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My grandmother's in the hospital, she had to have open heard surgery like "right now" (apparently she was visiting the surgeon hoping to schedule it for sometime in June, and after one look at the test results the doc said "No way, you're going into surgery as soon as I can get you there).

I've got 2 tickets for the tour time tomorrow, so if anyone needs one, PM me your email address and I'll send them. Or, if someone going tomorrow wants to have them to just print and take them for any stragglers, let me know.

Y'all have fun and take lots of pictures!
 
Sorry to hear about your grandmother. My own grandmother was in the hospital as of a few days ago and is currently in rehab. Even though we have our differences I was looking forward to having a beer with you and the rest of the gang. Hopefully your grandmother will get well soon and you'll be there for the next group event.
 
Ryan,

Sorry to hear about your grandmother! :(

As for tickets, I've got 2 extra already and I know at least one other person has at least 2 or 3 extra tickets. So I'd say it's a pretty safe bet that we're covered on tickets. My guess is that I'll be handing out a few extras already to those in the other line without tickets.
 
daxomni said:
Sorry to hear about your grandmother. My own grandmother was in the hospital as of a few days ago and is currently in rehab. Even though we have our differences I was looking forward to having a beer with you and the rest of the gang. Hopefully your grandmother will get well soon and you'll be there for the next group event.
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I know, I was really bummed about that as well.

The surgeon said that everything went really well, and that he thinks that a lot of the nagging issues that she's had lately will be much easier to deal with, they ended up doing a valve replacement and a single bypass.
 
I'm still snuggled in my bed sipping my coffee! :)

Of course I've only got to walk about 5 blocks from my hotel, an HGI, to WUS. :lol:
 
Had a great time meeting you all today!! Special thanks goes to The_traveler and jimhudson for saving my girlfriend and I seats on 146! :hi: We had a good trip back to PHL.

Was it me or was the equipment display lines a little out of shape?? :eek:hboy: Last year at PHL they had two lines IIRC. :) Anyway it was good to see the 40th anniversary train and the repainted P40 and F40. Once again good to meet everyone! Sorry I couldn't make it to lunch but my budget has been super tight this year. :eek: :help: Actually I was lucky enough to be able to join the AU gang this year for NTD. :eek:

Steve
 
Equipment display lines were terrible and the folks with no reservations got through quicker than those with reservations. It was very irritating because I had limited time and didn't even get through half of the display before we had to catch our train back home. I enjoyed what I got to see and was surprised at just how many people were there.

Trips up and back were nice. All attendants, on board and in stations, were very friendly and nice. I even spotted Rafi on the trip back home as he was getting off (he still had his name tag on)
 
I agree the display lines were a disaster. The timed tickets were a waste of time. My 'time' was 11:30 and I wasn't the only one told to go to the back of the line. I estimated close to 500 already waiting in a line that wormed back into the concourse and around the retail area. People were cutting in the line. Fortunately the equipment display will be at Lorton next weekend so I'll get another chance. Other than the lines I had a good time.
 
Acela150 said:
Sorry I couldn't make it to lunch but my budget has been super tight this year.
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Steve,

No worries, we ended up with a very hurried lunch and some confusion on the checks. So you may have made the right choice anyhow.

By the way, sorry that I didn't text you, but things got so confusing and we were very late. By the time I got my mom & I back to the station to pickup our luggage we'd left in the CA that morning, they were already boarding our train. So we basically just ran right through the CA, grabbed our bags, and headed for the train.
 
Alan: Bravo on a great job. Though the lines were long the wait seemed short with pleasant conversation with kindred spirits. Lunch was fun. My rides up and back were unevenful but fun. I enjoyed meeting everyone, always nice to put a face with a name.
 
Big Iron said:
Alan: Bravo on a great job. Though the lines were long the wait seemed short with pleasant conversation with kindred spirits. Lunch was fun. My rides up and back were unevenful but fun. I enjoyed meeting everyone, always nice to put a face with a name.
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Thanks! :)

Glad you enjoyed things, even if they did get a bit crazy thanks to the huge delays and crowds. I hope that things worked out with the other two checks, I only had time to worry about the one at my end of the table, before rushing back to catch my train. And as I noted above, we were cutting things close. We were probably only onboard about 7 or 8 minutes before they closed up and left.

Thankfully Piotr & Jishnu who got out there a few minutes before us held some seats for us, as FC was basically sold out. There were only about 4 seats left when we pulled out of DC, Anthony in fact managed to get one of the last ones available all the way to NY.

With out group all split up thanks to the crowds & people cutting lines, it made things interesting. Had that not happened I would have pointed out something very important along the way. But still I hope that everyone realized that they walked by the founder/creater of our Forum, Anthony, as they walked through one of the cars in the 40th Aniversary train. Anthony was one of the volunteers working NTD today, giving up his time to help make things work for the thousands in the station today!
 
