We're home in Louisville now. The adventure continued, even after we arrived in Chicago. Amtrak was great compared to, well, you'll just have to read the rest of it.
We’re home. The last part of this trip has been a real adventure. At 4:00AM I was thinking about what I was going to put in this entry. At 4:00AM I was sitting on a Greyhound Bus in Chicago. The bus was supposed to leave at 3:00AM, but lets go back a little to what brought us to this point.
Amtrak put two agents on the train a La Cross, Wisconsin. They didn’t make any announcement of their presence for several hours. The agents worked with the first class passengers first. That took several hours. I found out about them when as I was talking to Miss Oliver, our coach attendant. I just ask her how would we find out what our options would be when we reached Chicago and she told me that the agents were in the lounge car taking care of passengers right now. This was around 11:00PM. I walked back to where they were and there were a few people in line waiting for service. Some were pretty upset. I didn’t have my tickets with me so I wasn’t completely prepared to talk to them but since there were only a few people there I thought I’d just wait a few minutes and see what they had to offer. The only guy behind me in the line was just wanting to vent on someone so I let him go ahead of me. After all, a few minute didn’t really matter. It would still be two hours or more before we arrived in Chicago. When I talked to the agent he offered me a few options. He knew that Greyhound had a bus departing at 3:00AM that could get me to Cincinnati around 11:00AM. He also mentioned a 7:00AM departure and another one around 11:00AM. He said they would put us up in a hotel for the night with a shuttle to and from the hotel if we wanted to rest for the night.
I went back and checked with Frances. I had a hunch that she just wanted to get home as soon as possible. I was right. I located the tickets for the trip back to Cincinnati and went back to make the arrangements. Amtrak gave me a voucher that I could cash in at the ticket counter at the Chicago station. They gave me $6.00 for cab fair to the Greyhound station. Then they gave me $36.00 for an evening meal for both of us and $104.00 for greyhound tickets. When I got to the station it took me less than five minutes to get through the line and get my money.
Amtrak did the best they could to make a bad situation better. I talked to several passengers that boarded along the way. Amtrak brought food into many of the station where there were large numbers of passengers waiting like at Spokane, Whitefish, and a few others.
I had looked at the timetable when we departed Portage Wisconsin and estimated our arrival in Chicago at 1:30AM. Amtrak had done everything they could to make up time. They announced stations well in advance and ask the passenger that would be departing to move to the door and be ready to detrain before the train arrived at the station. We made a few stops in under a minute. When only one or two people boarded, they put them on the train, closed the door and “highballed.” After the train started moving they found seats for them. The timetable has some buffer time built into it to allow for four or five minutes at a station for boarding and detraining but every time we made up five minutes, it seemed like we lost seven or eight minutes at the next station. We got to one station and one passenger was supposed to detrain. No one got off. The conductor called the passenger by name and after about six minutes they located the guy and put him off the train. He was supposed to be in one coach and had moved to another coach. Amtrak puts all passengers for some stations all in the same coach so that when they stop they only have to let passengers off one coach. They also do it because the platforms at some stations will not accommodate the entire length of the train. When we departed Milwaukee I revised my estimated arrival time to 1:34AM. My time was twenty minutes faster than what the timetable showed. I knew we should be able to make up that much time. I was right. It was 1:34AM plus a few seconds when we stopped at Chicago Union Terminal.
After cashing in the vouchers we made the short walk to the street to wait for a cab. Amtrak had called the cab companies to advise them that there would be several people needing cabs. The cab drivers were trying to pick up the larger groups first. They get an extra dollar per person so were able to pick and choose who got to ride first. Eventually they started picking up couples and singles..
The Greyhound stations seem to be a magnet for homeless, drunks, and bums, especially after dark and this morning was no exception. There were probably ten to fifteen people hanging out in front of the place and another dozen or so scattered around inside the place. I got into line to purchase a ticket. Serge was the only agent on duty and “he no speak too good American.” I ask for two tickets to Cincinnati. He processed everything and said $51.00. I ask, “Is that for two tickets?” After all, Amtrak gave me $104.00 for tickets. He said it was. Then he weighed the “checked” baggage, put a tag on them, and handed them back to me.
Checked baggage on Greyhound means that you carry your bag and sit it beside the bus for the driver to slide or throw into the storage area under the bus. Then when you get to your destination or transfer location, you claim your bags beside the bus and if you are transferring to another bus, you carry your bags to that bus and go through the process again.
Now, back to the tickets. I had two tickets. One ticket for Chicago to Indianapolis and one for Indianapolis to Cincinnati. I looked all over the tickets to see if it said anything about two passengers and I didn’t see anything to indicate the number of passengers. I went back to ask Serge, “Is this one or two passengers?” He assured me that I had tickets for only one passenger. After waiting on the lady in front of me (with a family off to the side) to decide if she wanted to check five bags or eight bags or maybe six bags, no lets make it seven bags, I finally got to purchase another ticket. By the time I got the second ticket the bus was about to board passengers.
The bus was nice and it was clean but it was quite a change from what we were accustomed to on Amtrak. The carry on that fit easily on Amtrak’s overhead rack was a very snug fit on the bus. That wasn’t the only thing that was snug. Sitting upright in my seat placed my knees about one inch from the back of the seat in front of me. A slight slouch to get comfortable and my knees were pushing against the back of that seat. The guy in front of me was going to lay his seat back but decided against it when he looked up and notice that he must have had his head in my lap while he was looking at me. Compare this to the space on Amtrak’s Superliner coaches. When we boarded the first Amtrak Superliner coach in Chicago, Frances had trouble reaching the footrest. If the person in front of you has their seatback as far back as it will go, you have no trouble getting out of your seat. You can even get out with the seatback table down. I thought about trying to type this on the bus but decided I didn’t really have room to open the laptop up enough to read the screen.
