chuljin
Lead Service Attendant
Post-Gathering A: THE Acela Ride
Pictures of this part are the last 20 in this album (beginning with the picture of the menu, snack mix, and drink).
One of my goals for this trip was a full-length Acela trip in FC. Fortunately, I had plenty of AGR points, so plunked down the necessary 10,500. Due to my enthusiasm, I wound up being the first person to board the train. Once on board, the redcap stowed my large rollaway, and told me, 'These guys wait on you hand and foot...make sure you take advantage of that.' Well, I did. Perhaps a little too much. The trip started on a high note, and ended, not in disaster, but, I would guess, at least mild embarassment that I'd almost have forgotten were it not for a hundred excited tweets enroute. But I won't be shy about it...the good, the bad, and the ugly are all part of the rich panoply and adventure of life.
Soon after boarding train 2259 at BOS, I was greeted by the FC Attendant, Ash, who really went out of his way to make all of us comfortable. He presented me with a small dish of (according to the menu) 'Tom Douglas Rub with Love Snack Mix', and asked what I'd like to drink. 'Why not?' I thought, and asked for a gin and tonic. While he was getting it, I examined the interesting ingredients of this snack mix: besides the peanuts and almonds one would expect, it had wasabi peas, malted barley, and currants. When he came back with the drink, he took my 'dinner #1' (ex BOS) order, and was about to take away the menu, but allowed me to keep it as a souvenir. While I waited, one of the conductors came on the PA to tell us that 'we were called out of the yard unexpectedly, so we're in street clothes, but we *are* wearing our Amtrak IDs.'
Unfortunately, the much-praised lamb shanks were not among the choices, so I had the stuffed chicken breast, described as 'boneless breast of chicken stuffed with fontina cheese and spinach, topped with a red pepper couli, served with potato rosti and cured olives'. It also came with a breadroll and a caprese salad, and a small dish of what I thought was mashed potatoes, but actually the dessert, vanilla bean mousse. All this with a Black Swan Chardonnay. It was all excellent. I've only flown FC twice in my life (redeeming miles for a rare treat), and so I don't have the best frame of reference, but I would have to say this far exceeded those. As Ash cleared my tray, I excitedly showed him the shop tour pictures that were still in my camera.
I found remarkable (if a little startling) our meets with other trains at what I guess for some meets would be at an effective speed of some 250mph. BOOM WHOOSH. Mr. chuljin called, and I excused myself into the vestibule to converse; when I returned, my drink had been refilled. This was going to be a 'happy' ride. Stephen (Long Train Runnin') had started to notice my tweets, and between us we figured out that I was chasing him down the NEC...he was on 165, the immediate previous train. He started out over an hour before us, but due to more stops and apparently some other issue, by NYP we were breathing down the back of his neck. :lol: Somewhere between PVD and NHV, I noticed, for the first time, something I'd hear a few times: a sound almost exactly like an airplane's landing gear go down, including the clunk of the door opening, the motor of them rolling into position, and the softer clunk of them locking. Does anybody know what that might be? My only guess was the pump that in-/deflates the tilt airbag.
I knew jis was also on my same train, so (via twitter, of course) I found out where on the train he was. Remember how I boarded first and sat in the last car? By coincidence, jis boarded last and sat in the first car (as mentioned in his reply to my Part 6 report). As I started towards the rest of the train, Ash saw me and stood to see what I needed. I explained that I was going to go meet a friend, and off I went. All BC cars seemed pretty busy, but surprisingly, the seat next to jis was empty, so I sat and visited from (IIRC) about 20 minutes before NHV to 5 minutes after. While at NHV, jis' sharp eyes saw a private car being cut off a regional. I tried to get a few pictures, but my simple camera yielded unsatisfying results.
