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| Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited Taking A Break At Utica Union Station In Utica, NY On Friday, December 4th, 2009 |
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| Trip Planning: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I planned out this trip back in mid-September 2009, less than 2 weeks before I began my most recent trip. I had enough points from Amtrak Guest Rewards so as to take this trip for free! I made a very quick phone call to AGR and booked the tickets I needed which would include riding Buffalo to Schenectady, NY on Train #48 - The Lake Shore Limited and riding back home on Train #281 - Empire Service. The tickets cost a total of 6,000 AGR points as they were all in the Northeast Zone which based on how it's set up, could conceivably allow you to ride from Niagara Falls to Washington, D.C. for 3,000 points! Amtrak Guest Rewards is truly a great frequent traveler program and is super easy to use. I'm glad to see Amtrak has kept it going all these years and hope it continues long into the future! I would be staying at a Days Inn on Western Avenue in Albany this year. I also would have a rental car this year from Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Schenectady. This would be the 9th year I made this trip and the 7th year in a row that I would do my shopping in Albany (The first two years I did this trip, I only went to Syracuse the first year, and Syracuse and Utica the second). This proved to be an excellent trip, so please read on! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Friday, December 4th, 2009: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I arrived at the Buffalo-Depew Amtrak Station just before 8:00am and parked the car in the long-term lot. Today’s Train #48 - The Lake Shore Limited was scheduled to be on time at Buffalo-Depew Station. This in itself is nothing short of a miracle considering the recent history of this train’s "not exactly" perfect on-time performance! One negative side-effect to the economic downturn is the fact that fewer freight trains are running which actually makes it possible for Amtrak to arrive sometimes early at certain stations. I stepped out onto the platform only to nearly freeze to death as the temperature must have not been higher than the 20’s this morning with a strong wind!!! The Assistant Conductor collected my ticket on the platform and I had a quick conversation with another passenger who also was waiting for the train while freezing (I was the first passenger on the platform). Running only 3 minutes late, Train #48 arrived in Depew with P42 #108 on the lead. The consist for today’s train is shown below: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| We departed Buffalo at 8:45am only 5 minutes late! This is absolutely amazing for this train! I was seated in aisle seat #44 in Amfleet II Coach #25020. I had a brief conversation with the passenger sitting next to me who was getting off the train at Utica. Shortly after we left, I headed for the dining car for breakfast. I was one of the last people to be served breakfast before the car closed. The 8:40am scheduled departure out of Buffalo should allow you to get breakfast if you board the train in Buffalo though it is normally very close to closing time for breakfast. I had the Railroad French Toast with Turkey Sausage patties and Home Fries with an Orange Juice and Diet Pepsi, all delicious! Breakfast cost $12.50 and the service provided by the crew was excellent. We had a few speed restrictions and past a couple freights between Buffalo and Rochester, nothing out of the ordinary. We made our station stop at Rochester, NY at 9:53am about 3 minutes late. A smoking break was granted so I got a few pictures of the train. At least one passenger was boarding in a wheelchair. To facilitate this, Amtrak has a special device that allows a wheelchair to be raised from the ground to the coach floor level and this was taken care of quickly and efficiently. We left Rochester at 10:00am, running 10 minutes late, no big deal. I spent a fair amount of time in the cafe car just hanging out with the crew and a few other passengers and the conversation was lively! At CP-320, we had a speed restriction which had us going about 10mph for a distance. This however didn't cause us to lose any time as by the time we arrived in Syracuse, we were once again early, having arrived at 11:19am, running 6 minutes ahead of schedule. There was more time for people to get off and smoke. I got some air and a few more pictures and we were out of Syracuse at 11:27am running 2 minutes late! I continued writing this travelogue in the Cafe car and decided I wanted to have lunch. From what I was told, one of the sleeper attendants walked through the train taking reservations but I never saw the person doing so. I decided to see if I could get lunch anyway and as luck would have it, they were able to serve me without a reservation. Another passenger joined my table for lunch. She was from Michigan on her way to Springfield, MA. There were two specials on the menu today including the Barbeque Beef Brisquet sandwich (I had this on the Texas Eagle earlier this year and it was absolutely delicious!) with the other being a Pulled Pork in a cider sauce over wild rice with a salad and roll. I decided to try this because I wanted to try something different that I hadn’t had in the past on Amtrak. The pulled pork was absolutely delicious! The salad was also good and I had a Diet