#amtrak capitol limited

[trainingtofreedom]

January 10, 2024 - Capitol Limited Sleeper

This had to be its own entry. Amtrak Sleeper service is a -delight-, and worth the time and effort.

The walkway is pretty narrow, because they have plenty of seating room. When you come in, it's practically midnight, so the attendant has already prepared the bed for you.

I wasn't the only one boarding a sleeper here: there was an elderly couple across from me. The woman was very upset by the accommodations: I think she was expecting a room, and instead got bunk beds. "This is like a concentration camp!" she remarked.

I disagreed; this was the best train ever. It was only me, so they didn't fold down the top bunk. I could sprawl out and lay sideways the entire time, Pitt to Chicago. It was as wide as a twin-bed, too, so I could lay my bag, tablet, and whatever else. I could close the window with a curtain, or leave it open and watch the nighttime go by. I had my own light and air vent. Not to mention, Wifi for my satellite radio. What an easy ride...

This was a morning picture. In the morning, they make the call for the cafe car, and the attendant reminds you that, hey, breakfast is included with your fare. Go on down to the dining car, have a seat, enjoy your meal. It's a hot meal, too, an omelette and potatoes and sausage. Sure, it's reheated, but it's way better than a muffin from the cafe car. And it was free!

While you're off at breakfast, the attendant un-makes the bed so that you have chairs for the rest of the ride. I didn't like that, so I re-made my seats into a bed and enjoyed laying on my side for the rest of the trip. My hurt back thanked me for not torturing myself again. I rolled into Chicago feeling fresh.

My grumpy across-the-hall neighbor apologized for her grumpiness. I think she took one look at me in my boots and t-shirt and thought I was a vagrant when I said, "I normally ride coach." She wasn't far off, I was homeless. I might have smelled like smoke, too. Still, we both paid for our seats, and she shouldn't be so quick to judge. I politely accepted her apology. After all, travelling is stressful most of the time.

For me, it was a welcome break: no one wants to bother you while you travel, so I could successfully hide in my locked room most of the trip. I would LOVE to ride a sleeper car again. Someday, I might. Now, though: time to roll into Chicago, my businest day yet!

[transit-fag]

Round 3, poll 6

Always winding up Limited

[sepdet]

I just returned from another cross-country Amtrak trip. I snapped hundreds of photos, but forced myself to select just ten to share in this post, unedited.

[aryburn-trains]

The aftermath of the collision between Amtrak #29 the Capitol Limited and MARC P286 in 1996. The wreck claimed eleven lives. Silver Spring, MD February 17, 1996

[theinnermeyoullneverknow]

That would be Amtrak's Cardinal. (Technically their Capitol Limited goes through Indiana as well, but only the very northern edge so I'm guessing that's not what you meant.) I will say the Cardinal is the only Amtrak line of those I've ridden which I would not in general recommend, but it would probably still be more comfortable than a bus.

Passenger trains in US vs Europe (image is making the rounds among U.S. transit advocates today)

[psychiccyclerebel]

Amtrak may be planning to combine Capitol Limited and Silver Star: Analysis (updated) https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/amtrak-may-be-planning-to-combine-capitol-limited-and-silver-star-analysis/

[briansolomonauthor]

No. 30 passing Point of Rocks.

Recalling a trip along the old Baltimore & Ohio that I made with my old pal TSH some 35 years ago, I brought Kris and Seamus-the-Dog on a brief exploration of the railroad along the Potomac River. We aimed to catch Amtrak No. 30 the Capitol Limited rolling through Point of Rocks, Maryland. The signals have changed from the classic B&O Color Position Lights to more common traffic-light style…

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 2.16 (after 1950)

