Dodging the snow – Christmas in the USA. Report by Pete Callaghan.

This report covers a Christmas / New Year trip to America taken with David Price. Amtrak validity was the usual 15 day, 8 journey rail pass ($389 each) and as we needed an extra journey we naturally paid for the shortest we did, which was Pittsburgh to Altoona which came in at $19 each.

Thinks were looking decidedly iffy for flying out of the country a couple of days prior to our departure, the UK had been hit by snow and we were flying out of Heathrow which had been shut down for a while, would it be operating again in time for us to fly out?

All new locos /planes underlined. Flight / Train IDs in brackets.

Thursday 23 rd December 2010 I was given permission to leave my night shift from work early, and made my way home to collect my bags before being picked up for a lift to Newport station. The remains of the weeks earlier snow were still very much visible, but our train departed on time and the FGW HST got us to Reading just 10 mins late, we had been in the quiet coach which lived up to its name as we were the only two people in there for the whole journey. From Reading we took a local train to West Drayton and then a very much “round the houses” bus to the airport, taking a free Heathrow Express transfer from Central Bus Station to Terminal 4. Easier options to the airport were available but going this way proved to be cheapest. We had plenty of time to spare at the airport before boarding the Kuwait Airlines Boeing 777, which departed about 30 mins late, I wasn’t bothered about the small delay, just relieved that I was getting away was good enough for me. Before leaving the UK, I had read some reviews of Kuwait Airlines and a few were very unfavourable, however the flight was OK, not the best flight I’d had by any means though, but it got us to New York JFK in one piece which was just fine. An honoury mention must be made regarding the Kuwait Airlines juggling team, namely the cabin crew, who managed to drop all sorts of things, including a chicken and rice meal into the aisle next to us, not to mention numerous lumps of ice that also managed to get deposited on the floor.

Once at JFK we found only a few people waiting at the immigration desks so we were in quite quickly, and our bags didn’t take long to arrive after that. From JFK we did the air train to Jamaica and then the subway to Penn station. At Penn station we picked up our pre-booked Amtrak tickets, the agent was efficient but seemed a bit grumpy for some reason but at least she did a good job. From here we took NJT under the river and onto Rahway where we were booked in the hotel next to the station. Once we had dumped our bags we had a few beers in a local Irish pub before a well needed sleep.

MOVES:Kuwait Airlines 9K-AOB (KU101) 14:50 Heathrow T4 to New York JFK T4N.J.T. 4646 (3285) 20:41 New York Penn to Rahway

Friday 24 th December 2010

Our first Amtrak move wasn’t until the afternoon so we had an easy morning doing some moves on NJT, basically travelling into New York via Hoboken. We got off at Secaucus Jcn to the sound of the Travelling Willburries being piped over the station PA system, hmmm, that was playing here in October, and then a few other familiar tunes confirmed to me they were still playing the same CD that was on last time I was here. Thought they might have invested in a Christmas CD considering the time of year. Downstairs on the diesel platforms there would be a choice of three trains to choose from heading to Hoboken, all were dud locos so after letting the first two go we had no choice but to do the third, at least there was a winner to be had on the return. We made our way into New York and had some grub before boarding “The Crescent” which we would be doing throughout to New Orleans. An uneventful journey got us to Washington DC where we would swap motive power, I was delighted to see that one of the locos was number 2, don’t know why but I’d been wanting to scratch a single digit loco in for ages and at last I’d finally got one. The other loco, 75, wasn’t required. Just after Charlottesville I was on new track and dropped off quite soon after that.

MOVES:N.J.T. 4611 (7216) 09:00 Rahway to Secaucus JunctionN.J.T. 4032 (1858) 10:13 Secaucus Junction to HobokenN.J.T. 4194 (73) 11:21 Hoboken to Secaucus JunctionN.J.T. 4640 (7826) 11:41 Secaucus Junction to New York PennAMTRAK 658 (19) 14:15 New York Penn to Washington DCAMTRAK 75 & 2 (19) 18:30 Washington DC to New Orleans (arrive Sat)

Saturday 25 th December 2010 Merry Christmas! On 10 Christmas Days since 1996 I’ve found myself waking up in the Czech Republic, but Christmas in America was a first for me. The day started badly as although I had snoozed quite well for a while, in the early hours of the morning two guys a couple of rows back decided they now wanted to start talking loudly to each other, and even when they didn’t talk to each other they seemed to have an endless list of people they could chat to on the phone. A phone call I overheard revolved around the fact that one of the guys could no longer drink two cans of Pepsi one after another, these days he could only manage one, fascinating! At about 3a.m. they started complaining that it was too cold for them (it wasn’t cold) and they were shouting at the coach attendant to turn the heating up, one of them was quoting “they didn’t want to go to sleep in case the cold gave them a blood clot”. I couldn’t help thinking that they would both end up with blood clots anyway as it was only a matter of time before somebody came along and whacked them over the head. Just as I was about to get to sleep I then had a Happy Christmas text message from my mother at home who hadn’t considered the time difference, serves me right I suppose for leaving my phone on.

