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OTOL NoCal Fest Updates


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#1 AlanB

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Posted 14 July 2007 - 09:31 AM

As Kevin promised in his last post before leaving home, here is my first update on the OTOL NoCal Fest. Many of you may recall reading my trip report from last year, where my mom and I went NYP-WAS-CHI-LAX-PDX-SEA-CHI-NYP. Well my mom had so much fun on the trip that the two of us took, that she decided that she wanted to join a bunch of railfans to make another trip. So after meeting my mom at the Port Authority bus terminal, since she took a bus in from Allentown PA, we walked down to Penn Station. And basically at that point the fest was on. Skip Howard had already left a few hours earlier from Boston on train #95 heading south to DC, so he had us beat by a few hours. Initially when we entered the lounge I had the attendant just print the tickets for our first reservation, trains #29 and #125. But then during a lull in people arriving, I returned to the desk and had Alma a very helpful and polite attendant print out all the rest of our tickets. I had originally planned to just go out to the Quik-Trak machine, but Alma happily pulled up the other 4 reservations that I had, and printed out all of our tickets for us. Mom and I were on #125 out of NYP in business class, which departed right on time. Train #91 however was late out of the yard, so instead of being behind it, we were running in front of it. Our business class car was one of the former Metroliner Club cars, now converted to a Club-Dinette, so 2 & 1 seating was available. At MET we picked up Piotr Dzwonek (NJCoastExp) and we were running about 5 minutes down. In PHL, our group grew again with the addition of Kevin Korell and his son Michael. That was as large as our group would get until we reached WAS. Somewhere along the way, we made up our lost time, as we arrived into WAS 4 minutes early. Waiting for us at the arrival gate, was Skip. After greeting everyone, we proceeded to the Club Acela lounge to await our next train the Capitol Limited. I took a quick run around WUS hoping against hope to be able to find a store in which to buy a surge protector, as I had forgotten mine. Kevin also left the lounge briefly to check one of his suitcases to EMY. Just about 3:35 PM EDT, the announcement was made for boarding and we all gathered our belongings and proceeded out the west gate from the lounge to our train. Mom and I, along with Kevin, Michael, and Piotr boarded the 2900 sleeper, while Skip went one car further to the 2901 car. Skip was in room 2 of that car. We had the D room, while Piotr was in room #3 and the Korell’s were in room #5. By my watch, we were one minute late leaving DC and things weren’t going to improve from there. We ran slow all the way to our first stop at Rockville. Shortly after that point, mom and I headed to the lounge car since we had taken dinner reservations at 7:30, since 6:30 and 7:00 were already gone by that point in time. The rest of the group had wanted an early dinner, so they all opted for the 5:00 PM seating. We learned later that for some unexplained reason, the LSA was not following proper SDS procedures, which require one seating of 8 every 15 minutes, skipping every third quarter hour. He was calling one seating of 8 every half hour. So instead of three seatings of 8 per hour, they were only doing 2 seatings of 8, and even then they were running late. This no doubt lead to the middle dinner times selling out rather fast, since the capacity of the dining car was reduced by 8 people every hour. The thing that I don’t understand is why he choose to do this on a sold out train, both sleepers and coach. That’s a lot of lost revenue for the dining car, as they served 40 less people than they might have otherwise had he followed proper procedure. After dinner we retired to our sleeper, although we didn’t head off to sleep right away. Around 10:30 or so, we had Cornelius make up our beds and drifted off to sleep. As I write this now, South Bend came and went. Mom and I woke up this morning at 6:15 and headed for breakfast at 6:30. Piotr was already in the diner having his breakfast. The Korell’s arrived while we were eating breakfast, and Skip arrived after all of us. We were about 2 hours down out of Toledo and we were eating our breakfast while we were stopped in TOL. The Hammonds, Mike and Lynn, who will join up with us in Chicago, boarded the Lake Shore Limited early this morning in Cleveland. By last phone check they were about 1 hour behind us. And that will wrap up my first report, and sadly there will be no pictures, at least from me. I didn’t bother to take any so far, in part because of the overcast conditions yesterday out of DC. Hopefully I’ll have some from our Chicago activities and on the CZ.
Alan,

Take care and take trains!

