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Across the Nation Via Amtrak to Maine 12/25/2001 to 1/5/2002

This journey to Maine was going to occur no matter what was happening in my life. I needed a break and a train trip was always a great escape from the reality of daily life. I booked my journey east on the Southwest Chief then on the Three Rivers to Philadelphia and a two-night stay. I wanted to ride South East Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and this would be my opportunity to sample their service. I did want to ride the Acela again but going north, planned to do it in Business Class. I then decided to go south to Wilmington before travelling north which would give me two hours to railfan. Now, December 31st is my birthday so if the Maine Service started, I would ride it, but if not, I would ride "T" commuter trains from Boston.

The train for Maine had been a major project for about thirteen years and in November, it was finally announced that Amtrak would start The Downeaster on December 15th, 2001. The day the tickets went on sale, I called and purchased a Business Class round-trip, adding it to my See America Trip and was the first person the reservation agent in that office had booked on an Amtrak train to Maine. I would then take Acela First Class to Washington, DC for a night, ride the Capitol Limited back to Chicago and the Southwest Chief home.

I had reserved all the hotels so everything was organized. I spent the rest of the days until Christmas Day, coaching Junior Varsity Boys Basketball at McFadden Intermedate and writing stories for this website and caught up on them from the June trip to current.

Once again, I was standing on the platform at Santa Ana on Christmas Day, but this year was battling a cold while waiting for my northbound train to Los Angeles. It arrived on time and with our departure, I was off to Maine. As we proceeded, I was treated to a glorious sunset, one of the best California sunsets that I witnessed. After Fullerton, we travelled west in the dark through Pico Rivera where the homes were really into the spirit of the season with Christmas lights. As we climbed over the flyover across the Los Angeles River and the Alameda Corridor Project, the entire skyline of the City of the Angels came into view with City Hall illuminated. We arrived at Los Angeles Union Station eight minutes early and I waited for my train to Chicago.

I walked into the station and stood in front of Gate F. Woody Lamberth, my four nights-a-week conductor, stopped to wish me a safe trip. Moments later, the crew turned the sleeping car passengers loose and I caught up with Woody as he walked the long tunnel to his train. I walked up to Track 12 and found my sleeping car "Iowa", along with Ken Ruben, who had come down to see me off and we visited. The sleeping car attendant did not do anything, either introduce himself on the platform or help with my bags. Later on the train, he told me what time he would make up the room, not asking me what time I wanted the room made.

I settled into my room and we departed on time before reversing down onto our mail and express cars then proceeded east as I walked back to the lounge car to enjoy our departure. I met our assistant conductor, Joe Nappe, and thank God he was on the train that night. I enjoyed a turkey dinner with people who had travelled by ocean freighter and other exotic means of transportation. One of the women blasted Amtrak for fifteen minutes, something I did not need to be hearing at the commencement of a train trip. When I went into my pocket to leave a tip, I realized I still had my car keys, which were needed at home to move my car off the street so it would not be ticketed on street sweeping day. Thinking quickly. I found Joe and we placed the keys in an envelope with "SNA" and my home home phone number on the outside. Joe would take them to Kingman and return to Los Angeles, where he would pass the envelope to Chris Nay, one of the San Diego conductors, who would drop it off at Santa Ana and call my mother on Thursday if everything worked according to plan. It was another case of 'everything works out if you let it', along with a little help from my friends. Funny, a Cheap Trick song title along with a Beatles song title. Well, Cheap Trick did sound a little bit like the Beatles in their harmonies. I made up my room at Riverside and slept well into Arizona.

12/26/2001 Waking up just west of Winslow in a sleeping car is quite a change from waking up in coach west of Williams and I went to have breakfast. I had pancakes and sausage with guests from West Covina and San Clemente and discussions about the growth of Southern California, flying and trains. The next two days would be of rest as I was just going to put my feet up and watch the world go by outside my window. We left the high desert of Arizona for the red mesas of New Mexico, crossing the continental divide at Thoreau before starting the long descent to the Rio Grande River. It was an absolutely beautiful clear morning with Mount Taylor standing guard to the north.

