We’ve never been south of Miami, or down the former SCL line from Raleigh to Savannah, so I devise a full week’s itinerary that also includes Richmond to Newport News, VA. We’ll get to and from Washington DC using the Southwest Chief and capitol Limited, that are using the same train sets, and in which (this year) we can reserve the same room from LA to DC.
This evening, we started our journey by taking the shuttle van from home to Los Angeles Union Station. We check our baggage through to Miami, then board our train with plenty of time to walk the train and collect the consist before departure.
[consist]
P42 73
P42 65
P42 85
MHC 1433
Baggage 1740
Transition 39040
Coach 34036
Coach 34088
Coach Smoker 31517
Lounge 33038
Diner 38043
Sleeper 32086 Louisiana
Sleeper 32098 New Jersey
MHC 1563
MHC 1500
MHC 1568
MHC 1403
MHC 1509
MHC 1553
19 cars, 76 axles
Train 4, 4-24-1998 |
Schedule |
Actual |
|
Los Angeles |
8:20pm |
8:20pm |
|
Fullerton |
9:16 |
9:19/24 |
|
San Bernardino |
10:19 |
10:28 |
|
Barstow |
11:59 |
12:07am |
|
4-25-1998 |
|
|
|
Flagstaff |
6:50am |
6:45/56 |
|
Winslow PT |
7:55 |
7:57 |
|
Gallup MT |
10:34 |
10:36 |
|
Albuquerque |
1:19/44 |
1:06/45 |
|
Lamy |
2:50 |
2:55 |
|
Las Vegas, NM |
4:33 |
4:40 |
|
Raton |
6:19 |
6:24 |
|
Trinidad |
7:16 |
7:20/25 |
|
La Junta |
8:56 |
8:36/ 9:00 |
|
Lamar MT |
9:40 |
9:46/ 10:07 |
|
4-26-1998 |
|
|
|
Newton CT |
3:22am |
4:00am |
|
Topeka |
5:40 |
6:18/22 |
|
Lawrence |
6:10 |
6:53 |
|
Kansas City |
7:33/58 |
8:00/29 |
|
La Plata |
10:12 |
11:16 |
|
Fort Madison |
11:24 |
12:25pm |
|
Galesburg |
12:18pm |
1:24 |
|
Princeton |
1:11 |
2:12 |
|
Mendota |
1:31 |
2:31 |
|
Naperville |
2:23 |
3:21 |
|
Chicago |
3:40 |
4:15 |
Southwest Chief Route Description
After departing Los Angeles, we spend 17 minutes adding the six Material Handling Cars (MHCs) on the rear of the train, using the train itself to do the switching over to the track on which the cars have been loaded. Then we spend 10 minutes waiting from San Diegan train 785 at Mission Tower. We eat dinner in the diner and go to bed at about 10 pm.
We awake at sunrise (about 6 am), and pass Williams Junction at 6:08 am. We eat breakfast between 7 and 7:45 am with a couple who has just boarded at Flagstaff. They're from just north of Phoenix, where she's the director of research at a Pharmaceutical company that has just been bought by another company, headquartered in Philadelphia. They're on the way to Philly, to look at houses and decide if they will move there. He's a retired engineer, and she had retired also but received an offer "she couldn't refuse" to return to work. Now they have another decision to make. He talks about how much they like the train, both as an environment and as a way to cross the country. I tell him that he should make his views known to the politicians, so that Amtrak can get its full subsidy requirements met. He agrees, but suggests his representative and senators (in Arizona) do not agree. I then suggest that those who like to ride Amtrak should vote democratic. “Oh, no!” he says, “I couldn’t do that!”
They'll be traveling with us as far as Pittsburgh, on the way out, and all the way from DC to Flagstaff, on the return. We see them in the sleeping cars quite often; he starts calling me "Big Don".
There is a train setting out a stack car at Lupton (MP 180—from Albuquerque), with three other stack trains and two other freights queued up behind him. Although the two main tracks are bidirectionally-signaled, the dispatcher has nonetheless kept the other track open for our Amtrak train to run unimpeded through this area.
