Amtrak Compilation, Various trips, Various years

Cardinal & Hilltopper, Marion, Indiana - Baltimore, 1979

In 1979 I rode Amtrak to Baltimore to visit my aunt. I had made the trip from Fort Wayne on the Broadway Limited before, and wanted to see a different route. I made plans to board Amtrak Train 50, the Cardinal at Marion, Indiana, and change to Amtrak Train 66, the Hilltopper, at Catlettsburg, Kentucky. The Hilltopper is no more, and the tracks then used by the Cardinal are becoming the Cardinal Greenway.

July 21, 1979 – I drove to my parents' place south of Bluffton and left my car there, and Dad drove me to Marion. The "station" on 10th Street in Marion was a three-sided plywood shelter on a gravel lot. The train was about 45 minutes late already, only 164 miles out of Chicago. I had a ticket for the sleeping car, which afforded me more comfort and privacy than a coach.

Train 50 arrives at Marion behind one of Amtrak's workhorse F40 locomotives.

The tracks then used by the Cardinal were formerly Chesapeake and Ohio, then owned by CSX Transportation. CSX experienced a freight derailment at Oxford, Ohio, so at Muncie, Indiana our train was rerouted eastward over former Nickel Plate tracks then owned by Norfolk & Western. Then, we moved onto former Pennsylvania tracks owned by Norfolk and Western. Passenger trains hadn't run over these lines in many years, so it was a rare-mileage treat.

We took a siding near Newcastle, Indiana, to wait for Train 51, the westbound Cardinal to pass. It soon appeared behind a P30CH locomotive blowing its trademark plume of black smoke.

Gone in a cloud of dust and diesel smoke

Hot on Number 51's heels was freight train Norfolk & Western 37 Extra West.

Under way again, heading through the switch and back onto the main

Off the regular route through Richmond, Train 50 stopped at the long-closed, weed-strewn 1902 Pennsylvania Railroad station.

Train 50 at Cincinnati

We arrived a little over an hour late, around 11 p.m. at Catlettsburg, but that wasn't a problem because the Hilltopper wasn't scheduled to leave there until 5:33 the next morning. The station was a small, fairly well-kept cinder-block building with a cement platform. There were some teenaged girls with a boombox camped out in the brightly fluorescent-lighted waiting room, but the night was warm and balmy so I sacked out on an empty baggage cart outside, with my big ol' rucksack for a pillow.

I woke frequently to the sound of heavy coal trains roaring up the grade on the CSX line across the river, but I didn't mind. The setting was pretty idyllic for a train lover. The Hilltopper, made up of two Amfleet coaches and an F40, pulled up to the platform a little after 5 a.m. and the only employees at that time were the N&W operating crew, polite, friendly, and neatly uniformed. The brakeman and conductor helped people with their baggage and small children, and we were on our way on time, at a brisk pace over smooth track. We picked up one or two Amtrak car attendants a little farther down the line, maybe at Huntington, WV.

The Hilltopper was a sweet ride; any way you see it, much of West Virginia is beautiful, and on a Sunday morning business was brisk on the train. I think the stops averaged 30 – 40 miles apart, and many of the riders were short-distance, families going to the next town for church or to take grandma to dinner. The on-board staff were friendly and attentive, and I saw people waving from front porches as we passed.

The railroad operation was very smooth; track was good, and everything went according to schedule; there was very little radio chatter, because there seemed to be no need for it. They just followed a routine procedure and ran the train.

For much of the ride, I stood at the rear door of the last coach with my camera for a broad-field view that I couldn't get from a coach window. I think this was near Narrows, West Virginia. We popped out of a tunnel and right onto a curved bridge.

The concrete structure that straddles the tracks in the distance is a coal dock, used for fueling locomotives in the steam era.

They serviced the locomotive at Richmond, Virginia, probably to avoid having to do it at Washington, which is much busier and prone to congestion. I saw the southbound Auto Train pulling out as we rolled up to the platform, but couldn't get a clear shot at it.

We were on time at Washington Union Station and the schedule said there was a 55-minute layover, so I hopped off, noted the track number and a couple of car numbers and names, and set out to explore the station.

Allowing about fifteen minutes, I headed back to my coach. When I arrived at the track, there was no train! After a heart-pounding frenzied search I found it on a nearby track and scrambled on board just as the car attendant prepared to close the door for departure. What I hadn't known was that the layover was so that they could add more cars including a sleeper and food service, so that the train could run on through to Boston overnight. The switching involved changing platforms.

We arrived on time at Baltimore's 1912 Penn Station. That was before the Amtrak renovation, but even then the building was well kept and impressive.

Philadelphia 30th Street Station, 1979

Amtrak to Austin, Texas in 1981

At that time, a seat in a roomette cost only a few dollars more than a seat in a coach, and spared me the company of families with noisy children. Amtrak discontinued that practice because demand often exceeded availability of sleeping car space, and because some passengers abused the privilege by using the towels and washcloths and sometimes using the beds.