The bus was suppose to leave at 3:00AM. At about five minutes after that hour, the driver announced that they were waiting for the State Police to bring six people into the station that were delayed by a wreck somewhere. In about ten minutes we saw a State Police car pull up in front of the terminal and a wrecker behind it. They both let people out that walked over to our bus and got on. Well, fifteen minutes late. Not too bad. We have an hour and twenty minutes layover in Indianapolis before catching our Indianapolis to Cincinnati bus so we should still be OK. The bus is full. The driver ask a few people that were traveling alone to move to let families or couples sit together. People were pretty cooperative and a few quickly volunteered to move. Most were women that probably preferred sitting next to another woman rather that some man they didn’t know. It was nearing 3:30AM By this time everyone was seated and we were ready to go. The guy across the aisle from me had boarded the train in Whitefish, Montana and sat across the aisle from me on the train. I said something to him about not being as late as the train.
A few minutes later the driver boarded, sat in his seat, revved the engine two or three times and got off the bus. “I wonder what that’s all about?” I thought.
A few minutes later the driver boarded again and made an announcement. He said, “There is a problem with the bus and we’re going to see if we can fix it quickly and get on the road.”
I didn’t see any signs of anyone working on anything. They may have been on the other side of the bus or in the rear. I said to the guy across the aisle, “This is how it all started in Seattle. It was supposed to be a two hour fix and it ended up taking nine hours to resolve the problem.” Then I ask him, ”Do you suppose that if we miss our next connection they will reroute us on Amtrak?”
Around 4:00AM the driver announced that, “You aint going to like this but we’re going to have to change busses.” He gave us instructions to check our seat number and to take the same seats on the new bus.
The new bus arrived around 4:15AM. We left Chicago at 4:33AM.
Frances and I sat around mid-bus. Behind us was a group of African-American males, all probably around twenty years old. They were loud and their conversations were “MF this” and “MF that.” One was talking about just getting out of jail accused of auto theft. Another was talking about dealing drugs. Fortunately the driver announced as we left the downtown area that this was a night trip. He ask the passengers to keep the noise down and he turned the lights off. A few minutes after that the conversations stopped.
We arrived in Indianapolis after the departure time of the Cincinnati bus but Greyhound knew there were several connecting passengers coming in on the Chicago bus so they held up several connecting busses, including ours. We got off the bus, picked up our “checked” baggage. We walked into the terminal and got in line for the bus that was right beside our bus. Carried our “checked” baggage to that bus and boarded.
The Indy to Cincy bus was another exciting ride. It wasn’t quite as full. There was some guy several seats behind us that ran his mouth the whole time. He was on the bus from Chicago also but only because that bus left late. He was too drunk to ride at 3:00AM. The delay allowed him to sober up enough for Greyhound to let him ride. He was loud and obnoxious and the entire conversation was suitable only for a bar room.
Finally we arrived in Cincinnati. Jarred and Melissa had called about two minutes before and said they were having trouble finding the station. I saw my friend that boarded in Whitefish and said good-by to him and wished him luck with the rest of the trip. We both agreed that the accommodations and the people were much better aboard the train. He was going to Virginia and had six or eight more hours on the bus.
As we walked out of the station, Melissa and Jarred were pulling into of the lot. We loaded up our baggage and after about ten or fifteen minutes we were at their apartment. We were for the most part “Home again.”
We had lunch with Jarred and Melissa and went back to their apartment. I took a nice long nap. A storm came through late that afternoon and woke me up. "After the rain quit we loaded the truck up and drove home. We arrived at the house at 12:10AM
A mechanic boarded in St Paul. Things got better and rumors traveled through the train "faster than a speeding locomotive." (I borrowed that line from Superman.)
Things are getting better. No, we haven’t made up any significant time. We’re all getting fed by Amtrak. It’s not their regular meal but it sure did taste good. We got mashed potatoes with some beef stew and some green beans on the side. The green beans were fixed “northern style.” That means they weren’t cooked till they were soft and super tasty, but they were good.
The restrooms in the coach behind us are working now. A mechanic boarded in St Paul and did some magic. Still having troubles with the ones on our coach and I don’t know about the air conditioner on the sleeper.
There are RUMORS going around about what’s going to happen when we get to Chicago. All connecting trains will be long gone. There’s word that they will put us all up in hotels and let us catch our connections tomorrow. That will work for most people but the train we have to catch doesn’t run again until Saturday. We are going to arrive in Chicago on Friday. They may put us on busses.
Besides being late, things are starting to break. Important things like the restrooms and the airconditioning.
Train 8 / 28 originating on July 18 has turned out to be the train from Hell. Seems like anything that can go wrong, has gone wrong. Maybe I shouldn’t say that yet. We haven’t got to Chicago yet. We’re just pulling into the Twin Cities area.
Mid morning today the vacuum system that make the restroom facilities work failed on our coach. That’s not a major problem. There are four or five other coaches on the train and we just have to walk to the next coach to take care of business. Things got a little worse this afternoon. The restrooms in the coach behind us broke down also. The good news for us is they shut the restrooms in our coach as soon as there was a problem. In the coach behind us they apparently didn’t catch the problem so quickly. The coach smells like a restroom. Most of the people have evacuated the area. So, now we have to go through that coach, through the observation car, through a sleeper, and then to the restroom. Oh, by the way, that sleeper has a problem also. The air conditioner on one end has broken down. I guess the old saying “When it rains, it pours” is true for this train..
We are about to pull into the Minneapolis-St. Paul station. They are supposed to have a maintenance crew meet the train to try and resolve the restroom problem in the coach behind us. They are also picking up another sleeper. I don’t know if they are going to move passengers from the sleeper with the air conditioning problem to that sleeper or if that sleeper was full of passengers boarding in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
7/20 5:30
Nine hours late, then ten hours late. We make up a little here and there and we're nine hours late again. Then we get stuck waiting for another train and we loose all the time we had made up.
The adventure continues.....
Still running between nine and ten hours late. Every time we make up some time we end up loosing it again. We had been running about ten hours late and by the time we got to Rugby North Dakota we were right at nine hours late. The station stop lasted only four minutes. Our train was ready to go. The dispatcher had us back out of the station and switch to another track so that the westbound train 7 could come in on that track. Then we waited another twenty-three minutes for clearance to proceed. The total time in Rugby was fifty-two minutes; four minutes Amtrak time at the station and forty-eight minutes delay to the host railroad.
Here’s something else to think about in this situation. Train 7 was a few minutes ahead of schedule. It had time to make the reverse move after we cleared the station and it still would have been on time.
Right now I’m wondering what we’re going to do when we arrive in Chicago. The train could make up another hour or so between now and then but even if it does, we still arrive there after midnight. Our connecting train to Cincinnati is scheduled to depart at 7:45PM. Often that train is held up to wait for connecting trains from the west. I know that it has been held over two hours on occasions but I don’t know how long they will hold it. Amtrak schedules all of its western trains to arrive in Chicago in the afternoon and the eastern trains depart between 5:00 and 8:00PM. If we miss the connections, our train does not run again for two days. There is a bus service that Amtrak provides on days when that train does not run. On those days Amtrak does run the train to Indianapolis. We will have another crew change before we get to Chicago and that crew should be able to give us some idea of what our options are.
It’s 11:00PM and we should be just a little past Rugby, North Dakota. That’s about five hundred miles from Havre, Montana, and Havre is where we are right now. Every time we make up a few minutes it seems that we have those minutes vanish at a station or while waiting for another train to pass. We passed the westbound train 7 around Essex, Montana. As the two trains parted I heard the engineer on train 7 tell our engineer, “Hey T-bone, you slow down anymore and I’ll catch you tomorrow." That’s not far from wrong. If he is on time tomorrow he will only be fourteen hours behind our train.
It was 1:45AM when we left Seattle, only nine hours late. It has it's good points.
Just a little update here. We left Seattle nine hours late. One small repair lead to other problems. Then they had to switch through the yard again and reconnect to the train. That took about an hour. Then there was the ten minute break test. You can’t do it any quicker. Then the host railroad couldn’t put the train on the correct station track without running past the station on one track, backing past on a second track, and then pulling up on the third track where passengers could board.
We arrived in Spokane at 10:00AM. It’s a stop where they service the train and connect to train 28 that came in from Portland. I’m sure those passengers were surprised to arrive at 12:28AM and find that they were going to have to wait for our part of the train to catch up. Spokane is a forty-three minute scheduled stop. We got rolling after thirty-five minutes this time.
This is a rare treat for some people that ride this train often. They are going through areas in the daylight that they normal pass through in the dark. Looking ahead at the schedule, we should have daylight for the most scenic part of the trip through the western parts of Montana.
We're trying to get out of here but the train's broke.
It’s been a long day and it’s still not over. We went to bed early last night and we woke up before the alarm went off. Showered, shaved, packed up, and checked out of the hotel. Left our bags there while we walked downtown and did a little more shopping. Grabbed a bite to eat at the “Westlake Center.” While we were there the monorail went right past the window where we were setting. They were making some test runs on the thing. There had been an accident last year and they had to do some major safety updates and today was the first time it had run since the accident. I thought it might be nice to take it to the other end of the route since the far terminal was about two blocks from our hotel but they were only making test runs.
We got back to the hotel and when we went to pick up our luggage, they couldn’t find it. It took them several minutes but eventually they came up with it. The room they normally use to store luggage was full and our stuff went to the overflow room. We were ready to go and we got the hotel shuttle to take us to the station. We arrived about 90 minutes early. We didn’t have anything else to do anyway. The train was scheduled to depart at 4:45PM. I was a bit surprised to find that it wasn’t at the station when we got there but, sometimes they keep a track clear for other trains to pass through the station. The King Street Station serves several “Amtrak Cascades” trains and the “Sounder” trains. Well, around 4:00PM I saw the locomotive come around a curve about four or five hundred yards from the station and stop. Again, nothing unusual here. It may have been waiting for another train to come through the station or it could have been waiting for warrants (track usage authorization) from the dispatcher. It’s 9:15PM and we’re still in the station.
It’s hard to get exact details on the problem but as they announced, there was a problem with one of the wheels and they had to replace it. They didn’t have any extra coaches in Seattle and the train was booked almost to capacity so they had to fix the problem. First estimates were three hours delay. Then we got word that while they were moving it through the yard to the rip track (track where they performed the repairs) the thing derailed and they drug it a couple hundred feet before they realized the wheel was off the track. Those locomotives have so much power that they don’t even notice a wheel or two off the rails. In the process, they bent some other stuff on the truck (the assembly with the wheels, springs, breaks, etc...) Now they are telling us we might be able to leave around 10:30PM, if nothing else goes wrong.
On the positive side, the weather was somewhat warmer today. It was a little cool in the shade when there was a strong breeze. Temperatures today were in the mid 70’s. The forecast is for 90’s by the weekend.
Frances has a book to read on the train. She read some last night and has been reading it while we wait. She’s about half way through it now.
Check back later for updates.
Today we did Seattle. Gee was it cold!!! The high for the day was 68 degrees. Frances had a jacket but she was still cold. All I had was short sleeves. I bought her a sweater and I bought myself a light jacket. Those are hard to find items in the middle of July. I ask the guy in one of the shops if it’s always this cold around this time of year. He says it gets hot in August but it’s usually warmer than it was today.
We went to the Pike Place Market. It’s one of the places you often see in pictures of Seattle. They sell lots of fresh fruits and veggies there along with fresh fish. Just follow your nose and you can find the fish vendors. One fish shop puts on a show for the visitors. They let people hold the fish while friends or family take pictures. Then when someone chooses a fish to buy, they toss it to they guys behind the counter to fillet and wrap it. We walked through the place and then went into the retail center of town to find something warm. Later we decided to go to the Seattle Aquarium. We figured that it would be inside and warm. Parts of it were outside and they were doing some construction on another part and had some large doors open. It wasn’t but a few degrees warmer than outside but at least the wind wasn’t quite as bad.
We headed back to the hotel, ready to crash. See you tomorrow when we board the Empire Builder.
They sometimes refer to it as the "Coast Starlate" for a reason. Read on.....
I must have been pretty tired last night. We boarded the train last night and got underway just a few minutes before midnight. It took maybe 25 minutes for everyone to get settled in. There is a young lady sitting across the aisle from me that is traveling with five children. She had her hands full getting them all ready for the night but after awhile, they all were ready to settle down for the night. Frances and I had our blankets and the coach attendant had passed out pillows. Our next station stop was at Martinez, forty-two minutes after leaving Emeryville. I guess we made the stop. I sure don’t have any recollection of it. The next station I remember was Redding at 5:50AM. Seems like a lot of people started waking up there. “Two of the girls that were with the lady across the aisle from me got to giggling and making a bit more noise than they probably should have at that hour but after about ten minutes they settled down. I haven’t heard a sound out of them since then. They are both asleep now.
