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Showing posts with the label train

Operating a Running Locomotive During Shutdown

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This morning, we did a short hike in Montpelier to Hubbard Park.  I'll write more about that and share some photos in another blog entry.  After our hike, we went to lunch at Sarducci's.  Next to Sarducci's is a single railroad line used primarily for transporting granite.  The kids were hoping we would see a granite train coming through the city while we were there.  The chances of this happening are very slim but, who knows?  Maybe we could get lucky... While eating lunch, we heard a train coming through.  Unfortunately, we were seated on the porch overlooking the river on the opposite side of the building where the railroad tracks are located so we couldn't see the train.  We did hear him...  we heard the rumble of the engine...  we felt the vibrating building as the train passed by...  we heard the horn...  and we heard the clanging bell as it slowly crept across streets.  The kids were kind of bummed that we couldn't see the train making its way through downtow

Last Minute Arrangements

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courtesy of Amtrak            Sheila and I will be heading on another cross-country rail journey with Sheila's parents very soon and we are now making all our final arrangements.  We've arranged hotels, contingency plans for delays, connecting trains, rental cars, and even decided upon some sightseeing and restaurants.  Arranging this coast to coast journey has required a lot of planning and coordinating and, at this point, we are on the homestretch and excited about this long distance journey.   Sheila's parents are accompanying us on this trip and we're all looking forward to it.  I believe it is safe to say that we're all a bit sick and tired of the grueling winter weather...  and most of us (three of the four of us) are sick and tired of being sick and tired.  We could use some down time on a cross-country train journey just taking in the views as the entire country passes by right outside the window of our sleeper car and all-glass lounge. Sheila, Wi

Train To and From Springfield

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While Sheila and I drove down to Springfield, Massachusetts for our annual train show extended weekend this past weekend, Liza, John and the kids hopped on an Amtrak train to meet us there.  Sheila and I arrived early, did some shopping, had lunch, did a little more shopping, bumped into Frank and Christine while at the Holyoke Mall and then headed to the train station to pick up everyone.  Lukey and Kenzie were counting the days as the weekend approached mostly because they were excited about the Amtrak journey.  The only other time they were on Amtrak was for a short day trip when we all headed to Brattleboro for a nice lunch on the Connecticut River.  That was a few years ago so they were ripe for another train trip! The Springfield Union Station is newly renovated so we wanted to take a look at the station anyway so meeting them at the station was actually convenient for us.  The new station is clean but, disappointingly, it lacks any sort of usual railroad station architectura

Handheld Scanner for Cross Country Trip

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We've traveled quite a bit by train over the years. Naturally, there have been a few memorably long delays due to derailments. Derailments are quite rare and I've only been affected by two in about thirty years of Amtrak rail travel but, when they happen, it is time consuming, frustrating and memorable! I was on one train that derailed in one incident and, in another, we were delayed by about eight hours due to a freight train derailing up ahead of us. During both incidents, it really would have been nice to know what was happening and to have an estimated time of when we'd be back on track (pun intended). But, how would that be possible? When the train that I was on derailed while I was on my way to my sister's wedding,  Amtrak resolved the issue within a couple of hours. T he tracks were washed out due to heavy rains in the preceding weeks and only one or two of the cars came off the tracks. They sent buses to pick us up and transported us to a station about sixty

San Francisco Reservations

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Talking with the staff at The Presidio, planning our visit... Our cross country rail journey to San Francisco by way of The Lakeshore Limited and California Zephyr trains has been foremost in our thoughts lately (even more than all our health problems so that is good news). This past weekend, we made some progress on these plans as we booked rooms for our stay in San Francisco.  At this point, we're not sure if we'll ever make it back to San Francisco so we decided to choose rooms which are unique, in a great location, moderately affordable, and meet the highest of standards. With this criteria, there wasn't much of a list of options. We quickly chose to stay at an inn on National Park grounds at The Presidio.  We needed to jump on booking these particular reservations because the rooms in this Inn on the grounds of The Presidio have a booked rate of 100% every single day since the inn opened more than six years ago. We knew that if we waited too long to make reser

Running the New York Central

Here is a quick video from this past weekend of Lukey running my New York Central passenger train... well, really, only half of the train.  He seems to be liking this newly upgraded locomotive as much as I do! I have other video clips of Lukey running that Alaska GP-38 diesel locomotive that is sitting alongside the tracks in this video above. It is funny... while he was running the big Hudson steam locomotive, he ran it at realistic speeds... while he was running the Alaska GP-38 diesel, he ran it at a lightning speed like it was a bullet train!   Shortly afterward, he turned the diesel over to Kenzie's control...  I'm not sure I have any video of that though...

Waiting for Amtrak's Vermonter

Here is a short video of us waiting  for Amtrak's Vermonter  at the Waterbury train station before boarding for Lukey and Kenzie's first train trip... I will share another video and more photos soon...

Amtrak Day Trip Preview

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Yesterday, we surprised the grandchildren with their first journey on Amtrak!  I'm completely worn out today so I'm only going to share a few photos and write a short preview of our day... Lukey and Kenzie have been itching for a train ride for years (especially on Amtrak) so we finally arranged schedules with Liza, Nan and Pop and threw together a trip on Amtrak so Lukey and Kenzie could finally get to experience a day trip on Amtrak. The kids didn't know anything about this trip until shortly before getting in the car to head to the train station so it was a complete surprise for them. By the time Nan and Pop arrived at the station to join us, both Kenzie and Lukey were very excited about this much anticipated journey. The plan was to board Amtrak in Waterbury heading south... find a place to stop to have lunch... then hop on the northbound Amtrak to head back to Waterbury.  We knew we would need a three to four hour layover to have time for lunch and unforeseen

Another New Adventure

Today, in just a couple of hours, we will be taking the grandchildren on another new adventure!  We've had this trip planned for months but we've been keeping it a secret from the kids.  Funny thing is, I had heard through the grapevine that Kenzie and Lukey were asking about this weekend just the other night... Kenzie wants to go to 'The Christmas Loft' and out to lunch and Lukey asked to go to Disney. Liza told them they couldn't go to the Christmas Loft nor Disney this weekend but that they might be able to go out to lunch and left it at that. Then, Lukey asked if they could visit the train station this weekend since they didn't get to stop there earlier in the week...  Actually, we are taking the kids on their first Amtrak trip so they will be visiting the train station... and there, they will be surprised by Gee and Papa and Nan and Pop! We'll be getting on Amtrak's 'Vermonter' this morning, heading south... having some lunch and wal