I know, that's a little odd. The Silver Star goes in the other direction, to Florida. But the other day, my wife dropped me off at Penn Station Baltimore so I could get to Washington and drive my Dad up to the cabin. (He can still drive, but we're a little leery of him doing a 660 mile drive all by himself. Turns out the most convenient train for my schedule was the Silver Star, so that's what I rode.
I got a chance to see the renovation work they're doing at Baltimore Penn. The entire historic building is covered in scaffolding. I'm not sure what they're going to do, I suspect it's probably just cleaning it off and fixing stuff, as the reports I've read say that the old station will be preserved. I'm not sure whether they've started work on the new part of the station where the parking not now exists. The certainly haven't cut through to the concourse. When we got down to the platform, we could see the construction work where they're building the new platform with 2 new tracks.
Given that the 4 existing tracks service the station pretty well with existing service, there must be plans afoot for even more frequent NEC and MARC service in the future.
Finally, the "Super-Star" appears around the bend.
Yep, it was a pretty long train, though I didn't get to see how many sleepers there were and the split between V2s and V1s, as I was sent to the front coach of the train, being that I was only going to Baltimore. The car seemed like it was full of people headed for Orlando and Kissimme, and when the conductor came by to scan my ticket, he said they should have sent me to the third coach. But he let me stay where I was, and he came by at Washington to lower the trap and let me (and a couple of other people sent to our car) out. I was stuck with an aisle seat and a seat mate, but, heck, this is only a 40 minute ride.
The ride was fine. Some sort of customer service supervisor (NOT a coach attendant) was on board, and she gave us a spiel about what to expect, emphasizing that it was lights out after 10 PM and no announcements after that, and if you were getting off during the night, you shouldn't move your seat without letting the staff know, because you might not get notified of the stop. I've never seen this done before, and I wonder if they're sending supervisors out because a lot of the new-hire OBS are starting to show up on the trains and management want to make sure they have some backup. But that's just wild speculation on my part.
Anyway, we arrived into Washington on time, and I got to check out the status of the track 22 construction project.
It looks like it's moving along and the platform's done. Also, note that I arrived around 2:50 PM, and the Capitol Limited is in the station, and seemed like it had been for a while, so it must have arrived into Washington on time, or at least not too late.
I had to ride the Red Line to get to my Dad's. Looks like they're running on 7-8 minute headways instead of the 10 minute headways I found earlier in the year.
The drive to Maine was fine, except for the traffic jam at the George Washington Bridge. We have ways to avoid this, but we wanted our pastrami sandwiches at Liebman's Deli in the Bronx, so we had to suck it up and put up with the traffic.
I'm up here through the 4th of July, then I'm heading back more conventionally, riding the Downeaster and Acela. My wife and I are coming back up at the end of the month, avoiding the long drive and New York traffic by taking the Acela and renting a car in Boston.
I got a chance to see the renovation work they're doing at Baltimore Penn. The entire historic building is covered in scaffolding. I'm not sure what they're going to do, I suspect it's probably just cleaning it off and fixing stuff, as the reports I've read say that the old station will be preserved. I'm not sure whether they've started work on the new part of the station where the parking not now exists. The certainly haven't cut through to the concourse. When we got down to the platform, we could see the construction work where they're building the new platform with 2 new tracks.
Given that the 4 existing tracks service the station pretty well with existing service, there must be plans afoot for even more frequent NEC and MARC service in the future.
Finally, the "Super-Star" appears around the bend.
Yep, it was a pretty long train, though I didn't get to see how many sleepers there were and the split between V2s and V1s, as I was sent to the front coach of the train, being that I was only going to Baltimore. The car seemed like it was full of people headed for Orlando and Kissimme, and when the conductor came by to scan my ticket, he said they should have sent me to the third coach. But he let me stay where I was, and he came by at Washington to lower the trap and let me (and a couple of other people sent to our car) out. I was stuck with an aisle seat and a seat mate, but, heck, this is only a 40 minute ride.
The ride was fine. Some sort of customer service supervisor (NOT a coach attendant) was on board, and she gave us a spiel about what to expect, emphasizing that it was lights out after 10 PM and no announcements after that, and if you were getting off during the night, you shouldn't move your seat without letting the staff know, because you might not get notified of the stop. I've never seen this done before, and I wonder if they're sending supervisors out because a lot of the new-hire OBS are starting to show up on the trains and management want to make sure they have some backup. But that's just wild speculation on my part.
Anyway, we arrived into Washington on time, and I got to check out the status of the track 22 construction project.
It looks like it's moving along and the platform's done. Also, note that I arrived around 2:50 PM, and the Capitol Limited is in the station, and seemed like it had been for a while, so it must have arrived into Washington on time, or at least not too late.
I had to ride the Red Line to get to my Dad's. Looks like they're running on 7-8 minute headways instead of the 10 minute headways I found earlier in the year.
The drive to Maine was fine, except for the traffic jam at the George Washington Bridge. We have ways to avoid this, but we wanted our pastrami sandwiches at Liebman's Deli in the Bronx, so we had to suck it up and put up with the traffic.
I'm up here through the 4th of July, then I'm heading back more conventionally, riding the Downeaster and Acela. My wife and I are coming back up at the end of the month, avoiding the long drive and New York traffic by taking the Acela and renting a car in Boston.
Just kidding, it's the Maine Narrow Gauge Railway Museum at the East End Beach in Portland. We stopped the and got lunch - - tasty, if overpriced sushi rolls and gelato from food trucks. And we had a nice view of Casco Bay while we ate.
