Stepping Back in Time

Before composing tonight’s regularly scheduled post, here are some photos that correspond to previous entries I have made:

(Recent discovery: You can click on a photo to see a larger version of it!)

From the Capitol Limited:

 

Downtown Silver Spring, MD

Sightseer/Lounge Car

Dining Car

Our engine at Cumberland, MD

From Comiskey Park (AKA US Cellular Field):

The exploding scoreboard (see also below)

Amtrak Has Yet to Live Up to its Reputation

I begin where I left off last night, going downstairs to take a shower while on board a moving train. This might go without saying, but it isn’t the typical showering experience, unless being compared to what one might go through at a sleepaway camp. Luckily, we made the Connellsville, PA station stop while I was in the shower, which made things easier. The shower stall is about 6 feet high, so the top of my head is against the ceiling. The showerhead is one of those detachable ones that can be held in your hand, and the result is one gets something slightly better than a sponge bath. There is also a shower curtain with snaps between the shower itself and a small changing area, which allows one to make a possibly futile effort to keep the water in the shower and the changing area dry.

I turned off the lights in my room and went to sleep at 10:06 PM ET. I slept soundly from about 11 until our station stop in Toledo, Ohio, at about 5:10 AM ET, went back to sleep, and woke up for good at 6:47 AM ET during the Elkhart, Indiana station stop. We actually arrived here early and had to wait for the departure time to leave! Shortly thereafter, I went to the dining car for breakfast, where I was seated with a man traveling to Seattle, Vancouver, and possibly some points in British Columbia. He wasn’t exactly sure of his itinerary, but his train from Fort Lauderdale to Washington was delayed, so he was bussed with some other passengers to meet the train in Pittsburgh. After breakfast, I went to the lounge car with the Sunday New York Times, and remained there until we were about to arrive in Chicago, at which point I tidied up my belongings. We arrived at Chicago’s Union Station at 8:40 AM CT, almost a full hour early!

I proceeded to the Metropolitan Lounge to leave my things for the day, having put the items I needed for the day’s activities in a separate bag while on the train. I had a ticket to the 1:05 PM CT White Sox-Blue Jays game, so I decided to do some railfanning before that. I walked to the nearest L station at Quincy and Adams, and rode the following trains:

• Brown Line (Car #3361) from Quincy to State/Lake
• Brown Line (Car #3382) from State/Lake to Fullerton
  • The work they are doing at Belmont and Fullerton stations is phenomenal, I can’t wait to see the finish products.
• Red Line (Car #2647) from Fullerton to Lake
• Green Line (Car #2480) from State/Lake to 63rd/Cottage Grove
• Green Line (Car #2437) from 63rd/Cottage Grove to Garfield
• Green Line (Car #2474) from Garfield to 63rd/Ashland
• Green Line (Car #2494) from 63rd/Ashland to Roosevelt
  • The connecting passageway from the Green/Orange station to the Red Station is very well done in my opinion
• Red Line (Car #2709) from Roosevelt to Sox/35th

Then, it was on to the ballgame. I think the new Comiskey is nice. It isn’t a retro ballpark, but it is not a cookie cutter stadium either. There did not appear to be any obstructed views, but the scoreboards were hard to see from many vantages in the park, and there was music playing at almost every possible moment. There were also endless promotions and advertisements being made over the PA. One nice thing about the music is that it was much softer and more subdued than at other parks, but the quantity did not improve my opinion of it despite the quality. The game itself was quite good. It only took 2.5 hours to play the game. The Blue Jays won, 4-1, and their two pitchers only faced 28 batters over the course of the entire game (one over the minimum), allowing two hits (including a home run to Jermaine Dye) and no walks.

After the ballgame was over, I hopped on the Red Line (Car #2409) from 35th up to Monroe, planning to walk over to Union Station. However, a 130 bus came up (D40LF 1195) and I took that over to Union Station, to help ensure that I would catch the 4:35 METRA Fox Lake train to Deerfield. It is from the home of my relatives in Deerfield (where the local time is 7:22 PM CT on Sunday, June 29) that I am currently writing this, and it will be posted as soon as I can get the wireless to work right, or once I transfer it to a different computer to post it.

Tomorrow, I intend to finish my tour of the CTA’s train lines (more on my opinion of how they have deteriorated since my last visit in a future post) and will revisit Wrigley Field. And if you are wondering how Amtrak didn’t live up to its expectations since I never directly dealt with that issue in this post, let’s just hope that the Empire Builder performs as well as the Capitol Limited did.

