Day 1 of the OTOL RailFest 2006 event is over, and while we are all hearty railfans, I have to say we all were grateful to finally be off the trains.

It started out badly as Alan and Jishnu were to leave New York on the northbound ADIRONDACK. The train was delayed out of the yard, and it did not get out of Penn Station until about one hour late. Meanwhile, Piotr was waiting for the same train in Poughkeepsie, and he finally boarded also one hour late.

The train lost more time when a suspicous man was taken off the train by police after being heard talking loud in foreign tounges talking about dangerous diseases. They spent quite a while in Hudson, which was a bad place to be because the station is on a sharp curve, and it's also single track. So they held up a southbound train as well.

Michael and I awaited this train in Albany. It ended up getting there 1 hour 15 minutes late. We would lose still more time going up the CP Rail line as we had many slow orders due to malfunctioning signals and also heat restrictions.

Alan decided to bail at Saratoga, where he would await the southbound ADIRONDACK back to New York City. He had quite a long wait, and as I type this around 12 midnight he likely has not arrived back in New York yet. We heard that New York had its own problems with power blackouts.

Piotr, Jishnu, Michael and I continued onward to Montreal. The train continued to lose more time, and eventually we were well over 2 hours late.

Then came the international border. We stopped at the border check site in Cantic, QC which is about 5 miles north of the actual border. Then it took 26 minutes for the vanload of inspectors to show up. Our coach and the one behind it was inspected rather quickly, and everyone passed. The rear cars had passengers most of whom had come all the way from New York City. Several families were removed (after having been travelling almost 12 hours) for whatever reasons.

Finally we got the OK to proceed from the Customs department. We seem to have skipped the one intermediate (discharge-only) station at St. Lambert. I guess nobody was on the manifest getting off there. We arrived at Central Station in Montreal at 10:17 PM, almost 4 hours down.

We're now at our hotels. All of us luckily were a very short walk away. Tomorrow morning we meet for breakfast and then we have a 6+ hour trip on VIA Rail to Toronto.

Next update either from Toronto Wednesday night, or after we get back to Montreal on Thursday.

A few minor corrections/comments.

The eye witness that I spoke to on the train ride home said that the suspicous man was heard mentioning the work bomb a few times, along with Saratoga Springs. The police interograted him and I understand that a K-9 was brought on board to check for explosives. Since he was removed from the train, I have to assume that the interogation didn't go well for him.

Second, the main line is actually not a single track at that station. There is a second main that trains can use to pass the station. What they cannot do is make a passenger stop on that second main. Therefore all southbound Amtrak trains, as well as northbound trains had to wait for us to clear the Hudson station.

As for myself, I sat and sat and sat and sat, in Saratoga Springs waiting for the southbound Adirondack. Each subsequent report from the station agent, as well as a few calls to Julie, saw the train getting later and later. I eventually walked down the long access road to the station and then the equivelent of about 2 city blocks to find some food for dinner around 6:30 PM. After enjoying my sub, I made the 10 minute walk back to the station. Thankfully by the time I did this, the front had gone through Sara and it was much cooler than when I had arrived.

The Adirondack was over 5 hours late when the train finally arrived into Saratoga at about 8:45 PM or so. Passengers were complaining all around me about the delays that had been encountered. Most weren't even aware however that Amtrak doesn't own the tracks and therefore doesn't control who goes first. One young mother was quite upset as she was connecting to Philly with her 4 or 5 year-old. She had no idea how she was going to manage carrying him, once he fell asleep, as well as three bags of luggage. Even worse, she was now facing waiting a few hours in NYP for 67 to reach Philly. And of course that would leave her standing in Philly with the same problem, as sleeping child and 3 bags to carry.

We reached Albany at 9:55 pm and the westbound Lake Shore Limited arrived about 5 minutes later just past 10:00PM. I have no idea what held up the LSL in NYP for 5 hours, and I have no doubt that they lost still more time in ALB, since the crews were busy switching our engines. I could hear them just starting on the LSL, as we pulled out of ALB at 10:14 PM.

Our engineer did his best to move us along and we certainly didn't loose any time from that point on. The official site lists our arrival into NYP as being 12:58 AM, but that is wrong. We arrived into Penn just about 12:40 or so. I think it was 12:42 although I'm not positive at this point. Of course, what's a few minutes when you're over 5 hours late.

I do know that it had to be earlier than the "Official" time, since I walked with that young mother while a few other teenagers that had been sitting near her helped to carry her luggage. By the time we got upstairs the young boy had woken up. I then pointed out the Amtrak waiting area so that she would know where to sit and relax while waiting for 66, then I walked her over to Customer Service so that they could reissue her new tickets for 67, since she had ticket for an earlier train. I assume at that point that Amtrak did reissue tickets, but who knows maybe the agent was kind enough to put her up in a hotel for the night. Sadly I doubt it, but hey every once in a while they do surprise us.

I then walked down to the LIRR level and brought a ticket to Woodside. I watched the 12:50 AM train to Long Beach depart, which of course is how I know that that Amtrak's official arrival time is wrong. I then caught the 1:04 AM to Huntington. This train too was to have its own problems, but thankfully those problems would not affect me. Because of a downed power line in the Merillon Ave station, this train was going to terminate in Jamaica. All mainline trains were terminating in Jamaica, only diesel service trains were able to get through the area. At the time we were leaving, neither the crew nor the station announcer knew what was going to happen to get all those pax to their destination.

While I didn't see a gentleman that I had sat with and shared a drink with coming back on the Adirondack, I believe that he too was on this train. I have no idea what wonderful hour of the night he finally reached home at, but I'm sure it was a doozy.

As for myself, the fact that the train wasn't going past Jamiaca didn't matter. I got off at the first stop, Woodside at 1:14 AM, 1 minute early. The first train that I had been on all day to arrive early. Sadly my adventures weren't quite over for the evening, even though I was off the train. I live 8 blocks from the Woodside station. The area right around the station had power, but two blocks from the station I encountered a blackout. Of course being a railfan, I had my trusty little mag light with me, so that plus the glow from the surrounding areas that did have power helped. When I got to the corner one block from my house there was power there, but sadly it didn't extend the 1 extra block that it needed to as my place was still in the dark. But at least things had cooled down a bit and my adventure was over for the day.

I'm currently writing this from one of my clients offices not too far from where I live, because as of 1:30 PM we still did not have our power back on. Hopefully it will be on by the time I go home, but I have recharged all my batteries just in case, laptop, cell phone, and flashlight.