NativeSon5859
Conductor
On the 21st I took #1 out of NOL bound for SAS just for the sake of taking the detour between Avondale and Lake Charles. It was well worth the overnight drive in from ATL the night before after I got out of work and it was even worth the 12-hour trip back to NOL on Greyhound and the drive back to ATL the next day.
I won't go into too much detail here because others have done a great job in detailing the journey, but I managed to jot down the times in which we passed some cities along the way, so I thought I'd share those. Also, I took a bunch of picture and I included a link to them.
I did have a Roomette (room #3) on this one and the train left NOL with approx. 60 passengers, of which around 15 were in the sleepers.
Here are the times for some cities and landmarks...
Departed NOL: 11:55a
West Bridge Junction: 12:30p
Donaldsonville: 1:50p
White Castle: 2:02p
Plaquemine: 2:13p
Addis: 2:20p
Livonia yard: 2:52p-3:13p
Atchafalaya River drawbridge: 3:30p
Port Barre: 3:45p
Opelousas: 3:55p
Eunice: 4:17p
Kinder: 4:45p
The 19.5 mile jog down from Kinder to Iowa Junction (where we connected back to the regular BNSF line) took just about :30, and we arrived Lake Charles at 5:30pm...just about :40 late compared to the normal schedule, which I thought was very impressive. All of the time was made up by the time we arrived BPT, and we were well early into both HOS and SAS. Overall it was a very enjoyable over a pretty scenic stretch of track. I talked to several employees and they mentioned that they wished the train would run over the detour track on a regular basis since the track was so smooth.
Once we pulled into SAS I took a cab to the Greyhound station and caught the 4:50a schedule to Houston connecting to New Orleans. I don't go Greyhound often, but I have to say it was a good experience this time....all buses were clean, the seats were comfortable, and the trip was ultimately on-time into New Orleans.
Here's a link to the pictures....comments welcome.
Amtrak detour NOL-SAS/Greyhound; 9/21/09
...and a video.
I won't go into too much detail here because others have done a great job in detailing the journey, but I managed to jot down the times in which we passed some cities along the way, so I thought I'd share those. Also, I took a bunch of picture and I included a link to them.
I did have a Roomette (room #3) on this one and the train left NOL with approx. 60 passengers, of which around 15 were in the sleepers.
Here are the times for some cities and landmarks...
Departed NOL: 11:55a
West Bridge Junction: 12:30p
Donaldsonville: 1:50p
White Castle: 2:02p
Plaquemine: 2:13p
Addis: 2:20p
Livonia yard: 2:52p-3:13p
Atchafalaya River drawbridge: 3:30p
Port Barre: 3:45p
Opelousas: 3:55p
Eunice: 4:17p
Kinder: 4:45p
The 19.5 mile jog down from Kinder to Iowa Junction (where we connected back to the regular BNSF line) took just about :30, and we arrived Lake Charles at 5:30pm...just about :40 late compared to the normal schedule, which I thought was very impressive. All of the time was made up by the time we arrived BPT, and we were well early into both HOS and SAS. Overall it was a very enjoyable over a pretty scenic stretch of track. I talked to several employees and they mentioned that they wished the train would run over the detour track on a regular basis since the track was so smooth.
Once we pulled into SAS I took a cab to the Greyhound station and caught the 4:50a schedule to Houston connecting to New Orleans. I don't go Greyhound often, but I have to say it was a good experience this time....all buses were clean, the seats were comfortable, and the trip was ultimately on-time into New Orleans.
Here's a link to the pictures....comments welcome.
Amtrak detour NOL-SAS/Greyhound; 9/21/09
...and a video.
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