65 replies to this topic

[BillMagee]

This is the open topic for submitting all 2013 Amtrak Mileage Tally trips. Submit your trips as replies in this topic. Please provide: - the date of the start of travel for each train or Thruway bus; - the train number (or train name if just one train of that name a day); - and your starting and ending points (station code or station name). - If this is your first time posting to the Mileage Tally, please provide your actual name in the posting or by PM to me. Your name will not be posted by me. I'll post back your confirmed mileage and your standing among the participants.

[BillMagee]

Autumn Express mileage:

Just to remove any mystery, here is the mileage I worked up about a month ago for the Autumn Express. Thanks to Penny and John Corbett for providing the Amtrak handout that confirmed my assumptions.

Amtrak NEC
Philadelphia 30th Street to CP Perry (Perryville, junction NS Port Road) - 59.4 miles

NS Port Road
CP Perry to CP Banks (west end of Rockville Bridge, junction NS Pittsburgh) - 76.1 miles

NS Pittsburgh
CP Banks to CP Harrisburg (junction Amtrak Harrisburg Line) - 7.9 miles

Amtrak Harrisburg
Division Post (NS CP Harrisburg) to CP Roy (Middletown, junction NS Royalton) - 10.9 miles

NS Royalton
CP Roy to CP Shocks (junction NS Port Road) - 11.1 miles

NS Port Road
CP Shocks to CP Cola (Columbia, junction NS Columbia) - 7.0 miles

NS Columbia
CP Cola to CP Cork (Lancaster, junction Amtrak Harrisburg) - 12.0 miles

Amtrak Harrisburg
CP Cork to Zoo (Philadelphia, junction Amtrak NEC) - 66.2 miles

Amtrak NEC
Zoo to Philadelphia 30th Street - 1.5 miles

Total Miles - 252.1, round up to 253 miles

[jacorbett70]

Thanks for all the mileage computing legwork! I was on Saturday 11/2 Special 803. Edit to add: There was an extra detour onto the Royalton Branch between CP Harrisburg and CP Roy. The Amtrak Harrisburg tracks were nearby all the way so the mileage should be almost exactly the same.

Edited by jacorbett70, 03 November 2013 - 10:00 PM.

[pennyk]

Bill, I would also like to thank you for compiling the mileage for the autumn express train. Please add my mileage for that train and my trips to and from. 10/31: ORL-PHL, train 92 11/2: PHL-AXP, train 803, Autumn Express Train 11/2: PHL-WAS, train 71 11/3: WAS-WPK, train 97 Thank you.

[BillMagee]

Thanks for all the mileage computing legwork!
I was on Saturday 11/2 Special 803.

Edit to add:

There was an extra detour onto the Royalton Branch between CP Harrisburg and CP Roy. The Amtrak Harrisburg tracks were nearby all the way so the mileage should be almost exactly the same.

The trip down the Royalton Branch back to the Port Road then east on the Columbia Secondary was the plan from the beginning. I included those three segments (ROY-SHOCKS-COLA-CORK) in in the mileage calculations shown above. The Amtrak Harrisburg Line mileage begins at CORK (0.1 mile west of Lancaster). The trip using NS via Columbia is 4 miles longer than the direct route on the Amtrak Harrisburg Line. One interesting historical detail: all the routes used were electrified PRR lines. They sure had a lot of catenary back in the day.

The trip was a close call for me. There were tickets available Saturday night for the Sunday trip, and I almost pulled the trigger, but decided not to. Had they done NS via Hershey and Reading back to PHL, that would have done it for me.

You guys saw some of my old stuff - Conowingo Dam, Peach Bottom Nuclear Station and the 500kV river crossings. I spent a lot of time in that area over my 38 years at PECO. By the way, we now also own two other landmarks on your trip - Three Mile Island (the side that is working) and 1/3 of Safe Harbor Dam. It was like an Exelon Facilities Tour.