At Albuquerque, a freight headed by BN 6788, EMD 6421, BNSF 6972 and BNSF 8261 pulls right up behind our train as it stand in the station. At Canyoncito siding, between Lamy and Las Vegas, we pass train 3 with P42s 27, 84, and 30. Just after leaving Trinidad, we pass a freight. At Lamar, paramedics are called to the lower level of car 11 (the second coach ahead of the Lounge). This area is often used for elderly coach passengers who can’t climb the stairs. We’re in bed soon after Lamar.
We get up during the stop in Topeka. While we’re eating breakfast, the train stops on the on-line fuel rack at Argentine yard from 7:33 to 7:45 am, to refuel. From 8:40 to 9:02 am we wait for switches to be fixed at “UP Xing”. From 9:04 to 9:12, we flag the crossing with the maintainer present at Rock Creek Junction. Train 330 to St. Louis is waiting ahead of our train 4 at this point. At 9:18 am we stop to detrain an intoxicated passenger at a Maintenance-of-Way yard.
Since the BNSF merger, a connection has been built at Cameron between the former Santa Fe and former Burlington tracks, west of Galesburg, to facilitate trains from the former ATSF route accessing the yards built by Burlington Northern SW of town. This connection, which we traverse at 1:10 pm is now used to transfer the Amtrak trains to the former Burlington line into the staffed station in Galesburg, and then onwards through Mendota, Princeton and Naperville into Chicago. To the West of Naperville is Aurora, the place where the commuter service from Chicago ends. East of here, the track is triple, rather than double, and a frequent service of bi-level commuter trains known as "Dinkies" provides an hourly off-peak service all day long, along with a peak services that utilizes all three tracks to provide a mix of stopping, skip-stop, and express services to and from Chicago. The triple track reaches Chicago adjacent to the 14th Street maintenance facilities of both Amtrak and Metra, at the point where the St. Charles Air Line splits off to connect to the Illinois Central tracks on the lakeshore. At this point, the train turns sharply North into Chicago Union Station.
Our train, however, turns south when it arrives at this location at 3:52 pm, drops the six MHCs off the rear, pulls forward across the 21st Street bridge over the Chicago River at 3:57 pm, stops to reverse onto the adjacent track at 4:02 pm, and makes a “safety stop” inside the station at 4:12 pm before finally arriving at 4:15 pm.
We interchange to the Capitol Limited in Chicago (it's the same trainset as we came in on, and in 1998 we're allowed to leave our things in the room between trains). We have a three-hour wait for the train consist to depart eastward as the Capitol Limited. The weather is quite rainy, so we don’t go anywhere except to walk around the various levels and corridors that comprise Chicago Union Station. Then we sit down to read in the Metropolitan Lounge (the waiting area for first class and sleeper passengers) until our train is called just before 7 pm. I have time to walk to the front of the train and record the new locomotive consist. On departure, we stop adjacent to the 14th Street coach yard for 30 minutes (7:25-7:55 pm) to add three MHCs. I never do get a chance to record their numbers. At Englewood, we stop from 8:07 to 8:15 for a westbound Conrail TV (stack) train to pass. Again, there is no indication of what is blocking the other track.
[consist]
P42 91
P42 1
Baggage 1740
Transition 39040
Coach 34036
Coach 34088
Coach Smoker 31517
Lounge 33038
Diner 38043
Sleeper 32086 Louisiana
Sleeper 32098 New Jersey
MHC
MHC
MHC
14 cars, 56 axles
Train 30, 4-26-1998 |
Schedule |
Actual |
|
Chicago |
7:20pm |
7:21pm |
|
Hammond-Whiting CT |
8:20 |
8:26/31 |
|
South Bend ET |
10:22 |
10:33 |
|
Elkhart |
10:50 |
10:52 |
|
Waterloo |
11:43 |
11:47pm |
|
4-27-1998 |
|
|
|
Elyria |
2:33am |
2:45am |
|
Pittsburgh |
6:20/40 |
6:23/40 |
|
Connellsville |
8:16 |
8:10/15 |
|
Cumberland |
10:47/52 |
10:44/51 |
|
Martinsburg |
12:22pm |
12:24pm |
|
Harper’s Ferry |
12:47 |
12:47 |
|
Rockville |
1:32 |
1:27/32 |
|
Washington DC |
2:00 |
1:59 |
Capitol Limited Route Description
The train (#30) leaves Chicago at 7:30pm, and soon afterwards, the Chief of OnBoard Services (COBS) passes through the sleepers handing out dinner reservations; ours are, perforce, for the second sitting, at 10pm CDT (first is at 8:30pm). We get to bed after 11:30 pm (CDT).
