Day Trip 3-4-05 WPK-SBG-WPK

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AmtrakWPK

Conductor
AU Supporting Member
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Joined
Jun 18, 2004
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1,866
Location
Casselberry, Florida
We had tickets (weekly sale, cheap!!) WPK-SBG on P097, and SBG-WPK on P092, to give us some walkabout time at Sebring. Nice trip on 97, had a nice lunch in the diner, not terribly late to SBG. Checked in with the the station agent at SBG when we arrived, found that 92 hadn't even left Miami yet, would probably be 3.5 - 4 hours late coming up. She offered to get us on 98 instead, which was running about 45 minutes to an hour late at that point. Sounded good, as otherwise we'd be near midnight getting back to WPK on 92, so that's what we did. Conductor on 98 said no problem, climb aboard. Nice trip back, something around 1.5 hours late to WPK due in part to a medical emergency at ORL, had rescue and EMS transport a pax, but the pax was sitting up on the gurney in the parking lot when we departed, so hopefully not a serious problem for the pax. Lost us about 25 minutes, I think. The only regret today was not traveling the P092 dogleg out to Tampa and back, which I was looking forward to. But I really didn't relish waiting that long in SBG and getting back near midnight, so all in all, a nice trip.

And I noticed on a metal shelf between two of the coaches on P097 when we got on at WPK, there was a large cake of snow/ice, maybe 8 - 12 inches diameter, still hadn't melted. A very visible testament to the weather up north that 97 must have come through on the way South.

97 Conductor was a surly, unfriendly cuss. 98 Conductor seemed like a nice, friendly and efficient guy.

That's all for this trip. Didn't take any pix or jot down consist info except that 98 had #45 in the lead, with The Pennsylvania (private car, looked like maybe a diner?) tagging along at the end of the consist, 98 had a total of 52 axles per the DDs. 97 had two sleepers DH at the rear Southbound. Didn't catch a DD readout on 97.
 
Really shouldn't have expected too much out of 97's Conductors, they're not exactly my favorites. I will say this though, you missed the best JAX based Conductor on 92 though. Oh well, there's always next time.
 
The only one we really know is Billy, and Wendy and I usually manage to chew the fat with him for awhile when we get our schedules right. He was AC on Sunset the first few times we rode with him, then later he was C on the 97-92-91-98 rotation JAX-MIA-JAX-MIA-JAX, until last November's schedule change (truncation of the Bug plus the added TPA dogleg on 91-92) and he's 91/92 C now on what I guess is a fairly regular schedule JAX-TPA then TPA-JAX , Tue-Wed and Fri-Sat. We knew we'd miss him this time but between our schedule and the weekly sale availability, it couldn't be helped.
 
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