We begin in Michigan, both the state and the city, all on the Wolverine Route:

• Michigan City, IN-(40 photos)
  
• Dearborn, MI-(17 photos)
  
• Detroit, MI-(36 photos)
  
• Royal Oak, MI-(46 photos)
  
• Birmingham, MI-(36 photos)
  
• Pontiac, MI-(44 photos)
  

I also have the 3 fresh air stops from the Cardinal I was able to get legitimate photos at:

• Cincinnati-Union Terminal, OH-(14 photos)
  
• Huntington, VA-(32 photos)
  
• Charlottesville, VA-(27 photos)
  

That’s all for now, Enjoy!

I have switched gears from actively traveling for the past month to archiving my travels and going through the over 12,000 photos (those station photo essays require lots of work) that I took on the trip. The first goal is to write up a comprehensive photo journal type trip log for every train I rode during the trip. Here is a teaser of the TripLog:

• Idaho in Daylight! Including Lake Pend Oreille, Sandpoint, and the Roadless, Scenic Kootenai River Canyon
  

While writing this portion of the TripLog on the Empire Builder, I added too and made new these three Amtrak Stations:

• Wishram, WA-(15 photos)
  
• Pasco, WA-(22 photos)
  
• Spokane, WA-(Page Rebuilt with 50 new photos)
  
• Havre, MT-(page rebuilt with 14 new photos)
  

Enjoy!

I arrived on the 5:08pm Hiawatha #339 yesterday on by far Amtrak’s shortest corridor service up from Union Station going only 86 miles that strangely offers checked baggage (only at its terminuses) that I took full advantage of this morning by checking my bag at Union Station when I also bought my ticket in the morning. The Hiawatha is one of just two trains (the other is the Keystone between Philly and Harrisburg only) outside of California that are still unreserved, the price always the same $23, Keystone is $25. The ride was quiet, particularly because I had chosen to sit in the Quiet Car and felt like a commuter train with tons of people in business suits and few with luggage returning from days at work in Chicago back to Wisconsin. There were lots using ten ride/unlimited ride passes it seemed on the train. Unlike a peak hour train on the NEC though this one was crowded but not so much that everyone had to double-up, I had two seats to myself for the entire ride. The rolling stock was 4 Horizon Coaches and just one Amfleet between a standard P42 and a Cabbage a former F40 now un-powered with a baggage compartment, instead of just Amfleets for the train, shorter than a typical Regional train (but not Empire Service trains and the like). The train also got stuck behind a Metra train and was running ten minutes late through Glenview and Sturtevant but we gained some of that time and arrived into Downtown Milwaukee only 4 minutes late.

The rest of my time in Chicago was not spent finishing the L has I intended, I got distracted wanting stations on Metra which I got quite a few of within the city limits using the slow trick of taking buses everywhere. I also got some more outside of the city limits Some highlights were yesterday, just before my train (and after my 24 hour pass had expired), I rode the blue line out to O’Hare and did a station-to-station of their 5 stop people mover system before getting off at the one stop for parking and taking the shuttle bus out to the O’Hare Transfer Station. This is a stop on the quite infrequent weekdays only Metra North Central Service Line, its newest route. The trip once the train arrives is definitely faster than the blue line but a real hassle dealing with both a shuttle bus and the ATS system. The only travelers that could really find the line useful are those using the International Terminal 5, since they have to transfer to the ATS system anyway just to get to the CTA. I also managed to get every stop on the Milwaukee District West Line as far out as River Grove, 8 stops, the Milwaukee District North Line up to Forest Glen, 5 stops, the UP Northwest Line to Jefferson Park, 4 stops and the achievement I’m quite proud of myself for is the UP North Line up to Indian Hill, 9 stops. I did not stay with my cousins on the South Side this time so the next trip will see me getting plenty of Metra Electric stations.

Yesterday was a day and through midnight adventure getting back to Chicago from Detroit. Awhile back I was doing research to see if I could get any additional Amtrak Stations by city bus from Detroit and discovered that SMART could take me all the way up to Pontiac where the 3 daily Wolverines terminate. The day started out with a morning walk of about 3 miles from the youth hostel to the Detroit Amtrak Station where I photographed the second Chicago-bound Wolverine of the day in the station from the street and a sketchy, unmarked, missing no trespassing signs, staircase up to the railroad embankment.

Next I was off on SMART Route 460, part of the suburban bus system, riding relatively crowded buses northward that will soon be downgraded to peak hours only service. The first bus I took was to the Royal Oak Amtrak Station. It has just a few awnings on the actual platform but the Transit Center for SMART across the parking lot is considered a waiting area by Amtrak and contains a QuickTrak machine but was unfortunately locked, only open until noon on Saturdays. The station was located in the town center with the train crossing at a grade and I was fortunate enough to get a CN freight going through.

