dan72
Lead Service Attendant
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2006
- Messages
- 418
Sorry this trip report is so late. Between chasing SP 4449, seeing the Christmas Carol Train right after I got back, and attending the NRHS convention here in Duluth, time has slipped away from me in a big way. I hope to have all of them posted by the end of the week.
St. Paul - Chicago - Boston
My departure for this trip fell on July 4th this time around. I given the Empire Builder’s early departure time from MSP, I headed down the night before and stayed at the Country Inn in Roseville-about 10 minutes from Midway Station. I headed for the station at about 6:45 AM and arrived at about 6:55 – plenty of time to get my suitcase checked. Before I went to bed, the EB was running on time, so I was a little surprised not to see it at the station. When I checked my bag, I asked the agent what the train status was. He said it would be arrive in about 20 minutes and should be departing on time. It arrived about 7:15 and after about 10 minutes, they started the boarding process – which was boarding folks from Red Wing to points east. During this time, the St. Paul coach was attached my Minnesota Commercial and was ready for boarding by the time Chicago passengers were called.
I was a bit surprised when I got to the coach that the attendant was assigning seats. I’d never had that happen before, but I scored a window seat and got settled in quickly once aboard. I personally like sitting on the left going to CHI as you get great views of the Mississippi. But, it was also my 5th trip down, so a change of perspective was also in order. I sat with a nice lady in her 50’s who was traveling to Michigan to visit family. The car was about 85% full. I had taken my family to Milwaukee about three weeks earlier and ended up recognizing many of the crew members from that trip. At least they didn’t recognize me yet!
After the dining car opened for lunch, they made several announcements that there was immediate seating available, so I headed up to the car after Tomah and feasted on the Angus Burger. Again, the car wasn't very busy, and I eventually had two seatmates. Along the way, the crew had to be careful where to spot the train with 4th of July parades going on – one of the parades was cut off as we made a brief stop. I listened to quite a bit of chatter on my scanner as they conductor and engineer were making plans as to what was the safest and quickest ways to make the stops without too much interruption. They did announce possible delays, but we still ended up in Chicago about 20 minutes early,
CUS was quite busy and after dropping off my luggage in the Metropolitan lounge, I headed up the Food Court and had a Chicken Philly Sandwich from Gold Coast Dogs. After eating upstairs, I headed back down to the lounge to relax, catch up on email and transfer pictures from my camera to my laptop.
Boarding for the LSL was supposed to take place at 8:00, but we were not called to board until close to 8:30. Because of this, sleeping car passengers had about a 5 minute head start out to the platform. There was a lot of confusion as to which car the New York folks and the Boston folks head to. I finally spotted my Viewliner at the front and headed up to meet Mark, my attendant. I was assigned to rommette #2 and my Viewliner was the Scenic View. Our consist was the following:
2 P-42’s- back to back
baggage car
Viewliner
2 Amfleet II coaches
Horizon Dinette
3 Amfleet II coaches
Amfleet Diner-Lite
2 Viewliners
baggage car
I unloaded my stuff and made the trek back to the Diner-Lite car for the reception. By that time, the coaches were boarding as well. I finally made my way back and ended sitting with two college students who were heading back to Vermont to see family and a woman from Seattle joined us. The college boys had never traveled by train, let alone by sleeper. They were excited with the adventure ahead of them. At 9:00, pulled out of CUS and got to see several street fireworks on our way out of town. At 10:30, the diner-lite staff started shutting down the lights – a big hint to head back to our sleepers. When I got back, Mark had made up my bed and I got settled in for the night.
Woke up the next morning to sunny skies at about 6:30 a.m. and decided to head to the shower. It took awhile for the hot water to kick in. After getting dressed, I decided to head to break and made the 6-car trek to the diner-lite where I sat with two gentlemen from Great Britain and had the three egg omelet for breakfast. The eggs were a little soggy, but overall, it was fine.
We were consistently ahead of our schedule and we were allowed to alight at a few stops including Rochester, and Syracuse for about five minutes or so. I ended up having lunch with the two college students I met last night and the gentlemen across the hall from my roomette. We arrived into Albany ahead of schedule and after waiting for about ten minutes while they split our train up, we pulled into the station and had about 45 minutes before needed to be back on board. I took advantage of the time and explored the station and got some shots of our P42’s being refueled. We departed on time, but were under slow orders for about the first 45 minutes as the engineer kept getting a restricted signal. We finally were able to get to track speed after that period and it was smooth sailing. When I took this trip two years ago, we were running about two hours late which put this let of the trip in the dark. This time, we had daylight and I realized that I had missed out on a lot of beautiful scenery back in 2007. I’m glad I had another chance to see it.
Shortly after we left Albany, Mark, our sleeping car attendant came around and started taking orders for dinner. He started at the roomette end of the car, so by the time he got to my end, it was down to only one choice which was the beef tips, which was fine for me. He came around with drinks, placed a napkin on our fold out table and then delivered the meals to our room. It was quite good and was a nice experience eating in my room. About half an hour later, he came around and collected our plates. He also did some light cleaning as he was leaving from Boston the next day to do another run to Chicago and wanted to get a jump start before tomorrow. We pulled into Boston about 45 minutes early which was a nice change from last time which was well over two hours late.
The through sleeper was very nice and I was glad they reinstated service. Going from a sleeper to an Amfleet I coach was not the greatest transition the last time around. I also like how they handled the cold food service. While a hot dinner in a dining car would have been ideal, I really can’t complain. Overall, a great trip!
