Snow trains

The above photo (which you will want to double click on, to see the entire thing) is from the February, 1948 New Hampshire Troubadour.  The photo is by Boston and Maine Railroad, George Hill.  It pictures skiers leaving the Snow Train in North Conway.  You can see the train cars there at the back of the picture.  I think that the vehicle just behind the skiers may be one to transport them to the actual slopes ... from what I understand, the various ski areas would have transportation waiting when the trains pulled in.

I've been intending to put this post together for awhile.  We'll see how coherent it is or isn't, as I've cobbled it together over a couple of weeks and used a number of resources.

  Of course most people are aware that skiing has a long and fascinating history in New Hampshire, but not everyone realizes that, before the average person was able to afford their own car, skiers came to New Hampshire's mountains by train.  By snow trains, to be exact.

The Conway Scenic Railroad's website states that when Mount Cranmore [located in North Conway] opened for its first season in 1937-1938, snow trains brought skiers from Boston to help fill its slopes.  During the war years in the 1940s, as many as five trains every Sunday brought thousands of skiers to North Conway for a one-day excursion!  At their peak usage, the snow trains transported 24,000 passengers each ski season!

I had known about Snow Trains, of course, and always was intrigued by the idea.  But recently a couple of things have piqued my interest even more.  It was probably last winter when I noticed a poem about the snow train in one of my vintage New Hampshire Troubadour issues, accompanied by the photo above.  I knew that I wanted to share it on my blog.  Here it is:

SNOW TRAIN
by Pauline Soroka Chadwell

Even one day among the hills of snow
Has surely wrought a change in them -- they wear
The look of mountains in their eyes, the flow
Of health whipped to new life by crisp, clean air
On glowing faces.  Somehow, voices, too,
Speak with an eager warmth not often heard
In urban groups, as they all scatter through
The station, parting with a friendly word.

No city walls can ever hold them long --
Now that they've known the freedom of the hills,
The brimming rapture of the ski trail's song,
Beauty, so perfect, that it quickens, thrills
The soul -- Leaders of men are taking shape
In youth that turns to mountains for escape.

This was originally published, apparently, in the Portland Oregonian, in a section called "Oregonian Verse".

This poem surely is a powerful reminder of how good it is for us to get sunshine, exercise, and fresh air in the midst of God's glorious creation.   It's not just healthy, it invigorates our thinking and gives us a sense of perspective.  Sometimes I wonder how much better things would be in our land if we (all of us, but thinking of younger people in particular) spent more time in the outdoors, rather than tethered to devices, social media, and video games.  We'll probably never know the answer to that, but it's an interesting question.

Since discovering this poem,  I've also found some wonderful vintage magazine advertisements for the snow trains.

Before reading up on them, I had not realized that the snow trains brought skiers for only a one-day excursion!  I had assumed it was for a weekend.

In  his article "Snow Train Parade", author John Gruber wrote in Trains magazine: "Boston and Maine’s early and long-lived efforts are the best known among snow trains. B&M inaugurated its one-day excursions on January 11, 1931, carrying 196 people to Warner, New Hampshire, a ski resort. The railroad, in cooperation with the Appalachian Ski Club, took more than 8,000 passengers out of Boston in that first, 10-week season."

In that time frame of the early 1930s one could travel round-trip from Boston to the New Hampshire ski slopes on the snow trains for about $1.75.  Even in the early fifties, the snow trains were not expensive: "Lots of fun for little cost" -- as the 1953 advertisement states below.



Traveling on the Snow Train was just plain fun, apparently: a sort of ongoing party until the train reached its destination.  An old poster from the Boston and Maine Railroad advertised:  “See old friends again…meet scores of other ski enthusiasts…visit up and down the aisles as the bright, warm cars roll on toward the glistening slopes and cheerful lodges.”

