After weighing my options, I decided to "take the long way home" for Spring break. My itinerary was to go from Albany to Hartford via Chicago, and New York. However, the connections didn't work out well, and my best option was to connect further south in Washington D.C. This was my first true long-distance trip and first time on in Superliner equiptment..

Leg 1- Train 49, Friday night, 2/22/02 - Saturday noon, 2/23/02

Arrived with plenty of time to spare to my favorite train the Lake Shore Limited. I routinely take this train between points in Mass. and NY, but never further west than Buffalo. I say it's my favorite since it was the first Amtrak train I ever took, and rescued me from the uncomfortable, overcrowded greyhound busses. My friend waited what would be 2 hours for my boarding call. He got on my nerves, didn't want to stand outside and take train pictures .. Next time I'll take a taxi to the station.

Anyways, the LSL was running all Amfleet II cars, the usual heritage diner, the two lounges (the Boston lounge stays in Albany) crew dorm, and now only 2 sleepers, down from the 3 I observed in January. I was assigned to the Boston section's long distance coach. I was pretty lucky, because the other four coaches were pretty full when I got on board. The NY local coaches were pretty busy, as was the LD coach that came out of NYC. I'm glad it was quiet, and I had 2 seats to myself, because a night in coach could get pretty bad if it's full.

We didn't leave on time due to the crew's inability to get the switching done in a timely manner. I know that it's gotta be a hard job trying to coordinate everything, but it really takes too long, then by the time the express freight is loaded, we're already an hour late out of Albany. This is the 2nd time this has happened to me on the WB LSL in 2 months.

Right out of Albany I decided to get diner in the dinning car. I really like those old Heritage diners! It must have been the last seating, because they closed up right after we were finished eating. I was seated with one other guy travelling alone. The guy is a lawyer from the Springfield area who takes Amtrak whenever he can for business and to see friends and family. He's not a railfan, but just a typical person who uses Amtrak because he prefers not to fly. He was really interested to hear about the trip I was taking. He had a sleeper just to go from Springfield to Buffalo. I don't know how much he used it, since we left the dining car at 10 and he had to get up at 2 when we got into Buffalo. The food was great.. I had the pork chops with mashed potatos and vegetables. Finally I've had a chance to eat in the diner, and it's much better than the microwaved stuff in the lounge cars..

The first night was really rough. I had trouble falling asleep, and the Amfleet moved around ALOT. I don't know if that was due to the fact that I was at the end of the train, and we had 14 freight cars behind us. I got maybe 4 hours of sleep, and kept waking up during the night. By the time we reached Chicago, we were only 30 minutes late or so. CSX and NS did a good job of dispatching us. In Indiana or Ohio, we literally had freights waiting on the left and right as we crossed through a diamond. I couldn't believe how flat it is West of Buffalo.. it was my first time crossing this part of the country, and it's just field after field after field..

In South Bend Indiana, police arrested a man from my coach. Apparently Boston police found out he was running off to California and got in touch with Amtrak. I was in the lounge car when I overheard the conductor talking about a passenger, checked the manifest, meeting someone in South Bend and so on, but I didn't think anything of it at the time. Then when we were stopped, 2 officers rushed in from either side and arrested the guy right from his seat! He didn't resist fortunately. That's gotta be the worst.. some city kid getting as far as Indiana only to be arrested in the middle of nowhere to be shipped back to the cops from where he started. The conductor joked- "That's what happens when you don't pay for your ticket!"

Naturally, the only delays we had for the rest of the trip were Express related. I really understand why people complain about Amtrak's emphesis on freight and how passengers take 2nd priority. We had to do these time-consuming stupid manuvers to get into Chicago to release the freight tacked on back. I don't understand why we just didn't go head into the terminal. Instead we went south of the terminal, the conductor went out, removed the freight, then we backed into the station. This whole time, all the anxious passengers are forced to wait on board. We would have been on-time or early if there was no express to worry about.. Amtrak really needs to expidite that process, and make getting into and out of Chicago an easier process..
However, other than the express, everything was great for the first leg of the trip!

