Once I returned to work in January, I started thinking of a Spring Break trip and really wanted a unique one, so I had to put a little bit of thought into it. I realized that I had no pictures of the Cardinal so a ride on that train might be in order. Now which way? Going west, you get a twilight view of the New River Gorge and scenic Indiana the next morning. However, eastbound you sleep through Indiana and wake up the next morning for the Ohio River then later the New River Gorge in midday light. Which would you chose?
To get to Chicago, it would be the Southwest Chief and from New York west I chose the Lake Shore Limited and then the Texas Eagle, with one night required in New York City if I went this route. I visited the Santa Ana station early before one of my trips to Solana Beach and Marty, my excellent night-time Amtrak Agent, booked me in coach at a very low round-trip fare. I rode Pacific Surfliner 784 to Solana Beach and paid for the coach fare before Karen, my excellent Amtrak agent there, booked me into sleeping cars for all segments and I paid for the room on the Cardinal before going. Ten days later, at Fullerton before our new Train Travel Meetup Group gathering, the fantastic Amtrak agent Manuel Guerra let me pay for the room on the Southwest Chief. Next, I booked my hotel room for that one night at the Herald Square Hotel in New York City, four blocks from Penn Station.
Pacific Surfliner 583 3/24/2005After working another tough but interesting day (I could write a book about this year at work) at McFadden Intermediate, I drove home a free man to pack and get ready for this rail adventure of which I had been dreaming. My mother drove me to the Santa Ana station and after Metrolink 686 to Irvine arrived, Pacific Surfliner 583 came in in the now-normal push mode. Leading this train was Surfliner cab car 6951, Pacific Business Class 6800 (used as a coach), coach 6410 and 6405, café/coach 6305, Pacific Business Class 6851 "Balboa Park" with F59PHI 460. We departed north but stopped at CP Lincoln to wait for Pacific Surfliner 582 and I enjoyed watching the bumper-to-bumper traffic on northbound Interstate 5.
A few minutes later, I photographed the still-flowing Santa Ana River since this year's near record rainfall kept the waters flowing more days than normal; usually, this river is a dry river bed. We stopped at Anaheim and Fullerton before proceeding to a stormy Los Angeles and one of the Metrolink trains using the leased Seattle Sounder equipment arrived at LAUPT the same time we did. It was announced that passengers going on the Southwest Chief should go straight to Track 12, where the train would be reversing in for you in a few minutes. You know I did just that!
Southwest Chief 4 3/24/2005As I walked up to Track 12, the Southwest Chief was reversing in and the train to Chicago had P42DCs 153, 46 and 505, baggage 1213, transition 39007, sleepers 32074 "Colorado" and 32034, diner 38050, lounge 33011 with coaches 34001, 31502 and 31041. I was greeted at the door of sleeper 32034 by my attendant Cassandra, who directed me to Room 5. After setting up my room, it was time to listen to Rush's "Roll the Bones" and the song "Dreamline" was a perfect choice with the line "We are only at home on the run!" Ken Ruben stopped by to see me off on this rail journey then the Southwest Chief pulled forward at departure time before reversing to pick up ExpressTrak mechanical refrigerator cars 74064, 74041, 74082, 74039 and 74109 before we made our way to Fullerton.
I went to the dining car finding Menu 4 on the table. Our Dining Car Steward was the always-excellent Ken Levinson. Seated with me were Reinhard and Debbie, going to Flagstaff then on to Phoenix, and Dave heading home to Connecticut via the Lakeshore Limited. I had the T-Bone steak and a chocolate sundae along with great table conversation then returned to my room and relaxed as the train sat in Riverside with a problem with one of the rear cars. On the move again, I made up my bed and called it a night, very happy to be back aboard the Southwest Chief.