AlanB said:
Acela150 said:
Sorry I couldn't make it to lunch but my budget has been super tight this year.
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Steve,

No worries, we ended up with a very hurried lunch and some confusion on the checks. So you may have made the right choice anyhow.

By the way, sorry that I didn't text you, but things got so confusing and we were very late. By the time I got my mom & I back to the station to pickup our luggage we'd left in the CA that morning, they were already boarding our train. So we basically just ran right through the CA, grabbed our bags, and headed for the train.
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No surprise that it was a hurried lunch and confusion on checks with a decent size group.

Not a big deal that you didn't send me a text. It's understandable you'd want to get on you're train home. But you guys must have been running pretty late to be picking up bags and going. They started the general boarding about 20 minutes before hand. Don't know about CA. But I had a great time! Good seeing you again! Job well done with the AU gang! :hi:
 
To all AU'ers who I had to opportunity to meet. Thanks for a great day. It was a little crazy with the lines and lack of co-ordination but, the awesome AU'ers more than made up for a little logistical challange.

Lunch was good, the company was great.
 
Thanks to Alan for his organizing our meeting and to Anthony for his participation.

Even though the lines were long, the people were courteous and I was happy to be

able to visit as we progressed to the exhibit. I was glad to meet some new AU'ers

and to greet several who I had met in St. Louis.

 

Happy Mother's Day to all of our Mother's, and Mother Grace in particular!!
 
I am in WAS union Station right now (10am 5/8). Where is everyone?? Did I make a wrong turn somewhere or look at the wrong calendar? :lol:

The Silver Meteor arrived in WAS over a half hour early. I was able to eat breakfast - barely. I hung out with the_traveler and jimhudson for a while and saw them off on their points runs on the NE regional. I am waiting to board my first Acela trip. :)

I am sorry I missed the fun on Saturday and will plan better for next year.

Happy Mothers day to all who celebrate it.
 
Oh what a wonderful day we had, in spite of the entry line confusions!

Here is a dump of all the pictures I took amid the confusion.

You can see a wonderful view of an over-enthusiastic (as usual) Piotr's elbow in the first photo of our Acela 2203 arriving at Metropark. :)

The ride back from Washington to NJ on the Acela was one of the absolute best I have had in a long time, with friends, good food, drinks, chats and an overall wonderful time. It was contagious as some of our fellow riders and the train crew became temporary members of the group for a while!

Kudos to Alan for doing his best to keep the group together. I think all had a good time in spite of the few frustrations in the entry queue.
 
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I had a great time at my first AU gathering! :cool: :cool: :cool: I really enjoyed meeting so many AU crazies. :eek: What a fun bunch of rail nuts! :D :D :D

I wish I was better at keeping people's given names AND AU user names straight - My apologies and thanks to those of you who so graciously humored me.

ALAN: THANK YOU for all your work in organizing the DC 'mini-gathering.' It was a pleasure to meet you. Things were rather hectic, with the crowds and lines, but I think you did a great job of guiding us through the din! BTW, the other two checks for lunch were settled with no problems, and IMHO, it was much more important that you made your train. Thanks again! :hi: :hi: :hi:

My only disappointment was that, due to clearance issues, Dave's PV was not part of NTD-WUS. :angry: :blink: :giggle:
 
I'm posting from the Met Lounge in CHI. Although 29 departed nearly an hour late, we arrived a few minutes early, a first for me and #29!

Yesterday at WUS was a treat; seeing old friends, and making a few new ones :)The trains were great, too. I concur with the opinion about the lines.

And my thanks to AlanB for organizing another AU mini-gathering. Maybe we should call it a full Gathering, as we made for quite a crowd. And thanks to Anthony and Rafi for volunteering at NTD.

Mike
 
Big Iron said:
Alan: Bravo on a great job. Though the lines were long the wait seemed short with pleasant conversation with kindred spirits. Lunch was fun. My rides up and back were unevenful but fun. I enjoyed meeting everyone, always nice to put a face with a name.
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Indeed. Sorry I couldn't make lunch with you guys....though that did give me a chance to see some more private varnish, including the Cannon Ball and an observation car.
 
The Davy Crockett said:
BTW, the other two checks for lunch were settled with no problems, and IMHO, it was much more important that you made your train.
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Thanks, I'm glad to hear that it worked out. When the reservation was made we had requested separate checks. But in the rush & confusion, coupled with my staying behind initially to try to rope in the stragglers, I got there too late to remind the restaurant of that.

I had a bad experience with something like that about 5 or 6 years ago in Canada with a non-railfan group. I didn't organize the event that time, but the restaurant delivered on nothing that we were promised originally. And when the checks came, they gave us two checks for the food and one huge check for all the drinks. When the dust settled, the fellow who had made the reservation and I ended up kicking in about $50 CDN each above and beyond our actual bills, so as to settle the tab and leave a tip.

So I was worried that things might have gone awry yesterday, but I just couldn't stay to be certain.
 
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