Part II - The Downeaster will be along shortly...
St. Paul - Chicago - Boston
My departure for this trip fell on July 4th this time around. I given the Empire Builder’s early departure time from MSP, I headed down the night before and stayed at the Country Inn in Roseville-about 10 minutes from Midway Station. I headed for the station at about 6:45 AM and arrived at about 6:55 – plenty of time to get my suitcase checked. Before I went to bed, the EB was running on time, so I was a little surprised not to see it at the station. When I checked my bag, I asked the agent what the train status was. He said it would be arrive in about 20 minutes and should be departing on time. It arrived about 7:15 and after about 10 minutes, they started the boarding process – which was boarding folks from Red Wing to points east. During this time, the St. Paul coach was attached my Minnesota Commercial and was ready for boarding by the time Chicago passengers were called.
I was a bit surprised when I got to the coach that the attendant was assigning seats. I’d never had that happen before, but I scored a window seat and got settled in quickly once aboard. I personally like sitting on the left going to CHI as you get great views of the Mississippi. But, it was also my 5th trip down, so a change of perspective was also in order. I sat with a nice lady in her 50’s who was traveling to Michigan to visit family. The car was about 85% full. I had taken my family to Milwaukee about three weeks earlier and ended up recognizing many of the crew members from that trip. At least they didn’t recognize me yet!
After the dining car opened for lunch, they made several announcements that there was immediate seating available, so I headed up to the car after Tomah and feasted on the Angus Burger. Again, the car wasn't very busy, and I eventually had two seatmates. Along the way, the crew had to be careful where to spot the train with 4th of July parades going on – one of the parades was cut off as we made a brief stop. I listened to quite a bit of chatter on my scanner as they conductor and engineer were making plans as to what was the safest and quickest ways to make the stops without too much interruption. They did announce possible delays, but we still ended up in Chicago about 20 minutes early,
CUS was quite busy and after dropping off my luggage in the Metropolitan lounge, I headed up the Food Court and had a Chicken Philly Sandwich from Gold Coast Dogs. After eating upstairs, I headed back down to the lounge to relax, catch up on email and transfer pictures from my camera to my laptop.
Boarding for the LSL was supposed to take place at 8:00, but we were not called to board until close to 8:30. Because of this, sleeping car passengers had about a 5 minute head start out to the platform. There was a lot of confusion as to which car the New York folks and the Boston folks head to. I finally spotted my Viewliner at the front and headed up to meet Mark, my attendant. I was assigned to rommette #2 and my Viewliner was the Scenic View. Our consist was the following:
2 P-42’s- back to back
baggage car
Viewliner
2 Amfleet II coaches
Horizon Dinette
3 Amfleet II coaches
Amfleet Diner-Lite
2 Viewliners
baggage car
I unloaded my stuff and made the trek back to the Diner-Lite car for the reception. By that time, the coaches were boarding as well. I finally made my way back and ended sitting with two college students who were heading back to Vermont to see family and a woman from Seattle joined us. The college boys had never traveled by train, let alone by sleeper. They were excited with the adventure ahead of them. At 9:00, pulled out of CUS and got to see several street fireworks on our way out of town. At 10:30, the diner-lite staff started shutting down the lights – a big hint to head back to our sleepers. When I got back, Mark had made up my bed and I got settled in for the night.
Woke up the next morning to sunny skies at about 6:30 a.m. and decided to head to the shower. It took awhile for the hot water to kick in. After getting dressed, I decided to head to break and made the 6-car trek to the diner-lite where I sat with two gentlemen from Great Britain and had the three egg omelet for breakfast. The eggs were a little soggy, but overall, it was fine.
We were consistently ahead of our schedule and we were allowed to alight at a few stops including Rochester, and Syracuse for about five minutes or so. I ended up having lunch with the two college students I met last night and the gentlemen across the hall from my roomette. We arrived into Albany ahead of schedule and after waiting for about ten minutes while they split our train up, we pulled into the station and had about 45 minutes before needed to be back on board. I took advantage of the time and explored the station and got some shots of our P42’s being refueled. We departed on time, but were under slow orders for about the first 45 minutes as the engineer kept getting a restricted signal. We finally were able to get to track speed after that period and it was smooth sailing. When I took this trip two years ago, we were running about two hours late which put this let of the trip in the dark. This time, we had daylight and I realized that I had missed out on a lot of beautiful scenery back in 2007. I’m glad I had another chance to see it.
Shortly after we left Albany, Mark, our sleeping car attendant came around and started taking orders for dinner. He started at the roomette end of the car, so by the time he got to my end, it was down to only one choice which was the beef tips, which was fine for me. He came around with drinks, placed a napkin on our fold out table and then delivered the meals to our room. It was quite good and was a nice experience eating in my room. About half an hour later, he came around and collected our plates. He also did some light cleaning as he was leaving from Boston the next day to do another run to Chicago and wanted to get a jump start before tomorrow. We pulled into Boston about 45 minutes early which was a nice change from last time which was well over two hours late.
The through sleeper was very nice and I was glad they reinstated service. Going from a sleeper to an Amfleet I coach was not the greatest transition the last time around. I also like how they handled the cold food service. While a hot dinner in a dining car would have been ideal, I really can’t complain. Overall, a great trip!
Part II - The Downeaster will be along shortly...
