I havent been around for a while because things have been pretty busy around here, I have been checking the posts on this board every now and then to keep my self semi up to date. I hope everyone has been doing well.
Anyways, so yesterday I took a trip along with a group of other people that my mom works with by bus to Boston to see the city for a day and then go to the Sox game at Fenway Park later on in the evening.
The Trip was a typical bus trip, but things got interesting as we headed to Boston. I noticed on Interstate 90 that we began to Parallell CSX's B&A main line, There was no traffic on it but it was interesting to see how this part of the line was routed. We also passed Bacon Park Yard, which really isnt very big (Boston isnt a very major point on the system). I got exited though as we neared downtown and a new stretch of tracks joined the B&A from the southeast, these tracks had catenary - the Northeast Corridor!!
Then as we were about to enter the Centeral Artery I looked off and in the distance there was an Amfleet Coach I noticed, and as I got closer I saw a Viewliner and a baggage car up front, it was the Lake Shore sitting out in the yard before its departure, there seemed to be one other Amfleet trainset sitting by it as well, but besides that it looked quite empty, no locomotives on the front of the Lake Shore yet, as it was about 1045 or so - an hour before departure.
We were dropped off by the aquarium, we visted there, and then went for a walk through the city and we ended up right by South Station, so I wanted to stop in and see if I could see an Acela Express in there, or any other kind of electric locomotive as I havent seen one in real lift before.
South Station wasnt hard to get lost in, ha it wasnt as big as I expected it to be, but maybe there is much more to it. We walked right through the place and there it was, an Acela trainset with powercar 2002 near the bufferpost. Now there was quite a few people waiting around at Tables and such for trains, along with a few Pigeons inside. It was about 2 PM. I wanted to take a closer look at the Acela, so I walked right past the security guys as well as station personal without them even turning their heads.
I have a new found appreciation for the Acela seeing it up close, it looks very sleek and fast. It was spotless execpt for some kind of rather large stain looking mark on its nose. It was just sitting there quiet with a fan running and thats all. Very cool, and again no one said anything about us out on the platform checking the Acela out!
There were no other Amtrak consists in the station at that time, but there were three MBTA commuter trains, one of which was boarding for points south I think. They all had the Kawasaki bi-level cars, I recall them having their finishing touches applied to them in Pittsfield back in 1990 or so.
For some reason I pictured South Station as a bigger place, but it seemed like pretty nice station. My brother said the restroom was DISGUSTING though, the worse hes ever been in.
But after seeing the action down in Boston, and how great of a city it is (pretty clean, and unintimidating I thought!!) Im defiantly heading back down there sometime to ride the Acela! Hopefully sooner then later.
Another thing, I wish Amtrak had another train that got into Boston in the late morning from Albany and other intermediate points and one that heads back later in the evening, because Id love to take the train down there and back, but with the current Lake Shore Limited schedule, the timings are terrible!!
By the way, the game at Fenway, as well as the atmosphere there was AWESOME, the Red Sox beat the Blue Jays 5-4 in one great game!!
Anyways, so yesterday I took a trip along with a group of other people that my mom works with by bus to Boston to see the city for a day and then go to the Sox game at Fenway Park later on in the evening.
The Trip was a typical bus trip, but things got interesting as we headed to Boston. I noticed on Interstate 90 that we began to Parallell CSX's B&A main line, There was no traffic on it but it was interesting to see how this part of the line was routed. We also passed Bacon Park Yard, which really isnt very big (Boston isnt a very major point on the system). I got exited though as we neared downtown and a new stretch of tracks joined the B&A from the southeast, these tracks had catenary - the Northeast Corridor!!
Then as we were about to enter the Centeral Artery I looked off and in the distance there was an Amfleet Coach I noticed, and as I got closer I saw a Viewliner and a baggage car up front, it was the Lake Shore sitting out in the yard before its departure, there seemed to be one other Amfleet trainset sitting by it as well, but besides that it looked quite empty, no locomotives on the front of the Lake Shore yet, as it was about 1045 or so - an hour before departure.
We were dropped off by the aquarium, we visted there, and then went for a walk through the city and we ended up right by South Station, so I wanted to stop in and see if I could see an Acela Express in there, or any other kind of electric locomotive as I havent seen one in real lift before.
South Station wasnt hard to get lost in, ha it wasnt as big as I expected it to be, but maybe there is much more to it. We walked right through the place and there it was, an Acela trainset with powercar 2002 near the bufferpost. Now there was quite a few people waiting around at Tables and such for trains, along with a few Pigeons inside. It was about 2 PM. I wanted to take a closer look at the Acela, so I walked right past the security guys as well as station personal without them even turning their heads.
I have a new found appreciation for the Acela seeing it up close, it looks very sleek and fast. It was spotless execpt for some kind of rather large stain looking mark on its nose. It was just sitting there quiet with a fan running and thats all. Very cool, and again no one said anything about us out on the platform checking the Acela out!
There were no other Amtrak consists in the station at that time, but there were three MBTA commuter trains, one of which was boarding for points south I think. They all had the Kawasaki bi-level cars, I recall them having their finishing touches applied to them in Pittsfield back in 1990 or so.
For some reason I pictured South Station as a bigger place, but it seemed like pretty nice station. My brother said the restroom was DISGUSTING though, the worse hes ever been in.
But after seeing the action down in Boston, and how great of a city it is (pretty clean, and unintimidating I thought!!) Im defiantly heading back down there sometime to ride the Acela! Hopefully sooner then later.
Another thing, I wish Amtrak had another train that got into Boston in the late morning from Albany and other intermediate points and one that heads back later in the evening, because Id love to take the train down there and back, but with the current Lake Shore Limited schedule, the timings are terrible!!
By the way, the game at Fenway, as well as the atmosphere there was AWESOME, the Red Sox beat the Blue Jays 5-4 in one great game!!