Next I got back on Route 460 and took it up to the Birmingham Station also just an AmShack with just a small plastic bus shelter with two overflowing trash bins inside. The reason this mattered to me was while I was there I got caught in a brief but intense rain and frozen rain thunder storm and had to seek refuge inside for about 15 minutes. It was not a great place to wait for anything; I could hear the frozen rain pelting the top of the shelter. It was almost as bad as being outside. It luckily stopped quickly and I got my photos before walking back to the main drag, Woodward Avenue (the one street that my adventures took me on for the entire day) and eating lunch using my iPhone to dash out when I thought the once hourly bus route 450 up to my final stop, Pontiac would depart shortly at 3:00.

Unfortunately that bus never showed up and I was stuck waiting an hour until 4:00 for a standing room only bus that took me up to Pontiac. That town though was dead and I got some photos of my Wolverine train set stopped in the station ready to go back to Chicago. Since it is double ended and the seats are kept half each facing each direction there is no work for the crew to do to reverse. There was a modern glass Transit Center type building with benches and a waiting room with just a Greyhound ticket agent for one bus a day but it is only open during the week. I walked downtown trying to pick up something for dinner but found nothing appealing that was open except for a terrible slice of pizza. I eventually boarded the train at 5:10 (after being kicked off early for boarding too early) for our 5:49 departure to Chicago. This train consist had the same two P42s, one at either end but all four coaches were Horizons but an Amfleet-I Cafe/Business Class Car.

The train ride on the late night Wolverine train #355 was uneventful, feeling like a bit of a commuter train with all the little stops out through Detroit that I had spent the day working my way through photographing. The Horizon Coaches are also feel like any Comet or Shoreliner car (they are all based on the same design). The tray tables are even at an odd upward angle. Detroit is listed in the public timetable as a three-minute stop but it was clearly not a fresh air stop as passengers quickly boarded. Walnut Creek the crew change point was also extremely quick. I never briefly got off the train. We did have a few delays mostly to meet our counterpart two eastbound Wolverines. Outside of Chicago things were not great hitting freight traffic and we even had an announcement we were waiting for the Lake Shore Limited (unseen) to cross in front of us. We eventually arrived at 11:46pm, 40 minutes late. The last Amtrak train to arrive on a Saturday evening, there was something strange (the monitors in Union Station, unlike at New York’s Penn Station do not just scroll and start showing tomorrow mornings departures) about being the last train to arrive with the Amtrak Departures monitors blank and Metra showing just three after midnight trains. There were quite a few people in the station though waiting for them.

I left Union Station and walked over to my least favorite Youth Hostel (the HI) but choose it because of convenience for the night.

The next day was my day to try and get started on Metra for the website, buying one of their only $7 weekend passes, which are one of the best deals in railfanning for commuter trains. I thought they were valid for just one day of the weekend but it turns out their valid for the entire weekend. I was only able to make two long round trips. I started off on the Union Pacific Northwest Line originally planning to take it to the opposite end in Harvard but it ended up being ten minutes late mostly because of crowding so I decided to save the terminus for another trip (my layover would have been only 5 minutes) and get off at Pingree Road a Park and Ride Lot stop opened in 2005, traveling 42 miles from Chicago. I walked the mile into downtown Crystal Lake and get some pictures of the rolling stock spending the weekend in their yard tracks fully viewable from grade crossings and took the next train back to Clybourn. There I have 20 minutes before my other destination of the late afternoon, Kenosha, and the earliest of the there Sunday trains that run that far north. I get to Kenosha only at 4:15pm. The schedule is not designed for day trippers from Chago.

The reason for going all the way up to Kenosha is to ride and photograph their little heritage streetcar system that runs a two-mile, 15 minute loop through downtown. The one car in service this Sunday is decked out for Halloween with the outside trying to look like a jack-o’-lantern and the inside full of decorations like spider webs. It even has a trick-or-treat bowl. I pay my $1 and ride a bit more than a loop the line skidding under damp brakes and traction issues from leaves as it starts to rain. I get some photos and end up finding no place open to sit and wait for my 6:49 train, the next departure. The former station house has been turned into a fast food restaurant that is closed. I find refuge in a Subway Restaurant (buying a sandwich) but it closes at 6:00. It is a cold and rainy (there are canopies) wait for our train that comes in to drop-off passengers at 6:15 before reversing into the yard, in view of all of us, even coming back to the platform to drop-off a family that hopped on for Chicago upon its arrival wanting its nice warmth. Metra does not seem to like people boarding early, even though were all freezing and the crew looks like their just sitting hanging out as the train finally comes back to pick all of us up at 6:47 just two minutes before an on time 6:49 departure. It has an intercity train feel for those getting on at Kenosha, the last of just three Sunday trains, many passengers have luggage after weekends away and I finally got back to Highland Park at 7:32pm.

