dan72
Lead Service Attendant
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2006
- Messages
- 418
This is Part II of my trip to Boston. This is my return which took me from BOS to NYP to ROC. Then, ROC to CHI and back to MSP.
Given that I was already on the East Coast, I decided to take advantage and work in a trip on the Acela Express. Instead of doing a quick round trip it was suggested on this board that I take it to NYP and then catch the LSL out of NYP for my return trip. Of all of these wonderful nuggets of advice this board has provided to me, this one was by far the best. I took train 2159 which departed at 9:15 a.m. from Boston South Station. I arrived about 8:30 as I wanted to check in my baggage to ride on 449 where I would meet up with in at Albany. After that, I walked around the platform and discreetly took some pictures of a HHP-8 and the Acela train set that I would board in a little while. A few days earlier, there was the issue on the news that we could have another attack this summer and you could tell that the police were on higher alert. No sense in attracting attention to myself over some railfan pictures.
I went up to the Club Acela lounge and relaxed for about 20 minutes and at 9:00 they announced the boarding. One thing that perplexed me is why the announcements were not piped in over speakers in the lounge. I was sitting near the woman making the announcement, so that was the only way I heard it.
I ended up sitting at the back of the First Class car on the left side. I would have liked a large window, but the small one was fine. Although clean, there were lots of dried water spots all over. We departed on time and made our way down the NEC. The attendant took my order for breakfast after about 20-30 minutes after we got underway. The cars were very nice and seats were very comfortable. One interesting observation is the PA system is identical to the one they use on the Pacific Surfliner. It was sunny when we left, but clouded up as we got down to New York City. The ride was not as smooth as I had anticipated, but the titling technology was really interesting to experience – especially t the rear of the car when you can see the whole thing going into a tilt. The left hand side of the train offered some really nice views of costal towns, marshes, rivers, and harbors as we passed through Connecticut. Our entrance into Manhattan was as many of you know, the Hell Gate Bridge which is featured on the current timetable. We arrived right on time into NYP at 12:15 p.m. Overall, it was a really nice ride and well worth the first-class upgrade. Thanks to those on this forum for recommending it!
I had about two and half hours to kill before I needed to be around to board the LSL, so I stashed my carry-on in the Club Acela Lounge and went out to explore Manhattan. Other than flying through JFK 20 years ago when I was in high school on my way to Germany, this was my first time exploring NYC. Once I got use to the initial crush of everyone on the sidewalks, I enjoyed wandering around Manhattan. I went over to the Empire State Building and checked out the lobby, went through Macy’s and too some shots of Madison Square Garden. I really wish I had more time to have gotten down to Time Square. Oh well, I’ll just have to make sure I get there again.
I got back to the Club Acela lounge about 3:00 or so and caught up on my email . At about 3:45, they announced that boarding would be delayed as there was an equipment problem. Over the next half hour, I made my way towards the door and grabbed an open seat as we waited and when they finally announced boarding at 5:00, I dashed out to the track 8 west stairway where the line was starting to grow. I made my way down to the platform and boarded my coach. My destination was Rochester as I was stopping off for two days to visit an old college roommate of mine and his family.
I was able to grab a seat on the left side and a shortly thereafter a young lady asked if she could sit with me. I was glad to have a seat partner right away so I was not put in the position to be asked to move. The crew was anxious to get us on board and we departed at 5:15--over an hour late. We made our way out of Manhattan and along the Hudson River. The first major landmark was the Washington Bridge. My oldest son loved the book ‘The Little Red Lighthouse’ so it was great to take some pictures of it for him to see later on. Unfortunately, trees blocked my view of the lighthouse itself. For me, going along the Hudson was the scenic highlight of this entire trip. I guess part of is growing up on the Mississippi, you appreciate these magnificent rivers. The sun was going in and out of clouds causing rays to shine out all over (like what you would see on a gospel music record cover). Of the scenery I had taken in this trip, this for me was the highlight. One of my other hobbies is lighthouse photography. I did not realize that I would be passing by several on this river. Unfortunately, we were going to fast to get any really good pictures, however I did have one that turned out pretty good. We pulled into Albany where we switch out #714 for a pair of P42’s and a baggage car at the front (it was in the rear from NYP). I was kind of surprise how hard they backed into the train when they coupled. The whole train lurched back about 6 inches when they coupled. While the baggage carts were on the platform, I scoped out my suitcase and was happy to see it had made it from Boston.
