Buffalo To Syracuse, NY On Acela
Regional (Empire Service)
|
Number: |
Type/Description: |
700 |
P32AC-DM Power |
20013 |
Amfleet I Cafe Car |
21006 |
Amfleet I Coach |
21137 |
Amfleet I Coach |
21641 |
Amfleet I Coach |
44658 |
Amfleet I Coach |
For my 19th Amtrak Trip since 1996, I wanted to get back to Syracuse. Amtrak's web site had a 30% Off special for booking tickets online so coupled with the day off from work, I decided to venture out. Today's train had been sitting at the Buffalo-Exchange St. Station since 4:00am as there is a decent amout of trackwork being done on the CSX Niagara Branch, Amtrak decided to Taxi everyone from Niagara Falls to Buffalo-Exchange Station rather than slow down the train under the speed restrictions. Today's train's consist is shown in the table to the right. I was seated in Amfleet I Coach #21006, a red interior coach with electrical outlets at each seat, not too bad if you ask me. Immediately after we left the Downtown Buffalo Station, I pulled out my camera to get a few pictures in of what you see as you leave Downtown and head for points East. There is actually a lot to see for the railfan as you meet up with the Chicago Line at CP-437 (According to what I heard on this trip, CSX is still calling interlockings by the old Conrail Names). I actually remember on one trip hearing Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited was stopped on the Chicago Line at 437 to let 286 pass by first! That was back in 1999 not long after Conrail became only a memory in Buffalo and it was most likely because of that that there was such a delay with the Lake Shore. Once on the Main Line, you pass several sidings a coulpe runner tracks and S-K Yard used by CP-Rail among other railroads. The photo below shows Central Terminal as you pass it on the train. A member of the train crew was actually taking my ticket for me while I wasbusy photographing the old terminal! Built in 1929, the terminal is on the National Register Of Historic Places. A local group of railfans has gotten the clocks working again in the terminal's main tower and they light up bright at night. This station was home to Amtrak until the early 1980's when the station in Depew was built. There are a bunch of scenes in the Burt Reynold's movie "Best Friends" that were shot here at this station. Among them, Burt Reynolds and Goldie Hawn getting off an Amtrak Train here and walking around the main concourse of the building! If you want to know more about Central Terminal and its long rich history, I invite you to check out the Central Termninal Preservation Web Site. After passing the terminal and S-K Yard, you ride a little ways up the tracks past CSX's big Frontier Yard before heading into the station in Depew. On occasion, you'll see some CSX Power sitting in the yard as well as power from other roads, it is normal to see CP Rail, or even NS power in the yard. After stopping in Depew, we would pass by the first of 11 Hot Box Detectors between here and Syracuse, the table below shows the train speed as well as other information wherever available from each detector:
Amtrak
Train #286 - Hot Box Detector Readings |
||||||
Time: | Milepost: | DED/HBD | Track #: | Defects: | Axel Count: | Speed (MPH): |
9:03am | QC427.10 | Lancaster, NY | 2 | No | 24 | N/A (See Note) |
9:18am | QC407.40 | Batavia, NY | 2 | No | 24 | 81 |
9:41am | QC386.50 | Churchville, NY | 1 | No | 24 | 76 |
9:47am | QC378.40 | Coldwater, NY | 1 | No | 24 | 77 |
10:16am | QC364.10 | Brighton, NY | 2 | No | 24 | 78 |
10:34am | QC345.00 | East Palmyra, NY | 2 | No | 24 | 69 |
10:48am | QC334.00 | Lyons, NY | 1 | No | 24 | 51 |
10:57am | QC323.60 | Savannah, NY | 1 | No | 24 | 76 |
11:07am | QC313.70 | Center Port, NY | 1 | No | 24 | 71 |
11:16am | QC302.50 | Memphis, NY | 2 | No | 24 | 79 |
11:24am | QC293.20 | Syracuse, NY | 2 | No | 24 | 50 |
Note: The Lancaster Detector was being
worked on and wouldn't say the speed of the train. I'm noticing this
as a common thing with CSX, as new CSX detectors aren't stating the
speed of the train. Every detector did still report as "Conrail"
and not CSX.
We picked
up a few passengers at Buffalo-Depew before heading east, we departed
on time and the weather today was beautiful, great for railfanning.
I have taken this trip several times before so I really wasn't expecting
any surprises. This is a very scenic trip and thanks to Amtrak, you
can get in a daylong trip in Syracuse and get home in time for a late
dinner. Although a little dark thanks to Amtrak's tinted windows in
the Amfleet I Coaches, shown in the photo to the left is the start of
the West Shore Branch at CP-389, this line runs around the south side
of Rochester and is a bypass route when the Chicago Line is congested.
