Quick trip to NYP and back

My friend in NYC invited me to come visit her, so I planned a quick weekend trip to NYP and back.

I wasn't able to leave on Friday night and I wanted to maximize my time in the city, while of course using another free upgrade to First Class on the Acela, so I booked the first Acela out of BOS in the morning on Saturday, train #2251. It is scheduled to leave Boston South Station at 8:10 AM.

Of course being the crazy person that I am, I had to find a way to go north to board the train before heading south to NYC. This is important for two reasons. The first is AGR point maximization. By boarding the train at one of the three Boston stations (BOS, BBY or RTE) I would get 750 points for my acela trip in FC, instead of 2 points per dollar spent. Since my ticket was only $125 (plus the free upgrade), this is a bonus of 500 points.  Secondly, boarding in PVD stinks because all of the best seats are gone. I really crave the single seats in the FC car, so its worth it to go north to go south.

I booked myself on the #66, which is the overnight train from Washington, DC to Boston. It arrived early into PVD, and I was on the train and settled into a seat by 6:40ish. We stayed on the platform in PVD for quite some time, as they are not supposed to leave early, although by my cell phone we rolled out of PVD at 6:55 AM instead of the 6:58 scheduled time.

Now, the 66 doesn't arrive in BOS until 8:00 by the schedule, so I was a little nervous about riding the train all the way into South Station and missing my southbound Acela. I decided to detrain at the Route 128 Station in Westwood (RTE). After I got off the train, I realized that we were running early. I had arrived in RTE 15 minutes ahead of schedule. I checked the status on my amtrak app, and the 66 arrived at BOS at 7:42 AM - which would have given me plenty of time to change trains. Oh well.

I had actually never really spent much time at RTE so I was kind of excited to see it. After I detrained, I took the pedestrian bridge over the tracks and then down into the station. On the ground level they have a few kiosks that sell snack items and newspapers. There is a big ticket counter area for Amtrak and then lots of screens with all of the trains on them. There was also a large, sun-filled waiting room that had a wall of glass looking out over the tracks. When heading south, we could walk from the waiting room directly to the platform. When heading north, one has to take the escalator or elevator up to the sky bridge, cross over the tracks, and then had back down to the platform on the other side.

Acela Menu

There were lots of people waiting to board the FC car but they seemed to be mostly pairs. I grabbed the last single seat on the train, which was on the ocean side of the car but riding backwards. The car was pretty full and the two attendants seemed a little overwhelmed. I didn't even get to order anything until we were almost into PVD, and then my food came when we were halfway to New Haven.

Caprese Omelet Selection

They have some new menus this year which are quite nice. The breakfast selections were devoid of seafood (finally) and the lunch and dinner selections looked quite tasty, too. I ordered the omelette choice which came with sausage, a croissant, and some fruit. It was pretty standard fare for this car. Not horrible, but not amazing. I also had two bloody marys on the way into New York. It's never too early to drink on a long weekend, right?

We pulled into NYP right on time, and I headed up to the Club Acela to use the restroom and wait for a friend. The staff checked me in after eyeballing my ticket, and I left my suitcase in the Club Acela for the day while I explored NYC with a friend. My friend was also allowed to come into the Club to use the restroom which was very nice.

The two of us headed uptown on the subway to go to brunch/lunch. Upon the recommendation of a friend, we chose the Parlor Steakhouse at the corner of 3rd Ave and 90th St. Our original plan was to go to the Metropolitan Museum after our brunch, but after our "boozy brunch" that included unlimited mimosas, bellinis and bloody marys, we decided to walk through Central Park instead. The day was gorgeous and sunny, and we sat and watched the people and the ducks for a while. We wound our way through the park and come out at the south-west corner. We grabbed another drink before heading back to Penn Station to collect my bag and take the subway to Brooklyn. We caught an F train at Herald Square almost right away and the ride to Brooklyn was uneventful.

We had a great dinner in Brooklyn at Buttermilk Channel, and then the next morning woke up to head back into Manhattan to see the NYC Ballet. They did one act of Swan Lake and then two other pieces that were the music of Tchaikovsky with Balanchine choreography.

I stayed another night, and then on Monday was scheduled to take the 2250 north back to PVD. Of course I was ticketed to BOS so I could get the 750 points. Since it was Martin Luther King Day, the earliest acela was the 2250 which is normally the 12:05 pm train on Sunday. I guess they were running a holiday schedule.

I arrived at NYP at about 11:30 after taking the subway in from Brooklyn. I took the F train to Herald Square and then walked down 32nd street between 6th and 7th Avenue. It was very convenient!  I had the club attendant process my upgrade and give me a new print-out showing my first class seat on the train, and I also requested a redcap. The redcap came to collect a big group of us at about 11:45. He expertly managed his big cart with all of the bags and directed us down the escalator to the empty platform. As we walked down the platform the train pulled in.