The rest of the trip into New Orleans was uneventful and arrival was about 30 minutes early. Once at New Orleans we took a walk to our hotel at the riverfront, which took us about half an hour, and after booking in we then tried to find somewhere to eat. Being Christmas day there wasn’t much open, the only place that it looked like we would get some food at was the Harrah’s Casino, but they wanted $30 each for the all you can eat buffet, a bit steep I thought but after making a $20 profit one on the slots I paid up and went in. Tonight was fish and steak night and I had a couple of bits of excellent steak with some potato and mushrooms and then some dessert,

I don’t normally pig out too much at these buffet type affairs but I think I overdid it a little tonight. Once suitably stuffed it was time to call it a night.

MOVES:Continuation of train 19 from Friday

Sunday 26 th December 2010 I was woken early by the sound of a train horn, and on looking directly down out of the window I could see the top of a freight train rumbling by below. There are two tram tracks that run along the riverside and a third track is for freight. After having a couple more hours sleep we headed back over to Harrah’s for the breakfast buffet ($10 each) this time eating a more sensible moderate amount of food. After this we took a tram ride along the riverfront hoping to see a freight movement but we were out of luck. Eventually we went back to the hotel to collect our bags and then got a cab to the station.

Once at the station we joined the queue to get on the train, an Amtrak cop was checking out tickets and IDs, he had a good look through my passport and quizzed me as to why I had so many stamps from Yugoslavia in it, I replied that I like to go to former Yugoslav countries to ride behind American built engines, to which he walked off looking a bit confused. Once we had reached the front of the queue the same cop said if he had known earlier that we were rail fans he would have taken us to see the loco on our train, although I’m not sure if he meant we could go and look at it or be able to have a look inside. Either way there was just enough time to go to the front before departure to check and photograph the loco, which was winner 88. We started heading north passing a few CN operated freights along the way and I eventually dropped off about 10p.m.

MOVES:AMTRAK 88 (58) 13:45 New Orleans to Chicago Union (arrive Mon)

Monday 27 th December 2010 I awoke at Champaign IL which had a fair covering of snow, we were running about an hour late. The rest of the journey into Chicago was a bit of a stagger and we maintained our hour late status and pulled into Union station at 10:00. With a few hours to spare before our next Amtrak move there was time for a bit of a spin on Metra, the 10:30 to Aurora was tempting as it was a pair, 112 & 183, but as both were dud we elected to head in the opposite direction hoping to get one of the two F40C’s that are still working. We headed to snowy Franklin Park as it’s not a bad place for photographing freights, during the hour we were there three freights came through and a couple of Metra trains as well. We didn’t have any luck with the F40C’s though; at least one of them was seen on the depot at Western Avenue.

Back in Chicago we had a meal and some beers in the station bar, it was here that we saw the news reports on TV that the East coast of America had been battered by severe snowfall. The major NY airports were currently closed and all transport services were in a mess, having dodged the snow in London by a few days we were pleased we’d also escaped more snow related problems on this side of the pond. Before long we headed into the Amtrak departure lounge for the usual pandemonium that they call the boarding process. We were boarding train 3, the

Southwest Chief, and after being allocated a seat I went to check out what was at the head, turned out to be 62 and 97. I knew straight away that I didn’t need 62 as I’d had it to Toronto in October, I was pretty sure I didn’t need 97 either but upon checking I found I actually did. Departure was on time and we sat back to take in the views.

Arrival at Kansas City was on time at about 22:00, and as this is a service stop there is time to get off, however I elected to stay on board as it was dark and cold outside. It was just before departure time that the coach attendant came round to say there was a problem and we would be losing the power supply for a while, but she didn’t know exactly why. I stayed put for a while and the hiss of brakes and the jerking of the coaches told me something was happening up front, I didn’t want to get off to investigate though as we were now past departure time and I wasn’t sure if the doors were already closed anyway. We eventually set of some 50 minutes behind schedule and I was flapping about what was now on the front, maybe some whopper of a freight loco, so I decided to go to the lounge where I could wait for the conductor who would hopefully enlighten me. Before long the conductor walked through and I flagged him down with my enquiry, he explained that 62 & 97 that had left Chicago “elephant style” were still on the front but now with 97 leading and back-to-back with 62. There was a problem further down the line and if the train had to terminate short, which he said was very unlikely, then they would be ok to run the locos round and have a cab leading for the return. I thanked the conductor for his help and settled back into my seat for the night.

