NSC Convention - Day one

Well, started the day without my electric razor. In thinking about it, I believe I lost it on the platform in DC. I heard a noise and noticed an open zipper on my bag but looking back down the platform I saw nothing so I zipped up the bag and went on. Fortunately I have a spare. Originally sold by WalMart for $3.95, I bought a bunch of Shaveman razors for $1.00 each on close out. They run on AA batteries and the two batteries were worth a dollar. It's not much of a razor but it will do until I get to the store to buy a replacement.

Went to the Mall for lunch and while there visited the Apple Store to buy a copy of the just released iWork and iLife. Several new features but in particular a spreadsheet for iWork. I would guess that that was the only store in the mall that was identified only by it's logo.

On getting back to the hotel and starting to load the new software I was somewhat disappointed to learn that the brand new, super duper iMovie requires a G5 or Intel machine to run. Guess that gives me another reason to buy a new laptop.

Registration for the convention is at 1 pm today but until the 7 pm reception, there is nothing else scheduled. Had a nice nap. Presentation at the convention turned out to be a long, loud description of the development of the New Haven Railroad logo back in the 50's. I left until it was over. Desert afterward was good and stayed in Kim Saign's room until midnight watching him sell trains.

New Orleans to Hartford - part II

Still running late this morning but perhaps not too late to make my connection in DC. Conductor thinks we will be there at 11:20. I will now move from the luxury of a compartment to the confines a coach seat for the next 6 hours. Hope they have an outlet to plug my laptop into.

Hooray, made the connection with no problem. Even had time to drop my luggage in the first class lounge and do some shopping in the Union Station Mall. Train 176 left Washington, DC on-time and I have passed through the large cities of Baltimore and Philadelphia with the next big city being New York City. We just pulled out of Trenton, NJ, right on time. We arrive in New Haven, CT at 5:06 and I switch to a shuttle that takes me to Hartford, CT arriving at 5:58. With any luck I will have a ride waiting for me but I might take a cab to the hotel in Farmington, CT where the convention is being held.

Arrived New York City at 3:20 about 2 minutes late. Cell phone and EDGE data network seem to function fine in the depths of the underground station but not in the tunnel approches. Every seat on the train seems to have a 110 electrical outlet available. Wish they did that on all their trains. Bunch of people got off in NYC but even more got on. May have to give up the other half of my double seat. Left station at 3:31, one minute late. Lady just walked by my seat who absolutely could not walk down the aisle without turning sideways because of her hips. She also had fingernails that were about 6 in. long. Whoa!

Arrived in New Haven on time. Transfered to train 476 for the trip to Hartford along with a large number of other folks. Ended up with an aisle seat facing backwards. Didn't have time to play with any of my toys. Arrived at Hartford a few minutes late after a passenger failed to get off at an earlier station and they had to stop twice. My ride to the hotel was waiting so we stopped for dinner and I treated.

New Orleans to Hartford

Finally got to sleep about 12:30 am. A 7:20 am train made for a short night and I was back at the train station at about 6:45. Bought two cokes in the station for $1.75 each as there are no Coca-Cola products sold on Amtrak trains.

We left New Orleans on train 20 right on time at 7:20 am. No time to get breakfast so I was pleased to learn that the diner will be open later for breakfast. As we move out of New Orleans the Katrina damage and effects are still very much in evidence with boarded up homes or trailers parked in the front yard. Many homes have been restored however and look almost new.

We made our way north to the shore of Lake Ponchartrain and headed east at 80 mph. Eventually we turned more north and crossed the eastern neck of Ponchartrain and arrived at Slidell on time. We crossed the Pearl river into Mississippi and stopped at Picayune on-time. Next arrived Hattiesburg, MS at 9:40, still on time. For some reason I'm intrigued by that name and will have to look it up when I have a chance. Arrived Laurel, MS on time. At Meridian we had a "smoking break" which I usually take advantage of to stretch my legs and take pictures. We changed train crews here and said goodbye to Conductor Tommy Wood.

We reached Meridian, MS on time. They have a very nice station there, much larger that you would expect. A number of years ago, the Meridian mayor was very prominent in Amtrak advocacy. Amount other things he proposed a passenger route that would go due west from Meridian and connect to Dallas. It would have taken a lot of money to upgrade the track and signal system and nothing came of it. Don't know what happened to the mayor.



I'm riding in an Amtrak Viewliner car for the first time. The name Viewliner comes from the fact that the upper bunk has it's own window therefore it's own view, a feature not found on the older Superliners. I may sleep in the upper bunk tonight, just to try it out. Another feature of the Viewliner bedroom is an in-room toilet. It's very convenient with just one person in the room, I don't know how you would work things out if there were two people who were not VERY good friends. A side effect of the toilet is that one of the two facing seats is rather narrow. I my case, that is also the seat facing forward so it's a little cramped.

We are deep in the land of Kudzu now. Kudzu is a large leaf vine that was imported by the railroads many years ago to help hold the soil on earth fills and cuts. Like many foreign species, it found things to it's liking and soon began to spread. It can be founds miles from any railroad now. It is not a parasite but it can climb and cover a tree until it blocks enough light to kill the tree. Anytime you see a tree in this area that seems to have exceptionally luxurious foliage, especially along the trunk, it's likely Kudzu you see.

Just went through Cuba, AL. I would guess the population at about 50. Sometimes I wonder how people decide to name their towns. (Well I was wrong ... just looked it up and Cuba had a population in 2000 of 363.)