After pulling out of Albany, my seat mate and I had a nice conversation. She was a high school student fro Schenectady who was at a dance clinic in NYC. She seemed nice, although a bit geographically challenged as she had now idea where the state of Minnesota was. During this time also, a LSA from the dining car came around and I made reservations for the earliest time available – 9:45 p.m. After parting ways with Jen, I briefly sat with a woman who now lives and works in Italy and was on her way to Utica to visit her family. After this I checked in with the dining car and they were about ½ hour behind. I waited in the lounge car a struck a conversation with a woman and man who were also waiting to be seated. We ended up sitting together in the dining car as well. I had the roast chicken which was delicious. Although the food was good, the service was slow and I did not get out of there until almost 11:30. When I returned I again had a new seat mate. Since I was going to be detraining in Rochester, I offered her my window seat so I did not bother her when I needed to get off. She took me up on my offer and she drifted off to sleep shortly after that. We arrived into Rochester at about 12:45 a.m. – almost two hours late. My old roommate Dave was there to great me and we headed to his house where I would spend the weekend with him and his family seeing the sights and doing some lighthouse hunting as well.
After two days in Rochester, I was back on the Lake Shore Limited that Sunday. Dave was willing to wait with me until the train arrived (which was already running an hour late), but since he had a work day ahead of him, I had him head back home. It finally arrived at 12:15 a.m. I was in the first Viewliner in the consist and George was my attendant. He directed me to my room where my bed (lower bunk) was already made up. He stopped by and asked if I had any questions and showed me the controls. The room was #2 and almost identical to my room heading east, except it had curtains in the interior windows and not shades. I was settled in before we left Rochester and surprisingly got a pretty decent night’s sleep.
I awoke at 6:00 and decided to hop in the shower and beat the rush. The shower room was very cold due to overactive air conditioning and the water never got above ‘luke cold.’ Needless to say, I was VERY awake after that. At 7:00 I made my way to the dining car and had breakfast with a woman from Virginia and a man from Muskegon, MI. I had the Bob Evans scramble once again. The trip into Chicago was interesting as I got the see the steel mills in daylight that I say all lit up when I left a week ago. I also spotted several former Duluth, Mesabi, and Iron Range locomotives that are now used by EJ&E.
We arrived into Chicago about an hour late. It was a sunny day for the most part, but also quite warm and humid again. I made my way to the Metro café and had lunch. I was pretty tired from the week and decided to head back to the Metropolitan Lounge to relax. When I entered I told the attendant that I was going to leaving on the Empire Builder in coach class and asked if I should head to that lounge before boarding. She told me that they would announce it here and I would be able to board first. About ½ hour before boarding, the conductor came in to take out tickets. He didn’t have any seat tags and told me to head to the end car and wait for the attendant. When we were allowed to got out I made my way to my coach. Much to my dismay, I saw people sitting in every seat. They had boarded the coach passengers at least 10-15 minutes earlier than coach. When I got on board, the entire upper level was full. I ended up sitting on the lower level, which was a nice experience. However, I ended up in quad seats which gave me very little leg room. I should have heeded Denmark’s suggestion to head to the regular lounge right away. I will remember this next time.
The trip to MSP went very well. We were on time or ahead of schedule the whole time. Saw a beautiful sunset over Lake Pepin. The downside was that this train was again very full and after a couple of attempts at a seat in the lounge car, I gave up. However, I did get a chance to spend some time looking out the railfan window once again. We pulled into MSP about 20 minutes early. Upon entering the station, another large crowd greeted us to be boarded heading west.
One thing I did notice on the EB both ways and that was the fact that the refurbished cars are showing wear quite prematurely. I noticed duct tape being used on the stairs of the sightseer lounge car and floor coverings showing wear as well.
Overall, this whole trip went very well. Although late a few times, it was nothing that impeded my schedule and between a couple of books and my iPod, I was able to stay easily entertained if I had any long waiting periods.
A few other observations:
--The lack of announcements in the Viewliners is disappointing. My coach trip from NYP to ROC was fine, but in the Viewliners, no announcements concerning the dining car and the attendants never announced anything unless you were in the vestibule when stepping out during an extended stop. The attendants on the western LD trains were much better at this and the one we had on the SWC even took time to point out scenic highlights.
--The Viewliners are a really nice design. I like the individual fan controls, the extra set of windows, and the storage space for carry-ons. . If a Superliner III is ever on the horizon, I would love to see some of features incorporated into it. Another set of windows might be too much, but it really made a difference in the feel of the roomette and I think would be easier for people to sleep on the top bunk—even it is was a half window.
-- Since this was more or less a business trip, I did not have any control of the dates. But I will be sure to avoid July if I do have control in the future. While it’s great to see so many people using Amtrak, the crowds were a little too much for me. I liked what we had to deal with last year when we went in May and June several years before that.
I also want to again say thanks to everyone in this board for answering my questions over the last six months about my trip. All suggestions were great and really helped make the trip go a little bit smoother.
