Ashland Train Enthusiast
Service Attendant
Last summer, my fiancée suggested that for our next trip, we visit the Big Easy. Naturally, my planning drifted to how I could maximize my our rail travel. Thus was born the plan to take the Crescent from DC to New Orleans for a few days, and then return via the City of New Orleans, connecting to the Cardinal in Chicago. (We had previously traveled Chicago to Washington on the Capitol Limited, so wanted to try a different route, as well as see the New River gorge. Checking our AGR balances, I realized I would have enough points for a 2 zone roomette redemption, making the trip that much easier to go forward with.
Once this was all planned, the first hurdle was presented in early November: trackwork. I got the call at work one day that our trip on the Crescent had been cancelled, not a fun call to get! Calling Amtrak back, I got a great agent who was able to look up the ARROW posting (as checking on Amtrak.com provided me no information), and let me know the duration and impact of the trackwork; I had him wait to make any changes until I could confirm with AGR that I could make the return trip work, as well as work with the inn to make sure rooms were available.
After calling the respective parties, I was able to get things 99% of the way worked out. The 1% hitch? We would have to arrive in New Orleans on Sunday, February 3rd. Superbowl Sunday. That was the only trip that worked with my and my fiancée's work schedule, as well as allowing us to avoid trackwork, connect to the Cardinal, and avoid expensive Mardi Gras rates on rooms. While our Inn was able to move our reservation around, they were unfortunately unable to accommodation us that night; between the two of us, we hit up the social media to find anyone we knew in the area who would be willing to put us up for the night, and were able to find a high-school friend of hers who graciously offered.
So, with that backstory being told, on to the trip! I'll be writing this in parts, 1) so I don't ramble on too long and delay getting things posted, and 2) so I can write pieces while my memory is still fresh.
1. DC to New Orleans on the Crescent
2. New Orleans
3. New Orleans to Chicago on the City of New Orleans
4. Chicago to DC on the Cardinal
Our journey began leaving home a bit later than expected, due to forgetting to pay rent on the 1st of the month (oops). From where we live, it's a Bus + METRO to get to Union Station, and fortunately, both were running on schedule, and we arrived early enough into Union Station that I could stop by the Barnes and Nobles there and use a Christmas gift card to get some reading material for the train. I'm a huge maritime history fan, so I settled on Ship of Ghosts by James Hornfischer. We checked into the Club Acela and had about a 20 minute wait, just enough to set up the final away/out of office messages to emails and check last-minute websites before shutting ourselves off from the internet, with the exception of my smart phone (but not that big of a data plan) for a day.
#19 was on time into Washington, and we were shortly thereafter walked down to board. There was a group of 7 or 8 boarding the sleepers, ourselves included. When we got down to the train, the yard crew had already cut out the engine for replacement with the diesels, and I saw the familiar round Amfleet silhouette so knew then that the sleepers were on the rear. I had expected it based on previous threads here, however was kind of hoping for them to be up front, as that meant less of a walk for us.
On the walk back, I noted that our diner was 8558, and the consist was 4 Amfleet II coaches, a Long-Distance Cafe/Lounge, the Diner, 2 Sleepers, and bag, so fairly typical.
We were greeted at the door by our SCA, Jonathan, who seemed to be younger and newer in his role than others we have had, but he was quite earnest and enthusiastic about providing service, being sure to check in on us once he got everyone on board and make sure we were familiar with all of the amenities as well as letting us know that as soon as we left Washington (which we did on time), we could head back (forward) to the diner for a 6:30 dinner seating.
We were in roomette 2, and across the walkway from us was an elderly woman named Nellie, who was traveling from Cleveland to Birmingham to visit family, and had gotten in on the Capital Limited earlier that day. She was an occasional train traveler, not frequent, but she'd done it before, and after talking, we asked her of she would like to join us for dinner, and she happily obliged.
When we walked up to the Dining car, it was about half full, and the LSA, noting how Ellie was braced given the train movement, seated us at a table close to the door. The special that evening was the roasted Lamb Shank, which I got; my fiancée got the Steak, as she had been thinking about it all day, and then Nellie got the Crab Cakes. I was excited about this, as it gave me the opportunity to get three different dinner pictures for my side project. All were served with a choice of starch (baked potato, mashed potatoes, or rice) and the mixed vegetables, which were a green and white bean medley.
