Lake Shore Limited, BOS->CHI and back

[Joel N. Weber II]

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.

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

The disappointments I remember from the trip on 449 were some distortion in what I saw through the window if I tried to look as close to directly forward as possible, and the trash receptacle in the restroom was almost full near the end of the trip, in spite of the car being barely more than half full.

There was about an hour and a half from when 449 arrived at ALB to when 49 departed, right about on schedule.

ALB has a ``main track'' and two numbered tracks with platforms; this strikes me as an odd choice of nomenclature. The main track is the only one that connects with the tracks that head towards Boston. And I found myself wondering if the number of trains at ALB actually requires three platforms.

The high level portions of the platforms are not as long as train 49, so the coach passengers boarded from the high level platform, and the sleeper passengers boarded from the low level section. Tickets were taken on the platform next to the diner or lounge car.

I spent a while getting settled in my roomette, and then went back to the dining car for dinner.

Much to my surprise, I ended up seated at a table by myself. There were two tables in the front half of the car that had seating only on one side, one of which I was seated at, and there was enough space in the dining car relative to the number of people eating that I didn't have anyone sitting next to me. I think I saw one table that consisted of two separate parties, but the rest of the tables had one party each.

I was not terribly impressed by the beef short rib. (No steak on the menu.) The cake was good, though.

After dinner, I went back to my roomette and read for a little while, and the sleeping car attendant came by and I watched him convert the room from seating to bed format: the chairs move down and towards the center of the room, and then a thin matress with sheets and blankets is taken from the upper bunk and placed on the seats. (Though the upper portion of the backs of the seats remain solidly attached to the walls the whole time.)

I slept well for many hours.

At breakfast, I ended up sitting across from a coach passenger who complained to the server that the food wasn't as good as she'd hoped for, and the server explained that this was ``Diner-Lite''. The southern omelet I ate was OK. I've seen a side of bacon offered on some sample menus, but that wasn't available for breakfast here.

Detraining was pretty uneventful; I think the clocks in the station read about 10:17 or 10:18 when I first saw them.

 

[AlanB]

ALB has a ``main track'' and two numbered tracks with platforms; this strikes me as an odd choice of nomenclature. The main track is the only one that connects with the tracks that head towards Boston. And I found myself wondering if the number of trains at ALB actually requires three platforms.

That oddity is because the station is not completed yet. The platform served by the "Main" track is supposed to have another track on the other side closer to the station. It was intended to be a 4 track station, but the funding ran out before things were completed. I recall seeing a story not to long ago, maybe within the past 4 or 5 months, that stated that NY State and Amtrak had finally found the money to complete that fourth track.

And yes, there are many times that a train can be held outside the station awaiting a platform because there aren't enough to go around. That was part of the reason for the new station, to increase from 3 tracks to 4 tracks. When the Lake Shore is in town, it takes up two tracks on its own. Get one northbound Empire Corridor train and one southbound also wanting the station at the same time, and you've got a problem. And thanks to frequent delays, this happens often. If the trains were always on schedule, it would be less of an issue. Sadly as we all know, they aren't always on time.

The high level portions of the platforms are not as long as train 49, so the coach passengers boarded from the high level platform, and the sleeper passengers boarded from the low level section. Tickets were taken on the platform next to the diner or lounge car.

Now that's an oddity that I haven't seen, boarding half the train from the high level and half from the low level. I'm also not sure that I've ever seen them lift tickets on the platform either. Guess they were early into ALB.

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

I did notice that the platform for the main track had the yellow strip on both sides as one would expect for a platform with track on both sides.

And that would explain why the main track is the only one with a connection towards Boston; it struck me as unexpected that only a single platform track would have access to the track to Boston, but the unconstructed fourth track is the obvious other track that should have a connection to Boston. (The interesting question is whether the fourth track, when constructed, will be able to get out onto the tracks heading towards Manhattan, or if that fourth track will be dedicated to the Boston stub train.)

9 days ago, I didn't see more than one LSL train at the station at a time. I don't know about the timing of 48 relative to 448 that day, but I know 448 got out of the station before 449 got into the station, and 449 had pulled through to the yard long before 49 showed up. But I can see where random arrival times could cause congestion.

A good chunk of the need for tracks at the station seems to be for the benefit of Massachusetts passengers traveling to and from points to the west, most of whom probably aren't stopping in New York State, which sort of leaves me confused about why New York State would be responsible for paying for it. (That is, if 448/449 went away completely, I suspect the desired number of tracks might go down by about one.)

 

[AlanB]

And that would explain why the main track is the only one with a connection towards Boston; it struck me as unexpected that only a single platform track would have access to the track to Boston, but the unconstructed fourth track is the obvious other track that should have a connection to Boston. (The interesting question is whether the fourth track, when constructed, will be able to get out onto the tracks heading towards Manhattan, or if that fourth track will be dedicated to the Boston stub train.)