I arrived in the city yesterday evening on a real railroad adventure. It started off on the Metra Union Pacific North Line (an unusual left-handed railroad) down to the Ogilvie Transportation Center at 9:03am on the one departure that originates at the Highland Park Station. From there I hiked across the loop (took me about 25 minutes) to the Millennium Park Station where I bought my South Shore Line ticket, that looked like a theater ticket with that type of ticket stub (your receipt though is the smaller, not bigger half) and took the 10:45 departure to Michigan City. The South Shore Line is the last real interurban railroad left and it was a fun, somewhat scenic ride to where I was dropped off in the center of 11 Street at 12:19. This comment is quite literal, the train runs down the middle of the street and this stop is right in the middle of it with a special traffic light to stop traffic so passengers can get off without getting run over. My midday train had just two cars that reminded me of Septa Silverliners or NJT Arrows except they had a center door in addition to the door traps in the vestibules at each end of the cars, and only 2 by 2 instead of 3 by 2 seating.

From there I thought I had only an hour and bought a terribly bland sandwich from a local restaurant before getting a few more South Shore Line photos of a westbound train. At that point I went up to the AmShak station with just a bus shelter for waiting passengers. The original station has been turned into a restaurant and I did wander inside to see about waiting there but they were strictly a restaurant and made it clear I couldn’t just sit and wait for the train inside on the first cold day I’ve been in in fall. They did though have an old New York Central Michigan City sign and other railroad memorabilia.I checked my iPhone as the train got later and later upon its departure from Chicago, getting cold with just a bus shelter, with two other passengers joining me to take the train. Eventually the train came in at 2:05pm CDT a consist of six cars, 4 Horizon Coaches, a Horizon Cafe-Buisiness and 1 Amfleet-I Coach sandwiched between two P42s.

I got on and was directed to a familiar place a seat in an Amfleet-I where I was immediately struck with the lack of legroom (this happens every time I’ve gotten used to SuperLiners or Amfleet-IIs) and a quite dirty window so I did not take too many photos. The train reminded me of the Vermonter with the seats in a split facing direction layout (half forwards, half backwards) even though the train had no directional changes (like the Keystone and Vermonter) en-route but I guess the staff at the terminuses don’t want to rotate them. It was quite crowded as we went down Amtrak owned track going extremely fast to Kalamazoo where the speed and smoothness of the ride deteriorated on NS-owned track for a slower ride to Detroit. After Battle Creek, the one crew change point and quick fresh air stop at an intermodal station under construction, my car emptied out significantly and at least for the few getting on at stations like Albion, MI got a bit of a commuter train feeling with the conductors knowing the regular riders.

Eventually with the onset of darkness we finally got to Detriot at 7:53pm EDT, and for the first time in my travels wished I had taken a taxi to my nice and safe feeling youth hostel and not the two decrepit buses on which I was convinced I was going to be mugged but did arrive safely and was just asked for money by about 5 panhandlers.

Today Detroit (and its transit system) redeemed itself for me. It feels perfectly fine and safe during the daytime. I spent my one full day here (the hostel was full on Saturday night) doing a station to station of the 13 stop, 3 mile unidirectional people mover that uses Mark-I Cars around downtown (the same cars are used by the original Vancouver Sky Train Line and Toronto’s Scarborough RT). The line was supposed to be a circulator for other transit projects that never happened and is now an expensive white elephant. All the stations though do have artwork and many are inside buildings so it was an interesting system to railfan. I also went on the free GM Renaissance Center Tour which got me up to the restaurant on the 70-something floor. I ended the day with a bus ride out to Dearborn to photograph the Amtrak Station there and also got lost trying to see if I could get a few photos of the special events Greenfield Village Station at the Henry Ford. My quest was unsuccessful.

My time in St Paul and Minneapolis (split my nights between the two cities) was spent seeing three college friends that I got busy with. The lateness of the Empire Builder made me lose the eight hours I was planning to spend getting more content for the Hiawatha Line and riding the Northstar Commuter Rail. I did though have to experience the construction of a Light Rail Line, the Central Corridor that will connect Minneapolis and St Paul opening in 2014, along University Avenue, including right outside the current Midway Amtrak Station. My friends there are quite excited about the new light rail line and two of them claimed they will start taking public transit more when its built. My one transit ride though on this visit was as soon as I arrive. I took the University Avenue Bus to the University of Minnesota that took a lot longer than it should have because of all the street detours due to light rail construction. The U of M has also been split in two from all of the construction going on in the middle of campus.

Now onto my adventures today on most of the rest of the Empire Builder route. I got dropped off at the Amtrak station earlier than I wanted (I already knew the train was arriving at 9:00am) by one of my friend’s (who is living at his childhood home) mother who was worried I would miss the train since we did not arrive at the station until 7:30 after missing the first turn into the station since many of the direction signs have been removed because of the light rail construction. I would have been fine with only 20 minutes even if the train had been on time.