There was a big group of folks and I was towards the end of the group boarding with the redcap, so again, I got the last single seat on the train. This time I was in last row on the non-ocean side before the end of the car where the entrance, bathroom, and old phone booth are located. The car was very full although not quite completely sold out, and the two attendants were moving pretty slowly. They handed out nuts pretty quickly but it took a while to get a drink. I didn't get a menu at first, and I was the last person to place an order. The attendant informed me that they were out of the Asian chicken salad, so I ordered the veggie quesadilla. The other selection was the small bites which was really just antipasto and also a pork selection. I was slightly disappointed that they had changed the menu from Saturday as I was hoping to get the chili on that menu.

Breakfast for Lunch

In any case, it took a long while for them to turn out the food, and finally at 2 pm - two hours after leaving NYP and well after leaving New Haven, the attendant headed down the aisle with a plate of food for me. However, I was surprised to see an omelette on it, and I let the attendant know that I had ordered the quesadilla. She looks puzzled and said that she thought they were out of them, and goes back up to the front to consult with the other attendant.

The two of them then came back and let me know that they were out of all of the lunch dishes except the small bites. I asked if they had a kids meal like the mac and cheese or the spaghetti, and they went up to check. Unfortunately the commissary failed to provide any kids meals on this run, nor did they provide enough lunches for everyone on board. The kind attendants offered to bring me something from the cafe car, but since I know how amtrak works and that they would have to pay for the item out of their tips, I declined. I settled on the omelette, and they brought it out to me quickly along with the yogurt and fruit plate and a croissant. I had asked for one of the desserts but somehow that didn't make it onto the tray.

I ate quickly and then the ride was uneventful up to PVD. There was actually a big group getting off in PVD, which was a little surprising to me.

Bloody Mary on Acela

All in all, I had another delightful trip south on Acela. Clearly there are still some service kinks that Amtrak needs to work out surrounding the service in the FC car, however. If I had paid top bucket for that ride to NYP in the FC car, the price could have easily been $300 each way. I would not have been happy with the service delays and the lack of food items in the car at that price point, but for a free upgrade, I was happy to enjoy the quiet ride with a free cocktail or two.

Stay tuned for more of my Amtrak adventures!

The Silver Meteor: DFB - NHV

Tri-Rail car at the DFB station

After a wonderful wedding for our dear friends Torrey and Jenny, my husband and I decided to head north on the train.  We left from Deerfield Beach, FL (DFB), which was a cute little station. We arrived at the station about 45 minutes before our train, and I watched several tri-rail trains go through. Tri-Rail is a commuter service that serves the Miami - Fort Lauderdale - West Palm Beach area.

It also looked like there was a little train museum at the station, but that wasn't open yet. I was walking up the platform when an older gentleman with a tri-rail jacket on asked if he could help me. I told him that were taking the Silver Meteor up to NYP, and he told me exactly where to stand on the platform for our sleeper car. He also told me about the consist of the train and let me know that the train was sold out north of Orlando. It was very busy since it was the Monday before Thanksgiving, and we would be arriving in NYP on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  The gentleman stood and chatted with us for a while - and we learned that he had gone to college at Providence College. What a small world! At one point he had been a stockbroker and also worked on trains out west. He had long since retired and helped out at the station just to keep busy. I was very impressed with how nice, helpful and friendly he was.

The train arrived just a few minutes late, and we quickly boarded our sleeper car. This time we had bedroom B. The Silver Meteor runs with the single level trains as the bi-level cars that they have out west do not fit into the tunnels that go into NYP and also into Baltimore. The viewliner sleeper has the bonus set of windows at the top of the car. We boarded and were immediately greeted by our attendant, Ed. He told us that they were still serving  breakfast in the dining car, so we immediately went down there.

Railroad French Toast with Sausage

We were seated with an older couple that was on their honeymoon and who had already ordered. We both ordered the french toast, which never fails to disappoint me! The service in the diner was incredibly friendly. There were two female servers (SA) and a male LSA.

After breakfast we headed back to our room to relax and watch the scenery go by. We had a few points where we seemed to stop for quite some time and then wait for a train to rumble past us going in the opposite direction. They also appeared to be doing track work throughout Florida, and there were many points in the day where we crawled through areas at what seemed like 10 - 20 mph.

Angus Burger for lunch

By the time we got to Orlando, we were over two hours late, with all of that time being lost after we boarded the train. We headed to lunch in the diner around 1 pm, and both Tim and I got the steak burger. We enjoyed a lunch by ourselves as no one was seated with us. We noticed a woman in the diner with her service dog - he was so cute!

At this point we were pretty full as we didn't even have that much time between lunch and dinner, but what else are you going to do on the train other than eat and watch the scenery?

One thing that I found interesting about the countryside in Florida is that we appeared to pass several residential developments that were only half completed. I would see streets with streetlights and a fancy sign for the development, and then maybe only a handful of houses and then empty cul-de-sacs. I assume that these were all casualties of the real estate boom and bust.

