Seaboard92
Engineer
Trip planning
So last year when the Reading & Northern announced they were operating an excursion from Reading, PA to Pittston, PA (Scranton) my good friend Malcolm and I decided we wanted to ride that. So we promptly booked tickets on the excursion in the open air car. Not knowing my exact plans around the excursion date we didn’t book a route up and back just yet.
The loose plan was for me to go out of the way and ride the Crescent, City of New Orleans, Wolverine, and Pennsylvanian on this trip. Before we had a chance to book the tickets for the initial tour of the network the Reading & Northern postponed their trip for a later date. So we made plans for the August date and started making arrangements. As you all know even the best plans require modification due to unexpected events in ones life.
So we had to reroute ourselves to a suburb of Indianapolis, IN for one of those unexpected life events. I booked my last segment on the Crescent two weeks out from departure, and 12 hours later the Reading & Northern cancelled the excursion. So I started to make new plans to fly to visit a friend in Boston and ride the Downeaster, and NEC north which is all new milage to me. I didn’t book the flight in time so I ended up keeping my reservation on the crescent.
A few days before departure one of the members from our crew cancelled out on us so we modified our trip to go back home from Indianapolis on the Cardinal East instead of going to New Orleans as the plan initially called for. So after five or six changes to the itinerary it was time to set off.
Day 0: Packing
For a change I had no trouble with packing and had it completed well before midnight because of Covid. Usually I would spend the evening before a trip at my grandmothers house but due to Covid I am trying to avoid going over to avoid potentially transmitting it to her. She hasn’t left her house since February where as I have to go to work, or go out at least every day. So for a change I was done rather early.
Day 1: Retracing Personal History.
At eight in the morning I went to work for a half day which was rather uneventful. After work I went and picked up lunch at the new restaurant in my town which was fairly good. I couldn’t complain about it at all. Before leaving I called Amtrak to pay for my last reservation home from Manassas, VA to Clemson, SC and was given the choice to wait on hold or get a call back. So I chose to get a call back and left my house around two in the afternoon for what is normally a three hour drive to Clemson, SC.
Back between 2014 and 2016 I used to make the drive to Clemson at a minimum of once a month because my girlfriend was a student at Clemson and I chose to retrace my old route. Partly because it is the fastest way to Clemson, partly because it has two unique shortlines, and partly to have dinner with a friend near my first college.
My favorite part of that entire relationship was driving to Clemson and listening to the 60s on 6 the entire way. I even credit that part of the relationship in keeping me in that horrible relationship. So I was ecstatic to get to listen to the radio on my first real road trip since Covid took over.
I turned onto the familiar two lane roads that will lead me to bypass Columbia and all of its traffic. After about ten minutes one of my business partners called me and we talked all the way from the Blythewood area to Newberry where Amtrak finally called me back (about two hours after my initial call). After that I drove up my favorite road in South Carolina US Highway No. 76 which could be called the university highway because it passes fourteen colleges along its route across the state.
I didn’t pass any trains alongside the CSX CN&L sub and none of the signals in Clinton were lined for movement so I chose to wait for my friend Ryan at my old college. Instead of waiting by my old railfaning platform from my freshman year I explored campus. I know that things change over time but I never expected things to change as drastic as they did however.
For starters my old dorm from freshman year has been turned into classrooms, and they added a glass atrium to the building that wasn’t there previously. Secondly the flagship building on campus Neville Hall built in 1907 to a Jeffersonian design has completely changed from my time as a student. For starters the entry hall when was a student had a false ceiling like King Street Station did. before it’s renovation and office space above it. That has now been removed and the atrium has been restored.
Now an addition has been added to the back of the building more than doubling the size of the building. However they tried to preserve the original as much as possible it isn’t the same. After that I walked past the library and the garden where I started the campus wide snowball fight freshmen year. Ryan called just as I was walking down the steepest hill on campus to say he was close so I cut my tour short. I walked by the dining facility which on this campus is one of two places you could eat.
I remembered the midnight service they did for exam week while I was walking by before cutting under the Science Bridge, and the garden mentioned earlier. Noticed the new housing that has grown up around the Spring Center before looping back over to my car. Ryan and I talked for about fifteen minutes at the railfan platform at Clinton Connection before moving on to the Blue Ocean. If you ever find yourself in this area the Blue Ocean is probably the third best restaurant in town and it is really good. Cheap prices, and tons of food.
Eating inside for the first time in months was definitely quite strange. Patronage was strangely very high for a Thursday evening during the pandemic. Despite being located off an interstate most of the clientele appears to be locals. Ryan and I talked about our jobs and his life as a Shortline conductor. After we ate we stood in the parking lot for about an hour continuing our conversation which is a very southern thing to do.
