since we were being bustituted. The agent was somewhat of a jerk. I dropped my tickets in his little slot and he sits there staring at them and said “Why are you giving these to me?” I was expecting a “How may I help you” or anything similar, but no. After about 30 minutes of him figuring things out, he finally got us the refund. I told him I needed two bags checked and he said no, we would have to carry them on the bus and then check them in Albany! I was hacked. 449 has checked luggage and I should be able to check it. I argued with him about it a couple of minutes and gave up.
I went out the Amtrak info desk and asked them and they told me I absolutely could check our bags. So we went to the baggage check and checked our two bags all the way to Lamy, no problem.
We then hung in the Club Acela for a while. It is a really nice lounge. We went to the food court and grabbed some lunch right before we went to the information desk to get taken to the buses. They were running two, one express to Albany and the other would make all the stops in between. We were second onto the Express bus and sat right behind the conductor. We did not have a conductor on the buses from KC to Chicago. It is nice having someone from Amtrak on board to make sure things go as they are suppose to. The trip is 5+ hours by train, but only took us 2.5 getting us to Albany at 3:00, 4 hours before our 7:05 departure on 49. Oh well, better sitting in a train station than on a bus. I did enjoy watching the trains come and go and also all the loco changes.
49 pulled in right on time and we went down to board. There was a private car tacked onto the rear. I meant to get back and take a picture but never had a chance. It apparently had three axle trucks. I could tell by the number of axles the hotbox detectors told us. The sleepers were in front of the platform so we had to go down a ramp to get to them. We had rooms 3 & 4 in 4910, right behind the dining car. Tom was our attendant and has been with Amtrak 31 years. One of the first things I noticed was there was no curtain over our hallway door. I was thinking I was going to have to tape towels up when Tom showed us there was a built in shade on the window. He said that is originally how they came but when the shades broke, they replaced them with curtains.
We went and had dinner. Dining crew was good. I had the chicken sandwich which was pretty good. They also had a bunch of magazines in the dining car so my wife and I grabbed a couple to read. Later in the night, I heard a siren go off on the radio. I figured out that after many many hot box detectors with no problems, one reported a problem with axle 6, the 2nd axle on the second loco. We immediately stopped and the conductor stepped off to check it out. He found nothing and we were off.
We got our beds made and went to sleep. I woke up early cause I have passed through Toledo three times and never seen it (always asleep). At 5:30, the #29 Capital Limited passed us on the right. When we pulled towards Toledo, we stopped outside the station. I looked forward and saw #29 was still there and we had to wait for them to leave. Toledo looks like it used to be a very grand station. Something like 9 platforms. Most do not have tracks and are crumbling. It is too bad we could not stop at the same time as #29. I heard on the radio something about an Amtrak threesome and sure enough when we pulled out we passed a waiting #30 on our left. They were WAY behind schedule.
The rest of that trip was uneventful. I went to the snack car and asked for a diet Pepsi. The attendant asked if I was sleeper and I said yes. She then said no charge for the drink (two small cans). I said cool and left a dollar tip. Not sure if that is normal for the LSL or not.
We pulled into CUS about an hour late. We went straight to the lounge and checked our bags and headed out. My plan was the Sears Tower then Giordano’s for lunch. Waiting in line to come back down from the tower, I had a message on my phone from Amtrak. #3 was being canceled and there is no alternate transportation provided. I was devastated. We headed straight back to CUS.
The attendant in the lounge told us to hang tight that things were still up in the air. I got on the internet looking at flights (would cost $500 more than our train tickets in sleeper) and also at one way rentals. After 45 minutes of no more info, I call the 1-800 number. After doing some research, she told me #3 would run an alternate route. There would be no service between Chicago and La Plata, but all stations south and west would be served. WOO HOO! Was I ever relieved!
Now we had a couple of hours before leaving so to Giordano’s for a deep dish. It was good, but I think I prefer a little thinner pizza.
We boarded #3 at 2:45. We were in car 330 in roomettes 3 & 4. This was a Superliner II named South Dakota. I like the small difference over the Superliner I. The deletion of the closet is big giving much more useful space in the room. I also found three deflectors on the a/c vent which help from the air blowing right on the upper bunk. I also like the trash can drawer. After seeing this room, I concluded that I liked the Sperliner roomettes better. The seats and beds are more roomy. The only benefit I saw on the Viewliner were the upper windows. I also prefer the Superliner II over the Superliner I because of the deletion of the closet.
