Well, I'm off again

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V

Viewliner

Engineer
Joined
Aug 23, 2002
Messages
2,662
Location
New Jersey
I guess this is goodbye and farewell for now guys. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm leaving on yet another trip. I leave on 91 tomorrow, and then I can bring in the new year on 98 going home (DP dec 31/ar jan 1 05). I'm looking forward to it, I've got my camera and scanner charged, got my chargers, got my tickets...everything. I've also gotten new software to work on my website, where I'll be posting my trip reports from last April, November and this one.

Till Next Year, this is Viewliner signing off! :) :D B)

Once again, Happy Birthday Alan.
 
I'll be travelling to FL as well, leaving St. Cloud bright & early (5 AM) on Christmas morning. I'll be staying over the New Years's holiday as well. One (admittedly, minor) disappointment is that I haven't been able to stock up on any fireworks with which to celebrate the New Year :( . Sometimes that is life. So, my new year's celebration may be a little more quiet than last year :lol: Other than that, it will feel good to get away from the cold snap - at least for a little while. I can hardly wait.

It looks like at least one of the trains that I'll be on will be sold out. This puts the lie to the canard that "nobody rides the trains."
 
WICT106 said:
I'll be travelling to FL as well, leaving St. Cloud bright & early (5 AM) on Christmas morning. I'll be staying over the New Years's holiday as well. One (admittedly, minor) disappointment is that I haven't been able to stock up on any fireworks with which to celebrate the New Year :( . Sometimes that is life. So, my new year's celebration may be a little more quiet than last year :lol: Other than that, it will feel good to get away from the cold snap - at least for a little while. I can hardly wait.
It looks like at least one of the trains that I'll be on will be sold out. This puts the lie to the canard that "nobody rides the trains."
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I wouldnt worry most the the firworks you probably want are on the banned list within the state. You need an agriculture permit or a commercial permit to useanything cool. Have a good trip though.
 
Well I did make it down to the station this morning to see Adam. Unfortunately he and I did not recognize each other, or realize that it was the other until we had gone our seperate ways. Train looked good, even in this morning's crummy Central Florida weather. Of note, Engine 14, 3 Viewliners (12 car with B-End to the rear), 5 Coaches I believe (among them Horizon 54048 in revenue service).
 
Hey battalion51 what station did you go to today? My dad and I met a couple of railfans today at Sanford. That overcast was real annoying. I've wondered if my dad and I have seen you a couple of times when we watch trains. We railfan a lot in central Florida also. You guys are right about the crowed trains, its not too often I see over a dozen people getting on and off at Sanford. Even Winter Park had a lot of passengers yesterday. One of the passengers I talked to said that the attendants announced many times during his trip that they had no seats available. Even the lounge car was full. I'm glad to see that Amtrak’s rider ship is doing well this holiday.
 
Went down to Orlando today. It was the most convienent for me to go to since I was in Winter Park and needed to go to Circuit City afterwards.
 
battalion51 said:
Went down to Orlando today. It was the most convienent for me to go to since I was in Winter Park and needed to go to Circuit City afterwards.
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Theres not a circuit city in winter park. :eek: :lol: That comes at a real suprise.
 
There's one not too far away in Colonial Plaza. There are basically three malls surrounding Winter Park with Winter Park Village, Colonial Plaza, and Fashion Square.
 
Fashion Square is in winter park? I thought it was in orl, the one right by the executive airport. Traffic overthere is horrible. You could get from winterpark to kissime of I-4 faster(not during rush hour) then from I-4 to 436 on state road 50.
 
Fashion Square is technically in Orlando, but it's a mere 5 minute drive through residential neighborhoods to get there, same with Colonial Plaza.
 
battalion51 said:
Fashion Square is technically in Orlando, but it's a mere 5 minute drive through residential neighborhoods to get there, same with Colonial Plaza.
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ok, I try to stay away from that area if all possible.
 
Viewliner, ringing in the New Year on a train! What a neat thing to do.

I actually almost did that once. I saw 1984 come in at Times Square, so left Jan. 1, 1984, in the afternoon, arrived the next morning in ATL.

I will be checking your o.t. performance. I know you were late going south.

You will have to let us know if they did anything special about it being New Year's on the train.
 
Nope, nothing special, the Conductor joked about throwing decorations off the train with the engineer on our crew out of Jacksonville. But it was a nice trip.
 
Well, I've returned from my trip. The train was delayed in arrival in St. Cloud due to a malfunctioning horn. This delay was about 2:20, which made the train arrive at 7:30 am instead of the scheduled 5:11 am. This was all for the better, though, as I got to ride the train & watch the snow swirl as the train went along the Mississippi. The snow swirled around the train all the to Chicago, which made the ride along the Mississippi very scenic. The crew was very polite & professional regarding the whole situation, and they were helpful in getting us into Chicago in a good fashion. However, I think the case can be made here for having the Capitol depart Chicago at a later time per day, say, 7:30 pm, just in case of the late eastbound wastern transcon. The only other downside to this trip was arriving into Ft. Lauderdale, which was also 2:30 late due to frozen switches in VA. The conductor would have to get off the train, use the fuzees to thaw the switch, and then board the train again. He had to do this several times. The return trip was better, though both # 98 & the Capitol Ltd ran into interference freight trains. Oh, well. When one flies, one can have delays for a wide variety of reasons, and when one drives, there can be delays & traffic jams as well. C'est la vie. I arrived into Chicago with plenty of time to make the connection to the westbound Empire Builder. I arrived into St. Cloud 7 minutes early. All in all, a good trip.
 

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