Written by Bill Jereb.
This is a report of a trip I made on Amtrak from Metropark (Iselin) New Jersey to Toledo, OH. Leaving NJ on Sunday June 8 and returning on Wednesday June 11 1997.
I arrived at Metropark Station with plenty of time to make the 10:50am departure of Northeast Direct #143 - The Nutmeg State. At about 10:45 there was an announcement that #143 was running about 9 minutes late. Sure enough it pulled into the station at 11 o'clock on the dot. There were 8 amfleet cars being pulled by AEM-7 #934 (with the new paint scheme). I entered the 6th car and started looking for a seat. Whoever says no one rides the train anymore should have been on this trip with me. I walked all the way to the 2nd car before I found an empty seat. This train was packed. Although we left 12 min late we made it to Washington on time. The last time I had ridden on the Northeast Corridor (NEC) I was on the Night Owl and the car I was in definitely needed an overhaul. Lots of shaking and noise. This car however rode very smoothly.
When I walked through the gate in Washington, my cousin, Christopher was there to meet me. Since he grew up on the West coast I never really got to see him much so having lunch with him was a good time to get caught up. We had a great time at the Capitol Brewing Company next door to Union Station. I highly recommend it! Around 3:30 or so we headed back to the station as I knew The Capitol Limited (Train #29) would be boarding.
I said goodbye to my cousin and boarded car #2900 and headed up to Room #6. The consist of #29 was as follows:
P40
P42
baggage
baggage/mail
baggage/mail
Superliner Transistion Dorm
Superliner II Coach
Superliner I Coach
Superliner II Coach
Superliner Sightseer Lounge
Superliner Diner
Superliner II Sleeper (Illinois)
Superliner I Sleeper (I think it was a I, it had the red/orange
interior as opposed to the blue)
I was surprised to see no Material Handling cars in this consist.
We left at 4:20pm about 10 min late. After departure the Chief of Onboard Services came by to take dinner reservations. Since I had a late lunch I opted for a 7:30 seating. Then the car attendant named Wallace came by to explain all the controls in the room. I mentioned I was getting off in Toledo which is a 4:47am arrival. He asked how long I needed to get ready as he felt we would be in Toledo early. I wanted 45 minutes as I wanted to take a shower. He gave me his personal alarm clock but said he would be up by 4:30 to make sure I was up as he didn't want to lose his job if I missed my stop.
I chatted with the gentleman across the hall for a while. He was retired and living in Hawaii but was in the middle of a 2 month trip visiting friends and relatives across the country. He had just recently taken VIA Rail across Canada and had really enjoyed it. However the roomettes on the Canadian did not compare with the Standard bedroom on a Superliner.
At 7:30 we went to dinner and sat with 2 other single gentlemen. It seems that they were veteran Amtrak travellers so we all had a lot of experiences to talk about. I had the ribeye for dinner and the service was very good. Since we were talking a good deal the meal ending up lasting to almost 9:30. I went back to my bedroom and read until 10:30 and then had Wallace make up my bed. I generally don't sleep very well when I know I have to be up at a certain time. (If I'm late for work it's ok - waking up in Chicago when I am supposed to be in Toledo can be a problem) I really didn't sleep all that well and woke up on my own before the alarm went off. I went downstairs, took a shower (my first in a moving train, not a bad experience considering the condition of the track from Pittsburgh to Toledo) dressed and was sitting there waiting when Wallace started making coffee. He gave me a Capitol Limited coffee mug as a travel gift and took my bags downstairs. We did arrive early, around 4:35am. Budget Rent-a-car came in 5 minutes later with my rental car and I was off driving south on I-75 to continue my trip.
Return - Tuesday night 6/10/97 / Wednesday morning 6/11/97
I returned my rental car to their office, took a cab to the station and sat down to wait. I had a while to wait as I was at the staion at 10:45pm and the Capitol Limited wasn't departing until 1:09am. I read for a while but got up to look over the Lake Shore Limited #48 when it arrived about 30 minutes late. Its consist is as follows:
P42
P40 (not sure, might be a 42, didn't get the number)
Baggage (looked like one of the converted heritage cars)
10/6 sleeper - Pine Lodge (Crew dorm)
Viewliner - Mountain View
Viewliner - Harvest View
6 amfleet II Coaches
Viewliner - Palm View
Baggage
I assume that the last baggage car, Palm View and 2 coaches are train #448, the section that goes to Boston.
