Sandusky, OH To Chicago, IL
On Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited

   At around 1:30am, I woke up after having about an hour of sleep (gotta love vacations!) and finished packing up my luggage. My taxi was called for 2:30am as I wasn’t sure I could get one any later than that. At around 2:15am, I checked out of my hotel and waited for my cab. It showed up after I called them even though I had reserved the cab nearly 2 days ago. When I arrived at the Amtrak Station, there were 2 Cedar Point Employees who were gonna be riding Amtrak to go to Chicago to catch a flight home to The Ukrane. There were also passengers who would be riding so as to catch flights home to Poland as well. I had some decent conversations with them as we waited. It turns out I was the only passenger in this crowd who was boarding Train #49, all of the other passengers were boarding Train #29 – The Capitol Limited. About 20 minutes before Train #49 arrived, Train #29 arrived first and late. Train #49 – The Lake Shore Limited arrived in Sandusky at 5:16am, 1 hour and 11 minutes late and would leave as soon as I stepped aboard as I was the only passenger who got on the train there that night! I’m not sure if I should feel privileged? The consist for tonight’s train with the exception of no private car on the end, along with different power, is the same as the train I rode to get into town! Not only that, I was seated in the exact same coach, Amfleet II Coach #25105! The consist for this morning's train is shown at the bottom of this page.
   The Assistant Conductor and I knew each other from several previous trips and we talked briefly in the Dining Car. One of the Dining Car servers was sitting at one of the tables (she appeared to be eating breakfast) and I had simply asked her something to the effect of when the car would open for breakfast. I don't remember her response, instead she overheard my conversation with the Conductor and was easily able to see I was a railfan. This train crew, though I didn't talk with them much because they got off in Toledo, were very customer friendly from what I could see. About an hour later, when the car did open, I came back, waited to be seated, and witnessed Miss Congeniality ask another server to serve me because I was a railfan and she refused to serve me herself! (And I usually leave a very good tip too!!!) If you have ever read any of my travelogues before, you'll see I usually always give very high marks on the Dining Car food and service, but this person was very rude and I don't care who you are, you shouldn't be treated that way if you're a paying customer (especially one that virtually NEVER complains about anything in the Dining Car!). Another much friendlier server (who gave excellent service by the way) served me my Railroad French Toast, Hash Browns and Pork Sausage Patties with a Diet Pepsi and all of the food was delicious. The meal cost $8.75 and it was my first experience with the “Simplified Dining Service”. This French Toast was probably 1 ½ inches thick and the slices were big! Yes it was quite good. The food was served on plastic plates and cups that weren’t all that bad as a means of serving the food. Now that Simplified Dining Service is up and running, most food is prepared off the train and heated in convection ovens.
   After breakfast, well, the rest of the ride was rather boring, as I pretty much just fell asleep! I haven’t had a normal night’s sleep since I started this vacation so I just took the time to relax as I would have a layover in Chicago which would give me some time to do a few things. I woke up somewhere near Hammond, IN and watched as we got closer to Chicago. At 9:40am, running 35 minutes late, we arrived at Chicago Union Station on Track #24. I immediately walked in the station and found a locker, and for the unbelievably insane price of $12.00 I locked up my luggage and just kept my camera bag. I needed to get some batteries for my camera so I looked up the nearest Radio Shack before leaving Sandusky and made the 3-4 block walk to it on South Wacker Ave. After getting the batteries, I walked a little further up the street to McDonald’s, had a quick early lunch then checked out Wolf Camera where I bought a Polarizer Filter for my camera. I just had to go ahead and test out my new filter so I figured it was a good enough reason to make the 12+ block walk to Roosevelt Avenue and get in a little railfanning while testing out this new gadget! To see the photos from my brief visit to Roosevelt Avenue, click in the link at the bottom of this page...

92

P42DC

   

Power

137

P42DC

  

Power

1206

Heritage Baggage

  

Baggage Car

2518

Heritage 10/6 Sleeper

Pine Shore

Crew Sleeper

62043

Viewliner Sleeper

Sunset View

Sleeping Car

62004

Viewliner Sleeper

Beach View

Sleeping Car

62033

Viewliner Sleeper

Scenic View

Sleeping Car

8521

Heritage Diner

  

Dining Car

28007

Amfleet II Cafe Car

New York Club

Cafe Car

25105

Amfleet II Coach

  

Coach (My Car)

25049

Amfleet II Coach

 

Coach

25012

Amfleet II Coach

Coach

25036

Amfleet II Coach

Coach

25069

Amfleet II Coach

Coach