Pepsi to drink. I also had a Chocolate & Peanut Butter pie for dessert. Lunch cost $16.00 and the service in the dining car today was among the best I've seen in recent years. It's amazing what can get done in that small space onboard an Amtrak dining car and this was in an Amfleet II Diner-Lite converted lounge car, not even a Heritage Diner (Just imagine what could be done if this train actually had a real Heritage Diner again)! After lunch, an announcement was made that the cafe car would be closing at Schenectady and the car was going to Boston with the Boston section of the train. I hung out in the car for a few minutes with the crew until it closed down. I then spent a few minutes actually at my coach seat talking to 2 passengers headed to New York (and eventually, New Jersey), we discussed Amtrak in general. It was now time to arrive in Schenectady, my final destination for this trip. At 1:45pm, running 5 minutes early, Train #48 arrived in Schenectady. I shook hands with the conductor whom I've rode with several times over the years and called Enterprise Rent-A-Car to have them come pick me up. One big difference this year is the temperature was almost 50 degrees and partly sunny, a far cry from the severe ice storm I was welcomed into town with last year! Enterprise showed up in a 2010 Ford Escape and drove me to their place. I was offered that vehicle which they had just received yesterday for the same price as what I would pay for the car I reserved but I'm really not an SUV guy but more of a car guy. I'm more comfortable driving something that's lower to the ground like a car verses a truck or SUV. They had a 2010 Ford Fusion on the lot which fit the "Standard" car that I reserved and that car ended up being my rental car for this year. I drove to my hotel, the Days Inn on Western Avenue in Albany. This hotel is conveniently located just a couple miles from the Crossgates Mall where I planned to do most of my shopping. I checked into the room and made a few phone calls before driving over to the mall to meet up with a friend of mine who needed some help in deciding which new computer to buy at Best Buy. I then had dinner at Dorato's Restaurant in Guilderland with a couple friends and had some of the best chicken wings I've ever had in Albany! Being from Western New York, I KNOW what chicken wings are supposed to taste like and this place does a great job with them! After dinner, I picked up some "consumables" for the hotel room including Diet Pepsi, Poland Spring water (couldn't find any Saratoga at the Price Chopper store I was at) and some snacks. After getting back to the hotel and writing more of this travelogue, I noticed there was a very strong smell in the room (likely coming from the refrigerator near the front of the room by the door) which was there when I first checked in but didn't think much of it. I ended up opening the window only to find it didn’t help get rid of the smell. I called the front desk and was given a new room, no questions asked. I quickly moved to the new room, then wrote more of this travelogue and so ends a good first day... |
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| Saturday, December 5th, 2009: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This would be my actual shopping day for the trip. I ended up only buying one gift in the Crossgates Mall where I normally do all of my shopping and ended up buying the rest of the gifts I needed at other stores in the Albany area. The stores I tend to shop at are no different than anything we have here in Buffalo but Christmas shopping has always been the best excuse I could come up with for wanting to take a train ride before the end of the year! After a few hours of shopping, I had lunch at a Golden Corral restaurant, a chain we don't have in Buffalo. I would spend the rest of the afternoon just relaxing in the hotel room. Later in the evening, I would later drive up to a friend’s house in Saratoga County and hang out there for a bit with a couple friends who were in the area. I then drove back to the hotel, stopping at the McDonald’s drive-thru for some late evening unhealthy food! And so ends today. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sunday, December 6th, 2009: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This would be my railfanning day of the trip. I hopped in my rental car and cruised down the Thruway out to Amsterdam, NY and the Amsterdam Amtrak Station. This station is supposed to have a caretaker at it (at least it has the past 10 years anyway) however when I arrived there, the station building was open with lights on but no caretaker to be found. I photographed Train #284 and would hang out there for about an hour and a half talking with a railfan from the nearby town of Gloversville, NY. No other freight trains came by. My best advice on railfanning in the cold, DRESS WARM!!! Make sure to know where the nearest convenience store or fast food chain is located so you can go grab a quick coffee or hot chocolate if you get too cold! I grabbed a very quick lunch at a nearby McDonald’s and drove back to the Amsterdam station only to have Train #48 just rounding the bend by the station. I just barely got a photo of it! Shortly thereafter, Train #281 came by, making it’s station stop in Amsterdam. I decided to drive over to Rensselaer to see some Amtrak action there. Railfanning there is limited to public streets only as no railfanning is permitted there on the station platforms. I took a few photos there before trying to get to a road