Sunday was a day for hanging out with my relatives. Around Noon I left to ride my bike up the Lake going north of Lollapalooza and over to Union Station, I attach the two saddlebags I want to also check through to New York as luggage. I get on one of the two elevators on each side of the Canal Street entrance (across from the main Great Hall). I try and push the button for the baggage area level (where you have to go to check a bike) but realize I need to be escorted by an employee down there. I get to the main level of the Amtrak lobby and an employee is right there to swipe his ID card and provide me access to floor B. The elevator yet again (the story of my trip, after waiting twice for confused passengers who ended up at the baggage level accidentally) decides to go back up to the street level before finally taking me down to the baggage level.
Checking my bike took a little longer this time all because the friendly baggage manager, Marco, who helped me retrieve my bike two weeks ago, was helping another customer. To my happiness an empty and already used twice (judging from the cross-outs of addresses) bike box is in one corner of the baggage area and I am allowed to use it, crossing off the previous name and writing my own. I quickly take the peddles off reverse the handlebars and box my bike. I just pack my helmet into my two saddlebags. Marco charges me the $5 this time and tells me he will finish taping up my bike box for me.
Soon enough I’m headed up to the street and having a leisurely walk down Van Buren Street to that Metra Station. I enjoy photographing its historic nature and realizing that its platforms are right beneath Lollapalooza. I can even make out the words of the music. There are Staircases at its northern end are closed off with riot fencing prohibiting trespassers. A group of maybe 20 run up the closed off staircase trying to sneak into the concrete with the police and security chasing after them. At 2:30 my train comes in; I flash my weekend Metra pass a final time and am stepping off at 47th-Kenwood within 15 minutes.
That evening, after a bit of an early dinner, I get dropped off for my rescheduled 7:10 due to track work departure of the Capital Limited at 6:45 and notice the monitors already say it is boarding. I make a bathroom stop before walking through the nice and empty boarding lounge where the gate agent checks my iPhone eTicket (and I scroll up to show her the barcode after she sees the train number since they are not on the same screen). I then walk out to the platform where I first notice a deadheading diner lounge (wonder why dc would need one? all I can think of is for the auto train) and am directed to the middle coach. I get up to the platform at about 7:00 and the attendant rips a seat assignment tag and hands me the window half. It’s seat 33, the worst one across from the staircase but at least I have a window. A college guy, a few years younger than me soon joins me on the aisle, he was in Chicago for a conference of his fraternity and wanted to try the train.
The train leaves on time at 7:10 for the usual exit across the Chicago River. The coach attendant comes through to put up seat checks, asking us our destinations and I assume a week ago he would have collected our tickets too. They make announcements for both the first call for dinner in the diner (I think only for the sleeping car passengers) and the lounge car being open before the conductor comes through to scan our tickets. There definitely people who want to start getting up before their scanned, some walk up to the conductor after he is midway through the car. I get up and go to the lounge to read and watch the sunset. At that point I notice I’m in the car I wanted. The front half of seats are empty for people boarding down the line and most others getting off at intermediate stops. I wonder how many are not aboard due to missed connections from the late Empire Builder. The next car is totally full with check marks above each seat. It’s the “express” car to Washington and I’m happy I’m not in it.
At 7:36 CDT we pass the Hammond Whiting Station in view of the Horseshoe Casino and then get a final view of Lake Michigan followed by the mills and industry before we keep zooming through fields.
At 9:40 EDT the train stopped at South Bend, our first intermediate station stop. I see what appears to be the baggage cart at the opposite end of the platform for some reason. We leave at 9:43.
At 10:00 we get to Elkhart, the last stop to be announced for the evening as I notice that the thru car is already dark. We arrive at 10:02. I see it’s water tower nicely lit. The only problem right now is a toddler fussing. We end up making a double stop. I take a walk to the rear coach which is nearly empty as well. The app claims the train is sold out. There must be a group boarding later, using the app tickets are listed as available.
At 10:45 I think I smell cigarette smoke I bet someone’s decided to smoke in the bathroom as we go through dark Indiana. I need a second little dinner and wonder to the lounge car. There already out of the two things I really want the hummus/pretzels and the pizza. I decide to try another AmSandwhich; the ham and swiss is meaty but I think about how I can buy one from subway for less with more on it and the bread is soggy. The diner’s food is so much better. I had a few hot dogs with my cousins before I left so no full meal tonight, my original plan especially if the train had left at its regularly scheduled time an hour earlier.
At 11:20 we bypass Bryan with a shack on a well lit platform, only the Lake Shore stops here. I go back to my seat. The staircase is annoying but putting my head in the curtain blocks it a bit, and I enjoy looking out on the darkness of Ohio.
I definitely briefly fall asleep before waking up at 12:05 in Springfield, a Toledo suburb. I hear the smokers down beneath waiting in the vestibule. We keep stopping and starting. At 12:20 we start moving again. I decide that I might as well have a little walk. The conductor comes through the car and even tells people to keep it down. The lady in front of me is making a phone call, my seat mate is gone.