Train #30 arrived at 1:25am. It had left Chicago 30 minutes late. Its consist is as follows:
P42 #30
P42 #32
baggage
4-6 MHC
Superliner Transistion Dorm
Superliner I Sleeper (I think it was a I, it had the red/orange
interior as opposed to the blue)
Superliner II Sleeper
Superliner Diner
Superliner Sightseer Lounge
Superliner II Coach
Superliner II Coach
Superliner II Coach
Private Car (couldn't get a good look at it to read the writing, but
it was blue and I believe we picked it up in Pittsburgh as the HEP
cut out twice while at the station)
The car attendant had made up my bed before arriving in Toledo so all I had to do was crawl in. I was really tired and managed to fall asleep immediately. I woke up sometime later while we were stopped, saw a bunch of tall buildings and assumed we were in Cleveland. I didn't wake up again until we were arriving in Pittsburgh. We had arrived over an hour late and because we stayed in the station so long (hooking up that private car?) left almost 1 hour 40 minutes down. While in the station I noticed The Pennsylvanian on the next track. It was about 5 Amfleet 1 cars led by P42 #19. I'm a little fuzzy here as I was not totally awake. I really wanted to be awake for the next section of my journey as we would be going through the town of West Newton, PA. My Grandparents lived almost their entire lives in this town and I grew up in a town about 12 miles away. Although I had spent many days here growing up, I had never ridden on the rails that bisect downtown.
I got up, took a shower and headed to the diner. This way while eating I could see out both sides when passing through West Newton. As we rode through I could pick out what was both my grandparents house as well as my great-grandmothers.
At lunch I was seated with a retired couple from Florida. They had taken quite a trip. They had left Sanford, FL over 2 weeks on the Sunset Limited enroute to Los Angeles. Spent 4 days there and then took the Coast Starlight to Seattle, spent 4 days there and then took the Empire Builder to Chicago. They were now heading to Washington to catch the Silver Star back home. I talked to quite a few people during my meals on this trip. There were a lot that were crossing the country (or most of it). At breakfast I met a woman who along with her daughter and her son were returning from Breckenridge, CO. They had driven the woman's other daughter out to Colorado in her car and were returning home to Jupiter, FL.
As we continued our run down the old B&O line we continued to lose time. We arrived in Washington at 3:30 but it took a good ten minutes to back into the station. I was originally scheduled to arrive at 1:47 and then take the Northeast Direct #176 (Merchants Limited) back to Metropark. Obviously this was out of the question. My wife had a 7:00 class and the next available train was #148. It however didn't arrive until 7:05 which meant a taxi ride home. I wanted to avoid that if I could so as soon as #30 arrived I ran to the Customer Service desk and asked if I could get on the 4:00 Metroliner. They said no problem, gave me a pass and I ran for the gate. Good thing, at exactly 4:00pm the doors closed and we were off. Since I didn't have any time, I was unable to even get the locomotive number. It looked like the standard Metroliner consist, AEM7 and 6-8 cars. This train was also full. I finally found a seat in the 3rd car I tried. The conductor made an announcement that due to the increasing ridership on the Metroliners, Amtrak had declared this "Passenger Appreciation Day" and that there was free soda and chips in the lounge. I had ridden a Metroliner only once before and that was Philadelphia to Newark. What a ride! With stops only in Baltimore, Wilmington and Philadelphia we made the 201 miles from Washington to Metropark in 2 hours and 29 minutes. Thats an average of just over 80 miles an hour, with stops. And at exactly 6:29 we pulled into Metropark station where my journey ends.
Special Notes:
I found that the service and the amount of attention I received was considerably better on #29 going from Washington to Toledo. Especially in the dining car. The service in the dining car on #30 was not very good. It took a long time to get served. I don't mind waiting for my breakfast if I can at least get a cup of coffee. But that seemed to be a problem. It's too bad for this waiter cause I happen to be one of the people that tip even though my meal is included in the price of my ticket. Of course I only tip if I receive good service.
The other thing was that they only had 1 call for lunch which they called an "abbreviated lunch" . Which I could see if we were indeed arriving on time at 1:47. but when you are running 2 hours late you would have more time. Go figure. I guess they wanted to clean up so they could leave the train as soon as it arrived.
While I throughly enjoyed my trip and was really glad that I arrived in Toledo 10 min early the fact that we were 2 hours late into Washington was very frustrating. Although I'm sure some of it was not Amtrak's fault (The Southwest Chief was 3 hours late into Chicago which is then used as the Capitol Limited) then we should have been in and out of all of the station stops. You would think they would try to make up some time this way.
Have any comments? Please email them to me. Thank you.
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