On my way back, Ash stopped me and asked how I'd managed to be at the shops. So I sat for a while and told him about AU, that our presence was mostly online, but we meet once a year in some city and explore the trains there, and that such Gatherings often include some behind-the-scenes treat (I told him about 8th St last year too). Told him that he'd eventually figure in a trip report (this one), and wrote down the URL for him. Perhaps too hard on myself, but I wish a little (and perhaps Alan and Anthony do too) that I hadn't, since as the trip wore on, 'chuljin' and 'ideal AU representative' began to diverge a little. Back at my seat, we lost HEP for a few seconds at around 7pm, and shortly after tore through MNRR's South Norwalk Station. I noticed the guy across from me snoring pretty loudly...Acelas *do* ride smooth. We continued on through now almost complete darkness, until stopping at Stamford mere minutes after the ever-later 165, were treated to hot towels, and soon passed by an MNRR train. Chris L (jackal) guessed that it was perhaps because we'd come to the point where the NEC and MNRR's New Haven line diverge.
By this point we were perhaps 13 minutes down, and a Conductor came on the PA to blame Long Train Runnin': 'Ladies and Gentlemen, 21 minutes to New York. 165 is right in front of us. If they keep moving we'll be fine.' We were still going through almost total darkness, punctuated by the occasional orangeish streetlight, and I was about to complain and confirm Alan's opinion that they're nothing to see at that time of night, when I suddenly noticed an enormous bridge that at least at the time I thought was the Hell's Gate Bridge. We crossed it, and I saw, for the first time with my own eyes (though still miles away, I suppose) the Empire State and Chrysler buildings, and excitedly told anyone who would listen through every medium available to me. We descended into the tunnels and arrived at NYP.
I stepped off for a moment, and we were off again at 8:16, 16 minutes down. I found out that Stephen had gotten home, and shortly after, we, too, stopped at 'Metropaahk'. Here I began 'dinner #2', this time the vegetarian selection, 'tomato ravioli stuffed with sweet and spicy peppadew peppers, ricotta and smoked mozzarella cheeses, served over a basil pesto sauce topped with fresh diced tomatoes', and a Bridlewood Central Coast Syrah 2006. Just before I got it, I was accidentally given the dinner of the lady across the way, the seafood papillote in a banana leaf. Ash corrected this fortunately before I touched it in any way, but not before I took a picture of it. That's why my album shows two 'dinner #2' pictures. The second is actually mine. This, too, was excellent. I took a break with a Diet Pepsi, but sadly or happily came back to the gin and tonics. My notes say that (on a southbound train) I had the 4th 'between PHL and BOS', which shows how well the first three worked.
We arrived at PHL at about 9:25 (see, still about 12 minutes down), and later departed WIL at 9:53. As we left WIL, I gave a shout-out to our rail-friendly Vice President: my tweet at the time included the words 'yay VP yay'. The friend who would be my host in NYC later that week was having a birthday the next day, so at 10:20 I tweeted this gem:
)
I was then silent, both in my notes and on twitter, for over an hour, before using Foursquare to check in at WAS (at about 11:25, suggesting it was after I was already well out of the station).
Still, I managed a few pictures of some FRA business cars across the platform, and legibly record the following consist:
2012, 3205, 3515, 3550, 3313, 3514, 3407, 2013 (i.e. set 16). Though I recorded it in my notes thus:
Next up: Part 8, my slow crawl towards PHL.
Speaking of 'a hundred excited tweets', in case you want to review my real-time opinions of Acela, and/or have a good laugh, you can go to my Twitter feed, click 'more' at the bottom approximately 9-10 times (or until you see 'accidentally first to board! (@ South Station in Boston)' and read *up* from there (the last tweet being 'I'm at Union Station (50 Massachusetts Avenue, NE, 1st Street NE, Washington).' Reader Discretion Advised.
Pictures of this part are the last 20 in this album (beginning with the picture of the menu, snack mix, and drink).
