Ispolkom
Engineer
I got another opportunity to travel St. Paul – Chicago – St. Paul in repositioning private cars.
The Friends of the 261 sent down their entire fleet of 14 private cars to Train Fest 2011 in Rock Island. At almost the last minute they announced that the would sell tickets of members of the Friends to ride these cars. Seven cars would ride of the stub Empire Builder on July 18, and the other seven on the stub on July 19. The cars would return to St. Paul on the next Tuesday, July 26. Mrs. Ispolkom and I jumped at this opportunity.
While I was really happy that the Empire Builder started running again, it did screw up the plans, because Amtrak limits the number of private cars it will pull with a full Empire Builder consist. New plan: ten cars go down on Monday with the last stub train, then the best four cars will go on Tuesday.
I arrived at Midway Station on Tuesday morning, July 19, to see the five cars spotted on track two: the St. Paul-Chicago coach, then the lounge (parlor) car Wisconsin Valley, the Super Dome, the MKT 403 business car, and the Cedar Rapids observation car at the rear, with a Minnesota Commercial switching engine on the bumper. Train #8 was only two hours late arriving, a very good time for the first run after the Minot flood. Unfortunately Wisconsin Valley’s brakes failed a test, and we lost a few minutes switching it out. We still left St. Paul 1 hour 45 minutes late.
There are a bunch of reasons I like these positioning rides. The biggest reason is space. We had a dozen passengers and an equal number of crew in three cars. Tired of sitting in the Cedar Rapids? Why not check out the dining room of the 403, or sit up in the Super Dome. Another reason is the informality. Want something to drink? Get it out of the refrigerator yourself. Breakfast was a potato-red pepper-mushroom frittata, while lunch was pulled pig sandwiches with potato salad. If you want five-star service this isn’t the ride for you, but for me it worked just fine. I even got my Captain of Industry experience, sitting alone in the back of the Cedar Rapids, enjoying a gin and tonic and reading the property advertisements in the weekend Financial Times. Sitting along in a private rail car, I could almost imagine being able to buy a $6 million vacation home.
We arrived in Chicago two hours late, so I walked down to the Clinton L station and immediately rode out to O’Hare airport. I had a ticket on the 10:30 p.m. United flight to Minneapolis, but was able to get a stand-by seat on the 9 p.m. flight. Sitting on a full flight, even in the exit aisle, was a big come-down after the train ride down, and I was sorry that my schedule didn’t allow actually spending time in Chicago.
A week later, Tuesday, July 26, Mrs. Ispolkom and I took an early morning bus to Minneapolis airport and flew to O’Hare. Once again we rode the Blue Line downtown, transferring to a bus that took us to the Field Museum. After going through the fascinating whales exhibit, we walked back towards Union Station, stopping at Cafecito for lunch. If there’s a better Cubano sandwich in Chicago than Cafecito, I’ve not found it. When we arrived at Union Station, we saw that the train had just arrived at the platform, trailing four cars from the Friends of the 261: Wisconsin Valley and St. Croix Valley parlor cars, the Super Dome, and the Cedar Rapids. We walked around the waiting rooms with its endless line of coach passengers, and stepped around the barrier, explaining to the conductor, “We’re with the private cars.” Man, I love to be able to say that.
If the ride down was uncrowded, the ride back was empty, with five passengers for four cars. Mrs. Ispolkom and I sat in the Wisconsin Valley for a few hours, just to enjoy a different car, then joined the others for dinner in the Super Dome. As always, though, everyone gravitated back to the Cedar Rapids in the evening as we ran up the Mississippi River, and the crew told stories about Train Fest. Apparently one rail fan lost control of his car chasing one of the excursions, and rolled it on to the tracks. The return of the excursion was delayed while the wrecked car was removed. Others told stories of photographers who had very poor notions of personal safety and little understanding of what constituted trespassing.
All too soon we arrived in St. Paul. I woke Mrs. Ispolkom up, and we caught a cab home. Now we have to wait six weeks until our next train trip, which will be much longer, but nowhere near as luxurious.
