The Vermonter comes in early at 2:36 on the track closest to the station, led by P42 #156 covered in snow in the heritage paint scheme. I ask the new engineer waiting for the train if I can get a photo of the locomotive. The answer is yes but don’t go beyond the forklift near the walkway across to the other platforms. Excellent, my first vintage P42 paint photos on a regular train. I sit on the train for the 15 minutes as we wait for the on time departure. As always when you go from Superliner to Acela to Amfleet I the windows and seats seem smaller. Just two of the four coaches are even open for passengers going to and from Vermont. Their plenty of empty seats.
At 2:49 I hear the final boarding call announcement from inside the station. Then I see the northbound Vermonter arrive with a P42 pulling a cab car, what’s the point of the cab car then? We end up leaving two minutes late at 2:52. The conductor scans my $21 multi-city ticket with a points run hour stop in Hartford (it would have been $21.50 if I ticketed the segments separately) and says second stop I’ll let you know. I say isn’t it three and he responds we skip Widsor Ct. Os are going to New York and beyond, I get a handwritten seat check for HFD. We slowly leave following the Connecticut River and passing the basketball Hall of Fame. I-91 is in view, I’ve ridden this line before. The track is definitely smoother than farther north.
- 3:09 – we have entered Connecticut and cross its namesake river.
- Then follow the canal with a Windsor locks canal company sign. I miss seeing the historic station since I’m sitting on the opposite side.
- 3:13 – Amshack and short platform at Windsor Locks.
- 3:19 – zoom by the other Windsor station. It’s the first stop I bypassed today. There the usual grade crossings.
- 3:20 – MP 42. I still see the Connecticut River off in the distance.
- 3:22 – Pass a siding with a Connecticut Railroad Caboose. I get up and go to the rear of my car where another coach is being opened for everyone boarding in Hartford. My final entertainment on this Vermont ride is the conductor dusting of the steps and vestibule, complaining about How “I’m Over with Winter”. 3 of us are getting off.
We arrive into Hartford at 3:27 five minutes early on Track 1, the only track at this historic Union Station Station (the third visited today) that has been restored to become 1 Union Place an office complex. Passengers wait in a large waiting room with Amtrak ticket windows on one side, Greyhound-Peter Pan Windows on the other. I take a bit of a walk and am just feeling tired so I spend the layover sitting and reading the great hall before moving onto the less grand and more crowded Transportation Center waiting area beneath the railroad track. The ticket office has three employees that seem to be chatting with very few customers needing their services. eTickets are doing their jobs, I wonder when ticket offices will start to be cut. I do overhear a women asking the ticket office if the Shuttle is a train of bus? I guess she thinks it could mean a bus.