Our late bedtime notwithstanding, I awake as we reach the Ohio River near Rochester, PA, about 6:15 am (EDT). I lie in bed and watch as we pass Conway yard and run along the river to Pittsburgh. I dress while the train is standing in Pittsburgh station, and we have breakfast as the train runs along the Monongahela and Youghioghany rivers (the latter is very high along here, presumably with snow melt) on its ascent towards Sand Patch summit. We eat breakfast with a couple that has retired to Reno, Nevada, who arrived in Chicago just before us on train 6, the California Zephyr. She carries an oxygen bottle with her everywhere, but sees no conflict between that and living at the relatively high altitude of Reno! From 9:15 to 9:18, we cross a broken rail at MP 235.4 at walking speed, under the direction of Foreman Calvin J Bittner. From 10:36 to 10:39 am, we stop at Franklin Street, Cumberland, before entering the Cumberland station. We eat lunch at 11:30 am, while traversing the Magnolia Cutoff, east of Cumberland.
On Washington Union Station, we patronize the Great Train Store, buying several books, during the short time we have before the southbound Silver Star is due. As we head down to the long lower-level platform, a man falls as he is getting off the escalator. There seems to be no emergency switch at the bottom, so descending passengers are piling up on top of one another as the escalator continues to bring them downward, yet passengers in front cannot clear. Someone drags the fallen man clear before anyone is crushed, but the potential for a serious accident was present for a few moments. Once on the platform, we find our Viewliner sleeper and board.
This is our first time in a Viewliner[1], so we’re interested to examine the room facilities. Unlike a Superliner, there are windows for both lower and upper beds. Due in part to the extra height available by having only one level of rooms (compared to the Superliner’s two), there is also space for an en-suite toilet, even in the Standard Bedrooms. There is also a small TV screen that shows movies playing on a central system somewhere in the car. We turn this off, immediately. Apart from the two Viewliner sleepers, the rest of the train is Amfleet long-distance coaches, along with a “Heritage” diner and baggage car.
[1] Viewliners have been developed for the routes to the Northeast and along the East Coast, where the trains must deal with restricted clearances and overhead electrification catenary on the NEC, and thus can’t use the Superliner cars used on trains that don’t serve the Northeast. We’ve been traveling in Superliner Standard (formerly Economy) Bedrooms since 1982, but our previous East Coast trips have all been in “Heritage” sleepers (i.e. single-level sleepers bought from the railroads that previously ran them, when Amtrak was formed in May, 1971), or on day trains using Amfleet cars only. Although the Capitol Limited reaches Washington DC, it is able to use the bi-level cars (by the expedient of turning off the overhead catenary power when the train is in the station) and thus has the same Superliner consists used all the way to the West Coast.
[consist]
P42 44
MHC 1502
Baggage 1137
Dorm 2501
Sleeper 62026 Ocean
View
Sleeper 62046 Tranquil
View
Diner 8551 (ex-CB&Q Silver Diner)
Lounge 28011
Coach 25109
Coach 25087
Coach 25103
Coach 25121
12 cars, 48 axles, 1027 ft.
Train 91, 4-27-1998 |
Schedule |
Actual |
|
Washington, DC |
4:30pm |
4:42pm |
|
Alexandria |
4:51 |
5:12 |
|
Richmond |
6:31/41 |
7:15/25 |
|
Petersburg |
7:14 |
8:00 |
|
Rocky Mount |
8:41 |
9:26/30 |
|
4-28-1998 |
|
|
|
Jacksonville |
7:42am |
7:55am |
|
Palatka |
9:12 |
9:33 |
|
DeLand |
10:01 |
10:22 |
|
Sanford |
10:21 |
10:46 |
|
Winter Park |
10:47 |
11:07/20 |
|
Orlando |
11:22 |
11:34/46 |
|
Kissimmee |
11:42 |
12:01 |
|
Winter Haven |
12:42 |
1:06 |
|
Sebring |
1:22 |
1:47 |
|
West Palm Beach |
3:07 |
3:53 |
|
Delray Beach |
3:26 |
4:20 |
|
Deerfield Beach |
3:42 |
4:47 |
|
Fort Lauderdale |
4:00 |
5:07 |
|
Hollywood |
4:15 |
5:32 |
|
Miami |
4:50 |
5:55 |
Railroads (not trains, but the tracks and their locations) in the Old South have a different appearance from those in the North and West, as we've noticed on our Atlanta trip in 1994 and the route through Jacksonville in 1995, as well as on the Miami trip in 1998. I can't quite put my finger on what it is, but something about the way the track runs unfenced, and with no borders, through green strips in the middle of towns (often in the middle of streets, but nonetheless with a green strip) stands out in the videos we have, as well as when we're traveling on the train through this area. This is noticeable along the (old) RF&P in Virginia, as well as along the lines further south. This is one of those effects that's especially noticeable when one goes to sleep in one type of environment, and wakes in another, as with the transition on the western trains from western mountains and deserts to Midwestern non-irrigated farmland and vice versa.