MOVES:Continuation of train 58 from Sunday, then…METRA 102 (2213) 10:30 Chicago Union to Franklin ParkMETRA 423 (2234) 12:10 Franklin Park to Chicago UnionAMTRAK 62 & 97 (3) 14:45 Chicago Union to Albuquerque (arrive Tue)

Tuesday 28 th December 2010 I awoke in Dodge City where we were now 100 minutes late, but we departed onwards so that was a relief as this is where the problem that could have caused us to terminate had apparently been. We were heading to Albuquerque and I hoped we could make up some time, the schedule appears to have some padding but we rocked into Albuquerque some 95 minutes late in the end. We had been hoping to cover a few of New Mexico Rail Runner’s services but our late running meant we had already missed a couple of moves, so we decided to just make our way to our hotel in Bernalillo, taking the first available NMRR service available, which was going in the wrong direction for us but we could intercept another to take us to our hotel a couple of stops up the line, we paid $3 for a two zone day pass, dirt cheap!

We bailed off our second NMRR train at the Sandoval/US550 station and our hotel was located at the back of the station parking lot, very handy. After booking in we went to a Denny’s restaurant across the road (10% discount for us as we were staying at the Super 8) before getting some beers from a gas station to take back to the room. We didn’t want a late night as we had an early start the next day, so we retired soon after finishing the beers.

MOVES:Continuation of train 3 from Monday, then…

NMRR 108 (511) 17:38 Albuquerque to Isleta PuebloNMRR 101 (520) 18:03 Isleta Pueblo to Sandoval/US550

Wednesday 29 th December 2010 An early start was in order to get as many NMRR locos in as possible as we guessed that the last three moves we would be doing to cane in the whole system would be with the same loco (which turned out to be correct). Before leaving the hotel we were able to have some toast as breakfast had been laid out before the official 06:00 start time so that was a bonus, and when we got outside some random guy who was about to drive off insisted we took a lift with him to the station as he didn’t want to see us struggle with our luggage, even though it would have taken us just a couple of minutes to walk, couldn’t fault him though. Once on board the train we got a day pass for the whole line, which cost just $9 each. After a few early morning leaps, including one train double headed, we settled down for a longer ride to Santa Fe where we had a couple of hours to kill, so it was off to some Mexican place for more breakfast, this time though it was a hot breakfast and we both had a mega spicy omelet which warmed us up on such a cold day. Once back at the station we had a look in the Santa Fe Southern Railway shop, where we found out that the GP7 in the sidings would be working an excursion train later, shame we didn’t have time to do it.

Eventually it was time for us to depart, this time we would be doing the NMRR train to its other terminus at Belen, a journey of some 2 hours. With an on time departure we went on our way, passing the Chicago bound Southwest Chief near Albuquerque with 3 locos on it. At Belen we had a short layover during which time some freight activity was seen in the BNSF yard near the station. Once back at Albuquerque we had a while to wait for our next Amtrak move to L.A. so we had some food in the station fast food restaurant and then waited on the platform for our train to arrive, typically today it rolled in 35 minutes early, could have done with that yesterday!

The boarding of the Amtrak service turned into a farce, as the coach attendants couldn’t decide between them where they wanted people to go. We were sent to the rear coach, then moved up two coaches before being told to get in the coach that was sandwiched between those two, what a palaver! Once we had claimed our seats it was back onto the platform to see a couple of NMRR departures before getting back on the train and setting of towards L.A. As we headed west we were into falling snow and by the time we got to Flagstaff (22:00) there was plenty of fresh snow on the ground. The coach attendant on our coach was first off the train and promptly slipped over, one of the passengers also did the same just after that. Luckily a couple of people who were too lazy to pick up their cases ploughed a path through the deep snow making it easier for people to get through. After departure from Flagstaff I dropped off to sleep.

Reflecting on our first time travelling on NMRR I have to say how impressed I was. The trains were in good shape, timekeeping was good, fares are cheap, and the staff we talked to were friendly, enthusiastic and welcoming. We managed to ride six of the nine locos they have, we could have had 105 if Amtrak had been on time yesterday (it also worked the 16:18 out of Albuquerque today) and the two others we missed were both on the depot, 104 with its engine room doors opened up and 107 trapped in between a couple of coaches. I particularly liked the warning noise when the train doors are closing which is the beep beep noise of the TV cartoon roadrunner, a nice touch to match the theme of the whole thing.

MOVES:NMRR 103 (501) 05:50 Sandoval/US550 to Los RanchosNMRR 109 & 102 (506) 06:25 Los Ranchos to Sandoval/US550NMRR 101 (503) 07:00 Sandoval/US550 to Los RanchosNMRR 106 (508) 07:35 Los Ranchos to Santa FeNMRR 106 (509) 11:33 Santa Fe to BelenNMRR 106 (514) 14:00 Belen to AlbuquerqueAMTRAK 55 & 68 (3) 16:45 Albuquerque to Los Angeles Union (arrive Thu)