The crew seemed to be unsure of our final route. Everyone kept saying they were not sure where we were going. Turns out we headed straight down to St Louis on the same route as the Texas Eagle. In fact, after going through Pontiac, we pulled over and 22 passed us on the left. On the radio, 22 said “I am surprised they put you on the siding for me.” Our #3 replied, “Well, you’re the regular on this line and I am not talking about bowels.”
We pulled into St. Louis around 9:30 and sat in the lounge to watch downtown and the arch. I have never been to SL so it was cool to see. The lounge car on this train #38002 was the worst I have ever seen. I do not think it has had any refurb since the day it was built. It had the brown fake leather seats and was just dirty. I am wondering if they had to piece together this train with all the annulments in KC. Not sure where all the equipment is. Our sleepers A/C did not work too well either.
For dinner, I chose the steak again. It was perfectly cooked to order and tasted great. I commented to the server and also saw the chef later and complimented him on it.
They let everyone step off at the St Louis station for about 15 minutes. I walked up front to realize there was a heritage car in between he transition dorm and the baggage car. It looked like it was in great shape and possible recently refurbed. Not sure what kind of car it was but is was named Pacific Patrol. The dining car attendant I talked to said it had real wide seats in it. I saw a guy standing in the vestubal. He was not very talkative but said it was going to California to be used for training. That is all I got.
I went to bed and slept well after that. I woke up around 5:30 to see us in Kansas City. Since we were suppose to leave KC at 10:55, we were running over 6 hour late. That would mean an 8:30 arrival into Lamy with a 4 hour drive back to Amarillo. I don’t care, we are on the train and it can be as late as it wants.
I got up around 6:30 and took my second train shower ever. The SL II shower was bigger than the Viewliner shower, but the room it was in was smaller than the Viewliners. That made it more difficult to dress and I kept hitting the door with my arm.
At breakfast around 7:30, we past #4 which I heard the crew saying was being stopped at KC. Not sure if they would be bussing them on to Chicago or not, but I assume they will.
We got stopped in Las Animas (17 miles East of La Junta) waiting on freights. We were stopped for about an hour and fifteen minutes. That would make us running around 7.5 hours late. I certainly don’t blame BNSF for this since we were basically an unscheduled train trying to get through on a weekday.
After we got moving again a hotbox detector said we only had 47 axles. I guess one fell off somewhere or perhaps was stolen while we were stopped. The train actually has 48. Two locos, baggage, heritage car, transition sleeper (rooms were sold), sleeper, sleeper, dining, lounge, 3 coaches.
At 4:46, 30 minutes or so before Trinidad, the engineer said one of the traction motors in the lead unit had gone bad and he was unable to figure out which one it was. The conductor asked if it was going to be a problem and he said it is if we want to make the pass (Raton Pass). The conductor called someone to see if there was an extra loco in Trinidad that we could use.
I then heard the engineer say that the lead unit could hold the HEP and the second unit would be 100% if they wanted to try and make the pass with that. After a while though, I heard them talking about having a BNSF loco added then I also heard some talk about #4 being in Raton and possibly taking a loco off of it when it gets here.
However, after sitting an hour, we were going to pull forward onto another track so #4 could get by us. When we tried to do that, the engineer realized the second unit had auto shut down and it would not restart. The guy on the heritage car happened to be an Amtrak electrician so they had him go take a look. I over heard the engineer talking to a BNSF maintenance person and he said there was not going to be any hope of getting the second unit going. For the record, the lead unit was 174 and the second was 118.
We got a BNSF unit hooked up to the front (Green & white unit) and finally pulled up at 8:30 pm. #4 passed us on the right and we took off to Raton with one freight, 1 HEP only unit and one dead unit. How is that for a lash up to go over the pass with? What I do not understand is that the crew did not want to go through the pass with one good and one bad unit, but they seemed okay with going through with 1 good freight unit and two bad P-42’s. Is that a lack of confidence in Amtraks locos?
From Trinidad to Raton, our max speed was 28 mph. Not sure if that is from a lack of power or because of speed limits (or both). After Raton, we hit 70 mph.
By 11:30, after most of the train had turned in, a lady happened by my room. I was the only one she could find awake. There was apparently a drunk guy in coach who was cussing and angry. She said they pushed the attendant button but no one ever came. I escorted the lady up to the transition sleeper and went downstairs where we found the conductor and AC. They popped up and went right back there.
