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| Amtrak's Crescent New Orleans to New York City |
Amtrak's Crescent New Orleans to New York City - June 8-7
Every train trip I take seems to provide new and different adventures and my trip on the Crescent provided quite a different experience. We began the trip from New Orleans Amtrak Station right on time crossing Lake Pontchartrain heading north through Mississippi to Meridian and were right on time until just outside of Meridian. That's where we had to wait on our first freight train. Almost if not all of the track from there through Alabama is single track and there are many freight trains so our Amtrak train could not go any faster than the slow freights ahead of us and then we had to take side tracks for freights going opposite direction from us. So as we traveled across Alabama we lost almost three hours which was okay and we expected to be only three hours down entering Atlanta. Around 9 PM I asked my sleeping car attendant to set up my roomette for sleeping and got in bed and was dozing off to the rhythm of riding the rails. Unfortunately we came to a stop and the conductor made a fairly long announcement which I could not hear since he spoke softly and the PA system was not loud enough for me to hear. As I lay in bed I became aware that we were not moving for a VERY LONG TIME. So being restless when I don't understand what was going on, I got dressed and headed to my attendant's roomette to find out what was going on. That's is when I was told that something I have never experienced occurred. A freight train ahead of us broke down and they borrowed one of our engines to pull the broken down train out of the way and then come back and connect back up to our train. Apparently, when they do this they have to perform brake tests and other safety tests before proceeding. In all we lost four more hours and pulled into Atlanta at 2 AM instead of the schedule 7:30 PM or seven hours late. As a result I got to see parts of the route through South and North Carolina which are normally traversed in the darkness of the late night and overnight hours. We never made up any of the lost time and pulled into New York's Penn Station at 9 PM instead of the 1:45 PM scheduled time. All's well that ends well and I am safely checked into my hotel and already have lunch planned with friends Tevy and Scott tomorrow.
Here are a few photos from my trip on the Crescent. The lady in the first photo was my sleeping car attendant and did a great job including keeping me up to date on any of the announcements the conductors made that I need to know about and she arranged "red cap" to meet track side in Penn Station. He actually went to the baggage car to retrieve my checked bag and then took me up to the taxi stand.
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| My sleeping car attendant welcoming me aboard in New Orleans |
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| A rare daytime stop in Charlotte, NC |
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| A rare daytime stop in Charlotte, NC |
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| In Washingon, DC, they removed our diesel engines |
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| And then the attach an electric locomotive for the trip to New York City |
Other than attending DEAR EVAN HANSON Broadway Show, I have not made any specific plans for my time here. Tevy has already made reservations and I'm eating lunch with Tevy and Scott tomorrow. Another of Tevy's friends has offered to get me tickets tomorrow night to CHICAGO so that is possibility.
It's good to be in New York City and have friends that I enjoy being with and make me happy.
Remember, you can click on any of these photos to see full size photo.