Frances and I had a breakfast from the café car. She started reading and I started typing this. She didn’t read for too long before her head started bobbing, her eyelids got heavy, and her bookmark was sliding all over the page.
We are north of Dunsmuir California, near Mt. Shasta. We just passed through a section of pine forest that looks like it has recently seen some harvesting. A lot of trees have been cut down but they left a lot still standing. You could smell the pine as we went through that area. Earlier we passed an area where a forest fire had damaged several trees. The undergrowth and the lower portions of most trees were black. The fire had not reached the crown of the trees.
I put the laptop away for awhile. We had a scheduled stop at Klamath Falls. We had an unscheduled stop for 25 minutes about a mile before Klamath Falls. Klamath falls is a crew change location for both Union Pacific and Amtrak. The Union Pacific had a freight at the station on the track we were to be on. They were making their crew change and they were in no hurry to get out of the way. When we finally got to the station, Frances and I got off to stretch our legs a bit, use a land based restroom, and buy a softdrink. We departed Klamath Falls either three hours late or three hours and forty-five minutes late, depending on whether you use the old printed timetable or the unprinted temporary “everything is forty-five minutes earlier” timetable. At this time, the old timetable makes things look slightly better.
Before and after Klamath Falls we went through a flat valley with some agriculture but it was nothing like what we saw in California between L.A. and San Francisco. We rode along the shore of Upper Klamath Lake for about fifteen minutes. There was a snow capped mountain in the background, I think it was Mount Harriman.
We left the shores of the lake and began to climb into the mountains. There were some more pine forest. Again we could tell where there had been a small fire in one area and a small area where some trees had been harvested. The harvesting had probably taken place several months ago. The undergrowth had grown to three or four feet all over that area. Further up the mountain we came along side a creek or river with some rafters and several fishermen. As we climbed further up the mountain we could look down on that river and see a few small waterfalls down in the rocky canyon below.
Frances and I went to the observation car for a few hours. The best view was on the east side of the train but all the seats on that side were taken. We sat on the other side and mostly watched a hillside go buy. We kept an eye open for two seats together to free up on the other side and eventually we were able to move to that side, but by the time that happened we had passed the best views.
I heard on the scanner that the conductor had a problem passenger onboard. Actually there were three of them. The lady and her two children were supposed to detrain at Chemult, Oregon but they watched over forty other passengers detrain while they just stayed on the train. The conductor didn’t find them at their seats and assumed that they were off the train. I heard her talking to someone in the observation car later. Her husband was supposed to meet her at the station. She had no way to call him. The train was nearly four hours late at that station to begin with. The next stop would be three hours and one hundred twenty-nine miles later at Eugene Oregon. The fortunate thing for this lady was that the southbound train would be coming through that station just a few minutes after we departed. She was already seven hours late and she was going to be another three hours before she could meet her husband and that poor guy hasn’t heard a thing from the lady. He watched her train come into the station and depart and she never got off the train. Tonight might be the time when the “Till death do us part” clause goes into effect.
We arrived in Portland at 7:55PM for a thirty-five minute scheduled stop. We departed eleven minutes later. We were still four hours late but at least we had made up some time. It didn’t really help much. Our next stop was Vancouver, twenty-three minutes away. It took us forty-three minutes to get to Vancouver. There was a freight train blocking our path to the station. When we got there the actual detraining and boarding process took about two minutes and then we had to wait another twenty-three minutes before the dispatcher allowed us to depart. We lost all the time we made up in Portland and then some. We just left the Kelso-Longview station and we are again about four and three-quarters hours late. Our 8:30 PM scheduled arrival in Seattle is looking more like 1:00AM. Bad, but not unexpected and not as late some of the arrivals in the last month.
We toured a chilly San Francisco and got out of town.
What a chilly surprise we got this morning. We stepped out of the hotel and thought it was winter. I don’t think the temperatures got out of the 60’s all day unless they dropped into the 50’s. Lucky for Frances, she had brought a jacket with her. I had some long pants but no jacket or long sleeve shirt. We grabbed a breakfast at Denny’s, went back to the hotel and finished packing and checked out. We left our luggage at the hotel as a matter of convenience.
We started our journey for the day by walking across the street and catching the “Emery-Go-Round.” It’s a free shuttle that will take us to the BART terminal. A trip to the ticket vending machine and about a five minute wait and we were on our way to San Francisco. When we arrived at the surface at San Francisco we walked around for a few minutes to get our bearings. Frances spotted a bookstore and wanted to pickup something to read if the scenery turns bad on the rest of our trip. We made our way to Grant Street and headed toward Chinatown.
Melissa wanted us to look for a knockoff purse while we were in Chinatown. It didn’t take long to find some. The second place we went to had one of the brands she was wanting. We tried to call her to see exactly what she wanted but she was on the phone. We walked down the street while waiting for her to call back and found a place that had both of the brands. Called her back and talked about what they had and we picked out something. Hope she likes it. We strolled through the rest of Chinatown and then about a half mile to “Fisherman’s Warf.” We looked at all of the tourist things. I was surprised to see that most of the sea lions were “gone for the season.” Last year we saw a hundred or more and this year we saw one swimming and three on the floating docks. There was a sign saying that they leave in early June for their mating season and only a few non-mating or male sea lions stay during this time of the year.
We saw some of the same street performers that we saw last year and most of them in the same places. The “Bushman” was still there, hiding behind his bushes and scaring folks as they walk past. We picked up a few souvenirs and got in line for the cable cars. The line was a little over an hour long. Seemed like the temperature dropped several degrees while we were waiting in line. It’s nothing real exciting but if you go to San Francisco you probably ought to take the ride. The cost went up from $3.00 last year to $5.00 this year. We were able to ride the rear platform and we got some really great views from that vantage point.
The cable car terminated a half block from the BART station. We were about ready to head back. We were a little tired and Frances wanted to get somewhere out of the cold and the wind.