#2 AlanB

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Posted 14 July 2007 - 05:45 PM

Well we arrived into Chicago just shy of two hours late. That squashed any chance of taking a quick ride on the CTA, especially by the time we got checked into the Metropolitan Lounge and then got our luggage checked into the holding room. We also found Steve Weagant (Steve4031) and his girl friend Roslyn waiting for us in the lounge. Roslyn also had a small surprise for us, she brought everyone a rose. So now we have the sweetest smelling train in the Amtrak system. So with a ride on the CTA out of the question, we waited around for about 45 minutes or so from that point, for the Hammonds arriving on the LSL. Kevin, Michael, and Piotr also used the downtime to recharge some electronic equipment. During that time I received a phone call from Robert Madison (rmadisonWI). Robert lives in Chicago and was going to come down and meet us for lunch. Then with the Hammonds checked in, all luggage stored, we proceeded to walk down the platform for tracks 9 & 11 to the Madison Avenue exit from CUS. About halfway down that platform, we met Robert walking towards us. With a group of 11 now, we continued to walk down the platform and up the stairs to Madison. Then a short cattycorner crossing of the streets, brought us to Olgilvie Transportation Center, where they have a much nicer food court than does CUS. After a little food, fun, and camaraderie, it was time to split up a go our separate ways. Roslyn was heading back home, since she was not joining Steve on the trip. Piotr was leaving the group in Chicago, as circumstances prohibited him from going all the way to the west coast. He will be returning east later tonight on the Cardinal. So he and Robert went off to ride some CTA trains, and I think that Piotr had a lunch date with a friend of his in Chicago. So a group of 8 started to return to CUS. A few people broke off to visit a store or two, but eventually all reentered the Metro Lounge, whereupon we found our conductor collecting sleeper tickets. We also reclaimed our bags from the storage room, and then stood around chatting for about 15 to 20 minutes, since there were no seats left in the lounge, before they announced our boarding call. Both full sleepers are on the rear of the train, preceded by the lounge car, the coaches, and the trans/dorm which also has some rooms sold to passengers. Mom and I are in the 531 car, room A and the rest of the group are in the 532 car at this point. Both cars are refurbished Superliner I sleepers, however our car needs some more work, as the A/C isn’t working properly. It’s probably about 80 degrees in our room at the moment. On the other hand, the 532 sleeper’s A/C might actually be working too well. Mike and Lynn Hammond just walked by our room on the way to dinner, both wearing coats. And that will close out this section of my report.
Alan,

Take care and take trains!

#3 AlanB

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Posted 16 July 2007 - 12:37 AM