At 11:37 pm North of Las Vegas, the train came to a halt. The engineer radioed “Overspeed.” Our crew was going to go dead soon so things were again getting dicey. The AC said on the radio they were going until they met the relief crew wherever that was. I then heard the relief crew was at Glorietta, but the engineer was having problems getting the computer reset after the overspeed. After some talking with helpdesk, they disconnected some air hose and that apparently reset something and we were moving again at 12:17 am. I had joked with a dining car attendant that we may still be here for breakfast, at this rate I am thinking it might actually happen!
When we pulled into Las Vegas, NM, there were 10 or so people waiting to get on board. They had to wait 12 hours for their train to arrive! At an unmanned station that was locked up by the time we got there. Also in Las Vegas, the replacement crew arrived. There was some delay because they could not get hold of someone and needed to check on the warrant and DDT(?). They said we will wait until we hear from her. We finally pulled out at 12:48.
Comments heard from the engineer about the BNSF loco, “She is uphill slow and downhill fast” and “These dynos don’t work to great.” I assume that was the dynamic braking he was referring to.
After very slow speeds between Las Vegas and Lamy, we arrived in Lamy about 3:00 am. Twelve hours and 40 minutes late.
I am wondering if they will replace the BNSF loco with the spare they usually keep in Albuquerque. I would think they would want to get rid of the freight loco ASAP so they could get to top speeds. Already being over 12 hours late.
I have written down some questions that came to me during this trip. I will post those over on the main Amtrak discussion boards.
I blog when I travel so friends and family can follow our travels. You can see it it http://www.craigmashburn.com. It also has a lot of pictures.
A week before our trips, flooding in the Midwest started threating our trip. Sure enough, we were called the night before and told of our bustitution on train #4 from Kansas City to Chicago.
We left Lamy, NM (which has free wi-fi by the way) just about on time. We (my wife, two kids 10 & 7 and me) got our roomettes, 4 & 5 on a refurbished Superliner I sleeper. Our attendant, was great. He did not speak English real, real well, but was around when needed him. While I have glanced into roomettes before, I had never been into one. I was pleasantly surprised by their size. There was plenty of room for two people in day mode.
We got 5:30 reservations for dinner and I was excited about trying the steak. My steak came out cooked to order (medium) and was nice and juicy. However, it did not seem to have any seasoning on it so I added plenty of salt and pepper which helped. My older son had the kids hot dog which was one of the nicest, juiciest hot dogs I have ever seen. The dog was hot and the bread was soft. It was a surprise to have something I would eat on the kids menu.
We hung out after dinner in our rooms. This was a sold out train so room in the lounge was almost impossible to get. We stepped off the train in La Junta for about 20 minutes. After that, we had our rooms changed to sleeper setup. This is where the roomettes suffer. You have about 1 square foot of floor space and it is hard to change clothes. The beds, though, are nice and wide. The bottom bed mattress is about ¾ inch thick and took me a while to get comfortable on.
I usually don’t get a lot of sleep the first night on a train and I do not mind at all. I love looking out and seeing America passing by. I also brought a scanner for the first time. It has been quite interesting to listen to. At one point in the night, the power went off. I heard the conductor and front end guys talking about it. They said they were working on it and it came back on after maybe 20 minutes.
Our train, due to the flooding, was being terminated in Kansas City. What was going to happen in KC, was unknown to me. When Amtrak called, they said we would be on a bus to Galesburg, then a stub train to Chicago. The agent in Lamy said the people connecting to the LSL & CL were actually bussed from KC all the way to Toledo the day before us (that would have been a freakin nightmare). However, they had it set up so one of the buses was taking passengers to Galesburg and stops before, and then had 4 or 5 buses going all the way to Chicago.
We were the first ones off the train in KC and I asked the agents there where we were suppose to go. One quite rudely told us to stay in the terminal until they announced the buses. Course, most people never hear that and went on out to the buses. We did as we were told and waited inside. Next thing I realized, that dad-gum agent was out getting people on the buses while we were still inside waiting for her to make an announcement. By the time we got out, the first three buses were full and took off. We got on the 4th one and ended up sitting in KC on the bus for an hour. They were putting the checked baggage on the bus behind us and held us there in case it did not all fit. We finally got away around 9:30 for what would be a 9.5 hour bus trip.
After stopping at a McDonalds for lunch I took it upon myself to provide entertainment and fired up the video system in our bus. I played three movies during the rest of the trip. Sure did help time pass. I also arranged a show by the Navy Blue Angels. We saw them flying all over, not sure if there was an air show going on or if they were just practicing, but it was cool. They flew right over us at one point.