Richard, the phantom car attendant, had done nothing in the car as passengers had to sit on their beds although I had folded mine back. I napped from Grants to Albuquerque where we arrived an hour early then asked Richard to make up my room before we arrived, but every time I saw him he was talking on his cell phone. It would be nice if he had done his job, as I had never had a room made up after 9:00 AM in all of my travels. I bought post cards and suntanned for the hour then returned to the room, where everything was still as it was. After we were twenty minutes north of Albuquerque, Richard finally made the room up at 1:15 P.M. We continued north to Lamy, Apache Canyon and Glorieta Pass then our crew had to hand-throw the switch at Chappell and we lost twenty minutes waiting for the westbound Southwest Chief.

After the journey from Las Vegas to Wagon Mound, sunset occurred and I had prime rib for dinner. I sat in my darkened room and listened to U2's "Unforgettable Fire" as we climbed and descended Raton Pass then once we arrived at Trinidad and feeling a long night's rest might help my cold, I made my bed and climbed into it for the night.

12/27/2001 I woke up in De Soto, Kansas as the crew were finishing the 1,000 mile inspection and adding a Road Railer. I went to the dining car feeling much better and repeated yesterday's breakfast, though this time had the Kansas River outside my window. I prepared myself for the day as the train passed through BNSF's Argentine Yard. At Kansas City, I saw the Kansas City Southern Christmas Train and the passengers going to St. Louis arrived early enough to take the morning train, the Anne Rutledge, instead of having to spend half a day in Kansas City.

I enjoyed the flyover through Kansas City and the ride across Missouri into Iowa. We crossed the Mississippi River and at Galesburg, we stopped at the rear of Burlington 4-6-4 3006 and departed thirty-four minutes late. At Mendota, there was another Burlington steam engine, 4-8-4 4968 on display. Near Chicago, Richard finally started doing his job and became a little friendly; too bad it took over 2,200 miles for him to come to life. During the trip, our Lead Service Attendant and three different conductors advised me to call Service Guaranteed about Richard. We reversed into Chicago Union Station thirty-five minutes early on one of the most relaxing trips I had had.

I detrained and went straight to the ticket counter to check on sleeping car space on Train 40, with no luck, then called home, also with no luck regarding the keys. My mother and her wonderful niece Stephanie were go to New Zealand, Tasmania and Australia three days after I returned. I had a pair of Char Dogs and bought John Grisham's "A Painted House" then learned of bad luck on outbound trains as first the Texas Eagle was delayed for two hours, then the Twilight Limited by equipment servicing problems and now the Lakeshore Limited was added to the delayed list. The Kentucky Cardinal also had no sleeping car tonight and even the Capitol Limited was delayed, but at least it was boarding and departed twenty minutes late.

My Three Rivers was late to arrive but since the mail and express cars were already in the consist, we would be on time when we reached our first station of Hammond-Whiting.

I would not have thought it possible to board Amfleet coach 25090 in the last days of 2001 with the original off-coloured orange seats that they were delivered with. After riding these cars with the blue seats, I thought they had all been reupholstered. I found a large right hand side window seat as the car filled up before we departed Chicago and when I curled up to fall asleep at Hammond-Whiting, the Three Rivers was on schedule.

12/28/2001 I awoke as the train was running along the Monongahela River on a dark overcast morning with a good covering of snow. We passed a waterfall and the industries along the shoreline as we made our way towards Pittsburgh. Leaving town in a light snowfall, we had made great time over the CSX last night and now we would see how Norfolk Southern handled the train. I spent my morning reading "A Painted House" as we were proceeding east down the Norfolk Southern Pittsburgh-to-Philadelphia mainline through Greensburg, Latrobe and Johnstown. It was now time to sit back and enjoy the train kicking up the snow as we climbed Gallitzin Summit of the Alleghenies, went through the New Portage Tunnel and started our descent down the eastbound grade.