The St. Paul (Minneapolis) Midway Amtrak Station is probably the most remote train station from downtown that I have been to in a big city (small city stations like Syracuse, Albany-Rennselear, New York and Olympia-Lacy are all in the suburbas) and is called Midway Station because it is located directly between downtown St. Paul and downtown Minneapolis in the Twin Cities. It is located in an industrial area with no place to really walk so even with seeing the handwritten train departure has been delayed 9:00am signs on the doors into the station, I did not go for my typical my train is late walk and just decided to stay at the station. The stop looks straight out of the 1970s and I went up to the upper level waiting area (that was empty, downstairs full) with slightly more comfortable chairs and bright red carpet. The station has received modern signage including at the entrances to its parking lot (the building is even set back from the street) but the pointless arrow has been allowed to remain on the walls of the building.

Sitting upstairs in that empty seating area, the wait was one of my most productive for a train in a long time sorting photos and reading once my computer died (could not find a free outlet).

The train came in at 9:05 we left at 9:42 for an uneventful ride getting into lots of good conversations with other passengers with just one fresh air stop in Winona, MN down along the Mississippi River and through America’s Daryland to Glenview, IL where my relatives picked me up when we arrived two and a half hours late due to a few long stops for other freight trains particularly in Portage. I also enjoyed a quite good soup (spicy ship that was excellent) and salad (just like those at dinner) lunch in the dining car with a friendly elderly couple (there were just three of us at the table) him a retired furniture salesmen. As well as the company of many other travelers in the sightseer lounge car including an optometry salesman on Amtrak for the first time and enjoying the trip down from Minneapolis, a retiree on a train for the first time in 40 years except in Europe, and a Kay a passionate member of MARP (Michigan Association of Railroad Passengers).

This post, like all concerning my train trip adventures, I am planning to turn into a more comprehensive TripLog entry with tons of photos once I edit my notes and add the pictures to them. I have quite a few of going down the Mississippi.

The trip was a real adventure that I will remember forever and gave me a (hopefully) extremely rare spectacular daylight crossing through Idaho along Cocolalla Lake (near Sandpoint, Idaho) and the Kootenai River (I followed the same river farther north on the Rocky Mountaineer, although the Canadians spell the name differently) through China Rapids Canyon, only visible by railroad or by floating down in a boat, along the Idaho and Montana Boarder all normally passed through in the dead of night. This portion of the trip was made even more memorable from the narration in the lounge car of a native son of the area going to Libby, Montana who told me the names of everything we passed along this portion of the trip and pointed out the major highlights. The other rare daylight scenery going through eastern North Dakota and Minnesota was less impressive but we definitely got odd looks blocking traffic going through the center of Fargo and the reason that Minnesota is known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes was definitely affirmed from the number we passed.

The place the major lateness occurred (we arrived in Spokane only an hour late at 1:20, after leaving that late from Portland) did not even happen to my section of the train but to the Seattle section when it got caught behind a disabled freight train going through the Cascades between Everett and Leavenworth, Washington. The downside to this was that we were stuck on the platform in Spokane locomotive-less since the locomotive had to be immediately detached to take the Portland section of train number 27 arriving from the east right on time back down to Portland. I was able to watch the break-up happen from the platform since the Spokane platform is an island with two station tracks. This meant we were stuck in the dark on the platform with only battery powered emergency lighting that eventually failed during the night. I was unable to sleep in my two seats (never had to double-up the entire trip!) because of a symphony of snoring going on around me. I tried to make the most of my stay in Spokane and went for a 3am walk through the sleeping city including enjoying some pancakes and coffee (which I never normally drink and it kept me up throughout the next day and all the bonus scenery) in an all night eatery. The other amusing moment was when I found myself stranded in the Sightseer Lounge car (where I had gone to sit and try to sleep away from the symphony of snoring) when all of its power (including the battery back-up) failed, and I could not re-open the door to get back to my coach. This meant I found myself going downstairs and opening the window (there really easy to open, wish I could open it for photos in route) to attract the attention of an employee (who’s job is to service both trains in Spokane) on the platform who understood completely that the compressor for the air release door had failed upstairs because we had been stopped for so long, a let me off. This door between cars was having problems for the rest of the trip and it remained permanently on open.

The other downside to the lateness were the few fresh air stops the train made and I only got one bonus one that is normally in darkness getting pictures at Grand Forks, ND (I once visited the station by car), with Whitefish, Montana the only other stop as well as Havre, MT which we arrived in at 7pm after it had gotten dark. I did try to get photos of the stations normally passed through in the dead of night from the train and think I was rather successful. I’m definitely going to compile everything along with all of my notes in a photo heavy TripLog of the rare scenery I saw in daylight while riding the extremely late Empire Builder.