3/25/2005 I awoke to the snowy landscape of the Arizona Divide and enjoyed breakfast with Mario, on his way home to Washington, DC on the Capitol Limited. When he found out that I was going on the Cardinal and through the New River Gorge, he wished that he would have booked his trip that way. The French Toast and sausage really hit the spot before we arrived at Flagstaff, where my former Pacific Surfliner conductor John Kennedy saw me and said he would stop by later for a visit. Leaving Flagstaff an hour late, I put on Jeff Beck's "Who Else" and sat back to enjoy the ever-changing views on an extremely overcast morning as the train sped east. Aerosmith's "Just Push Play" just started as about 14 miles west of Winslow, the train crawled along, coming to an extended stop about six miles from town due to freight train interference.
The train stopped at the red signal 2901, which is an eastbound approach for West Winslow. We waited for BNSF 5515 West before crossing over and entering Winslow station. The total delay from Flagstaff was 40 minutes. My next musical choice was "Glen Hughes Addiction" (Glen is a former member of Deep Purple) as the Southwest Chief sped towards New Mexico and Conductor John stopped by for a very pleasant visit and we caught up on a variety of items.
We entered New Mexico and went on into Gallup then from an Emerson, Lake and Palmer box set of live recordings, I listened to "The Stratasphere vs the Spectre" live from Gaelic Park, NY 1/9/71". Several of my readers asked if on my next long trip, I would mention what I listened and when.
The Red Mesas of New Mexico stretched for miles before we crossed over to the south track and passed three eastbound BNSF freights before crossing back over to the north track at Gonzalez. I went to the lounge car for a large chocolate chip cookie and there was the ever-smiling Shirley Robinson.
After CP Pegs, another beautiful New Mexico vista.
The train met a BNSF freight at speed just west of Dalies.
We reached Albuquerque.
BNSF 8066 added ExpressTrak mechanical refrigerator car 74030 to the rear of the Southwest Chief then they cut the ExpressTrak cars from the rear to remove 74064. Meanwhile, our power cut off to retrieve sleeping car 39037 which they picked up off the other mainline, then tucked it in front of the baggage car. Next our three engines were refuelled and we finally departed Albuquerque at 2:35 PM {1:10 PM} as I listened to Ozzy Osbourne's "Down to Earth". I enjoyed watching the stormy skies as we made our way north towards Lamy. At Nueva, we held the mainline to wait for the westbound Southwest Chief Train 3 with no ExpressTrak cars on the rear. I switched to Yes' "Key of Ascension", the new tracks from both CD sets. While our crew relined the switch, a good thunderstorm, complete with small hail, occurred. We departed Lamy at 4:00 PM {2:16 PM} then climbed through Apache Canyon and onto Glorieta Pass, where it was snowing.
At the summit of Glorieta Pass is the former Santa Fe station, built in 1927 and now a United States post office. We descended the east slope down to the Pecos River.
Later the Southwest Chief climbed the "S" curves at Chapelle. I had a 5:00 PM dinner reservation with Marie, along with Carrie and Jade, all going to Chicago. The dinner conversation was about Amtrak, the lack of funding, the history of Amtrak and a few stories of mine thrown in for good measure. I repeated last night's dinner with very fine success then as night took hold, listened to Jethro Tull's "Nothing is Easy", which took me all the way to a snowy Raton. We departed there at 7:20 PM {5:44 PM} after some of our sleeping car passengers had an impromptu snowball fight. The train climbed Raton Pass and entered Colorado where I called it a night.
3/26/2005 Following another fantastic night's sleep, I awoke in eastern Kansas along the Kansas River on a mostly cloudy morning. The train sped east with Shirley starting my day off correctly with a cup of tea while I sat in the lounge car waiting for breakfast. We stopped at Lawrence, departing there at 6:48 AM {5:36 AM} before streaking towards Kansas City when I went to the dining car for another French Toast and sausage breakfast. While I was eating, we stopped at the Argentine Yard Fuel Pads to refuel all three of our engines and it was announced that the Ann Rutledge for St. Louis and Chicago would be holding for our train. The new BNSF flyover was really impressive and we arrived at Kansas City at 7:50 AM.