We rounded Horseshoe Curve and I really enjoyed the experience. On display was Pennsylvania Railroad GP9 7048, ex. Conrail 7048, exx. Penn Central 7048, nee Pennsylvania Railroad 7048 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1955. We ran down to Altoona and I spent the journey along the Junita River reading while we stopped at Tyrone, Huntington and Lewistown, following the river all the way down to the junction with the Susquehanna River, which we crossed on the world's largest and widest stone arch bridge made out of forty-eight arches of Pennsylvania White Sandstone before arriving at Harrisburg. Our route then passed the cooling towers of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant before running through Lancaster and Paola, prior to arriving at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia ten minutes early.

I walked straight to the SEPTA ticket window to get my Trail Pass for but the e-mail that I had received was wrong since I could not purchase a Trail Pass because they were only sold through Wednesday. A nice and understanding ticket agent arranged for me to ride over to Suburban station for my first SEPTA trip and was sent to Customer Service, where I met the station manager, Donna L. Hayes, who solved my problem in a most friendly and efficient manner. I hopped on the next train to Market East station then walked through Chinatown to the Clarion Suite Hotel on Race Street where I checked in, dropped off my luggage and returned to the Market East station to take the weekday-only R6 line out to Cynwyd, riding Train 0659 and out of the window of the brightly-lit cars, I could see the skyline of the City of Brotherly Love and the exterior of 30th Street Station. At Cynwyd, I called home with no sign of the keys before riding Train 7662 back to Suburban station and the next movement east to Market Street East station, where I picked up some KFC for dinner before returning to my hotel for the night.

I was up early for R1 Train 1107 to the airport and even at 7:00 AM, all the airlines already had long lines. It was one of those times I was truly glad to be a train rider. The train that I had ridden out on turned to become an R3 train to West Trenton, Train 4308. The airport line had four terminals and SEPTA was a very efficient way to get from downtown to there. On my return trip, it started to get light so I began to see the countryside and we passed through all three downtown stations and once again, was riding on new trackage. We returned to daylight at Temple University then it was out to Fern Rock where there were row houses and later, single family homes.

I would ride to West Trenton, but on my return, planned to detrain at Jenkintown which would save me backtracking into downtown after my first three trips. I looked for the waterfall at Neshaminy Falls and east of the station to the north of the tracks, I spotted a small waterfall. We crossed the Delaware River into New Jersey before stopping at West Trenton.

As I stepped off the train, I was greeted by a parade of a re-enactment of the March to the Battle of Trenton after the crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas Eve 1776. I boarded SEPTA R3 Train 4121 back to Jenkintown. Detraining, and after crossing below the tracks, I boarded the R5 train 1530 ten minutes later for Doylestown and enjoyed the ride as we made our way through rolling hills passing many cuts along the way. The reason I was riding these various routes was twofold - to acquire new mileage and to see more of the Philadelphia area; SEPTA was the perfect means of seeing it all. We arrived at Doylestown and I visited a Boston Market for the first time and tried to assist a deaf woman with a telephone call but to no avail.

I took R5 Train 1351 back to Jenkintown to connect with a train to Warminister and to use the washroom in the station there since there are no washrooms on board SEPTA trains. Then it was under the tracks, through the tunnel and up onto the platform for R2 Train 1126 which I rode out to the end of the line at Warminister. For the journey from Glenside to Warminister, I named it the "Back Yard Line" as it runs along a slope of a hill overlooking a valley below. During my layover, I planned my next ride on the R8 line then rode back to Market East. It was on this portion of the journey that I finished my book, another excellent John Grisham novel; I really love his style of writing.

Looking at all of the schedules, I decided not to try to finish all of the SEPTA lines on this visit so would leave the R6 to Norristown and R3 to Elwyn for a future visit. I rode back into Market East then went down to track 3B for the R8 Train 1837, which departed on time but was held at Zoo Tower for a late-running Crescent, making its final sprint to New York City. This gave me a really good opportunity to enjoy both of the Zoos, the tower and the Philadelphia Zoo next door. This line runs out 6.6 miles from North Philadelphia on the Northeast Corridor to Chestnut Hills West, showing Philadelphia from urban decay to nice large single family homes.

