greatcats
Engineer
Tonight I am at the Hilton Garden Hotel on 28th Street near New York Penn Station. I arrived several hours ago on Amtrak on what was a pretty good cross country trip. Tuesday, May 7, I departed Williams Junction, AZ. Why did I leave from Williams when I live 35 miles east in Flagstaff? Because I did not feel comfortable leaving my Toyota SUV in the parking lot in downtown Flagstaff for 15 days, and the idea of calling a taxi to come to my home at 4am to the train would make me a nervous wreck if it did not show on time. SO, I bade my beloved kitty cats a fond farewell, in the care of a well paid cat sitter, at 2:30 am and drove west on a mostly deserted Interstate 40 to the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel, which I have used previously and feel comfortable leaving my car there. ( I hope. ) The van driver took me and a friendly lady from Mexico City in a minivan out the dark forest road to the platform at Williams Junction. He turned off the platform lights so we could enjoy the starry sky and the Milky
Way in this very dark location. The train arrived and I boarded the Transdorm, Roomette 17. I ended up liking this car, and it has three showers - two upstairs and one downstairs. I stayed up reading until breakfast and then caught a snooze due to my disrupted hours of sleep, and woke up in Albuquerque. Our SCA was Linda Tucker, a 14 year Amtrak employee, who lives near Martinez, CA and commutes via the San Joaquins to cover her job. This lady is a fine representative of Amtrak. She was always friendly and gracious. Even if the train had been a real dog, which it was not, people like her really make the trip pleasant. The diner was mostly well run, but one of the servers, whose name I will omit here, had a manner of speaking which was rather rude to the customers. At breakfast the service was very slow and this turned out to be due that one of the kitchen staff had become ill during the night, leaving only one man down there. I skipped lunch and apparently the missing kitchen man was replaced at Albuquerque. ( Maybe they flew a replacement from Los Angeles. ) My server Jose at dinner was very courteous, as was the third server, Kanisha, and the young LSA Aiden, a very sharp looking guy. I did indicate to Aiden that I was not happy with the crab cakes, which I have found to be very good on other trains. They were rather tough and not very tasty.
I certainly enjoyed the ride through northern New Mexico and over Raton Pass, and it will be rather sad if the re-routing does take place. ( Which was never mentioned by any of the staff or crews. ) The line is certainly scenic and historic, but it is not hard to see why BNSF is using alternate routes. It is not a very modern railroad with its circuitous curves and steep grades. On we went through Kansas, which was certainly a bumpy ride most of the night, but I can't say that it was horrible or that I was going to be thrown out of bed. Arrival in Chicago was on time. I spent an hour at Andy's Jazz Club on Hubbard Street listening to a very fine jazz guitar combo, then went to a sushi restaurant ( not part of Amtrak offerings ) and returned about 7:30 to Union Station, as I was told to return by 8.
The boarding of this train was a botch job. Evidently the Mechanical forces were having problems with the train, which had four or five private cars on the back. We were told to line up at 9pm, after an initial delay and the lounge attendant, Annette, started taking us down the platform, only to be told on the radio to have us wait. We made a couple of more false starts, as Mechanical seemed to be having more problems. They backed up the very long train, which comprised 17 or 18 cars, and then had air problems. We were taken into the coach waiting area. Annette was trying to do right by us and watched over us vigilantly, but these situations have a term applied to them which I will not repeat here. Finally we boarded Train 48 well after 9:30 and left town at 10:15 pm.
I enjoyed the wine and cheese and then went to bed and this was one of my most restful nights ever spent on a train and the ride was fairly smooth. Kudos go to my SCA on this trip, Eric from Philadelphia, a very pleasant and friendly gent. I had long chats with him about the nature of his job on the extra board, which is difficult to cover on three hours notice between Philadelphia and New York. I did tell him the shower was difficult to use with the bag of laundry that usually is kept in there and I have never had a shower in a Viewliner that had adequate hot water. Other than this, and the Heritage diner being too hot inside, the trip was fine. The equipment is rather dog eared. My sleep was the " Majestic View " and I recall having been on this car in 2010 on the Cardinal, and it doesn't look much different. Other than the waits for some freights, and the switching at Albany, plus an unscheduled stop about 15 minutes down the Hudson, we arrived in New York Penn only about 15 minutes late. ( The conductors said there was a signal problem, but they were both out on the ground and the radio chatter sounded more like a mechanical issue. ) All in all, a very nice journey, but I feel the overall quality could be better if the operation was speeded up a bit, equipment spruced up, and the food brought up a notch in quality.
