sueb
Train Attendant
My adult son and I recently returned from a 12 day vacation via Amtrak both ways. Rented a car for about 36 hrs in Santa Fe. The rest was all public transportation. Much more relaxing for me.
We left Harrisburg PA on the afternoon of 9/14 on the Pennsylvanian. No checked baggage from this station, but the station Redcap was extremely helpful and concerned about my son and me. We rode the freight elevator down to the tracks with my son in his adaptive stroller. The Redcap told us his sister had Cerebral Palsy so he understood the challenges we face in traveling. He was going to refuse a tip until I said he should use it to buy himself a beer and think of us and his sister (who had recently died). Then he took it.
The ride thru western PA was very scenic, including the Horse Shoe Curve in daylight. The only other time I've been over that trackage was at night on the Broadway Limited when I was in graduate school. Seemed like a pretty smooth ride overall. A few trees beginning to color at the higher elevations. Matthew and I ate sandwiches we bought before getting on the train for our dinner at our seats. There were only about a dozen people in the whole car so we spread out wherever we wanted. I had a nice chat with a young couple traveling with their 3 or 4 small children. We were sitting near the toilets, so we saw some of them every 30 minutes or so. They were headed for Pittsburgh and thought our planned trip out West sounded exciting.
Rolled into PGH right on time about 8pm. The conductor and the station Redcap helped Matthew and me with our luggage. The PGH station is not large. No on-site food service except vending machines. However, the station staff made an announcement that they had a selection of takeout menus and that local eateries would deliver to the station waiting area. That would be fine except there is no place to eat except on your lap in a row of chairs. They have room to stick 2 or 3 tables in a corner and I bet some of the local restaurants might even help pay for that.
There were quite a few people waiting for the CL, including a number of Amish/Mennonite families. Some of them had been on the Pennsylvanian, too. I was able to check our large baggage thru to Lamy, after explaining to the station agent the difference between Lamy and Santa Fe for baggage purposes. I also checked one bag to Flagstaff, where we would be stopping later. I learned about doing that from AU. The waiting room TV had Monday Night Football, which was pretty popular with all the men in the place - even the station baggage handlers kept coming out the see how the game was going. We could have gone outside to look around during our 4-hr layover, but we would have had to carry all of our hand luggage with us, so we decided to skip that. I understand the neighborhood around the station is nothing special anyway.
CL arrived right on time at midnight. Station staff had us go out on the platform ahead of the other passengers, along with our hand luggage. The sleeping car attendent had the ramp down for Matthew's chair as soon as he saw us coming down the platform. Normally Matthew would have been asleep by then but the football on TV had kept him awake. I wheeled his stroller up the ramp and elected to back into our H room, our 1st experience with a sleeping compartment. By backing into the room he was automaticalliy positioned with his back to the wall of the compartment and his front facing the compartment door. Otherwise I would have had to turn the stroller around in a very confined space.
Our SCA - Bill - introduced himself and showed us the basics of the room. The beds were already down and we got into them as soon as we could. After I put Matthew in the bottom bunk I turned his stroller 90 degrees and placed it against the side of his bed to prevent him from falling out. I had to call the SCA to help me figure out how to turn off the last of the lights. Then I climbed into the upper bunk without too much difficulty. Missed having a window up there, but then I realized if I moved my head to the other end of the bed I could see out the window next to the toilet across the room, unless it was pitch dark. Matthew went right to sleep. I spent some time trying to figure out the safety straps for the upper bunk. Finally gave up. I'm only 5 feet tall so I didn't feel the upper was cramped even though it is pretty close to the ceiling. Even sleeping on my side with 2 pillows I had enough room. There is a handy netting bin along the wall where you could put things you might need overnight like a cell phone or an inhaler. The 2 carpeted steps that give access to the upper bunk could be used for limited storage, too, especially in the daytime.