I reboarded the same equipment, now Train 1844, back through downtown out to Fox Chase and we travelled east the same way as I rode this morning out to Newtown Junction, where we turned off northeastward running out to Fox Chase. I then visited a CVS Pharmacy, telling the pharmacist my symptoms and she recommended Robitussin CF since I was still fighting this cold. I reboarded Train 1489 and relaxed all the way back to East Market Street where I boarded my final SEPTA roundtrip of the day, the R7 Train 1726 to Chestnut Hills East.

It was back over the same route I was just on until Wayne Junction, where we veered to the northwest. It was funny that the journey through the tunnel was quicker, or at least seemed to be, and in no time, we were at the Temple University stop. Looking out at night, one really cannot get the same feel for a place such as Germantown as one could in daylight. I was wearing my headphones and made this round trip listening to music then detrained briefly at Chestnut Hills East before returning to Market East Station on Train R7 2727, ending an interesting day of riding most of the SEPTA commuter rail system. I detrained and found some dinner before returning to the hotel. This Clarion Suites is located a short five block walk in Chinatown, was an excellent hotel and I would recommend staying there in the future.

12/30/2001 A wake-up call, shower and check-out finished my stay before I walked back to Market East through the deserted streets of Chinatown. There in complete silence, I waited for the R1 Train 2017 to take me back to 30th Street Station and my connection with Amtrak. SEPTA provided me with excellent service and was an educational experience. There was still so much to ride, including the streetcar lines and high speed lines, as well as Port Authority Transportation Company, more commonly known as PATCO. I arrived at 30th Street station and rode the elevator with my luggage cart into the station. Having everything on wheels has made these last few trips easier, but does take a little bit of planning. I had my usual hot cakes and sausage breakfast, watched the Solari Board and looked at the new Amtrak Northeast Timetable effective January 28th, noting all of the new Acela Express trains, as well as the Maine Service which I would be riding tomorrow.

The one-station ride was a positioning move so I could take some pictures in Wilmington and board the Acela Express there. It was a quick trip with the Delaware River looking very beautiful on this Sunday morning. I detrained and used the elevator before paying to store my bags for a couple of hours.

I shot four southbound trains: Acela Express 2201, Acela Regionals 131, 153 and Fast Mail 12. Northbound was Metroliner 204, The Vermonter and Acela Regional 152. The wind was really blowing strong and cold but I was protected by the station's wall. After I reclaimed my bags and went back up to the platform for Track 2, I really met that cold wind face-to-face but braved it and won by photographing my Acela Express 2250 as it arrived.

Once on board, I walked four cars before finally finding an aisle seat on this sold-out train and decided to choose this seat even though the man sitting by the window was reading a book and never once looked up and out the window until Newark. I put on my headphones on with the music I had brought and started another John Grisham novel, "Skipping Christmas" which I read until Newark. Riding an aisle seat on the Acela Express in Business Class was interesting as I could see out of both sides of the train through the large windows. Riding across the New Jersey Meadowlands, I had my first look at the New York City skyline since the September 11th, 2001 events and felt sadness as if I had lost two of my best friends whom I met in 1971 on my first trip to the Big Apple in the family camper.

We plunged into the Hudson River tunnel and I was able to move to a large right hand window seat as people were about to detrain at New York's Penn Station. We departed fifteen minutes late straight into the East River Tunnel then the approach to Hells Gate Bridge gave a much better view of the altered New York City skyline with sadness hitting me once more. My twin friends are forever gone. We slowly travelled down the tracks of Metro North until west of New Haven, where a sensor in the pantograph thought that it was going to cause damage to the catenary, so it lowered itself. The crew inspected the situation before the rear pantograph was raised and off we went.

Al from Boston had been sitting next to me since New York and we talked until about halfway to Boston. The shoreline running was extremely beautiful with the bright sunlight accenting nature's beauty at best. The bridges at New London brought the Acela Express to a crawl before the engineer accelerated to 150 MPH through Rhode Island and the train was certainly smooth at that speed. We paused at Providence, stopped at Route 128 to let Al and his lady guest off before arriving at Back Bay only ten minutes late. I detrained then walked to the Chandler Inn for my two-night stay and watched the Oakland Raiders lose another close game and at half time, I walked to a deli four blocks away for some chicken wings before watching a little more television. I called home and was relieved to learn that the keys had finally arrived there, then called it a night.