Since we arrived early enough, I was able to make it to the jazz club, Dizzy's, up on Columbus Circle, to hear the Juilliard School Jazz Band. Great stuff. This was my first time in New York City in nearly ten years. I think I like it here, a place that I used to frequent!
Way in this very dark location. The train arrived and I boarded the Transdorm, Roomette 17. I ended up liking this car, and it has three showers - two upstairs and one downstairs. I stayed up reading until breakfast and then caught a snooze due to my disrupted hours of sleep, and woke up in Albuquerque. Our SCA was Linda Tucker, a 14 year Amtrak employee, who lives near Martinez, CA and commutes via the San Joaquins to cover her job. This lady is a fine representative of Amtrak. She was always friendly and gracious. Even if the train had been a real dog, which it was not, people like her really make the trip pleasant. The diner was mostly well run, but one of the servers, whose name I will omit here, had a manner of speaking which was rather rude to the customers. At breakfast the service was very slow and this turned out to be due that one of the kitchen staff had become ill during the night, leaving only one man down there. I skipped lunch and apparently the missing kitchen man was replaced at Albuquerque. ( Maybe they flew a replacement from Los Angeles. ) My server Jose at dinner was very courteous, as was the third server, Kanisha, and the young LSA Aiden, a very sharp looking guy. I did indicate to Aiden that I was not happy with the crab cakes, which I have found to be very good on other trains. They were rather tough and not very tasty.
I certainly enjoyed the ride through northern New Mexico and over Raton Pass, and it will be rather sad if the re-routing does take place. ( Which was never mentioned by any of the staff or crews. ) The line is certainly scenic and historic, but it is not hard to see why BNSF is using alternate routes. It is not a very modern railroad with its circuitous curves and steep grades. On we went through Kansas, which was certainly a bumpy ride most of the night, but I can't say that it was horrible or that I was going to be thrown out of bed. Arrival in Chicago was on time. I spent an hour at Andy's Jazz Club on Hubbard Street listening to a very fine jazz guitar combo, then went to a sushi restaurant ( not part of Amtrak offerings ) and returned about 7:30 to Union Station, as I was told to return by 8.
The boarding of this train was a botch job. Evidently the Mechanical forces were having problems with the train, which had four or five private cars on the back. We were told to line up at 9pm, after an initial delay and the lounge attendant, Annette, started taking us down the platform, only to be told on the radio to have us wait. We made a couple of more false starts, as Mechanical seemed to be having more problems. They backed up the very long train, which comprised 17 or 18 cars, and then had air problems. We were taken into the coach waiting area. Annette was trying to do right by us and watched over us vigilantly, but these situations have a term applied to them which I will not repeat here. Finally we boarded Train 48 well after 9:30 and left town at 10:15 pm.
I enjoyed the wine and cheese and then went to bed and this was one of my most restful nights ever spent on a train and the ride was fairly smooth. Kudos go to my SCA on this trip, Eric from Philadelphia, a very pleasant and friendly gent. I had long chats with him about the nature of his job on the extra board, which is difficult to cover on three hours notice between Philadelphia and New York. I did tell him the shower was difficult to use with the bag of laundry that usually is kept in there and I have never had a shower in a Viewliner that had adequate hot water. Other than this, and the Heritage diner being too hot inside, the trip was fine. The equipment is rather dog eared. My sleep was the " Majestic View " and I recall having been on this car in 2010 on the Cardinal, and it doesn't look much different. Other than the waits for some freights, and the switching at Albany, plus an unscheduled stop about 15 minutes down the Hudson, we arrived in New York Penn only about 15 minutes late. ( The conductors said there was a signal problem, but they were both out on the ground and the radio chatter sounded more like a mechanical issue. ) All in all, a very nice journey, but I feel the overall quality could be better if the operation was speeded up a bit, equipment spruced up, and the food brought up a notch in quality.
Since we arrived early enough, I was able to make it to the jazz club, Dizzy's, up on Columbus Circle, to hear the Juilliard School Jazz Band. Great stuff. This was my first time in New York City in nearly ten years. I think I like it here, a place that I used to frequent!