We both slept thru Ohio and most of Indiana. Somewhere before South Bend IN, Bill came and asked us about breakfast. Since we didn't have too much time, I kept it simple and ordered French Toast with sausage patties plus OJ for both of us. And a hot tea for me. All during our trip I tried to order link sausage, but they never had it, even though it was on the menu. The sausage patties were good though. Bill brought the food to the compartment quite quickly. I had Matthew dressed and sitting in his stroller, but I was still in my housecoat. Fortunately when eating in your own compartment that works just fine. Since I'm short I was able to sit on the lower bunk and not bump my head on the upper bunk. I put most of our hand luggage on the upper bunk and sat the breakfast tray in front of me on the lower bunk while I fed Matthew. Throughout the trip this often worked better for us than trying to balance two meals on that small pull-out table between the regular seats. After breakfast I got dressed and got the 2 of us washed up and prepared for CHI. The time zone change makes the morning arrival easier going west, in my opinion. We thanked Bill for his help and gave him a good tip, following the guidelines I found on AU.
In CHI Redcaps took our hand luggage from the platform to the station in motorized carts with seating in the front. Since riding in the carts would have meant folding up Matthew's stroller and trying to hold onto him while he climbed on the cart, I chose to push him in the stroller following behind one of the carts. Part of the platform is open to the sky due to construction on Jackson St and we saw it was overcast. We checked in at the Metropolitan Lounge and caught our breath for a while after day checking our hand luggage. I had a nice conversation with a lady from Florida who sat near us in the lounge. Later in the morning we decided to go outside and see if we could find the CVS one of the lounge attendants said was nearby. We found a way to street level that didn't involve any steps and then we found the CVS around the corner. I made some minor purchases and returned to the station. Matthew and I had lunch in a sports bar right off the Great Hall in Union Station. They had a nice small cafeteria service with reasonable prices and lots of old wood and atmosphere.
Back to the lounge and just hung out for a while, again talking with other travelers. Since we didn't eat our on-train meals in the dining car, the layovers were our main opportunity to connect with other travelers. Everyone staffing the lounge in Chicago was very helpful and pleasant to us in both directions. I stocked up on some of the free bagged snacks (pretzels, goldfish, etc.) they put out and these came in handy throughout our trip. If I have one criticism of the CHI Metropolitan Lounge it would be that they need a handicapped "family restroom." I took Matthew into the ladies room with me, but some other travelers might not have appreciated that.
We boarded the SWC right on time, reversing the process we used for detraining from the CL. Our SCA was Angie, who I had read about on the AU discussions. I told her she was famous and she said I was the 2nd person who told her she was mentioned positively on this site. She said she would have to go read what they said about her sometime. Angie showed me how to work the safety straps for my upper. The trick is to put the foot-end hook into the slot in the ceiling before you get into the bunk.
She took our dinner orders right away. I chose the infamous Flatiron beef entree and Matthew had the Cheese Enchilada special. This was our 1st chance to relax and watch the scenery while eating a meal. But I found I really could not look out the windows and eat or feed Matthew at the same time. Maybe if you have the larger windows of the dining car it is easier. I thought the flatiron was good, although I would not call it a steak. Reminded me of short ribs in the taste and texture. What I found interesting was that the mashed opotatoes and side vegetables were outstanding. A little garlic flavor to the mashed made them delicious. Matthew seemed to like his Mexican dish, although it did present some problems of keeping it on the fork when the track was rough. Angie came back several times to see how we were doing. I think we were taking longer with the meal than most people, but that is normal for us. Eventually she was able to bring us some desert - raspberry cheesecake bars that were excellent. That was the only time we managed to order a desert on the train. Most of the time we took too long eating the main meal to get desert before the dining service was over. Not like I need more desert in my diet anyway.
Second night on the train passed much like our 1st. Except now I knew how to attach the safety straps for my bunk. Good thing, too, with that rough track in Kansas. Neither Matthew nor I was disturbed by the train whistles. We hear them often enough at night from our home in PA. I was waking up as we came thru CO. Angie took our breakfast order - French Toast again for Matthew and a cheese omelet for me. Sausage patties again, although I think these may have been turkey instead of pork ones. By now I am getting quite good at using a combination of Amtrak cloth napkins and the extra paper napkins the SCAs usually provide to make sure we eat without getting our meal on our clothes. I checked most of our clothes in our luggage, so we don't have much left that is clean until we get to Lamy.
