What's your favourite? Cardinal or Lake Shore Limited

Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
Advertise with us
Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
brianpmcdonnell17 said:
I may be unusual here, but my favorite time of year to travel is the winter. If there is snow, that looks better than any other type of scenery in my opinion. If not, the leaves are bare so more scenery is visible. Also, if I'm on a longer trip I can actually appreciate the lack of daylight. The next day is much less enjoyable if I am tired, but it is difficult to get good sleep in coach. If I want to get six hours, I probably need 9-10 hours of laying down, plus an hour to prepare for sleep and waking up in the morning. Meanwhile, I enjoy watching the scenery so much that I can never convince myself to sleep when it is light out. In the summer, it is often only dark for about 8-9 hours, so I inevitably wake up exhausted. In the winter, there's nothing to see by around 6:00 so I have plenty of time to get sleep.
Click to expand...
I love winter travel as well. However I've just found that the LSL's route gets a bit tedious in such cold weather. On the other hand, when I was on #98 in January, we were stuck waiting for a new crew for several hours, which normally would have been miserable, however in this case the train was in the middle of the woods, surrounded by snow covered trees, and it was absolutely beautiful. I can tell you that that would have gotten old fast if it were summer.
 
We're enthusiasts of winter travel too, especially if it's possible to travel from the snow bound north to a warm south in one trip, great contrasts with only one draw-back. You have to take your winter coat and shorts on the same trip, makes for a lot of decisions when packing.

Have another question about the route of both the Cardinal and the LSL. Is the end of December too early for a winter snow storm as a rule or could we find ourselves in one? Not at all worried just curious and the thought came about when thinking our planning is starting to look a bit like the movie 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles'. I want to be John Candy!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
v v said:
We're enthusiasts of winter travel too, especially if it's possible to travel from the snow bound north to a warm south in one trip, great contrasts with only one draw-back. You have to take your winter coat and shorts on the same trip, makes for a lot of decisions when packing.

Have another question about the route of both the Cardinal and the LSL. Is the end of December too early for a winter snow storm as a rule or could we find ourselves in one? Not at all worried just curious and the thought came about when thinking our planning is starting to look a bit like the movie 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles'. I want to be John Candy!
Click to expand...
Snow is not a guarantee any time of the year, but is most likely around February 1st. There would likely be snow at least along portions of your trip at the end of December, especially on the LSL. Winter starts later on the east coast due to the ocean, so it is unlikely there would be snow on the NEC, but there is a good chance it would be present in the inland areas. The Lake Shore Limited is much more likely to have snow than the Cardinal.
Here are the the chances of at least an inch of snow on the ground on Christmas (data 1981-2010). Due to the limited number of data points and the location of weather stations, some cities are either more snowy or less snowy than this data implies.

Lake Shore Limited

Chicago: 37%

South Bend: 60%

Toledo: 56%

Cleveland: 50%

Erie: 57%

Buffalo: 60%

Rochester: 53%

Syracuse: 63%

Albany: 37%

New York: 8%

Springfield: 29%

Boston: 8%

Cardinal:

Chicago: 37%

Indianapolis: 30%

Cincinnati: 20%

Huntington: 17%

Charleston: 26%

Beckley/Prince: 32%

Charlottesville: 7%

Washington: 7%

Baltimore: 10%

Philadelphia: 10%

New York: 8%
 
Thanks Brian, wouldn't have known where to find that sort of data. Looks like we could see snow but probably not much of it.
 
v v said:
You have to take your winter coat and shorts on the same trip, makes for a lot of decisions when packing.
Click to expand...
That was an issue we had when coming home from LA in February, via Chicago. We had almost an eight hour layover so we knew we were going to explore the city a bit. However that meant we had to pack for southern California and for Chicago on the same trip. Fortunately we had brought everything we needed. Unfortunately my dad had forgot his jacket and gloves in California, which wasn't ideal for the 17º F Chicago weather.
 
v v said:
Have another question about the route of both the Cardinal and the LSL. Is the end of December too early for a winter snow storm as a rule or could we find ourselves in one? Not at all worried just curious and the thought came about when thinking our planning is starting to look a bit like the movie 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles'. I want to be John Candy!
Click to expand...
It 100% can happen. It's not too likely but it's definitely possible. However, though we've had multiple Planes, Trains, and Automobiles-esque train trips, I don't think any of them have happened because of winter weather. One time we were flying to Florida in December and there was a blizzard so all the flights were knocked out for days and we had to drive. But I don't think we've ever had a disastrous winter train trip.
 