The Ann Rutledge with P42DC 38, business/café 48177 and coaches 54512, 54555 and 54578, which departed at 8:00 AM. The Alton Railroad inaugurated the Ann Rutledge in 1937 as a companion to the Abraham Lincoln over the St. Louis–Chicago route. The Alton named the train after Ann Rutledge, a woman from New Salem, Illinois, who may have been the first love of President Abraham Lincoln. The Ann Rutledge used the Lincoln's original lightweight equipment set, while the Lincoln received a matching set originally used by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's Royal Blue. The Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad continued the Ann Rutledge upon its merger with the Alton in 1947 but ended the Ann Rutledge on April 27, 1958.
Amtrak revived the name Ann Rutledge on February 15, 1976 for an Amfleet-equipped train on the St. Louis-Chicago route, replacing a Turboliner frequency. The revival proved short-lived: on October 31 Amtrak extended the Laredo-St. Louis Inter-American through to Chicago, replacing the Ann Rutledge. In a reversal of the situation with the Alton in the 1930's, Amtrak used the Ann Rutledge's Amfleet coaches to re-equip a revived Abraham Lincoln. Amtrak revived the Ann Rutledge again on October 30, 1977, replacing the Abraham Lincoln and it operated as Trains 303/304 along a 567 mile route between Chicago and Kansas City via St. Louis, serving as part of both the Illinois Service and Missouri Service.
Kansas City Southern FP9AA 734, ex. Kansas City Southern 4, exx. VIA 6507, nee Canadian National 6507 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1954 on display at Kansas City Union Station. We departed at 8:13 AM {7:30 AM} and my listening pleasure for this morning was Led Zeppelin's "BBC sessions" CD set. Our train ran along the south bank of the Missouri River to Sibley.
The train crossed the Missouri River on a three-span through truss single-track bridge which carries the BNSF Marceline Subdivision over the Missouri River. It is the only single-track segment of the subdivision. The original 1887–88 bridge was a three-span Whipple through truss and was later reconstructed with Parker through truss spans.
Later this morning, we had a double stop at La Plata and I took an interesting shower with a fluctuating water temperature. Our Southwest Chief sped across northeast Missouri into very southeast corner of Iowa, where we proceeded to Fort Madison.
During the fresh air stop at Fort Madison I toured the station there.
We departed at 11:45 AM {10:52 AM} and passed Santa Fe 4-8-4 2913 built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1944. They hauled freight until World War II ended and were then assigned to the Scout and Grand Canyon Limited.
The Southwest Chief crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois. Jethro Tull's "Supercharged Through Los Angeles" was my next musical choice then at Cameron, we left the old Santa Fe rails for those of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy and on into Galesburg at 12:52 PM {11:48 AM}. We made our way to Princeton, leaving there at 1:42 PM {12:40 PM} once an empty BNSF coal train cleared the station and had sunshine for the first time since Albuquerque.
At the junction with the BNSF line to the Pacific Northwest at West Aurora, was a colorful BNSF freight.
At Aurora, a Metra train waited for its departure back to Chicago.
Most of the Metra fleet resting for the weekend. We arrived at Naperville at 2:58 PM {1:51 PM}, the same time the westbound California Zephyr arrived. A special thank you to Cassandra, my wonderful sleeping car attendant, Ken and his superior dining car staff, Shirley, the ever-happy lounge attendant and all the train crew, including John, for the safe and most relaxing journey from Los Angeles to Chicago. The westbound Southwest Chief zoomed by us at Western Avenue and I saw Pacific Surfliner cab car 6906 was at the Amtrak yard before we pulled straight into Chicago Union Station at 3:24 PM {3:20 PM}.