I found the Lamb to be quite delicious, fork-tender and just falling off the bone. The potatoes (I got mashed) were good, probably dehydrated, but still hot and not at all soupy. I also found the vegetables to be quite good as well, hot all the way through, and tender without being mushy. I'm not sure if it was just these choices vs. their carrot/pepper medley that I've had before, but this easily was a better option. The steak was reported to be decent as well; ordered medium but came out medium well, but beyond that still hot and tender. Nellie declared after one crab cake that she was full, and graciously shared the other with me to try. Now, knowing full well from discussions here (like this one), I set my expectations accordingly. I know Amtrak cannot make a true Maryland Crab Cake (nor can many Maryland places either... gotta go to hole-in-the-wall joints on the bay that catch their own crab, like Abner's down in Chesapeake Beach, or the place right by the Bridge in Knapps Narrows), and I'll just say that the crab cake barely met my low expectations. It at least tasted crabby, and was sufficiently warm, but as mentioned elsewhere, the meat they used was not back fin jumbo lump, and there were far too many fillers. This may have sufficed for the average consumer used to commercial crab cakes elsewhere, but I would call it a stretch to compare it to true Maryland cakes.
For dessert they offered the Chocolate-Peanut Butter-Caramel Torte, which after seeing a picture of it here and having it described, I had to try. Let me just say that it is as delicious as you'd expect with a name like that.
While we were in the middle of dining, in a lull, I got a moment to take in the entire crew. It looked to me like they only had one cook, one SA, and the LSA crewing the car; I'm not sure if this was a lighter run or something, but I've usually seen the Heritage diner staffed by at least the LSA and 2 SAs. The LSA was also seating couples to tables individually (to re-create that romantic dining alone experience perhaps based on commentary here?) unless there were groups of 3 or 4. I had a chance to talk to the SA, who's name was Keith, and he said he'd been with Amtrak since 1990, was based out of NY, and worked the Eastern routes (New York to Chicago, Washington to Chicago, and New York to New Orleans). Overall I found the crew to be quite competent personable, helpful, and professional.
Following Dinner, we retired to our rooms to do some reading and relaxing before bed. When that time rolled around, I discovered that the reading light above one of the lower seats wouldn't turn off. As I am a decently light sleeper, this would have bothered me, so I let Jonathan know, and he immediately jumped into action; his first task was to try to fix it himself, and when that failed (short of pulling the entire fitting apart), he went and consulted with the conductor, and was able to move us into another roomette in his car that apparently wasn't sold any further down the line. He apologized for the condition there, and was gracious in helping us move into the new compartment down the hall. Following that, we promptly configured the room for night, and were asleep before too long.
Woke up the next morning during the Atlanta break. Apparently we had made good time overnight, and were about 15 minutes early into Atlanta, so had an extended extended stop there. Breakfast service was to resume after we got going from Atlanta, so after taking a moment to get some Hot Water from the dining car crew, I brewed a cup of my own tea, sat back in the bed (I had the lower) chaise lounge style, and enjoyed the morning.
Once we got going out of Atlanta, my fiancée and I picked up Nellie, who hadn't eaten yet, and was wondering where we disappeared to overnight, and headed for Breakfast. The diner was mostly empty when we arrived, so we were promptly seated. The special was Corned Beef with Scrambled Eggs, which I had, my fiancée had the Continental, and Nellie had the Pancakes (score again for more pictures!). All were quite good and filling.
The rest of the morning was spent alternatively reading, watching the countryside go by, and just talking and relaxing. We had only done a turn at Atlanta on the Crescent before, so the track south of there was new to us, which is always fun. I love watching the GPS on my phone to see what's coming up, especially rail yards or abandoned spurs, and then seeing them out the windows.
We were on time or early for all stops into Birmingham, which was where Nellie detrained. We helped her off the train, and then took a moment to walk the train, as well as take a look at the station. It was obvious that Birmingham in it's heyday was a more major station; there were clearly 2 platforms, and what looked like the remains of a third there, as well as at least 4 tracks, and where a 5th looked to be graded for, all except for the one our train was on looking like they hadn't been used for years. Across the tracks from where we were sitting by the second platform was an interesting rail car that looked like it has been there for years. It was an old heavyweight era baggage car that had been painted white, with a prominent Civil Defense logo on the side. I'd love to know the story behind that piece of history.
Moving on, once we left Birmingham, my fiancée and I headed up to the Diner for lunch. When we were there, the LSA jokingly asked us where our other party was, and when we told her Nellie had detrained in Birmingham, she was a bit surprised, as she'd thought the three of us were together. No, we laughed, trains just bring good people together and make friends of travelers, to which she agreed before taking our orders. Given that I hadn't gotten much exercise at all that day I had the entree salad, while my fiancée had the special, which was a pressed ham and cheese sandwich on flatbread with chips. The salad was exactly as described; all of the vegetables were crisp and fresh, no wilted bits or anything, and it was a good change from a heavier meal. I also got to try a bite of the special, and thought it was also pretty good; one thing I noticed though as since it was pressed, the cheese had melted it together. When served with the lettuce tomato/onion on the side, it was pretty funny trying to open the sandwich to put those fixings on.