I have brought a digital camera along but I don't take any photos on our westbound trip. The camera is brand new and I have not had time to go over the instructions. I plan to do that after we get to Santa Fe. So I content myself with looking at the scenery as we come into the mountains. I try to follow along with the route guide so I will have an idea of where to take photos on our trip back. During the day we keep the door to our compartment open. This means we have a view of the luggage rack, the stairs and the doors to the downstairs toilets in addition to the views out the windows. Matthew enjoys watching people come and go as much as watching anything out the windows. I had hoped we might strike up some conversations with fellow passengers this way, but that never happens. I think people are a litle embarassed having a conversation with someone who just saw them go into the toilet. Silly, but true.
Before we left I asked on AU if Amtrak would let me order from the children's menu for Matthew if I felt that was appropriate. I had no trouble ordering children's meals for him throughout our trip. On the run into NM I ordered him the chicken fingers for lunch and I had the Angus burger. Both very good. I tasted his chicken and I would not have minded having that myself.
After lunch we arrived in Lamy, the jumping off point for Santa Fe. I thanked Angie for her help and gave her a nice tip. I think she was very taken with Matthew, as he flirted shamelessly with her all the way from CHI. Amtrak connects to SAF by a shuttle van service. Inconveniently, when you book the trip to SAF using AGR points, as we did, the shuttle part cannot be charged to AGR points. You have to pay cash or credit card to Amtrak at the time you arrive in Lamy. Siince the Amtrak ticketing system can then issue a printed ticket for the shuttle, it seems as if it should be able to book the service for AGR points.
The shuttle takes about 30 minutes to get into SAF, but since the driver drops every passenger off at their hotel, it can take longer with a full van. We arrived at our B & B around 3:30pm Wednesday, 9/16.
We stayed in Santa Fe until Sunday, 9/20, when we rode the SWC in coach to Flagstaff to continue our trip by visitng the Grand Canyon. I will report on that part of the trip in another post.
We left Harrisburg PA on the afternoon of 9/14 on the Pennsylvanian. No checked baggage from this station, but the station Redcap was extremely helpful and concerned about my son and me. We rode the freight elevator down to the tracks with my son in his adaptive stroller. The Redcap told us his sister had Cerebral Palsy so he understood the challenges we face in traveling. He was going to refuse a tip until I said he should use it to buy himself a beer and think of us and his sister (who had recently died). Then he took it.
The ride thru western PA was very scenic, including the Horse Shoe Curve in daylight. The only other time I've been over that trackage was at night on the Broadway Limited when I was in graduate school. Seemed like a pretty smooth ride overall. A few trees beginning to color at the higher elevations. Matthew and I ate sandwiches we bought before getting on the train for our dinner at our seats. There were only about a dozen people in the whole car so we spread out wherever we wanted. I had a nice chat with a young couple traveling with their 3 or 4 small children. We were sitting near the toilets, so we saw some of them every 30 minutes or so. They were headed for Pittsburgh and thought our planned trip out West sounded exciting.
Rolled into PGH right on time about 8pm. The conductor and the station Redcap helped Matthew and me with our luggage. The PGH station is not large. No on-site food service except vending machines. However, the station staff made an announcement that they had a selection of takeout menus and that local eateries would deliver to the station waiting area. That would be fine except there is no place to eat except on your lap in a row of chairs. They have room to stick 2 or 3 tables in a corner and I bet some of the local restaurants might even help pay for that.
There were quite a few people waiting for the CL, including a number of Amish/Mennonite families. Some of them had been on the Pennsylvanian, too. I was able to check our large baggage thru to Lamy, after explaining to the station agent the difference between Lamy and Santa Fe for baggage purposes. I also checked one bag to Flagstaff, where we would be stopping later. I learned about doing that from AU. The waiting room TV had Monday Night Football, which was pretty popular with all the men in the place - even the station baggage handlers kept coming out the see how the game was going. We could have gone outside to look around during our 4-hr layover, but we would have had to carry all of our hand luggage with us, so we decided to skip that. I understand the neighborhood around the station is nothing special anyway.
