Joel N. Weber II
Engineer
Earlier this evening I got home from a trip from Boston to Chicago and back.
I booked the trip as a pair of one way trips so that I wouldn't have to keep track of more tickets that absolutely necessary at any given time.
On Thursday, I had planned to get to South Station between 10:00 AM and 10:30 AM to provide some time in case anything went wrong. Packing ended up taking longer than I had planned for, and I think I finally left home around 10:46 AM or so. At some point I saw an MBTA bus headed towards Davis Square and ran a bit to be at its stop to catch it; at that point I was only a five minute walk from the MBTA Red Line, but my bags were a bit heavier than I was entirely happy carrying. The clock on the LED sign in the front of the bus read about 10:54 when I got off at Davis Square.
I probably got to South Station around 11:15 AM, and headed for the ClubAcela. There were two guys (possibly redcaps) standing in front of the ClubAcela, and the door to the ClubAcela was open; they looked to me like they were trying to keep out the people who didn't belong (though in retrospect, I'm not sure they were), so I explained to them that I was taking the Lake Shore Limited and was a sleeping car passenger, and one of them told me to go right in.
I told the woman at the desk at the top of the stairs that I was taking the Lake Shore Limited in a sleeper and didn't have my tickets printed yet but that I had a reservation printout, and gave her the printout, and very quickly had my tickets. It certainly was a bit quicker than I would have been with the Quik-Trak machines. The ClubAcela certainly is a bit nicer than the main waiting area, and there were relatively few other people there (I saw one single traveler, a group of maybe a half dozen or so people who may have been Amtrak staff or travelers, I wasn't sure; and then there was a large tour group of maybe 40-50 people that came through; I had to wait for half of that group to wander past me when I was ready to leave).
I grabbed a can of orange juice to take with me (it's from concentrate, sadly), and on my way out I finally figured out where the snack food is, pretty much opposite the counter were I got my tickets (and a bit away from the stairs).
Around 11:35 or so I was told which track the train was boarding on. By the time I got there, at least a half dozen people were in line in front of me, on the other hand, there was a large group of people who boarded somewhat after me.
I'd decided to save the $19 and go coach class. When I got to the front of the rear car, I saw it said ``Business Class'' on the side of it, and kept going, but I was a bit confused, and the conductor(?) standing there saw that I was confused, and I asked him where coach was, and he pointed me at the car that was labeled Business Class. It was an Amfleet I (according to the safety card, anyway), but there was plenty of legroom. Everyone in the car had two seats until about Springfield, at which point a very few people had to sit in seats next to other people. I think I ended up sitting about 10-12 rows from the back of the last car of the train.
My ticket was taken after the train departed South Station and before we reached Back Bay.
There's an approximately 90 degree turn right around where the tracks cross under I-93 which is the most tight turn I noticed anywhere on the Boston to Chicago route. It's an excellent photo opportunity if you're sitting on the correct side of the train as I was; unfortunately, I realized this a few seconds too late to take advantage of it.
In Worcester, there's a hand painted Providence and Worcester Railroad label on a bridge under which automobiles pass. I think it's pretty nifty; it suggests to me that there's probably someone at the Providence and Worcester Railroad who really loves what they do.
At some point, probably in western Massachusetts, we had to wait about four minutes for a freight train to pass.
We also had a longer wait for train 448 to pass. The conductor said something about the Post Road, which I gather is the track at the western end of the 448/449 route. I think we pulled onto the mainline past the Post Road, waited for 448 to pass, and then backed up and got onto the Post Road ourselves and continued to Albany, but I may not quite be understanding the geography correctly.
I tried to photograph 448 as it went by. The first several cars went by too fast for me to get all of them. Then 448 came to a complete stop, with their conductor standing even with the back of 449. Someone from 449 carried two bags over to the conductor on 448, the conductors chatted for a bit, and then 448 got going again, and a minute or two later we backed up and continued on our way to Albany.