We arrived into Chicago at about 7:00. We went straight to the lounge and checked in there and left two bags in the check room. We ran upstairs and grabbed some food and took it to the lounge to eat. They did not call to board #48 (LSL) until 8:45. Walking past our train, I noticed it did not have a horizon snack car. It was another Amfleet car that looked like it might have been a second Diner Lite car. I guess it is just a normal Amfleet lounge, though. We got moved in to our two roomettes and went straight to the “dining car” for the wine and cheese. We all had sparkling cider and they brought us a cheese/cracker/fruit tray. The staff was extremely nice. In fact, Amtrak will be receiving feedback on this crew. Alex and Carmel were great!
My first impressions of the Viewliner roomettes compared to the Superliner were good. In seating mode, I like the extra space of the toilet for storage, The toilet on the room is another thing. I am not sure I like it. I love having a sink (even though you cannot use it without splashing everywhere), It is a pain to have someone taking a leak so close to your seats and luggage. Another downside is both seats seem to be less roomy that the Superliner.
In night mode, the upper windows are nice, however, the beds are less roomy. Even on the wide ends of the bed, both my sides touched the walls where that did not happen on the Superliner. The ride seemed a whole lot smoother in the Viewliner. Course, this could be because the track is better. The track in Kansas and Colorado was horrible.
The next morning, I got up early so I could step off at the Cleveland stop. I got up about 5:30 and took my first train shower. It went well and I felt a lot better. We arrived in Cleveland early so we were there around 30 minutes.
Breakfast was good, lunch, to my surprise, they were still offering the appetizers. So as of 6/20, the LSL had appetizers.
We arrived in Albany on time and I saw #448 pulling in as we did. They did not let us board right away so we waited over the tracks and watched them move our luggage from one train to the other in the pouring rain. There was real no effort to cover the luggage and by the time they grabbed our suitcases, one actually had a puddle on it. Needless to say, one of our bags had everything wet inside. We also watched the loco change on 48 from two P42's to one P32ACDM.
We finally got the call to board 449 and we went to our business class car. We took the two front rows on the 2 seat side and settled in. It was a nice quiet ride. We went back to the snack bar and bought some food for our dinner. Selections were slim, but we were okay. We all grabbed some sleep before arriving into Boston early at 9:30.
At the South Station, we bought two 7 day T passes and boarded the Red line to State, then the Green B line to Washington where we walked one block to our hotel. We spent 5 nights in Boston and used the T exclusively for transportation and loved it.
Monday before our return trip on the 25th, I got a call from Amtrak (uh, oh). CSX has extended their track work time and we would be bussed on 449 from Boston to Albany. I was depressed! At this time, I still was not sure if the SWC would be running on the 26th so we had the prospect of two buses on the return trip. However, the day before leaving Boston, the SWC was running the full line again. Were we ever happy!
We arrived at South Station for our return trip at about 10:00 (for 12:00) departure. I went to the agent to check my bags and to get a refund for our business class tickets since we were being bustituted. The agent was somewhat of a jerk. I dropped my tickets in his little slot and he sits there staring at them and said “Why are you giving these to me?” I was expecting a “How may I help you” or anything similar, but no. After about 30 minutes of him figuring things out, he finally got us the refund. I told him I needed two bags checked and he said no, we would have to carry them on the bus and then check them in Albany! I was hacked. 449 has checked luggage and I should be able to check it. I argued with him about it a couple of minutes and gave up.
I went out the Amtrak info desk and asked them and they told me I absolutely could check our bags. So we went to the baggage check and checked our two bags all the way to Lamy, no problem.
We then hung in the Club Acela for a while. It is a really nice lounge. We went to the food court and grabbed some lunch right before we went to the information desk to get taken to the buses. They were running two, one express to Albany and the other would make all the stops in between. We were second onto the Express bus and sat right behind the conductor. We did not have a conductor on the buses from KC to Chicago. It is nice having someone from Amtrak on board to make sure things go as they are suppose to. The trip is 5+ hours by train, but only took us 2.5 getting us to Albany at 3:00, 4 hours before our 7:05 departure on 49. Oh well, better sitting in a train station than on a bus. I did enjoy watching the trains come and go and also all the loco changes.