Dinner for the two of us last night was Salmon and it was quite good and properly heated. My Cod from the night before wasn’t quite as nicely heated. Our SA for the evening was Jane, one of the most efficient that I’ve seen and one of the most friendly. Jane took wonderful care of us, so we were quite disappointed to find out that she was short turning in Denver and wouldn’t be with us for the rest of the trip. After diner we returned to our room and relaxed until Donald came around to put down our beds at about 9:30 PM CDT. Since we wanted to be in time for our arrival into Denver, and we’d been getting up early for the past two day, plus we needed to set our clocks back by another hour, we decided to turn in early. While we went to bed without either the sheet or blanket covering us, during the night time hours with lower temperatures outside, and no sun on the cars, the A/C did start to catch up. First it was time to pull up the sheet over each of us, and then eventually the blanket. Awake the next morning at 6:41 AM MDT before the alarm clock set for 7:00 AM, we proceeded to get dressed and head for the diner, only to discover that we had just missed the last available table and had to go on the waiting list. Returning to our room, Donald came by and returned it to its daylight configuration for us shortly before our arrival into Denver. Our arrival into Denver came at 7:36 AM, one minute late. Then the fun started. There were approximately 190 people detraining in Denver, and if I had to guess I’d say at least 100 were boarding. Mechanical came out to look at the 32 car, which had no hot water and Donald got the supervisor to try and fix the A/C in our car. There was some improvement after he fiddled with things, and things had cooled down rather nicely overnight with the cooler air and lack of sun. Then we had the EMS come and remove a sick passenger from the crew dorm, as well as a mix-up with two people being assigned the same roomette in our sleeper. And one of those involved in the mix-up was our own Bill Magee (PRR60). When the conductor started lifting tickets inside the station, he lifted the ticket from a couple without checking the date. They had a ticket for July 11th. So when Bill went to check in, they realized that they had a problem, since he had the correct ticket for today. They did manage to board the couple in a roomette, but it is unclear at this point if they will be able to remain in that same room or if they will have to move to a different room further down the line. I heard the conductor talking to them and saying that he had at least one empty roomette during the entire journey to Emeryville, but again he wasn’t sure if he could keep them in that roomette the whole way or if he would have to ask them to move to accommodate the passengers boarding down the line. Just before we reboarded our sleepers, Jane, the SA from the night before came down the platform rolling her bag behind her. Just about everyone on the platform came up to say goodbye and to thank her for her wonderful service. The big smile on her face told us all that she greatly appreciated our heart felt thanks. Shortly after returning to our rooms, I heard the station calling the crew to inform them to look for a coach passenger headed for Sacramento and to ask her to step off the train for a minute. The station was sending out the person who had dropped off this lady at the station, because this lady apparently had the car keys that she needed in order to get home. Close on the heals of that, came the announcement from the LSA, calling mom and I as well as others to the diner for our breakfast. The dining car was once again full after she went down the list only part way. In fact Mike and Lynn came in hoping to sit with us, only to find out that they needed to get on the list and that it was a rather long list. While we were waiting to actually get our food, and service was a bit slow since the diner was down to one SA and one LSA for crew, we departed Denver at 8:21 AM 16 minutes late thanks to the emergency and the key situation. With the diner so full, Paulette the attendant from the 32 sleeper came in to help out a bit by pouring coffee, tea, and juice for many of the passengers waiting to have their orders taken. She probably did this for a good half an hour, before returning to her sleeper to attend to her regular duties. Shortly after her departure from the diner, Donald our attendant in the 31 car, also came in to help out. He spent some time helping to clear the empty tables and reset them so that more passengers could be called to the diner for their breakfast. I was quite impressed with both of the attendants, as working in the dining car is not their job. But despite that fact, they both took the initiative to pitch in and help out in the diner for the good of all passengers. Kudos to both for their excellent work practices in the face of the shortsightedness of Amtrak management to keep enough SA’s on duty to handle the sold out train. I know that I’ll be upping my tip to Donald to thank him for his efforts, and I also walked back to the 32 car after I was done eating, to personally thank Paulette too for her efforts on our behalf. While they shouldn’t have had to do this, they both exemplify the type of workers that Amtrak needs to find and keep. Finally with tummies full we left the diner for our room, just about the time that the Hammonds were being seated. At this point, with a low outside temp of about 75and with the sun being on the other side of the train from our room, things remained reasonably cool within our room. Sadly that would not continue to be the case, but that’s tomorrows story as we’re getting ready to pull out of Salt Lake City right now and I want to get this post up before loosing the signal and it is getting late.
Alan,

Take care and take trains!

#4 BillMagee

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Posted 16 July 2007 - 04:37 PM

Except for my night in Reno and my flight home tomorrow, my mini-fest is now over. I'll post a more detailed summary later, but it was a nice ride and a pretty good overall performance by Amtrak. I joined the group yesterday in Denver and just left them about two hours ago here in Reno. My excuse for attending was to ride the Wyoming detour, but truth be known, my main reason was to spend some time with the OTOL folks and be a small part of their considerable adventure. Both goals were accomplished. As I write this from my room at Harrah's (with a great 22nd floor view of the new Reno Trench and the Amtrak station), the rest of the group is still rolling west toward what might very well be the rarest of rare events: an on-time or early arrival of the California Zephyr at Emeryville. And as they are riding their first leg of tomorrow's BART-a-thon, I'll be the guest of US Airways on my way back to east coast reality. Best of luck to the group and here's hoping the rest of the Fest goes as well as the small portion I attended.

#5 NJCoastExp

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Posted 17 July 2007 - 12:28 AM

After a little food, fun, and camaraderie, it was time to split up a go our separate ways. Roslyn was heading back home, since she was not joining Steve on the trip. Piotr was leaving the group in Chicago, as circumstances prohibited him from going all the way to the west coast. He will be returning east later tonight on the Cardinal. So he and Robert went off to ride some CTA trains, and I think that Piotr had a lunch date with a friend of his in Chicago.