1959 – Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1. 1960 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton begins Operation Sandblast, setting sail from New London, Connecticut, to begin the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe. 1961 – Explorer program: Explorer 9 (S-56a) is launched. 1962 – The Great Sheffield Gale impacts the United Kingdom, killing nine people; the city of Sheffield is devastated, with 150,000 homes damaged. 1962 – Flooding in the coastal areas of West Germany kills 315 and destroys the homes of about 60,000 people. 1968 – In Haleyville, Alabama, the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service. 1968 – Civil Air Transport Flight 010 crashes near Shongshan Airport in Taiwan, killing 21 of the 63 people on board and one more on the ground. 1978 – The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago). 1983 – The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia kill 75. 1985 – Hezbollah is founded. 1986 – The Soviet liner MS Mikhail Lermontov runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand. 1986 – China Airlines Flight 2265 crashes into the Pacific Ocean near Penghu Airport in Taiwan, killing all 13 aboard. 1991 – Nicaraguan Contras leader Enrique Bermúdez is assassinated in Managua. 1996 – A Chicago-bound Amtrak train, the Capitol Limited, collides with a MARC commuter train bound for Washington, D.C., killing 11 people. 1998 – China Airlines Flight 676 crashes into a road and residential area near Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taiwan, killing all 196 aboard and seven more on the ground. 2000 – Emery Worldwide Airlines Flight 17 crashes near Sacramento Mather Airport in Rancho Cordova, California, killing all three aboard. 2005 – The Kyoto Protocol comes into force, following its ratification by Russia. 2005 – The National Hockey League cancels the entire 2004–05 regular season and playoffs. 2006 – The last Mobile army surgical hospital (MASH) is decommissioned by the United States Army. 2013 – A bomb blast at a market in Hazara Town, Quetta, Pakistan kills more than 80 people and injures 190 others. 2021 – Five thousand people gathered in the town of Kherrata, Bejaia Province to mark the two year anniversary of the Hirak protest movement. Demonstrations had been suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic in Algeria.

[anumberofhobbies]

The right of way formed a twisting ledge between rock cuts on one side and white water rapids far below on the other. Melting snow and changing temperatures exacerbated fissures in the rock, periodically causing huge boulders to come crashing down onto the tracks. Mountain railroads employ slide fences that electronically warn trains that tracks may be fouled by falling rock, (or trespassing deer). Equipping an entire route through a mountain range, however, is cost-prohibitive. Descending westbound, into Connellsville, Penn., one dark 1988 night, negotiating 30 mph Number One Cut, I suddenly spied a boulder the size of an automobile, wedged between the hillside and the rails. With a collision inevitable, I applied the emergency brake and radioed my conductor, “Get everybody down and hold on — we’re gonna hit a big rock!“ And we did. I feared a glancing blow off the side of the boulder, derailing and fouling the adjacent track, or even plunging the entire train into the river below, but we remained upright and on the track. My fireman, Dave, headed out to protect us from oncoming trains, while I got on the radio to warn any trains in the area, “Emergency, Emergency! Amtrak 29 is in emergency at Number One Cut!” Radios aren’t very effective in the mountains so out of pure frustration I shouted into the handset, ‘Mayday, Mayday! Can anyone hear me?” My lead F40, was rendered useless by the collision with most of its air brake equipment torn away. Standing atop the boulder, adjacent to the dining car, conductor Jerry surveyed the damage. “More rock is falling. We’ve got to move this train right now!” I blocked the brake pipe flow behind the crippled locomotive, placed my fireman at its handbrake, and my conductor served as my set of eyes in the cab, while I operated the train from the second unit. Without further incident, we limped into Connellsville. “You’re supposed to say ‘Emergency,’ not ‘Mayday,’” chirped the tower operator. Everyone had heard my transmission — they just hadn’t responded. I retired in 2012. My son, Ryan, now 39, has 20 years of Amtrak service and is a regularly assigned engineer on the Capitol Limited between Washington and Cumberland, Md. He called me on his way home recently. “I hit a boulder at Paw Paw, [W.Va.] eastbound this morning, bigger than the one you got. I managed to stay on the rail though. Everyone’s okay, but it tore up the engine.” Then, he paused … “I got into Washington just in time to catch 85 to Richmond. Jerry was the conductor. When he asked why we were so late, I explained that we’d hit a boulder. With a huge grin on his face, he said, “Like father, like son.” Then he asked, “Did you yell ‘Mayday, Mayday’ too?”

[trainingtofreedom]

January 9, 2024, Pittsburgh

This was a strange stop. Pittsburgh is along the Capital Limited, about halfway. There aren't other stops in Pennsylvania, and this is the only train that runs through the station. It arrives at midnight, so the station only operates from 6pm to 2am, because it has no other daytime purpose.

The station is lit beautifully; obviously, this was a major hub for something in the past, maybe before airplanes became a big deal. I'm not sure. Now it's just unsettling, with a small collection of ghosts that come and go from the building...

I had booked my Airbnb for two nights. That way, I could check in one night, and check out the following night. 11am checkout was useless for me.

