For the second of my 3 trips that I took while living in Sandusky, Ohio, I decided to head over to Cleveland for the day on the Pennsylvanian. I knew that this trip was going to be different because it was just 9 days after the tragic events of September 11th, 2001. Heightened Security was going to be found no matter if you drove, flew, or rode the train. I called Amtrak and made reservations (I always do this anyway) and decided to plan out enough time to get the tickets printed by a travel agent instead of paying when I board the train. (As I said before, the station in Sandusky isn't staffed.)
   It was a partly cloudy Thursday morning in Sandusky, Ohio when I walked about 3 miles to the Sandusky Travel Service with my reservation number for my tickets for today. One thing I learned with this trip is that because Amtrak's ridership has gone through the roof since 9/11 and that I waited until the night before the trip to make the reservations, that I was gonna pay top dollar for my tickets, that turned out to be the case, I tried not to let it bother me too much and I paid the $28 for my tickets. I then walked another 2 miles or so with my camera bag on my shoulder, to the Amtrak Station and since I had arrived there nearly 2 hours before my train was scheduled to arrive, I was able to get in a little trainwatching before my train left. The next few photos show what trains went by when I arrived there...

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   On the way to the Amtrak Station, I spotted this local NS yard job making a quick switch move between a couple local industries. Today's train had GE B32-8 #3533 on the lead. This train usually has different power every few days, as I have seen it with anything from a GP40-2 to a B23-7R to today's B32-8. This slide was taken just off Depot street maybe 1000 feet from the Amtrak Station at 10:04am.

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   When I arrived at the station, a few minutes after my last slide was taken, Eastbound NS Train 20A passed through Sandusky at 11:00am. Sporting 1 unit, this train has a former Conrail C40-8W now renumbered NS #8327 on the lead.

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   At 11:33am the same NS Yard Local seen earlier passes by the Amtrak Station heading east, (not pictured here, there was a brakeman on the end of the last car as the locomotive was pushing the train in this scene).

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   Next up is the Triple Crown train which is seen here pulling into the siding where it will head south shortly to the Triple Crown Facility located here in Sandusky. Today's train was lead by C40-9W #9169.

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   And now, the fun begins, here is Train #44, Amtrak's Pennsylvanian pulling into Sandusky running approximately 23 minutes late with P42DC #56 on the lead. Shortly after boarding the train, I wrote down in my train log all the necessary info such as my car number and engine number. The trip ran very well. This was my second time riding this train east (I went to Elyria on August 25th). I had never seen Berea before so it was exciting to see the interlocking and tower in that area where the old Conrail Big 4 connects with the Chicago Line. Things start to get really interesting as soon as you get into Berea as the RTA Red Line parallels, even shares the same right-of-way with the Chicago Line which is really cool. As I tune in my walkman to find a decent radio station, I notice the big buildings of the Cleveland Skyline while listening to the song "Where The Party At" by Jagged Edge, I kept saying to myself, This is gonna be a great day! To see what I photographed on the rest of this trip, Click in the table below...

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