I'm not positive, but I believe that the intent was to connect it to the southbound mains to NYP.

9 days ago, I didn't see more than one LSL train at the station at a time. I don't know about the timing of 48 relative to 448 that day, but I know 448 got out of the station before 449 got into the station, and 449 had pulled through to the yard long before 49 showed up. But I can see where random arrival times could cause congestion.

I can't say that it happens all the time, but I have been at ALB and watched them hold trains out of the station for a lack of a platform.

A good chunk of the need for tracks at the station seems to be for the benefit of Massachusetts passengers traveling to and from points to the west, most of whom probably aren't stopping in New York State, which sort of leaves me confused about why New York State would be responsible for paying for it. (That is, if 448/449 went away completely, I suspect the desired number of tracks might go down by about one.)

Well NY State still has hopes not only of faster service, but also increased service between NYP and ALB. And if they ever get the single track between ALB and Schnectady doubled, that will also potentially put more trains into the station. Especially if a commuter service ever gets started up between Saratoga and ALB.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

Is that commuter service a serious concept?

I'd imagine that there is plenty of room for more trains, especially an overnight train to Toronto.

 

[AlanB]

Is that commuter service a serious concept?

Not serious enough to get beyond the paper planning dream stage, at least so far.

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

Something I noticed in upstate New York, especially on the way to Chicago, were a couple of places where there appeared to be dams, and right above the dams were bridges of a particular design that was used in many places along the river. In at least one case, it looked like the bridge was abandoned and not used as a way to cross the river anymore, and I don't remember now if these were automobile bridges or railroad bridges (or perhaps they were automobile bridges of a rather old design that I tend to associate with railroad bridges).

The passenger I had breakfast with mentoned having gotten on at Croton-Harmon, and it occured to me long after breakfast was over that asking whether she'd taken a train to get to Croton-Harmon would have been interesting. It probably didn't help that I was a bit distracted during breakfast with phone calls to my parents to let them know where I was so that they could get to Chicago Union Station at a reasonable time.

I gather that both coach and sleeping car passengers can get free refills on juice in the dining car, but it seems that you have to ask for the refills.

I never did figure out where one can see Lake Erie from the train, even though the timetable advertises it as a scenic highlight of the route.

 

[AlanB]

Something I noticed in upstate New York, especially on the way to Chicago, were a couple of places where there appeared to be dams, and right above the dams were bridges of a particular design that was used in many places along the river. In at least one case, it looked like the bridge was abandoned and not used as a way to cross the river anymore, and I don't remember now if these were automobile bridges or railroad bridges (or perhaps they were automobile bridges of a rather old design that I tend to associate with railroad bridges).

On the way to Chicago? Or on the way home from Chicago? Because frankly it sounds like you're describing the locks along the Erie Canal. But those would largely have been in the dark on the way to Chicago, but are highly visible on the way back from Chicago.

I never did figure out where one can see Lake Erie from the train, even though the timetable advertises it as a scenic highlight of the route.

Lake Erie can be seen several times on and off coming east bound, but not so much westbound, unless you get up very early. But pretty much from Cleveland to Buffalo, if you're paying attention there will be glimpses of Erie out the window from time to time.

 

[p&sr]

I never did figure out where one can see Lake Erie from the train, even though the timetable advertises it as a scenic highlight of the route.

In the Industrial Areas around Cleveland the train crosses some Shipping Canals (Rivers and Harbours). A quick glance down the Canal shows the Lake, for just as long as it takes to cross the Bridge. Not particularly a scenic highlight, though.

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

Something I noticed in upstate New York, especially on the way to Chicago, were a couple of places where there appeared to be dams, and right above the dams were bridges of a particular design that was used in many places along the river. In at least one case, it looked like the bridge was abandoned and not used as a way to cross the river anymore, and I don't remember now if these were automobile bridges or railroad bridges (or perhaps they were automobile bridges of a rather old design that I tend to associate with railroad bridges).

On the way to Chicago? Or on the way home from Chicago? Because frankly it sounds like you're describing the locks along the Erie Canal. But those would largely have been in the dark on the way to Chicago, but are highly visible on the way back from Chicago.

I'm pretty sure this was in the first hour or two after we departed ALB going west. I think I neglected to take photographs at that point, though, on the theory that I should just go enjoy dinner in the diner-lite (only I hadn't realized at that point I was going to be getting diner-lite). The lesson learned here, I think, is that interesting scenery quickly vanishes, and at that point I don't think I was in any danger of the dining car closing.

