The Metropolitan
OBS Chief
Just one good day all around to travel by train, at least for our itinerary!
For months, my oft-stressed out friend was always stressing that she never went anywhere. Of course, I couldn't help but feel guilty, having packed up and rolled out on the rails 10 times this year, so I promised her that if she would tell me someplace she'd like to go, I'd work it out for us to get there.
Two weeks ago, she mentioned that she'd like to take a day off and head to Philly on Friday 12/15. After checking codes, I managed to convince her to switch the date to Monday 12/11, due both to cheaper fares, and the last few days of the availability of the V769 code (50% off companion fare to Philly). Turns out it was the right move!
Since she couldn't leave before 8am and had to be back before 4pm, we booked a rather short itinerary. Depart on #172 at 8:07am, and return on #171 from PHL at 2:13pm. This would give us 5 hours in Philly to ride about a bit, get some lunch, and otherwise relax.
We met at Penn Station a little after 7:30am, and picked up our tix from the Quik-Trak, and went to await our train. My friend often moans about having bad luck, but judging by today, trains certainly like her.
Everything went without a single hitch. Right about 8:00am, our Boston-bound train was called for boarding, and we headed to the platform for boarding. #172 came in pretty well loaded, and after heading up just shy of the cafe car, we *just* managed to get a pair of seats together, though they were the 4-pack seats over the trucks. In any event, we had them to ourselves for the moment, and since we only had from Wilmington to Philly in which we might have company, we opted to deal with it. I gave her the window seat (ok, HALF window seat) so she could watch the scenery, as I'd seen it many times before. We did drop past the Cafe about halfway to Wilmington, where we picked up a pair of Cinnamon Rolls, Coffee and OJ - just enough to hold us over before Cheese Steaks.
At Wilmington, we were joined by a couple of brothers bound for New York, who looked like they'd already had a long day. Turns out they had started their journey by auto in NC the night before, and their stick shift car got stuck in 4th just past Baltimore. They made it as far as Wilmington before breaking down, and now had to drop the car in the shop and continue their journey on the train. Needless to say, they never expected to be aboard this train this morning, but considering their dilemma, were glad to be moving aboard something they didn't have to worry with.
Arrival in Philly was essentially perfect at about 9:15am, and all members of our crew were quite nice - a great start to the day. Since we had some time before lunch, and my friend had never really toured Philly before, I decided we'd try a round trip on the SEPTA R7 and R8 and take a short visit to Chestnut Hill this morning. The R7, due at 9:27 came in right on time, and not long after our arrival in Philly, we were in motion again. Our SEPTA conductor was also quite nice as well, as we made the trip through North Philly, Germantown, and Mt. Airy before alighting at the very cool Gravers Station just before the Chestnut Hill terminal.
We spent just under a half an hour browsing through Chestnut Hill before boarding the R8 to return to Center City. Unlike the counter-flowing Chestnut Hill East Train which had room to spare on the trip out, this 10:45 trip inward filled to nearly full seats before our arrival at 30th Street, when the load eased off. Our own arrival at Market East was in good time a little before 11:30am.
We spent a few minutes in the Gallery Mall before heading around to Reading Terminal Market for some steaks from Rick's Steaks. Definitely another highlight of the day.
Then it was back to the Gallery to do some minor shopping, as well as a couple other stops at the SEPTA museum store, and the ex-Wannamaker Macy's just to browse and get a little feel for the holiday season.
By now, it was about 1:00pm. Since we needed to make this train, we decided to get an early start back to 30th Street, so we caught a #10 Subway Surface Trolley back to the station, and browsed the gift shops a bit before settling on a bench about 1:40pm to await our train's arrival. Despite a couple trains showing LATE status, including the ACELA leading our Regional at 2:10pm, #171 was shown as ON TIME! Interestingly, the Silver Star was only showing an arrival of 5 minutes late!
A little past 1:50, we were EXTREMELY suprised to hear OUR 2:13 train called for boarding! The attendant mentioned that #171 was coming in a bit early today! This was a great plus to us, as it would give us a little head start in getting good seats.
Sure enough, on the stroke of 2:00pm, an AEM-7 came gliding into 30th Street with our train in tow, and we hardly needed to jockey for a spot by the door. On boarding, we turned to the right, and got another suprise! Here was a full-Business Class Coach working in coach, with its extra leg room, footrests, and curtains. Only the "doilies" were missing from the seats. We found a pair of comfy seats right in the middle of the coach, this time with a full window view, and settled in for the journey back.
#171 glided out of 30th Street right on the money at 2:13pm, and made perfect time all the way into Baltimore. As the train rolled past Wilmington and into the scenic parts of Cecil County, I could see that my friend was really enjoying this. In her words: "this is the most relaxed I've been in a LONG time!"
I'd guess the only downside to the ride back was that it was too quick. It seemed that all too soon, we were making our stop at Aberdeen (which on my recent trips stopping here, has seemed to get QUITE busy), and we knew it would not be long before Baltimore would again be on the horizon. As we were on the right side, our hometown snuck up on us to some degree. Despite a somewhat rustic look on the right side, a look to the opposite side revealed we were in Bayview Yards, and our journey could almost be counted in seconds.
Sure enough, familiar streets such as Monument Street, Edison Highway, Patterson Park Avenue, and Broadway came in quick succession before we plunged into the tunnel. Our arrival in Baltimore could not have been better timed. We even BEAT the Acela that was supposed to have left us in the dust back in Philly. As a final odd prize, our arrival in BAL was on TRACK 4 (typically the commuter platform, but used on occasion by AMTK), not the typical track 7 used by SB trains (it turns out that was to be for that slow ol' Acela!)
I'm pretty sure I've won a convert over to train travel when she now talks about taking another train trip soon, anywhere from "weeks" to "February" at the latest.
All Aboard!
For months, my oft-stressed out friend was always stressing that she never went anywhere. Of course, I couldn't help but feel guilty, having packed up and rolled out on the rails 10 times this year, so I promised her that if she would tell me someplace she'd like to go, I'd work it out for us to get there.
Two weeks ago, she mentioned that she'd like to take a day off and head to Philly on Friday 12/15. After checking codes, I managed to convince her to switch the date to Monday 12/11, due both to cheaper fares, and the last few days of the availability of the V769 code (50% off companion fare to Philly). Turns out it was the right move!
Since she couldn't leave before 8am and had to be back before 4pm, we booked a rather short itinerary. Depart on #172 at 8:07am, and return on #171 from PHL at 2:13pm. This would give us 5 hours in Philly to ride about a bit, get some lunch, and otherwise relax.
We met at Penn Station a little after 7:30am, and picked up our tix from the Quik-Trak, and went to await our train. My friend often moans about having bad luck, but judging by today, trains certainly like her.
Everything went without a single hitch. Right about 8:00am, our Boston-bound train was called for boarding, and we headed to the platform for boarding. #172 came in pretty well loaded, and after heading up just shy of the cafe car, we *just* managed to get a pair of seats together, though they were the 4-pack seats over the trucks. In any event, we had them to ourselves for the moment, and since we only had from Wilmington to Philly in which we might have company, we opted to deal with it. I gave her the window seat (ok, HALF window seat) so she could watch the scenery, as I'd seen it many times before. We did drop past the Cafe about halfway to Wilmington, where we picked up a pair of Cinnamon Rolls, Coffee and OJ - just enough to hold us over before Cheese Steaks.
At Wilmington, we were joined by a couple of brothers bound for New York, who looked like they'd already had a long day. Turns out they had started their journey by auto in NC the night before, and their stick shift car got stuck in 4th just past Baltimore. They made it as far as Wilmington before breaking down, and now had to drop the car in the shop and continue their journey on the train. Needless to say, they never expected to be aboard this train this morning, but considering their dilemma, were glad to be moving aboard something they didn't have to worry with.
Arrival in Philly was essentially perfect at about 9:15am, and all members of our crew were quite nice - a great start to the day. Since we had some time before lunch, and my friend had never really toured Philly before, I decided we'd try a round trip on the SEPTA R7 and R8 and take a short visit to Chestnut Hill this morning. The R7, due at 9:27 came in right on time, and not long after our arrival in Philly, we were in motion again. Our SEPTA conductor was also quite nice as well, as we made the trip through North Philly, Germantown, and Mt. Airy before alighting at the very cool Gravers Station just before the Chestnut Hill terminal.
We spent just under a half an hour browsing through Chestnut Hill before boarding the R8 to return to Center City. Unlike the counter-flowing Chestnut Hill East Train which had room to spare on the trip out, this 10:45 trip inward filled to nearly full seats before our arrival at 30th Street, when the load eased off. Our own arrival at Market East was in good time a little before 11:30am.
We spent a few minutes in the Gallery Mall before heading around to Reading Terminal Market for some steaks from Rick's Steaks. Definitely another highlight of the day.
Then it was back to the Gallery to do some minor shopping, as well as a couple other stops at the SEPTA museum store, and the ex-Wannamaker Macy's just to browse and get a little feel for the holiday season.
By now, it was about 1:00pm. Since we needed to make this train, we decided to get an early start back to 30th Street, so we caught a #10 Subway Surface Trolley back to the station, and browsed the gift shops a bit before settling on a bench about 1:40pm to await our train's arrival. Despite a couple trains showing LATE status, including the ACELA leading our Regional at 2:10pm, #171 was shown as ON TIME! Interestingly, the Silver Star was only showing an arrival of 5 minutes late!
A little past 1:50, we were EXTREMELY suprised to hear OUR 2:13 train called for boarding! The attendant mentioned that #171 was coming in a bit early today! This was a great plus to us, as it would give us a little head start in getting good seats.
Sure enough, on the stroke of 2:00pm, an AEM-7 came gliding into 30th Street with our train in tow, and we hardly needed to jockey for a spot by the door. On boarding, we turned to the right, and got another suprise! Here was a full-Business Class Coach working in coach, with its extra leg room, footrests, and curtains. Only the "doilies" were missing from the seats. We found a pair of comfy seats right in the middle of the coach, this time with a full window view, and settled in for the journey back.
#171 glided out of 30th Street right on the money at 2:13pm, and made perfect time all the way into Baltimore. As the train rolled past Wilmington and into the scenic parts of Cecil County, I could see that my friend was really enjoying this. In her words: "this is the most relaxed I've been in a LONG time!"
I'd guess the only downside to the ride back was that it was too quick. It seemed that all too soon, we were making our stop at Aberdeen (which on my recent trips stopping here, has seemed to get QUITE busy), and we knew it would not be long before Baltimore would again be on the horizon. As we were on the right side, our hometown snuck up on us to some degree. Despite a somewhat rustic look on the right side, a look to the opposite side revealed we were in Bayview Yards, and our journey could almost be counted in seconds.
Sure enough, familiar streets such as Monument Street, Edison Highway, Patterson Park Avenue, and Broadway came in quick succession before we plunged into the tunnel. Our arrival in Baltimore could not have been better timed. We even BEAT the Acela that was supposed to have left us in the dust back in Philly. As a final odd prize, our arrival in BAL was on TRACK 4 (typically the commuter platform, but used on occasion by AMTK), not the typical track 7 used by SB trains (it turns out that was to be for that slow ol' Acela!)
I'm pretty sure I've won a convert over to train travel when she now talks about taking another train trip soon, anywhere from "weeks" to "February" at the latest.
All Aboard!