I’m sitting in the Amtrak station at Emeryville now. We got here about an hour before the scheduled arrival of our train but we knew it was running late. I had checked it’s ETA on my phone. It always runs late. The questions is “How late?” Right now it’s 1 hour and 9 minutes and it may become even later before it arrives here. I’m looking forward to a scenic trip tomorrow but I’m really concerned about our arrival time in Seattle. Three or four hours late won’t bother us too much since it’s supposed to arrive at 8:30PM anyway, too late to do anything when you get there. I just hope it’s not eight or ten hours late like it has been on some trips. Since we’re traveling on the weekend, maybe the Union Pacific won’t be blocking the tracks for track work. Then again, they might be doing the really heavy stuff since the number of freights going through the area on a weekend are less.
You always see some characters when traveling. While waiting for our train a lady walks in guiding her male friend. He is blindfolded, and later I found that he had earplugs. He had a sign hanging on the front of his jacket that said something like:
Shhhh! It’s my birthday. I don’t know where I am or where I’m going.”
His wife said that he was from Seattle but they were going to Portland for a few days. Hi had figured out that they were at a train station but didn’t know where they were going. He was assuming they would be catching a CalTrain to somewhere else in California. She finally let him take off the blindfold and the ear plugs since the wait was so long but he didn’t know where they were going until they boarded the train.
It’s 10:42PM and things just got worse. The train is at the Jack London station in Oakland. That’s the good news. That puts the train just eight minutes from our station. The bad news is the host railroad has had an accident and a HazMat team has to be called out to access the situation to determine if it’s safe for our train, or any train for that matter, to go through the area. After about 45 minutes we get word that HazMat has determined it safe for passage.
The station agent announces that another train, the California Zephyr is about fifteen minutes from arriving. The Zephyr, which usually operates pretty close to schedule, is running over six hours late this day. They may bring the Zephyr in first and let those passengers detrain before they bring our train into the station or they may bring our train in first. There are two tracks at this station but when they use track two, passengers have to cross track one. It becomes an unsafe condition when 2 trains are involved. The Zephyr arrives on track two first but stops so that the passenger coaches are short of the platform. The Red Caps can start unloading the baggage car but the passengers must stay on board. About five minutes later our train pulls in on track one, the near track, and slightly past the station. As our train stops, the Zephyr pulls ahead so that it’s passengers can detrain and walk behind our train to get to the station.
11:056PM and we are on the road, one hour and forty-four minutes behind the original schedule, or two hours and twenty-nine minutes behind the modified schedule. The conductor said they had made pretty good time until the last hundred miles or so.
L.A. to Emeryville on the Coast Starlight has been the best part of the trip so far.
LA to Emeryville. This has been the best part of the trip so far. We got up this morning and got everything packed up and ready to go and then we went out for breakfast. We found a nice little place the day before about a block from the hotel. After breakfast we went back to the hotel, picked up everything, checked out, and caught a cab to the station. The station in L.A. is one of the older stations built when rail transportation was “the” mode of long distance transportation. Watch any old movie that shows someone departing L.A. and it’s been filmed at this station. Today most of the trains are Metrolink, Amtrak operated commuter type trains, and CalTran trains. The Sunset Limited, the Southwest Chief, and the Coast Starlight are the three long distance trains that still served this station. It was quite warm in the station this morning and we were really glad to board our train.
Boarding a train in L.A. is more like boarding an airplane than any other place we’ve been. They actually wanted to see a photo ID. We didn’t have to go through metal detectors or take off our shoes or anything like that. One thing that really surprised me was the steps we had to go up to get to our train. Everyone had to go up about 30 steps with their luggage in tow, just to get to the train. There was a ramp you could take but it was out of the way and put you about 50 yards or more from where you needed to be to board your coach.
As soon as the coach attendant had taken our tickets, we moved to the observation car. We were luck to find two seats together on the left side of the train. The left side was the ocean side of the train. After a few stops, a group of guides from the “Rails to Trails” program boarded. Those guys were great. They really made the trip interesting. It was a beautiful ride and Frances said that this was much better than the other train (The Sunset Limited.) The train goes along the coast for a few hours. We saw beaches, kelp farms, oil drilling rigs, sea birds, and some expensive property. We went through Vandenberg Air Force Base and saw an Atlas missile sites, a Nike missile site, and other parts of the base that most people don’t have access to unless they ride through here on a train. There was a stretch of over 35 miles that has no other public access to view the beach other than on train.
As we continued northward we went through miles of farm land. The only excitement along the way was when the train went into emergency. The conductor announced that someone had put a bike on the track and the train hit it. While we were stopped a wine-o walked along side the train, drinking something from a paper bag (Rule G in railroad terms) and waved at us. I listened on the scanner while we were stopped. The engineer reported to the dispatcher that he had hit “A pile of metal stuff.” As the “stuff” bounced around under the train it broke the brake line in three places. The conductors walked the train and reconnected them. While they were doing that the engineer reported to the dispatcher that there was a bunch of hobo’s on the side of the track where the junk was piled up and he ask that the police be dispatched to clear them out.
As evening arrived the observation coach became the movie theater. This evening “The Pink Panther” was showing. We watched most of it but we had to get ready to detrain before the end of the movie.
We arrived in Emeryville about an hour late, not too bad for this train if you look at it’s recent record. A two block walk to our hotel and we’re ready for a night of ZZZZZ’s
What a great nap I had last night. I had a little head ache last night after we walked around for awhile. I took a few aspirin, laid down, and the next thing I knew, it was 5:00AM. At least I feel better.
We’re staying the Millennium Biltmore in downtown Los Angeles. It’s an older hotel but it’s very nice. Frances ask me what I paid for this place. She was surprised when I told her it was $103 per night. She thought it was quite a bit more. I think they have 5 restaurants in the place.
We sort of had a choice of taking a bus tour of the area or taking a tour on our own. We chose the latter. The Concierge suggested we walk to the Metro station about a block away, get a $3.00 day pass, and take the red line to Hollywood. He also gave us directions to take a bus to Beverly Hills and then get back to the hotel.
We were sort of disappointed in Hollywood. There is an area of about 2 blocks that are nice but the rest of the “Hollywood Entertainment District” is mostly tourist traps. You can buy maps to see where all of the stars live or you can walk a block further and find some ladies’ undergarments. It was interesting to walk the walk and look at the names on the stars. Britney Spears and other “pop” artist have theirs but I enjoyed seeing some or the really classic names. Names like Red Skelton, Bob Hope, and others.