We were offered dessert for lunch, and my fiancée, after having tasted my torte last night, selected one for herself while I tried the cheesecake. When Keith brought out the torte, he had let us know that he heated it up for just a couple of seconds, which he said made it that much better; with the chocolate filling warm and the caramel the same, I'm told it absolutely took a good dessert and made it better. I found the cheesecake to be good, nothing spectacular, but not a flop either.
After lunch was spent more scenery watching, reading, and a cat nap before Jonathan came by to brief us on the timing of the express dinner. While we were laying over in Birmingham, I got to chatting with a couple of the conducters who were also taking advantage of the fresh air, and their scoup was that as long as you made it into Meridian on time, it was a flat 4 hours from Meridian to New Orleans. We made it into Meridian on time, and were only a couple of minutes out, so things were on schedule thus far.
We had an early dinner right after Hattiesburg; it was the express dinner offerings, so the Vegetarian Pasta, the Herb Roasted half chicken, or the Angus burger. I had the burger, and my fiancée had the Chicken. The chicken was steaming hot and fork tender I was told, but a bit dry; of all things over the meals, my fiancée loved the vegetables the most, as apparently this batch of green, lima, and I think butter/white beans cooked up well without being overcooked. The burger was cooked through and not too greasy, which was fine, and to add a nice touch, the cook had also toasted the bun (again, reading the forum comments perhaps)? By that time, we had eaten enough for the day, so we passed on dessert.
Following that, we were just about in Slidell, and I knew that the crossing of the Lake Pontchartrain was coming up, and it was just about sunset, so we retired to our room to watch the crossing. We crossed shortly after sunset, so still in the twilight; having never done that before, it's a pretty surreal experience, as when you look out the window, it's as if you're just floating across the water, at 60 miles an hour.
Beyond that, an uneventful final ride into New Orleans proper. We arrived about 20 minutes early, and slid in past the Superdome while the game was in progress (but before the 35 min blackout), collected our luggage, and then headed out from UPT to continue the next leg of our journey.
EDIT: Meal pictures for the first leg of our trip have been uploaded to my site Dinner in the Diner: The Crescent. Enjoy!
To be continued...
Once this was all planned, the first hurdle was presented in early November: trackwork. I got the call at work one day that our trip on the Crescent had been cancelled, not a fun call to get! Calling Amtrak back, I got a great agent who was able to look up the ARROW posting (as checking on Amtrak.com provided me no information), and let me know the duration and impact of the trackwork; I had him wait to make any changes until I could confirm with AGR that I could make the return trip work, as well as work with the inn to make sure rooms were available.
After calling the respective parties, I was able to get things 99% of the way worked out. The 1% hitch? We would have to arrive in New Orleans on Sunday, February 3rd. Superbowl Sunday. That was the only trip that worked with my and my fiancée's work schedule, as well as allowing us to avoid trackwork, connect to the Cardinal, and avoid expensive Mardi Gras rates on rooms. While our Inn was able to move our reservation around, they were unfortunately unable to accommodation us that night; between the two of us, we hit up the social media to find anyone we knew in the area who would be willing to put us up for the night, and were able to find a high-school friend of hers who graciously offered.
So, with that backstory being told, on to the trip! I'll be writing this in parts, 1) so I don't ramble on too long and delay getting things posted, and 2) so I can write pieces while my memory is still fresh.
1. DC to New Orleans on the Crescent
2. New Orleans
3. New Orleans to Chicago on the City of New Orleans
4. Chicago to DC on the Cardinal
Our journey began leaving home a bit later than expected, due to forgetting to pay rent on the 1st of the month (oops). From where we live, it's a Bus + METRO to get to Union Station, and fortunately, both were running on schedule, and we arrived early enough into Union Station that I could stop by the Barnes and Nobles there and use a Christmas gift card to get some reading material for the train. I'm a huge maritime history fan, so I settled on Ship of Ghosts by James Hornfischer. We checked into the Club Acela and had about a 20 minute wait, just enough to set up the final away/out of office messages to emails and check last-minute websites before shutting ourselves off from the internet, with the exception of my smart phone (but not that big of a data plan) for a day.
