Thinking of taking the Pennsylvanian to ride thru the curve

I am heading to the TCA train show in York Pa and thinking of taking from Chicago the Capitol and then transferring to the Pennsylvanian to ride thru Horseshoe Curve. One is it worth going thru the curve on the train as I have been there several times by car. Also on the return trip I see the layover is 4 hours at Pittsburg, so instead of doing that I was thinking of going onto Washington DC via transfer in Philly. Has anyone done this trip and any negatives to any of this ???

Billvasili said:

I am heading to the TCA train show in York Pa and thinking of taking from Chicago the Capitol and then transferring to the Pennsylvanian to ride thru Horseshoe Curve. One is it worth going thru the curve on the train as I have been there several times by car. Also on the return trip I see the layover is 4 hours at Pittsburg, so instead of doing that I was thinking of going onto Washington DC via transfer in Philly. Has anyone done this trip and any negatives to any of this ???

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Done it several times and your plan is the way to Roll! Go for it!

Should work if 30 is on time.
Be aware 42 will NOT be held at Pittsburgh if 30 falls behind.

philabos said:

Should work if 30 is on time.
Be aware 42 will NOT be held at Pittsburgh if 30 falls behind.

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Pay double attention to 30 being nearly on time at Pittsburg. Amtrak may or may not (probably not) bus disconnects to catch up to it. I never have missed the connection in the 4 or 5 times I booked that way home to New England. Usually, I take #29/30 both was from WAS. If I make my connection in CHI on Thursday, I'll be on 30 to WAS. There's a good number of regionals that connect both ways at WAS.

In case #30 is not going to make the connection (I'm a big fan of checking train status for what I think is the next station when I wake up) I would call Amtrak and get my reservation changed to stay on #30 to WAS. If that happens, you may want to modify your return to go via the horseshoe.

It’s worth it to say you’ve done it. Just hope that NS doesn’t have a 12,000 foot train with empty centerbeams on the head end. [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

Just wanted to add that I'm tickled to see Pittsburgh misspelled in this thread because it did, indeed, lose its "h" for a few years coinciding with the construction of the city's iconic Union Station. That's why it's spelled "Pittsburg" on the famous rotunda whose pillars depict the four great destinations of the Pennsylvania Railroad. (The others are New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago.). If your trains are on time, duck out of Pittsburgh's shabby little Amshack to check out the glorious rotunda.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Pittsburgh#Early_history_and_spellings