Thursday 30 th December 2010 I awoke as we neared San Bernardino, a little snow was still in evidence. The coach attendant had a family of four getting off at San Bernardino and gave them plenty of warning, they didn’t seem to be taking any notice of him though and they were then surprised that he started to become a bit impatient with them when we arrived at the station and they weren’t ready to get off, all in all it took 15 minutes from the time the train stopped until the family had finally got all their things together and detrained. After departing we viewed some of the new Metrolink coaches on some flat wagons in the yard, the new cab cars look pretty strange. Eventually we rolled into L.A. about 20 minutes late, viewing the single Metrolink F40 (number 800) sandwiched in the middle of an ECS move, the first time I’ve seen it out of the depot. With the rest of the day to spare we headed back to San Bernardino on Metrolink after having a breakfast burrito. We got to San Bernardino at 10:30 and set up camp, I was tempted to do the 11:00 back to L.A. as it was a pair but both were dud so I didn’t bother. We waited on some freight movement but it was few and far between, luckily the shop in the station was open and selling hot drinks, as it was freezing outside. By 13:00 I was getting bored, David was happy enough to stay at San Bernardino waiting on freights but I did a few moves to Fontana, at least it had warmed up by now with the temperature getting quite high. On my first visit to Fontana I had the “pleasure” of spending 25 minutes listening to the plinky plonky synthesized tune playing from an ice cream van over and over again, I think it was the same ice cream van that had been there annoying me back in January. Back at San Bernardino I found out that I had missed freight with 9 locos on it passing through. For my second visit to Fontana the ice cream van had gone but it was third time unlucky for my next visit as it was back again playing the same tune over and over again. Back at San Bernardino I spent a final hour and some freights showed up, we both then did the 17:00 train to L.A. as the light was now not so clever for photography.

At L.A. we went to our hotel about 5 minutes’ walk from the station and checked in, before going back to the station to see what was about, I was interested to see what would arrive on Amtrak train 798 as its sometimes a P32, I didn’t think it would be today as we’d seen all bar one of the L.A. based machines on the shed this morning, and indeed it turned up with a Surfliner F59. Following this we grabbed a sandwich from a Subway and some beers from a liquor store before heading back to our room.

MOVES:Continuation of train 3 from Wednesday, then…M’LINK 891 (304) 09:02 Los Angeles Union to San BernardinoM’LINK 889 (325) 13:00 San Bernardino to Fontana

M’LINK 901 (310) 13:33 Fontana to San BernardinoM’LINK 901 (327) 14:00 San Bernardino to Fontana M’LINK 873 (312) 14:33 Fontana to San BernardinoM’LINK 873 (329) 15:00 San Bernardino to FontanaM’LINK 852 (314) 15:33 Fontana to San BernardinoM’LINK 889 (333) 17:00 San Bernardino to Los Angeles Union

Friday 31 st December 2010 We were booked on the Coast Starlight at 10:15 but did think about covering train 799 at 07:35 in case it was a P32, in the end we didn’t bother as we were unsure if we could get back to L.A. as Metrolink were running a holiday service so we opted for a lie in instead. The hotel breakfast was pretty naff so we ended up with a breakfast burrito from the station again, I had to berate a women who tried to jump the line in front of me. The same women then tried to jump the line in the shop where I stocked up on supplies. On the platform I was pleased that the train had a pair of winners on it, and we took our allocated seats, which turned out to be across the aisle and one row in front of the serial line jumper and a mate. I will refer to the line jumper as “seat 2” from now on. As we set off from L.A. there was room to spread out so I sat in front of “seat 2” and her mate on agreement with the coach attendant that I would move back when the train filled up. As we departed L.A. the pair behind me started watching a DVD with the volume turned up, I didn’t want to listen and politely requested they turn it down, they agreed and set the volume to a more reasonable level, but obviously “seat 2” wasn’t happy about this and after about 20 minutes she told me I was the one behaving unreasonably as I was in the wrong seat, and I had leant across the aisle a couple of times to get some paperwork from David and had blocked her view out of the window! I told her that if she thought I was unreasonable now then I would have her turn the volume off on her DVD completely (as per the Amtrak rules) but she handed me an old newspaper cutting and muttered something about her having been a law enforcer in the past and told me to read it! I didn’t read it and left her to stew behind me, all the while muttering to herself.

Soon after this David and me made our way to the lounge car to view the Pacific Coast through the big windows. Whilst travelling the coast I sent a few “Happy New Year” texts back home, stating I was travelling in comfort up the Pacific Coast in beautiful sunshine, judging by some of the replies I had it was obviously cold wet and miserable back home. After a while we were looped to let the return of 799 go by, today it had P32 number 507 pushing it, I could tell even before I saw the loco it was a P32 by the noise it was emitting. Luckily I’ve had 507 a couple of times so at least I hadn’t missed a winner. The next train we passed was the southbound Starlight, which was a pair of Genesis with a Cascades F59 behind them, I think only the Genesis locos were powering though.

