cpamtfan
OBS Chief
Just finished up my trip out to Elyria,OH with my father and brother. Firsts for me include new milage between Harrisburg and Cleveland as well as south of Pittsburgh.
Our trip started on the LIRR into NYC from Long Island. Our LIRR train arrived on track 13 and coincidentally, train 43 to PGH also boarded from that track.
I noticed the full NEC Business Class car has replaced the 50/50 cafe/business class car on the Pennsylvanian. I would have been rather disappointed and felt ripped off if I had gotten a BC ticket.
We left on time from NYC and scooted down to Philly. There I went upstairs before walking back to see our P42 being placed upfront. While watching them couple it up, a nice employee let me up in the cab! Pretty cool(Well..actually it was a good 100 degrees in there but...) office.
We then moved along the Keystone Corridor towards Harrisburg. I stopped in the cafe car for a turkey club wrap. I have to say the food, although way overpriced (For profit), is much higher class then say 5 years ago.
At Harrisburg, the conductor announced that it was the engineers final run. I took a walk up front to take some pictures, but unfortunitly I just missed him.
Also, I saw a little history before my eyes. AEM7 901, the first (or second) locomotive of that kind, next to the GG1 parked under the shed. Pretty cool in my book.
We wound our way across the Susquehanna and up through mountainous Pennsylvania. It wasn't my lucky day, though. We were about 30 minutes late going up into Horseshoe Curve and, of course, the only freight train within nearly an hour passed right in front of Horseshoe Curve! Hopefully the Broadway Limited can make it's return from the dead so I can take that route again.
We "magically" made up our 30 minute deficite to be about 10 minutes early. That left even more time in Pittsburgh. Great..
The ticket agent was not present in the station the entire time we were there, a good 5 hours! So we ended up lugging my bags to Primanti Brothers for one of their famous sandwiches. We learned later that the area we had walked through a rather "bad" area, but we did not encounter any bad things even with our bags.
Our train was about an hour late in. After being told to walk to the wrong end of the train, we boarded the first coach. What was weird about it? The train was backwards! Instead of sleepers to coaches, we were coaches to sleepers. That gave a "dome car" like view from the front door of our coach. Pretty interesting change.
After getting a little sleep, I quickly jumped off at Cleveland before rolling into Elyria nearly 2 and a half hours late. And why was the consist backwards? Well there were 6 private varnishes on the back of our train. That is the most I've ever seen.
We then spent 4 full days in Ohio, going to the Ceder Point amusement park and a Cleveland Indians ball game.
We arrived at the station around 12:30. We spent around an hour there. The station was opened, but no one was there. Only 2 NS trains passed in the hour we were there.
Our train arrived at 1:40, we boarded a nicely refurbished sleeper in bedroom C. Now I got the wrong end of the stick on this one. I had to sleep in the chair, facing the wrong direction. It made a tiring night of sleep. Our food service cars were both TIGER rebuilds, and both were quite nice inside.
Anyway I had the always good french toast, my dad had an omelet, and we took my sleeping brother scrambled eggs. I did not realize that this train was using "china" now. After the plastic age, this was a big step up.
I pretty much missed most of the scenery to sleep. I woke up in Martinsburg and enjoyed the change from rural farmlands to the mass populated area. We made up all of the time we lost overnight and arrived a mere 5 minutes late. It had started to pour about 15 minutes outside of Washington, but I did not realize how much rain there actually was!
After a nice luch in DC, we boarded train 148 from the Acela Club. We had to fight the weather and a little trouble with our HHP8, but we managed to get into NYC only 15 minutes late. We scurried over to the LIRR section and we jammed into a crowded peak period train. A far cry from the quiet Capitol Limited.
Overall I am pleased with this trip. I experiened some "new" Amtrak for me, and hopefully next year I will make it out west for the first time!
I will try to get pictures up later this week!
Our trip started on the LIRR into NYC from Long Island. Our LIRR train arrived on track 13 and coincidentally, train 43 to PGH also boarded from that track.
I noticed the full NEC Business Class car has replaced the 50/50 cafe/business class car on the Pennsylvanian. I would have been rather disappointed and felt ripped off if I had gotten a BC ticket.
We left on time from NYC and scooted down to Philly. There I went upstairs before walking back to see our P42 being placed upfront. While watching them couple it up, a nice employee let me up in the cab! Pretty cool(Well..actually it was a good 100 degrees in there but...) office.
We then moved along the Keystone Corridor towards Harrisburg. I stopped in the cafe car for a turkey club wrap. I have to say the food, although way overpriced (For profit), is much higher class then say 5 years ago.
At Harrisburg, the conductor announced that it was the engineers final run. I took a walk up front to take some pictures, but unfortunitly I just missed him.
Also, I saw a little history before my eyes. AEM7 901, the first (or second) locomotive of that kind, next to the GG1 parked under the shed. Pretty cool in my book.
We wound our way across the Susquehanna and up through mountainous Pennsylvania. It wasn't my lucky day, though. We were about 30 minutes late going up into Horseshoe Curve and, of course, the only freight train within nearly an hour passed right in front of Horseshoe Curve! Hopefully the Broadway Limited can make it's return from the dead so I can take that route again.
We "magically" made up our 30 minute deficite to be about 10 minutes early. That left even more time in Pittsburgh. Great..
The ticket agent was not present in the station the entire time we were there, a good 5 hours! So we ended up lugging my bags to Primanti Brothers for one of their famous sandwiches. We learned later that the area we had walked through a rather "bad" area, but we did not encounter any bad things even with our bags.
Our train was about an hour late in. After being told to walk to the wrong end of the train, we boarded the first coach. What was weird about it? The train was backwards! Instead of sleepers to coaches, we were coaches to sleepers. That gave a "dome car" like view from the front door of our coach. Pretty interesting change.
After getting a little sleep, I quickly jumped off at Cleveland before rolling into Elyria nearly 2 and a half hours late. And why was the consist backwards? Well there were 6 private varnishes on the back of our train. That is the most I've ever seen.
We then spent 4 full days in Ohio, going to the Ceder Point amusement park and a Cleveland Indians ball game.
We arrived at the station around 12:30. We spent around an hour there. The station was opened, but no one was there. Only 2 NS trains passed in the hour we were there.
Our train arrived at 1:40, we boarded a nicely refurbished sleeper in bedroom C. Now I got the wrong end of the stick on this one. I had to sleep in the chair, facing the wrong direction. It made a tiring night of sleep. Our food service cars were both TIGER rebuilds, and both were quite nice inside.
Anyway I had the always good french toast, my dad had an omelet, and we took my sleeping brother scrambled eggs. I did not realize that this train was using "china" now. After the plastic age, this was a big step up.
I pretty much missed most of the scenery to sleep. I woke up in Martinsburg and enjoyed the change from rural farmlands to the mass populated area. We made up all of the time we lost overnight and arrived a mere 5 minutes late. It had started to pour about 15 minutes outside of Washington, but I did not realize how much rain there actually was!
After a nice luch in DC, we boarded train 148 from the Acela Club. We had to fight the weather and a little trouble with our HHP8, but we managed to get into NYC only 15 minutes late. We scurried over to the LIRR section and we jammed into a crowded peak period train. A far cry from the quiet Capitol Limited.
Overall I am pleased with this trip. I experiened some "new" Amtrak for me, and hopefully next year I will make it out west for the first time!
I will try to get pictures up later this week!