At 12:33 we finally arrive a half hour late. I watch them bring the wheelchair ramp out and take a little walk, there scanning on the platform and my cars gotten more crowded with only Pittsburg in the more empty last car. We get the all aboard at 12:38. There not that many people boarding, but my coach has gotten loud from them. We lose power at 12:43 and I notice a light comes on saying toilets closed. I have another loud couple chatting in an Asian language behind me. As I leave I notice a big Norfolk Souther parking area with a sign calling it the Toledo Transportation center
- 2:03 — I’m awake again as we pull into Elyeria. I did manage to sleep through Sandusky
- 2:32 — I fall asleep and the next thing I know were in Cleveland. I’m gazing at the Key Bank Tower. We’re on a totally different part of the platform than usual, I want a picture but the doors of my car haven’t been opened. We arrive at 2:29 leave at 2:36. My seat mate hasn’t come back, I assume he’s fallen asleep in the lounge. Since he was someone I’ve had nice conversation with (and would hopefully feel free to wake me up) I decide I can do the spread out over two seats method
- 3:46 — I wake up in Alliance, to see the Modern rebuilt AmPlatform with stone and brick holding up a central canopy.
At 5:19 we arrive pittsburgh according to the app our scheduled departure time isn’t until 6:20am, not for an hour! I wonder downstairs to a few smokers chatting. It it turns out we’re pulled up short of the station. At 5:32 we pull in, the baggage already delivered. I later see that the middle of the platform, just beyond the locomotives of the Pennsylvanian are under construction meaning the sleepers have platformed where there is no way out. I walk up and down the platform, getting some photos.At 6:00 they board the new passengers. At 6:09 the coach attendant announces we’re rolling out but we do wait until 6:19 to double toot away and slowly leave the long platform in dawn Light following a hill of Pittsburgh.
We go through mountainous trees, definitely back east and not in the flat midwest before going through a tunnel. We emerge passing Carnegie Melon before passing a park and then some small communities. I go up to the lounge car to enjoy this ‘bonus scenery’ with the train running late, normally covered in darkness.
- 6:34 — pass a recycling center. The Youghiogheny River (I believe) is barely visible off in the distance with another steel bridge. We pass some idol freight cars and follow the river between the trees.
- 6:44 — pass an old steel mill and really start hugging the river. We cross the river and continue through the trees. We keep following the river opposite us.
- 7:04 — Go through Coulter
- 7:13 — Sutersville then a junk yard in the mist.
- 7:18 — Go through West Newton with a bunch of small houses. We then keep following the river in the morning most. I chat with a slightly odd lady, a Veterans for Peace Activist. We keep following the river. I’m finding a man who claims to be a railfan and talks too much annoying and decide to return to my seat as we keep following the river between the trees. My seat mate has returned from sleeping in the lounge.
I get a final nap in before at 7:59 we get to Connelsvill right along the river and make a double stop at the modern AmSheltered station. There is banging downstairs. We finally get the double toot at 8:10. We then pass the CSX Connellsville Yard which is relatively large. The train then returns to the mountainous valley with a stream running through it. The landscape is still misty although soon the clouds break and some sunlight is seen.
Just before 9am we get last call for breakfast which I want. I sit down in the dining car with two ladies both listening to their iPods. We say morning and little else. It goes down as my least social Amtrak diner meal so more. My coffee comes in something I haven’t gotten since the Coast Starlight, a real mug! Unfortunately it’s just scrambled eggs on the menu and not ones made to order so I decide to splurge and try the omelette. Its nice and large and should keep me going until our 3:10 DC arrival time. We go through fields and trees and little towns in rural southern Peensyvlania.
During breakfast at 9:20 they stop and announce we will be here until 10am due to the work in the Pinkerton Tunnel ahead in the Allegheny mountains, it’s time accounted for in the delayed schedule. As I leave breakfast the dining car steward discusses the schedule for Lunch, set up take then an hour (off for the crew) and reopen at 11:00 through Martinsburg at 1:00pm. Normally this train when it arrives at 12:30 serves brunch (with both the breakfast and lunch menu offered) through the morning. At 9:40 I’m back in my seat, lacking cell service and decide to read my book.
At 9:59 the power shuts off an odd, a good sign going from idol mode to moving mode. At 10:19 were finally moving again continuing through the mountains. The river is beneath us.
At 10:25 we enter a tunnel with a few lights set up. It looks like a construction site with mesh around and we keep following a river. At the next grade crossing is a container and portable office trailers. We pass a container train I assume designed for clearance restricted track as there are no double stacks just single containers in each rail car. The Superliner is taller than it so I look out the window over it to the river we are still following.
- 10:49 — Regain cell service as we go through Garrett. There is a wind turbine and house precariously placed on top of a hill.
- 10:50 — We go under a highway and continue through the trees. Next is the town of Meyersdale with a nicely restored depot. I stay in my seat not feeling the lounge car at the moment. We go under another railway bridge that is now a bike path. It is the Great Allegheny passage.
- 11:03 — enter another tunnel. We reemerge up in the trees. Conductor announces around noon into Cumberland and CSX is doing track work there so the stop will be brief. I wonder what that will mean for the smokers? We continue up the mountains, now along a mountain stream as we go through another tiny town and then cross the stream.
