I arrived at Penn station with about 90 minutes to spare. I have been to PS many times but this was my first time going to the Amtrak portion and I must admit I got a bit lost. I entered on the wrong side and it took a while to finally find the ticket counter. I had hoped to avoid having to visit the counter but because the Zephyr was cancelled I had to make changes to my intinerary. I hammered these out a few nights earlier with a phone agent for about 20 minutes. I was told I was all set and would just have to exchange the tickets. Of course it wasn't this easy. It ended up taking 3 agents and about 20 minutes before they finally just reissued my entire trip instead of the one segment that was changed. I then entered the waiting room.
The train boarded and left on time. I was quite pleased with the train initially and a bit surprised with how much space I had! Even better, the train was pretty empty. When we left Penn I did not have a seat mate. In fact the only time I had a seat mate was going from Philadelphia to Lancaster (the train was packed for this run; I wonder what these folks will do when the route closes). The train itself seemed older than the other trains I would eventually end up using. There was a lot of space between cars wher you could "hang out" if you wanted to. This eventually became a neccesity. For what ever reason as the trip progressed the car I was in became hotter an hotter. To the point where I felt like I was in a sauna. By this point i was down to just my undershirt. Eventually the heat was finally turned down, but of course by down I mean off. So the night was rather uncomfortable, though I did get a few hours of sleep and was able to stretch out across the seats for most of the trip. I did notice in the bathrooms on this train a notice not to flush when the train is stopped as people are working underneath it. This was the only train I saw it on, and have been wondering ever since if its because it "flushes" directly to the tracks?