Date: 2007-04-07
To: Trainman returns to Connecticut - part 2
Miles today: 0.0

Journal entry by TRAINMAN.I have over-estimated the suitability of a coach seat to be a substitute bed. For those of you not familiar with the accomodations of a railroad car, the seats compare favorably with a business class seat on a plane. The seat reclines to near-horizontal. They are wide and there is a LOT of space between your knees and the backside of the seat ahead. Unless the aisle-seat person is large, the window-seat person can usually squeeze by without even asking him to get up. Notwithstanding all of this, the quality of my night's rest is poor. I should probably blame the hiking pants I'm still wearing; the fabric is slipery, causing me to slide down into the seat too far. Most of the night I go through alternating 30-minute cycles of sleep and partial consciousness. At 6:30 AM I decide enough is enough, time to get up. I observe that there is an inch of fresh snow on the ground here in northern Virginia. The contrast with the just-greening trees, the white snow and a brilliant sun presents a striking mobile vista.We are, of course, still 90 minutes down on the schedule. Large portions of this route are single track. In many instances our passenger train pulls into the siding to let a freight train pass without stopping. THIS IS NOT THE WAY IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE. Amtrak is merely a tenant on these tracks that are owned by Norfolk Southern. As such, Amtrak's trains are supposed to have "priority," but dispatchers realize that getting the freight through without delay brings more to the bottom line. So we're ordered to pull over and wait. If the train was on schedule I would have plenty of time to make my connection in Washington. However, now that we're 90 minutes late, indications are that the connection may be missed by as little as 10 minutes. Many passengers hoping to make the same connection ask the conductor if the other train might wait for us. They're chagrined at the response: the train WILL NOT wait.As we slow for the stop in Washington, we receive some excellent news. Our connection is also running late, and is now conveniently located just across the platform from the arriving Crescent. Dare I say it, they actually do appear to be waiting for us! All the northbounders dash across the platform, and within 5 minutes we are on our way. With this change of events we have essentially wiped out the entire 90 minute delay. This is good, but I was hoping to see first-hand the inside of Washington Union Station. It underwent a total renovation some years ago and is now one of the most beautiful large stations in America. Oh well, just have to keep looking at the pictures in the books.The Northeast Corridor runs from Washington to Boston. Amtrak owns all the tracks and there are no freight trains to impede progress. At times we move along at 90 mph which I calculate by timing the passage of mileposts. This is travel as it's meant to be. The remainder of the journey brings no complaints from me. Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York pass in a blur. At New Haven, my final across the platform connection awaits. It takes less than 5 minutes and we depart. Around 5 PM I get off at the Winsor Locks (CT) station, actually an AMSHACK (remember those?). I call a taxi for the 12 minute ride home.Trainman's AT adventure is over for now. I'll continue doing the transcribing as Aprilshowers sends in notes from the trail. On many occasions I'll rejoin her on the trail and I'll have detailed reports to post. Stay tuned, it just gets better.For the continuing account of Aprilshowers, go next to entry 4/6/07 entitled "North to the Carolinas".