- 11:23 — Another tunnel albeit short.
- 11:25 — A tiny town with a tiny post Office. Lacking cell service I can’t find out its name. Westbound freights keep passing us.
- 11:35 — We reach another town, Hyndman I feel very relaxed reading a good book lazily going through the mountains. Alert as I want to be from the caffeine of my breakfast coffee. We cross another stream, the car is nice and silent. I don’t feel like the lounge.
- 11:43 — Speed up a little following a river and then reach a small farm with hills cleared for pasture for cattle.
- 11:48 — Pass through another small town. The conductor announces Cumberland, not saying if it is or isn’t a smoke stop. I got a decent photo essay a year ago and don’t care that much. We enter Cumberland seeing billboards for the Chessy federal credit union. We enter town, passing some track work with a welder with what looks like an umbrella over him.
First stop is 11:59. The nice attendant informs us Cumberland will not be a smoke stop as usual. He tells us that it’s conductor orders and apologizing. At least I already have a photo essay of this AmShack. We leave at 12:10 with some quite mad smokers. The train slowly leaves town returning to meadows and trees.
- 12:30 — Pass a work train of old railroad ties. Then over a rural river.
- 12:38 — We get to green hills by a meadow. I decide it’s time to try the lounge going through the hills following a river, which continues.
- 1:00 — get the announcement that the dining car is fully closed and thanking us for our patronage. The omelette was a good choice, it was perfectly good and I’m still full. We keep following the river. Sitting I bye lounge car I see something that really surprises me, an Amish/Mennonite family drinking Red Bull. The tree covered hills along a river continue.
- 1:12 — pass a little brick depot of Potomac and it’s tiny airport. The speed has increased. The biggest thing I notice is the rock crops of all the trees.
- 1:26 — we get the announcement for Martinsburg, a two stop. We slowly curve through the trees, picking up some dust along the line.
- 1:35 — pass modular homes and a water tower for Berkeley County.
- 1:39 — pass more CSX track gangs and enter Martinsburg.
We arrive at 1:42 to the nice old brick station. It has a nice roundhouse. We make a double stop, if only Marc schedule would have reverse peak trips. We leave at 1:50. Then the last call for the cafe closing after Harpers Ferry. We pass more MOW equipment as we enter woods again going through trees and fields. Were now 8 minutes from Harpers Ferry, another two-stop, really scheduled for 15 minutes. This conductor seems to like to say times that are less than reality to make passengers ready to get off.
- 2:09 — we pass a coal train of empties.
- 2:11 — The wide river comes into view and we keep going through trees.
We come to a stop in Harpers Ferry at 2:14 and then pull up for the double stop. We leave at 2:20 to cross the river and enter a long tunnel. We then enter the trees. I return to my seat and the conductor addresses a bunch of passengers who just boarded the train.
- 2:28 — Go through Brunswick with a nice, large CSX yard and a Marc Station. We slowly follow a river on cliffs, as the two attendants do the pillows and trash sweep.
- 2:43 — Cross another river as we approach DC and we slowly continue through trees.
- 2:45 — We get the announcement for Rockville just going trough trees. I missed the little Marc trains.
- 2:56 — Pass Germantown with a nice historic depot.
- 3:01 — Metropolitan Grove
- 3:04 — Pass the Red Line’s yard and Shady Grove terminus followed by a freight train.
- 3:07 — we stop across from the red line’s station for our quick suburban DC stop of Rockville. It’s a double stop and a freight passes as we pull into the station. I see the conductor already off radioing the double-stop.
- 3:12 — pass Twinbrook and the red line.
- 3:15 — Kensington. We slowly follow the red line into town.
- 3:31 — We slowly approach DC and I hear track 25 lower level announced for the crew passing Marc as we come in.
We pull into one of the lower-level platforms with VRE trains preparing to depart from their main two platforms. Our official arrival time is 3:33. I step of the train and have a leisurely walk up the platform, getting pictures of Washington-Union Station’s lower level in daylight for the first time. The walk isn’t as long as getting off the Capital Limited from the upper level platform and the overpass to exit the station comes before we pass the locomotives. A southbound Northeast Regional headed for Richmond comes in across from us on the same platform. There is first an escalator which I skip using followed by a narrow staircase that I take. It leads up to the VRE gate area. I leave the station and walk the 1.3 miles to the Washington Youth Hostel. The Washington Metro is a system I desperately want to photograph for the website but day passes cost $14 (a weekly short-trip pass, probably would work for me is $35 if I came down for 3 days, enough time I bet to visit each station) and I can’t justify spending that on just a short afternoon of gathering a few stations.
I end up checking in the Youth Hostel, one I will definitely return to when I finally go back to Washington to photograph the Metro system, a system I haven’t ridden in at least ten years. I spend the evening as a tourist visiting the okay transportation exhibit at the National Museum of American History, one of three Smithsonian’s opened late, and then visit the new World War II and MLK Jr memorials which weren’t opened and didn’t exist the last time I was in DC. Tired from the train I slept quite well even in a ten bed hostel dorm room.