The Friends of the 261 sent down their entire fleet of 14 private cars to Train Fest 2011 in Rock Island. At almost the last minute they announced that the would sell tickets of members of the Friends to ride these cars. Seven cars would ride of the stub Empire Builder on July 18, and the other seven on the stub on July 19. The cars would return to St. Paul on the next Tuesday, July 26. Mrs. Ispolkom and I jumped at this opportunity.
While I was really happy that the Empire Builder started running again, it did screw up the plans, because Amtrak limits the number of private cars it will pull with a full Empire Builder consist. New plan: ten cars go down on Monday with the last stub train, then the best four cars will go on Tuesday.
I arrived at Midway Station on Tuesday morning, July 19, to see the five cars spotted on track two: the St. Paul-Chicago coach, then the lounge (parlor) car Wisconsin Valley, the Super Dome, the MKT 403 business car, and the Cedar Rapids observation car at the rear, with a Minnesota Commercial switching engine on the bumper. Train #8 was only two hours late arriving, a very good time for the first run after the Minot flood. Unfortunately Wisconsin Valley’s brakes failed a test, and we lost a few minutes switching it out. We still left St. Paul 1 hour 45 minutes late.
There are a bunch of reasons I like these positioning rides. The biggest reason is space. We had a dozen passengers and an equal number of crew in three cars. Tired of sitting in the Cedar Rapids? Why not check out the dining room of the 403, or sit up in the Super Dome. Another reason is the informality. Want something to drink? Get it out of the refrigerator yourself. Breakfast was a potato-red pepper-mushroom frittata, while lunch was pulled pig sandwiches with potato salad. If you want five-star service this isn’t the ride for you, but for me it worked just fine. I even got my Captain of Industry experience, sitting alone in the back of the Cedar Rapids, enjoying a gin and tonic and reading the property advertisements in the weekend Financial Times. Sitting along in a private rail car, I could almost imagine being able to buy a $6 million vacation home.
We arrived in Chicago two hours late, so I walked down to the Clinton L station and immediately rode out to O’Hare airport. I had a ticket on the 10:30 p.m. United flight to Minneapolis, but was able to get a stand-by seat on the 9 p.m. flight. Sitting on a full flight, even in the exit aisle, was a big come-down after the train ride down, and I was sorry that my schedule didn’t allow actually spending time in Chicago.
A week later, Tuesday, July 26, Mrs. Ispolkom and I took an early morning bus to Minneapolis airport and flew to O’Hare. Once again we rode the Blue Line downtown, transferring to a bus that took us to the Field Museum. After going through the fascinating whales exhibit, we walked back towards Union Station, stopping at Cafecito for lunch. If there’s a better Cubano sandwich in Chicago than Cafecito, I’ve not found it. When we arrived at Union Station, we saw that the train had just arrived at the platform, trailing four cars from the Friends of the 261: Wisconsin Valley and St. Croix Valley parlor cars, the Super Dome, and the Cedar Rapids. We walked around the waiting rooms with its endless line of coach passengers, and stepped around the barrier, explaining to the conductor, “We’re with the private cars.” Man, I love to be able to say that.
If the ride down was uncrowded, the ride back was empty, with five passengers for four cars. Mrs. Ispolkom and I sat in the Wisconsin Valley for a few hours, just to enjoy a different car, then joined the others for dinner in the Super Dome. As always, though, everyone gravitated back to the Cedar Rapids in the evening as we ran up the Mississippi River, and the crew told stories about Train Fest. Apparently one rail fan lost control of his car chasing one of the excursions, and rolled it on to the tracks. The return of the excursion was delayed while the wrecked car was removed. Others told stories of photographers who had very poor notions of personal safety and little understanding of what constituted trespassing.
All too soon we arrived in St. Paul. I woke Mrs. Ispolkom up, and we caught a cab home. Now we have to wait six weeks until our next train trip, which will be much longer, but nowhere near as luxurious.