Sure, I got an extra day a few years back n Chicago due to a blown connection while returning from a visit to my sister in Phoenix. Nice hotel. .Nothing to wear outside for Chicago weather....
 
The Cardinal's current typical consist includes a single locomotive, a Viewliner II baggage car, one or two Viewliner I sleeping cars, one Amfleet I Club-Dinette business class car, a single Amfleet II Diner-Lite diner-lounge car, and two to four Amfleet II long-distance coaches. Number of coaches and sleeper (1 or 2) varies by time of year and availability. Someone else may be able to be more specific.....
 
zgscl said:
What is the typical consist on the Cardinal?
Click to expand...
Currently, it's:

P42 - Amfleet II Coach - Amfleet II Coach - Amfleet II Coach - Amfleet I Business/Cafe - Amfleet II Diner-Lite - Viewliner I Sleeper - II Baggage Car
 
Last edited by a moderator:
PVD said:
Boxing Day is mostly UK/Commonwealth, in some countries may be 2nd Day of Christmastide or St. Stephens Day. Boxing Day would be a major holiday in Canada, not the US.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily all of Commonwealth. It does not mean much in the Indian subcontinent, except among a few true Anglophiles.
 
I'm a fan of whichever option is the least expensive.
default_wink.png
For me, I'd favor one that I haven't ridden yet, followed by some mixture of price and time needed in NYC (with price likely weighing more heavily.) That said, if all was equal I'd probably take the Cardinal, just because I love the feeling of taking a roomette down the NEC.
 
Thanks for the Cardinal consist cpotisch, do you or others know how the Business Class seats are laid out and is that part of the car noisy due to the café being the other half? Also seen some photos of business class being 2 + 2 seats across, and others being 2 + 1 seats across, is there both for business?

We're considering using the Cardinal if we return to London via NYC, that's arriving on the Texas Eagle and transferring to bus at Bloomington-Normal (just love that name) through to Indianapolis. That would allow us to see the New River Gorge in daylight too I think. The 8890 Thruway bus may be the only bus we get to use on this different for us type of journey so we would look forward to that also saying we had been to Normal !

Thanks
 
v v said:
Thanks for the Cardinal consist cpotisch, do you or others know how the Business Class seats are laid out and is that part of the car noisy due to the café being the other half? Also seen some photos of business class being 2 + 2 seats across, and others being 2 + 1 seats across, is there both for business?

We're considering using the Cardinal if we return to London via NYC, that's arriving on the Texas Eagle and transferring to bus at Bloomington-Normal (just love that name) through to Indianapolis. That would allow us to see the New River Gorge in daylight too I think. The 8890 Thruway bus may be the only bus we get to use on this different for us type of journey so we would look forward to that also saying we had been to Normal !

Thanks
Click to expand...
The Cardinal currently uses the 2x1 split business class/cafe car. Unless they have to swap out of one of those cars or something, you can expect 2x1 seating. They do use that car as the Cafe car, so you might have the occasional passenger walking through and ordering a snack and stuff like that, but I doubt you'll have an issue of frequent noise or disruption or anything like that.
 
In my experience the business class car is never used as the cafe and is unstaffed. The Amfleet 2 diner-lounge with tables on both sides is used for all food service.
 
looshi said:
In my experience the business class car is never used as the cafe and is unstaffed. The Amfleet 2 diner-lounge with tables on both sides is used for all food service.
Click to expand...
There might be some variation in how they do it then. From what I had heard they keep the diner-lite for dining only and use the split car for snacks. YMMV, I guess.
 
Are y'all coming through Austin on the Eagle Jamie???

And the bus ride from B/N to Indy is an Easy trip, the Bus actually starts in Galesburg,IL where it picks up Passengers from the Zephyr and Chief not going on to Chicago!

Can't advise on Biz Class on the Card,its New since I last rode! Seeing the New River Gorge in Daylight and the other WVA and VA Scenery Eastbound is a Treat!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I've ridden business on the Cardinal multiple times as part of deadheads. The cafe station is empty with nothing occurring out of it. The tables on the other side of the service area are only available to sleeper and business class passengers.

The dining car/cafe is the car with active food service. It's a great train. Who knows I might be on your train because that's a regular route for me.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top