I blew into Pittsburgh bright and late, worried that arriving after midnight would make an Uber impossible. I was wrong: there was no trouble. The Pittsburgh station isn't close to anything, and its entrance is below the pretty stuff, so I waited with my too-many bags underneath the track, as usual, and got picked up in a dirty dark parking area. The Airbnb apartment was close-ish, only about 10 minutes and $10.

I didn't like that I had stairs for this one right out front, but at least, it was only four or five stairs up the front. I took my bags up one at a time...fumbled with the electronic entrance lock, and rolled each bag in one at a time. Then up the stairs to my room, one bag at a time too. Finally rolled in before 2am, and settled. I had 22 hours in town.

Welp, I was tired enough to sleep. The train wasn't a sleepy time for me. When I awoke late in the morning, rain was coming down. Not just rain - sleet. Everything was icy or slushy, all day.

I didn't let that stop me: I had to tour the area a little. Checked the buses, and there was a bus nearby, but with the grey wet weather, I didn't think Downtown would be nice either. I walked around "Germantown," which wasn't all that impressive. In the rain, with my raincoat and hat, walking carefully across icy sidewalks.

Eventually, that got a little bland too, so back to my apartment. You know, even though I walked all over, I never saw a good place to eat for lunch. No fast food. The coffee shop I found for breakfast was under-equipped. So...Guess I would walk down for Pizza.

I remember talking to my Dad about Pittsburgh pizza. He said it was like everywhere else - New York had a style, Chicago had a style, Pittsburgh had normal pizza.

I verified this in person. I also had nothing but a $100 bill to pay for it, so I wound up with $60 in ones for change. No matter, it was a good pizza, and it was something to eat for the next twelve or so hours while I waited for the train.

It was a quiet, peaceful, rainy day. I don't know that I talked to anyone except the pizza guy, when I walked down to the shop to pick up and pay.

While I was in my room, my hotel deposit was refunded. I would have used that to buy the pizza, had I known ahead of time. Instead, I had an extra $100 for a change. I should have saved it, maybe - that's the homeless-man's constant refrain: "I really should have kept that money."

I didn't. I knew I had another eight hours of sitting in pain on the Amtrak, and I thought, hey maybe I can use this extra cash to get a sleeper car. I was right, too! I paid the extra for a sleeper car on the Capitol Limited, midnight to 9am into Chicago. It was worth it!

Time ran down, I got in two nights of sleep over the 22 hours, then I caught an Uber back out of my Airbnb and back to the train station. No trouble checking my bags or anything: they make special accommodations for the sleeper passengers. I even got the chance to step out and have a smoke under the tracks, in the parking lot. No rain under the tracks!

The next train ride was the best: A two-person sleeper, all to myself, for almost ten hours total. What a delight!

[transit-fag]

Round 2 post 11

More underrated lines

[zponds]

What-If: American Railroads — Section 3: Named Passenger Trains and Streamliners

With the 20 American railroads still around and Amtrak not being a thing in my alternative history on American railroads, that means that the 20 railroads will still own and operate passenger services and streamliners, and some will operate some passenger trains and passenger train route legs from the smaller railroads absorbed by the bigger ones. And the names of the passenger trains and streamliners are below.

A. New York Central

20th Century Limited

Empire State Express

Pacemaker Express

The Mercury

Berkshire Hills Express

Southwestern Limited (NYCS train)

Twilight Limited

The Colonial

Bar Harbor Express

Cape Codder

Comet

East Wind

Dan’l Webster

Flying Yankee

Ohio State Limited

B. Pennsylvania Railroad

Broadway Limited

Liberty Limited

Trail Blazer Express

Federal Express

Congressional Limited

Maple Leaf

Black Diamond

Asa Packer

Crusader

The Admiral

Cincinnati Limited

The Keystone

Birmingham Special (PRR side)

Southland (PRR side)

Spirit of St. Louis

C. Chesapeake and Ohio

George Washington

Fast Flying Virginian

Sportsman

Pere Marquette

The Chessie

Atlantic Express

Pacific Express

Erie Limited

Lake Cities

Phoebe Snow

D. Baltimore and Ohio

Cincinnatian

Capitol Limited

National Limited

Blue Bird

Wabash Cannon Ball

City of St. Louis

Columbian

Royal Blue

E. Union Pacific

Challenger (UP side)

City of Denver

City of Portland

City of San Francisco

City of Los Angeles

Overland Limited (UP side)

Exposition Flyer (UP side)