There are some local freight businesses on the line as well. I have
read stories in the past about Amtrak being diverted there if there
was a wreck on the Chicago Line. As you pass by the several small towns,
you see the start of some foothills and such, there's mostly farmland
and lots of wide open space. You cross over the New York State Thruway
(Interstate 90) a few times and as I said before, pass through lots
of small towns. If you like to listen to a regular FM Radio, (Always
Use Headphones), you can start to pick up Rochester Radio Stations after
you've passed through Batavia. The train started to slow down as we
came into Rochester. The Rochester Amtrak Station is located in Downtown
and uses 1 of the former New York Central Platforms. At one point, there
were several more platforms in use back in the New York Central Days.
3 Views of Downtown Rochester
We arrived in Syracuse at 11:31am, about 21 minutes late mostly due
to the trackwork I mentioned eariler. Now, here's my purpose for this
trip, again, a bit cheezy if you've read my travelogues before. As always,
I wanted to get in some more trainwatching, and this time I wanted to
visit this music store about 2 miles from the Amtrak Station! The photo
to the left shows Train #286 departing Syracuse with P32AC-DM #700 on
the lead. I stood at the far East end of the platform so I could get
this view. This station as you can see has elevated platforms which
from a railfan's perspective, are good and bad. Here's why: They're
good in this case because the closest track is used only for Amtrak
and the 2 mainlines are far enough away that one can get a decent "slightly
above ground level" view of the train. Here's why they're bad,
Amtrak stops of course on the siding closest to the platform, the good
thing is, as a passenger, you don't have to step down when getting off
your coach. The bad thing, as a railfan is that the elevated platform
totally blocks the view of the trucks which can ruin a photo opportunity.
The new station in Albany-Rensselaer is also being built like this one
with
elevated platforms. This tells me that Amtrak is set on never running
Superliners into New York City, as if they never plan to upgrade the
tunnels so there wouldn't be any height restrictions. Thankfully, there
is a pavement section of the platform on each end which is semi-decent
and will yield the view in the photo above. In the photo to the left
is CSX Train #Q366 with C40-8W #7813 leading a GLCX Lease Unit. As you
can see, photographing freights on the elevated platform is excellent
as it provides a slightly different photo angle. I took this trip also
to experiment with a new film. All of the photos in this travelogue
were taken with a product by Kodak called Kodak Supra 100 Professional
35mm Print Film. I felt it did a decent job overall and I will consider
using it again in the future should I need to take prints
again. I normally only use slide film as it yields overall better, more
saturated colors. The next photo shown to the right is another CSX freight
with C40-8W #7679 on the lead. If there is one thing I've noticed since
CSX stormed into town in 1999, there could be literally any combination
of power on any train, I've seen coal trains with older SD40-2's and
SD50's for power! My plan for today was to stay at the station until
Amtrak Train #63, the Toronto-Bound Maple Leaf would arrive. This was
the lone holdout in the Northeast being one of the last regular trains
to exclusively use F40's for power. Since Via Rail Canada who operates
this train from Niagara Falls to Toronto, now uses GE P42's, Amtrak
no longer needs to supply an F40 on this train. It was a hot one, with
temps in the mid-80's and it was
2 days
before the first day of summer
so being able to take photos when the sun's angle is the highest serves
as a benchmark of how well this type of film works under that kind of
light.
As you can see, Train #63, as shown
in the photo to the left, arrived in Syracuse with P40DC #812 for power.
I will probably always find it odd not to see an F40 on this train,
but that's progress for you! The train departed at 1:17pm, about 37
minutes late. Getting back to what I said about elevated platforms earlier,
this view shows the pavement on ground level on the West end of the
platform so no matter which direction the train comes in, you'll be
able to get a ground level view but it still looks a little funny not
being able to see the trucks on the coaches. As soon as this train left,
I locked up my camera bag and headed over to the Carousel Center for
lunch and then headed to a music store called Hiawatha Video which was
about 2 miles from the Amtrak Station. I picked up 4 CD's there for
like $20 (all were used) before heading back to the Carousel Center
and the Amtrak Station where I would spend the last few hours there
before my train arrived to bring me back to Buffalo. When I arrivedback
at the Amtrak Station, I noticed the bridge you see in the photo to
the left. This is the bridge that will eventually go over a nearby street
underneath Interstate 81 which is the highway on the bridge in the far
right of the photo. This bridge will carry the On-Track train over to
the Amtrak Station. This service is operated by the Susquehanna Railway
using old Budd RDC's and connects the Carousel Center with Downtown
Syracuse and Syracuse University. The sad part is that due to construction
delays, this bridge is still sitting here, and If I remember correctly,
it was sitting here a year ago also, so its not known when it will be
finally installed. The platform for the On-Track trains is in place
at the Amtrak Station and is just waiting for the bridge to be installed
and the track be placed. The next train to come by had a Union Pacific
SD70M #3979 on the lead.
This unit is sporting its new paint scheme with the wings on the logo
and the American Flag on the sides. Union Pacific has brought back the
wings on its logo and is applying such a paint scheme to new locomotives.
CSX has been leasing a lot of Union Pacific Power in the last couple
years and it is not uncommon to see solid UP consists on CSX Freights.
I know that in 1999 they did lease some 600 UP units to help with the
Conrail Takeover and it seems they still are leasing them today. CSX
has also leased several locomotives from Leasing companies as well.
