With me nearing sixty years old and my wife at fifty, neither of us had ever traveled by train. We decided to remedy that last month. My job used to call for extensive air travel, including international, but I burned out on that and swore it off over twenty years ago. We've driven or ridden motorcycles everywhere since. With air travel what it is today, I've stated, "the only way you'll get me on an airplane is in a coffin."
The beautiful art-deco Cincinnati Union Terminal, where we've previously gone for museum exhibits, is our nearest Amtrak stop. The Cardinal passes through westbound at about 0100 and eastbound at 0330--o'dark-thirty as we call it. With the attitude of "the journey is the destination," we set out to pick a turn-around point for our first train trip. We started with the Amtrak route guide and then we found the TrainWeb Cardinal pages. Clearly eastbound offered more options, not to mention the New River Gorge.
While it barely got a two-line mention in the route guide, TrainWeb showed that Clifton Forge, Virginia had a turntable. That piqued our interest and we found out more--the C&O Historical Society, its Heritage Center, and the archives are there. The Red Lantern Inn is right across from the Heritage Center. It's a small town and everything we wanted to see is within walking distance. What a perfect destination for a first train trip! We were even more convinced we'd made the right decision when we met the C&OHS at the Dayton, Ohio train show. We couldn't wait to get there!
Although this trip would be coach, we bought a pair of red 21-inch Samsonite Aspire GRT rolling carry-on bags with the thought of tucking them under Amtrak Roomette seats on a future trip. We equipped each with a Totes auto-open/close umbrella, and a large contractor trash bag for suitcase rain protection. The overhead bins swallowed them with room to spare. My wife carried a purse and a large tote bag. I carried my olive drab STM Scout XS shoulder bag. Its large, padded pocket had my insulin kit, camera and charger, and handheld radio transceiver (HT) with flex antenna. The big pocket in front of that had my 3G iPad, and the pocket in front of that had a Glucagon emergency kit, the iPad charger, two pair of ear buds and splitter, spare HT and camera batteries, and a travel surge suppressor/power strip/extension cord along with a six-inch extension cord to reach into recessed outlets the 90º plug might not accommodate. I always carry a tube of glucose tablets, a Boy Scout Explorer Swiss Army Knife, and a small Quark CR123 LED flashlight on my person. Everything came in handy, but we found with everything to see, even at night, we didn't watch movies on the iPad. We had more fun using its GPS to track the train's progress, while monitoring the train radio frequency. It was neat to see a crossing approaching on it, then hear the horn, and then see the crossing lights flash by.
What can we say, but we love train travel! There were about thirty of us boarding in Cincinnati. In the excitement of our first sighting of the train, I didn't get an exact consist, but I believe it was P42, baggage car, Viewliner sleeper, dinette/lounge car, and four coach cars. I enjoyed walking to the end of the train and watching the track disappearing behind it. It got more crowded as we traveled east and the conductor said the train was sold out. As the sun rose, I brought back breakfast from the dinette car. We found it edible, but expensive, so we brought along sandwiches and chips for dinner on the way back. At some point, we switched crews along the way, and we got to Clifton Forge around noon. It's said people make an organization, and besides the train itself, we found that true of Amtrak. Absolutely everyone we dealt with was superb and we looked forward to seeing them on the way back. In fact, we enjoyed our time with the other passengers. Even the old lady who complained about not getting enough smoke breaks between her hacking coughs was more amusing than annoying.
It's also the people who make the small town of Clifton Forge, Virginia what it is. It was like going back in time. Everyone we passed smiled and spoke to us. We felt like invited friends rather than customers at The Red Lantern Inn. The local mom and pop eateries were a refreshing break from nationwide chains and we ate at a different one each meal. Teenagers in the local pizza place were addressing adults as, "sir" or "ma'am". We felt safe walking through a closed up downtown at night, the quiet broken only by trains and church bells. By good fortune, our visit coincided with the monthly C&O Historical Society luncheon at the Heritage Center, where we'd toured and joined the day before. We also got a tour of their impressive archives. Again, the pinnacle of the experience was the people we met, especially their executive director, Rick Tabb. His devotion to the Society could make Steve Jobs look like he doesn't care about Apple.
The trip home began at about 1600 from the unstaffed Amtrak room in the CSX building. Hopefully, the station will move to the C&OHS depot down the street. It got dark quickly and the trip home was somewhat anti-climatic--until we got to Covington, Kentucky. Cincinnati is a beautiful city, especially at night and approaching the Union Terminal was nothing short of magical, especially if you know of its history and what a humongous and busy train station it once was. We'd slept well on the train ride back, so the drive home wasn't tiring.