A roomette seat was especially nice when returning to Fort Wayne from Chicago, because the trip was at night. In coaches the bright overhead lights were kept on so that the crew wouldn't have to wake passengers when they arrived in Fort Wayne, and it was impossible to see out the windows because of the reflection. In a roomette, I could turn off the light and shut the door and enjoy the view.

The roomette's washbasin folds down from the wall.

Arriving in Chicago

Chicago Union Station

Long before 9/11, this was the first time I was admonished against taking pictures in a station

Power for the train to Texas. I stopped to ask the engineer a question, and got an invitation to come up and see the cab.

Superliners were pretty new then. I had ridden a coach before, but this was my first time inside a Superliner sleeper

Settled in for the long haul

Joliet? It's been 24 years, and I can't remember all the details that I didn't write down.

St. Louis Amshack – a sorry replacement for magnificent Union Station.

The train on the other track, with the Amfleet coaches, was a train that ran between St. Louis and Kansas City. I think they called it the Mule.

I think this is Texarkana

Rolling across Texas. A storm the previous night had knocked out the signaling system in the Longview-Marshall area, and we ran and much-reduced speed for many miles.

In that era, the Missouri Pacific (MoPac) was worthy of its screaming eagle herald. Their mainline track was good, and their freight trains were some of the fastest I had seen.

Coming into Dallas

Fort Worth

We had to wait a little while for the northbound train to arrive before we could head south on the single track to Temple

Santa Fe depot in Temple, Texas

Southbound, two cars for Houston were switched out at Temple. Northbound, they were switched in here.

heading home

The Amtrak train had been late arriving in Austin, and north of Austin we came up behind a stalled freight train on the Santa Fe and lost even more time.

Back in Temple, where we picked up the two cars from Houston

Headed north to Fort Worth

By the time we left Dallas in the evening, we had accumulated forty-five minutes in delays.

The ride over the MoPac that night was the fastest I've ever gone outside the Northeast Corridor. My sleeper was the first car benind the locomotives, and when the engineer blew the air horn for the crossings in the small towns, the doubling-up of the Doppler effect made the echo coming back off the grain elevators eerily shrill. The scenery was really flying by, and the ride was smooth and steady.

We arrived in St. Louis ten minutes early the next morning.

Headed for Chicago past a familiar landmark. On the last segment of the trip, every seat was full and some people were standing or sitting in the aisles.

I could admit that I messed up on this shot and delete it, or I could say that it's art that conveys speed and motion, and leave it in. I think I'll call it art. Pretend you don't know better.

Lafayette, Indiana Street Running, 1988

The passenger depot was the Lahr Hotel. The hotel was no longer in business, and I think the Amtrak ticket office was the only part of the building that was open.

The limestone building ahead on the left is the former Monon passenger depot. It is now the Civic Theatre.

On a Saturday morning in May, 1988 I arrived downtown early and picked a parking spot with a good view of the railroad crossing. I had a 1982 Chevy pickup with a cap on the bed, and I set up my camera on a tripod atop the truck and waited.

I ducked into a nearby restaurant for breakfast while waiting for the second train. I heard a diesel horn, so I dashed outside to grab a couple of shots of a CSX freight rumbling through.

Philadelphia 30th Street Station 1991

Here's the interior of 30th Street Station in 1991, undergoing renovation …

... and the exterior. Approaching the building from the street, you'd never guess that it and the post office next door sit on a huge platform over a cavernous rail facility. The structure is supported on trunnions to allow for expansion and contraction caused by temperature changes.

Garrett, Indiana 1991

Lafayette Street Running, 1992

Baltimore 1996

A MARC commuter train sits at Union Station as an Amtrak Northeast Direct train arrives at stops at the platform.

Rochester NY 2000

Port Kent NY 2000

Chicago - Milwaukee 2005

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I boarded Amtrak Hiawatha Service #335, departing Union Station at 1:05 and arriving on time in Milwaukee at 2:37. The coach was decent and the ride was comfortable. Milwaukee's Amtrak station needs help, though. The trainshed is dark and gloomy and has a leaky roof, and the platform has puddles on it.

Return trip

A full private trainset and at least three private business cars were stored at the Amtrak station

The lot behind the depot at Sturtevant is sometimes jam-packed with Case – IH and New Holland tractors. On the way to Chicago on Friday, I saw a Norfolk-Southern freight headed east with several flatcars loaded with tractors, so that's probably why there were so few there on Sunday.

The F40 on the left isn't really a locomotive any more; it's been "neutered." Amtrak has replaced that model as power for trains and sold most of them. They've taken a few and depowered them, and they use them as control cabs on the station-end of push-pull trains. I think they might sometimes serve an extra function as baggage cars, too. They work like the Metra bi-level cars with cabs on the end; they allow a train to be controlled from either end so that it doesn't have to be turned around to change directions. Putting a control cab on the station end avoids having a roaring, stinking diesel engine up next to the headhouse in a covered trainshed like the one at Union Station, and makes the walk between the station and the train much more pleasant.

Just after I shot this photo, I saw security coming for me. They have a standard way of approaching; they're on a path to pass you, and they're looking straight ahead, and then at the last minute they turn and intercept you. The guy at Randolph Street the last time used the same approach. Maybe it's to catch a terrorist off guard so he won't bolt?