Well, I think this covers everything. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for reading!
Dan
Given that I was already on the East Coast, I decided to take advantage and work in a trip on the Acela Express. Instead of doing a quick round trip it was suggested on this board that I take it to NYP and then catch the LSL out of NYP for my return trip. Of all of these wonderful nuggets of advice this board has provided to me, this one was by far the best. I took train 2159 which departed at 9:15 a.m. from Boston South Station. I arrived about 8:30 as I wanted to check in my baggage to ride on 449 where I would meet up with in at Albany. After that, I walked around the platform and discreetly took some pictures of a HHP-8 and the Acela train set that I would board in a little while. A few days earlier, there was the issue on the news that we could have another attack this summer and you could tell that the police were on higher alert. No sense in attracting attention to myself over some railfan pictures.
I went up to the Club Acela lounge and relaxed for about 20 minutes and at 9:00 they announced the boarding. One thing that perplexed me is why the announcements were not piped in over speakers in the lounge. I was sitting near the woman making the announcement, so that was the only way I heard it.
I ended up sitting at the back of the First Class car on the left side. I would have liked a large window, but the small one was fine. Although clean, there were lots of dried water spots all over. We departed on time and made our way down the NEC. The attendant took my order for breakfast after about 20-30 minutes after we got underway. The cars were very nice and seats were very comfortable. One interesting observation is the PA system is identical to the one they use on the Pacific Surfliner. It was sunny when we left, but clouded up as we got down to New York City. The ride was not as smooth as I had anticipated, but the titling technology was really interesting to experience – especially t the rear of the car when you can see the whole thing going into a tilt. The left hand side of the train offered some really nice views of costal towns, marshes, rivers, and harbors as we passed through Connecticut. Our entrance into Manhattan was as many of you know, the Hell Gate Bridge which is featured on the current timetable. We arrived right on time into NYP at 12:15 p.m. Overall, it was a really nice ride and well worth the first-class upgrade. Thanks to those on this forum for recommending it!
I had about two and half hours to kill before I needed to be around to board the LSL, so I stashed my carry-on in the Club Acela Lounge and went out to explore Manhattan. Other than flying through JFK 20 years ago when I was in high school on my way to Germany, this was my first time exploring NYC. Once I got use to the initial crush of everyone on the sidewalks, I enjoyed wandering around Manhattan. I went over to the Empire State Building and checked out the lobby, went through Macy’s and too some shots of Madison Square Garden. I really wish I had more time to have gotten down to Time Square. Oh well, I’ll just have to make sure I get there again.
I got back to the Club Acela lounge about 3:00 or so and caught up on my email . At about 3:45, they announced that boarding would be delayed as there was an equipment problem. Over the next half hour, I made my way towards the door and grabbed an open seat as we waited and when they finally announced boarding at 5:00, I dashed out to the track 8 west stairway where the line was starting to grow. I made my way down to the platform and boarded my coach. My destination was Rochester as I was stopping off for two days to visit an old college roommate of mine and his family.
I was able to grab a seat on the left side and a shortly thereafter a young lady asked if she could sit with me. I was glad to have a seat partner right away so I was not put in the position to be asked to move. The crew was anxious to get us on board and we departed at 5:15--over an hour late. We made our way out of Manhattan and along the Hudson River. The first major landmark was the Washington Bridge. My oldest son loved the book ‘The Little Red Lighthouse’ so it was great to take some pictures of it for him to see later on. Unfortunately, trees blocked my view of the lighthouse itself. For me, going along the Hudson was the scenic highlight of this entire trip. I guess part of is growing up on the Mississippi, you appreciate these magnificent rivers. The sun was going in and out of clouds causing rays to shine out all over (like what you would see on a gospel music record cover). Of the scenery I had taken in this trip, this for me was the highlight. One of my other hobbies is lighthouse photography. I did not realize that I would be passing by several on this river. Unfortunately, we were going to fast to get any really good pictures, however I did have one that turned out pretty good. We pulled into Albany where we switch out #714 for a pair of P42’s and a baggage car at the front (it was in the rear from NYP). I was kind of surprise how hard they backed into the train when they coupled. The whole train lurched back about 6 inches when they coupled. While the baggage carts were on the platform, I scoped out my suitcase and was happy to see it had made it from Boston.