crossing to see Train #448 (Lake Shore Limited Boston Section) but I never found the road crossing (I really need to invest in a GPS! I had one but it broke in 2006 and I never replaced it!) and drove back out to Amsterdam one more time. I am very proud of myself as I have yet to drive the rental car through the EZ-Pass lane even once on the Thruway, which is something I'm used to doing with my own car since I have an EZ-Pass! After arriving back in Amsterdam around sunset, I got a badly underexposed photo of Train #283 when it arrived and I drove back up to Saratoga County and had dinner with a friend of mine at Pizza Hut in Clifton Park before driving back to Albany and putting gas in the rental car. I spent part of the evening color-correcting photos I took so far on this trip and would play some solitaire with an actual deck of cards no less! And so ends today. |
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| Monday, December 7th, 2009: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| For whatever reason, I woke up at around 7:30am but had no real reason to, I just couldn't sleep. So I grabbed some free breakfast from the breakfast bar in the hotel and continued color-correcting more photos taken on the trip. I would do this until it was time to get ready to check out of the hotel. I checked out around 10:45am and drove back to Schenectady to have lunch at a Popeye's Chicken Restaurant which is another chain we don’t have here in Buffalo. After lunch, I drove back to Enterprise and turned in the rental car. All of the Enterprise employees were excellent and delivered good service. I was driven by them back to the Amtrak Station and would get there in time to see Train #284 arrive but because the elevator in the station is as slow as molasses, I didn’t get to the platform in time to get a decent photo of that train, bummer! I hung out inside the station because once again today, it was freezing out! I ventured up to the platform via the slower-than-a-dessert-turtle elevator once again and waited for my train, Empire Service #281 to arrive. At about 1:31pm, Train #281 arrived with P32AC-DM #707 for power. The consist for today’s train is shown below: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| At 1:32pm, running 15 minutes late, Train #281 departed Schenectady. I was seated in Amfleet I Coach #82691, a refurbished coach with a sort-of blue/green colored seats with all the updated amenities that have gone into these cars over the years including digital readerboards and AC outlets at each seat. For the first time in 43 Amtrak trips, I would end up being in the same coach with 2 passengers who were also on Train #48 last Friday! They were coming back home to Western NY after spending the weekend in New Jersey! We all recognized each other right away and would talk on and off again throughout the trip. If there is one thing to be said about this coach, it was VERY WARM! Unfortunately, Amfleet Coaches have 2 settings for comfort, Turn the heat ON or OFF! There’s no thermostat! Oh well! We made our next station stop at Amsterdam, NY and left there at 1:48pm, running 14 minutes late. We had a couple minor speed restrictions, one shortly west of Amsterdam and another near Yosts, NY, no big deal there. I headed to the Cafe car to get a spicy chicken sandwich and Diet Pepsi which I ate in the cafe car. Our cafe attendant was very professional and gave excellent service! At CP-235, just outside Utica, we stopped to let Train #48 pass us. He was running significantly late after following behind a disabled freight train (per what I heard back in Schenectady while waiting for my train). We made our station stop in Utica, in light snow and left there at 2:52pm now 19 minutes late. Next stop was Rome, NY where we left at 3:07pm, still 19 minutes late. I had chatted for a bit with the passengers sitting across from me for a bit before and after leaving Rome. A smoking break would be permitted at Syracuse, the next stop. Upon arrival in Syracuse, I stepped off the train to get some air and a few pictures before we would depart, having left at 3:55pm, now 17 minutes late. Things were rather uneventful as the sun went down and for awhile, no snow was falling that I could see. We made a brief stop in Rochester, leaving there at 5:10pm, running 18 minutes late. We really didn’t lose much in the way of time but didn’t make any up either. As we made it closer to Buffalo, I noticed it was once again snowing and finally at 6:02pm having made up some time, running 10 minutes late, we arrived at Buffalo-Depew Station which was my home destination. The conductor helped me get my bags off the train and I was greeted to 3-4 inches of snow on my car! Thankfully, I have a snow brush in the car and started the car, cleaned it off and drove away, and so ends another successful cross-the-state trip on Amtrak. In conclusion, this would mark the first time I ever rode Train #48 and it arrive at my endpoint destination EARLY! As I said earlier, this is likely due to a slowdown in freight traffic due to the weak economy. What the future holds is anybody’s guess but my hope is that Amtrak’s best days are still ahead of it. I sincerely hope things get better for them and they get better funded which is so important because Amtrak is an energy-efficient and safe way to see the country! Below you'll find links to photos I took on this long-weekend trip, enjoy! Until my next "big vacation" trip sometime in 2010, Happy Railfanning... |
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