OK. I have "tripped" out. The trip I'm remembering was in August of 1977, not May of 1980 (this was another trip). I found the ticket jacket to verify this time. I very vividly remember several things about this 1977 trip. We were in the last coach as it was the one that would split off and go to Washington D.C. I thought for sure it did so at Harrisburg but the ticket says N. Philly. It seemed so odd to be able to see the engine from the forward door of our car since the Washington leg of the trip was only the one coach. A food service attendant came into our car with a tray of sandwiches to sell for the trip into DC. On our return trip the AC went out in our coach about half an hour outside of DC. We got to Harrisburg (I distinctly remember this because the rest of the train was late coming from New York so we had about two hours or so sitting under the Harrisburg station) and I was able to get off the car and scope out the station which was filthy and really creepy--bad lighting, scary people, to my 13 year-old mind. Anyway, I can remember the conductor in our car having some discussion about meeting the train at Harrisburg because the New York section was running late. So, I don't know if they would have gone to North Philly but decided to meat up at Harrisburg instead. When the NY section finally hooked up with our car most of the passengers rushed to get seats in the other coach cars since we didn't have AC. My dad and I stayed in the non-AC car the rest of the trip with the doors opened on both ends to let in air. I hated the heat but loved the trip so much it didn't seem to matter. Anyway, there were technicians on the train for several hours in route trying to fix the AC in the Washington DC coach but to no avail. Interestingly, there was a family that rode with us on the train that was traveling from Kansas City to Washington, DC. On our outbound trip they moved from a sleeper to the DC coach when the train split. We conversed with them and didn't think much of it. When my dad and I boarded the one-car train for our return trip to St. Louis the family was in the DC coach already. More information then necessary but the interesting point was that this Santa Fe exec was deeply unhappy with the quality of service. He went into great technical detail about why Amtrak service was so poor, etc. In the short trip from DC to Harrisburg he spoke with the conductor several times complaining about various issues. This guy wrote Amtrak a three-page letter, single spaced listing his complaints and sent a carbon copy (yes, real carbon copy!) to my father. Anyway, when the NY section arrived in Harrisburg this family moved to their sleeper accommodations. And now that I think about it it might have been that we were waiting in Harrisburg for a crew change, not to meet the NY section. I recall a train arriving on the adjacent track and a harried food service crew quickly exiting that train and boarding ours. The coach we had was unique as well. There was a lounge section in the middle of the car--two L shaped sofas facing each other one with the bottom of the L toward the front of the car and the other with the bottom of the L toward the rear. It divided the car in half and was kind of a mini lounge for coach passengers. None of the other coach cars on the train were of this type. There was a true Club Car--had big, heavy swivel chairs--one on each side of the aisle.
Thank you for allowing me to ramble and entertain myself with this walk down memory lane. Anyone have a timetable for 1977 that could let me know what days the DC car was offered? It appears from the ticket that the train departed St. Louis (another decrepit structure at that time) at 1:00 p.m. and arrived at Washington DC at 5:45 p.m. the next day.