In an article by Kathi Caldwell-Hopper, published last November in the newspaper The Laker, I read that "The casual atmosphere of the snow trains meant improvising sleeping conditions; sweaters and parkas became pillows and blankets and hot thermos beverages and sandwiches were shared among friends and fellow passengers.  The baggage cars on the snow trains became the storage area for skis and the cars often doubled as ski repair and waxing stations."

But it wasn't only young people who traveled to the mountains on the snow trains.  In an article by Ernest Poole in the January 1948 New Hampshire Troubadour, I read,  "As years passed and the Snow Trains increased, more older people came on these rides.  Most of them came along to ski, but a story is told of one little old lady who took a train each Sunday, rode with the young people up this way and then sat knitting till they returned.  When asked by a girl why she did it, she said: 'Just to be with young folks, dear.  Down there in Boston I get so sick of just sittin' around listenin' to my arteries harden'."   I can see myself in her shoes, taking a snow train north and sitting and crocheting or embroidering in one of the ski lodges.  Far preferable to just sitting around at home.

It all sounds wonderful, doesn't it?  No wonder thousands of skiers came north each winter on the snow trains!  I for one wish the trains were still running.  But then I tend to be sentimental.  How about you?

A few pictures from vacation

Taken at Nevada Northern Railway in Ely

I have a sad story to tell regarding our vacation pictures ... basically, we took only a few.  We brought our camera, of course, but were so busy at first that we left the picture-taking up to our daughter and son-in-law.  During our time there, we all took a road trip to Great Basin National Park and the Ely, Nevada area, and of course we made sure to bring along the camera. 

We started our trek with lunch at the home of some ranching friends.  After leaving their place, we traveled through ranch country on dirt roads for some time.  I snapped a few random pictures out the car window to just get a general flavor of the scenery.

Springtime in Nevada's ranch  country

Big Sky country for sure

Just a random ranching scene

The next day, as we visited the National Park, toured Lehman Caves, and drove up Mt. Wheeler,  I made a startling discovery.  There was no memory card in the camera!   All we  had was the internal memory in the camera, which would allow us perhaps 20 pictures.  At this point I was seriously regretting those random photos taken out the car window.  They were nothing special, and I had wasted memory in taking them.

That night our thoughtful son-in-law went to Family Dollar (the best local possibility) and purchased a memory card for us as a surprise.  However, though all of us tried that night and the next morning, we could not format the card so that our camera would accept it. 

The next morning, my daughter and I and the baby walked around Ely looking at the murals while the other kids and the guys dug for garnets.  Joanna was able to change the picture resolution in the camera to double the amount of memory available.  That helped enough so that we could get photos of some of the murals (a later post) and a few on the steam train we rode later that day.

The conductor and our family

Just a random scene along the way; the train ride was about 90 minutes long and went through copper mining country.

Approaching one of two tunnels along the route

This is the coaling tower for the railway.  Do you see the resident owl?  There were two baby owls in there as well!

We do, of course, have all of the photos taken by our daughter and her hubby, but have yet to get those onto the computer.  So for now, these (and the murals which I will share another time) will have to do for vacation pictures.  Enjoy!

What I did on my vacation

Well, it really is past time that I posted about our vacation, now that we’ve been back well over a month. I started writing a post a few weeks ago, but it was turning into more of an Amtrak travelogue and was going to take me forever to actually finish it.

So I’m just going to share the highlights, with a few pictures.

The first photo was actually taken from the bus station. We took a bus to Boston to catch the train to NYC and then get another train -- the Silver Meteor -- to Jacksonville, FL. There was a pretty sunrise while we were waiting for the bus, so Mr. T got this photo.


Much later in the day, aboard the Silver Meteor, he got this beautiful sunset picture as well.


We had left Boston around 8:30 a.m. and arrived in Jacksonville about 24 hours later. The Enterprise people picked us up at the Amtrak station and took us back to the car rental place to do the paperwork for the rental car. It was there that I learned that our sneaky youngest daughter and her 1-year-old son had flown from Nevada to Jacksonville and were even then waiting for us to pick them up at the airport. What an incredible surprise and blessing!