To start my 44th birthday, I was up at 5:00 AM to walk over to Back Bay station to ride the Orange Subway Line to North Station, adjacent to the Fleet Center, where both the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League and the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association play. This building replaced the old Boston Gardens. I waited for the ticket office to open, purchased a round trip to Newburyport then visited a Dunkin' Donuts prior to walking out to the waiting Train 151 which departed on time with five passengers aboard and onto former Boston and Maine trackage. We crossed the Charles River before passing the maintenance shops then curved to the northeast, passing the industries before Mystic River appeared in the east, looking beautiful in the dawn before we crossed over it.

We ran through Chelsea then traversed the Pines River, passed the Bear Creek Wildlife Sanctuary and the Saugus River then travelled through Lynn, Swampscott and passed through a tunnel under Salem before passing through that town. Our route took us over Salem Inlet and through Beverly, after which the line to Rockport veered off to the east. We crossed a headland which extended east to Cape May to reach Hamilton, crossed the Ipswich River and went into the siding to meet inbound Train 158 before stopping at Ipswich. The train then crossed Parker River, went through the lowlands and unspoilt forest to the final stop at Newburyport, where I detrained into a very cold but perfectly clear and windy morning before returning to the warmth of the now-T Train 162, where I found a Boston Globe and read it as the train made all eleven stops on the way to North Station.

The Downeaster is a 145-mile passenger train operated by Amtrak and managed by the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, an agency of the state of Maine. Named for the Down East region of Maine, the train operates five daily round trips between North Station in Boston, Massachusetts and Portland, Maine, with ten intermediate stops. The Downeaster follows the route historically used by the Pine Tree and Flying Yankee trains that travelled from Bangor to Boston and were operated jointly by the Boston & Maine Railroad and Maine Central Railroad. Passenger operations between Portland and Boston ceased in 1965.

Service was initially expected to start in the 1990s. Negotiations between NNEPRA, Amtrak and Guilford Industries began in 1996, but began to fail over many factors, including equipment weight and speed limits. In December 1998, a speed limit of 80 miles per hour was agreed upon; the following year, the Federal Surface Transportation Board approved a limit of 79 miles per hour. Most right-of-way improvements were complete in 2000, but the following year, start-up was delayed again when Guilford refused to allow Amtrak to test track modulus or run trains faster than 59 miles per hour.

The passenger cars are the Amfleet I series passenger cars built by the Budd Company in the mid-to-late 1970s. Most trains include an Amfleet club car which has a combination of Business Class seating with a Café (food service/ lounge) and four Coach Class cars. Trains are pulled or pushed on the northbound end of the train by a GE Genesis diesel locomotive at speeds up to 79 mph. A second GE Genesis or a non-powered control unit (a former F40PH converted into a control car) runs on the southbound end of the train.

As I walked into North Station, I was met by a Trainorders.com member, William, who had dressed in a full conductor uniform for the occasion, along with his grandmother Bary, who was along for the ride. We boarded Coastal Club Class and was greeted by an attendant who brought me a cup of tea. There was a USA Today on my seat but I would read that on the return trip. We departed North Station on time and crossed the Charles River then went by the MTBA maintenance base before crossing a much smaller Mystic River as we left Boston on the MTBA's Lowell Line before diverging onto the Wild Cat Branch to the Haverhill Line. This routing was due to the crowding of MTBA trains on the Haverhill Line and the single track at Reading, which caused that condition.

We joined the Haverhill Line a few minutes later. We ran along the Merrimack River through Bradford before crossed the river on a high bridge and arrived at Haverhill, where we met Downeaster 682 then departed by passing the former freight house before entering New Hampshire. I sat back and enjoyed the forest and homes within before we arrived at Exeter then travelled along the Squamscott River, which emptied into the Great Bay, and passed through Durham, which is a Friday, Saturday and Sunday-only stop. We crossed the inflow into Little Bay before arriving at Dover and I met Frank, sitting in front of me, who was going to the Seashore Trolley Museum for a week and pointed out landmarks for me.