Robert and I went to Clark/Lake Green "L" station against the strong wind impeding our progress. The wind was so strong it actually blew off my hat.
After we boarded Green line for 1 stop ride into the Loop, we crossed over to opposite platform just seconds after Brown line train (which I needed to take to "lunch date") was leaving the station. Robert then left to observe Blue line bus shuttle. I waited appx. 15 minutes for the next Brown. And the ride got very interesting later on. After very slow running from Belmont to Western I had to transfer to shuttle train. Apparently large gap in service created extremely crowded conditions on the platform. It was so crowded people who had to get to the shuttle parked in front of the platform had to fight to get thru. Actually I heard some shouting behind me when somebody apparently groped a woman. After few minutes we left toward Kimball on the outbound track. Inbound was out of service because 2 of the grade crossings were being replaced. Then a quick 5 block ride on the bus brought me to Mike's door. In all it took me 1 hr 40 min to get there.
After nice lunch, I headed back to Union Station. The ride was much faster going into the Loop.
I got into Metropolitan Lounge in "style". One of the redcaps was coming off his break in Great Hall. So I boarded his cart and rode to within 5 feet of the entrance.
So at 4:35 PM I was inside and decided to get myself a small cup of soda. Unfortunately on the way to my seat I spilled most of it when my crutch slipped on wet floor. The lounge attendant had to mop up my spill about 5 minutes after he cleaned up previous spill. But that was topped about ten minutes later by a kid who was bringing 2 large sodas for his parents. He tripped over his own backpack and the sodas spilled all over the carpet and the table where the whole family was seated.
At 5:20 the call for boarding came and after getting another redcap ride I boarded my sleeper. And then we waited for connecting Empire Builder passengers. 20 people including at least 5 sleeper passengers were boarded by 6:05 and we left at 6:11. (scheduled dep 5:45)
I barely had enough time to settle in and let my sleeping car attendant, 10 year veteran of Cardinal service, Will Johnson know about my preferences for sleeper setup the "first and only call for dinner" was announced. So i trudged into our dinner-lounge. I was seated with trio of NS yard conductors from Norfolk, VA who were coming home riding the train from Seattle to Charlottesville. My selection for the night was
Country Beef Short Rib with carrots and mashed potatoes served on sturdy plastic plate with Amtrak logo on the rim, as would be rest of the meals. For dessert I had vanilla ice cream. Using stainless steel untensils made meals even more enjoyable. Seved by our dinning car server Joannie (she was also our sever on OTOL Eagle Fest LSL ride home) was very fast. By the time we left Dyer, IN we were already almost done with the desserts. After dinner I headed back to the sleeper to enjoy my trackside view. I was planning to go to sleep after Indianapolis so I awaited antcipated cut-off of the 3 deadheading Horizon coaches. I was glad I did not go to sleep, because the switcher made pretty hard couple before pulling them off. After we left Indy, another problem soon was apparent to passengers in the sleeper. The rear truck kept bottoming-out at every piece of uneven track. Being slammed on every grade crosssing and switch made going to sleep very hard. Finally I gave up and decided to take Benadryl tablet. I always carry few of them, just in case I get stung by some insect. I am allergic to bee stings. As a side effect it also is making me drowsy. So with the help of it I finally fell asleep just short of Cincinnati. Next thing I saw was a station building as White Sulphur Springs. In retrospect I should have asked for a wake-up call. I quickly went and took a shower, dressed and then headed for lunch. As luck would have another full compliment of sleeper was occupying the diner and the only available seat was with the NS guys. During our lunch which was various mutations of Angus Burger, we discussed last night ride and even those guys were having hard time falling asleep last night.
Soon after I decided to spend time in the lounge on the other side of the service counter. I grabbed last available window seat, across from conductor's table. When I saw the stack of collected tickets he had, I was amazed. It was almost 2 feet high.
And I saw another large cup of soda spilled thanks to rough track. Unfortunatelly that spill also drowned significant portion of conductor's paperwork, as it was his cup that spilled. I saw what was the fastest spill clean-up I ever encountered. At least 4 of the passengers ran to the lounge counter and grabbed paper towels and hepled clean it.
One of the tables was occupied by 2 men who turned it into the office space. They were going into DC after spending weekend in West Virginia with their families, and used the train on weekly basis.
Between Staunton and Charlottesville we met train 51 which supplied us with much now needed paper towels, trash bags and table liners.
I stayed in the lounge until we arrived at Charlottesville. Then I headed back to my room again. And short time later I was invited again to diner for dinner. Just before Culpepper I was enjoying solitary dinner.
After Mannassas I was done with my Salmon Fillet with rice pilaf and another ice cream, this time chocolate.
I headed back to my sleeper.
When we arrived into DC i stepped off the train onto the platform to observe the hustle and bustle at the platform. We had train 80 sitting on the other track and that made for pretty crowded platform. After observing that we were ging to be pulled by HHP-8 i headed back to the sleeper to enjoy high speed ride on the corridor. I took opportunity to observe NEC from the back of the train from Perryville to Philadelphia. Some of it was documented using my camera.
As it got dark right after we Philly I spent the rest of the ride in the lounge, after tipping Will for his excellent service. Moving into the lounge allowed to take down numbers of 2 of 4 of our coaches when I got off at Newark, NJ 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Now I had to wait for my NJCL train to Woodbridge (high level vs. low level at South Amboy). On time trip and pick-up by my mother got me home with enough time to unpack and enjoy watching "CSI Miami".