Overall it was quite a fun trip considering the lateness with few over grumbling passengers, most just taking it in stride. Some legitimately nervous about connections since the train did not arrive in Chicago until 11:00pm last night (just looked it up on Amtrak’s website) meaning even the Lake Shore Limited left before it had arrived (on time at 9:30, an hour and a half too long to wait). I have a feeling Amtrak was handing out quite a few hotel vouches for the night but those going to Michigan I talked to were told they would end up on a bus.

The trip was a real adventure that I will remember forever and gave me a (hopefully) extremely rare spectacular daylight crossing through Idaho along Cocolalla Lake (near Sandpoint, Idaho) and the Kootenai River Canyon, only visible by railroad or by floating down in a boat, along the Idaho and Montana Boarder all normally passed through in the dead of night. This portion of the trip was made even more memorable from the narration in the lounge car of a native son of the area going to Libby, Montana who told me the names of everything we passed along this portion of the trip and pointed out the major highlights. The other rare daylight scenery going through eastern North Dakota and Minnesota was less impressive but we definitely got odd looks blocking traffic going through the center of Fargo and the reason that Minnesota is known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes was definitely affirmed from the number we passed.

The place the major lateness occurred (we arrived in Spokane only an hour late at 1:20, after leaving that late from Portland) did not even happen to my section of the train but to the Seattle section when it got caught behind a disabled freight train going through the Cascades between Everett and Leavenworth, Washington. The downside to this was that we were stuck on the platform in Spokane locomotive-less since the locomotive had to be immediately detached to take the Portland section of train number 27 arriving from the east right on time back down to Portland. I was able to watch the break-up happen from the platform since the Spokane platform is an island with two station tracks. This meant we were stuck in the dark on the platform with only battery powered emergency lighting that eventually failed during the night. I was unable to sleep in my two seats (never had to double-up the entire trip!) because of a symphony of snoring going on around me. I tried to make the most of my stay in Spokane and went for a 3am walk through the sleeping city including enjoying some pancakes and coffee (which I never normally drink and it kept me up throughout the next day and all the bonus scenery) in an all night eatery. The other amusing moment was when I found myself stranded in the Sightseer Lounge car (where I had gone to sit and try to sleep away from the symphony of snoring) when all of its power (including the battery back-up) failed, and I could not re-open the door to get back to my coach. This meant I found myself going downstairs and opening the window (there really easy to open, wish I could open it for photos in route) to attract the attention of an employee (who’s job is to service both trains in Spokane) on the platform who understood completely that the compressor for the air release door had failed upstairs because we had been stopped for so long, a let me off. This door between cars was having problems for the rest of the trip and it remained permanently on open.

The other downside to the lateness were the few fresh air stops the train made and I only got one bonus one that is normally in darkness getting pictures at Grand Forks, ND (I once visited the station by car), with Whitefish, Montana the only other stop as well as Havre, MT which we arrived in at 7pm after it had gotten dark. I did try to get photos of the stations normally passed through in the dead of night from the train and think I was rather successful. I’m definitely going to compile everything along with all of my notes in a photo heavy TripLog of the rare scenery I saw in daylight while riding the extremely late Empire Builder.

Overall it was quite a fun trip considering the lateness with few over grumbling passengers, most just taking it in stride. Some legitimately nervous about connections since the train did not arrive in Chicago until 11:00pm last night (just looked it up on Amtrak’s website) meaning even the Lake Shore Limited left before it had arrived (on time at 9:30, an hour and a half too long to wait). I have a feeling Amtrak was handing out quite a few hotel vouches for the night but those going to Michigan I talked to were told they would end up on a bus.

Here is a day-to-day rundown:
I spent Sunday, my one actual full day in Portland with one goal in mind, photographing every light rail station in fareless square and I also decided to due most of the streetcar stations. I did buy a day pass and also did the high service stops between Washington Park (the stop in the Robertson Tunnel and deepest transit station in the Western Hemisphere) and the Gateway Transit Center.