South of Cary, we travel on the old Seaboard Air Line route through Hamlet, NC, and Columbia, SC, to Savannah, GA. The Silver Star in both directions traverses all of this at night. At 5:25 pm we stop alongside train 90 to exchange diner supplies. From 6:40 to 6:42 we wait form the Twilight Shoreliner to pass, once it has passed a northbound CSX freight. We eat dinner at 8:25 pm, south of Petersburg. We go to bed somewhere around the VA/NC state line
In 1998, there are two routes south from Jacksonville as far as Auburndale: one via Orlando and one via Wildwood and Tampa. South of Auburndale, all trains use the same route to Miami. The Silver Star and Silver Meteor use the route via Orlando.
We awake after leaving Savannah. Breakfast is at 8:25 am, just leaving Jacksonville. On approaching Sanford, we pass the Auto Train depot on the east side of the track. At Winter Park, we need to unload checked baggage, but there are no station staff “due to a crafts meeting”. This causes another 10-minute time loss. From 12:08 to 12:11 pm, after leaving Kissimmee, we wait for train 98 to clear S.E. Kissimmee. From 12:44 to 12:52, we slowly traverse Auburndale Interlocking. From 2:33 to 2:43 we wait at Sherman for train 92 with P42s 9 and 59. From 3:10 to 3:24, we flag the bridge and crossing at Indiantown. From 3:54 to 4:01, we wait for a signal at West Palm Beach. From 4:28 to 4:37, we wait at Yamato for a tri-Rail northbound to pass. From 5:24 to 5:29, we wait just north of Hollywood for train 90, to whom we exchange dishwasher soap and bleach
As we arrive in Miami, the Florida Fun-Train, with its colorfully painted locomotives, is in the next platform. It’s raining, and we’re preoccupied with luggage, so I don’t even try to take a photograph. Of course, it’s gone by the time we return on Wednesday. Initially, there aren’t enough taxis at the Miami Amtrak station, and we have to wait awhile before we can leave for the hotel. The taxi driver doesn’t know the hotel by name, but of course he does know where the center of Miami Beach is, so he takes us there. The art deco hotel district is interesting to see, and we wouldn’t have seen it otherwise, but it isn’t where our hotel is. I tell the driver to head northward along the only road along the island, and eventually we find the hotel. This taxi driver merits, and gets, no tip from us.
The hotel in Miami Beach is weird; it’s mostly empty—there are only two tables occupied in the dining room when we have dinner. I know it’s off-season, and we chose this hotel because of the low price offer in the AAA Guide, but this is almost creepy. The first room we’re assigned has the water taps full on, and the floor is flooded. The second room has no toiletries of towels, suggesting it wasn’t planned to use it tonight.
After dinner, we get the gate key for the ocean-side path from the desk (we weren’t given one on checking in) and take our evening walk alongside the Atlantic Ocean. The beachside is quite interesting—there’s a gravel path, then some grass and a slope of a few feet in height, then we’re on the gently sloping beach. The breakers rolling in from the Atlantic are different from those off the Pacific, at home in Hermosa Beach, in ways I can’t quite describe.
Today is our one day on this trip not spent entirely on a train. We’ve got about eight hours to kill in Miami Beach—simple you might think? No, because it’s raining, for the first time in over three weeks or two months we’re told, depending on who is doing the telling. So, we try to find places where there’s enough light to read by, but are nonetheless out of the rain. This is harder than it sounds, because once we’ve had to leave the room (check out time), we can’t find anywhere inside the hotel where there’s enough light for me (at least) to read by.