We were to stay with friends in Panama City -- these friends are like parents to my daughter, and she was surprising them as well. Since she had previously (by phone) questioned me thoroughly as to what activities were planned for our vacation, she knew just what we’d be doing. One plan had been to go camping at the beach for a couple of nights, so my resourceful child had packed one whole suitcase full of camping gear. Tent, sleeping bags, rain fly, tarp -- you name it.

We arrived at our friends’ home on Thursday afternoon after driving through a torrential rainstorm. After they got over their shock at seeing 2 extra people and made arrangements to borrow a high chair and pack’n’play, we had a wonderful evening together which included an incredible Southern meal. I’m sure to forget something, but there was fried turkey breast, mashed potatoes & gravy, field peas, cornbread.. to name just part of this feast.

On Friday evening, we were invited to a relative of our friends for supper. Our friends bought fresh gulf shrimp and we had a shrimp boil at a wonderful old Florida farmhouse. Mr. T and I had never tasted such delicious shrimp in our lives! We also had baked potatoes and salad, and our hostess had made a lovely cake with an orange sauce for dessert.

On Saturday, we drove several hours to a family reunion for our host’s family. Talk about food! Our friends had promised this would be a spread of real Southern home cooking, and oh, my! They did not exaggerate. Several long handmade tables were set up outdoors and were literally covered with dishes of every description. I wouldn’t be able to list everything if I tried, but it was all delicious. One of the desserts was a yellow cake with chocolate icing which my hostess had previously told me to watch for. This cake had 10 layers! Thin layers, to be sure, but that cake was 10 layers high. It didn’t look to me as if the layers had been split, so I asked the lady who made the cake. Oh no, each layer was baked in a separate pan. I couldn’t resist asking her if she owned that many cake pans. She does!

Following the official reunion, quite a few of our host’s immediate family members gathered at their ancestral family farmhouse for more time together. I enjoyed visiting with some of the relatives on the screened in back porch while I cross-stitched. Mr. T got a tour of the farm and fields from our host. It was another opportunity to see some of the “real” Florida most tourists don’t get to see.



Sunday of course was church and we thoroughly enjoyed time that we spent at our friends’ church, both for the Sunday services and also the midweek service on Wednesday night. It’s a larger church than ours, but very much the same in a lot of ways, so we felt right at home.

On Monday we headed out to St. Andrews State Park, where we would spend 2 nights camping. Our friends have a motor home, and we older folks slept there, while our daughter and grandson stayed in the tent they’d brought. What a wonderful state park it is! We would definitely enjoy camping there again sometime if we had the opportunity. There are actually 2 campground areas within this park -- Lagoon Campground and Pine Grove Campground. Our site was in Pine Grove, and looked right out on the bay. In the mornings we could watch all sorts of water birds fishing for their breakfasts. It was such a great campsite!



One of the days we were there, our hostess drove us to the town of Seaside to do some sightseeing. It’s just a beautiful little community with fabulous, interesting architecture and some very intriguing shops. We went in several shops and also went down to the beach, where these photos were taken.




On Wednesday, our last day at the campground, we went over to the ocean (Gulf of Mexico) side of the state park. We couldn’t swim, because red flags were posted, but we enjoyed walking along the beach and watching and photographing the wind and waves. A large cargo ship was making its way into the harbor, and our little grandson especially enjoyed watching its progress.


Thursday we headed for Tallahassee and spent the night with Mr. T’s sister and her family. That was really nice, as we hadn’t seen them in over a year.

Friday afternoon, we took our daughter and grandson to the Jacksonville airport. It was hard saying goodbye, but we were so thankful for the opportunity to have spent time with them. An hour or so after leaving them, we were once more headed north aboard the Silver Meteor.

Our trip home couldn’t be said to be uneventful... it was a series of delays and disgruntled people, and I must say I still haven’t figured out why Penn Station in NYC has no seating (other than in the food court) for anyone except Amtrak first-class passengers. Everyone else sits on their luggage or the floor, if they sit at all. Oh well, we got safely home, and only a few hours later than planned.