Chicago 3/26/2005I checked my bags into the new and improved Chicago Metropolitan Lounge and noticed that the westbound Cardinal was not due in until 5:30 PM. Would this be my train, or would Chicago make up a new trainset? I went to Gold Coast for a pair of Char Dogs, fries and a root beer, a staple for me anytime I am here, then walked across the street to Walgreens to get an umbrella and shampoo. On the way back to the station, I stopped by the newsstand in the Grand Hall for a new Word Fill-Ins puzzle book. With nothing but time to spare, I walked to the South Shore station at Millennium Park as Ken Ruben had asked me to pick up some schedules.
I checked the status of the Cardinal and realized that I could photograph it arriving if I hurried to Roosevelt Road, but did not make it all the way to the bridge before it reversed in. The private car "North Star" was on the rear and little did I know that I would see that car on another train in a few days. A Metra train arrived and departed.
The Capitol Limited departed with two private cars on the rear and the motive power from my Southwest Chief came out of the station on its way to the shops.
The Illinois Zephyr departe just as the Empire Builder set was travelling to the wye before going into the yard. I really enjoyed my time watching trains here on the Roosevelt Road bridge but it was a lot cooler than last June. I walked back to Union Station before returning to the lounge to reclaim my bags and Word Fill Ins were done before my train was called. The station monitor started to read "7:45 PM 50 Cardinal New York Delayed **Servicing Equipment ETA 30 Minutes**. So that late train I had photographed would in fact be my train. Kiss' "Psycho Circus" was my delay music before watching some NCAA playoff basketball with Arizona beating Illinois when they called my train.
The Cardinal 50 3/26/2005At 7:35 PM, we were led out to the now-serviced Cardinal which had P42DC 192, Amfleet II coaches 25107, 25114 and 25124, Horizon dinette 53500 and Viewliner Sleeper 62041 "Summit View". I settled into Room 3 ready for another exciting rail adventure which began at 7:55 PM, only ten minutes late, as the City of New Orleans just started boarding. Charles, my sleeping car attendant, explained all the Viewliner's features, which was a good refresher course since my last trip in one was on the way to the 2001 National Railway Historical Society convention in St. Louis on the Crescent. Out into the night, the Cardinal passed a lit Comiskey Park and a few minutes later, Charles made up my bed before I called it a night.
3/27/2005 Happy Easter Sunday 2005 to everyone on the Earth as I went to the dinette for a surprisingly good French Toast and sausage while Charles made up my room. The CSX roadbed was excellent and very smooth along this route.
A CSX freight running east as we passed him on the double-tracked mainline.
The Ohio River that we had been following since we left Cincinnati early this morning. We stopped at the large CSX Russell Terminal where the Cardinal was watered and serviced then proceeded a short distance to Ashland, our next station.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad lives on in Ashland on the old freight house built in 1906.
The bridge over the Ohio River at Ashland. I learned from Charles that yesterday's late run into Chicago was caused by a grade crossing accident that killed a mother, daughter and two dogs at Brookston, Indiana.
Stone Chesapeake and Ohio mile markers before we crossed into West Virginia.
The Cardinal at rest duuring the crew and fresh air stop at Huntington.
An Alco road switcher of unknown origin in the Huntington Railroad Museum equipment collection as we departed town. The Cardinal passed the large yards and shops of CSX here and shortly after, we left the Ohio River behind and started climbing the grade that takes one over the hill to the New River. Since it was Easter, I enjoyed a Bordeaux easter egg my mother gave to me the day I left. You have heard of "Do not open until Christmas!" and I did the Easter version of that as the train ascended the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.
The well-maintained CSX route on which I am travelling today. I read the Sunday New York Times as we rolled eastward to Charleston, the state capital of West Virginia.
The Charleston station is beneath the highway on a ramp. Now for the trip though the New River Gorge and I wished that Mrs. Angle, that most wonderful science teacher I work with at McFadden Intermediate, could someday see the Gorge. We made our stop at Montgomery, running a mere ten minutes late.
