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Just returned from a great four day trip on Amtrak to Washington DC and then home to Cleveland via Philadelphia-Pittsburgh. My wife and I left our home south of Cleveland early Thursday Oct 11 for a scheduled departure around 2:15am. Waited for nearly 2.5 hours for the Capitol which was running late due to a freight train breakdown in western Ohio. Was interesting also that a large freight wreck east of Cleveland left Lake Shore passengers riding buses to make connections in Erie and Elyria depending on their expected destinations. Finally boarded the Capitol at 4:45 and conductor guided us to our sleeper in car 3001. Everything was ready and since we were the only sleeper passengers getting on here, we tried to keep our noise to a minimum. Unfortunately the gentleman across the hall was up and wanted to talk in a very loud voice. The conductor came around and told him to quiet down. That was our signal to excuse ourselves and get to bed **smile**. We slept for about 3 hours and awoke to a beautiful morning in Pittsburgh. We met our car attendent, Phil, who was very personable. We talked Indians baseball and he offered to leave our beds down if we needed more sleep. We chose to have him make it up since we wanted to enjoy the scenery along the way after breakfast. Decided to head for breakfast. I had my RR French toast and wife had the western omelet. Both were excellent. Our dining companion was a nice lady from Washington DC area who had been visiting her daughter in Denver. The dining staff was excellent. We decided to sit in the lounge car and watch the rivers, mountains etc. Some pretty strange people on that car. Orange dyed hair on a 40 year old, two stoned hippies from Chicago, a guy in his bare feet sleeping across two chairs, and a more interesting fellow with a GPS following our path through the PA countryside. We stayed until lunch time and then headed for the diner. We were quite disappointed to learn that the chef had apparently chosen to offer only a limited menu for lunch. We were not given a menu card but were told by our server that we had two choices, a cheeseburger or grilled chicken sandwich. Only soda to drink and no desserts. We thought this rather odd since the Capitol only serves dinner, breakfast and lunch once during its trips from Chicago. The server said the chef was a pain and that he would be glad to be moving to another crew in a few weeks. He apologized for the limited menu. He was a pleasant guy and we didnt blame him for the affair. The cheeseburger was o.k. but nothing compared to the Angus Burgers we had on our western trips this summer. And no dessert.HMMMMM! Anyway, we were running about three hours late so returned to our roomette and watched the scenery of the Youghigheny River and later, the Potomac. This was a beautiful trip despite the fact that few of the trees have changed colors due to very dry weather in the east. Our destination was Rockville, Md where we arrived at 3:30PM. We took the Metro north to Shady Grove station where our Comfort Inn was located nearby. This was a very nice hotel and reasonably priced for Washington area. They had free shuttle to the Metro Station as well.A huge free breakfast and very congenial staff. Spent Friday and Sat exploring art museums, American Indian museum, White House, WWII monument (very impressive) and generally walking around the city and enjoying the architecture and the people. Had dinner at Union Station. Weather was about 70 and sunny each day. Although we have traveled to Washington many times in our lives, we always find something new to visit. Sunday morning we grabbed the Metro to Union Station and left on Train 152 to Philadelphia around 8:30am. Train was full of people heading to NYC. We enjoyed the coach ride along the rails to Philly. Arrived at 30th St station on time and then had about a two hour wait for the Pennsylvanian. Explored the station and had a patented Philly cheesesteak for lunch. Lots of panhandlers in this station, more than we had seen anywhere in Washington. Also lots of police officers roaming the floor as well. Pennsylvanian was only five minutes late and we headed down to our seats in the business class car. It was the last car in the consist and included the lounge cafe. I would recommend these seats for a trip on the Pennsylvanian. Seats are very comfortable and only fifteen seats in this car. Free soft beverages throughout the trip. The car attendant was a very personable young lady who added to the pleasurable trip. The only downside was a woman who constantly talked on her cell phone very loudly throughout the trip. The rest of the passengers were also irritated and finally someone yelled out "SHUT UP" and she got the hint. Beautiful scenery up the Susquahanna and Juniata Rivers. Saw lots of old PRR stations and the newly refurbished ones as well. Horseshoe Curve is always a great scene. Train ran on time and we arrived in Pittsburgh at around 8PM. The downside of this part of the trip was the nearly four hour layover at the PGH station until the Capitol arrived to take us to Cleveland. But was an interesting adventure as the U of Wisconsin Alumni group had boarded at Altoona after their excursion to State College for the Wisconsin-Penn State football game. Considering they lost the game handily they were in good spirits and we enjoyed their conversations about the game while we all waited for the train in PGH. Capitol did arrive on time and we were wisked away into the night for a 2.5 hr trip to Cleveland. Another 1.5 hours drive to our home and we greeted our happy cat and a bed. This trip was in celebration of our 29th wedding anniversary and we had another great time on Amtrak. Looking forward to our next adventure in January aboard the CZ and SWC. Best wishes Railroad and Mrs. Bill
Posts: 87 | From: Ohio | Registered: Apr 2007
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thanks for a good report. You managed to tell us a lot in a fairly short space.
Posts: 1577 | From: virginia | Registered: Jun 2005
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Thank you so much for the interesting report. I was on the eastbound Lakeshore Ltd the day (night?) of the derailment, coming from Chicago, and learned that Cleveland passengers had to be bused from Elyria and to Erie (those getting off were bused from Elyria; those getting on, to Erie). Surprisingly, it did not affect the rest of us much; we were less than 1 1/2 hours late getting into Albany. (Some of the delay was caused by the wait for the bus in Erie) It became light while we were on the reroute, and I tried to see some of the new things I'd never seen before in Ohio, but I gather we did not go very far on a fairly parallel track; I don't think as far south as Akron, for example.
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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