Our next stop was Beverly Hills. No sleaze there. Nothing in our price range either. A few places had visible security in the front of the store. Several limos, lots of expensive cars, and the occasional lady with her dog and the diamond collar.
Back to the hotel but first a short trip to the Macy’s Center. It was a few blocks from our hotel. Frances wanted a book to read on the train. Then, something cold to drink and back to the room. Tomorrow we head up the coast to Emeryville (Oakland.)
I remember my Dad telling me about crossing Texas on a troop train in WWII. He said it took him 2 days to cross it. Click below for the details.
Texas is too big for itself. It don’t have enough stuff in it to use all the area. We left San Antonio at 5:56 this morning and have been on the move for about 11 hours, covered nearly 600 miles and we’ve only seen one McDonalds and no Wal*Marts. I’ve seen hundreds, maybe thousands of trailers, junk cars, cacti, and cemeteries with no grass or trees. I don’t know where these people out here go for gas because I’ve only seen three or four locations that had gas stations. When they call this area a desert, it's for good reason.
I woke up this morning around 3:00AM. Don’t know why, but I was wide awake. We arrived in San Antonio over an hour late. Our train meets Amtrak's "Texas Eagle" there and they join to become one train. The Texas Eagle had arrived before us and was waiting for us to couple up to it. We departed the station about 3 minutes late but had to stop about 200 yards down the track for another 3 minutes. I went back to sleep around 6:00AM and slept for a few hours. We woke up just before 9:00AM, just in time to hear the breakfast call in the diner. We both had the “Railroad French Toast” and some juice.
Not a lot to say that I didn’t say in the first paragraph. We arrived in El Paso 25 minutes late and left 5 minutes late. So far we have been pretty close to schedule and when we were late we were able to make up most of it. This train has a pretty bad on time record, so, I hope our string continues.
We just entered New Mexico. We were about 100 feet from the Mexican border. Close enough to read the signs on the fence. The railroad used to have a serious problem in this area. There was no fence at all. Mexicans would do something to slow the trains down, stand on the track, or anything that would make the engineer slow the train. Then they would pull the uncoupling handle and break the train and thus, break the brake line and it would cause the train to stop. They would then break into box cars and hope they had found a car with high value items, like TV’s, auto parts, etc… They would then carry the items 100 feet into Mexico and avoid the U.S. authorities.
It’s been pretty quiet on the train since the kids got off last night. The boy sitting across the aisle from us apparently got wiped out the night before he boarded the train. I gathered that from a conversation he had on his cellphone the first afternoon. He hasn’t been a bother. He’s been cruising the train for chicks, I think. A few people have tried playing DVD’s or CD’s without headphones and the train crews have reminded them that they have to use headphones.
There apparently was a problem in one of the other coaches with a very large man in a wheelchair. I overheard the conductor talking to the car attendants and later to the complaining passenger. From what I gathered, he was too big or had too much junk on his wheelchair to get into the restroom. There was talk about hot water, rubber gloves, and some plastic bags to put on the seat to keep anyone else from using that seat for the rest of the trip. The conductor was going to remove the passenger from the train at El Paso but the complaining customer wouldn’t cooperate. The conductor said that if the passenger could not use the restroom on the train he would have to detrain and find other modes of transportation. I guess they got everything worked out because I didn’t see anyone in a wheelchair at El Paso.
This route really carries a lot of freight. It seems that we are passing a freight train about every 30 minutes. The dispatchers have done a great job of keeping us moving. Most of the route is single track with passing tracks every 10 to 20 miles. My North American Railroad Atlas shows that it ranks in the top 10% of rail lines in traffic density. An awful lot of it is bi-modal, shipping containers. There's a bunch of it coming in from China in those containers and going to Wal*marts and other places in the east and mid-west.
Our on-time record is running into trouble. Overall, we’ve been pretty close to schedule. We arrived a bit late at a few spots that had scheduled layover but were able to leave pretty close to on-time. Shortly after pulling out of El Paso we sat for nearly two hours due to “freight train congestion” further up the route. We finally got going again for about 30 minutes and stopped again. There had been a derailment during the night. Fortunately, it was along the main line going past a rail yard and there were ways to get around it. It required the railroad to clear a route through that yard that they normally use for switching and storage. Three east bound freights passed us while we were waiting. When we finally got to the yard they held us there for another two hours. I heard the dispatcher talking to other trains. He told our engineer that “There’s quite a mess up the hill.” He was talking about the road before us. There was a train up there with mechanical trouble. After listening for awhile I figured that one of the locomotives had a problem and they didn’t have enough power with the remaining locomotives to pull the train up the hill. They were going to send another locomotive but I think the engineer on that train was able to pull part of the train to a passing track, park it there and go back to get the rest of the train.
Bottom line, we got to LA at 2:43, only 4 hours and 33 minutes late. By the time we got to the hotel there was no question about arriving before normal check-in time.
After a short stay in New Orleans, we are on the road again. This time on the Sunset Limited. I'm posting this at 5:35 AM local time while we sit in San Antonio. Arrived over an hour late but expect to be leaving on time.
Boy did we sleep good last night. We stayed in an Astor Crown Plaza at the corner of Canal and Bourbon Streets. This was right on the edge of the flooded part of New Orleans. The clerk at the desk said they had had sandbags at the front door to keep to keep the water out. We noticed a window at the end of the hall looked like it had been replaces recently and the wallpaper on both sides had been removed about six feet each side of the window. You probably wouldn’t have noticed it if you didn’t know about the hurricane last year. There were a few other minor maintenance items that needed attention but overall, it was a pleasant stay. I thought I had made a bad choice when I first got there. There was a hallway that had drywall up and only painted, not finished and there was a slight musty smell. It turned out that they had some temporary walls up and they were doing some renovations.
We played it safe for breakfast this morning. We ate in the French Quarter. The McDonalds on Canal Street that technically is in the French Quarter since Canal Street is the boundary of that district. We had a little time before we had to head toward the station so we walked about a half mile along Bourbon Street. If you’ve never been there before, lets just say it’s not “G” rated.