A "Capitol" Experience Thus Far

Greetings from on board the Capitol Limited. It is currently 8:56 PM ET on Saturday, June 28 as I begin to write this entry. We left our previous station stop at Cumberland, MD at 7:29 PM and do not stop again until about 9:40 PM, when we arrive in Connellsville, PA.

However, before I begin to go into the details of the on board experience, I think I should backtrack and recap the last 48 hours prior to departing. Packing for this adventure, as I frequently like to call it, deserves some attention. I think that packing and preparing for such a trip is a somewhat unique experience, since the train ride is an actual part of the vacation. When I pack for a trip by airplane, my packing considerations are made for where I am going to eventually wind up. However, for the train, part of the vacation is getting there, and one must pack not only for the destination(s) but also for the train trip itself.

In all actuality, what I packed is not all that different than if I were flying. However, greater thought had to be put into figuring out what to pack where. My Superliner Roomette is about 3.5 feet wide and 6.5 feet long. Therefore, space is at a premium, and in the name of convenience, I want most of the things I will need overnight to be in the bag that I am keeping in my room, and everything else to be in my larger suitcase. The end result is that I have my camera, books to read, some snack food, my laptop, toiletries, a change of clothes, and things I want to be able to easily access upon my arrival in Chicago with me here in the room. My suitcase, currently on the lower level of this car in a luggage rack, has other clothing items, reading material I did not expect to want, and some miscellaneous items.

Now, on with the trip. The first segment is on board the westbound Capitol Limited, which departed at 4:05 PM from Washington, DC’s Union Station, and is scheduled to arrive tomorrow morning in Chicago’s Union Station at 9:25 AM CT. I took the Metrorail to Union Station, as I usually do, riding on board Rohr 1288. I ride the Metro frequently; there is no need for a detailed description of this leg of my journey. Once at Union Station, I picked up my tickets on one of Amtrak’s new self-ticketing machines (I finally have a use for my Guest Rewards card), and went to the ClubAcela to await the boarding of my train. The ClubAcela is nice, and has some nice chairs, Internet access, and complimentary drinks and snacks. At about 3:40, we were taken out to the train. For this trip, I am in Room 2, a Roomette on one of Amtrak’s bilevel Superliner coaches. The room itself is quite simple. There are two, wide chairs facing each other. The chairs convert into a bed, and an upper bunk is available were there to be a companion traveling with me. There is also a large window on one side of the compartment and a window and sliding door leading out into the corridor. A small foldout table is also in the room.

The room is on the right (north) side of the train, but the best views are to the left, according to my printouts from Trainweb.com and USA by Rail. Shortly after the Rockville, MD stop, I took my guides, camera, and Barry Svrluga’s National Pastime to the dome car, but not before getting a few photos of some Montgomery County areas that I am familiar with from walking and driving the streets there. I also got some more of the same photos from the lounge car. Also, before that, the dining car attendant came by, and I made a 6 PM reservation for dinner. I remained in the lounge car until just before that time.

In doing reading in preparation for this trip, I read many times that eating in the diner is one of the highlights of the Amtrak experience. I was seated with three other people: a man traveling to San Francisco to meet family, a teenager traveling back home to Pittsburgh after visiting family in DC, and her boyfriend. We discussed a variety of topics, such as what we enjoyed about train travel, where we were going, and other travel experiences. I’ll write more about the social aspect of train travel and meeting people some other time, but what I’ve read about that element of Amtrak travel thus far is accurate.

We finished dinner just before arriving at Cumberland, which is a crew change point and smoking stop. I used that opportunity to get off the train, stretch my legs, and get a photo of our lead engine, #14. There were three stops at Cumberland, so I reboarded the train at the rear and walked through the train to get my books, and went back to the dome car. After doing some more reading, I ventured to the back of the train to watch the tracks from the rear window, got some Cabernet from the lounge car on my way back to my room, and am now writing this post. The sun finished setting as I was writing this. Once complete, I am going downstairs for the Amtrak shower experience, and then going to sleep.

So far, I am impressed by the Amtrak long distance experience, and am having a great time. Like I said before, I’ll write more about some other topics in future writings. After arriving in Chicago tomorrow, I am going to see the White Sox play the Blue Jays at Comiskey Park (I don’t call it US Cellular Field), before spending the next few nights with cousins of mine in a Chicago suburb (I don’t call them distant cousins because in terms of my family tree, they could be hundreds of years more distant).

Good night from the Allegheny Mountains. Here is to hoping that our arrival in Chicago is on or close to time!