Amtrak has lower priority outside of the NEC. They don't control the rails, the freight companies do. That combined with the brutal weather would cause delays. All of this is normal for any long distance Amtrak trains.
Aidan Cheddar is a character used in a trilogy of books that started out as comics that also doubles as my persona and avatar. Name wise, I choose Aidan cause I simply liked it, also a name of one of our cats but spelled differently, and Cheddar was chosen because I like, inhale anything with...
If they're in kennels, why put them in overhead? This goes back to the whole puking thing too. Pretty dangerous place for them too if one where all accidentally fall from to much movement of the animal and train.