After pulling out of Albany, my seat mate and I had a nice conversation. She was a high school student fro Schenectady who was at a dance clinic in NYC. She seemed nice, although a bit geographically challenged as she had now idea where the state of Minnesota was. During this time also, a LSA from the dining car came around and I made reservations for the earliest time available – 9:45 p.m. After parting ways with Jen, I briefly sat with a woman who now lives and works in Italy and was on her way to Utica to visit her family. After this I checked in with the dining car and they were about ½ hour behind. I waited in the lounge car a struck a conversation with a woman and man who were also waiting to be seated. We ended up sitting together in the dining car as well. I had the roast chicken which was delicious. Although the food was good, the service was slow and I did not get out of there until almost 11:30. When I returned I again had a new seat mate. Since I was going to be detraining in Rochester, I offered her my window seat so I did not bother her when I needed to get off. She took me up on my offer and she drifted off to sleep shortly after that. We arrived into Rochester at about 12:45 a.m. – almost two hours late. My old roommate Dave was there to great me and we headed to his house where I would spend the weekend with him and his family seeing the sights and doing some lighthouse hunting as well.
After two days in Rochester, I was back on the Lake Shore Limited that Sunday. Dave was willing to wait with me until the train arrived (which was already running an hour late), but since he had a work day ahead of him, I had him head back home. It finally arrived at 12:15 a.m. I was in the first Viewliner in the consist and George was my attendant. He directed me to my room where my bed (lower bunk) was already made up. He stopped by and asked if I had any questions and showed me the controls. The room was #2 and almost identical to my room heading east, except it had curtains in the interior windows and not shades. I was settled in before we left Rochester and surprisingly got a pretty decent night’s sleep.
I awoke at 6:00 and decided to hop in the shower and beat the rush. The shower room was very cold due to overactive air conditioning and the water never got above ‘luke cold.’ Needless to say, I was VERY awake after that. At 7:00 I made my way to the dining car and had breakfast with a woman from Virginia and a man from Muskegon, MI. I had the Bob Evans scramble once again. The trip into Chicago was interesting as I got the see the steel mills in daylight that I say all lit up when I left a week ago. I also spotted several former Duluth, Mesabi, and Iron Range locomotives that are now used by EJ&E.
We arrived into Chicago about an hour late. It was a sunny day for the most part, but also quite warm and humid again. I made my way to the Metro café and had lunch. I was pretty tired from the week and decided to head back to the Metropolitan Lounge to relax. When I entered I told the attendant that I was going to leaving on the Empire Builder in coach class and asked if I should head to that lounge before boarding. She told me that they would announce it here and I would be able to board first. About ½ hour before boarding, the conductor came in to take out tickets. He didn’t have any seat tags and told me to head to the end car and wait for the attendant. When we were allowed to got out I made my way to my coach. Much to my dismay, I saw people sitting in every seat. They had boarded the coach passengers at least 10-15 minutes earlier than coach. When I got on board, the entire upper level was full. I ended up sitting on the lower level, which was a nice experience. However, I ended up in quad seats which gave me very little leg room. I should have heeded Denmark’s suggestion to head to the regular lounge right away. I will remember this next time.
The trip to MSP went very well. We were on time or ahead of schedule the whole time. Saw a beautiful sunset over Lake Pepin. The downside was that this train was again very full and after a couple of attempts at a seat in the lounge car, I gave up. However, I did get a chance to spend some time looking out the railfan window once again. We pulled into MSP about 20 minutes early. Upon entering the station, another large crowd greeted us to be boarded heading west.
One thing I did notice on the EB both ways and that was the fact that the refurbished cars are showing wear quite prematurely. I noticed duct tape being used on the stairs of the sightseer lounge car and floor coverings showing wear as well.
Overall, this whole trip went very well. Although late a few times, it was nothing that impeded my schedule and between a couple of books and my iPod, I was able to stay easily entertained if I had any long waiting periods.
A few other observations:
--The lack of announcements in the Viewliners is disappointing. My coach trip from NYP to ROC was fine, but in the Viewliners, no announcements concerning the dining car and the attendants never announced anything unless you were in the vestibule when stepping out during an extended stop. The attendants on the western LD trains were much better at this and the one we had on the SWC even took time to point out scenic highlights.
--The Viewliners are a really nice design. I like the individual fan controls, the extra set of windows, and the storage space for carry-ons. . If a Superliner III is ever on the horizon, I would love to see some of features incorporated into it. Another set of windows might be too much, but it really made a difference in the feel of the roomette and I think would be easier for people to sleep on the top bunk—even it is was a half window.
-- Since this was more or less a business trip, I did not have any control of the dates. But I will be sure to avoid July if I do have control in the future. While it’s great to see so many people using Amtrak, the crowds were a little too much for me. I liked what we had to deal with last year when we went in May and June several years before that.
I also want to again say thanks to everyone in this board for answering my questions over the last six months about my trip. All suggestions were great and really helped make the trip go a little bit smoother.
Well, I think this covers everything. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for reading!
Dan