And the next day we had yet another surprise! Our sneaky daughter had not flown home to Nevada after all, but had flown to Boston where her brother picked her up. She managed to surprise another set of people, and to surprise me again too!

All in all, it was a wonderful vacation, even though it turned out very differently than I expected! It was such a treat to see our friends and relatives and especially to be able to interact with our youngest grandson. God is so good!

OUR AMTRAK ADVENTURE, Part 6

First Class on the Lake Shore Limited, Chicago to Albany

Sunday evening, October 22

Aboard the Lake Shore Limited, we were welcomed by Sharon, our hospitable sleeper car attendant, who informed us we could head straight to the dining car for supper. (It's been interesting finding our way to the dining car on the four different trains. On the first train, it was a simple matter of going into the next car; on the second and third trains, we had to go upstairs and then pass through another sleeping car to access the dining car. On this train, you follow long, winding. windowless corridors through two sleeping cars to get there. Of them all, I liked this setup the least. It's sort of claustrophobic.)

We were seated with an interesting couple from St. Louis and enjoyed a lively conversation about the Cardinals and the World Series. Mr. T and I both had beef ragout with mashed potatoes, carrots and broccoli, plus the salad and rolls that are usual with dinner here. Mr. T had a piece of mud pie for dessert.

Sharon was a real sweetheart. Finding herself with a number of extra rooms, she made some changes and allotted us the room across the hall for ours as well. So we could sit in one and sleep in the other. Since the roomettes on this train all have in-room sinks and toilets, it was like having a private bathroom (minus shower) as well. It was like our own little suite and was a very comfortable arrangement.

Monday, October 23

We both slept very well. After showers and a nice cup of hot coffee (courtesy of Sharon -- she has a nice little area all set up with drinks and snacks) we headed for breakfast. We both ordered the three-cheese quiche with sausage and hash browns. Our waiter -- whom we had observed last night waiting on others -- was a delight to watch. He literally runs up and down the aisle between tables, alternately holding his tray high and dipping it low as he runs. He serves things with a flourish and obviously loves his job. (And, as Mr.T pointed out, all of that running, lifting, and dipping may also help him keep his balance while serving food and beverages on a lurching train.)

After breakfast, we returned to our sitting room for devotions, prayer, and relaxation. The scenery was lovely -- we were traveling alongside the Erie Canal at times -- and, although the skies were overcast, there was still some beautiful fall foliage to be seen. The train was running about 2 hours late, due to having to wait for freight trains, but Sharon assured us our connecting train in Albany would wait for us.

It did, too! Soon after a late lunch (we both had pizza and salad), we were pulling into Albany. We didn't even go into the station this time, but switched from one train to another at trackside.

The last leg of our journey was pretty much exactly like the first one, so there's not much need to write about coach class from Albany to Springfield. We slept through much of it. We stopped at Cracker Barrel in Holyoke, MA for supper. It was a fitting finale to our Amtrak Adventure!

OUR AMTRAK ADVENTURE, Part 5

Eastbound on the California Zephyr

This part of our trip was an adventure to begin with! We knew it would be best to check ahead of time before assuming our train would actually be in Elko for us to board at 9:40 p.m. Everything we could determine from our phone calls and Internet checking said that the train would be on time, so around 9:20 we all drove to the train "station". (In Elko this is just a glass-enclosed waiting area with no amenities of any sort.) Others were waiting too, but no train. We waited, I think, close to an hour before receiving an update that the train had just left Winnemucca. From this we knew that it would be at least 2 more hours before it reached Elko. So we said our goodbyes to our daughter, son-in-law and baby grandson, all of whom needed sleep more than they needed to wait with us. Our friends graciously drove us back to their home, where we nibbled on popcorn and played a board game until it was time to head for the station once again.

