Somewhere west of Chicago

So after Tim and I walked around Glasgow, we headed back to the train car to relax for a while. We got called down to the diner for lunch, but right after we placed our order, we were informed that the buses were here to take us to the other train on the other side of the derailment.

Tim on the second train - post derailment

We cancelled our orders and scurried down to the sleeper to get our stuff and run off the train. We got into a bus that was a little tight, but was OK for the 45 minute ride. Upon arriving at the new train, we dragged all of our stuff over to the new sleeper which was identical to the first one. It was also a renovated Superliner I car, but because they had to reverse the engines, we ended up with the sleepers at the rear of the train and with our bench seat facing forward.

We got pretty excited once we got to the train at about 2 pm, hoping that we would be departing shortly. Unfortunately, they didn't have enough buses to bring everyone over from our train in one trip. So, after they dropped off the sleeper pax, then reloaded the bus with new passengers in Wolf Point, they had to drive back to Glasgow and then refill up the buses with passengers from our train, then head back to Wolf Point with more passengers. We had first heard that we would be departing Wolf Point at 4:30ish, which would be exactly 24 hours behind, but by the time we got everyone and their stuff over to our train it was 6:30, which was exactly when our crew timed out. Basically, there is a federal regulation that the operating crew (conductor and engineer) can only work for 12 hours. It is a safety regulation.

I also tripped and fell flat on my face stepping out of the train in Wolf Point. I sprained my ankle, bruised both knees, and cut up my hands. Not fun!

In any case, by the time we got our new crew and were underway, it was past 8 PM. UH OH - 28 hours late. Now I started to get worried about the possibility that we would miss our connection in Chicago to the 48 (Lake Shore Limited), which leaves Chicago at 9:30 PM.

We got called down to the dining car for dinner, and they informed us that they were giving free meals to all passengers on board, not just the sleeping pax. I understand that they needed to give food to everyone, but this meant that we didn't get salads or rolls. We also got half servings of steak and Tim had the smallest bowl of about 10 pieces of pasta. We also weren't able to order any alcohol with dinner.

We headed back to our bedroom and sat sullenly for a while, feeling very hungry and sorry for ourselves. When I heard a last call for the diner, I asked our sleeping car attendant if there was any way to get any more food. He came back with two more plates of food from the dining car - chicken legs, mashed potatoes, and roasted vegetables.

We went to sleep with the hope that when we woke up we might be a little more on time. I woke up at about 7 AM, and started calculating where we were and what time we might get to Chicago. I called the folks at Amtrak Guest Rewards, since I was booked an award trip, to see if they might be able to change me to a sleeper reservation home on Friday night (instead of Thursday). I called and she told me that we were scheduled to arrive into Chicago at 7:30 PM so there was nothing to worry about.

I hung up, but started to get more nervous. Tim and I headed down to the dining car for breakfast, which was also a sad meal. There was only one choice - scrambled eggs - and it came with a hamburger bun and some very, very sad looking potatoes. Tim and I tossed our scrambled eggs onto our hamburgers buns, added some ketchup, and made little sandwiches.

We headed back to the sleeper, and I called AGR back to see if we could switch to the Friday train. That way we wouldn't have to stress about heading home in coach if we missed the train tonight. Unfortunately, amtrak had at this point blocked off all rooms and seats on the train for tomorrow. They often do this when they are misconnects because they want to hold them for the passengers - like us - who might be missing their original connection. So now we have nothing left to do but keep our fingers crossed, hope and pray that we get to to Chicago by 9:15ish to make our connection.

We arrived into Minneapolis about 12:15 pm, and I ran into the station to print out our tickets for tonight's journey. It is only about an 8 hour journey from MSP to CHI, so when we pulled out of the station at 12:45, I was feeling pretty good about our prospects for making our connection.

However, we have had some signal problems and we had to wait for a drawbridge at one point, so we seem to be slowly losing time on our way into Chicago. The conductor just said that her best guess is that we would arrive in Chicago between 9 and 9:30 PM.

Emergency rations on the train for lunch

For lunch, again everyone on the train was treated to a complimentary meal. They had to dig deep and bust out the canned chicken stew over rice and rolls with butter. It was perhaps one of the most disgusting things I have seen in my life. What was so frustrating about the food is that I know they needed to feed everyone, but as sleeper passengers, the meals were included in the cost of our tickets. These emergency rations - including singular eggs on hamburger buns for breakfast and gruel for lunch - were not what we paid for.

In any case, we are now in Wisconsin and we will have a better idea of what time we will arrive in Chicago a little later. Here is a screenshot of our train status from amtrak.com: