My count used to be a rather pedestrian 3, but I have plans afoot to shatter that number - In the interest of racking up some AGR points for Select status while getting a chance to get a peep at a lot of places I've always wanted to stopover for just an hour or so to get a look at them, I'm planning a Columbus Day itinerary via the NEC and Keystone Corridor that would do the following:
Leave BAL 718a Arr WIL 805a
Lv WIL 854a Arr PHL 915a
Lv PHL 955a Arr PAO 1027a
Lv PAO 1133a Arr LNC 1216p
Lv LNC 152p Arr HAR 226p
Lv HAR 320p Ar ARD 449p
Lv ARD 604p Arr PHL 625p
Lv PHL 700p Arr BAL 818p
Anyone else ever done something as nutty or even nuttier than this?
Posted by notelvis (Member # 3071) on :
Kind of.......but not in the same day.
For instance, I once did a marathon trip where I rode Charlotte, NC to DC on the 'Crescent' and then to Hammond-Whiting, IN on the 'Capitol' where I changed trains and reversed direction to Toronto on the 'International'. In Toronto I caught VIA's overnight 'Cavalier' to Montreal. I made a same day transfer to the 'Adirondack' to Albany, and changed to the 'Lake Shore' for Chicago. From there I caught the 'City of New Orleans' to visit an old friend in Memphis.
That's 6 train changes and 5 straight nights on the train.....I was younger then and Amtrak's timekeeping was more reliable!
Posted by stlboomer (Member # 2028) on :
A mere four, in England, for a day-trip from London to the Aldbrough Festival.
In the morning: London-Ipswich and Ipswich-Saxmundham. Reverse in the evening. I was rather aprehensive about the scheduled evening connection in Ipswich. Seven minutes! But it all went off without a hitch.
Posted by sojourner (Member # 3134) on :
I've done similar, Empire Svc to NYP, then NJ Transit or LIRR, then back on same, then Empire Svc back up north.
I also recently did Philadelphia subway to Camden, then light rail to Trenton, then NJ Transit to NYP, then Empire Service home. But actually, if I can count Philadelphia subway, then I suppose I could count NYC subway, and I may have done more than 4 with that plus round trip on Empire Service--just cannot remember any specific day.
Posted by dilly (Member # 1427) on :
Unfortunately, Amtrak's long distance train scheduling isn't passenger-friendly when it comes to one-day, round trip rail marathons. However, during some of my extended rail trips around the country, I've traveled on as many as 12 different routes before arriving back home. At this point, I've traveled end-to-end along every long distance route apart from the Sunset Limited, but I do have a pipe dream of taking each train again -- and stopping off to explore each town along the route, no matter how small.
Of course, with Amtrak's one-train-per-day scheduling, I'd have to cool my heels for 24 hours in some pretty forlorn places before catching the next day's train. By way of example, the Empire Builder makes 38 station stops between Chicago and Seattle. It would take more than a month to complete the entire route.
Still, one of these days. . . .
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
Likely, my max occurred on a trip overseas when holding a pass.
It seems I recall on a 1971 marathon trip starting the day in Zurich, riding to Hamburg, deciding this did not exactly look like a town with anything to offer ME (others could find activities on the Reeperbahn to their liking), and instead hopped on an overnight to Stockholm.
On a 1986 trip to Ireland, I can recall riding Dublin/Heuston to Queenstown (whoops, Cobh) and return, going to my hotel opposite Connolly Station, deciding there was an "itch' in my pocket known as a rail pass, and I was off to ride to Gallway and return same evening.
Memories of another life.
Posted by rresor (Member # 128) on :
Well, not in one day, but in 1999:
1) Rode UP steam train Omaha to KC (Neff Yard) via Gibbon, NE, returning via bus to OMA in the wee hours 2) Caught detouring Amtrak 6 at 0700 that morning for Chicago via C&NW 3) Arriving Chicago in the wee hours (due to flooding) caught cab to MDW and first Southwest flight to STL 4) Cab to Union Station, steam train to Chicago (Yard Center) via C&EI 5) Cab to MDW, flight to Ft. Wayne 6) Next morning, NS steam special Ft. Wayne to Chicago (Calumet Yard)
Over 1300 miles in three days, most behind steam!
Posted by TwinStarRocket (Member # 2142) on :
How about most round trips from my auto to home on an LD within 10 hours?
Only one actually, but an odd trip of note.
I wanted to ride on the 75th Anniversary run of the Empire Builder (which included David Gunn on the Beech Grove) and didn't have the time or funds to do a long trip.
So I drove to Red Wing, MN, and took the WB Builder home to St. Paul. I managed a quick sneak trip into the Great Dome where the dignataries were. Gunn spent a lot of time talking to the common folks individually on the MSP platform.
Then I walked home for the night and took the eastbound Builder back to my car next morning. Lots of railfans were aboard who did the CHI-MSP-CHI round trip including some writers from Trains magazine.
Posted by train lady (Member # 3920) on :
My max was in one trip, the Capitol to Chi, the Eagle to San Antonio, the Sunset to LA, the CS to SF, the Zephyr to Denver, The Zephyr to Chi and the Cardinal to DC. Good trip!!
Posted by Southwest Chief (Member # 1227) on :
My max is nothing spectacular at 4, but if you start counting subways, lightrail, etc...then things add up quickly.
Posted by MetSox (Member # 6035) on :
Is this nutty enough? I was in Tokyo April 3rd of this year and I rode 37 trains that day. This includes 22 subways, 14 commuter trains and one trolley. It was my first "full" day in Japan, so I got off to an early start because of the time difference. There were two reasons I was able to ride so many trains. First of all, I was trying to break my record for most trains in an hour (10 in Paris, New York and London) and I had figured out how to ride all 12 subway lines without ever going more than one stop. It ended up taking an hour and a half. Second, I was trying to find the best places to photograph trains and finally, it rained all day so I didn't feel like walking around too much.
My previous record was 30 in Toronto last year and before that 29 in London and 28 in Vienna. A couple weeks later I was back in Tokyo and the day before I went home, I went on 31.
If anybody else is koo-koo enough to try and ride as many trains as humanly possible in one day, just pick any major urban area that has a large number of rail transit lines and study the map!
Posted by Liberty Limited (Member # 4300) on :
A travelogue of my Marathon madness can be found here...
My max is also 4 trains in one day, plus a rental car.
Sometime back in 2002 I arrived in Chicago from Pittsburgh (or was it Cleveland?) a little too late to grab the early Hiawatha service to Milwaukee, so I ended up on the 10am train north. Picked up the rental car and made my customer visit. Returned the car and caught the southbound Hiawatha around 3pm. This got me back in Chicago with a safe buffer to do a little shopping and still make the Cardinal that evening.