Thanksgiving 2014 travel - open thread

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jimhudson said:
There was a thread recently about how apartments and buildings close to rail lines are becoming more desirable and valuable as the trend to urban living accelerates!

I know those buildings they are building everywhere around Union Station and up and down the tracks in Washington in what used to be a less than desirable area are Very Expensive and desirable! Urban Rail is Hot!!
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One reason may be that the tracks (and many of the trains) are a lot quieter than they were a few decades ago.
 
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Mrs. Ispolkom and I are traveling from St. Paul to Minot, leaving tonight. Until yesterday, a roomette between St. Paul and Minot was still only $99, lowest bucket. It's snowing in Minnesota today, with ice pellets in North Dakota tomorrow, so we're happy to leave the driving to the engineer. Remarkably, #7 has been no more than an hour late into Minot the last 10 days.
 
Well that went south fast. At 7 pm #7 was 3 minutes late. By 8:30 it was an hour, and just now I got my 5th text from Amtrak- - the train is expected at 12:45 am. We''ll see...
 
We lucked out. We had several freight delays and got stuck behind a Rail Runner (which we passed a few minutes later), but we were only 1:20 late into Albuquerque.
 
1:30 am, still waiting at St. Paul. Union Depot. Topper's Pizza is doing a good business. They are open til 3. The ping pong. table also getting good use. Looks like we''ll get lunch before. we get to Minot.
 
amamba said:
Agent said:
what is a hot box?
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_box
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Ummm. I still don't get it. Axel issues? On a car or an engine? It would be helpful to explain it in laymans terms.
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It could be any car or any locomotive. It's the axles for the actual wheels of the train.

The axle shaft spins around in some sort of housing. Usually lubricated with oil. If something goes wrong in that housing, it can create massive friction between the spinning axle and the stationary housing. This eventually can cause fires, cause the axle to break, cause the housing to break, or simply cause the axle to seize up and stop turning.

Therefore railroads try to detect an overheated axle early, before those bad things happen.

Is this layman's terms enough? I can try again if it isn't.
 
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Passengers on 2(26) seemed disappointed when it was announced that there would be no Thanksgiving-style dinner for Thanksgiving. Apparently, some folks were expecting one.

jb
 
Passed Osceola, IA a bit late on 6(27), but it looks like *fingers crossed* we will make the connections in CHI.
 
Just over an hour late through here is a pretty fair run for #6. You should easily make your connections (knock on wood). Also, sounds like you engineer is in a good mood.

http://youtu.be/82dXrXapcNM
 
I'm returning to NYP on Monday morning rather than brave the Sunday crowds on the trains. Anyone else doing a return trip?
 
On the CZ heading east to Chicago. 90 min late out of Denver and still sitting, waiting for signal clearance. Full train, in coach, near a child that has stopped screaming only intermittently since we boarded 10 hours ago in Grand Junction. (And I'm traveling with 2 kids under 10 so I do understand traveling with kids but good gravy, give the kid a paci or some bourbon.)

Hoping for a quiet night and to have no additional delays. We shall see!

Bll
 
BethChicago said:
On the CZ heading east to Chicago. 90 min late out of Denver and still sitting, waiting for signal clearance. Full train, in coach, near a child that has stopped screaming only intermittently since we boarded 10 hours ago in Grand Junction. (And I'm traveling with 2 kids under 10 so I do understand traveling with kids but good gravy, give the kid a paci or some bourbon.)

Hoping for a quiet night and to have no additional delays. We shall see!

Bll
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Better yet, a paci dipped in bourbon. ;)
 
On #50, in Indianapolis...full house here in Coach. They put an additional sleeper on, and the diner/lounge was so full from the sleepers that none of us coach passengers could get a reservation.

The solo server/busser was kind enough to sell me the short rib dinner "to go" so that I could go eat it in the lounge section. That was *more* than satisfactory. :)

Looking forward to tomorrow's scenery and a hopefully not too late arrival into WAS.
 
I flew this year since I had to get coast to coast and back with a stop in the middle on the way back to visit family. There were a number of times I thought to myself, "I'd rather be on the train."
 
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