We stayed in the lounge car until late evening before returning to our seats, which now looked like some other people had claimed them, as there was a selection of baggage on the floor where our feet should go. “Seat 2” took great delight in announcing “it looks like your seats have gone” to which I replied to her that they were actually still where we’d left them. I then moved the baggage to a safe place and explained what I had done to the coach attendant who said he had allocated our seats to somebody else while we’d been away which was a mistake on his part. The owners of the baggage soon turned up, an elderly couple who seemed a bit anxious, but

when I explained what had happened and offered to help them move their baggage to their new seat they were quite happy. “Seat 2” must have thought she’d seen the back of us and gave me the most evil of looks, I just smiled at her politely before going to sleep.

MOVES:AMTRAK 90 & 96 (14) 10:15 Los Angeles Union to Portland (arrive Sat)

Saturday 1 st January 2011 Happy New Year! I awoke just after midnight to the sound of some very loud bangs, I thought we’d pulled into a war zone but it was actually Sacramento, which was having a huge fireworks display. A few people around us wished us a happy new year, not surprisingly though "seat 2" and her companion blanked us. I soon dropped off again and woke up at snowy Klamath Falls where there was time to get off and photograph the engines. Back on the train we went to the diner for breakfast and the train started climbing as we headed north. We shared our breakfast table with a friendly couple from Phoenix AZ as the snow outside got deeper and deeper, the landscape was a beautiful winter wonderland and I couldn't have wished for a nicer way start to a new year. Even though the snow was deep we maintained reasonably good time, although we had to stop a couple of times while track inspections were made ahead. After breakfast we went back to the lounge car and spent the rest of the day sitting with Boya, a Chinese girl who had recently moved to America. By the time we had dropped down from the snow we were 20 minutes late at Springfield, the Amtrak route guide says the TV cartoon family "The Simpson’s" are from here but I couldn't see a cartoon nuclear power station anywhere. I thought we might have made it to our destination, Portland, on time but after being held outside for about a long while we arrived about 20 minutes late.

Once at Portland we got a quick photo of a Genesis on a Cascades train and then took a taxi to our hotel, the Westin in downtown. Even though we'd got a good rate for the hotel we could tell it was a swanky joint straight away as the penguin on the door had our baggage from the trunk of the taxi and into the hotel before I'd paid the driver. Once we had checked in we had a quick look around, Portland is supposed to be graced with brewpubs but from the info I had they were mostly on the other side of the river, certainly didn't see one in the vicinity of the hotel anyway, but we hadn't really looked hard. We made do with some bottles of an Oregon brewed porter that we acquired in the Rite Aid chemist (how convenient, hangover cause and remedy available in the same place) and drank them in the hotel room before calling it a night.

MOVES:Continuation of train 14 from Friday.

Sunday 2 nd January 2011 After a bit of a lie in our plan was to head to the station and leave our bags there while we went off to get some photographs over the river. While at the baggage area we told the staff we'd pick up the bags in time for us to do the Empire Builder, but it was at this point we were told we might want to go to the ticket agent for some news regarding that service. The agent told us the Empire Builder would be running as far as Whitefish only due to freezing conditions further east, and there would be no onward transport. Ahhhh....... cheers mate, what’s our options, we need to be in Chicago by Wednesday evening to make another connection heading further east again.

First option was to delay by 24 hours and get tomorrows train - only it then came to light that wouldn't be running through to Chicago either, the system had just updated and it too was being truncated. Next option, go back south as far as Sacramento and then over to Chicago on the Zephyr, that could work but there was doubt about there being space on the Zephyr - luckily the agent made a few calls and got us on. Next question was could we get a sleeper upgrade, we'd now be spending four nights on the move when we should have had a double overnight to Chicago before a night in a hotel and then one more train overnight. The agent said he'd already looked at this and wanted to offer us something, but it was likely other passengers who’d booked sleepers and were also being diverted would need all the sleepers. With our replacement tickets in hand, we eventually dropped our bags off, and then crossed the big steel bridge over the river to photograph anything that came by, we had about an hour there and in that time only a Talgo set came by, top and tailed by a Genesis on each end. We crossed back over the bridge and a pair of UP locos turned up so we duly photographed them before heading back to the station. Once back at the station I approached the same agent who had already helped us out and made another speculative enquiry about sleeping accommodation. After a few minutes tapping the computer keyboard the agent told me to hand back the Portland to Sacramento portion of our tickets and handed over a replacement with us now upgraded to sleeper, free of charge. I thanked him and we made our way to the sleeper lounge, a first for me. Just for the record, the agent at Portland was helpful and patient and helped us no end, the sleeper upgrade was a welcome bonus and I couldn’t fault the service of this guy who is a credit to Amtrak.