Eventually we both said our goodbyes and I restarted my drive by backtracking back to downtown Clinton and getting on US 76. Ten minutes later I was going thru downtown Lauren’s and admiring the beautiful architecture of the county seat of Lauren’s County. Once past the high school it was back to rural upstate driving. They added a stop sign between my last drive in 2016 and today in the middle of nowhere between Lauren’s and Hickory Tavern. At Hickory Tavern Someone has now added a former Norfolk & Western caboose to their yard.
I continued on via the former Sundown Town of Princeton, Ware Place, and Honea Path before stoping to photograph a RS1 Alco in the weeds. Then I continued up to Belton and Anderson. In Anderson I missed my turn onto the historic main drag when my phone rang and a friend who lives in Seneca told me the nighttime only local was running down to Anderson at that very moment. It seamed like I got caught by every traffic light in Anderson but I managed to make it to the south end of Pendleton to photograph the local.
Ever since my first drive to visit Ainsley in Clemson I have been in love with this line and wanting to photograph it. It has three large bridges, and several steep grades. But I’ve never been able to photograph it as the train runs at night only. But with thirty minutes to go till sunset I managed to make it happen. I caught him on the large bridge over US 76 and Three and Twenty Creek with moments to spare, and again as he was switching out a customer further East.
It was soon getting dark and I found a spot to park on college avenue in Clemson and I went for a walk around Clemson University. Up to Tillman Hall, towards the newer student union area, passed my ex’s old dorm and walked a bit in downtown. It was really unnerving how quiet this usually bustling street in downtown was. Without the students, and with covid it was downright depressing. I heard an NS train go by while I was passing my former haunts.
After a while I went to the train station where I routinely parked my car on my visits to clemson because it was free parking. I went inside the building to use the restroom and talked to the family waiting to board the train. They were traveling in a bedroom to Trenton to visit family. They were impressed when I said why I was traveling. I then got my bags out of my car and went to the platform to wait. No trains came in the hour I was there.
The Crescent pulled in 24 minutes behind schedule and I went to my room took my mask off and relaxed. I made a phone call again to Nigel one of my business partners and we chatted till Charlotte. Seeing that Toccoa was one of my regular fall destinations for work on this route in daylight I could just about pick out every small South Carolina and North Carolina town. I stepped off for the stretch stop in Charlotte to get a photo of the locomotive knowing that I wouldn’t get a chance again. We departed on time and I went to sleep.
So last year when the Reading & Northern announced they were operating an excursion from Reading, PA to Pittston, PA (Scranton) my good friend Malcolm and I decided we wanted to ride that. So we promptly booked tickets on the excursion in the open air car. Not knowing my exact plans around the excursion date we didn’t book a route up and back just yet.
The loose plan was for me to go out of the way and ride the Crescent, City of New Orleans, Wolverine, and Pennsylvanian on this trip. Before we had a chance to book the tickets for the initial tour of the network the Reading & Northern postponed their trip for a later date. So we made plans for the August date and started making arrangements. As you all know even the best plans require modification due to unexpected events in ones life.
So we had to reroute ourselves to a suburb of Indianapolis, IN for one of those unexpected life events. I booked my last segment on the Crescent two weeks out from departure, and 12 hours later the Reading & Northern cancelled the excursion. So I started to make new plans to fly to visit a friend in Boston and ride the Downeaster, and NEC north which is all new milage to me. I didn’t book the flight in time so I ended up keeping my reservation on the crescent.
A few days before departure one of the members from our crew cancelled out on us so we modified our trip to go back home from Indianapolis on the Cardinal East instead of going to New Orleans as the plan initially called for. So after five or six changes to the itinerary it was time to set off.
Day 0: Packing
For a change I had no trouble with packing and had it completed well before midnight because of Covid. Usually I would spend the evening before a trip at my grandmothers house but due to Covid I am trying to avoid going over to avoid potentially transmitting it to her. She hasn’t left her house since February where as I have to go to work, or go out at least every day. So for a change I was done rather early.
Day 1: Retracing Personal History.
At eight in the morning I went to work for a half day which was rather uneventful. After work I went and picked up lunch at the new restaurant in my town which was fairly good. I couldn’t complain about it at all. Before leaving I called Amtrak to pay for my last reservation home from Manassas, VA to Clemson, SC and was given the choice to wait on hold or get a call back. So I chose to get a call back and left my house around two in the afternoon for what is normally a three hour drive to Clemson, SC.
Back between 2014 and 2016 I used to make the drive to Clemson at a minimum of once a month because my girlfriend was a student at Clemson and I chose to retrace my old route. Partly because it is the fastest way to Clemson, partly because it has two unique shortlines, and partly to have dinner with a friend near my first college.