Perhaps we should have gone over to the station, left the bags, and ridden the elevated transit system. However, when we do go over to the station (too late to do that), it transpires that there is nowhere to leave the bags we’re not checking, not even in the First-class lounge! About 4:30 pm we board, I record the consist, and we leave on time. From 6:14 to 6:18, we wait for a southbound tri-Rail train to pass. At 7:18, we pass train 91 at Indiantown. At 7:47, we pass the Florida Fun Train. We eat dinner at 8:00 pm. From 8:21 to 8:23, we pass a freight at Sebring. At 10:00, we turn south towards Sarasota, and then stop at 10:04 to reverse into Tampa, which takes us the next 15 minutes. Soon after leaving Tampa, we’re asleep.
[consist]
P42 91
P42 1
MHC 1466
MHC 1451
Dorm 2466 Silver Plum
Sleeper 25030 Patriot View
Sleeper 25042 Summit View
Diner 8514 (Former NYC grill-diner)
Lounge 28014
Coach 25028
Coach 25026
Coach 25115
Coach 25058
Baggage 1707
Baggage 1734
16 cars 64 axles
Train 90, 4-29-1998 |
Schedule |
Actual |
|
Miami |
5:00pm |
5:01pm |
|
Hollywood |
5:27 |
5:22/27 |
|
Fort Lauderdale |
5:41 |
5:37/41 |
|
Deerfield Beach |
6:04 |
6:00/04 |
|
Delray Beach |
6:15 |
6:24/29 |
|
West Palm Beach |
6:44 |
6:40/46 |
|
Okeechobee |
7:42 |
7:45 |
|
Sebring |
8:19 |
8:26 |
|
Winter Haven |
9:00 |
9:09/13 |
|
Lakeland |
9:21 |
9:31/35 |
|
Tampa |
10:13/20 |
10:20/28 |
|
4-30-1998 |
|
|
|
Charleston |
6:56am |
6:50/59 |
|
Kingstree |
7:56 |
7:56 |
|
Florence |
8:52 |
8:28/52 |
|
Dillon |
9:27 |
9:23/27 |
|
Fayetteville |
10:17 |
10:17/22 |
|
Rocky Mount |
11:45 |
11:40/45 |
|
Petersburg |
1:07pm |
1:12pm |
|
Richmond (arr.) |
1:48 |
2:15 |
The Miami route is retraced through the “Gold Coast” and the Okeechobee grasslands to Sebring, Winter Haven and Auburndale. The Wildwood/Tampa route runs west from Auburndale through Lakeland to Tampa, where the train reverses on a wye adjacent to Ucela Yard and backs the rest of the way into Tampa, then east again over the same line to Lakeland, where it turns north through Wildwood, Ocala (where it jogs east a couple of miles) and Waldo to Baldwin, then turns east for the last 15 miles or so to Jacksonville.
Again, we awake just after leaving Savannah. Although this is not the first time we’ve ridden the old Atlantic Coast Line route north from Florida, it is the first time we’ve seen it in daylight. We eat breakfast at 7:30 am. At 11:04 am, we pass Selma Junction, thus rejoining our route from Monday evening. We eat lunch at noon. At 1:19 pm, we pass train 97 with P42 96. From 1:50 to 2:07, we wait 5 miles south of Richmond for a southbound “locomotive”. We have a scheduled 3¾-hour wait at Richmond, which becomes 4½ hours. While waiting, we see the following trains:
2:45 pm NB freight
3:05/15 SB Amtrak 89
3:10 NB freight
3:25 SB freight
4:15/30 NB Amtrak 80, P42 98
4:24 SB freight
5:48/52 NB Amtrak 66/76, F40
391
6:07 SB freight
6:19 SB freight
6:27 SB Auto Train
6:40 SB Amtrak 95
Our train to Newport News arrives as train 95 leaves, I record the consist as it arrives, and we board the Custom Class car at the rear of the train.
