PerRock
Engineer
Admittedly I don't get to travel on Amtrak all that often. Being a jobless art student makes traveling very hard. However this last weekend I was able to pop down to Chicago from Ann Arbor. And when I do it is the cheapest way; so coach.
Originally the trip was for me to take the Wolverine to Chicago then catch a bus to Waterloo, IA where I would pick up one of our cars from my sister who was traveling on from there (she drove out a couple weeks before) to Australia & India. However it turned out that she found paying for me to come out to get the car (which was part of the agreement) to exspensive (lodging for two nights, train & bus on labor day weekend, food, gas, toll), and decided not to fund the trip. This was Thursday; our original plan was for me to leave ARB on Friday. But that thursday evening (or maybe friday morning, her boyfriend's (also traveling with her) relative went into the hospital in CHI; making my trip a possibility again. That Friday night I found tickets for a Saturday; Quite luckly I had two choices; the morning train in coach costing ~$70 or the evening train in Business for ~$40.
The real adventure part was really only getting to the station. Living in such a large college town one has to know when the home football games are (especially since we have the largest college football stadium in the US) However in the rush to get out the door I forgot that there was a home game that was to get out at the same time I needed to get to the station. My friend and I raced thru the residential streets to get to the station before the train came (I still had to get tix printed); got there mins before 355 arrived. I boarded in with the coach pax (they didn't let us board right into the business section, as they sometimes do) and headed into the Amfleet II Coach/Business which was a bit of a disappointment.
Where to start? Being told on boarding that the train was full I decided to be kind and picked a solo seat (I was hoping to get a double to myself). When the conductor came thru I got carded (no biggy) and we were told that we were allowed one free non-alchoholic beverage. I shortly discovered that the seat I picked seemed to have a few screws loose as every slightest movement side to side made the seat lurch over; since the car was still fairly empty I moved to a different seat (moved the card indicating my stop as well) and settled into listening to my scanner; and trying to do some work on my laptop; which ended up in me reading the newspaper. After getting board with the scanner ("Track 355 arriving Kalamazoo") I wandered over to the cafe area and got my free drink and discovered that Amtrak has redone food service on the Wolveriene. On previous trips there was a full cafe menu including the little extras (tylinol, cards, batteries, etc) However we now had a very short menu which had in the food department three choices: Boxed Lunch, Chips/Pretzels, and Microwaved Hamburger. Upon asking it turns out they no longer restock the wolverine in Pontiac either; so our choices were even less (we had one boxed lunch left, were out of burgers, and some other stuff probably) I ended up getting a little can of Pepsi and some chips. Most of the rest of the trip was uneventful; I sat and watched TV shows on my laptop and listened to the scanner occasionally.
Until we entered Indiana; Around then I switched to listening to the scanner as I knew we would be passing thru some yards & industries. We got just outside Hammond when we came to a stop; I couldn't make out what the stop was for exactly but I knew we were waiting for another train. I sat there for about 5 or 10 mins listening to all the yards in the area figuring out what went where. Finally the Lake Shore Limited passed us and the Engineer of #48 told us that it was a parking lot ahead of us. We rolled into CHI without much excitement. I was really hoping to hear more activity in the Amtrak Yard. However I can report that I saw:
3 B32-8WHs in phase IV in the yard & One in phase V,
1 Amtrak Cascades F59PHI, I could just make out the logo between the P40/42s
Union Station was quite eerie at 11:00 at night; I'm used to being in there and it is bustling with people, the tracks are practically full. However this time there was only one other train next to us (I think it was the morning east-bound Wolverine).
Well that is about it; I stayed the night at my grandfathers apartment (he lives in Tokyo most of the year) and headed out the next morning. I will give you one word of advice: stay off Lower Whacker Dr. for a while; most of the ramps to Upper Whacker are under construction and it'll really put you out of your way if you get funneled down there. I hope my rambleings weren't a bore....
peter
Originally the trip was for me to take the Wolverine to Chicago then catch a bus to Waterloo, IA where I would pick up one of our cars from my sister who was traveling on from there (she drove out a couple weeks before) to Australia & India. However it turned out that she found paying for me to come out to get the car (which was part of the agreement) to exspensive (lodging for two nights, train & bus on labor day weekend, food, gas, toll), and decided not to fund the trip. This was Thursday; our original plan was for me to leave ARB on Friday. But that thursday evening (or maybe friday morning, her boyfriend's (also traveling with her) relative went into the hospital in CHI; making my trip a possibility again. That Friday night I found tickets for a Saturday; Quite luckly I had two choices; the morning train in coach costing ~$70 or the evening train in Business for ~$40.
The real adventure part was really only getting to the station. Living in such a large college town one has to know when the home football games are (especially since we have the largest college football stadium in the US) However in the rush to get out the door I forgot that there was a home game that was to get out at the same time I needed to get to the station. My friend and I raced thru the residential streets to get to the station before the train came (I still had to get tix printed); got there mins before 355 arrived. I boarded in with the coach pax (they didn't let us board right into the business section, as they sometimes do) and headed into the Amfleet II Coach/Business which was a bit of a disappointment.
Where to start? Being told on boarding that the train was full I decided to be kind and picked a solo seat (I was hoping to get a double to myself). When the conductor came thru I got carded (no biggy) and we were told that we were allowed one free non-alchoholic beverage. I shortly discovered that the seat I picked seemed to have a few screws loose as every slightest movement side to side made the seat lurch over; since the car was still fairly empty I moved to a different seat (moved the card indicating my stop as well) and settled into listening to my scanner; and trying to do some work on my laptop; which ended up in me reading the newspaper. After getting board with the scanner ("Track 355 arriving Kalamazoo") I wandered over to the cafe area and got my free drink and discovered that Amtrak has redone food service on the Wolveriene. On previous trips there was a full cafe menu including the little extras (tylinol, cards, batteries, etc) However we now had a very short menu which had in the food department three choices: Boxed Lunch, Chips/Pretzels, and Microwaved Hamburger. Upon asking it turns out they no longer restock the wolverine in Pontiac either; so our choices were even less (we had one boxed lunch left, were out of burgers, and some other stuff probably) I ended up getting a little can of Pepsi and some chips. Most of the rest of the trip was uneventful; I sat and watched TV shows on my laptop and listened to the scanner occasionally.
Until we entered Indiana; Around then I switched to listening to the scanner as I knew we would be passing thru some yards & industries. We got just outside Hammond when we came to a stop; I couldn't make out what the stop was for exactly but I knew we were waiting for another train. I sat there for about 5 or 10 mins listening to all the yards in the area figuring out what went where. Finally the Lake Shore Limited passed us and the Engineer of #48 told us that it was a parking lot ahead of us. We rolled into CHI without much excitement. I was really hoping to hear more activity in the Amtrak Yard. However I can report that I saw:
3 B32-8WHs in phase IV in the yard & One in phase V,
1 Amtrak Cascades F59PHI, I could just make out the logo between the P40/42s
Union Station was quite eerie at 11:00 at night; I'm used to being in there and it is bustling with people, the tracks are practically full. However this time there was only one other train next to us (I think it was the morning east-bound Wolverine).
Well that is about it; I stayed the night at my grandfathers apartment (he lives in Tokyo most of the year) and headed out the next morning. I will give you one word of advice: stay off Lower Whacker Dr. for a while; most of the ramps to Upper Whacker are under construction and it'll really put you out of your way if you get funneled down there. I hope my rambleings weren't a bore....
peter
