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Just got back from a trip on the Lincoln Service from Chicago to St. Louis. It was fine. Not exciting, but fine. Those slab-sided, squinchy-windowed Horizon cars are just a little better than commuter coaches. The one southbound had overeager bathroom spigots that splattered and soon had the floor awash. The one northbound was closer to normal.
Just one negative: This time coming back we had to eat Amcafe food. The attendant (who otherwise was very very good) nuked the breakfast sandwich without slitting its plastic bag, and the result was limp, soggy and steaming. I wondered if federal law or something said she had to hand over the goods securely wrapped, but later in the ride she asked my wife if she wanted the cold turkey and cheese sandwich plastic slit for easier opening. Maybe I should have asked the attendant to slit the breakfast sandwich's bag before nuking it. Anyone know what the drill with microwaving food is supposed to be?
I was taken aback to see on the turkey and cheese sandwich wrapper, "Best Before 9/12/12." Six months ahead! I guess Amcafe food is a triumph of the embalmers' art.
I'll file a fuller report later this week on Trainweb.
Posts: 2236 | From: Evanston, Ill. and Ontonagon, Mich. | Registered: Feb 2007
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The Amcafe food will keep you from starving to death but I prefer a dining car steak. Getting real china and tableclothes a la the Capitol's 'enhanced' dining service is merely a bonus.
Going 110mph in the midwest..... between Chicago and St. Louis and into parts of Michigan is something to look forward to. Make those rides in the unappealing Horizon fleet cars just a little shorter.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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I avoid the snack car Amsandwiches like the plague! If I expect to get hungry on my trip and the dining car is not an option, I'll just buy much better food elsewhere and bring it along. Why, oh why, can't Amtrak sell second class food systemwide as good as it does on the Acela and Cascades? BTW, I've never been in a Horizon Coach. How is it worse than the slitted tubes we get on the East Coast?
Posts: 510 | From: Richmond VA USA | Registered: Mar 2004
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Going south, we brought sandwiches from the Corner Bakery in Chicago Union Station; going north, we didn't have time for breakfast before boarding the 6:40 a.m. northbound. Never going to buy anything in the Amcafe again except water and adult beverages.
Posts: 2236 | From: Evanston, Ill. and Ontonagon, Mich. | Registered: Feb 2007
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I believe that the seats in the Amfleet coaches are more comfortable than those in the Horizon fleet coaches which, frankly, are simply glorified (gorified?) commuter rolling stock.
Admittedly my last ride in a Horizon coach was overnight on the erstwhile Kentucky Cardinal. I had been booked in Viewliner roomette but the sleeper was pulled from the consist shortly before my trip. I was too young and too stubborn at that time to give up on a train ride..... one which turned out to be my final arrival by train into Louisville, KY.
Were the same thing to happen today, I'd probably try to book a 'cheapjet' the following day and spend the night in Chicago.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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Your photography is really stunning..... the photoshopping did the trick.
I'm curious whether you made any other photos (interior and exterior) of the new St. Louis station? I've not yet been there but it seems that the 'up and under' design of the building would make it difficult to represent in photographs.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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I'm afraid I have no other interior shots of the Union Station hotel area. This being a working trip, I had to travel light, taking along only a 35mm lens, leaving my super-wide-angle (10-20mm) zoom lens at home.
Posts: 2236 | From: Evanston, Ill. and Ontonagon, Mich. | Registered: Feb 2007
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Folks, I may need some edifying as to the different types of passenger cars Amtrak uses. It seems that once in a while I read descriptions of the Horizon cars as being unsatisfactory. The majority of my trips have been Kirkwood to KCY and back and to and from St. Louis and Chicago. Amfleet and Horizon cars oars used on these routes save for the TE (Superliner).I have always preferred the Horizon cars to the Amfleets. They are the slab-sided ones, right? It seems to me that the Horizons are more like the passenger cars from the 50's. I think that they are smoother riding and more spacious. On the other hand, the Amfleets, in my opinion, are rougher riding and less spacious. In fact the roughest trip I have ever experienced was in an Amfleet car going to Chicago. That was many years ago so it may have been the tracks. I don't like the curved sides. They remind me of an airplane fuselage. In any event I was beginning to wonder if I had the names of the cars confused as my perception of them appears quite different from others.
I have to add, that I find the scenery on the trip between Chicago to Kansas City via St. Louis to be fanscinating. The industrial might of Chicago, the agriculture richness of the plains, the Arch, the Missouri River and the rolling meadows and forests. What's not to like???
Posts: 140 | Registered: Nov 2008
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Mr. Iron Mtn, I too am the "lonesome voice' around these parts. I have no issues with Horizons as well. Who knows, maybe later Today, I'll be in one aboard 352(9) when I'm off to Ann Arbor. Although I use Business Class for my travels, there are eleven Horizon cars configured for such - and it won't be the end of the world should one of them be in consist.
Posts: 9976 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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GBN - Do passengers departing Chicago in Business Class on one of the various short-haul trains have access to the Metropolitan Lounge or is that for sleeping car passengers only.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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No, sleepers only (I never use it BTW even when eligible)
Everything was fine on 352(9). The Club seating pn A-I Biz Cl Cafe had recently been shopped. 110 mph was attained near Niles (well I do things the old fashioned wayl find MP's then 1mi 34sec=110mph). The comp paper was the Tribune (still had a backlog of Tines and Journals, Mr. Presley).
Muti and the CSO were superb.
Tomorrow, 353(10) home.
Posts: 9976 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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Be it assured in well over fifty years of attending concerts, that would have been a first for me.
