Amtrak's Vermonter to Springfield

Note:  I found this blog entry about the very beginning of our cross-country rail journey in my "Drafts" folder long after I had already started writing about this trip so this entry is not in chronological order with the rest of my entries about this trip.  Chronological or not, it is now finished and published.

I've been very undecided about how to tackle writing about such a long trip while sharing some of the photos I shot (I plan to share only a select few of the 8500+ photos) and even a few video clips.  For now, I decided to write mostly chronologically.  If some other topic pops up in the middle of a different topic, I may stray from this plan.  

In the months leading up to this rather complex trip while planning for this once in a lifetime cross-country journey by rail, we knew that we would be traveling for a minimum of two weeks.  The plan was to squeeze in as much as possible in this relatively short period of time.  Any delays, any weather problems and any train or track maintenance problems would extend our trip so we had to plan accordingly.  (As you will learn in other blog entries about our journey, we would indeed be hit by all three of these problems by the time our journey came to an end and we arrived back home.)  

We've done long trips by rail before so we were well aware of the importance of traveling as lightly as possible.  That being said, this coast-to-coast rail journey was probably a once in a lifetime event so we wanted to document it as best as possible so I carried some photography gear which gets heavy rather quickly.  We also wanted comfortable casual clothes as well as some dressier clothes for a few evenings not to mention winter clothes for the snowy destinations as well as summer clothes for the summery hot destinations.  This meant we needed to carry enough clothes to last a minimum of two weeks in multiple and drastically different climates, cameras, lenses, a small external hard drive, a laptop (with movies and books pre-loaded) and a few other odds and ends.  On top of that, my health requires a lot of medications each and every day so that alone required an entirely separate duffel bag.  (Yes... a small duffel bag carrying only medications.)  After months of careful planning, we had no problems packing everything very compactly and efficiently by the time our departure date arrived.

Sheila and I managed to fit everything into the four bags pictured in the first photo, above.  The smaller duffel bags stacked nicely onto our larger rolling suitcases.  The primary difficulty we encountered with this arrangement was lifting our bags when boarding and disembarking trains but, fortunately, the conductor is always there to help.  We also had some difficulties in finding enough room for our bags near our roomette on one route but I'll write more on that when I write a blog entry specifically about the Amtrak routes. 

We were all packed and ready to head to the train station a bit earlier than we had planned.  This was a good thing on this particular day because the snow was coming down quite well on this morning.  We would need some extra time to get to the station anyway so it was good that we were ready earlier than anticipated.  We had no idea what the roads would be like and our house was already surrounded by five foot tall snow piles.  At this point in the long winter season, we were definitely ready to head to sunny and warm California a few minutes earlier than planned so we headed to the train station a bit early.

This first leg of our journey was on Amtrak's Vermonter.  We've been on this train very many times.  We have traveled on this train so often, in fact, that it was difficult feeling as though our journey had begun because it actually felt so familiar.  We've traveled to Manhattan and beyond many times on this train so, this time, we sort of felt as though we were traveling to get to the beginning of our journey rather than already being on our journey.  Nevertheless, it felt good to sit on the train, settle in, get comfortable and hear the distinctive Amtrak horn as we passed through town after town.

Driving to the train station.

Amtrak's Vermonter is really one of Amtrak's "no-frills" train routes.  This train consists of only a few coach cars, a locomotive, and a cafe car.  The cafe car is not to be confused with a dining car.  The cafe car has a few tables at the front, a snack bar in the middle, and a very small business class seating area at the rear.  It is nothing fancy but it is functional.

The business class section is separated from the snack bar by a curtain which, to be honest, is a very poor excuse for a proper divider for what should be a quieter, more comfortable section of the train.  Instead, you are constantly watching and hearing the noise of the comings and goings of the cafe car.  To be honest, I find it to be quite distracting and a bit annoying even if these were coach seats.  Unfortunately, these are comfortable, large, more expensive Business Class seats located in a bad place on this train.

My one other complaint about Business Class on The Vermonter is that there is no bathroom located within the Business Class section of the car.  You must move forward in the train to a bathroom in either the forward end of the cafe car or one of the coach cars.  That is not at all convenient for your higher paying customers.

