This afternoon I took Amtrak 7, the Empire Builder, from CUS to Red Wing, MN (then on by car to Rochester, MN). We left CUS on time with (I think) two Genesis units and sixteen cars, including an old Pennsy round end observation car in Tuscan red with only two folks on board (could not tell the name of the car but will try and find it on the Internet and report back). We found ourselves on time most of the way until we got stabbed by a few freights west of LaCrosse and reached Red Wing about twenty minutes late.
This was my first opportunity to sample two things I have been wanting to do...first I sat for about an hour and a half in the lounge car and sampled the view of the N.E. Illinois and S.E. Wisconsin countryside as it went by. I can see how folks would like the views of the mountains, etc. but I found the seats very uncomfortable and would not want to sit there for very long (the seat bottoms were too short).
The other thing I tried for the first time was having dinner in the dining car. I sat with three women traveling to Minneapolis and Seattle. The seats in the dining car were also uncomfortable and the woman sitting next to me took up one and a third seating spaces so my butt was literally hanging off the edge of the seat...not very nice. I had a small salad, the steak, baked potato, veggies and a piece of cheese cake. The steak was OK but I suggest if you want yours medium...order it medium rare as mine was ordered medium and ended up coming well done. All together not a bad meal but at $32 with a $5 tip it was a bit pricey.
The Red Wing depot is not manned by Amtrak personnel and a volunteer was there but he was in a hurry to close up the station after we arrived. The station looked very nice and what little I saw of the inside was like a nice museum of sorts...I will have to go back some day and see more.
I will be returning to CUS on Amtrak 8 on Friday morning. More report after my return trip.
Thanks, Jim, always love reading your "Man On The Rails" reports.
#8419, The Pennsy's Mountain View observation car from the Broadway Limited, is in excursion service. That might have been the extra car you saw on the Builder. But its rear end is fairly flat not round end. This webpage lists Pennsy passenger cars that survive
http://broadway.pennsyrr.com/Rail/Prr/Fan/pass_cars.html
By the way, Jim your quote: "the woman sitting next to me took up one and a third seating spaces" -- very politely phrased I thought. Let's just say that is one of the hazards of travel in the Upper Midwest.
Dave Nelson
I hope you kept a sharp eye on your steak until it was gone! Dessert, too.
Good to hear from you again, Jim!
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
I just remembered the train name on the Pennsy keystone shaped drumhead on the rear of the private car on #7 last night, it was RED ARROW. I still can't remember the name of the car itself, but will keep trying.
Ah, the Red Arrow was Pennsy's New York - Detroit train.
When you get back to Red Wing, check-out the Caribou Coffee house near the Amtrak/ex-MILW depot. As you get off the train, it's to your right, just above the small CP yard where their switch engine ties-up. That coffee house used to be a Hardee's, and before that it was the CGW's depot. They have some antique RR photos on the walls inside.
It's best you got a seat in the lounge car early. That car is usually dominated by the Amish between Tomah and Winona. You can also order a "take-out" dinner, where they call you and you can pick-up your dinner and take it to your seat (saves you the trouble of a one-cheek-sneak in the dining car).
UPDATE:
My return trip on Amtrak #8 was pretty darned nice. I arrived at St. Paul station about a half hour before departure time to find #8 sitting in the station, having arrived about fifteen minutes early yesterday. I boarded my coach car (the last car on the train) after passing private cars Sierra Hotel (dome), GN&B (Going Nowhere & Back) Gritty Palace, Milwaukee Road Minnesota River and observation car Milwaukee Road Cedar Rapids. We left right on the advertised at 7:50 a.m. and found ourselves going along the bluffs east of St. Paul in the early morning light (cloudy and drizzly day, darned). We arrived at most of the stations just about or right on time as we lost a bit of time here and there and then made it all up and then some. I met a fellow railfan, Gary from Minneapolis, and his wife who were traveling to Boston on #8 and then the Lake Shore Limited out of Chicago last night, so we got to chatting extensively...Gary is really knowledgeable about rail operations and equipment. The three of us went to the diner for lunch together and had to wait almost an hour for a table (two or three of the diner tables were left empty as there were not enough diner staff to take care of all of available tables!). We had a nice lunch and finished just about a half hour west of Milwaukee and Gary and Mrs. retired back to the coach and I stopped for a while in the lounge car until we arrived in Milwaukee and then also went back to my coach seat. The train was very, very full with almost every seat taken (nice to see these days) for most of our trip east. We flew right down the old Milwaukee Road main from Milwaukee to Chicago and met no freight or Metra obstruction at all, arriving in CUS about twenty minutes early (scheduled at 3:55 p.m. CST) and so I was able to catch the 3:58 p.m. Metra back to Aurora which arrived right on time and I was home for dinner by 5:20 or so.
All in all I must say I was very favorably impressed with Amtrak on this trip. The only things that I would say impressed me in a negative sense were (1) the lack cleanliness of the rest rooms and (2) the pricing of the food in the diner was about 20% higher than it should have been...but other than that the service/equipment and on time performance were first rate. Thanks Amtrak!
Darn, Jim, I wish I knew you were doing this. I would have held up signs when you sped through Brookfield, WI.
Great report,Erik
Bergie Darn, Jim, I wish I knew you were doing this. I would have held up signs when you sped through Brookfield, WI. Great report,Erik
Erik, it is my pleasure to post such reports whenever possible (hard to do with my travel schedule and varied destinations). One thing I forgot to mention was about when I was sitting in the lounge car upper level eastbound when we pulled into Winona, I had a young mother and her two year old son take a lounge seat next to me. Young Mom was taking her two year old on his first train trip just a little south to LaCrosse to visit friends (this short trip for them was about a half hour or so), and they were driving back after lunch. It was really nice to see this mother acquaint her son to railroads so early in life.
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