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

In Chicago, I ended up waiting about 40-45 minutes for my parents to pick me up. That didn't really seem like enough time for leaving a bag in the Metropolitan Lounge (especially when I think they were initially estimating they might even make better time than that), so I didn't. About the only thing I really noticed walking through the station that day was that they had luggage carousels that look a lot like the ones in an airport, and I didn't take a train because I was wanting to feel like I was in an airport. I didn't ever see any luggage on those carousels, though, so I don't know if they're used.

I did walk along Jackson over to the L tracks, along whichever street the L runs above, and back to the station along Adams to kill a bit of time. It isn't entirely clear to me why I was willing to do this with the same bags that had been heavy enough that I'd wanted to use a bus the previous day to avoid carrying them an extra five minutes, but there were now two fewer sandwiches and no bottle of not-from-concentrate orange juice, which might have made a bit of a difference.

Seeing the L tracks made me appreciate why Boston got rid of almost all of its elevated tracks long ago; elevated tracks above city streets for most of the width of those streets really are ugly. (We still have some short bits of elevated track near the Charles River to help the Green Line trains end up on the Lechmere Viaduct and the Red Line trains end up on the Longfellow Bridge, but that's it; there was some more elevated track between Science Park and North Station on the Green Line that was removed while I've lived in the Boston area.)

We had a three hour automobile trip to Madison, WI. We did stop somewhere in the middle of the trip, which provided one opportunity to stand for a few minutes, but I missed being able to stand whenever I felt like it like I could on the train, and the legroom in my parent's minivan makes an Amfleet I look luxurious.

The size of the highways going through Chicago also struck me as completely insane.

I spent National Train day in Madison, which ironically meant that it was one of the few days this year on which I actually traveled, say, at least a mile without involving any trains. I think some of my relatives were a little confused that I actually walked the mile or so from the hotel to my grandmother's home. (I wanted the excercise, and my parents had left the hotel earlier that morning, so they would have had to drive back to get me if I hadn't walked. The weather was pretty reasonable. Why in the world wouldn't I walk in those circumstances?)

Some of my relatives who live in Madison had fond memories of Amtrak trips from there to Connecticut and I think Colorado in the 80s in coach. Another of my relatives remembered a trip he'd taken on a bus once that made lots of stops in lots of cities, and I don't think I really managed to explain to him why when trains stop at lots of intermediate cities and towns, that's not such a bad thing.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

People who have never ridden trains, or lived in places where cars are not the dominant form of transportation, will never be able to understand why you or I would walk when reasonable, and take public transportation if its available and walking is not reasonable.

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

I think the other problem with automobiles is that you don't (when traveling alone, anyway) have the option of walking for one leg of a trip and then continuing the rest of the trip by automobile, because first you'd have to retrace your steps to get back to where you left the automobile. Whereas when I want to go wandering around Boston, it is often quite convenient to get off the subway at one station, and board at a completely different station (often one I hadn't even been planning on using that day until I got tired of wandering around and decided to go to the nearest subway station).

Incidentally, this is where knowing the subway system is helpful. I would have been pretty happy to take the L from Roosevelt where I'd been watching the activity in the train yard to the stop closest to Union Station (in the part of my trip that I haven't chronologically gotten to writing about yet), but I had no confidence that I'd be able to figure out correctly which stop I needed to get off at if I just walked into the station on Roosevelt, so I ended up simply walking the whole way back to Union Station.

The other benefit of walking is that things go by slowly enough that you can actually take in all the details of what you're going past.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

I had a mug with a map of the NYC Subway on it, and after enough drinking from it, I kinda got the map stuck solidly in my head.

 

[Radparker]

In Chicago, I ended up waiting about 40-45 minutes for my parents to pick me up. That didn't really seem like enough time for leaving a bag in the Metropolitan Lounge (especially when I think they were initially estimating they might even make better time than that), so I didn't. About the only thing I really noticed walking through the station that day was that they had luggage carousels that look a lot like the ones in an airport, and I didn't take a train because I was wanting to feel like I was in an airport. I didn't ever see any luggage on those carousels, though, so I don't know if they're used.

Those are indeed used. We checked luggage at NYP and picked it up there at Chicago. Just like at an airport.

BTW I saw those bridges in upstate NY, too. They're very narrow, only one lane, and there definitely were a few that were bridges to nowhere; had no visible approach ramp.

 

[TVRM610]

I had a mug with a map of the NYC Subway on it, and after enough drinking from it, I kinda got the map stuck solidly in my head.

Great Plan!! I need to do that as well!

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

There was at least one (but quite possibly only one that I noticed) occasion when I was on each of trains 49 and 48 when we pulled into a siding, HEP dropped out briefly and came back many seconds later, we sat for a while, HEP dropped out for a similar length of time, and then we got going a bit later.