[BillMagee]

2013 Mileage Tally Entry

jacorbett70								 Segments added:1								Miles added: 253
11/2/2013	   803/Autumn Express 2013			  from: PHL/Philadelphia (30th St. Sta.), PA
													   to: PHL/Philadelphia (30th St. Sta.), PA		  253

pennyk									  Segments added:4								Miles added: 2,356
10/31/2013	  92/Silver Star					   from: ORL/Orlando, FL
													   to: PHL/Philadelphia (30th St. Sta.), PA		  1,074
11/2/2013	   803/Autumn Express 2013			  from: PHL/Philadelphia (30th St. Sta.), PA
													   to: PHL/Philadelphia (30th St. Sta.), PA		  253
11/2/2013	   71/Northeast Regional				from: PHL/Philadelphia (30th St. Sta.), PA
													   to: WAS/Washington (Union Station), DC			135
11/3/2013	   97/Silver Meteor					 from: WAS/Washington (Union Station), DC
													   to: WPK/Winter Park, FL						   894

04-Nov-13				   2013 Year-to-date
Member					  Segments	  Miles		  Rank
jacorbett70				 62			5,837		  17
pennyk					  33			13,560		 7
			   OTOL Totals: 1,308		 277,773
			  Participants: 29


04-Nov-13				   To this date 2012			Calendar year 2012		  12 mo. ending today
Member					  Segments	  Miles		  Segments	  Miles		 Segments	  Miles
jacorbett70				 84			16,110		 93			18,030		71			7,757
pennyk					  29			12,804		 32			14,632		36			15,388
			   OTOL Totals: 1,087		 236,636		1,205		 252,341	   1,428		 293,988
			  Participants: 29						   29						  30

[AlanB]

Bill, You can put me down for the trip on 11/2 on the special. No other Amtrak mileage however getting to/from the special. SEPTA was the only rail involved in getting to/from 30th Street. And I don't think that it could have been the plan all along to not join the Keystone Corridor right at Harrisburg, as they made a special announcement to let us all know that they were deviating from the original plan by not getting on Amtrak at HAR.

[BillMagee]

...
And I don't think that it could have been the plan all along to not join the Keystone Corridor right at Harrisburg, as they made a special announcement to let us all know that they were deviating from the original plan by not getting on Amtrak at HAR.

It was the plan. Here is a posting from August 20 that described the route. It came from a source at Norfolk Southern. Amtrak may have made out like it was a change, but NS knew it all along. This is the posting I used for developing the mileage. In addition, Amtrak's September release announcing the second trip mentioned the trip on the Columbia Secondary. That is the line from Columbia (CP Cola) to Lancaster (CP Cork).

Seems like Amtrak wants to get in on the rare-mileage excursions now! A special “Autumn Express” train will run on Saturday November 2nd. The train departs from Philly and will head down the NEC to Perryville, go up the Port Road, cross Shocks Mill Bridge and head to Enola, then back over the river via the Rockville Bridge into Harrisburg. From Harrisburg it will head east down the Royalton Branch and the Port Road again into Columbia, then taking the Columbia Secondary to Lancaster, and finally back to Amtrak from Lancaster to Philly. I do not know the exact date, but it has been a LONG time since a public passenger train ran the Columbia Secondary…very rare opportunity there.

C&PD Today

[BillMagee]

2013 Mileage Tally Entry

AlanB									   Segments added:1								Miles added: 253
11/2/2013	   803/Autumn Express 2013			  from: PHL/Philadelphia (30th St. Sta.), PA
													   to: PHL/Philadelphia (30th St. Sta.), PA		  253

04-Nov-13				   2013 Year-to-date
Member					  Segments	  Miles		  Rank
AlanB					   37			9,158		  12
			   OTOL Totals: 1,309		 278,026
			  Participants: 29

04-Nov-13				   To this date 2012			Calendar year 2012		  12 mo. ending today
Member					  Segments	  Miles		  Segments	  Miles		 Segments	  Miles
AlanB					   46			14,412		 50			15,336		41			10,082
			   OTOL Totals: 1,087		 236,636		1,205		 252,341	   1,429		 294,241
			  Participants: 29						   29						  30

[KevinKorell]

There were tickets available Saturday night for the Sunday trip

There were tickets available Friday night for the Saturday trip too despite the earlier sellout. I checked just out of curiosity, but I still had to work and my money is already tied up in my own Amtrak trip in a couple of weeks.