 When I arrived in Cleveland, we were about 28 minutes late. The itinerary that I put together did allow me to be late to a certain point but didn't leave much room for error. I got off the train at 1:39pm and had exactly 4 minutes to photograph my train, seen in the photo to the left, then get over to the RTA station and catch the RTA Blue Train to Tower City, where I would catch the Red Train to Brookpark Road near Berea. Let me first say why I wanted to take this trip in the first place: First, I had to see Cleveland since I've never been here before, second, I needed an excuse to ride Amtrak again, and third, no matter how cheezy this sounds, I had to go to Best Buy again!!! (I've been living in Sandusky for almost 4 months now and they don't have Best Buy, BUMMER!!!) To get to Best Buy here in Cleveland required me to take an RTA train down to Parma, Ohio, just outside Berea where I would then catch a connecting bus down Brookpark Road to Best Buy. For anyone who lives in Cleveland, you'll know where all these places are. Talk about perfect timing, right after I photographed my train, I literally ran up to the RTA platform about 300 feet or so from the Amtrak Station Platform where I got off the Pennsylvanian. I had to buy a ticket for the RTA train  for $1.50 and shortly after buying the ticket, I stepped outside onto the platform and there it is, my train, the RTA Blue Train that would take me down to Tower City as shown in the photo to the right. Once I boarded the train, I showed my ticket to the operator and took a seat, a few minutes later, I arrived at Tower City, which is like the central hub for the RTA trains as all 3 lines, Red, Green, and Blue, stop there. I had to transfer to the Red Train, which came about 10 minutes later. Once I boarded the Red Train, I rode down to the Brookpark Road Station, which was about a 20 to 25 minute ride, partially paralleling the NS Chicago Line, yes, you can railfan on a transit train! There was just a handful of passengers on the train as it was early afternoon before the rush hour traffic, so to speak, would use these trains. I got off the train, and caught my bus just in time to get to Best Buy. I'll only say that I had exactly 12 minutes to get to Best Buy, buy what I want and catch the same bus on the way back. I ended up buying a Martina McBride CD that I wanted and then headed back out to the street to wait for the same bus on his return trip. I was at the bus stop no less than 2 minutes and there came the bus! Timing was everything on this trip!!! Anyways, I took the same bus, Route #98 back to the RTA station, and while I waited on the platform, this NS Eastbound  passed by the station with C40-9W #9068 on the lead. Shortly after, my train would arrive and as I said before, this line as you can see in the photo to the left, parallels the Chicago Line, so you do have the chance of seeing some NS Freights while riding the train back to Downtown Cleveland. The train ran smoothly and provided me with some nice views of the tracks as we speed past at approximately 50mph. The trip lasted around 25 minutes and eventually we left the Chicago Line as the RTA line then enters some hilly territory before coming into Downtown Cleveland. As I said before, this was my first time riding these trains and was my first time visiting Cleveland, so was I in for a surprise as we came back into Cleveland! The views from these trains of the Cleveland Skyline were just amazing, to see those photos and the rest of this travelogue, click in the table below...
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