I think the first time I remember it happening, during breakfast in the pretend dining car, some of the other passengers were thinking that this implied a mechanical problem.

I think it was sometime while I was in the hotel in Madion that it occured to me that this is probably the natural result of switching from 3600 RPM to 1800 RPM and then back (since on a Genesis locomotive, those are the two speeds at which 60 hz power is available).

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

Going back to the more or less chronological narrative:

On Sunday May 11, my parents dropped me off at Chicago Union Station somewhere around 3:30 PM or something. (The clock in their minivan was on Eastern time, and I'm not at all sure if the 3:30 ish that's stuck in my mind is Eastern or Central.) I spent a bit of time wandering around the train station, not sure where the Metropolitan Lounge was. Eventually I found Amtrak ticketing, and near there was an information desk where I asked where the Metropolitan Lounge is; the woman at the desk asked me if I was a sleeping car passenger, and when I said I was, she pointed me in the right direction (and at that point I was probably within 100 feet of the entrance to the lounge).

I was surprised there wasn't more signage in the train station that would have helped with this.

At the lounge, I got my tickets printed, got the card for reentering the lounge, and also asked for and got a current system timetable (the newest timetable I'd had was the second newest one Amtrak had printed, and I decided I should give that second-newest timetable to my father, who seemed to need an Amtrak timetable) and left one of my bags in the baggage room and got the claim check. I sat down and put all these things in my backpack, and then spent probably two minutes failing to find the claim check that I was sure I had just put in my backpack and eventually finding it, and decided to move it to my wallet along with the lounge reentry card.

The lounge was pretty empty when I first got there. Like, 80% to 90% of the couches were unoccupied.

I spent several minutes sitting in the lounge, and then I wandered over to Roosevelt to see the trains in the yard, though I think I may have wandered through the station a bit more first.

I know at one point I wandered into the Great Hall. The room with the automatic sliding doors that seemed to have photographs (maybe of the station's history) appeared to be locked (the doors didn't open when I walked in front of them). I noticed that half of the Great Hall has benches and half doesn't, and it generally seemed pretty empty on a Sunday afternoon; I have no idea whether its size is a good match for the amount of waiting space commuters need on weekdays.

I wandered up the stairs from the Great Hall to Jackson and noticed that the portion of width of each step that I happened to be walking on was well worn and noticably lower than much of the rest of the width of the step.

When I got to Roosevelt, I did not take as many pictures as I might have liked, because my camera batteries were lower than I'd expected them to be due to me failing to account for the battery use of looking at pictures on the camera's LCD before arriving in Chicago, and I didn't feel like dealing with changing the batteries on a public street in a relatively unfamiliar city.

I might have taken the L back towards Union Station had I been more familiar with how that system works, but I ended up walking back. On my way back, I noted that the Sears Tower was closed due to high wind. I went back to the Metropolitan Lounge for a little while, and the person at the desk asked to see my card even though she said she recognized me from earlier that day, and I think at that point I changed the camera batteries; the lounge was much more crowded at this point.

Then I wandered over to Giordano's; I think I got there around 6:20, and placed an order for whatever small pizza had the longest cooking time. The pizza is good, but I only managed to eat about a third of it. I think I got back to the Metropolitan Lounge around 7:40 or 7:50, where two people were standing outside the lounge, and the guy standing there said something trying to steer me away from the lounge (I guess presuming that I wasn't a sleeping car passenger), at which point the woman standing next to her said she remembered me from earlier that day, and I went in and showed my card at the desk. I think as I entered they asked me if I wanted my other bag, and I collected it at that point.

After a little bit of waiting, they announced that one person from each party taking (possibly a sleeper on) the Lake Shore Limited should come up to the front desk to have their tickets taken. And I think they actually did take the tickets in the lounge, though my memory is a bit fuzzy. I've seen mention of a back door to the lounge somewhere on Amtrak Unlimited, but we left the lounge to get to the train through the same doors I'd entered the lounge. A few passengers and their luggage got a ride on something that resembled a golf cart train, and the rest of us walked together with a couple Amtrak employees, who didn't quite seem to be clear on whether the train crew was ready for us, which caused a very slight delay.

Once we walked past the coach class cars, the first car we came to had a label saying "Diner" or "Dinette" or something similar, and then the car after it was labeled "Cafe" or something similar. So I assumed that the lounge car was in front of the pretend dining car. And then the sleepers were in front of that. But in fact, it turned out that the pretend dining car was in front of the lounge. Which leaves me wondering if there is actually any difference at all between a pretend dining car and a regular lounge. Or maybe they upgraded more lounges to pretend dining cars than they needed so that they can also use a pretend dining car as a lounge?

Shortly after I got to my roomette, I wandered to the pretend dining car for the wine and cheese tasting, which I will write about in more detail later.