Forty-Niner Express

Butte Special

City of Las Vegas

Los Angeles Limited

F. Chicago and Northwestern

The 400’s — Twin Cities 400, Dakota 400. Flambeau 400, Kate Shelley 400, Minnesota 400, Peninsula 400, Rochester 400, Shoreland 400 and Capital 400

City of San Francisco

City of Los Angeles

Overland Limited (CNW side)

G. Milwaukee Road

The Hiawathas — Twin Cities Hiawatha, Midwest Hiawatha, North Woods Hiawatha, Chippewa Hiawatha and Olympian Hiawatha

City of Denver

City of Portland

Pioneer limited

Challenger (MILW side)

Varity

H. Burlington Route

The Zephyrs — Twin Cities Zephyr, Pioneer Zephyr, Texas Zephyr, Nebraska Zephyr, Mark Twain Zephyr, Denver Zephyr, Kansas City Zephyr, Silver Streak Zephyr, American Royal Zephyr and General Pershing Zephyr

Zephyr Rocket (CB&Q side)

Sam Houston Zephyr (CB&Q side)

Black Hawk

California Zephyr (CB&Q side)

New Orleans Zephyr

I. Missouri Pacific

Colorado Eagle

Texas Eagle

Valley Eagle

Sunshine Special

Firefly

Meteor

J. Northern Pacific

North Coast Limited

Mainstreeter

Coast Pool Train

Great Western Limited

Omaha Express

Mills Cities Limited

K. Great Northern

Empire Builder

Cascadian

Oriental Limited

Red River Limited

Western Star

Winnipeg Limited

L. Norfolk and Western

Pocahontas

Powhatan Arrow

Tennessean (N&W side)

The Cavalier

Birmingham Special (N&W side)

M. Southern Pacific

Coast Daylight

City of San Francisco

Sacramento Daylight

Shasta Daylight

Sunbeam

Golden State (SP side)

Challenger (SP side)

Argonaut

Sunset Limited (SP side)

Overland Limited (SP side)

N. Santa Fe

Chief

Super Chief

San Francisco Chief

El Capitan

San Diegan

Texas Chief

West Texas Express

Chicagoan

Kansas Cityan

Grand Canyon Limited

O. Illinois Central

City of Miami (IC side)

Panama Limited

Green Diamond

Land O’Corn

Seminole Limited (IC side)

Southwestern Limited (IC train)

Lone Star

Morning Star

P. Gulf Mobile and Ohio

Gulf Coast Rebel

Gulf Coast Special

Alton Limited

Rebel

Midnight Special

Q. Rock Island

The Rockets — Choctaw Rocket, Des Moines Rocket, Quad Cities Rocket, Rock Island Rocket, Twin Star Rocket, Golden Rocket and Rocky Mountain Rocket

Sam Houston Zephyr (CRIP side)

Zephyr Rocket (CRIP side)

Golden State (CRIP side)

R. Southern Railway (USA)

Tennessean (SOU side)

Southener

City of Memphis

Birmingham Special (SOU side)

Carolina Special

Royal Palm

Piedmont Limited

Ponce de Leon

S. Seaboard Air Line

Silver Comet

Silver Meteor

Gulf Wind

Orange Blossom Special

Man O’War

Nancy Hanks (II)

City of Miami (SAL side)

Sunset Limited (SAL side)

T. Atlantic Coast Line

Champion

Florida Special

Palmetto (ACL side)

Dixie Flagler

South Wind (ACL side)

Southland (ACL side)

[silverrune-workshop]

Every time I hear "Take Me Home, Country Roads", I always think of Whisper of the Heart. It's such an underrated Ghibli movie and the struggles Shizuku goes through always get me.

The footage I used is technically more of a Country (Rail)Road. It's something I shot while on Amtrak's Capitol Limited and since it was in West Virginia, I thought it fit!

The arrangement is an official transcription, though the intro is from a version that I found on Ichigo's Sheet Music many years ago. Also, for the end, I did a short bit of Itsumo Nando Demo from Spirited Away, since the song is one I'm not sure if I'll do a full cover of.

[angleofmusings]

[Equipment and Trains

• Active* Amtrak-owned or leased passenger equipment includes 16 Acela high-speed trainsets (32 power cars and 96 passenger cars); 1,353 passenger cars including Amfleet®, Superliner®, Viewliner®, Horizon, Talgo and other types; 77 Auto Train vehicle carriers; 20 non-powered control units; 227 road diesel locomo- tives; and 67 ACS-64 electric locomotives. *As of the close of FY 2022.]

