Hi all!
This is my ongoing report of my transcontinental journey. Some background: Got hooked on trains by my grandfather and have never looked back since. As an early graduation present to myself, my friend and I decided to get a rail pass and travel all around the country. We left MSP on Jan 2nd and will return on Jan 15th. The following is my report up to now and will be updated the more we travel.
Segment 1: Empire Builder MSP-CHI. Jan 2nd
Nothing too exciting about this leg. I've done this trip a bunch but its always nice to be on the Builder. With the freight derailment in ND and the slowness of the EB through BNSF tracks, I was not surprised when I received a call from AMTRAK the day before informing me of a service disruption and that alternate transportation would be provided. Having already resigned myself to bustitution, I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived Thursday morning and they informed us that the Builder actually made up time and would only be two hours late picking us up. We then ended up leaving MSP around 1015 and made our merry way to Chicago. I decided to have us ride coach for most our eastern voyages and thus did not eat in the dining car. After losing an hour or so in Wisconsin, we arrived in Chicago with enough time to get a bite to eat and wait for the LSL to Boston.
Segment 2: Lake Shore Limited CHI-BOS (South Station), Jan 2nd-Jan 4th
This is where things became interesting. To begin with, I noticed that CL was delayed due to mechanical issues because of the storm and the cold. After dinner, we went down to the lounge and found that the CONO was now entering the delayed category and the CL was just about to begin boarding. That began a roughly 5 hang out in the lounge while first the CONO was released and left, and then the LSL was ready to go. Having no timetable or places to be at certain times, the delay was quite alright by me, but there were sections of the waiting area in CHI that looked about ready to riot around 1245. When we finally boarded and left Chicago, it was around 2 o clock, and thus time to hit the hay. I awoke to an announcement over the PA around 7 regarding how we had been sitting weighting fro freight for around an hour and a half. I thus went back to sleep and woke up at Toledo, at around 1130 in the morning, roughly 9 hours late. This than began an 8 hour chunk of time filled with many periods of non-movement and the ominous "Usually Elriya to Cleveland is 35 minutes. That boys and girls just took us 2 and a half hours" from the OBS person assigned to our car in coach. We made Buffalo at around 715, right before our crew timed out, and thus got a new crew and an inspection to our engine to keep us going throughout the night into the next day. We ended up making it into Albany at around 515 in the morning and according to Mike, the OBS guy, we had been stopping for about 20min-1 hr at every stop between Rochester and Albany. There was one point in the evening where i woke up and saw the other LSL going the opposite direction, making me think that they must have had massive delays as well. Finally, we reached Boston at exactly noon on Saturday.
Quick note: Mike the OBS guy was awesome! He put up with all the moaning and groaning but managed to see the bright side of it all! However, I was surprised/ excited when he had a particularly candid conversation with me about the state of AMTRAK and its relationship with the freight companies, etc. Very enlightening.
Segment 3: Northeast Regional, BOS to NYP, Jan 5th.
After a night in Boston, my friend and I hopped on the Northeast Regional to NYP in order to catch the Crescent down to Atlanta. After a brief scare in which the Boston South Street Employees said that I owed $603 on my rail pass (which had been paid all in cash along with the sleepers for later in our trip back in September) and wouldn't give us our tickets, we got on the commuter and are currently headed to NYP, somewhere between Bridgeport and Stamford. We're a bit behind right now due to a wire in the track outside of Bridgeport that caused us to have to sit for around 15-20 minutes but hopefully we make it in time for our Connection!
More to come
This is my ongoing report of my transcontinental journey. Some background: Got hooked on trains by my grandfather and have never looked back since. As an early graduation present to myself, my friend and I decided to get a rail pass and travel all around the country. We left MSP on Jan 2nd and will return on Jan 15th. The following is my report up to now and will be updated the more we travel.
Segment 1: Empire Builder MSP-CHI. Jan 2nd
Nothing too exciting about this leg. I've done this trip a bunch but its always nice to be on the Builder. With the freight derailment in ND and the slowness of the EB through BNSF tracks, I was not surprised when I received a call from AMTRAK the day before informing me of a service disruption and that alternate transportation would be provided. Having already resigned myself to bustitution, I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived Thursday morning and they informed us that the Builder actually made up time and would only be two hours late picking us up. We then ended up leaving MSP around 1015 and made our merry way to Chicago. I decided to have us ride coach for most our eastern voyages and thus did not eat in the dining car. After losing an hour or so in Wisconsin, we arrived in Chicago with enough time to get a bite to eat and wait for the LSL to Boston.
Segment 2: Lake Shore Limited CHI-BOS (South Station), Jan 2nd-Jan 4th
This is where things became interesting. To begin with, I noticed that CL was delayed due to mechanical issues because of the storm and the cold. After dinner, we went down to the lounge and found that the CONO was now entering the delayed category and the CL was just about to begin boarding. That began a roughly 5 hang out in the lounge while first the CONO was released and left, and then the LSL was ready to go. Having no timetable or places to be at certain times, the delay was quite alright by me, but there were sections of the waiting area in CHI that looked about ready to riot around 1245. When we finally boarded and left Chicago, it was around 2 o clock, and thus time to hit the hay. I awoke to an announcement over the PA around 7 regarding how we had been sitting weighting fro freight for around an hour and a half. I thus went back to sleep and woke up at Toledo, at around 1130 in the morning, roughly 9 hours late. This than began an 8 hour chunk of time filled with many periods of non-movement and the ominous "Usually Elriya to Cleveland is 35 minutes. That boys and girls just took us 2 and a half hours" from the OBS person assigned to our car in coach. We made Buffalo at around 715, right before our crew timed out, and thus got a new crew and an inspection to our engine to keep us going throughout the night into the next day. We ended up making it into Albany at around 515 in the morning and according to Mike, the OBS guy, we had been stopping for about 20min-1 hr at every stop between Rochester and Albany. There was one point in the evening where i woke up and saw the other LSL going the opposite direction, making me think that they must have had massive delays as well. Finally, we reached Boston at exactly noon on Saturday.
Quick note: Mike the OBS guy was awesome! He put up with all the moaning and groaning but managed to see the bright side of it all! However, I was surprised/ excited when he had a particularly candid conversation with me about the state of AMTRAK and its relationship with the freight companies, etc. Very enlightening.
Segment 3: Northeast Regional, BOS to NYP, Jan 5th.
After a night in Boston, my friend and I hopped on the Northeast Regional to NYP in order to catch the Crescent down to Atlanta. After a brief scare in which the Boston South Street Employees said that I owed $603 on my rail pass (which had been paid all in cash along with the sleepers for later in our trip back in September) and wouldn't give us our tickets, we got on the commuter and are currently headed to NYP, somewhere between Bridgeport and Stamford. We're a bit behind right now due to a wire in the track outside of Bridgeport that caused us to have to sit for around 15-20 minutes but hopefully we make it in time for our Connection!
More to come
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