I awoke in the Hotel Riviera in Newark, New Jersey, knowing that I would be again finish the Amtrak system tonight when I stepped off the train in Roanoke. Robin and I rode a taxi back to Penn Station and planned to ride New Jersey Transit into New York City. We bought our New Jersey Transit tickets and learnt our train would arrive on Track 2.
First a New Jersey Transit train on Track 4 bound for Bayhead arrived and departed.
Amtrak ACS-64 645 pulled Northeast Regional 185 train on Track 3.
The train waited a few minutes for its departure time.
Acela Express 2164 arrived.
Northeast Regional 185 departed.
Acela Express 2164 doing its station work.
Acela Express 2164 ready to depart.
Northeast Regional 130 arrived and departed.
The last train we saw was Keystone Service 600. It was then time for our New Jersey Transit 3722 to arrive.
New Jersey Transit 3722 7/26/2018
Robin and I boarding the rear cab car which was the quiet car from Trenton. The trip to Secaucus was slow as we were following trains but sped up after that.
The Port Authority of New York (PATH) maintenance facility.
PATH trains at their shops.
New Jersey Transit ALP-46 4609, built by Bombardier in 2001.
New Jersey Transit GP40-2 4302, ex. Conrail GP40 3197, nee Penn Central 3197, built by Electro-Motive Division in 1968.
The New York skyline.
The New York skyline just after Secaucus. The train took us through the Hudson River Tunnel and into New York's Penn Station, where we detrained and went into the hall and waited for the track announcement, which was twelve.
Northeast Regional 171 7/26/2018The train left about fifteen minutes late and proceeded west into the Hudson River Tunnel on its way to Secaucus then Newark. We stopped at Newark Airport then made our way to Trenton.
Trenton Makes The World Takes sign on the Lower Free Bridge across the Delaware River. The sign was installed in 1935 and first replaced in 1981. In 2005, the sign was replaced with one featuring higher-efficiency neon lighting, with better waterproofing than the old sign, to help reduce maintenance costs. The slogan was originally "The World Takes, Trenton Makes" and came from a contest sponsored by the Trenton Chamber of Commerce in 1910. S. Roy Heath, the former Heath Lumber founder and New Jersey State Senator, coined the phrase.
Schuylkill River and Philadelphia.
The SEPTA streetcar yard south Philadelphia.
Amtrak's Wilmington Shops, which we will be visiting in a few days.
We crossed the Susquehanna River where it empties into Chesapeake Bay at Havre de Grace. The train stopped at Aberdeen, where I had an early dinner, then it was on to Baltimore BWI Airport and New Carrollton.
Washington Metro subway cars. We continued straight to Washington, DC for the switch from electric to diesel that always occurs here when one travels south of DC.
Amtrak ACS-64 622 at Washington Union Station. At 5:22 PM, the power was restored and we departed at 5:27 PM, entering the Capitol Tunnel before approaching the crossing of the Potomac River.
The Potomac River as we crossed into the State of Virginia to our next station of Alexandria, followed by Burke Centre, Manassas, Culpeper and Charlottesville.
The Charlottesville station through the trees. We left there and made our way to Lynchburg after which, once we reached the wye at Roanoke and went about four hundred feet west, I was on my final piece of new mileage to complete the Amtrak system again. I rode peacefully through the night until I arrived in Roanoke, where I stepped off; Robin had detrained first.
Roanoke 7/26/2018
The author stepping off the train after just completing the Amtrak system. We started to leave when I saw the Hotel Roanoke van and asked if we could ride with him so we were driven over and checked in to this very nice hotel for the night.
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