Pittsburgh circle trip

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Joined
Apr 5, 2011
Messages
6,090
Location
Baltimore. MD
I'm off on my Pittsburgh circle trip. NER 174 left BAL on time. A real difference from the past year. The train is packed. Even in the front 2 coaches there are no single seats, and people are still walking through the train in a vain attempt to find them. Not so good for those of us who want a window seat, but great for Amtrak's finances.

Here's hoping I get a window seat on the Pennsylvanian.
 
Rats! 43 is terminating in Harrisburg, we're being bustituted from there to Pittsburgh. They offered to put me on 91/29 to have an all train trip, but 42 the next day was sold out, so I decided I didn't want to get in after midnight only to have to get up at 4AM to make 30.

Looks like I'm going to have to do this trip again if I'm going to ride the Horseshoe Curve.

Pulling into Paoli now. At least I've got a nice Amfleet 2 LD coach seat for my ride to Harrisburg. Hope the rain lets up before the bus has to drive the Turnpike over the mountains.
 
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just left Lancaster. the train was pretty full leaving Philly. The conductor said every seat was needed, but a pile of people got off in Lancaster and no one came into our car. I'm in the last car and have a seat to myself.

The train is being pulled by a diesel. some slow running between Paoli and Gap. We're moving nicely now on the way to Elizabethtown.
 
just left Lancaster. the train was pretty full leaving Philly. The conductor said every seat was needed, but a pile of people got off in Lancaster and no one came into our car. I'm in the last car and have a seat to myself.

The train is being pulled by a diesel. some slow running between Paoli and Gap. We're moving nicely now on the way to Elizabethtown.
Normal power for 43 would be a diesel west of Philly as appears to be the case for your train too.
 
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I'm off on my Pittsburgh circle trip. NER 174 left BAL on time. A real difference from the past year. The train is packed. Even in the front 2 coaches there are no single seats, and people are still walking through the train in a vain attempt to find them. Not so good for those of us who want a window seat, but great for Amtrak's finances.

Here's hoping I get a window seat on the Pennsylvanian.
You shoulda booked BC on the Pennsy Joe!😉
 
All last night 30 looked like it was running a half hour late. When I got to the station at 0445, I found out it was only running 10 minutes late. In the end it left 6 minutes late. Let's see whether I get to DC on time.

I was one of a out 10 to 15 people who boarded at Pittsburgh. I have a seat to myself, and the conductor told another passenger that there were lots of empty seats, as there were a bunch of late western trains the night before, and a lot of missed connections. The Superliner coach seat is nice, I think it has more legroom than even the Amfleet 2 LD coach seat, which I sampled yesterday. I also happen to prefer the fabric seat covers, but I understand why Amtrak might prefer the more easily cleaned fake leather.

At 6, it was time for breakfast. No SSL cafe, but the Cross Country Cafe does double duty as a diner for the sleeper pax at one end and a cafe car for us coach riffraff. They even let me sit an eat at a table in the cafe.

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For breakfast I had the Bob Evans sausage muffin, cinnamon danish and a cop of coffee. They comped me a brownie and a flex salad left over from dinner.

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That's all now. Just leaving Connellsville, and the wifi is getting spotty.
 
There must be a reason why we left Pittsburgh only 6 minutes late and rolled out of Cumberland almost a half hour late with no interference from freight trains, we were moving the whole time at a reasonable speed, but, yes, we lost time. Still 30 minutes late at Harpers Ferry, we'll see when we get to DC.
 
They're closing the cafe car 15 minutes after leaving Harpers Ferry. Unless they're running out of stuff, seems like they're missing a chance to make more money.
I believe the LSA needs to complete inventory count, close out register, etc before they arrive in D.C.
 
Well, how do you like that?! From being 30 minutes down at Harper's Ferry, we arrived into Washington right on time! Isn't padding wonderful?

W were rocking along at 65 to 70 mph all the way from Point of Rocks to Rockville and most of the way between Rockville and Ivy City.

We came in on the lower level, and looky here, they're doing some kind of construction that looks like a new lower level platform. Maybe the first high level platform on the lower level? We can always hope.

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Now, I wait for NER 148 to return to Baltimore and complete the circle.
 
There must be a reason why we left Pittsburgh only 6 minutes late and rolled out of Cumberland almost a half hour late with no interference from freight trains, we were moving the whole time at a reasonable speed, but, yes, we lost time. Still 30 minutes late at Harpers Ferry, we'll see when we get to DC.
You were most likely running behind a freight that got out of your way at the Cumberland Yard.
 
First bus I rode with seat belts.

View attachment 22836

We also had a safety video while we were taxiing, I mean driving out of the station.

Now for a familiar drive for me, at least to Huntingdon.
Interesting. Can you tell me which shoulder the shoulder harness/seat belt goes over for the different seating positions as in facing forward; left window, left aisle, right aisle, right window?
 
Interesting. Can you tell me which shoulder the shoulder harness/seat belt goes over for the different seating positions as in facing forward; left window, left aisle, right aisle, right window?
All of the seat belts came out of the seat back on the left side and bucked on the right side of the seat. At least on my side of the bus. I didn't check the seat belts across the aisle.
 
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