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I am recently back from what I suspect is my final Amtrak trip of the year, a quick trip to NYC and a wedding on Long Island. The Empire Service down the Hudson was fine, and the foliage still quite lovely as we neared New York. After an overnight there (we stayed at the Ramada New Yorker right by Penn Station, convenient but very overpriced considering the slightly shabby state of the rooms--but NYC hotels have become incredibly expensive now!), we took the Long Island Railroad from Penn Station out to Nassau County; it was very easy and prompt. As we passed through Woodside, I was interested to see on an adjoining track a double-decker train (bound for Port Jefferson, I believe it said)--I didn't realize the East River tunnels could accommodate such a creature. Maybe it came from the Brooklyn branch of the Long Island Railroad ia Woodside and never crossed into Manhattan?
The wedding was incredibly lavish, nothing we are used to, but we liked the hotel on Long Island where we stayed--again, pricey, but certainly much more for the money than the Manhattan hotel had been! The next morning we enjoyed lolling around in the large room and watching the wide/flatscreen TV.
On the LIRR return to Manhattan, I was interested to see Sunnyside Yards. I have passed this way several times before--I always think of Fitzgerald's Valley of Ashes and look in vain for the large optician's billboard--but somehow I never realized I was seeing Sunnyside Yards. This time I looked more carefully the trains and noticed they said Amtrak or Acela and realized what I was seeing.
Unfortunately, I became ill again in Manhattan. I was glad to have my Acela Lounge Pass; waiting there for our train was much more comfortable. Being ill on the way home was not pleasant, even though I claimed a clean toilet (no doubt cleaned in Sunnyside Yards) when I got on, and the conductor and other passengers were understanding.
But I was glad when I got home!
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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Sorry sojourner on how your trip ended. Hope you are up to par now. Well I think the double deckers originate in Hunters Point in Queens and are slated for Huntington/Port Jefferson, Port Washington, Riverhead, and Montauk branchlines. But I think they are designed to handle the tunnel. Not sure.
Posts: 498 | From: New Hope, PA, USA | Registered: Jan 2003
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To carry over from another post, at what milepost should I look for you, Sojourner, as I am often in upstate NY (next week, in fact).
Yes, losing the cell phone was the pits - I refuse to fork over megabucks for a new one, so I had Sprint re-activate my old phone to use until the contract ends.
-------------------- My new "default" station (EKH) has no baggage service or QuikTrak machine, but the parking is free! And the NY Central RR Museum is just across the tracks (but not open at Amtrak train times. . ..) Posts: 337 | From: Goshen, IN | Registered: Jun 2006
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