I decided once again to go Christmas Shopping in Albany, NY which for me has become a tradition as I’ve now been doing my Christmas shopping this way for 5 years and the trip has gotten progressively bigger with each passing year. This year will be the first year I have a rental car to use when I get to Albany. In planning the Amtrak portion of the trip, I booked both tickets online via Amtrak.com with my AAA discount. I would ride Empire Service trains both ways with Train #288 on Sunday and return home on Train #283 on Tuesday. The total cost for both tickets was $91.80.
   I arrived at the Buffalo-Depew Amtrak Station around 3:30pm, our train was on time and set to leave Depew at 3:50pm. Train #288 only runs on Sundays and once it arrives in Albany, it is the final train of the day to New York. I parked and locked my car at the station and checked the status of the train. I then set up shop on the platform and had a quick conversation with a real estate agent who works for Canadian Pacific Railway. Train #288 arrived into Buffalo-Depew at 3:46pm. I quickly boarded Amfleet I Capstone Rebuild Coach #82588, a nice refurbished coach with the blue/green seats. I didn’t stay there long as after we passed the Lancaster Hot Box Detector, I set up my computer in the café car and had a nice conversation with the train crew, the Assistant Conductor on this trip also was the AC on this same trip for me from last year. The consist for today's train is at the bottom of this page.
   We made a couple switch moves so as to pass a freight just West of Batavia. Along the way, I heard the Batavia Detector which now reads as a CSX Detector and also broadcasts the speed. CSX is SLOWLY switching over the Conrail Detectors but still you hear mostly old Conrail detectors on this line. We past a couple of trains along with Amtrak Empire Service Train #281 somewhere near CP-382. Though we had quite a few speed restrictions along the way, we still made it into Rochester 3 minutes early at 4:44pm. We left Rochester on time at 4:47pm.
Things were relatively uneventful as we rode across Upstate New York, switching to Track 1 again at CP-323 near Savannah, NY. We left Syracuse, our next stop at 6:05pm. We stopped at Rome, NY and stayed there for a few minutes as a train ahead of us reportedly went into emergency, blocking our path. We only ended up staying in Rome a couple minutes and continued on our way, leaving at 6:46pm. I never head anything more about the train that went into emergency, likely they resolved their problems. We were slowed down a bit getting into Utica due to several approach signals. We left Utica at 7:12pm, running 9 minutes late. At Little Falls, CSX put Train Q-386 in the hole so we could pass him. Our stop at Amsterdam came and went and my stop in Schenectady was next, having arrived there at 8:30pm only 10 minutes late, not bad!
   I said goodbye to the crew and before I left the train told them they were one of the most customer friendly Amtrak crews I've ever rode with! And so ends a decent trip across the Empire State. I would be staying at the Howard Johnson Inn in Albany and tomorrow morning would pick up my rental car and go Christmas Shopping at the Crossgates Mall. I rented a 2006 Chevrolet Impala LS from Enterprise Rent-A-Car and as their advertising states, they do pick you up as they brought me over to their place and sent me on my way with my ride for the next day! I drove out to Amsterdam to have dinner my second night in town at Russo's Grille (ate some 911 wings at Hooters in Albany the first night!).
   I checked out of my hotel around 11:30am on Tuesday, December 20th so I could get the rental car back to Enterprise in time and get a ride back to the Schenectady Amtrak Station. Enterprise drove me back to the station where I had my luggage stored and walked down the street to Wendy's for a quick lunch before heading back to the station.
   At around 2:00pm, Train #283 arrived with P42DC #168 for power instead of the usual P32AC-DM that normally pulls this train. We had a slow order around CP-175 near Amsterdam station. It had begun to snow rather heavily once we got passed Amsterdam. We passed Amtrak Train #286 somewhere near Fonda, NY. The snow let up then started again between Oneida and Syracuse. Not much happened as we meandered across the state, passing through Utica, Rome, then Syracuse. No smoking stop was permitted in Syracuse and we left there at 4:15pm, about 10 minutes late. Things would briefly get interesting after leaving Syracuse.
   The Hot Box Detector in Syracuse went off only to say that it was not working. By rule, the train had to be stopped and visually inspected by the train crew before proceeding. An announcement was made to the passengers about this as we sat just near the New York State Fairgrounds for about 10-15 minutes while the train was inspected, and as one could predict, no defects were found. Amtrak Train #64 - The Maple Leaf also passed us while we were being inspected. The snow picked up again as it was snowing pretty good in Rochester where we left there at 5:45pm, now running 20 minutes late. The train was really emptying out by now as only 3 stops were left. Not much happened between Rochester and Buffalo-Depew Station, our next stop. We switched over to Track #2 at CP-429 to begin the final approach to the station. The train crew made regular announcements of each stop and informed all of us where we could get off the train. At 6:39pm, our train arrived at Buffalo-Depew on time account some schedule padding. I gathered my luggage and headed over to my partially snow-covered car and made the drive home, and so ends another decent Christmas Shopping Trip.
   In Closing, Amtrak did get funding for 2006 to the amount of about $1.3 Billion, unfortunately, I believe this will only maintain the status quo. With David Gunn having been fired a few months back, my hope is that Congress will put enough pressure on the Amtrak board to put someone in place who believes in running a strong, National Passenger Rail System. America needs Amtrak, just take a 3 day road trip on a busy, congested Interstate Highway if you don't believe me! Write your elected officials and make sure they know you want Amtrak to continue and operate efficiently. Until next time, Happy Railfanning...