The forest we are passing through, combined with the Kudzu I assume, is playing havoc with my GPS. Excessive foliage can make it difficult for a GPS to get a good fix and especially when the GPS is traveling at a high speed. The trees here grow right up next to the right-of-way and are quite tall. The current location of the GPS satellites can make a difference also so I guess there are too many of them east and south of me right now. Hanging from a suction cup hook on the window of my compartment, my GPS can only "see" well to the north and west. Sometimes it is able to maintain a 2-D fix, meaning it can calculate latitude and longitude but not altitude and other times it is fooled into miscalculating the 2-D fix and shows the position way off the railroad track on the map. As we come into a clear area and it gets a good fix, the little yellow 2-D arrow will suddenly turn green and snap back onto the correct path.

Lunch was a tasty pepperoni pizza and even though we were no longer in Mississippi I had the Mississippi Mud Pie for desert.

We have been on time mostly but are slowly starting to fall behind. We waited quite some time south of Tuscloosa, AL and finaly started again after meeting Amtrak 19, the south bound version of this train. Had we been on time, we would have been in and out of Tuscaloosa before 19 got there.

Twenty minutes late out of Birmingham.

Departed Anniston 4:59, 42 min late. Interesting depot, looks like it once served two railroads right at a sharp junction of the two lines. Depot is being restored.

The Atlanta depot is out in the suburbs rather than downtown, a place called Brookwood Station, which is underneath I-85. I went into the depot to look for some Coca-Cola and when I came back out, the folks waiting to get on decided to follow. A very stern station announcer stopped them but I ignored him and kept going. I think a lot of people were consternated.<G> BTW, in the national headquarters town of Coca-Cola there were no Cokes available in the depot. Departed Atlanta at 9:30 EDT, 1 hour and 9 m late. I have a two hour connection in Washington so I am a bit concerned.Departed Gainsville, GA at 10:31, 1 hr 15 m late. Time to go to bed and see what the morning brings.

El Paso to New Orleans Part II

I was asleep when we arrived in San Antonio and never left my room. We departed at 3:48am, 2 hr 48 m late. Houston depot had a Pepsi machine but closer examination revealed it held Coca-Cola products. Bought three cans at fifty cents a piece. Hooray.

Departed Houston at 8:53, 2 hr 38 m late. Departed Beaumont "depot" around 1:00 pm but soon stopped at the approach for the Neches River drawbridge and sat for over an hour and a half. My room sat right on top of the convergence of Park and Orleans streets where they share an underpass.
We finally crossed the river at 2:45 making us about 6 1/2 hrs late. Left the State of Texas at 3:25. Almost 14 hours getting across the state. Lake Charles, Louisiana ... departed 4:02, 6 1/2 hrs late so were not losing any more time but we still have 219 miles to go. It appears Lafayette has chosen to preserve their old train station by making it a central transportation hub as many others have done. Looks very nice. Departed Lafayette at 5:45, 6 hrs and 25 m late, we gained 5 minutes. Well, I guess we didn't have anybody getting on or off in New Iberia, 'cus we just cruised right past the station. In and out at 6:10 ... 6 hrs 24 minutes late, gained 1 minute! One more station before New Orleans but still 127 miles to go. Another delay ... waiting in a siding at Bayou Sale for a freight to meet us ... another 42 minutes behind. Another roll by at Schriever. We slowed to 6 mph then went right on through at 8:23. So by the timetable, this puts us 7 1/4 hours behind. BUT ... the timetable also shows 2 hours and 52 minutes to get fron Schriever to New Orleans and only 1 1/2 hours to get from New Orleans to Schriever. Looks like a bit of padding built into the end of east bound schedule. We will soon see. Arrived New Orleans Union Station at 10:28. 6 hours and 28 Minutes late. Hotel by 10:45, WIFI works good if you are reading this.

El Paso to New Orleans, 1177 rail miles.

El Paso to New Orleans

Train 2 arrived El Paso 11:26. I boarded sleeping car 32110, the Tennessee, to find that my room had just been vacated by arriving passengers and it was not ready.

Photo courtesy of Kathie Lopez who also delivered me to the depot.

I went to the diner to have lunch. The train departed El Paso at 11:53, 2 hr 52 m late. After lunch, I returned to my room and set up my computer with Delorme Topo USA and a GPS and began tracking the progress of the train. We seemed to stay at 80 mph most of the time but at 3:20 CDT we stopped on a siding just west of Valentine. At 3:23 we started moving again and we were soon back up to 80 mph. Not much to see in this part of the world but it was a lot greener than I expected. We stopped to meet a freight just west of Alpine at 4:22 CDT, then we BACKED UP for some reason. By 4:38 we were moving again, never learned what the delay was. Then there was a long delay at the station in Alpine. After sitting there for a several minutes the conductor declared a "passenger courtesy stop" and let folks off to smoke or stretch their legs.

After the train moved forward for a second and then a third spot to board some passengers on rear cars, we finally departed Alpine at 5:24. We also got a new train and engine crew here. Scheduled departure was 2:22 so we are now 3 hrs and 2 m late. Passed through Marathon at 6:45. Met a freight at Rosenfeld at 7:32. Departed Sanderson at 8:04, 3 hr and 53 m late.

Crossed the Pecos High Bridge at 9:42 but could only tell from the sound as it was quite dark. Del Rio had coke machines inside the depot but all the doors were locked ... bummer. Departed Del Rio at 10:42, 4 hr 5 m late.

Amtrak 2 arrives in El Paso

This post was originally made from my iPhone. I took the picture as the train arrived, then emailed it to a special address that posts it on the blog. Kind of slow but cool. I edited the text later from a hotel with my laptop.

Waiting for the train.

Well, it's 6:23 on departure day. The scheduled arrival of Train 2, The Sunset, into El Paso is 8:16 am and the Amtrak site already shows an estimated arrival of 10:22. Pretty typical of the Sunset so we'll see how it goes. Plenty of time for breakfast though.