And now the consist

Engine 49 CHI-WAS / HHP-8 unknown number
Coach
Coach
Coach 25044
Coach 25034
Dinner-Lounge 28014
Sleeper "Cape View" 62005
and 3 Horizon coaches deadheaded CHI-IND

This is train 3267, 5:43 Long Branch express with connection to Bay Head. South Amboy is next. First and last cars are Quiet Cars. All tickets please.


#6 KevinKorell

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Posted 17 July 2007 - 01:26 AM

I can confirm an early arrival of #5 in EMY. All in all a wonderful trip! We were never more than 30 minutes late, and we rode early from SAC to the end at Emeryville. We did have great comeraderie on the train, not only with one another but also our attendant Paulette. The meals were excellent, although we had one sourpuss waiter. Overall the staff did pretty well with the cards they were dealt --- short staffing. We're all checked into our respective hotels and will do our BART tour in the morning.


Kevin Korell


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Lakewood, NJ


#7 gaspeamtrak

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Posted 17 July 2007 - 01:47 AM

I can confirm an early arrival of #5 in EMY. All in all a wonderful trip! We were never more than 30 minutes late, and we rode early from SAC to the end at Emeryville.

We did have great comeraderie on the train, not only with one another but also our attendant Paulette.

The meals were excellent, although we had one sourpuss waiter. Overall the staff did pretty well with the cards they were dealt --- short staffing.

We're all checked into our respective hotels and will do our BART tour in the morning.



Sounds like a great trip!!! I'm happy you were on time.
I only hope you have such good time keeping coming back and not miss your connection in Chicago!! :)
Wish I was there!!!

#8 Gswager

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Posted 18 July 2007 - 06:02 PM

Did the CZ took a detour via Wyoming westbound?

#9 BillMagee

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Posted 18 July 2007 - 07:58 PM

Did the CZ took a detour via Wyoming westbound?

Yes, it did. Denver, Laramie, Rawlings, Rock Springs, Green River (fresh air stop), Evanston, Ogden and Salt Lake City. The RailFest westbound #5 arrived in Salt Lake City at about 8:20pm: nearly three hours early.

#10 KevinKorell

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Posted 20 July 2007 - 11:38 PM

Well, except for the return trip eastbound, our Fest here in California has ended. We have successfully ridden dozens of miles of trackage throughout the Bay Area and in Sacramento. We did every San Francisco Muni cable car, streetcar, and trolley line, the VTA light rail in San Jose, RT light rail in Sacramento, and the CalTrain and ACE commuter lines. We also rode portions of the Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin Amtrak trains. We have had the time of our lives on this fest, hanging with one another and living almost as a family (albeit much of it on flanged wheels!!). We had participants from Connecticut, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Ohio, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and of course here in California. We did have one "walk-on" person who joined us on the RT light rail in Sacramento for our ride on the Gold Line out to Folsom. Alan will provide some commentary on our trip home from the trains, and of course we will have a wrap-up as everyone gets home to wherever they traveled from. So far everything has been working picture perfect for us (except perhaps some hotel accommodations), and we're keeping our fingers crossed for on-time or better arrivals on the CZ and CL during the next several days.


Kevin Korell


OTOL Board Leader


Lakewood, NJ





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