CL arrived right on time at midnight. Station staff had us go out on the platform ahead of the other passengers, along with our hand luggage. The sleeping car attendent had the ramp down for Matthew's chair as soon as he saw us coming down the platform. Normally Matthew would have been asleep by then but the football on TV had kept him awake. I wheeled his stroller up the ramp and elected to back into our H room, our 1st experience with a sleeping compartment. By backing into the room he was automaticalliy positioned with his back to the wall of the compartment and his front facing the compartment door. Otherwise I would have had to turn the stroller around in a very confined space.
Our SCA - Bill - introduced himself and showed us the basics of the room. The beds were already down and we got into them as soon as we could. After I put Matthew in the bottom bunk I turned his stroller 90 degrees and placed it against the side of his bed to prevent him from falling out. I had to call the SCA to help me figure out how to turn off the last of the lights. Then I climbed into the upper bunk without too much difficulty. Missed having a window up there, but then I realized if I moved my head to the other end of the bed I could see out the window next to the toilet across the room, unless it was pitch dark. Matthew went right to sleep. I spent some time trying to figure out the safety straps for the upper bunk. Finally gave up. I'm only 5 feet tall so I didn't feel the upper was cramped even though it is pretty close to the ceiling. Even sleeping on my side with 2 pillows I had enough room. There is a handy netting bin along the wall where you could put things you might need overnight like a cell phone or an inhaler. The 2 carpeted steps that give access to the upper bunk could be used for limited storage, too, especially in the daytime.
We both slept thru Ohio and most of Indiana. Somewhere before South Bend IN, Bill came and asked us about breakfast. Since we didn't have too much time, I kept it simple and ordered French Toast with sausage patties plus OJ for both of us. And a hot tea for me. All during our trip I tried to order link sausage, but they never had it, even though it was on the menu. The sausage patties were good though. Bill brought the food to the compartment quite quickly. I had Matthew dressed and sitting in his stroller, but I was still in my housecoat. Fortunately when eating in your own compartment that works just fine. Since I'm short I was able to sit on the lower bunk and not bump my head on the upper bunk. I put most of our hand luggage on the upper bunk and sat the breakfast tray in front of me on the lower bunk while I fed Matthew. Throughout the trip this often worked better for us than trying to balance two meals on that small pull-out table between the regular seats. After breakfast I got dressed and got the 2 of us washed up and prepared for CHI. The time zone change makes the morning arrival easier going west, in my opinion. We thanked Bill for his help and gave him a good tip, following the guidelines I found on AU.
In CHI Redcaps took our hand luggage from the platform to the station in motorized carts with seating in the front. Since riding in the carts would have meant folding up Matthew's stroller and trying to hold onto him while he climbed on the cart, I chose to push him in the stroller following behind one of the carts. Part of the platform is open to the sky due to construction on Jackson St and we saw it was overcast. We checked in at the Metropolitan Lounge and caught our breath for a while after day checking our hand luggage. I had a nice conversation with a lady from Florida who sat near us in the lounge. Later in the morning we decided to go outside and see if we could find the CVS one of the lounge attendants said was nearby. We found a way to street level that didn't involve any steps and then we found the CVS around the corner. I made some minor purchases and returned to the station. Matthew and I had lunch in a sports bar right off the Great Hall in Union Station. They had a nice small cafeteria service with reasonable prices and lots of old wood and atmosphere.
Back to the lounge and just hung out for a while, again talking with other travelers. Since we didn't eat our on-train meals in the dining car, the layovers were our main opportunity to connect with other travelers. Everyone staffing the lounge in Chicago was very helpful and pleasant to us in both directions. I stocked up on some of the free bagged snacks (pretzels, goldfish, etc.) they put out and these came in handy throughout our trip. If I have one criticism of the CHI Metropolitan Lounge it would be that they need a handicapped "family restroom." I took Matthew into the ladies room with me, but some other travelers might not have appreciated that.