We were sure we'd allowed plenty of time -- but as we approached the road to the station, my friend looked down and exclaimed, "There's a train down there!" It turned out to be a freight train (big sigh of relief here) and our "9:40 p.m. train" eventually arrived close to 1:00 a.m. Once again we had to thank our friends for their hospitality, kindness, and sense of humor with the situation.

Our car attendant, Reggie, welcomed us warmly and got us settled in Room 11 -- the exact same room we'd had coming out. We really slept quite well!

Saturday, October 21 -- After a good breakfast -- we both enjoyed the Bob Evans Scramble again -- we spent the rest of the morning in the observation car enjoying the splendor of the Rockies. We had a lovely conversation with the lady next to us, who struck up a conversation with us about our camera. She turned out to be a Christian. It was so neat how the Lord provided Christian fellowship on our journey!

For lunch, one of us ordered a supreme pizza and the other a grilled chicken sandwich, and we split them between us. The pizza was very good, but the sandwich was definitely my least favorite of all the dining car fare we sampled. (I should add that I never really care for the way grilled chicken sandwiches always tend to slide out of the bun anyway. I just keep ordering them now and then because they're healthier than some other choices.)

In Elko, I had begun feeling sort of sick (sore throat) and never was really sure if it was an actual cold or just the dry air. I took lots of Airborne and felt better in a couple of days. But now, I could tell I had fluid in my ears and it was making me sort of motion-sick. So I spent the afternoon in our room, after consuming some Sudafed and ginger-root capsules. I put on my Sea Bands® motion sickness wristbands at this point, and kept them firmly in place for the remainder of the journey!

I felt better by suppertime, and we both enjoyed the evening's special -- country-fried steak & gravy -- with potatoes (baked for me, mashed for Mr.T) and veggies (carrots and Italian green beans). I had had Mississippi Mud Pie at lunch, so skipped dessert now in favor of a cup of tea. We had a lively conversation with our dinner companions, Lil and Amber, a mother-daughter duo from Colorado and Utah, respectively. A snowstorm had prevented them from driving to a family event in Denver, so they decided to take the train instead.

Sunday, October 22 -- For breakfast this morning I had the Bob Evans Scramble again and Mr. T enjoyed French toast with sausage on the side. Our breakfast companions were an older Amish couple who own a cabinet-making shop in Illinois.

We spent time in the dome car, then returned to our room for devotions. We had lunch with Brad and Betty, a nice Christian couple from Colorado. Both husbands had the Angus beef burger and both wives ordered the Chicken Caesar Salad. We all had cheesecake for dessert. Our server, Bill, kept reminding us that the dining car desserts are "calorie free" so that's why we all had dessert!

After lunch, Mr. T spent more time in the dome car. I returned to our room, where I crocheted, dozed a little, and organized our carry-on bags. We would be getting into Chicago around 5:15 p.m. -- only a couple of hours late! The train really made up time en route, since we had started out about 4 hours late.

At Union Station, we headed for the Metropolitan Lounge. We stored our carry-ons and checked our other bags through to Springfield. Mr. T, along with Brad and Betty, who were still with us, went out to take a quick look at Chicago. They got something to eat at the food court in the station, since they would be traveling in coach class for the rest of their trip. Mr. T and I learned that we would be getting supper on the train, so we didn't buy any food. Soon enough, our train was boarding, so we again hopped aboard a speedy little baggage vehicle and were whisked to the proper car.

Next installment: First Class aboard the Lake Shore Limited

OUR AMTRAK ADVENTURE, Part 4

The above are just a few of the scenes we observed as the California Zephyr wound its way through the mountains of Colorado and Utah.


Part 4 -- First Class on the CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR

As mentioned before, the California Zephyr is a Superliner train. The cars have a second level. Here's an excerpt from my journal:

October 11 -- "Our room on this train seems a tiny bit smaller and there is no sink or toilet, but the bathrooms are very close by, and there's a nice shower (much larger than on the previous train) just a few steps away from our door. This train has an upstairs, and we have to go up there to access the dining car. So far, it's a very nice train!"