Back to the hotel, finish packing everything up and we were off to the station. We arrived a little over an hour early. Didn’t have time to do anything else anyway. Found some seats and sort of got into position to get in line when they started boarding. There was a Subway (as in sub sandwich) in the station so I picked up one of their foot longs for the road. About 25 minutes before the departure time they started boarding passengers.
We were assigned to one of the older coaches. The older ones are just like the newer ones at first glance. The new ones have some electrical outlets at a few of the seats. I looked for them but didn’t find any. Right now I’m sitting in the lower level vestibule on a step stool with the lap top plugged into the only A.C. outlet available to passengers on this coach, charging my batteries and typing. It’s 11:20PM. This train doesn’t have an observation car on this trip. That’s sort of a bummer also. We meet with another train in San Antonio and that train might have one. They sure are nice for watching the scenery go by.
There were three kids in the terminal before we boarded that we hoped would not be riding too close to us. They didn’t know how to behave and the dad and grandparents were not able to control them. One of them didn’t board the train. He was the best behaved of the three. The two girls, probably 5 and 7 years old, ended up in the seat in front of us. Once we got moving they got moving. They were running up and down the aisle, hopping up and down the aisle, playing “elevator” with the sliding door at the end of the coach, pulling on each other. They were rough-housing once while the dad was away and they almost knocked my laptop off the tray table when I told them to behave. The dad must have had some kind of medical condition. He had a box with about a half dozen prescription bottles in it. Frances and I figured they were Valium or something like it to allow him to deal with the kids. He would put the girls in their seats and tell them to behave and a minute later they were back to doing what they had been doing before. They went to the diner for a meal and when they returned the oldest girl was complaining with a belly ache and her head was hurting. I hated to see her get sick but the conductor ended up calling EMS to meet the train in Houston. They took her to the hospital to see a doctor. I don’t think there was anything really wrong with her. She didn’t know how to behave and she was a spoiled brat. Amtrak will let them board the next train and continue their trip but this train only runs three days a week. Their destination is 1200 miles from Houston.
It’s going to be interesting when we reach San Antonio in about 4 hours. The conductor says the train will be full when it leaves that station. There are two “passengers of size” that are riding together but insist on having two seats each. The conductor told them they could either sit together or they would probably have someone else sitting with them at San Antonio.
Smokers seem to always be problems. There were several announcements about the no smoking rule but the smokers just can’t seem to understand. Two girls got caught smoking in the restroom. They got their warning. They were lucky. Some conductors would have put them off at the next stop, or even the next grade crossing. One of the attendants said they usually end up putting a smoker off just about every trip. They’re serious about the rule.
We just had a 30 minute stop while we waited for an east bound freight to meet and pass us. Most of the route is single track with passing tracks every so often. How the passes are handled depends on the host railroad’s dispatcher. Some of them really try to expedite Amtrak and others just don’t’ really care. They handle Amtrak and its passengers just like a freight train full of coal. Then there are the dispatchers that despise Amtrak and put the passenger trains on the bottom of their priority list. The train I’m on is almost always late into LA. We were a bit late for the first few stops we made but we made up some time and actually arrived in Houston early. The attendant in the snack bar area says that the Houston to San Antonio area is where the train usually starts to run into trouble. Since we don’t have any scheduled stops between those stations, it’s hard to measure our progress. That 30 minute stop didn’t help but in a 5 hour run, it should be something that can be made up. We’ll know when we get to San Antonio. I’ve had my scanner on most of the time so I sort of know what’s going on. Coming into Houston we ran into several “approach” signals (yellow lights) and “Stops” (red lights.) When we were within a mile of the station we encountered two “dark” signals, signals with no lights. That carries the most restrictive stop requirement. The engineer has to stop and then get permission from the dispatcher to pass.
Well, my batteries in the laptop are about charged. I think I’ll go back up to my seat and charge my own batteries.
We're in the Big Easy. A bite to eat and a shower are in order.
We arrived in New Orleans. For the first time since we boarded the City of new Orleans, we were ahead of time. We arrived 41 minutes early. As we neared the outskirts of the city I heard the engineer on train 58, the northbound “City of New Orleans” tell our engineer that there was a tree laying on the tracks ahead of him. He then told him that it was just some of the top branches and that “He had run over them and had no problems.”
As we came into the city we saw lots of blue tarps on roofs. Several homes had trailers in the front yard and you could see where the sewer and other utilities had been extended to meet the existing systems. Lots of homes still had junk piled up in front of the houses. In the downtown area you don’t usually see it immediately. You might see a building that has a window boarded up, or a business that is closed, but when you look around and put them all together, there are a lot of scattered windows out around town and a lot of closed businesses. We went to the Riverwalk mall and probably 15% of the places are closed. Our hotel is on the corner of Canal and Bourbon Streets and while we are on the very edge of the French Quarter, there doesn’t seem to be all that many people here.
We’re planning on hitting the hay early tonight and get a good nights rest. The train leave tomorrow at 11:55AM. Lately it has been running several hours late at Los Angeles. It is supposed to arrive at 10:10AM on Wednesday. So far, there have been problems but the arrival times at our destinations have been really good.
Stay tuned…
We probably should have gone to a museum or something like that but we went walking and shopping and trying not to get anything to big or heavy since we would have to take it to California and back.
Click below for the rest of the story.
We’re bushed. We spent the day walking the “Miracle Mile”, and a few other places. Ate lunch at the “Billy Goat Bar and Tavern”, and witnessed a accident when a guy ran a red light. On our way back to the station we grabbed a Subway, the kind you eat, not the ones you ride. We rearranged our luggage slightly. The carry on bag was a bit overweight. I moved some of the stuff into my backpack. It’s the type you use when backpacking and camping. It’s a lot easier carrying the weight like that.
We’re in the waiting room now. Our train should be boarding in about 10 minutes. I noticed in the Great Hall when we first arrived at the station that there was a group of about 80 people with Special Olympics going to Mississippi. They’ll be on the same train we’re on. I hope Amtrak put on an extra coach for a group that large. I have nothing against Special Olympics and only a few of the group showed any signs of disability but I expect they are going to be up and running through the train all night. Putting this on hold for now, just about time to board.