We boarded the SWC right on time, reversing the process we used for detraining from the CL. Our SCA was Angie, who I had read about on the AU discussions. I told her she was famous and she said I was the 2nd person who told her she was mentioned positively on this site. She said she would have to go read what they said about her sometime. Angie showed me how to work the safety straps for my upper. The trick is to put the foot-end hook into the slot in the ceiling before you get into the bunk.
She took our dinner orders right away. I chose the infamous Flatiron beef entree and Matthew had the Cheese Enchilada special. This was our 1st chance to relax and watch the scenery while eating a meal. But I found I really could not look out the windows and eat or feed Matthew at the same time. Maybe if you have the larger windows of the dining car it is easier. I thought the flatiron was good, although I would not call it a steak. Reminded me of short ribs in the taste and texture. What I found interesting was that the mashed opotatoes and side vegetables were outstanding. A little garlic flavor to the mashed made them delicious. Matthew seemed to like his Mexican dish, although it did present some problems of keeping it on the fork when the track was rough. Angie came back several times to see how we were doing. I think we were taking longer with the meal than most people, but that is normal for us. Eventually she was able to bring us some desert - raspberry cheesecake bars that were excellent. That was the only time we managed to order a desert on the train. Most of the time we took too long eating the main meal to get desert before the dining service was over. Not like I need more desert in my diet anyway.
Second night on the train passed much like our 1st. Except now I knew how to attach the safety straps for my bunk. Good thing, too, with that rough track in Kansas. Neither Matthew nor I was disturbed by the train whistles. We hear them often enough at night from our home in PA. I was waking up as we came thru CO. Angie took our breakfast order - French Toast again for Matthew and a cheese omelet for me. Sausage patties again, although I think these may have been turkey instead of pork ones. By now I am getting quite good at using a combination of Amtrak cloth napkins and the extra paper napkins the SCAs usually provide to make sure we eat without getting our meal on our clothes. I checked most of our clothes in our luggage, so we don't have much left that is clean until we get to Lamy.
I have brought a digital camera along but I don't take any photos on our westbound trip. The camera is brand new and I have not had time to go over the instructions. I plan to do that after we get to Santa Fe. So I content myself with looking at the scenery as we come into the mountains. I try to follow along with the route guide so I will have an idea of where to take photos on our trip back. During the day we keep the door to our compartment open. This means we have a view of the luggage rack, the stairs and the doors to the downstairs toilets in addition to the views out the windows. Matthew enjoys watching people come and go as much as watching anything out the windows. I had hoped we might strike up some conversations with fellow passengers this way, but that never happens. I think people are a litle embarassed having a conversation with someone who just saw them go into the toilet. Silly, but true.
Before we left I asked on AU if Amtrak would let me order from the children's menu for Matthew if I felt that was appropriate. I had no trouble ordering children's meals for him throughout our trip. On the run into NM I ordered him the chicken fingers for lunch and I had the Angus burger. Both very good. I tasted his chicken and I would not have minded having that myself.
After lunch we arrived in Lamy, the jumping off point for Santa Fe. I thanked Angie for her help and gave her a nice tip. I think she was very taken with Matthew, as he flirted shamelessly with her all the way from CHI. Amtrak connects to SAF by a shuttle van service. Inconveniently, when you book the trip to SAF using AGR points, as we did, the shuttle part cannot be charged to AGR points. You have to pay cash or credit card to Amtrak at the time you arrive in Lamy. Siince the Amtrak ticketing system can then issue a printed ticket for the shuttle, it seems as if it should be able to book the service for AGR points.
The shuttle takes about 30 minutes to get into SAF, but since the driver drops every passenger off at their hotel, it can take longer with a full van. We arrived at our B & B around 3:30pm Wednesday, 9/16.
We stayed in Santa Fe until Sunday, 9/20, when we rode the SWC in coach to Flagstaff to continue our trip by visitng the Grand Canyon. I will report on that part of the trip in another post.
