Rails Around the USA:
Summer, 2005

Boston to Ann Arbor

July 29, August 3-4, 2005

Laurence Krieg

7/29/2005

13:00 Boston South Station

The Lakeshore Boston section has pulled out of Boston South station at 13:00, right on the dot.

I didn't have a chance to check the head end - got here just in time. I'm travelling in unreserved coach, since Pittsfield is (theoretically) just a short hop from here.

13:05 Back Bay

At Back Bay station, quite a lot of of people get on. Out at 13:07. The conductor announces that all seats on this train are sold.

13:32 Framingham

Arrive Framingham after a smooth ride with no stops or delays, even though we blasted through some bridge construction.
13:34 Leave Framingham

14:08 - 14:12 Worcester

A Mexican woman with two small children gets on, but has no identification. The conductor, a woman, will need to notify the police. The woman speaks no English, but fortunately there's an older Central American woman travelling with her husband who can translate and advise. She even lets the Mexican woman use her cell phone to call her sister, in Worcester, to have identification mailed overnight. However, neither the passenger nor her sister seem clear about what to do or what the problem is. The passenger seems sweet and calm, but not too quick on the uptake. Perhaps she has no documentation at all, is in the country illegally, and is temporizing to avoid being found out. Her kids are cute: a boy about six and a girl three. Unfortunately, the little girl, like most three-year-olds, knows how to use her voice when she doesn't get her way: it's very high pitched and piercing, insisting on attention while her mother is on the phone. Such innocents shouldn't be allowed out without supervision.

15:27 - 15:31 Springfield

Quite a few got off here, and not quite as many got on. I've been sharing my seat, but now have the seat to myself.

16:35 Unscheduled stop

16:38 Our east-bound sister passes and we're on our way again. She was on the west-bound track, passing two CSX manifests waiting on the east-bound track.

Pittsfield

I didn't make any notes about our arrival time in Pittsfield. I think we were pretty close to on time.

8/3/2005

18:46 Pittsfield

P-42 number 62 pulled into Pittsfield Station at about 18:22, one hour forty-six minutes late. One of the others waiting at the platform said the trains were limited to 40 MPH due to heat; the conductors also mentioned that 447 was behind a freight for about 80 miles. That's quite credible, since a CSX manifest (headed by a CSX Dash-9 and three BNSF SD40-2s) had pulled into the station on the far track about 5 minutes before 447. Another CSX manifest had been waiting for at least 45 minutes at the crossover just west of the station, where the line narrows from two tracks to one.

19:11 Berkshires

At full track speed, we're descending Taconic Mountain. The conductor says we were limited to 40 until 7 PM, where the slow order expired. He also mentioned that the slow order is supposed to take effect when the temperature gets over 90 degrees, but it never even got that high.

21:41 Albany-Rensselaer

Aboard train 49, in a roomette, apparently by the skin of my teeth. My reservation was for car 4912, but there are only two sleepers, 4910 and 4911. Mr. Brown, the TA, squeezes me into a roomette in 4910 belonging to a no-show, so once again, it all works out.

I went directly to supper as we bumped across the Hudson River, and enjoyed Chicken Marsala with mashed potatos and corn. My companions were a retired couple from Vermont on their way to a Mississippi River cruise, and a friendly, talkative attorney - a great rail fan who remembers riding on the 20th Century Limited. I enjoyed his reminiscences, and we both enjoyed the Chocolate Pyramid for desert, together with tales of "chocoholic" adventures.

We've been making good time: no stops for traffic; bounding along the rather indifferently maintained track at between 60 and 79 MPH most of the way. Even so, we've been loosing snippets of time rather than making it up: 1 minute Albany to Schenectedy, three to Utica. I suspect the engineer has been forced to reduce speed due to track conditions.

22:02 Upstate New York

My initial enthusiasm for a shower has diminished, since (1) I'm tired; (2) this Viewliner sleeper has bathroom facilities (but not a shower) right in the room; and (3) the train is lurching from side to side at unpredictable intervals more violently than usual.

8/4/2005

06:00 Northern Ohio

Up at 5:30; at 5:55 the TA knocks to let me know we're coming near to Toledo. Dawn is breakng over a land and water scene as we skirt the bays of Lake Eire.

6:53 Toledo

Number 49 arrived in Toledo at 6:53, having made up eleven minutes of the time lost the previous day. Still, that left us one hour and twenty-three minutes late.

9:28 Ann Arbor

The "Thruway Motor Coach" ride from Toledo through Detroit and Dearborn to Ann Arbor was smooth and unremarkable. We arrived in Ann Arbor at 9:28 on August 4, completing the circle of the nation I began at 8:23 on June 10.

Home at last!

The bus from Toledo got to Ann Arbor about 9:30, and after breakfast at Espresso Royale I hopped on the number 6 bus and got home about noon.

The first thing I did was take a shower and change clothes; now I've unpacked and it will be time to face the stacks of mail neatly sorted by Martha.

I've been pleased to read about the nearly 1.2 billion dollars allocated by Congress for Amtrak. It's a little less than last year, but a lot more than the zero dollars proposed by the Administration. However, it's also disturbing to read about the consistent misinformation being used for decision-making (or public relations) at the Department of Transportation. As Eustace Clarence Scrubb remarked in C. S. Lewis's Voyage of the Dawn Treader, "Pleasant to be embarked on a dangerous voyage with people who can't even count right!"