Monday was when I discovered just how infrequent MAX really is. I started off by walking a bit more of the streetcar which was my first mistake. Next I did the three stops on the Airport Branch this was relatively efficient. I was able to walk between the middle two of them before entering the airport. Next came a trip back to the Gateway Transit Center that was really slow to start on the Gresham Branch of the Blue Line. I took it to the end of the line and walked between the four stations actually inside Gresham getting my photo essays of them. My next step was to hop on a train to Ruby Junction where I had terrible luck with trains passing me and ended up walking all the way to 172nd Street stopping for cheep Mexican food. At that time it was already 2:30 and I needed to hop a train and did all the way crosstown to Beaverton needing the first WES Commuter rail trip of the PM rush. I got there early at about 3:40 and went out to Millikan Way before doubling back to the Beaverton Transit Center and photographing my two unique Colorado Railcar DMUs (whose engines are really loud) going down the middle of Lombard Avenue entering. I took the 4:05 trip down to Wilsonville passing their two other trains in operation, a single DMU running by itself and a set of RDCs from 1953 that were purchased from the Alaska Railroad.
At Wilsonville next I was on the 5:05 Cherriots Express Bus 1X down to Salem where I did my photo essay of the station before departing at 6:45 on another Amtrak thruway connection bus (with a multi-city Amtrak ticket after immense confusion since Albany is unstaffed at the hour and my tickets were pre-printed in Portland and put on that train, it was all fine the friendly Salem ticket agent helping me printing me new tickets, and reimbursing himself with my old ones. I got to Albany at 7:27 and getting a decent share of night photos of the well-lit transit center. Next I was on the on time Cascades Train #507 that left at 7:50 down to its final stop in Eugene eating the okay (but better than anything in a regular Amtrak café car) Mac and Cheese in the Bistro for dinner. We got to Eugene a bit early, at 8:36 and I walked the 20 minutes to my tiny youth hostel for the night.

The next morning I just was moving slowly and got to the station at 8:50 so fewer photos than I would have liked for my 9:00 train, This was an uneventful short ride up to Oregon City where I got off at 10:32 and took the MAX bus (putting $5 into the fare box on board for my day pass) which was slow up to Clackimas Town Center Station. From there I did the green line station-to-station, doubling back making fairly good time. After that it was a nightmere just trying to get my last four blue line stations. It took me far too long with a good 25 minutes between trains at one point and I finally get to Beaverton Transit Center to finish WES for only the 5:30 departure (just missing the 5:00), this was on the same trainset I road yesterday. I took it down to Tualatin where I doubled back and got the Alaska Railroad RDCs which are in amazing shape and feel like your riding through a history book with old lights and nicely cushioned seats. There is even a bit of a railfan window through the doors into the front cabs. They have been modified so you don’t board through the original vestibules but via wider doors that are ADA compliant with many of the middle seats removed. These doors must be controlled manually so the conductors (all WES trains have at least) open and close them at each high platform stop.
I took the RDCs just one stop to Tigard for a half-hour photo stop before I got back on the two car Colorado Railcar DMU train one stop to Hall/Nimbus. From there it was an easy bus ride back to Beaverton T.C, where I took MAX downtown picked up my luggage and went to stay in a much smaller and nicer youth hostel in the Hawthorne District.

On Wednesday, my final day in Portland, I had to finish MAX. My first stop was Union Station to drop off my luggage for just $3 and pick up my Amtrak ticket, where I was told the train was not due until 2pm and that it would take about three hours to turn the train around so expect it to be an hour late. I then hopped on the Blue Line out to Hillsboro and walked between the four stations within downtown. Next I had amazing doubling-back luck (never missed a connection) and finished the branch. The final leg of max was finshing the Yellow Line or Interstate MAX. I transferred in Downtown Portland to it and rode it up to Expo Center and got the six remaining stations I needed to visit.

With that it was around 3:00pm and as my yellow line MAX train went over the steel bridge I saw two regular P42 Locomotives facing south pulling Superliner Cars. Both the southbound Empire Builder had just arrived and the Coast Starlight was making its regularly scheduled stop. I walked over to get some photos but the Starlight started leaving before I got into a decent position. I did photograph the just arrived late Builder going across the steel bridge on its way to the train yard to be serviced, cleaned and reversed. Then I took a final walk through downtown (was thinking about riding the tramway but streetcar service down there has been busituted for two weeks while they tie in another new branch) before getting back to the station at about 5:00pm finding out the Builder was going to leave a bit late after its late arrival.