49 pulled in right on time and we went down to board. There was a private car tacked onto the rear. I meant to get back and take a picture but never had a chance. It apparently had three axle trucks. I could tell by the number of axles the hotbox detectors told us. The sleepers were in front of the platform so we had to go down a ramp to get to them. We had rooms 3 & 4 in 4910, right behind the dining car. Tom was our attendant and has been with Amtrak 31 years. One of the first things I noticed was there was no curtain over our hallway door. I was thinking I was going to have to tape towels up when Tom showed us there was a built in shade on the window. He said that is originally how they came but when the shades broke, they replaced them with curtains.
We went and had dinner. Dining crew was good. I had the chicken sandwich which was pretty good. They also had a bunch of magazines in the dining car so my wife and I grabbed a couple to read. Later in the night, I heard a siren go off on the radio. I figured out that after many many hot box detectors with no problems, one reported a problem with axle 6, the 2nd axle on the second loco. We immediately stopped and the conductor stepped off to check it out. He found nothing and we were off.
We got our beds made and went to sleep. I woke up early cause I have passed through Toledo three times and never seen it (always asleep). At 5:30, the #29 Capital Limited passed us on the right. When we pulled towards Toledo, we stopped outside the station. I looked forward and saw #29 was still there and we had to wait for them to leave. Toledo looks like it used to be a very grand station. Something like 9 platforms. Most do not have tracks and are crumbling. It is too bad we could not stop at the same time as #29. I heard on the radio something about an Amtrak threesome and sure enough when we pulled out we passed a waiting #30 on our left. They were WAY behind schedule.
The rest of that trip was uneventful. I went to the snack car and asked for a diet Pepsi. The attendant asked if I was sleeper and I said yes. She then said no charge for the drink (two small cans). I said cool and left a dollar tip. Not sure if that is normal for the LSL or not.
We pulled into CUS about an hour late. We went straight to the lounge and checked our bags and headed out. My plan was the Sears Tower then Giordano’s for lunch. Waiting in line to come back down from the tower, I had a message on my phone from Amtrak. #3 was being canceled and there is no alternate transportation provided. I was devastated. We headed straight back to CUS.
The attendant in the lounge told us to hang tight that things were still up in the air. I got on the internet looking at flights (would cost $500 more than our train tickets in sleeper) and also at one way rentals. After 45 minutes of no more info, I call the 1-800 number. After doing some research, she told me #3 would run an alternate route. There would be no service between Chicago and La Plata, but all stations south and west would be served. WOO HOO! Was I ever relieved!
Now we had a couple of hours before leaving so to Giordano’s for a deep dish. It was good, but I think I prefer a little thinner pizza.
We boarded #3 at 2:45. We were in car 330 in roomettes 3 & 4. This was a Superliner II named South Dakota. I like the small difference over the Superliner I. The deletion of the closet is big giving much more useful space in the room. I also found three deflectors on the a/c vent which help from the air blowing right on the upper bunk. I also like the trash can drawer. After seeing this room, I concluded that I liked the Sperliner roomettes better. The seats and beds are more roomy. The only benefit I saw on the Viewliner were the upper windows. I also prefer the Superliner II over the Superliner I because of the deletion of the closet.
The crew seemed to be unsure of our final route. Everyone kept saying they were not sure where we were going. Turns out we headed straight down to St Louis on the same route as the Texas Eagle. In fact, after going through Pontiac, we pulled over and 22 passed us on the left. On the radio, 22 said “I am surprised they put you on the siding for me.” Our #3 replied, “Well, you’re the regular on this line and I am not talking about bowels.”
We pulled into St. Louis around 9:30 and sat in the lounge to watch downtown and the arch. I have never been to SL so it was cool to see. The lounge car on this train #38002 was the worst I have ever seen. I do not think it has had any refurb since the day it was built. It had the brown fake leather seats and was just dirty. I am wondering if they had to piece together this train with all the annulments in KC. Not sure where all the equipment is. Our sleepers A/C did not work too well either.
For dinner, I chose the steak again. It was perfectly cooked to order and tasted great. I commented to the server and also saw the chef later and complimented him on it.
They let everyone step off at the St Louis station for about 15 minutes. I walked up front to realize there was a heritage car in between he transition dorm and the baggage car. It looked like it was in great shape and possible recently refurbed. Not sure what kind of car it was but is was named Pacific Patrol. The dining car attendant I talked to said it had real wide seats in it. I saw a guy standing in the vestubal. He was not very talkative but said it was going to California to be used for training. That is all I got.
I went to bed and slept well after that. I woke up around 5:30 to see us in Kansas City. Since we were suppose to leave KC at 10:55, we were running over 6 hour late. That would mean an 8:30 arrival into Lamy with a 4 hour drive back to Amarillo. I don’t care, we are on the train and it can be as late as it wants.