My favorite part of that entire relationship was driving to Clemson and listening to the 60s on 6 the entire way. I even credit that part of the relationship in keeping me in that horrible relationship. So I was ecstatic to get to listen to the radio on my first real road trip since Covid took over.
I turned onto the familiar two lane roads that will lead me to bypass Columbia and all of its traffic. After about ten minutes one of my business partners called me and we talked all the way from the Blythewood area to Newberry where Amtrak finally called me back (about two hours after my initial call). After that I drove up my favorite road in South Carolina US Highway No. 76 which could be called the university highway because it passes fourteen colleges along its route across the state.
I didn’t pass any trains alongside the CSX CN&L sub and none of the signals in Clinton were lined for movement so I chose to wait for my friend Ryan at my old college. Instead of waiting by my old railfaning platform from my freshman year I explored campus. I know that things change over time but I never expected things to change as drastic as they did however.
For starters my old dorm from freshman year has been turned into classrooms, and they added a glass atrium to the building that wasn’t there previously. Secondly the flagship building on campus Neville Hall built in 1907 to a Jeffersonian design has completely changed from my time as a student. For starters the entry hall when was a student had a false ceiling like King Street Station did. before it’s renovation and office space above it. That has now been removed and the atrium has been restored.
Now an addition has been added to the back of the building more than doubling the size of the building. However they tried to preserve the original as much as possible it isn’t the same. After that I walked past the library and the garden where I started the campus wide snowball fight freshmen year. Ryan called just as I was walking down the steepest hill on campus to say he was close so I cut my tour short. I walked by the dining facility which on this campus is one of two places you could eat.
I remembered the midnight service they did for exam week while I was walking by before cutting under the Science Bridge, and the garden mentioned earlier. Noticed the new housing that has grown up around the Spring Center before looping back over to my car. Ryan and I talked for about fifteen minutes at the railfan platform at Clinton Connection before moving on to the Blue Ocean. If you ever find yourself in this area the Blue Ocean is probably the third best restaurant in town and it is really good. Cheap prices, and tons of food.
Eating inside for the first time in months was definitely quite strange. Patronage was strangely very high for a Thursday evening during the pandemic. Despite being located off an interstate most of the clientele appears to be locals. Ryan and I talked about our jobs and his life as a Shortline conductor. After we ate we stood in the parking lot for about an hour continuing our conversation which is a very southern thing to do.
Eventually we both said our goodbyes and I restarted my drive by backtracking back to downtown Clinton and getting on US 76. Ten minutes later I was going thru downtown Lauren’s and admiring the beautiful architecture of the county seat of Lauren’s County. Once past the high school it was back to rural upstate driving. They added a stop sign between my last drive in 2016 and today in the middle of nowhere between Lauren’s and Hickory Tavern. At Hickory Tavern Someone has now added a former Norfolk & Western caboose to their yard.
I continued on via the former Sundown Town of Princeton, Ware Place, and Honea Path before stoping to photograph a RS1 Alco in the weeds. Then I continued up to Belton and Anderson. In Anderson I missed my turn onto the historic main drag when my phone rang and a friend who lives in Seneca told me the nighttime only local was running down to Anderson at that very moment. It seamed like I got caught by every traffic light in Anderson but I managed to make it to the south end of Pendleton to photograph the local.
Ever since my first drive to visit Ainsley in Clemson I have been in love with this line and wanting to photograph it. It has three large bridges, and several steep grades. But I’ve never been able to photograph it as the train runs at night only. But with thirty minutes to go till sunset I managed to make it happen. I caught him on the large bridge over US 76 and Three and Twenty Creek with moments to spare, and again as he was switching out a customer further East.
It was soon getting dark and I found a spot to park on college avenue in Clemson and I went for a walk around Clemson University. Up to Tillman Hall, towards the newer student union area, passed my ex’s old dorm and walked a bit in downtown. It was really unnerving how quiet this usually bustling street in downtown was. Without the students, and with covid it was downright depressing. I heard an NS train go by while I was passing my former haunts.
After a while I went to the train station where I routinely parked my car on my visits to clemson because it was free parking. I went inside the building to use the restroom and talked to the family waiting to board the train. They were traveling in a bedroom to Trenton to visit family. They were impressed when I said why I was traveling. I then got my bags out of my car and went to the platform to wait. No trains came in the hour I was there.
The Crescent pulled in 24 minutes behind schedule and I went to my room took my mask off and relaxed. I made a phone call again to Nigel one of my business partners and we chatted till Charlotte. Seeing that Toccoa was one of my regular fall destinations for work on this route in daylight I could just about pick out every small South Carolina and North Carolina town. I stepped off for the stretch stop in Charlotte to get a photo of the locomotive knowing that I wouldn’t get a chance again. We departed on time and I went to sleep.