The train rolled in a bit early, predictably with the same pair we’d had into Portland yesterday, but without the Parlour Car, which had been left in Seattle due to having “bad wheels”. We made our way to our allocated coach, we were in the transition sleeper with the staff. Our sleeper attendant urged us to go straight to the diner as dinner was still being served so we took advantage of this offer, sharing our table with a friendly couple who would be detraining at Chico in the early hours of Monday. I had the pasta dish which was a bit average, but as meals are included for sleeper passengers I wasn’t grumbling. We finished dinner at about the same time we departed the station. After this we went to the lounge car for a few hours until lunchtime, our 19:30 reservation was a little late being called and we were seated with an Argentinean student called Maria who was also being diverted. She was on her way home to Syracuse in north New York.

I chose the steak for dinner and have to say it was rather excellent, and as we were the last sitting in the diner car the staff didn’t rush to clear us out, a most civilized eating experience. By the time we had finished eating we were at Klamath Falls and as it’s a service stop I took advantage of this fact and got out to stretch my legs in the cold night air, bagging a couple of night pictures of the locos in the process. After this we called it a night, the sleeping hutch (as I’ve seen it described) was a lot smaller than I envisaged, and I lumbered up to the top bunk for the night, however the ventilator in the roof was blowing cold air and I had a bit of an indifferent sleep, and whenever I woke up I had to remember not to sit up to avoiding banging my head on the ceiling. Even if the sleep wasn’t great it still had the advantage of being in a quiet coach.

MOVES:AMTRAK 96 & 90 (11) 14:25 Portland to Sacramento (arrive Mon)

Monday 3 rd January 2011 Despite the broken sleep the wakeup call came all too soon from our attendant who was far too jolly for 05:30 in the morning. Arrival in Sacramento was on time meaning a five hour layover, so after sitting in the station for a while we went to a local Denny’s for breakfast and then had a walk around the old town, photographing a couple of locos outside the railroad museum. Back at the station we viewed a couple of the Capitol Corridor trains before a UP freight passed through not far in front of our train. The train pulled in with 69 & 192 leading which I knew straight away were both dud, 69 being my highest mileage Amtrak loco (and this trip would take me to 6200 miles behind it from 3 journeys, overtaking my previously highest mileage loco in any country, Czech 749039 on 6000 miles from 104 journeys).

We settled into the lounge car once we were underway, just in time to view a large collection of UP locos at Roseville, the first stop after Sacramento. As we headed further east we came into the snow, the run over the Donner Pass being quite spectacular with loads of the white stuff piled up outside and clinging onto the trees. Upon passing through Truckee there were a few locos with snow clearing equipment on hand in the yard. By the time we had got to Reno there was little evidence of any snow. Not long after darkness fell I went back to my seat to rest.

MOVES:Continuation of train 11 from Monday, then…AMTRAK 69 & 192 (6) 11:09 Sacramento to Chicago Union (arrive Wed)

Tuesday 4 th January 2011 After waking up we made our way to the lounge car where we sat with Maria who we had met at dinner a couple of nights ago, Maria introduced us to Stepanka and Patrick who were also taking the same diversion as us. Stepanka was travelling to Indiana where she studies, and Patrick was going to New York City to his home in Manhattan. As Patrick was a sleeper passenger he would occasionally bring us complementary coffee or juice from the sleeper so we didn’t have to pay for drinks from the café, which was a nice gesture by him. I got on well with Stepanka who is Czech, when I was introduced to her I said Dobreh Rano (Czech for good morning) to her, which was a good icebreaker. We spent a lot of time talking about Czech and I think she was impressed by my knowledge of her country. She also helped me brush up on the limited amount of Czech I know. We all spent a pleasant day together as we headed through Colorado, which was a snowy barren desert. We arrived at Denver a bit late but still with a forty minute layover, and as there is an excellent brewpub outside the station myself and David made our way there for a couple of quick beers before rejoining the train. Patrick also went off the train to get us “something” for later. Back on the train we all took dinner together as we departed Denver at 19:15 and it was very pleasant, I had the chicken, which was very good. Once dinner was over we reconvened in the lounge, where Patrick produced a couple of bottles of wine, which he had purchased in Denver and proceeded to share with us. Even though it’s not allowed to bring outside alcohol onto Amtrak I think we were clocked by a couple of staff but they turned a blind eye. It was about midnight when we all went off to our respective seats or sleepers to get some sleep, with a plan to meet in the diner for breakfast the next morning.

MOVES:Continuation of train 6 from Monday

Wednesday 5 th January 2011 After a good night’s sleep we met up with our new friends at breakfast as arranged last night. Stepanka didn’t have such a good sleep as she had been disturbed during the night when the police had come on the train and removed a passenger in handcuffs, even though I was in the same coach I didn’t see or hear any of this going on. We took our time over breakfast as we had taken the last call so there was no rush to clear us out of the diner. After this we all sat together in the lounge car taking in the sights, the highlight being crossing the Mississippi at Burlington. The bridge over the river was built in 1892 but is now in the process of being systematically replaced section by section, the first section we crossed being a new one. There were a number of barges in the river preparing to carry out the next part of the job. Once we had crossed the bridge some bald eagles were spotted in some trees next to the river, which caused great excitement throughout the coach. As we reached Chicago I pointed out to the others the hotel that me and David should have stayed in last night as we passed through Aurora, before we all then went to get our things together prior to arrival in Chicago, which was at about 15:00. Once in Chicago we all met up again for a drink in the station bar before me and David said our farewells to the others who were all doing the “Lake Shore Limited” at 21:30.