"Rick and his gang of 105" performed Brahms 2nd at Hill Auditorium flawlessly last evening as did he and Zuckerman perform the Brahms Violin concerto.
Oh well, guess Orchestra Hall and United Center have more in common than first thought.
Posts: 9976 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Henry Kisor: GBN, did you happen to catch Thursday night's performance of the CSO at Orchestra Hall? Seems that a hockey game broke out during it:
The good folks in that box would have been well-served by a lesson in concert etiquette from one of my college professors...... the late Ray Babelay.
A typical nugget of wisdom that Ray imparted on many generations of future band leaders "The concert goer who says 'I know what I like' really means 'I like what I know'. Are you going to go out there and educate or merely placate?"
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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353(10) was equally packed and owing to the passenger boardings (and only two traps open at any station other than CUS) was 30ML at Kalamazoo. But with the 110mph operation, it was only 2ML at CUS. Also of note, the fare paid in Business Class both ways was $128.00, or about the same as gas (and anyone past teenage knows there is a bit more to running an auto than that) would have been for the journey (never mind parking in a Big Ten campus town).
Meanwhile, back at 220 S. Michigan--
The protocol within the Box Seats at Orchestra Hall calls for the patrons in the first row (of three) who are seated forward for the first half of the performance to take the third row during the second half. The chairs are movable within such, which means that being reasonable, your view need not be obstructed by Johnny Beanpole ahead of you; but be reasonable in moving them.
But of course, in this "yeah for me and f*c^ you" world, I can see how disputes can rise. But then, maybe the dispute was over "artistic differences'. Possibly, Mr. Kisor's colleague will report more at a later time (or maybe on his WFMT 98.7 "Critic at Large" commentary segment).
disclaimer; I've never "done boxes" at Orchestra Hall (just stepped into an empty one), but have done so at Carnegie Hall.
Posts: 9976 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Henry Kisor: GBN, did you happen to catch Thursday night's performance of the CSO at Orchestra Hall? Seems that a hockey game broke out during it:
posted
Muti should have been awarded the game puck for his sang-froid during the incident.
Posts: 2236 | From: Evanston, Ill. and Ontonagon, Mich. | Registered: Feb 2007
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During this past weekend, in both directions I had the Turkey & Cheese Hoagie ($6) a bag of Lay's Classic chips ($2) and two Chardonnays (Mondavi's Woodbridge 187ml $6ea).
Can't help Ms. Sojourner with her penchant for ethnic foods such as Hummus (I think that is of Middle East origin); but then I wasn't about to ask if they had any of that stuff.
What does surprise me is that they do not offer, in the railroad tradition, a Ham & Cheese Sandwich. I think the average passenger I observed on The Wolverine (in the 20-30 age demographic) wouldn't have "the foggiest' of what that is all about.
Oh and finally, I think "commuterly" translates to Horizon
Posts: 9976 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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Gil, my earliest recollection of "fine dining" on the rails is that of having my mom buy me one of those "ham and cheeses" from a hawker in coach on the State of Maine overnight run from GCT to Portland, circa 1949. There was no dining car on that train, and hawkers came aboard at various stops selling sandwiches, chips, and sodas out of what looked like one of those "cigarette girl" carriers that they wore around their neck. A sandwich was a quarter back then. Evidently, its consumption did me no irreparable harm (although my wife might disagree!).
-------------------- Ocala Mike Posts: 1530 | From: Ocala, FL | Registered: Dec 2006
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Well, I can't offer any tales of fights in the orchestra hall but yesterday I was riding the rails on a regional service over here and they have a trolley service for catering which comes through the coaches.
Coffee $3 Mars bar type confectionary $1.30 12 oz can of beer $5 Chips (US, not UK version!) $1.50 Sandwich $5.50 - $6.50
A generation ago in the pre-privatisation days on-train catering was generally ghastly (except for those trains which had restaurant cars and served an excellent breakfast) and was the butt of many a comedian's jokes. For example:
A man applies for a job at the aircraft factory and is told that it is a precision job and he must have experience of being able to work to within 1/1000 th of an inch.
"That's no problem" says the man "I used to slice the ham for British Rail sandwiches!"
Posts: 395 | From: england | Registered: Sep 2002
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"Brawl in the Hall"; as memorable as "Thrilla in Manilla' and "Rumble in the Jungle'.
Just as glad I went to Ann Arbor to hear Muti (nothing available at Orchestra Hall - or at least anywhere I was prepared to sit), as out of town patrons are very respectful (starting with selling out Hill Auditorium, which is nearly the size of Orchestra Hall) and give the ensemble the courtesy it deserves. I was the "slob' in my dress; I didn't have a necktie (last time I had one on was last month for a friend's interment). I've seen people show up at Orchestra Hall wearing North Face outerwear.
Once again, the protocol for seating within a Box at Orchestra Hall is clearly delineated in both the Program as well as at the web site. My bet says that is what gave rise to the dispute.
Finally, we should note Mr. Patner has chosen not to further discuss the incident on his WFMT 98.7 "Critic's Choice' segment:
Here is an e-mail I sent to Mr. Kisor's colleague; he has responded to me in the past:
Mr. Patner--
I'm just as glad I chose to go to Ann Arbor to hear the CSO with Muti and Zuckerman. Out of Town audiences are far more respectful than are the "domestic" varietals.
Regarding "the Brawl', I appreciate your decision not to address such on your Critic's Choice segment. If the dispute regarded seating within the Box, the protocol for such is clearly noted both within the Program and at the CSO website. Hope that guy is kicked out for life, should they ever find him.
GBNPosts: 9976 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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