This is a trip I take annually to the city. Before we went to the Florence Amtrak station we ate at red lobster, in the down poor of rain. Our train pulled into the station 20 minutes early. This time we didn't have far to walk to our sleeper since they moved them to the back of the train. While we were in the station the southbound Auto train pulled in on the other track. It ended up leaving before us. After taking photos of it, I worked on trying to get my GPS to work. It never works. It took 3 minutes this time, by using the resources on on track on line.com. Since we were traveling with my grandmother, we had room H. Room H is very nice. Its the size of a regular bedroom, with the bathroom in a annex. Both were huge, the bunks were very nice to. I had the lights off so I could try to see out the window, without a glare. With that I saw the little bit of street running in Fayetteville NC. I fell asleep shortly after the station. I woke when the train arrived in Richmond, we arrived there 23 minutes ahead. By then you could see out the window with no trouble, because it was pre dawn light. I watched as we passed thru Ashland. Our train passed our first commuter train at at fredericksburg The other people I was traveling with were starting to wake. At Washington I got off and got some fresh air as a regional was about to depart. Then we left to go get breakfast in the diner, which was the car next door. We had one of the refurbished cars and it was nice car. I had French toast. It was pretty good, actually. We then got our stuff ready to get off in Philly. Philly was a nice place, but, all my group wanted to do is the tourist stuff. We ate at some historic tavern, before going to the zoo. It was a nice zoo, as they go. In places you could see the Northeast corridor. It was a lot like the Berlin zoo. In that zoo (Berlin) there is a bridge thru it for commuter trains, that makes Berlin's a good railfaning spot. Then we went back to the station and waited for our Acela. Somewhere north of Philadelphia someone owns a former Amtrak car in phase 1 paint, a heavyweight coach, a green caboose, a E-unit painted for Amtrak, and another heavyweight car. All of those are badly gratified. The Acela is the nicest train I have rode on Amtrak. We got into Penn Station on time. The next day we went to Grand Central Terminal. I took photos, and ate at the Chirping Chicken in the basement. I saw three shows Blithe Spirit, Rock of Ages, and 39 steps. I was expecting a train in 39 steps because that is on the poster. They didn't have one, they used crates to portray seats on a train, and it was only a few minutes long. I saw a train station from the Shark (super fast speed boat) on the Hudson in New Jersey, anyone know which one that might be. I went back to Grand Central, and bought a book on the New York Central. I read while the rest in my group shopped. The next day we left. When you are leaving Penn station going south on the right side of the train there is a Penn Central baggage car, still in the painted for them with no graffiti. On this trip Amtrak is doing a lot of maintenance and you can see tons of old cars, in a bunch of old schemes. The best was the Penn Central one. I rode at the back window of the viewliner all the way to Metro park before going to Lunch. During Lunch I took a photo of a regional rounding a curve as we were, and 3 private railcars in the yard in Philadelphia painted for the Pennsylvania railroad. I had a Hamburger for lunch. In Philadelphia a group of high schoolers got on. We were one of a few in the diner. Then I lounged on the top bunk in my room, seeing we had it down to be comfortable with all four of us in it. In washington I got off and walked to the front of the train and watched them put on the new locomotive. Then while I was walking back to my room the Northbound Silver Star pulled in right next to us. It was cool seeing both Silver Stars were in the station. Then we watched the monuments pass by as we left Washington. Then I watched the scenery pass by. In stations I would use my GPS and see what was in the area, because it was the same. In richmond we saw the Palmetto. We ate dinner as the train went thru Weldon NC. I had a Flat Iron Steak. It was a great steak, it is defiantly worth paying for anytime you are on amtrak, my meal was payed by the sleeper price. Then we did a short little jaunt on my railroad, Norfolk Southern. I tried to get a picture of the Raleigh sky line. Then we went down the S-Line. Then nothing really happened as we went down to Camden. In Camden we got ready to get off. We were the second stop seeing our train was to long to have both coaches and sleepers stop. I stood on the platform and watched the trains markers disappear in the darkness. Then we went home.
That concludes a long trip. All the trains we rode were on time or early the whole time. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading.