Today's blizzard-battered Lake Shore Limited into NYP is estimated to arrive some 8 hours late, about 2:30 AM. Now, while I would dislike arriving at that late and inconvenient hour, at least I would be arriving, and safely at that. How many flights into LGA, EWR, or JFK were cancelled today? But The Lake Shore Limited got through!
To me, this is a testimony to all the people who make it possible for The Lake Shore Limited to operate. I think not only of the Amtrak crews who work long, tiresome, crazy hours, subject to many delays, not of their making. I think about the car knockers at Albany who perform their dangerous and very physical labors in an outdoor atmosphere that can only be described as arctic; the cold, wet winds of the Hudson Valley are brutal. Let's not forget the switch tenders today who lifted all that snow off those vital switches, or the signal maintainers who helped keep the trains running safely. Of course, there are many other such hard-working people in so many other capacities.
If ACY is reading this, thank you for helping to get the trains through in this awful weather and especially when the planes can't.
I'm real glad there's an Amtrak on days like this. And I'm happy, as I bet today's passengers are, that The Lake Shore Limited still has its sleepers and its dining car!
Well said, NKP, and recalling for me a couple of trains I rode that soldiered through in the long ago!
It's been often remarked on here that railroads don't have the MW forces that they used to have (too expensive). And that MW is not at Amtrak's command in any case, except on the NE Corridor. So we can't look for the passenger-train heroics of old.
Still, in this case -- well done by Amtrak and CSX! I'm sure the passengers were happy to get home, even late. They could have been sleeping on the floor at some air terminal.
I believe I recall that this was the Lake Shore that was more than 4 hours late in departing Chicago. If so the over the road performance was outstanding given the conditions in the East.
Edited to add: I was wrong about the eastbound of the 2nd. That train is now approaching Albany early in the morning of the 4th, running more than 14 hours late.
northeaster As she flew through areas where the highways were close by, I was very happy to be aboard and not on those roads! ... There is almost nothing that can compare to the comfort of boarding on a cold winter night, going into the sleeper, getting to bed and being sound asleep before passing the State Fair grounds!
As she flew through areas where the highways were close by, I was very happy to be aboard and not on those roads! ... There is almost nothing that can compare to the comfort of boarding on a cold winter night, going into the sleeper, getting to bed and being sound asleep before passing the State Fair grounds!
Dakota Fred, excellent, highly evocative prose, maybe poetry--not, but anyone who's BTDT.....been there-...,,cherishes the moments and hours, the lullaby of the whistling for the crossings anticipating the dopplered crossing bell's sound, and the rhythemic accompanyment of wheels striking frigid rail joints......clickety, clac.....wait, uh..., welded rail....
In your Roomette, respite, after having warmly social hours in the Lounge car consuming a brewskie or more "from the land of sky blue waters...comes the beer...."
Waking, lifting the bunk to access the toilet, physically balancing my bodies fluid requirements, diminishing a surplus, discovering the most obvious way, that the cold was enough to freeze the toilet.
Sleeping about a foot above a sloshing container of restrained, what should have been, effluvient.....
It was, tho, a good trip. The porter said he heard about "back in.....it was so cold that..."
Many, many, many such experiences, recounted on this Forum. One pleasure not mentioned so far is showing up at a business meeting when everyone else there, the local people, expected a cancellaton phone call. And feeling rested and well-fed at that!
Steam heat in the winter always fascinates me with its wisps of vapor, etc. I think of Cleveland's streets with the steam pipes buried beneath the surface, and those tell-tale steam plumes rising into the frigid air. In school, I liked the clanking pipes and sometimes the banging that accompanied the heat coming on in those old buildings of my childhood.
I well recall the sweet smell of a coal-heated small town in the Pennsylvania hills and mountains, long after gas heat took over in Cleveland.
As for train travel in snowstorms, I have a very happy memory riding The Broadway Limited in the late 1970's one very dark winter night/morning. As the train sped eastwards at 79 mph I was listening to my portable radio aboard when I heard several times the announcer plead with everyone to stay home, that the roads were, "impassable, treacherous, and ice-covered; many accidents everywhere." My roomette felt even cozier as I snuggled deeper into my berth. Then, in the morning, bacon & eggs in the diner (!) as we flashed by all the stopped cars and frustrated motorists.
Train travel in a snow storm: Wonderful! (N.B. Only if everything is working OK!)
NPKguy,
I have some memories of riding the train when nothing else ran. The train were late but they ran. And like yours, my memories are good. Thanks for the ham and eggs story. Breakfast in the diner is one of my favorite experiences.
John
Nostalgia about the sounds, aromas and appearance of steam heated trains, but NO stalgia about shepherding with gentle stroking, tweaking and vituperation of the steam generators, those diabolical collections of pipes, valves, vertically squatting 5-ft diameter tanks enclosed in channel iron boxes glowing orange port holes..... pipe joints dripping, hissing.....motors driving pumps....chattering, rattling
Somebody has fond memories....somebody.....someone....anyone?
Well, How about my second trip as a psgr qualified fireman?
Early frosty morning, that's severe weather in San Jose, commute train; 'bout 3 miles, before Santa Clara, new home of the 49ers who just beat the Packers, the boiler (steam generator) quit and I couldn't find the problem or get it to restart. The commuters including some of his staff and the VP and General Manager of the SP Transportation Company, chilled out in the next 40 miles, commute train stops included, to Rickey's, our slang for the last stop in the City, 3rd and Townsend, SP's SF passenger terminal. Rickey's was a Bar and Grille, leased into the North East corner of the Depot.
My job, my employment, my alternatives, were shot, until Bayshore Shop's said that there was nothing I could have done to restore the steam heat.
Lance Proudfit, SP Coast Div. Road Foreman of Engines. told me, across his desk, that he would be compelled to fire me, were I at fault.
Had I (here comes weird) been at fault, there'd be nothing, he said that, could be done educationally in the future....just fire you!
San Francisco, "sitting on the dock of the Bay," "The morning fog may fill the air," "open your Golden Gate."
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O'Kay.
Back to reality. Amtrak has had numerous cancellations of services. Even Tuesday, the picture is not good:
http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=AM_Alert_C&pagename=am/AM_Alert_C/Alerts_Popup&cid=1251625345445
http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=AM_Alert_C&pagename=am/AM_Alert_C/Alerts_Popup&cid=1251625343458
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
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