Greetings from the Lounge Car of the for once On Time Lake Shore Limited!
Well over the course of my three days I got quite a bit of the CTA done, getting the entire Pink, Brown, and Loop photographed along with the southern half of the Red and Green Lines, and the Skokie Swift, the one branch I had never ridden (I also experienced a ride on the souhbound purple line express which was a nice fast run). unfortunately these photos I don’t think I’ll release until after October when it looks like I’ll be back in Chicago again and will hopefully have the chance to finish the CTA so I can work on that upload in one filllswoop.
My ride on the Lake Shore Limited has been basically fine except for the fact I got stuck in an assigned asile seat and I just don’t sleep as well in those compared to the windows without something to lean on. The train seems to have gotten two extra coaches since when I took it two years ago for a total of six Amfleet-IIs (4 to New York, 2 to Boston), a Amfleet-II Diner Lite Conversion Lounge car (to Boston, whose lines last night were unbelievable stretching all the way down the car), a Heritage Diner (for New York, who was full for lunch by the time the steward came through my car), 3 Sleepers (2 to New York, 1 for Boston), and the required two separate baggage cars at each end of the train, with the front Boston one seeming to be of primary use.
The amazing part of the ride is that after leaving Chicago 5 minutes late we have been on time or early into all 4 of the service stops giving me an opportunity to photograph the interior of the station house at Toledo and do a full on photo essay of Buffalo-Depew, so it has been a successful trip for the website as well. I say this as we bypass Rome, and look like were 10 minutes late into Utica with a wheelchair getting on.