Chicago- Saturday noon, 2/23/02 - Saturday evening 2/23/02

Chicago is a really cool city.. very spread out. I wasn't sure what to do during the time I had there. I had a few suggestions from TO members, and a few ideas of my own. First I went to Kinko's, thank you to the guy who told me about that.. I had no trouble finding it. I then went past the Sears tower to ride the loop of the "L." I didn't go up the Sears tower, because I was on a budget, and would rather spend money on railfanning and meals in the dining car! So the L is a great system.. fortunately not too busy on a Saturday, so I had a great view. I really like the elevated subway concept.. Moscow has a similar line which is a subway when it's downtown, and runs above ground farther out. However, unlike Chicago, it has a dedicated ROW, and doesn't run above the street.

I rode the L for a little while, then decided to head over towards the Chicago Museum of Art. I saw a Metra train running under a bridge over there, so I decided to take some photos. At this point, I was debating whether to take a Metra train out on the BNSF line to photograph there. I was concerned about getting back in time to make the Capitol Ltd. and I felt like walking rather than riding at this point, so I opted to stay in Chicago. That turned out to be a good idea, because I ended up walking in the other direction. I found myself on the bridge over the tracks leading into CUS! I stood there for a while photographing the yards and the trains coming and going. I watched the switchers move back and forth, and saw them bring the Empire Builder from the yard to the station among other arrivals and departures.

The charges were really adding up on the locker where I stored my luggage so I headed back to the station to get some food and wait for my train. CUS needs some changes to how they handle things, in my opinion. First off, some of the announcements over the loudspeaker were really hard to hear. Boarding announcements are rather important, and the people waiting there were getting frustrated with the bad quality of the public adress system. Secondly, the waiting room was way too crowded and the boardings at the gates were a mess. People would all crowd the door and there was constant confusion. To make things worse, both the EB Lake Shore, my train, the EB Capitol Ltd. were delaying their boardings due to "mechanical difficulties." I don't know what the issue was with 48, but my train was delayed due to the late arrival of the SW Chief.

This really made me worried. Delays were expected to take 1 hr to 90 minutes. I didn't want to leave Chicago late, just in case we got later as the journey progressed. I had only 100 minutes of buffer time in Washington to connect to my NB train to Hartford! If we were leaving already 1 hour in the hole, I'd be in trouble. Train 146 is the last train to Hartford.. my other options would be to take a train to New Haven and get picked up there, take a greyhound, or stay in D.C. for a night.

So back to the situation at CUS. As the boardings of 48 and 30 got later and later, we ran into the boarding of train 50, the Cardinal. They started "checking-in" LSL and Cap. Ltd elderly, families, and disabled which only made the confusion worse. They called sleeping car passangers to the gates, only to turn them around to the Metropolitan lounge. It was chaos! I had seen the boardings of the Midwest corridor trains, and that was pretty bad, but 3 LD trains boarding all at once was really bad.. they need to develop a better system. Or find out what caused these delays. They need to clean the SW chief trainset? Why does it take so long? I saw plenty of Superliners sitting around the yard.. it's a shame they don't assemble a back-up set.

Leg 2- Saturday evening 2/23/02 Sunday Afternoon 2/24/02

We were boarded and departed an hour late, which wasn't that bad compared to previous estimates, and considering the confusion. Then we stopped for about another hour to add some freight on to the back. I was very impressed with the superliners! They are everything I expected them to be.. high-up, spacious, comfortable and modern. I think that our coach was a Superliner I, but I'm not sure of the difference. It had this ugly design on the fabric, dim lighting and a bad PA system with alot of feedback. Unfortunately, the dining car was closed for dinner, but would be open for breakfast. I just had some food from the lounge car and ate up in the sight-seer lounge. After talking to a guy from California for a little while I went to bed, since there wasn't much to see, as the sun had gone down long ago.. The consist was made up of 2 coaches, a lounge, diner, 2 sleepers and a transition sleeper, with 2 Genesis locomotives leading the way.