Greetings from Portland, Oregon!
I arrived here on Saturday working my way down via Amtrak Cascades (and briefly the coast starlight), getting all four of the remote intermediate station photographed for the website. It started with me waking up around 6:00am to enjoy a final cook-your-own eggs breakfast. I then checked-out and walked down to King Street station getting there around 7:00 where the line was much longer for the Quick-Track machine instead of the ticket window so I went there to pick up my ticket from a friendly agent before making my way to the next stop to drop off my backpack to be checked through to Portland so I did not have to deal with it. The baggage stop accommodated my request completely, handing me my tag for Portland just as it was announced baggage service for the train was closing.
Next came what is probably the most unnecessary feature of getting on an Amtrak Cascades train at a terminus. Waiting in line for the conductors to collect my ticket within the station. They handed me my seat assignment and I walked out to the platform assigned to a car with no one else in it except four people and on the aisle right next to someone else. As soon as we started leaving Seattle at 7:29 I went up a pair of seats to have to two myself. At the same time the conductors were telling everyone over the PA to not move up to the empty coaches, they were needed for passengers at intermediate stations. Well I was getting off at one. No one yelled at me for changing seats even though the correct assignment was right there on the seat check.
7:31 – Bistro car announcement for Pacific Northwest Products like Hank’s bakery as we go through the grade crossings of the train yard and I am surprised to see so much Sounder equipment, as we speed south in the morning twilight, through the industrial warehouses south of King Street Station.
7:36 – run by Boeing Field and its museum of flight passing some US air force planes inside the station.
7:40 – going by a yard just south of Boeing Field we pass the 3 airline bodies on freight cars.
7:42 – enter Tukwila, a party with someone in a walker is waiting on the ADA mini-high platform, Amtrak Cascades do not use them, instead the ADA car has its own onboard
lift. There are about 20 people waiting to board. My car fills with more intermediates, and they do not get seat assignments, its fine that I moved up a seat. On a long-distance train I would have been yelled at already.
We leave again at 7:45, and speed through the combination fields and suburbs of the Sounder Line that I spent the week riding multiple times.
7:55 – speed through Auburn as the conductor delivers tickets (just pre-printed in Seattle, not the full blown issuing a paper ticket onboard that most other trains make those boarding at stations without ticketing services do).
8:02 – Go through Sumner along the line that has its fare share of suburbia but also farmer’s fields in many places.
8:04 – its Pullayup, and we leave the small town going from a street of houses to fields.
8:09 in an open cut we start slowing down before passing a rusty green railroad bridge we don’t use with the announcement made for Tacoma and we switch away from Sounder’s little branch line at Reservation, the Sounder Cars in their yard for the weekend just visible across a roadway, as a UP freight train passes us entering the train yard.
8:14 – we arrive in Tacoma to a huge mob of at least 100 people on the platform, this is going to be a long stop. My car, the intermediate car gets more crowded but there are still pairs of two seats available.
8:18 – We leave Tacoma, following the harbor and some docks along with freight cars in the yard.
8:23 – we start following the southern side of Pudget Sound although their roads between us and it as we go through Port Defiance, that one day might be bypassed for a faster (albeit less scenic trip)
8:27 – enter the first short followed by a longer Tunnel.
8:29 see Pudget Sound and the Tacoma Narrows Bridges, between trees we cross beneath them and stay along the sound before curving away at 8:31, slowing down a bit., entering a seaside community University Place, before reemerging along the Sound, and keep following it some settlements, paths and a ferry dock, interrupting the view of it.
8:40 – still along the southern side of Puget sound a see a deer in the water. No announcement saying deer since I am no longer on the tourist Rocky Mountaineer.
8:42 – we pass a long inter-modal train luckily not blocking the view of the sound, as the Salish Sea as the bistro car attendant makes one his advertising announcements since the sea is depicted in the ceiling of the bistro car. Throughout my Amtrak Cascades trips it has been strictly called the Bistro car (even by passengers), not the cafe car.
8:46 – go over two halves of a freeway and leave Pudget Sound for good, entering a forest.
8:48 – pass over a high trestle over a stream, and then go through woods continuing south, sign says our arrival in 3 minutes I’m waiting for the announcemt, as the electronic sign tells Olympia/Lacey departing passengers, to gather your belongings.
8:53 – go over a misty lake and slow down.
8:54 – We arrive in Olympia-Lacy. I get of the train and start doing a platform photo essay including the train leaving the station. I almost get locked onto the platform by the volunteer station attendent who is closing the gate of the platform. The station building was built entirely with private funds (there is a brick donor plaza right out front). The volunteer (who is not allowed to access money) was very friendly and proud to staff the only (according to him) all volunteer run station house in the country. I started going for a walk hoping to find a café or something but the stop is in the middle of the suburbs with nothing around, just a subdivision and a school. Without platform access I photograph the northbound train at 10:34 passing through from a highway bridge nearby. I then return to the station and take my full photo essay of it and have a long chat with the volunteer. He also having to tell all the passengers that the conductor will have and deal with their tickets since the Quick-Trak machine is out-of-order.
Eventually the Coast Starlight comes in and I barely get some pictures of its two locomotives while standing up on a nearby bench. Platforms are definitely better for photos than over gates. The volunteer opens the gate once the locomotives pass it, for safety I suppose. The train comes in making first a stop for the sleepers before moving up to make a second stop for the coaches. The conductor asks for real tickets with the broken Quick-Trak machine a complete surprise to him. Myself and one other person have them. Everyone else gets on the train, getting dollar signs on their seat checks so the conductor can do the tedious process of getting them ticketed on board having to call up to get their reservation details.
At 11:31 we leave Olympia-Lacey and start passing through farmland I move immediately to the sightseer lounge car which is technically a primitive type of dome car with its slight rap-around windows that go lower in the car but have less of a windowed ceiling. The fact the seats face the windows make it almost better I find for sightseeing than GoldLeaf on the Rocky Mountaineer. My stay was short though going through woods and fields, in places briefly following a river soon it was 11:45 and our scheduled arrival time and I went back to my assigned seat. The lady across from me who had also gotten on in Lancey still had her wallet out but had not yet paid. A single broken Quick-Track machine is a conductor’s disaster.

