Segment 6: Washington, D.C. To Boston, MA On Amtrak's Overnight Regional Service

   While sitting in the waiting area of Washington Union Station, I would continue writing the travelogue until our boarding call. At about 9:50pm, our boarding call was made and all of us gathered at Gate H24 to board Train #66 which was still being referred to as “The Federal” even though the timetable no longer gives it that name. At 10:01pm, we left Washington, DC on the way to Boston. I was seated in Amfleet I Coach #21051, the consist for tonight’s train is shown at the bottom of this page.
   My coach had the old red interior but at least it had AC Outlets and the Café Car was open all night which is great. I had explained to the crew the situation I had just experienced on the Cardinal. Thankfully, I think that will be just an isolated experience at best. I sat in the Café Car to continue the travelogue and planned on taking a night photo of the train at Philadelphia before settling down and falling asleep for the night. I had some lousy chicken wings and a Diet Pepsi from the café car before going back to my coach to get my camera set up for the night photo in Philly. I started up my GPS and noticed that we were cruising at a speed around 115mph at best, and you can feel it in those Amfleet cars!!!
   At Philadelphia, we had a half-hour layover, so I set up the tripod and cable release on my camera and headed out to the front of the train to take a night photo, I had to wait for the crew at the station to finish loading the MHC behind the locomotive before I was able to get my photo. Afterwards, I went back to my coach seat, and fell asleep, I figured out that if I place the sleeve on my sweatshirt around my head and cover my eyes, I’d sleep like a baby! And so ends another very interesting day on this vacation…
I woke up somewhere near New London, CT just before sunrise. The train was running close to on time and there were only a handful of people in my coach. By the time our train arrived in Providence, RI, it filled up really quickly with commuters on their way to Boston, about 110 people boarded in Providence and things started to get interesting. The morning rush was beginning. I don’t remember seeing this last year when I rode this train, but it’s early morning arrival in cities such as Providence makes it a good, convenient way to get to work. At 8:15am, running on time, Train #66 arrived in Boston-South Station, I walked into the station and grabbed a quick breakfast at McDonald’s and picked up a copy of USA Today.

Amtrak's Train #66 - Wednesday, September 29th, 2004 - 32 Axles
Number:	Car/Engine Type:	Name:	Description:
945	AEM-7AC		Power
1563	MHC		Material Handling Car
48154	Amfleet I Cafe Car		Cafe Car
21051	Amfleet I Coach		Coach
21189	Amfleet I Coach		Coach
21686	Amfleet I Coach		Coach
1533	MHC		Material Handling Car
1172	Heritage Baggage		Baggage Car