[• Amtrak operates 15 Long Distance trains (more than 750 miles) whose routes range in length from 780 miles (Capitol Limited®) to 2,728 miles (Texas Eagle®).]

[State Supported Services

• Amtrak receives funding from 17 states through 20 agencies for financial support of 28 short-distance routes (less than 750 miles).]

[• The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is the busiest railroad in North America, with approximately 2,200 Amtrak, commuter and freight trains* operating over some portion of the Washington-New York City-Boston route each day. *Pre-COVID-19.]

can we raise the rating on this post please.

The US railroad is transcontinental?? Congrats on its transition!!

[themollyzone]

field trip

Last January I took a dream solo train trip from LA to Chicago in a roomette and it started my year off auspiciously, with much time to self-reflect alone and, like, stir the contents of my brain slowly as if making a soup. All while 'riding the rails' of course. This January such a large undertaking was not possible but I did carve out enough time to do something EXTREMELY fun: take a short train trip to a nearby city for the purpose of looking at some specific art.

It was on a different train trip that sliced down the right bank of the Hudson River that I was like, damn the Hudson River School really snapped when they started painting the sublime. I googled "museum with Hudson River School paintings" and the result that came up most vigorously was the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut. They boast "over 65 works by the movement's noteworthy artists." Ok, accessible! So I bought Amtrak tickets, booked a hotel and got psyched for 24 hours in Hartford.

Is there anything better than a rail yard?

My $100 a night hotel room had the dreamiest view of the state Capitol. Boy, wasn't I in clover!

I walked around a bit. Downtown Hartford had the kind of midwinter blasted modular emptiness that I, usually mired in the center of the rat king of NYC population density, could romanticize.

Harriet Beecher Stowe lived in Hartford. I also grew emotional reading several plaques about the city's effort to re-forge a path to its riverfront after first railways and then the highway cut it off from citizen access. I just get so misty when I think about municipal governments allocating resources and committing to great undertakings for the benefits of their residents. I mean, I recently teared up reading about the WPA!

I ate some very good mac & cheese, enjoyed lots of Shark Tank, and went to bed. Good night, Hartford.

ART DAY. The Wadsworth Atheneum is a lovely building.

I warmed up to my eventual arrival at the HRS collection, starting in a section about cabinets of curiosities.

If I had that in my home I'd never shut up about it.

Still Life With Ham and The Lazy Italian Woman.

The museum's size was perfect, not overwhelming like The Met. I found almost all of the paintings to be interesting in some way. Such is the power of 'curation.' Satisfied by the 17th through 19th century European art, I moved on to the Hudson River School, tucked away in the back of the museum past the contemporary exhibit of works made of glass.

Fuckin yeeeeaaaaaaa the sublime!!! Obviously so beautiful. But of course like all of art, the sublime is basically impossible to divorce from politics and from the artifice of mimesis. (Academic enough for u? I did attend college.) Like, you can't paint a gorgeous American landscape without also signifying that manifest destiny is good and right and committing genocide to fulfill it is only necessary. Likewise a lot of the landscapes were composites, existing nowhere truly in actual nature. I loved this painting done by Martin Johnson Heade called Gremlins in the Studio II where the impossibility of truly capturing nature is represented by a painting within a painting and then a weird little guy underneath.

Still I got drunk on the sublime, as you do. I cleansed my palate (palette? ART JOKE) with some Surrealism, and then with the glass exhibit which was truly stunning. A wall of American desserts rendered in glass really tickled me and made me think about the magic of treats, the painfully limited pleasure of a slice of cake, and then of course, my mom making box brownies and allowing whichever kid was nearest the reward of licking the mixer or rubber spatula.

Nearly fully sated, I closed out my visit with a stunning trip into a dark cave displaying video art, where I watched Paul Wynne Journal, a series of video diary entries from 1989 and 1990 that document a former TV journalist's experience with AIDS up to the point of his death. I'd never heard of the project before and I highly recommend watching it—one of the videos shows him planning his own memorial service and it's so funny, sweet and terribly sad!

Holy cow...that was a lot of art. It was time to leave, and I saw my last bit of unintentional art outside the train station. Shout out Suzanne Flathers.

The train home, like all trains home, had more "commuter sludge" vibes than "magical journey" vibes but that was ok. A mere 24 hours in Connecticut put my brain through the washing machine on a high spin cycle, and I am ready to face the rest of the winter bravely, as well as to continue to find the sublime on a train platform.