#19 was on time into Washington, and we were shortly thereafter walked down to board. There was a group of 7 or 8 boarding the sleepers, ourselves included. When we got down to the train, the yard crew had already cut out the engine for replacement with the diesels, and I saw the familiar round Amfleet silhouette so knew then that the sleepers were on the rear. I had expected it based on previous threads here, however was kind of hoping for them to be up front, as that meant less of a walk for us.
On the walk back, I noted that our diner was 8558, and the consist was 4 Amfleet II coaches, a Long-Distance Cafe/Lounge, the Diner, 2 Sleepers, and bag, so fairly typical.
We were greeted at the door by our SCA, Jonathan, who seemed to be younger and newer in his role than others we have had, but he was quite earnest and enthusiastic about providing service, being sure to check in on us once he got everyone on board and make sure we were familiar with all of the amenities as well as letting us know that as soon as we left Washington (which we did on time), we could head back (forward) to the diner for a 6:30 dinner seating.
We were in roomette 2, and across the walkway from us was an elderly woman named Nellie, who was traveling from Cleveland to Birmingham to visit family, and had gotten in on the Capital Limited earlier that day. She was an occasional train traveler, not frequent, but she'd done it before, and after talking, we asked her of she would like to join us for dinner, and she happily obliged.
When we walked up to the Dining car, it was about half full, and the LSA, noting how Ellie was braced given the train movement, seated us at a table close to the door. The special that evening was the roasted Lamb Shank, which I got; my fiancée got the Steak, as she had been thinking about it all day, and then Nellie got the Crab Cakes. I was excited about this, as it gave me the opportunity to get three different dinner pictures for my side project. All were served with a choice of starch (baked potato, mashed potatoes, or rice) and the mixed vegetables, which were a green and white bean medley.
I found the Lamb to be quite delicious, fork-tender and just falling off the bone. The potatoes (I got mashed) were good, probably dehydrated, but still hot and not at all soupy. I also found the vegetables to be quite good as well, hot all the way through, and tender without being mushy. I'm not sure if it was just these choices vs. their carrot/pepper medley that I've had before, but this easily was a better option. The steak was reported to be decent as well; ordered medium but came out medium well, but beyond that still hot and tender. Nellie declared after one crab cake that she was full, and graciously shared the other with me to try. Now, knowing full well from discussions here (like this one), I set my expectations accordingly. I know Amtrak cannot make a true Maryland Crab Cake (nor can many Maryland places either... gotta go to hole-in-the-wall joints on the bay that catch their own crab, like Abner's down in Chesapeake Beach, or the place right by the Bridge in Knapps Narrows), and I'll just say that the crab cake barely met my low expectations. It at least tasted crabby, and was sufficiently warm, but as mentioned elsewhere, the meat they used was not back fin jumbo lump, and there were far too many fillers. This may have sufficed for the average consumer used to commercial crab cakes elsewhere, but I would call it a stretch to compare it to true Maryland cakes.
For dessert they offered the Chocolate-Peanut Butter-Caramel Torte, which after seeing a picture of it here and having it described, I had to try. Let me just say that it is as delicious as you'd expect with a name like that.
While we were in the middle of dining, in a lull, I got a moment to take in the entire crew. It looked to me like they only had one cook, one SA, and the LSA crewing the car; I'm not sure if this was a lighter run or something, but I've usually seen the Heritage diner staffed by at least the LSA and 2 SAs. The LSA was also seating couples to tables individually (to re-create that romantic dining alone experience perhaps based on commentary here?) unless there were groups of 3 or 4. I had a chance to talk to the SA, who's name was Keith, and he said he'd been with Amtrak since 1990, was based out of NY, and worked the Eastern routes (New York to Chicago, Washington to Chicago, and New York to New Orleans). Overall I found the crew to be quite competent personable, helpful, and professional.
Following Dinner, we retired to our rooms to do some reading and relaxing before bed. When that time rolled around, I discovered that the reading light above one of the lower seats wouldn't turn off. As I am a decently light sleeper, this would have bothered me, so I let Jonathan know, and he immediately jumped into action; his first task was to try to fix it himself, and when that failed (short of pulling the entire fitting apart), he went and consulted with the conductor, and was able to move us into another roomette in his car that apparently wasn't sold any further down the line. He apologized for the condition there, and was gracious in helping us move into the new compartment down the hall. Following that, we promptly configured the room for night, and were asleep before too long.
Woke up the next morning during the Atlanta break. Apparently we had made good time overnight, and were about 15 minutes early into Atlanta, so had an extended extended stop there. Breakfast service was to resume after we got going from Atlanta, so after taking a moment to get some Hot Water from the dining car crew, I brewed a cup of my own tea, sat back in the bed (I had the lower) chaise lounge style, and enjoyed the morning.