[consist]
P42 2
Coach 21104
Coach 21619
Coach 44673
Coach 21686
Coach 20037
Café/Custom 20173
Train 95, 4-30-1998 |
Schedule |
Actual |
|
Richmond |
5:24pm |
6:50pm |
|
Williamsburg |
6:38 |
8:04/08 |
|
Newport News |
7:04 |
8:36 |
Tidewater Service Route Description
We eat dinner on the train (it’s included) as we enjoy the run along the James River. It’s raining in Newport News. Am I surprised? Well, no, since it rained every day when I was here visiting Newport News Shipbuilding, back in 1990. In fact, based on my personal experience, it’s always raining in Newport News. J We take a taxi to the hotel and go to bed.
On Friday morning, when we arise at 7:00 am, it’s still raining. We check out of the hotel and take a cab back to the station. After awhile, our train (the same consist as last night) appears out of it’s siding across the several tracks by the Newport News station, and makes its way across the formation into the platform. We board and say hello, again, to the same attendant who served Custom Class the evening before. We eat breakfast after leaving Williamsburg. At 9:40 am, we pass train 67 east of Richmond. From 10:00 to 10:04, we stop on track number 4, south of Acca Yard. The radio channel here is AAR 96, 161.550 MHz, not shown in my reference book.
[consist]
P42 2
Coach 21104
Coach 21619
Coach 44673
Coach 21686
Coach 20037
Café/Custom 20173
Train 94, 5-1-1998 |
Schedule |
Actual |
|
Newport News |
8:20am |
8:21am |
|
Williamsburg |
8:43 |
8:49/52 |
|
Richmond |
9:57 |
10:10 |
|
Ashland |
10:17 |
10:30/33 |
|
Fredericksburg |
10:59 |
11:16 |
|
Quantico |
11:19 |
11:37 |
|
Woodbridge |
11:31 |
11:49 |
|
Alexandria |
11:51 |
12:17 |
|
Washington DC |
12:14 |
12:33 |
North of Fredericksburg, we pass a northbound train and Amtrak 79. At Lorton, at 11:54 am, we see the Auto Train that appears just to have arrived at its northbound terminal. Between Alexandria and DC we see one southbound and one northbound CSX freight. There is a waiting southbound CSX freight at South Capitol Junction
When we arrive in Washington, train 94 switches out a baggage car for train 89. In Washington, there’s time for a ride on some of the Metro that we’ve not been on before, as well as a quick second visit to the Great Train Store, before it’s time to board our Capitol Limited for Chicago.
[consist]
P42 44
P42 29
MHC 1425
MHC 1434
MHC 1459
Baggage 1722
Transition 39013
Coach 34072
Coach 34131
Coach 31540
Lounge 33042
Diner 38033
Sleeper 32067
Sleeper 32109 South
Dakota
14 cars, 56axles
Train 29, 5-1-1998 |
Schedule |
Actual |
|
Washington, DC |
4:05pm |
4:09pm |
|
Rockville |
4:28 |
4:31 |
|
Harper’s Ferry |
5:13 |
5:15 |
|
Martinsburg |
5:39 |
5:40 |
|
Cumberland |
7:15/19 |
7:08/18 |
|
Connellsville |
9:38 |
9:40 |
|
Pittsburgh EDT |
11:33/53 |
11:44/ 12:07 |
|
5-2-98 |
|
|
|
Waterloo, IN ET |
5:36am |
6:25/33 |
|
Elkhart |
6:27 |
7:19 |
|
South Bend |
6:54 |
7:53 |
|
Hammond-Whiting CT |
7:59 |
9:08 |
|
Chicago |
9:20 |
10:02 |
On this train, we meet the couple from Phoenix who have been house-hunting in Philadelphia, again. At 8:14 pm, we stop briefly with the locomotive on a road crossing on Sand Patch grade. We eat dinner with a couple who are getting off in Waterloo, Indiana, at what they expect will be 5:30 am. From 11:14 to 11:43, we stop and wait just outside the Pittsburgh station. I suspect this is the time during which the cars that I later see on the rear of the train (not recorded) are added.
We awake during that Waterloo, IN, stop, at 6:30 am. We eat breakfast about 7:30 am. From 9:30 to 9:40, we wait at Ashland Avenue for the outbound International to pass. From 9:44 to 9:49 we stop just north of the 21st Street Bridge to drop off the cars on the rear for pickup by Amtrak switcher 794. Even so, we’re only 40 minutes late into Chicago after being an hour late all across Indiana. Such is the power of the padding in the schedule for arrival times at terminal stations!