The next move for me and David was to view Metra train 2227 which had been a regular job for the F40Cs but not today, at least it was a new loco anyway so it was a good way to start a couple of round trips to Western Avenue. Once we had finished with Metra we went to the Amtrak departure lounge and joined the general scrum for boarding our next train, which we would take overnight to Pittsburgh. After being assigned our seats I took a walk down the platform to see what we had leading and was surprised to find a triple header, 95 at the head was a winner, the other two were both dud though, including 75 which we’d already had to New Orleans on this visit (and by coincidence I had scored 75 on this same service as part of a triple header a couple of years ago). After departure I struggled to get comfy so at about 22:00 I went to the café for a couple of beers before heading back to my seat and dropping off.

MOVES:Continuation of train 6 from Monday / Tuesday, then…METRA 104 (2227) 16:20 Chicago Union to Western AvenueMETRA 110 (2242) 16:36 Western Avenue to Chicago UnionMETRA 417 (2233) 16:55 Chicago Union to Western AvenueMETRA 122 (2144) 17:14 Western Avenue to Chicago UnionAMTRAK 95 & 79 & 75 (30) 18:40 Chicago Union to Pittsburgh (arrive Thu)

Thursday 6 th January 2011 Arrival in Pittsburgh was a tad early at 04:30, so we had a couple of hours to wait in the grim station building for our next train at 07:20, at least there were a couple of freights passing through which gave us something to look at. Our next train took us as far as Altoona (highlight of the trip as usual was the horseshoe curve, as we approached the curve we could see a freight going in the same direction as us which we eventually overtook). At Altoona we bailed out and got a taxi to Cresson where we were staying the night, the taxi cost us a reasonable $29 for the 17 miles journey. Once at Cresson we booked into our old favourite, the Station Inn B&B, which has recently refurbished the rooms, however the downstairs common/breakfast room was

in the early stages of getting its makeover. Once we had booked in we went outside taking pictures of passing NS freight trains and helper loco movements from the various vantage points around the town, stopping off at one point for a meal in an old style diner. During our afternoon session taking photos there were snow flurries, which eventually turned into a steady snowfall. After darkness fell we took our evening meal in a different diner, which offered 10% discount to Station Inn visitors. Following this we went to the bar near the Station Inn where we stayed until quite late. The bar was quite busy with biker types, so when I put some music on the juke box I was hoping it would meet with approval, luckily my choice off AC/DC and Rainbow seemed to be acceptable, a sign on the juke box warns anybody thinking about putting rap music on need not waste their money as it will be rejected, quite rightly so in my opinion. By the time we left the bar the streets of Cresson had now become well covered in snow.

MOVES:Continuation of train 30 from Thursday, then…AMTRAK 59 (42) 07:20 Pittsburgh to Altoona

Friday 7 th January 2011 Our move today was to do the same train service we’d got off yesterday from Altoona as we needed to start making our way east for our flight tomorrow evening. We said our goodbyes to Tom, owner of the Station Inn, who arranged for his decorator to give us a lift to the station on the snowy roads. Once on board the train we didn’t have to wait long before passing the NS workshops just east of Altoona station where we saw a great many locomotives stabled, many waiting their turn to enter the works for attention. The train kept good time and arrival at Philadelphia was a bit early, so there was time to go into the impressive station building for some food. Back down on the platform I watched as the electric that would take us forward backed onto the stock, the driver was a friendly type who chatted with me for a couple of minutes, telling me his brother (since passed away) used to live in York and liked class 45s. Before departure the driver gave me the latest copy of Trains magazine to read on the train, most kind.

We bailed off at Newark, once again we were staying in Rahway so we waited for a train that could get us there, however we had to wait a while for a suitable service heading our way, that is one that was loco hauled and actually stopped at Rahway. At Rahway we got to the hotel and at first the receptionist said she had no record of our booking, after about 5 minutes of faffing about on the computer she found some paperwork in a file with our details on it, it then took her about another 10 minutes to book us in on her system, painfully slow. After all this she told us to wait while she found the remote control for the room TV, she couldn’t find it and I was by now fed up so said to her that we’d collect it later – needless to say we already had one in our room anyway!

After freshening up we took a short trip to Woodbridge where there is a brewpub outside the station, we had a quick meal and some beers before heading back to Rahway where we had a couple more beers before calling it a night.