One of my goals for this trip was a full-length Acela trip in FC. Fortunately, I had plenty of AGR points, so plunked down the necessary 10,500. Due to my enthusiasm, I wound up being the first person to board the train. Once on board, the redcap stowed my large rollaway, and told me, 'These guys wait on you hand and foot...make sure you take advantage of that.' Well, I did. Perhaps a little too much. The trip started on a high note, and ended, not in disaster, but, I would guess, at least mild embarassment that I'd almost have forgotten were it not for a hundred excited tweets enroute. But I won't be shy about it...the good, the bad, and the ugly are all part of the rich panoply and adventure of life.
Soon after boarding train 2259 at BOS, I was greeted by the FC Attendant, Ash, who really went out of his way to make all of us comfortable. He presented me with a small dish of (according to the menu) 'Tom Douglas Rub with Love Snack Mix', and asked what I'd like to drink. 'Why not?' I thought, and asked for a gin and tonic. While he was getting it, I examined the interesting ingredients of this snack mix: besides the peanuts and almonds one would expect, it had wasabi peas, malted barley, and currants. When he came back with the drink, he took my 'dinner #1' (ex BOS) order, and was about to take away the menu, but allowed me to keep it as a souvenir.
While I waited, one of the conductors came on the PA to tell us that 'we were called out of the yard unexpectedly, so we're in street clothes, but we *are* wearing our Amtrak IDs.'Unfortunately, the much-praised lamb shanks were not among the choices, so I had the stuffed chicken breast, described as 'boneless breast of chicken stuffed with fontina cheese and spinach, topped with a red pepper couli, served with potato rosti and cured olives'. It also came with a breadroll and a caprese salad, and a small dish of what I thought was mashed potatoes, but actually the dessert, vanilla bean mousse. All this with a Black Swan Chardonnay. It was all excellent. I've only flown FC twice in my life (redeeming miles for a rare treat), and so I don't have the best frame of reference, but I would have to say this far exceeded those. As Ash cleared my tray, I excitedly showed him the shop tour pictures that were still in my camera.
I found remarkable (if a little startling) our meets with other trains at what I guess for some meets would be at an effective speed of some 250mph. BOOM WHOOSH. Mr. chuljin called, and I excused myself into the vestibule to converse; when I returned, my drink had been refilled. This was going to be a 'happy' ride. Stephen (Long Train Runnin') had started to notice my tweets, and between us we figured out that I was chasing him down the NEC...he was on 165, the immediate previous train. He started out over an hour before us, but due to more stops and apparently some other issue, by NYP we were breathing down the back of his neck. :lol: Somewhere between PVD and NHV, I noticed, for the first time, something I'd hear a few times: a sound almost exactly like an airplane's landing gear go down, including the clunk of the door opening, the motor of them rolling into position, and the softer clunk of them locking. Does anybody know what that might be? My only guess was the pump that in-/deflates the tilt airbag.
I knew jis was also on my same train, so (via twitter, of course) I found out where on the train he was. Remember how I boarded first and sat in the last car? By coincidence, jis boarded last and sat in the first car (as mentioned in his reply to my Part 6 report). As I started towards the rest of the train, Ash saw me and stood to see what I needed. I explained that I was going to go meet a friend, and off I went. All BC cars seemed pretty busy, but surprisingly, the seat next to jis was empty, so I sat and visited from (IIRC) about 20 minutes before NHV to 5 minutes after. While at NHV, jis' sharp eyes saw a private car being cut off a regional. I tried to get a few pictures, but my simple camera yielded unsatisfying results.
On my way back, Ash stopped me and asked how I'd managed to be at the shops. So I sat for a while and told him about AU, that our presence was mostly online, but we meet once a year in some city and explore the trains there, and that such Gatherings often include some behind-the-scenes treat (I told him about 8th St last year too). Told him that he'd eventually figure in a trip report (this one), and wrote down the URL for him. Perhaps too hard on myself, but I wish a little (and perhaps Alan and Anthony do too) that I hadn't, since as the trip wore on, 'chuljin' and 'ideal AU representative' began to diverge a little.