We crossed the Salmon River and entered Maine, passing through more forest before arriving at Wells, where a new station was being constructed. The forest reminded me of New Brunswick, which would make sense as it is just above the State of Maine. We bridged Mousam River, passed through Kennebunk then spanned the Kennebunk River before crossing the road which led to the Seashore Trolley Museum. We ran through Biddeford then across the Saco River before passing through that town and on through Old Orchard, where views of the Atlantic Ocean were seen to the east.

We travelled along several bays and marshes and passed the former Portland Terminal Railway Company's Rigby Yard, a subsidiary of Maine Central Railroad, which is now operated by Pan Am Railways, a subsidiary of CSX Transportation, before going by the town's cemetery and crossing an arm of Portland Bay. We then turned onto the former Maine Central Mountain District and ran along Back Bay into the new Amtrak station in Portland, arriving twelve minutes early.

I was met by 'Bob of Maine', as he was known on Trainorders.com, who offered to show me around Portland with his friend Jason doing the driving. We went to the site of the former Portland Union Station, where only one of the towers still remains then drove over to Rigby Yard before showing me a Boston & Maine steel milk car built in 1952. We crossed over the Harbor bridge and passed a Grand Trunk building to visit the Narrow Gauge Museum.

Maine Narrow Gauge Museum 23 ton switcher 1 built by General Electric in 1949. This was one of three industrial narrow gauge diesels designed for the very narrow clearances at the Whitin Machine Shop, a manufacturer of knitting and woolen mill machinery. Only 50 inches wide when built (now 84 inches with walkways), these diesels were used to haul dump, flat and gondola freight cars. They were phased out while still quite new and sold to a Worcester, Massachusetts scrap dealer. Two of these units were later sold to the Edaville Railroad. Edaville rebuilt these locomotives, numbered them 1 and 2 and used them to complement their steam-powered collection. Following Edaville's closure, 1 came to the museum in 1993 where it has been the primary workhouse since.

We then circled back by going along the harbour to near the old drawbridge before we cut over the hill to the station, stopping off at the Convention Center to see a mural of the old Union Station. I thanked Bob for taking me around Portland by giving him a Southwest Chief coffee mug. That left me with fifteen minutes before I reboarded, read USA Today and waited for the beginning of my return trip to Boston. A special thank you to Bob and Jason for the great tour.

I settled into my Atlantic Coastal Club seat and the train departed on time as I listened to some more music for the journey back to Boston as we travelled through the forest of the state of Maine. It just dawned on me that Amtrak now serves forty-six states. It was a quick trip through New Hampshire as William and I talked back into Massachusetts where we said our goodbyes as we neared Boston. Once back at North Station, I was off onto the Orange Line to Back Bay, where I walked across the street to to get some postcards at Copley Mall to get some postcards. It was then I realized I had forgotten to buy postcards. I walked over to a really great deli three blocks south of the hotel then returned to my room and spent a peaceful New Year's Eve 2001 and 44th birthday. At 7:00 PM, the sky to the northeast was filled with fireworks before my mother called to wish me a happy birthday then I called it a night.

I did my morning ritual before checking out and walking to Back Bay station to ride the Orange line to the Red Line to get to South Station, where I went into Club Acela, the new lounge for first class passengers. Boston's South Station was the first on the Amtrak system to be remodelled and it was an outstanding result, a highlight of which, for me, was the original clock with artwork surrounding it, along with a fantastic ceiling with unique light fixtures. It had a really warm feeling to it and from where I was sitting, since I had the place to myself this morning, overlooked the station concourse below. I was really glad to be starting my new year relaxing in Club Acela, drinking orange juice and reading a People magazine. I also had the opportunity to acess the Internet and check my e-mail. Club Acela was truly a useful place and I can add it to the list of First Class Lounges in which I have been during my travels.