On that first day, we spent some time in the observation car and enjoyed it very much, even though the sights so far were nothing compared to what they would be in the Rockies. One highlight was crossing the Mississippi River in Burlington, Iowa. Even though the afternoon was gray and drizzly, it was still a majestic sight.

That night, I had the salmon fillet for supper. It was absolutely delicious. Mr. T chose pork shanks. One of the dessert offerings was chocolate bundt cake, which I assumed would be just a slice of bundt cake. Not so! It was -- as I observed from dessert trays being delivered to other diners -- an individual chocolate mini-bundt cake, covered in chocolate ganache and drizzled with white chocolate. We didn't have time for dessert that evening -- we should have ordered it at the time of ordering our meals, we discovered after the fact. Oh well -- we probably didn't need the calories, anyway!

The dining car staff is absolutely amazing -- they manage to feed all these people on a moving (sometimes lurching) train, and they do it so efficiently and graciously. There are white tablecloths, cloth napkins, and -- on the California Zephyr, anyway -- real flowers on the tables. We found that when the trains are full, you don't usually need reservations for breakfast, but for lunch and dinner a dining car staff member will go through the train and ask people to make reservations for the time they prefer to eat. It seems to work out pretty well.

We had a better night's sleep, in spite of several stops during the night when passengers boarded the train at various stations along the way.

October 12 -- Breakfast was French toast for both of us, with pork sausage patties on the side. Our dining companions were a nice couple from Minnesota.

We spent the rest of the morning in the observation car, enjoying the scenery from Denver on. We both chose the Angus beef burgers for lunch -- very good -- and enjoyed chatting with a lovely couple from Kansas City celebrating their 50th anniversary with a wonderful train trip -- a gift from their children.

Here's an entry from my journal:

3:45 pm, October 12 -- "The passing scenery here in the Colorado Rockies is absolutely incredible. I suppose the people who live here are used to it, but it's hard to imagine becoming used to such majesty. I'm here in our roomette, enjoying some quiet time for reading and study. I view these mountains and am moved at the power and majesty of their Creator. I'm reminded of the words of the hymnwriter: "I sing the mighty power of God, that made the mountains rise...".

We got off the train for a 10-minute stop in Grand Junction, CO. It was so nice to get off the train for a few moments and to stretch our legs. We walked through the station and around the other side to where there was a mailbox. Here we mailed some postcards (bought on the train) for our grandkids back home.

At some stops there isn't even time to get off the train, but whenever there is, passengers are reminded to heed the train whistle and the car attendant's call of "All Aboard!" Failure to heed this will result in being left behind -- and it does happen. As the car attendant reminded people while they were getting off, "The next train is in 24 hours!"

Our sleeping car attendants on all four trains were excellent. These folks work so hard to make sure their passengers are comfortable. Gwendolyn, the car attendant on this train, was a standout. We were sad to find she would be off duty on our return trip!

We went to bed around 10, setting our cell phone's alarm for 2:45 a.m. since we were to get into Elko, NV at around 3:20 a.m. The first thing that happened was that the alarm went off an hour early, since we had been in Mountain Time when we set it, and Elko is in Pacific Time. Then, the train was greatly delayed after Salt Lake City -- a common occurrence, according to Gwendolyn -- so we didn't get to Elko until 5 a.m.

The conductor came down to let us off, but prior to that a flustered Gwendolyn also appeared -- she had to make up our room for someone else who would be boarding the train at Elko. We quickly vacated the room so she could do so, and chatted with the conductor while waiting. We pulled into Elko, and he helped us off with our bags. On the platform, our friends waited with welcoming smiles. What good sports they were, to get up in the middle of the night to meet us!

For the next installment, I want to share a little bit about Elko, Nevada and some of our favorite places there, before returning to the Amtrak adventure. Stay tuned!