And that seems like enough writing for now; I'll probably write more later.
I booked the trip as a pair of one way trips so that I wouldn't have to keep track of more tickets that absolutely necessary at any given time.
On Thursday, I had planned to get to South Station between 10:00 AM and 10:30 AM to provide some time in case anything went wrong. Packing ended up taking longer than I had planned for, and I think I finally left home around 10:46 AM or so. At some point I saw an MBTA bus headed towards Davis Square and ran a bit to be at its stop to catch it; at that point I was only a five minute walk from the MBTA Red Line, but my bags were a bit heavier than I was entirely happy carrying. The clock on the LED sign in the front of the bus read about 10:54 when I got off at Davis Square.
I probably got to South Station around 11:15 AM, and headed for the ClubAcela. There were two guys (possibly redcaps) standing in front of the ClubAcela, and the door to the ClubAcela was open; they looked to me like they were trying to keep out the people who didn't belong (though in retrospect, I'm not sure they were), so I explained to them that I was taking the Lake Shore Limited and was a sleeping car passenger, and one of them told me to go right in.
I told the woman at the desk at the top of the stairs that I was taking the Lake Shore Limited in a sleeper and didn't have my tickets printed yet but that I had a reservation printout, and gave her the printout, and very quickly had my tickets. It certainly was a bit quicker than I would have been with the Quik-Trak machines. The ClubAcela certainly is a bit nicer than the main waiting area, and there were relatively few other people there (I saw one single traveler, a group of maybe a half dozen or so people who may have been Amtrak staff or travelers, I wasn't sure; and then there was a large tour group of maybe 40-50 people that came through; I had to wait for half of that group to wander past me when I was ready to leave).
I grabbed a can of orange juice to take with me (it's from concentrate, sadly), and on my way out I finally figured out where the snack food is, pretty much opposite the counter were I got my tickets (and a bit away from the stairs).
Around 11:35 or so I was told which track the train was boarding on. By the time I got there, at least a half dozen people were in line in front of me, on the other hand, there was a large group of people who boarded somewhat after me.
I'd decided to save the $19 and go coach class. When I got to the front of the rear car, I saw it said ``Business Class'' on the side of it, and kept going, but I was a bit confused, and the conductor(?) standing there saw that I was confused, and I asked him where coach was, and he pointed me at the car that was labeled Business Class. It was an Amfleet I (according to the safety card, anyway), but there was plenty of legroom. Everyone in the car had two seats until about Springfield, at which point a very few people had to sit in seats next to other people. I think I ended up sitting about 10-12 rows from the back of the last car of the train.
My ticket was taken after the train departed South Station and before we reached Back Bay.
There's an approximately 90 degree turn right around where the tracks cross under I-93 which is the most tight turn I noticed anywhere on the Boston to Chicago route. It's an excellent photo opportunity if you're sitting on the correct side of the train as I was; unfortunately, I realized this a few seconds too late to take advantage of it.
In Worcester, there's a hand painted Providence and Worcester Railroad label on a bridge under which automobiles pass. I think it's pretty nifty; it suggests to me that there's probably someone at the Providence and Worcester Railroad who really loves what they do.
At some point, probably in western Massachusetts, we had to wait about four minutes for a freight train to pass.
We also had a longer wait for train 448 to pass. The conductor said something about the Post Road, which I gather is the track at the western end of the 448/449 route. I think we pulled onto the mainline past the Post Road, waited for 448 to pass, and then backed up and got onto the Post Road ourselves and continued to Albany, but I may not quite be understanding the geography correctly.
I tried to photograph 448 as it went by. The first several cars went by too fast for me to get all of them. Then 448 came to a complete stop, with their conductor standing even with the back of 449. Someone from 449 carried two bags over to the conductor on 448, the conductors chatted for a bit, and then 448 got going again, and a minute or two later we backed up and continued on our way to Albany.
And that seems like enough writing for now; I'll probably write more later.