I boarded and was the only passenger in First Class leaving from South Station, which we did on time but by Back Bay, I was joined by five other passengers. After eating a whole-grain pancake breakfast with chicken sausage, I went to the conductor's office where TJ, our conductor, let me sit and watch the spedometer. Today, we only hit 144 mph, but watching the speed rise and fall with the curvature of the line was really interesting. We sped non-stop along the line with its many inlets from Providence to New Haven, where we arrived fifteen minutes early on Track 2.

This allowed for me to walk down and under to Track 3 for a picture of the Acela Express in absolutely beautiful light of the spectacular-looking train. We made our way to Penn Station in New York after a much slower ride over the tracks of Metro-North and arrived at Penn Station early, where I ran upstairs to buy some large New York postcards. We departed at noon on another perfectly clear day and proceeded south. Since nothing on the first class menu appealed to me, I rode from Newark to Metropark, where I was in line to purchase a hot dog and chips, then we sped to Philadelphia, arriving there early and I enjoyed my first class high-speed dash down the entire Northeast Corridor as we made our way to Wilmington and Baltimore before slowing for the Boston and Pittsburg tunnels, the slowest trek on the whole Northeast Corridor. We stopped at BWI Airport and New Carrolton before arriving at Washington Union Station early.

I picked up some MARC and Virginia Rail Express timetables before riding the Washington Metro subway to a transfer station for the line out to Crystal City, Virginia. I was very impressed with it. I found the Embassy Suites and the nearby Virginia Rail Express station before eating at a Chili's for the first time then returned to the hotel, called home and to my brother Bruce while watching "Dave" then called it a night and slept in on the only morning of the trip.

By sleeping in, I did not ride MARC's Camden Line to Baltimore. Following check-out, the fron desk offered me a ride to the Metro station where I retraced my way to Union Station and found the daily storage area for bags before going to the Amtrak self-service ticketing machine so I could ride MARC and bought a ticket to Bowie and Baltimore.

I walked out to Track 20 and boarded coach 7702 in MARC Train 408 to Bowie Station. It was a quick trip, where I detrained into a sunny thirty degree air.

This MARC train was travelling at 125 mph and it surprised me, but allowed me to get used to the high speed and to know to be ready at all times. At Silver Palm, it was just as easy since the trains were pulled by a diesel at a much lower rate of speed. I boarded MARC Train 410 for Baltimore and just as I sat in the bi-level car, the Acela Express that I had been waiting for flew by on the next track. North of Odeton, the southbound Acela Express, which I had also been waiting for, sped by running late. We arrived at Baltimore where I finally had an opportunity to go into Penn Station. The waiting room was over the tracks and I enjoyed a pretzel, picked up some postcards and more timetablaes for my Orange County Railway Historical Society brethren.

I returned to Washington DC on the lower level on MARC Train 427 and claimed my bags from storage, planning to relax before my next train ride, or at least so I thought. About 3:05 PM, the lights flashed and over the PA system came "You are to leave the station building via ramps or doors!" Everyone did this, but it was chaotic and unorganized. We all stood out in front of the Washington Union Station waiting for an all-clear and once that happened, all the MARC and Amtrak passengers, as well as all of the building's employees, returned inside and my wait was very short.

We departed only fifteen minutes late, right after the Silver Star arrived from New York. Believe this or not, this was my first westbound trip over this route and at this point, I was very glad to be on the way home. We passed the Ivy City Virginia Rail Express shops before proceeding on the former Baltimore and Ohio tracks then quickly left the metropolitan DC area and by Point of Rocks, Maryland, it was already dark. I went to the lounge car for some tea and learned that smoke seen in the basement of the station was the reason they cleared Union Station. I had chicken for dinner with a seventh grade math teacher from Dearborn, Michigan, whose children were the most badly-behaved I had ever dined with. As the Capitol Limited travelled west into the night, I finished "Skipping Christmas" and did some word fill-in puzzles before calling it a night.