In Chicago, we walk over to CNW station, where we collect a set of pocket timetables for all of the former CNW commuter lines, and then ride the Northwest line out to Harvard (through Barrington and Crystal Lake, where I had visited in December, 1966), and return.
Chicago Area Route Descriptions
Harvard, at first glance looks still untouched by the reach of the big city, but must have many big-city commuters or Metra would not be running trains here. Harvard is some 60 miles from Northwestern Station!
As always on these Gallery Cars, we sit upstairs to get a better view of the world outside along the tracks. On the way out, there is a young woman downstairs who is busily going through what appear to be her wedding pictures, selecting which ones she wants to have in her final album or copied for friends and relatives. To judge by the number she has selected, someone is going to have a hefty bill to pay!
We return to Chicago on the next train, retracing the same route. Back in Union Station, we have a late lunch, then go to the Metropolitan Lounge to await the call for our train. As on the way east, we have left most of our things in the room and on the Superliner luggage rack. When we do board, I walk forward to capture the identities of the new engines. After an eight-minute late departure, we stop from 4:52 pm to 5:04 pm to add the MHCs, etc., to the rear of the train. It took only twelve minutes this time! From 5:08 to 5:12 pm, we wait at Western Avenue for a response from the Dispatcher. At 5:15 pm, we see a Conrail TV train coming off the B&OCT connecting track, then running next to us towards Cicero Yard.
On this train, we meet a man who’s a rail enthusiast, who has a number of questions about the way trolleys used to run in the Pasadena area. I answer them as best I can, since I wasn’t there at the time the trolleys were running (by a full 20 years). Later, the train stops from 8:40 to 8:54 pm on the Illinois approach to the Mississippi River Bridge, while we’re eating dinner.
[consist]
P42 54
P42 26
P42 65
Baggage 1722
Transition 39013
Coach 34072
Coach 34131
Coach 31540
Lounge 33042
Diner 38033
Sleeper 32067
Sleeper 32109 South
Dakota
MHC 1425
MHC 1434
Baggage 1260
MHC 1454
MHC 1558
MHC 1505
MHC 1411
Box Car 70022
20 cars, 80axles
Train 3, 5-2-1998 |
Schedule |
Actual |
|
Chicago |
4:40pm |
4:48pm |
|
Naperville |
5:45 |
5:46 |
|
Mendota |
6:31 |
6:36 |
|
Princeton |
6:53 |
6:56 |
|
Galesburg |
7:50 |
7:51 |
|
Ft. Madison |
8:48 |
9:04 |
|
La Plata |
9:53 |
10:09 |
|
5-3-1998 |
|
|
|
Dodge City |
7:11am |
8:14/18 |
|
Garden City CT |
7:56 |
9:01 |
|
Lamar MT |
8:18 |
9:12 |
|
La Junta |
9:35 |
10:00 |
|
Trinidad |
10:52 |
11:21 |
|
Raton |
11:59 |
12:20pm |
|
Las Vegas, NM |
1;44pm |
2:02 |
|
Lamy |
3:26 |
3:54/ 4:00 |
|
Albuquerque |
4:53 |
5:02 |
|
Gallup |
7:39 |
8:07 |
|
Winslow |
8:18 |
8:45 |
|
Flagstaff |
9:19/25 |
9:49/55 |
|
5-4-1998 |
|
|
|
San Bernardino |
6:03am |
6:31am |
|
Fullerton |
7:13 |
7:28/31 |
|
Los Angeles |
8:45 |
8:16 |
We wake in Kansas to an essentially uneventful day. We eat breakfast near Dodge City, pay close attention to the remaining semaphore signals between La Junta and Albuquerque, and eat lunch during the descent of Raton Pass. From 3:42 to 3:45 pm, the train stops to line the switch for entering the siding at Lamy, then pulls forward, and waits until 3:52 pm for train 4 to depart Lamy. At Albuquerque, we walk along the platform to the back of the train to record the identities of the mail and express cars on the rear. Dinner is between Gallup and Winslow, and we go to bed while the train is stopped in Flagstaff.
We awake during the San Bernardino stop. We’re a half hour early into Los Angeles, again due to the schedule padding. After collecting our checked baggage and taking the shuttle home, I’m in at work by mid-morning.