OUR AMTRAK ADVENTURE, Part 3

Our Amtrak Adventure,
Part 3: Union Station,Chicago, IL Chicago, not far from Union Station

OUR AMTRAK ADVENTURE, Part 3

Union Station

We were scheduled for a four-hour layover in Chicago, and looked forward to exploring the station and maybe going up the Sears Tower. (I will admit that my husband was much more gung-ho about this possible adventure than I was.) The weather was ruling out the Sears Tower as we approached Chicago, being gray and drizzly. Time was also ruling it out... as mentioned, our train was over an hour late at this point. Time became even more of an issue at the baggage claim.

Since the station we would be getting off at in Nevada was an unmanned one, we had to claim our baggage at Chicago and bring it to the next train with us. It would ride on the sleeping car with us from here on out. We had only checked 3 bags, and 2 of them came through quickly. We had quite a wait for the third bag, however, and time was rapidly ticking by. But once we had all our bags, help was in sight!

One of the wonderful perks of riding first class is access to Amtrak's Metropolitan Lounge in Chicago. (I believe the stations in Boston and New York also have them, and maybe other stations as well.) We were so thankful we had this nice place to wait, and a place within the lounge to store our bags. You check in when you first arrive, and the nice people at the desk write you up a pass which you will use to get in and out of the lounge. They also write on this pass what time your train will be boarding, and it serves as your boarding pass as well.

The Metropolitan Lounge is a very large waiting area just filled with comfortable couches, chairs, loveseats, and coffee tables, end tables, even tables with chairs to work or eat at. There's even a fireplace. There's a large TV screen and also monitors to check arrivals and departures of trains. There's plenty of free soft drinks, coffee, tea, water, and snacks. We quickly found a nice loveseat with its own coffee table and settled in. Then, since we knew we wouldn't be getting lunch on the California Zephyr, Mr.T went out of the station to Potbelly, a sub shop previously recommended by a friend. He brought back some yummy subs and we enjoyed them with the complimentary Pepsi provided there in the lounge. While he was gone, I people-watched and got lots of cross-stitch done. The lounge really filled up during the time we were there. It was encouraging to see men giving up their seats for ladies and younger people offering their seats to older folks.

Another really neat thing about being in the Metropolitan Lounge is that when your train is ready to board, you can get redcap service right there from the lounge. So when the California Zephyr was ready to board, we found a redcap right at the door of the lounge waiting for us. A speedy little baggage vehicle whisked us right to the train!

Next installment: First Class on the California Zephyr

OUR AMTRAK ADVENTURE, Part 2

Part 2 -- Traveling First Class on the LAKE SHORE LIMITED

This leg of our trip took us from Albany, NY to Chicago, IL. This Lake Shore Limited was train 49, and it was also “Late-for-Sure” -- about 40 minutes late. But, as we were to learn, 25 minutes and 40 minutes were not long delays at all. Trains can (and often do) run several hours late.



We enjoyed seeing the train station at Albany during our layover there. It is new and absolutely beautiful. It has a food court and even its own branch post office.








And it’s good we got to see it on the way out, because we didn’t see it on the return trip -- just stepped from one train to the next outside. During our wait we snacked on granola bars and speculated as to whether we would be too late to get supper on the train. (We weren’t.)

Even roomettes -- the cheapest, smallest rooms in sleeping cars -- are considered First Class on Amtrak, so meals are complimentary, along with other treats like in-room morning newspapers, coffee, juice, and bottled water. We had heard good things about the food in the dining car, and we weren’t disappointed. I wrote in my journal:

“Supper was good, although we were eating very late. Mr. T had Beef Ragout, and I had the roast chicken. We even had dessert -- he had cheesecake, and I had Mississippi Mud Cake. Very good!”

Here’s another excerpt from my journal: “10:15 p.m. -- We’re cozily ensconced in our little roomette. It IS small, but very comfy indeed. We think we’ll sleep very well. They fit an amazing amount in such a small space. There’s a toilet in here, two bunks, a fold-down sink, a fold-down table, quite a bit of storage space -- it’s great!”

Here's a photo which shows part of our roomette. You can see the window, the fold-down table (in the closed position), a corner of one seat, and our water bottles.