Once we got going out of Atlanta, my fiancée and I picked up Nellie, who hadn't eaten yet, and was wondering where we disappeared to overnight, and headed for Breakfast. The diner was mostly empty when we arrived, so we were promptly seated. The special was Corned Beef with Scrambled Eggs, which I had, my fiancée had the Continental, and Nellie had the Pancakes (score again for more pictures!). All were quite good and filling.
The rest of the morning was spent alternatively reading, watching the countryside go by, and just talking and relaxing. We had only done a turn at Atlanta on the Crescent before, so the track south of there was new to us, which is always fun. I love watching the GPS on my phone to see what's coming up, especially rail yards or abandoned spurs, and then seeing them out the windows.
We were on time or early for all stops into Birmingham, which was where Nellie detrained. We helped her off the train, and then took a moment to walk the train, as well as take a look at the station. It was obvious that Birmingham in it's heyday was a more major station; there were clearly 2 platforms, and what looked like the remains of a third there, as well as at least 4 tracks, and where a 5th looked to be graded for, all except for the one our train was on looking like they hadn't been used for years. Across the tracks from where we were sitting by the second platform was an interesting rail car that looked like it has been there for years. It was an old heavyweight era baggage car that had been painted white, with a prominent Civil Defense logo on the side. I'd love to know the story behind that piece of history.
Moving on, once we left Birmingham, my fiancée and I headed up to the Diner for lunch. When we were there, the LSA jokingly asked us where our other party was, and when we told her Nellie had detrained in Birmingham, she was a bit surprised, as she'd thought the three of us were together. No, we laughed, trains just bring good people together and make friends of travelers, to which she agreed before taking our orders. Given that I hadn't gotten much exercise at all that day I had the entree salad, while my fiancée had the special, which was a pressed ham and cheese sandwich on flatbread with chips. The salad was exactly as described; all of the vegetables were crisp and fresh, no wilted bits or anything, and it was a good change from a heavier meal. I also got to try a bite of the special, and thought it was also pretty good; one thing I noticed though as since it was pressed, the cheese had melted it together. When served with the lettuce tomato/onion on the side, it was pretty funny trying to open the sandwich to put those fixings on.
We were offered dessert for lunch, and my fiancée, after having tasted my torte last night, selected one for herself while I tried the cheesecake. When Keith brought out the torte, he had let us know that he heated it up for just a couple of seconds, which he said made it that much better; with the chocolate filling warm and the caramel the same, I'm told it absolutely took a good dessert and made it better. I found the cheesecake to be good, nothing spectacular, but not a flop either.
After lunch was spent more scenery watching, reading, and a cat nap before Jonathan came by to brief us on the timing of the express dinner. While we were laying over in Birmingham, I got to chatting with a couple of the conducters who were also taking advantage of the fresh air, and their scoup was that as long as you made it into Meridian on time, it was a flat 4 hours from Meridian to New Orleans. We made it into Meridian on time, and were only a couple of minutes out, so things were on schedule thus far.
We had an early dinner right after Hattiesburg; it was the express dinner offerings, so the Vegetarian Pasta, the Herb Roasted half chicken, or the Angus burger. I had the burger, and my fiancée had the Chicken. The chicken was steaming hot and fork tender I was told, but a bit dry; of all things over the meals, my fiancée loved the vegetables the most, as apparently this batch of green, lima, and I think butter/white beans cooked up well without being overcooked. The burger was cooked through and not too greasy, which was fine, and to add a nice touch, the cook had also toasted the bun (again, reading the forum comments perhaps)? By that time, we had eaten enough for the day, so we passed on dessert.
Following that, we were just about in Slidell, and I knew that the crossing of the Lake Pontchartrain was coming up, and it was just about sunset, so we retired to our room to watch the crossing. We crossed shortly after sunset, so still in the twilight; having never done that before, it's a pretty surreal experience, as when you look out the window, it's as if you're just floating across the water, at 60 miles an hour.
Beyond that, an uneventful final ride into New Orleans proper. We arrived about 20 minutes early, and slid in past the Superdome while the game was in progress (but before the 35 min blackout), collected our luggage, and then headed out from UPT to continue the next leg of our journey.
EDIT: Meal pictures for the first leg of our trip have been uploaded to my site Dinner in the Diner: The Crescent. Enjoy!
To be continued...
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Looking forward to the next Chapter of ya'lls Trip!