The New River Gorge 3/27/2005The New River was formed during the Mesozoic Period of our planet's history and has created its own ecosystem which supports more than a thousand species of plants and over 150 different species of birds. A rugged, white water river, flowing northward through deep canyons, the New River is among the oldest rivers on the continent. Located in southern West Virginia, New River Gorge National River was established in 1978 to preserve and protect 53 miles of the New River as a free-flowing waterway. This unit of the National Park System encompasses over 70,000 acres of land along the New River between the towns of Hinton and Fayetteville. The park and the surrounding area are rich in cultural and natural history and contains an abundance of scenic and recreational opportunities.
The former Chesapeake and Ohio coaling tower at Montgomery.
The New River.
The double track returned to single track at Mt. Carbon.
Later it returned back to double track at Deepwater.
The Kanawha Falls of the New River.
Interesting rock strata across the New River and many interesting rocks along the south side of the New River.
You can see the various river level marks left in the mud along the banks.
The Cardinal went through Gaul, West Virginia.
Hawks Nest.
The Hawks Nest signpost.
Just before the bridge, the main lines split, with ours crossing the New River on this bridge while the other mainline runs across the river.
Our train rolled east through the New River Gorge.
Many fishing cabins are situated along the New River.
A westbound CSX Freight ran on the opposite side.
The New River Gorge bridge spans the width of the gorge 876 feet above the New River and is 1,700 feet long, making it the world's longest steel arch bridge. It is the second highest bridge after the Royal Gorge bridge in Colorado.
Every second Saturday in October, hundreds of thrill-seekers gather here to bungee jump off the bridge and it is the only day when it is legal to do that. On my first trip through here, I did see one person bungee jump off the bridge and it was really impressive to witness.
There are many rapids.
We rolled east through the New River Gorge.
Another New River view.
The other main line crossed the New River to join ours for the trip east.
Ever-changing views of the New River Gorge as you pass through.
We had reached Thurmond.
Chesapeake and Ohio Thurmond station built in 1904, a flag stop on Amtrak's Cardinal. During the first two decades of the 1900's, Thurmond was a classic boomtown. With the huge amounts of coal brought in from area mines, it had the largest revenue on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway. Having many coal barons among its patrons, Thurmond's banks were the richest in the state. Fifteen passenger trains a day came through town and its depot served as many as 95,000 passengers a year. The town's stores and saloons did a remarkable business and its hotels and boarding houses were constantly overflowing.
With the advent of diesel locomotives, and less coal coming in from local mines, the town began a steady decline. The many businesses closed down and most residents moved on. Today, the town of Thurmond remains surprisingly untouched by modern development. It is a link to our past and a town with many stories to tell. New River Gorge National Park and Preserve invites visitors to experience the impact of the industrial revolution and the National Park Service's mission to preserve our nation's heritage.
More views of the Gorge.
The Cardinal rolled eastward towards Prince.
Arriving at Prince but we lost our Head-End Power.
The Cardinal rested at Prince with no power and as our train crew tried to solve the problem, we were let off the train for a bathroom break. Since it was not warm enough to turn on the station's water supply, the bathrooms were useless. I did visit the station and picked up Cardinal Route Guides for everyone in our sleeper, as well as a few more for my Orange County Railway Historical Society brethren.
The Cheasapeake and Ohio station was built in 1946 and serves as the main depot for the Beckley area because it is on the CSX (originally Chesapeake & Ohio Railway) mainline, while Beckley itself is not. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway built the first facility in 1880 that was enlarged in 1891 to serve both freight and passengers. In 1942, the C&O president, Robert R. Young, saw a need for "a stylish, streamlined and efficient passenger rail system" that led to the development of the current station.
The happy Cardinal sleeping car passengers.
The rear of the Cardinal.
The crew working on the problem, but alas they could not fix it and we would run east as a dark train. Glow sticks were passed out to all the sleeping car passengers by Charles, since no one knew how long our car batteries would last. Every trip is an adventure!
The Cardinal ten minutes before we left Prince.