Weekend Amtrak Trip - the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

[dldance]

We left Philadelphia's 30th street station on Friday morning 3/25 on the Cardinal (train 51) enroute to Chicago. In Chicago we changed to the Texas Eagle (train 21).

The good--
The sleeper accomodations were comfortable and the car attendents were friendly and very helpful on both trains. This was our first Amtrak trip and we would definately do another.

The bad--
Some of the track we were on was glass smooth - even at speeds of over 100 mph. However, the stretch of BNSF track between Fort Worth and Temple TX was very rough. At 60 mph, the ends of the buffers in the cars were offset vertically by as much as 6 inches. Made going to dinner in the diner a real challenge,

The ugly--
At Brookston, Indiana, train 51 hit two women who were walking their dogs along the track and killed them both. There was nothing that the crew could do. The engineer was rapidly blowing the whistle, but the conductor said they had that "deer in the headlights" look. We were detained for about 5 hours while all authorities did a complete investigation and Amtrak brought in a replacement crew. For more details on the accident see:

www.lafayettejc.com/news20050327/200503276local_news1111899696.shtml

dd

[spbed]

Sorry about that ugly accident. I'm sure you will remember that train line forever. [:p]

Originally posted by dldance

Living nearby to MP 186 of the UPRR  Austin TX Sub

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