Our long range plans now include lunch in Seattle via the Empire Builder. Before that will be a Cardinal trip to the B&O Museum and the USS Constellation. But before all that, we hope to be in Clifton Forge when the C&O 614 comes to town. Between trips, we'll be playing with our C&O and Amtrak model railroad in n-scale.
The beautiful art-deco Cincinnati Union Terminal, where we've previously gone for museum exhibits, is our nearest Amtrak stop. The Cardinal passes through westbound at about 0100 and eastbound at 0330--o'dark-thirty as we call it. With the attitude of "the journey is the destination," we set out to pick a turn-around point for our first train trip. We started with the Amtrak route guide and then we found the TrainWeb Cardinal pages. Clearly eastbound offered more options, not to mention the New River Gorge.
While it barely got a two-line mention in the route guide, TrainWeb showed that Clifton Forge, Virginia had a turntable. That piqued our interest and we found out more--the C&O Historical Society, its Heritage Center, and the archives are there. The Red Lantern Inn is right across from the Heritage Center. It's a small town and everything we wanted to see is within walking distance. What a perfect destination for a first train trip! We were even more convinced we'd made the right decision when we met the C&OHS at the Dayton, Ohio train show. We couldn't wait to get there!
Although this trip would be coach, we bought a pair of red 21-inch Samsonite Aspire GRT rolling carry-on bags with the thought of tucking them under Amtrak Roomette seats on a future trip. We equipped each with a Totes auto-open/close umbrella, and a large contractor trash bag for suitcase rain protection. The overhead bins swallowed them with room to spare. My wife carried a purse and a large tote bag. I carried my olive drab STM Scout XS shoulder bag. Its large, padded pocket had my insulin kit, camera and charger, and handheld radio transceiver (HT) with flex antenna. The big pocket in front of that had my 3G iPad, and the pocket in front of that had a Glucagon emergency kit, the iPad charger, two pair of ear buds and splitter, spare HT and camera batteries, and a travel surge suppressor/power strip/extension cord along with a six-inch extension cord to reach into recessed outlets the 90º plug might not accommodate. I always carry a tube of glucose tablets, a Boy Scout Explorer Swiss Army Knife, and a small Quark CR123 LED flashlight on my person. Everything came in handy, but we found with everything to see, even at night, we didn't watch movies on the iPad. We had more fun using its GPS to track the train's progress, while monitoring the train radio frequency. It was neat to see a crossing approaching on it, then hear the horn, and then see the crossing lights flash by.
What can we say, but we love train travel! There were about thirty of us boarding in Cincinnati. In the excitement of our first sighting of the train, I didn't get an exact consist, but I believe it was P42, baggage car, Viewliner sleeper, dinette/lounge car, and four coach cars. I enjoyed walking to the end of the train and watching the track disappearing behind it. It got more crowded as we traveled east and the conductor said the train was sold out. As the sun rose, I brought back breakfast from the dinette car. We found it edible, but expensive, so we brought along sandwiches and chips for dinner on the way back. At some point, we switched crews along the way, and we got to Clifton Forge around noon. It's said people make an organization, and besides the train itself, we found that true of Amtrak. Absolutely everyone we dealt with was superb and we looked forward to seeing them on the way back. In fact, we enjoyed our time with the other passengers. Even the old lady who complained about not getting enough smoke breaks between her hacking coughs was more amusing than annoying.
It's also the people who make the small town of Clifton Forge, Virginia what it is. It was like going back in time. Everyone we passed smiled and spoke to us. We felt like invited friends rather than customers at The Red Lantern Inn. The local mom and pop eateries were a refreshing break from nationwide chains and we ate at a different one each meal. Teenagers in the local pizza place were addressing adults as, "sir" or "ma'am". We felt safe walking through a closed up downtown at night, the quiet broken only by trains and church bells. By good fortune, our visit coincided with the monthly C&O Historical Society luncheon at the Heritage Center, where we'd toured and joined the day before. We also got a tour of their impressive archives. Again, the pinnacle of the experience was the people we met, especially their executive director, Rick Tabb. His devotion to the Society could make Steve Jobs look like he doesn't care about Apple.
The trip home began at about 1600 from the unstaffed Amtrak room in the CSX building. Hopefully, the station will move to the C&OHS depot down the street. It got dark quickly and the trip home was somewhat anti-climatic--until we got to Covington, Kentucky. Cincinnati is a beautiful city, especially at night and approaching the Union Terminal was nothing short of magical, especially if you know of its history and what a humongous and busy train station it once was. We'd slept well on the train ride back, so the drive home wasn't tiring.
Our long range plans now include lunch in Seattle via the Empire Builder. Before that will be a Cardinal trip to the B&O Museum and the USS Constellation. But before all that, we hope to be in Clifton Forge when the C&O 614 comes to town. Between trips, we'll be playing with our C&O and Amtrak model railroad in n-scale.