Waterbury train station.

On the positive side, regardless of the few problems I mentioned, I still feel as though the business class seats on this train are worth the extra cost.  The seats in this section are very soft, plush, wide, and leg room is ample which makes things a bit easier on my extensive spinal injuries.  These comfortable seats even recline similar to a home recliner with a footrest swinging out under your legs.  

Still, as I mentioned above, this plush peaceful environment is often invaded by the snack bar foot traffic, beeping microwave oven, and noisy sales transactions being in view and within earshot.  The curtain separating the business class from the snack bar is virtually useless.  Even when the curtain is in place at least blocking the distracting view, curious travelers waiting for service in the cafe car are constantly opening the curtain and then leaving the curtain open.  A dark-tinted glass wall and door would make far more sense here.  Additionally, the first time you need to find a bathroom, you are instantly reminded of how Business Class on Amtrak is clearly a poorly arranged afterthought since you must walk through non-Business Class sections to find an available bathroom.

Typically, we ride The Vermonter in Business Class for the more comfortable seating but, for the first leg of this cross country journey, we sat in coach instead.  We chose coach seats for this leg because the train is empty when we board near the beginning of the route in Waterbury so finding a clean area of quiet coach seats is a given.  We booked business class for our return trip and that turned out to be a very wise decision.  Traveling in the most comfortable seating for our last leg of a long cross-country journey was definitely appreciated!

We travel this route so often that the conductors are familiar to us as well.  Generally speaking, these conductors are very pleasant and usually in very good moods which definitely helps on a no-frills type of train like The Vermonter.  A frustrated and aggravated Conductor can quickly spread frustration and aggravation through his or her train.

The food on The Vermonter...  ehhh, well...  it is snack food, nothing more.  The biggest disappointment is that the few sandwiches they sell are exceptionally dry, hard and almost tasteless.  The bread is so hard that you need good teeth to cut through it (not crusty, just hard).  Any hot foods like pizza, hot dogs, etc, are frozen and microwaved as you order them so be prepared for that.  There is, however, a large assortment of snacks and drinks so one can't complain too much about the snack car on this relatively short route.  After all, it is a Cafe Car and not a Dining Car.  Perhaps, in an effort to minimized disappointed travelers, this car should be called a Snack Car and not a Cafe Car.  This car is nothing like a cafe.

Our ride on this particular day was only about five hours long before we were in Springfield, Massachusetts' newly renovated station...

The great thing about traveling by train is that, if you are tired, you can sleep.  If you need to get up and walk for a bit, you can get up and walk.  If you need to relieve yourself, there is always a bathroom available somewhere on the train.  You don't need to worry about falling asleep at the wheel.  You can read.  You can watch the scenery pass by outside your window.  You can watch a movie on your tablet or laptop.  You can get a snack or drink from the cafe car.  You can talk quietly with your travel companions.  It is comfortable and, even in today's hustle and bustle small world, there still is a bit of nostalgic romance in traveling by rail.

We arrived in Springfield on time.  This station is mostly renovated so it is pretty nice.  Our usual Springfield hotel is only a few blocks away from the station which made our walk to the hotel a comfortable one after sitting for five hours.  

We travel to Springfield fairly often for shopping as well as for our annual train show weekend with friends so this is a very familiar place to us.  This is yet another reason why this leg of our cross-country journey didn't seem like part of our journey.

Whenever we travel down to Springfield, we stay at this hotel.  The bar has some decent food and Yuengling on tap.  We generally have no problems worth mentioning with this hotel.  This made for a nice first stop and it made for a comforting last stop on our journey back home.  

Unfortunately, on this particular evening, we were surprised to learn the bar was closed.  I think the staff was hit by the flu so they closed the lounge for the evening.  Instead, we had food delivered to our rooms from a local Italian restaurant.  The only real downside to this is that we hadn't planned on being stuck in the hotel with no access to a few adult beverages for the first night of our journey.  Had we known, I probably would have packed a little bit of beer so we could celebrate a little on our first layover!  We were, however, able to order food and soft drinks so we made the best of our first overnight stay.  

The following morning, we walked the few blocks back to the train station for the next leg of our journey...