1/3/2002 After a good nights's rest, I was woken to a series of public address announcements of: "Dining car is now open but will close at South Bend. All pillows will be picked up. Lounge Car will only be open for the next hour. We expect to arrive in Chicago early thanks to the CSX and Norfolk Southern." That prompted me to get up and obtain a cup of tea with chocolate chip cookies before preparing myself for arrival. The steel mills in Gary looked very nice in the low light, with Sears Tower standing out above the low-lying fog over Lake Michigan, which looked beautiful in the post-sunrise light. We wyed into Chicago to cut off the mail and express cars then sat as the Metra commuter fleet passed twice, going into Union Station then to the yard. We sat for twenty-eight minutes until the Lake Cities for Detroit departed, giving us a station track to come use, and arrived forty-seven minutes early.

I stored my bags at the baggage pickup area for no charge since I was a connecting Amtrak passenger and made my way to CTA Blue Line Clinton station, where I rode the missing line to Cermack and the last few miles were at grade- level, which surprised me. I rode back to La Salle Street Station and walked the block to the Loop, taking the Purple Line to Linden as an express from Belmont to Howard. Cab car 2580, in which I was riding, had cab signal problems and the operator called the control center. Just before Bryn Mawr, he fixed the problem and we were off towards Linden then I doubled back to Belmont ,where I took the Yellow Line, the Skokie Swift, to and from Skokie. This line started as third rail, but switcheed about halfway out to overhead wire and the train switches on the fly. This route was part of the old Chicago, North Shore and Milwaukee line, so I lived out a little history, then rode back to Howard, taking a Red Line train to Belmont before riding the Brown Line to Kimball, which was at ground level from Rockwell onward.

I returned to Chicago on a Brown Line train travelling on the Loop before I transferred to another Brown Line train which took me to Quincy. My walk back to Union Station was through an icy cold wind, but when I arrived, I was warmed by a pair of Char Dogs. I stopped at Connie's Pizza for the company's phone number so one of my favourite Lead Service Attendants, Bruce Telfer, could order from California with cooking instructions, then retrieved my bags and waited for my next train.

I was joined at my seat by the very attractive Katie from Washington, DC who was returning to school at USC. We departed on time and after doing the mail and express car ritual, we proceeded west out into the sunset. Shirley Robinson was the Lead Service Attendant in the lounge car and it was good to see an old friend. Kieran, another wonderful Amtrak employee, was on the train, but sadly was out-of-service as he was under the weather. After watching "Legally Blonde", I went to the dining car and found Joe Lara was our dining car steward and had the pork chops. I watched the next movie, "Cats and Dogs" prior to calling it a night.

1/4/2002 I awoke east of Dodge City and went to the lounge car for a cup of tea and a cinnamon roll before listening to music as Kansas turned into Colorado with a beautiful reddish sunrise. West of Lamar, the John Martin Reservoir on the Arkansas River was announced so the crew could wake everyone up with the fact that we were now on Mountain Time. Katie, who was still trying to sleep, awoke not in Colorado, but in the State of Shock! We arrived in La Junta over an hour early so I had a good stroll around town, purchasing Colorado postcards, doughnuts and a copy of the Denver Post. We departed across the snowy landscape with the peaks of the Front Range of the Rockies hidden by the layers of clouds then stopped briefly at Trinidad before climbing Raton Pass. At Raton, the wind was really blowing our new passengers around on the platform prior to boarding. The New Mexico sky was really interesting and after we met our eastbound counterpart at Rowe, I enjoyed my first stormy weather over Glorieta Pass.

I finally photographed Apache Canyon before we arrived in Lamy then continued to Albuquerque, where we arrived over an hour early with servicing of the train, removal of a Road Railer and a visit to the train by the Drug Enforcement Administration. We travelled west into the last night of the trip and I had rather bland dinner then listened to some music and called it a night.

1/5/2002 I woke up at 3:00 AM just east of Ludlow, dressed and rode in the empty lounge car then had pancakes and sausage going down Cajon Pass. At Esperanza, after rounding the horseshoe bend, we passed an eastbound BNSF freight, which signalled me to pack up and I said goodbye to Katie before an on-time arrival at Fullerton.

After a last picture of the Southwest Chief, it departed for Los Angeles and I waited for Pacific Surfliner 568 to take me home to Santa Ana, where my mother was waiting to pick me up, thus ending another relaxing Amtrak adventure.

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