Back at my seat, we lost HEP for a few seconds at around 7pm, and shortly after tore through MNRR's South Norwalk Station. I noticed the guy across from me snoring pretty loudly...Acelas *do* ride smooth. We continued on through now almost complete darkness, until stopping at Stamford mere minutes after the ever-later 165, were treated to hot towels, and soon passed by an MNRR train. Chris L (jackal) guessed that it was perhaps because we'd come to the point where the NEC and MNRR's New Haven line diverge.By this point we were perhaps 13 minutes down, and a Conductor came on the PA to blame Long Train Runnin': 'Ladies and Gentlemen, 21 minutes to New York. 165 is right in front of us. If they keep moving we'll be fine.' We were still going through almost total darkness, punctuated by the occasional orangeish streetlight, and I was about to complain and confirm Alan's opinion that they're nothing to see at that time of night, when I suddenly noticed an enormous bridge that at least at the time I thought was the Hell's Gate Bridge. We crossed it, and I saw, for the first time with my own eyes (though still miles away, I suppose) the Empire State and Chrysler buildings, and excitedly told anyone who would listen through every medium available to me. We descended into the tunnels and arrived at NYP.
I stepped off for a moment, and we were off again at 8:16, 16 minutes down. I found out that Stephen had gotten home, and shortly after, we, too, stopped at 'Metropaahk'. Here I began 'dinner #2', this time the vegetarian selection, 'tomato ravioli stuffed with sweet and spicy peppadew peppers, ricotta and smoked mozzarella cheeses, served over a basil pesto sauce topped with fresh diced tomatoes', and a Bridlewood Central Coast Syrah 2006. Just before I got it, I was accidentally given the dinner of the lady across the way, the seafood papillote in a banana leaf. Ash corrected this fortunately before I touched it in any way, but not before I took a picture of it. That's why my album shows two 'dinner #2' pictures.
The second is actually mine. This, too, was excellent. I took a break with a Diet Pepsi, but sadly or happily came back to the gin and tonics. My notes say that (on a southbound train) I had the 4th 'between PHL and BOS', which shows how well the first three worked. We arrived at PHL at about 9:25 (see, still about 12 minutes down), and later departed WIL at 9:53. As we left WIL, I gave a shout-out to our rail-friendly Vice President: my tweet at the time included the words 'yay VP yay'. The friend who would be my host in NYC later that week was having a birthday the next day, so at 10:20 I tweeted this gem:
(presumably 'I['ve] been trying since Providence to say happy b[irth]day', followed by 'from' and the real-sounding word 'frodrious'. Not a clue about 'eashimngwsting'.This is chuljin`s brain on Acela. Any questions? said:
)I was then silent, both in my notes and on twitter, for over an hour, before using Foursquare to check in at WAS (at about 11:25, suggesting it was after I was already well out of the station).
Still, I managed a few pictures of some FRA business cars across the platform, and legibly record the following consist:
2012, 3205, 3515, 3550, 3313, 3514, 3407, 2013 (i.e. set 16). Though I recorded it in my notes thus:
i.e. in two neat columns, but with a rogue '3407' (afterthought?) :blink: :huh: :unsure: The roster at Another Place helped me unpuzzle it.That night, the station seemed to have none of the grandeur I've heard about; in retrospect it was just the taxi stand I remember. It unfortunately took a little help from a kind (and IIRC homeless) stranger to get me off to my hotel, where I slept pretty well. Still, altogether it was an enjoyable and frodrious trip.
Next up: Part 8, my slow crawl towards PHL.
Speaking of 'a hundred excited tweets', in case you want to review my real-time opinions of Acela, and/or have a good laugh, you can go to my Twitter feed, click 'more' at the bottom approximately 9-10 times (or until you see 'accidentally first to board!
(@ South Station in Boston)' and read *up* from there (the last tweet being 'I'm at Union Station (50 Massachusetts Avenue, NE, 1st Street NE, Washington).' Reader Discretion Advised.
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