I got up around 6:30 and took my second train shower ever. The SL II shower was bigger than the Viewliner shower, but the room it was in was smaller than the Viewliners. That made it more difficult to dress and I kept hitting the door with my arm.
At breakfast around 7:30, we past #4 which I heard the crew saying was being stopped at KC. Not sure if they would be bussing them on to Chicago or not, but I assume they will.
We got stopped in Las Animas (17 miles East of La Junta) waiting on freights. We were stopped for about an hour and fifteen minutes. That would make us running around 7.5 hours late. I certainly don’t blame BNSF for this since we were basically an unscheduled train trying to get through on a weekday.
After we got moving again a hotbox detector said we only had 47 axles. I guess one fell off somewhere or perhaps was stolen while we were stopped. The train actually has 48. Two locos, baggage, heritage car, transition sleeper (rooms were sold), sleeper, sleeper, dining, lounge, 3 coaches.
At 4:46, 30 minutes or so before Trinidad, the engineer said one of the traction motors in the lead unit had gone bad and he was unable to figure out which one it was. The conductor asked if it was going to be a problem and he said it is if we want to make the pass (Raton Pass). The conductor called someone to see if there was an extra loco in Trinidad that we could use.
I then heard the engineer say that the lead unit could hold the HEP and the second unit would be 100% if they wanted to try and make the pass with that. After a while though, I heard them talking about having a BNSF loco added then I also heard some talk about #4 being in Raton and possibly taking a loco off of it when it gets here.
However, after sitting an hour, we were going to pull forward onto another track so #4 could get by us. When we tried to do that, the engineer realized the second unit had auto shut down and it would not restart. The guy on the heritage car happened to be an Amtrak electrician so they had him go take a look. I over heard the engineer talking to a BNSF maintenance person and he said there was not going to be any hope of getting the second unit going. For the record, the lead unit was 174 and the second was 118.
We got a BNSF unit hooked up to the front (Green & white unit) and finally pulled up at 8:30 pm. #4 passed us on the right and we took off to Raton with one freight, 1 HEP only unit and one dead unit. How is that for a lash up to go over the pass with? What I do not understand is that the crew did not want to go through the pass with one good and one bad unit, but they seemed okay with going through with 1 good freight unit and two bad P-42’s. Is that a lack of confidence in Amtraks locos?
From Trinidad to Raton, our max speed was 28 mph. Not sure if that is from a lack of power or because of speed limits (or both). After Raton, we hit 70 mph.
By 11:30, after most of the train had turned in, a lady happened by my room. I was the only one she could find awake. There was apparently a drunk guy in coach who was cussing and angry. She said they pushed the attendant button but no one ever came. I escorted the lady up to the transition sleeper and went downstairs where we found the conductor and AC. They popped up and went right back there.
At 11:37 pm North of Las Vegas, the train came to a halt. The engineer radioed “Overspeed.” Our crew was going to go dead soon so things were again getting dicey. The AC said on the radio they were going until they met the relief crew wherever that was. I then heard the relief crew was at Glorietta, but the engineer was having problems getting the computer reset after the overspeed. After some talking with helpdesk, they disconnected some air hose and that apparently reset something and we were moving again at 12:17 am. I had joked with a dining car attendant that we may still be here for breakfast, at this rate I am thinking it might actually happen!
When we pulled into Las Vegas, NM, there were 10 or so people waiting to get on board. They had to wait 12 hours for their train to arrive! At an unmanned station that was locked up by the time we got there. Also in Las Vegas, the replacement crew arrived. There was some delay because they could not get hold of someone and needed to check on the warrant and DDT(?). They said we will wait until we hear from her. We finally pulled out at 12:48.
Comments heard from the engineer about the BNSF loco, “She is uphill slow and downhill fast” and “These dynos don’t work to great.” I assume that was the dynamic braking he was referring to.
After very slow speeds between Las Vegas and Lamy, we arrived in Lamy about 3:00 am. Twelve hours and 40 minutes late.
I am wondering if they will replace the BNSF loco with the spare they usually keep in Albuquerque. I would think they would want to get rid of the freight loco ASAP so they could get to top speeds. Already being over 12 hours late.
I have written down some questions that came to me during this trip. I will post those over on the main Amtrak discussion boards.
I blog when I travel so friends and family can follow our travels. You can see it it http://www.craigmashburn.com. It also has a lot of pictures.