This night, I slept really well. You barely feel any movement in those Superliners.. I was so tired from the night before, I had no trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep! Woke up the next morning and had an omlette, coffee, juice and hash browns. Ate with 3 different people, one gentleman works for a company that works with checking tracks for defects using Ultrasound technology! He had quite a lot of interesting things to say about the railroading industry, especially his former employer the Guilford RR.. He basically repeated what's been posted on here about the company's bad business practices. It's really shocking to hear what that company and it's owner do..

The rest of the trip I basically spent in the sight-seer lounge. I had never been in one before, and this thing is one nice rail-car! It's pratically a dome car with all the windows, so I really enjoyed sitting there and watching the mountains roll by. It was so relaxing to be able to just sit back and not have a care in the world. Well, lurking in the back of my mind was making my connection. Thanks to some excellent dispatching, we made up some of the time! Overnight the delay was about 100 minutes, by the time we reached Cumberland, MD, that was down to 60! We took full advantage of the cushion time built into the schedule. As it turned out, we arrived into D.C. only an hour behind schedule, so my worry was really unnecessary.

Like I said, my time in the lounge was very enjoyable, even though I had the connection issue to worry about. I sat with some elderly women- retired farmers from S. Illinois. Their travel agent booked them to go from CHI to Florida on the Cardinal and the Silver Meteor. Oddly enough, they got onto the Capital Ltd. by accident! It turns out, they would now be able to make a much earlier connection to the Silver Star in D.C. for Orlando! Instead of arriving at 7:45 on the Cardinal and transferring to the 10PM Meteor, they could now leave for Florida at 4:35! I told them that they should talk to the ticket agents and see if this was possible. They were so happy to have met me, because it made a difference in their plans. The itinerary I explained to them, would get them to their destination at 6pm instead of 10:00 as their tickets indicated.. since the person picking them up would have to drive a distance at night, and he was elderly as well, they much prefered him driving during the evening. I really hope it worked out for them in the end..

Another curious thing.. they women say that they were interviewed by two people from California asking questions about Amtrak and the employees. I wonder what organization they were part of.. does anyone know?

The Capitol Ltd was a great ride from start to finish. The crew was great, the equiptment was clean and rode well, and the scenary was incredible. If I had missed my connection, I would have had issues, but it ended perfectly.

Leg 3- Sunday Afternoon 2/24/02 to Sunday Night 2/24/02

The rest of my journey was from Washington up the NEC to hartford. No surprises here- standard Amfleet I equiptment pulled by a single AEM-7. By the time we reached Baltimore, it was standing room only. It was an unreserved train, and a very popular travel time, so naturally the whole train was sold out. Most of those on board were travelling to NY, and got off there, but the train was full up again to about 60% leaving NY. This ride was problem-free and on-time the whole way. We kept losing power the same way subway cars lose power momentarily. The train keeps moving, but the lights and ventalation stop. This happens whenever I'm on the trains north of NY.

So everything worked out great.. thanks to all those TO members who told me to go for this trip, and not worry about the connections and costs and so on. The costs actually worked out pretty well. Interestingly.. if you book from CHI-WAS on train 30, the cost is about 90 dollars. If you book from CHI-HFD with a transfer in Washington, curiously, the ticket is still, only 93 dollars. If you were to buy both segments seperately, the WAS-HFD ticket would be much more than that! A fare from WAS to Philly is 49 dollars! I like that about the Amtrak pricing system. If you are going a farther distance like that, they bring down the fare per section when compared to buying it seperately. Another example- ALB-NYP-HFD costs 45 dollars. One-way from ALB-NYP costs 42. So I went roughly 2,000 miles at around 10 cents a mile. A good deal, and a great vacation in my opinion. Thank you, Amtrak, I am satisfied with my trip, and I had a great weekend!