11:51- we pass a bit of an intermodal container port.

We got to Centrallia and I realize I only have an hour to wonder but am hungry since it’s time for lunch. I end up at the Jersey Diner (it was that or a café, I’ll find a café in Kelso for dessert). The Jersey Diner was one of the seeder ones I’ve been too but the loud locals inside, hearing a bit of the town’s gossip more than made up for it. The burger and fries were as greasy as ever. Around 12:45 I wonder back to the station to get more of a photo essay.

1:08 we leave Centralia right on time and I get assigned to car #3, the unique ADA car with 2 by 1 seating to allow a wheelchair to get through and reach the bistro (not cafe) car. There is a mother and her two little kids wit lots of luggage as we speed by trees and fields. We pass yet another freight train. The line reminds me of the two tracked Empire Corridor water level route west of Albany where four trains a day and lots freight coexist.

1:24 go through Whitlock as chat a little bit with the mother and her two young kids (one is already in kindergarten) coming across from Whitefish (Kalispbell) to Kelseo.

1:31 and follow a river through the fields and enter woods.

1:41 we pass a highway and an employee doing track-work on the opposite track and then go back to farmers fields as we slow down and switch tracks.

We arrive at Kelseo at 1:51 it also has a gated platform but I violate it and photograph the train leaving with another (less friendly volunteer meeting it). This beautifully station, in a small town full of tractors, is neat to see and is also staffed by a few less friendly volunteers. I look on my iphone for a café and find nothing, most of the few shops including the few restaurants are closed on a Saturday. I type in Starbucks and start wondering to the local strip mall, turns out it is not a café to sit in but just a counter in Safeway. There is the towns one slightly grim shopping mall nearby and I decide to go there just to find a place to sit down and end up wondering into a branch of the local library where I sit and use the Wi-Fi not having to even buy anything to drink. I even glance at a few magazines that look interesting and get some website work done.

Around 3:00 I start wondering back to the station and get my full photo essay of it before sitting and waiting. There is no one else waiting to get on except for me, a few people waiting for passengers down from Seattle. Eventually 22 minutes late at 5:02 I see the train and enter the paddock of gates that say wait until passenger train comes to a complete stop, to get some pictures. It is the Mt. Rainier Trainset with a Cascades painted cabbage leading the train in but a regular Amtrak P42 for motive power. I’m the only passenger getting on, the stops is so quick that I’m handing the assistant conductor my ticket as the conductor says the “all aboard,” as in the train is leaving, not boarding as the Rocky Mountaineer wants you to believe “all aboard” means.

5:04 – we leave 25 minutes late. The train leaves this town passing freight cars and a creek with a moderate amount of water before following I-5. I don’t receive a seat check, the train doesn’t seem to be using them, told to sit anywhere.

5:10 – we start following the wide Columbia River interrupted by bridges and trees in places. Soon were actually running in the median of I-5, it is on each side of us.

5:20 – we have left this arrangement and speed through some more towns and fields with no river for the moment. I see another man in a Talgo shirt for operations so I guess they accompany every run.

5:23 – go over the quite wide Lewis River.

5:25 – start seeing houses, towns and mounds of dirt as we slow down along a canal.

5:28 – we’ve slowed down enough to go through a grade crossing with audible bells and soon go very slowly to a stop. An announcement is made that we have come to a red signal waiting for a northbound train. Its the Coast Starlight led by a Cascades F59PHI and then a standard P40. We slowly leave almost immediately regaining full speed through the trees.

5:37 – pass another freight and switch back to the correct track. Using right hand running I see water again in the evening light as we pass an intermodal freight. The wide Columbia pokes in and out of view and then we run through a yard slowing down. Vancouver announcement three doors to open and we go through it’s large yard and stop at its station surrounded by yards at 5:44. I haven’t decided if I’m going to bus it up to visit. Just 15minutes to Portland as we go over the Columbia River and the two branches of it’s approaching estuary and then speed through an open cut before crossing the Willamette and then a large freight yard and refinery and then pass more industry. Eugene customers are told no restrooms while more water is taken on and we start seeing houses slowing down along the Willamette.

6:00 see the platforms and the Mt Olympus set I rode earlier. I get off the train and make my way to the bridge across the southern half of the station to get the first of many photos of Portland’s Union Station. I then walked over to my youth hostel that was completely unsocial, I meet no one, only taking to people I knew previously from staying in Seattle.