We departed Port Henry also at 2:35pm, still 31 minutes late. Prior to arriving in Port Henry, the train departed Rouses Point, NY later than scheduled likely due to delays at Customs as this is where the train is inspected by U.S. Customs & Border Protection when it enters the United States coming from Montreal. It was obvious coming back that the weather wasn't gonna be as good as heading north but I still managed to take enough pictures that I had to change the memory card in my camera!!! In case you're wondering, not all the photos I take ever make it into one of my travelogues, however sometimes you need to take 20 pictures to come up with one good one to use! With this being a day trip, I didn't bring my laptop computer with me (which is where I back up my photos on a bigger trip) so thankfully, I had 2 spare memory cards with me! Our next stop was a quick one in Whitehall, NY where we arrived and departed at 3:30pm, running 25 minutes late. Arriving at these little station stops in small towns is like seeing America 100 years ago where every small town had a train station and you would have a few people here and there boarding and/or deboarding at a station stop as the passenger train was the most commonly used way to get around the country before the automobile became mainstream. A good time was still had by all, enjoying the view from the dome which was starting to get dark as it was clouding up rather quickly. We arrived at our next stop at Fort Edward, NY at 4:05pm and departed there at 4:06pm. By the time we left Fort Edward, it had gotten significantly darker outside due to a storm that rolled in causing some heavy rain for a brief period. The next stop was Saratoga Springs at 4:28pm. It was now too dark to take anymore photos from the dome but I did see railfans on the platform again, same as on the way up! After all, how often do you see VIA equipment in the U.S.??? Several Saratoga & North Creek staff members waived to us as the train departed Saratoga Springs. We departed there at 4:31pm, now running 38 minutes late.
An announcement was made that the lounge car was closing so everyone on the lower level of the car left, and all of us in the dome started to head back to the coaches as well. I took photos of the lounge area of the car as well before heading back to the coaches as our next stop at Schenectady would be my stop. We hung out in the HEP-2 Coach which had space on one end for food carts that VIA uses for food service on select trains. The car also had overhead luggage bins rather than racks. They almost looked like something you would see on a commercial aircraft! I also took a few interior photos of some of the coaches though the HEP-1 Coaches all had nearly an identical interior. They did however feature small glass cases that had HO Scale model trains in them which was a nice touch! Because these cars all operate in Canada, all of the signage in them was written in Canada's two official languages, English and French.
At 4:58pm, running now only 8 minutes late due to schedule padding, Train #68 arrived in Schenectady. I said goodbye to the passengers I rode with up to Port Henry today, and my friend and I got off the train. I got a quick couple photos of it as it left the station using the little flash on my camera before heading to a nearby restaurant as I had been living on Diet Pepsi since breakfast! We headed to a place called “The Recovery Room” a sports bar in nearby Rotterdam, NY. The food there is excellent and they have lots of TV’s showing lots of sporting events!!! After getting back to the station, my friend and I just hung out on the platform with a handful of other passengers waiting for the next train, Train #49 - The Lake Shore Limited to arrive which would be my train back to Buffalo. And now, here's a set of photos taken on the ride back to Schenectady from the Park Dome car, enjoy...
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