Amfleet I cars are the short distance variety. They were delivered 1976 or so. They are round single-level cars.
Amfleet II cars came a few years later; they are the long distance variety with leg rests, fewer seats per car, only one vestibule (door opening) and larger windows. Unfortunately the air cushioned suspension remained.
For the Superliners, the Is came in 1982 or so and the IIs were delivered in the mid 1990s. They share very similar configurations, so the key difference is the build date and a little technological improvement here and there. These are the twin-level passenger cars (coach, lounge, diner, sleeper, other variants) used on all western and some eastern trains.
A Heritage Diner is one of the cars Amtrak inherited from its founding railroads in 1971. As these diners approach their 45th birthday they seem to keep looking better.
The Genesis engines are the GE (P40, P42DC, P32AD-DM) series that look like a round or flat carbody with a flat wedge nose. They are numbered from 700-717, 800-843, and 1-207 on the Amtrak roster. Don't try to identify them by the paint because they are currently in three main paint schemes with five variations total.
Welcome to the sport!

I assume your Superliner was a coach. If the upholstry was blue with an awful orange and brown mixed in, and orange curtains, it was a Superliner 1. The Superliner 1s used to have a center armrest, but they were removed to make sleeping easier. The older streamliner (heritage) cars had no armrest. That center armrest was my biggest complaint when I first rode a Superliner coach overnight. Those seats still have two metal caps where the armrest was once bolted down.

Some Superliner 1 coaches have been upgraded with the newer pink/grey upholstry, and seats without the bolt caps. But the one I rode in still had orange curtains. Superliner 2s have grey curtains.

Superliner 1 sleepers (standard) had orange upholstry. they also had a small narrow closet. Superliner 2s have blue upholstry and a hanger rod instead of a closet. There are a number of more subtle differences, too.

I'd enjoy seeing some of those photos you took in Chicago if you are able and willing.

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Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth.
-Mr. Toy

Now you've gone and done it -- the wife is hollering cuz the trash is overflowing, the pets need food and water, the grandkids are screaming about some such thing, I still haven't paid the bills ... But I'm happy as a pig in slop with all these train pix ... Railfan? Oh yes -- guilty as charged.

Thanks so much for the website -- best I've seen in a long time.

But, the minute I figured I was coming home for spring break, I hit the books (Amtrak schedules and maps), trying to figure the "long way" to come home.

Initially, I wanted the take the Capitol Limited to Chicago, the City of New Orleans to New Orleans, and the Crescent home. But that was too much for my budget, so I resigned myself to coming directly home on the Cardinal from Chicago.

I left a day early (never have been one to fuss about missing class), and got an overnight in Chicago, at a $300 a night hotel for $65. The Capitol Limited was surprisingly on-time, from Pittsbugh all the way into Chicago. Last time I rode the distance on this train (albeit eastbound) it was six hours late into DC.

Lakeshore is right, the L in Chicago is a truly fantastic urban railroad. They also have the last true interurban in the country, the Chicago, South Shore and South Bend (a piece of rail history trivia). The Metra is a pretty typical commuter rail, like Metro North in New York or the VRE in DC.

And, trying to leave Chicago on Saturday night, I also noticed the late boarding of not only the Lakeshore Limited and the Capitol Limited, but the Wolverine to Detroit. I was afraid that a late incoming Texas Chief would delay the departure of the Cardinal, but, as it turned out, they switched over the Empire Builder to make the Cardinal.

However, not to think you had it bad on 30 or 48, because, as we progressed through the yards of Chicago, and south through Indiana, we got progressively later and later. The conductor told me that the wind (it was gusting to 80 mph in Chicago that day) had knocked out power to the signals in the southern yards. It took us 2 hours and 45 minutes to go from Chicago to Dyer, 29 miles.

Oh, yeah, and we hit something. No one ever quite figured out if it was a tree branch, a loose sign, or some other form of debris from the weather, but we had to stop for almost an hour to repair something on one of the coaches.

We ended up about five hours late, which meant that I got to see some territory which is normally nighttime only area, including Cincinatti, Kentucky, and Huntington.

After Charleston, the train goes through the New River Gorge, one of the reasons this train is my favorite Eastern route. The scenery is fantastic. The only problem was that the sun set before we reached White Sulphur Springs.

We got to Charlottesville around 9 (scheduled for 4:35), which wasn't too bad. I actually enjoy being late, because spending five hours on the train beats five hours most other places I would have been.

That's about it. This summer, I plan to enjoy the last summer of Amtrak by getting a 30 day pass and riding every long-distance route available.