Wellllllll. We’re late. First they had a mechanical problem. Then they had to add a coach. There was that group of Special Olympians, 134 of them. We’re on the road on the road now. Left Chicago at 9:11PM. Only 1 hour 11 minutes late. Oh, I forgot. They had the train in the station with the engine end at the gate. We’ve backed out of the station and we’re sitting on one leg of the wye right now. It’s the leg that goes west to Aurora. (For you non-train people, the “wye” is like a triangle with tracks off each corner. The railroad uses them to turn a train or a car.)
It’s 9:26 and we're moving again. We’ve cleared one side of the wye, probably by a half mile or more. Kind of maked me wonder if we’re going to back up to Naperville. Actually, I suspect we had to back that far so that we could switch to another track.
OK. It’s 9:35PM and I would say that we are on our way in the right direction. Just made a turn in a southerly direction. Checked with my compass and it said more like a east-south-east. We’re really burning up the rails also. Probably 20 MPH. Looks like we might be riding along the South Shore line. It’s dark out there but I think I see cantenary next to us (that’s overhead power for electric locomotives for those of you that aren’t train fans.)
Looks like this is going to be a wild trip. Got some folks in the next few seats behind us that talked through all of the announcements and just seem to have no respect for anyone in the coach. Everything seems to be funny and they have to laugh out loud.
Just passed a METRA using the centenary. Probably up to 50 or 60 MPH now.
It’s 10:00PM. See you tomorrow.
Who does anything at 3:05 AM? Amtrak for one. And how does Amtrak define "On time?" It sort of depends on the train. Click below to read the rest of this.
3:05AM? Who in their right mind would schedule a train to depart Cincinnati at 3:05AM? The truth is, when you run a train from New York to Chicago and it takes 26 hours to make the trip, you got’a be somewhere at 3:05AM. And that brings up another question. Why would you go through Washington, DC., Charleston WV., Cincinnati, Oh., and Indianapolis, In. if you want to travel between New York City and Chicago. I guess Amtrak just wanted to take a little dip towards the south and scoop up people from those areas. Amtrak has trains that go a near straight line between New York and Chicago and another between Washington and Chicago.
Things are looking good this morning. I checked the Amtrak web sight last night and the train was 23 minutes late at Charleston WV. This morning it’s only 6 minutes late between Ashland Ky. and South Portsmouth, Ky. It’s expected to be 6 minutes late arriving at Cincinnati this morning. WOW! For this train, that’s early. Maybe this will be a good omen. Maybe the Coast Starlight will run early on the days we ride it. Maybe the Sunset Limited will be on time also. A few days ago it was almost 12 hours late.
Breakfast is ready. Hot cinnamon rolls. Time to go. It’s a good thing we made our practice trip the day before. We had started our practice trip in Newport, Ky. We crossed the bridge to Ohio, found a sign saying “North I-75”. We followed that sign to I-75 and then took the first exit and that took us right to the station. Well surprise, surprise, surprise! When you cross the river on the I-71/I-75 bridge you can’t get to the exit we took yesterday. We take the next exit and it sends us off on a real tangent. . I’m really starting to sweat. This train better be late or we’re going to miss it. Then I realize that Melissa likes to set the clock in her car about 15 minutes early. I looked at my watch and we still have about 20 minutes. We eventually get back on I-75 going south and get off at our desired exit. A quick turn and about two blocks down the road and we’re at the station. I was surprised to see so many cars. I was even more surprised to see how many people were in the waiting room. I didn’t count them but I would guess around 30 people. The agent instructed us on where to go. As we arrived on the platform the train was coming into the station. It was about 5 or 6 minutes late. It was scheduled for a 7 minute stop but it took 5 minutes to get all the people off that were going to Cincinnati and then it took another 5 minutes or more to get everyone on. We left the station at 3:17, twelve minutes late.
Hamilton Ohio 4:04
Connorsville 5:06 to 5:09
Indianapolis 6:40 to 6:54
Wow! Only 4 minutes late leaving Indy. Amtrak’s luck couldn’t continue. When leaving Indy the dispatcher instructed the engineer to watch for a flagman at an overpass a few miles down the tracks. When the train arrived at that point there was no flagman. The train stopped and confirmed with the dispatcher that he was supposed to be seeing a flagman at that point. After the confirmation the engineer got off the train and walked ahead to the bridge only to find that the contractor was working on the overpass over the tracks and they did not have anyone to flag trains today. Our engineer advised the dispatcher and we proceeded but we probably lost 20 minutes overall.
Renssaeller Ar 8:49, dp 8:49
Dyer Ar 9:45 dp Dp 9:47
Isn’t WIFI great? While we were stopped in Dyer I was able to connect to someone’s WIFI router and check my e-mail. Nothing important there, mostly junkmail.
The conductor just announced that we were one hour from Chicago, barring any unforeseen problems. We should actually arrive just about on time. We arrived at 10:50. He said with the record they have had in the past, “This was ON TIME!”
Day One
The day finally got here. Today is Friday July 7th. We start our trip today. Well, not the train part of I,. Just the part where we leave the house. That’s probably the worst part of any trip. We packed everything, well, most everything on Wednesday. Did a little last minute shopping for snacks and other “junk” on Thursday, took care of a little last minute business Friday morning, and packed the last minute things. We had to get Bailey’s stuff ready to go to stay with Melissa, Jared, and Norah. We also had to get Stinkums (AKA Lil’ bits, Rahab, or Baby) ready to stay with Dennis, Ann, Kirk, and Mallory.
My plans were to leave around 2:30PM but we didn’t leave home until closer to 3:00PM. We dropped off Stinkums, made a quick stop to see Emma before we left(we missed her, she stayed with her aunt last night). We were on the road. Nothing eventful about that part of the trip. We arrived at Melissa’s place around 5:30PM, about a half hour later than we planned. After we unpacked the truck we went for a belated Fathers Day meal at Buckheads. Melissa and Jared were not sure how to get to the Amtrak station so we made a practice run. No trouble finding it. I knew where it was but I wasn’t sure how to get to it.
Back to the apartment for a little TV, chit chat, playing with the pups, and it wasn’t too long before we all went to bed. I wasn’t really sleepy. I sort of just laid there looking at the insides of my eyelids. Maybe I was sleepy but just excited about this trip. We had decided to get up at 1:30AM and have some breakfast before leaving.