Sometimes, its pretty easy to tell what railroad owned the lease units
previously, sometimes its not that simple. You can definitely count
on, for the forseeable future, seeing lots of foreign power in the Northeast
on CSX. Next up was Amtrak Train #281 which arrived with P32AC-DM #703
on the lead. This train left at 5:05pm on time but I did hear some people
were confused as to whether this was their train or not because Train
#64 was running
late. In years past, I would ride Train #281, shown in the photo to
the left, home to Buffalo but I wanted to have some more time in Syracuse
so I decided to ride Train #283 which would arrive in a couple hours.
After reading an internet posting, I found out that not long after this
photo was taken, this unit was repainted into the "Phase 5"
Amtrak Paint Scheme used on all the new P42's with the new Amtrak Logo
and the solid gray carbody and dark blue nose. One nice thing about
this hobby is being able to photograph a locomotive, then come back
and photograph it again in a new paint scheme later on. Right now, Amtrak
is trying to repaint several of its locomotives to spread the new logo
around so get your photos while you can! Next up, after running a modest
1 hour and 31 minutes late, is Amtrak Train #64
The Maple
Leaf with P40DC #809 on the lead. This train, in the photo to the right,
as I said before originates in Toronto, which means it is subject to
inspection at the US/Canadian Border. It is not uncommon for this train
to run late. This is something that is purely beyond Amtrak or Via Rail
Canada's control, as Customs can hold the train at the border as long
as they want. Thanks to some padding in the schedule though, it can
make up some time en-route. The bridge above the train is Interstate
81 and due to the late afternoon sun angle, the only way to photograph
this train and still see everything was to capture it under the bridge.
Most all of the Empire Service trains feature Amfleet I Coaches. On
rare occasion, you may find a Heritage Coach in the consist as it has
happened before.
And finally, here comes my train, #283 with P32 #716 on the lead. Tonight's
train actually arrived 10 minutes EARLY! We sat on the platform for
a few minutes before leaving so as to stay on schedule. I headed to
the Cafe Car to pick up my traditional meal on the trip home. I had
a pepperoni pizza and an ice cold Coors Light. It was once again a very
relaxing trip home riding in an Amfleet I Coach. The trackwork and speed
restrictions we had to deal with earlier today were not in place for
this train so things ran a bit more smoothly. I would assume that the
same would hold true for the Lake Shore Limited which would pass through
here in a few hours. Every Hot Box Detector was in operation with no
defects found at any detector. The table below shows the readings for
tonight's train:
Amtrak
Train #283 - Hot Box Detector Readings |
||||||
Time: | Milepost: | DED/HBD | Track #: | Defects: | Axel Count: | Speed (MPH): |
7:03pm | QC293.20 | Syracuse, NY | 1 | No | 24 | 51 |
7:10pm | QC302.50 | Memphis, NY | 1 | No | 24 | 78 |
7:19pm | QC313.70 | Center Port, NY | 1 | No | 24 | 80 |
7:28pm | QC323.60 | Savannah, NY | 1 | No | 24 | 80 |
7:36pm | QC334.00 | Lyons, NY | 1 | No | 24 | 55 |
7:46pm | QC345.00 | East Palmyra, NY | 1 | No | 24 | 71 |
8:02pm | QC364.10 | Brighton, NY | 1 | No | 24 | 79 |
8:25pm | QC378.40 | Coldwater, NY | 1 | No | 24 | 82 |
8:31pm | QC386.50 | Churchville, NY | 1 | No | 24 | 77 |
9:07pm | QC407.40 | Batavia, NY | 2 | No | 24 | 36 |
9:22pm | QC427.10 | Lancaster, NY | 2 | No | 24 | N/A |
In Rochester, I noticed a sign in the
window of the station that read something to the effect of in an attempt
to reduce costs, the station is no longer open 24/7 like it used to
be. A sign of the times with Amtrak. We left Rochester on time at 8:16pm.
We were slowed down a bit just west of Churchville and lost some time
there and arrived in Buffalo-Depew station at 9:34pm about 26 minutes
late. On this train, as well as Train #281, the Cafe Car usually closes
after you leave Buffalo-Depew Station. My stop was next at Buffalo-Exchange
Street Station. We arrived at 9:47pm, about 22 minutes late and the
train did run up to Niagara Falls as the speed restrictions that were
in place in the morning did not apply that late at night.
Once again, a decent trip aboard a train I'm all too
familiar with having rode it several times over the last few years.
At the time this travelogue was written, Amtrak received enough funding
to carry it through till the end of the Fiscal Year 2002 which ends
September 30th, 2002. My biggest hope is that they receive the $1.2
Billion they are asking for for Fiscal Year 2003. This money is necessary
and essential to keeping the system running and at least starting to
get their backlog of damaged equipment fixed and back in service. I'll
close this travelogue with a picture of a beautiful sunset somewhere
near Rochester, New York, until next time, Happy Railfanning!