I should add that the Lake Shore Limited sleeper cars are what’s called a Viewliner. When the upper bunk is brought down into position, the person who has that space gets his very own picture window. The roomettes on the Viewliners do seem much more spacious. The Superliners (which we’ll get to later) have an upper level, with bedrooms on both levels, so understandably the rooms need to be smaller.

We didn’t sleep as well as we’d hoped, but I think that’s understandable -- getting used to the motion of the train, hearing the track sounds and the whistle (which blows almost constantly at times) and -- something we hadn’t anticipated -- the roar of passing freight trains.

There was a shower just down the hall -- rather cramped quarters, but not bad. The hardest thing to deal with was getting bounced around as the train sped along the tracks. On this train, I had a rather scary experience -- after showering and dressing, I found that I couldn’t open the door into the hallway! Somehow, probably from all the movement of the train, it had gotten stuck in the locked position! I had visions of myself having to ring for the car attendant to let me out. Fortunately, I was able to use a comb to push up on the bolt and open the door.

Breakfast was wonderful. Mr. T chose the Bob Evans Scramble, a mixture of eggs, sausage and cheese, which comes with hash browns and a bowl of fruit on the side. I ordered the three-cheese quiche, which was excellent, with sausage patties on the side. Juice and coffee were also included for both of us. We had already found, by this point, that one of the highlights of this trip was going to be sitting with all sorts of different people at meals and getting to know them just a bit. I imagine some people hate this part, but we really enjoyed all of the different folks we were able to meet and chat with.

The Lake Shore Limited pulled into Union Station in Chicago about an hour and 10 minutes behind schedule. Late-for-Sure again!

Next Installment: Union Station

OUR AMTRAK ADVENTURE, Part 1

Parts 1 (and 7) -- Coach Class on the LAKE SHORE LIMITED

We began our journey traveling in coach class on the Lake Shore Limited from Massachusetts to Albany, New York, and ended it by traveling, again in coach, from Albany to Massachusetts. This leg of our trip was only 3 or 4 hours long, so that is why we traveled in coach. We were on train 449 -- due to arrive at 2:20 that first day, but which actually arrived closer to 2:45.

I had done a lot of research into Amtrak travel, and was expecting a lot of friendliness from the Amtrak folks. We didn’t see that in Massachusetts, either coming or going. That could well be just Massachusetts itself! In other places, we found the Amtrak folks in the stations, and especially on the trains, to be very friendly and helpful.

We were pleasantly surprised by the comfort of the seating in the coach cars. The seats are roomy, comfortable and will recline. There are foot rests and pull-down tables in front of you, and much more legroom than in airplane seats. Each coach car has two restrooms, and there is a cafe´car where one can purchase snacks, sandwiches, etc. We had eaten lunch before we got on the train, so were not hungry. Toward the end of the trip, we snacked on some grapes we’d brought along.

The views of the fall foliage from our windows were very nice -- unfortunately, many of the photos we took also feature the knees of the young men in the seats across from us. This part of the trip was just a bit nerve-racking because we were seated in the midst of a group of foreign-exchange students -- high-school age, I would say -- who spent most of the trip roaming the aisles and chatting with one another in German (or a similar language) quite loudly. At first it didn’t bother us, but I had quite a headache by the time we got to Albany.

Here’s an excerpt from my journal concerning Part 1 of the trip:

“2:55 p.m. -- “Well. we are aboard the Lake Shore Limited and moving toward Albany. The conductor has just come through and punched our tickets. The train was a good 25 minutes late. I read on the Internet that this train is nicknamed the “Late-for-Sure Limited”, and so far it is proving true!“

On this leg of the journey on our return trip, we saw some lovely views from the windows, but we reclined our seats and slept most of the way.
All in all, our experience in coach class was a good one, and we decided we could do an entire short trip in coach easily -- as long as it didn’t involve more than one overnight.

Next installment -- First Class on the LAKE SHORE LIMITED.