MOVES:AMTRAK 159 (42) 09:51 Altoona to Philadelphia 30th StreetAMTRAK 904 (42) 15:25 Philadelphia 30th Street to Newark PennN.J.T. 4618 (3513) 17:45 Newark Penn to Rahway

N.J.T. 4606 (3515) 19:05 Rahway to WoodbridgeN.J.T. 4637 (3278) 20:46 Woodbridge to Rahway

Saturday 8 th January 2011 We weren’t in any hurry today as we had a late flight, so a well-deserved lie in was had. We decided to have a look at what was working out of Hoboken and spent the day riding the Bergen County/Main line routes from there, noting that the CD playing at Secaucus Junction still hadn’t changed. Of all the diesels we saw all day I wanted three of them and managed to have two of the three, the other (4210) was on an afternoon northbound which I could do nothing about, we viewed it after we’d had a beer at Ridgewood at a time when we needed to be going south for our flight. Once we had made our way to New York we used the L.I.R.R to Jamaica and an air train to the airport. The flight back was an hour late leaving and then we had to get de-iced as well, however we had a fast flight so we made up some time. The flight was lightly loaded so we had a row of three between the two of us, the three seats to my left had been taken out and had a fully wired up baby incubator in the space, which was going to be used from London to Kuwait. After the evening meal was served I dossed out for the night. We had been hoping for the other Kuwait Airlines 777 for our return but were bowled with the dud AOB producing again.

MOVES:N.J.T. 4638 (7224) 11:00 Rahway to Secaucus JunctionN.J.T. 4032 (2110) 12:16 Secaucus Junction to HobokenN.J.T. 4901 (75) 13:25 Hoboken to Ho-Ho-Kus (via Bergen County Line)N.J.T. 4029 (1718) 14:29 Ho-Ho-Kus to Secaucus Junction (via Main Line)N.J.T. 4212 (1873) 15:32 Secaucus Junction to Ridgewood (via Bergen County Line)N.J.T. 4150 (78) 16:52 Ridgewood to Secaucus Junction (via Bergen County Line)N.J.T. 4654 (7248) 17:28 Secaucus Junction to New York PennL.I.R.R. EMU (xxxx) 18:10 New York Penn to JamaicaKuwait Airlines 9K-AOB (KU102) 21:00 New York JFK T4 to Heathrow T4

Sunday 9 th January 2011 Once at Heathrow we were quickly processed back into the country but had to wait a while for our bags before taking the same route as we had done outward to get back to Reading, where we made our booked train back to South Wales with 40 minutes to spare. Because of engineering work we were diverted so our trip was longer than normal going via Gloucester. Like the outward trip we sat in the quiet coach but it was the opposite of last time, noisy kids and people who didn’t understand the no mobile phones rule. Eventually we made it to Newport and I was pleased to get home after a long but successful trip.

FOOTNOTES.Another fine trip to the States, we met many friendly people, some of whom I will be keeping in touch with. The trains were great as usual even though the plan went a bit pear shaped for a while. After returning home I wrote to Amtrak about the problems we had encountered and about the professional manner we were dealt with at Portland. They have since written back to me with a generous money off offer for the next USA trip, which more than covered the cost of the hotel we didn’t get to use. Pleasingly, they also said they had been in touch with the supervisor of the Portland ticket agent so that he can be commended for his good work.

The next trip for me isn’t far away so I have already cashed in my refund against the cost of my next USA rail pass. As my travelling companion for the next trip hasn’t done the Southwest Chief or Californian Zephyr routes we will be doing these, so it will be a bit of a repeat for me in some aspects. The next trip should feature a few long distance Amtrak journeys and several commuter lines, namely MBTA (Boston), METRA (Chicago), Frontrunner (Salt Lake City), Caltrain (San Francisco), Metrolink (LA), Coaster (San Diego) and New Mexico Rail runner (Albuquerque). We also plan to spend a weekend with Mike Tisdale from California who is going to take us to Donner Pass, Portola and Feather River Canyon in his car for some photo opportunities.

LOCO’s HAD:N.J.T.: 4029 4032 4150 4194 4212 4606 4611 4618 4637 4638 4640 4646 4654 4901AMTRAK: 2 55 59 62 68 69 75 79 88 90 95 96 97 159 192 658 904METRA: 102 104 110 122 417 423NMRR: 101 102 103 106 108 109METROLINK: 852 873 889 891 901

HOTELS USED:RAHWAY (N.J.): Hotel Indigo, outside NJT stationNEW ORLEANS: Hilton Hotel, on riverfront near Harrah’s, about 30 mins walk from stationBERNALILLO: Super 8 motel, adjacent to NMRR Sandoval/US550 stationL.A: Hotel Metro Plaza, about 5 mins walk from stationPORTLAND: Westin Hotel, taxi ride to downtown, probably possible on public transportCRESSON: Station Inn B&B, 17 miles from Altoona, adjacent to NS trackage

Above all booked through Expedia, except Station Inn ….. stationinnpa.com