We had dinner reservations for 7:00, and we headed to the dinner a few minutes early. When we got there, the staff were all sitting at booths in the back of the diner. They asked us to either wait in the lounge car for a few minutes or come back in a few minutes. We headed back to our room and then came back promptly at the scheduled time. We were seated with a lovely Cuban couple from Coral Gables. We saw that they had the ribs on the menu, which we had enjoyed immensely on the Empire Builder this past summer, so we both ordered them. Our tablemates also decided that they wanted ribs, so it was ribs all around.  We pulled into Jacksonville towards the end of dinner, maybe around 7:30 or 8 pm. Our table mates were astonished that we were hours behind - they hadn't noticed until then.They said that it would only take 6 or 7 hours to drive to Jacksonville from Miami - and here we were arriving there 12 hours after departing Miami.

By then it was dark, so after dinner we headed back to our room to put our beds down. Ed offered to put our beds down at 9 pm, but we weren't quite ready yet so I told him we could do it ourselves (which we could).

I started to get a little concerned about our connection in NYP. These connections on amtrak will give me an ulcer! Tim started to get a little cranky, and I think in the future we might limit our long distance trains to ones that do NOT have connections. My biggest concern about missing our connection was that we might get stuck in NYP, as it appeared that many trains heading north later in the day were already sold out. This was of course because it was just two days before Thanksgiving. I don't think this would be be a problem during a less-busy travel season.

We woke up and I noticed that we were in Virginia. We headed to breakfast in the diner and ate with a couple from Georgia that was going to New York to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. We had the french toast again - it is just pretty good!

I decided to book a later regional on amtrak.com, just to hedge our bets. I knew that there was a possibility that our original reservation could be cancelled, but I wanted to make sure we could hold the seats so that they wouldn't become sold out. Once we got into DC, I asked Ed when he thought we would arrive in NYP. He suggested that we board our regional right there, rather than waiting until NYP - and our regional was literally across the platform from us, also getting their engine switched out. All the trains get the diesel engine removed in WAS and switched to an electric engine for the trip up the NEC.

Ed popped out of the train and chatted with the conductor for the 172, and he came back shaking his head. Apparently the 172 was sold out between WAS and NYP and there was no way he could accommodate us on that train. We decided to cross our fingers that we would make it to NYP in time for our 2 pm train (we were originally supposed to arrive around 11 am).

It was a nail biter up the NEC, but we finally arrived in NYP at about 1:55 pm. We were the first people off the sleeper and dashed up the stairs to the Club Acela. We were buzzed in and we breathlessly checked in at the desk, only to find out that our train was running 10-15 minutes late. We secured a redcap and waited patiently in the club acela for the redcap to take us down.

Our redcap had to drop off some folks at the Crescent first, but he came back as soon as he could and grabbed our bags. We had tickets for the BC car, which was at the front of the train. By the time we made it out of the Club Acela, they were in the process of announcing the track for our regional and the hall was very crowded. Our redcap headed down to the NJT level so that we could take an elevator to the platform. The elevator was crowded and he rushed us to the first car. We were among the first people to board and got the last pair of seats together in the car, all the way at the front of the train. We breathlessly collapsed in our seats, thankful that we had made another tight connection with minutes to spare.

The ride up to New Haven was uneventful, and we arrived about twenty minutes late.

Another amtrak route to add to my ever growing list, and again, it was thanks to our AGR points. I have over 25,000 points still in my account, so I am now busy planning our next adventure by rail

Our last day on the train

At 12 pm on our second day on the LSL (Friday), Ernesto came by and told us we should head down for lunch. He reminded us that the train separates at Albany and the dining car goes with it. We had just finished breakfast at 11 am, but we decided to head down anyway since we were still remembering our rumbling stomachs after we missed lunch the day of the bus bridge (Wednesday).

We went down to the dining car and were seated immediately at a table with two people holding a baby. Their daughter was sitting behind them at a table with three kids, and they had the youngest one with them. The baby was fussing, and again there seemed to be no sense of urgency in getting any orders taken. After sitting in the diner for 15 minutes without even being greeted by the server, we gave up and went back to the sleeper to nap the afternoon away. We started to get hungry around 4:30 pm, and just when we were about to go the lounge car to grab a hot dog or something, an announcement came on that the lounge car would be closing in preparation for the train separating in Albany.

At this point we were delayed anywhere between 2-3 hours. The bad news is that we were now going to miss our final connection, the little stub train (an engine and two coaches) that travels between Springfield and New Haven. It travels through south Hartford and Wallingford and provides connections in New Haven to the Northeast Regional and Acela trains.

After the trains separated in Albany, Ernesto asked us to come down to the lounge car for dinner. I was pleasantly surprised at the dinner service on the 448 for the sleeper pax. They closed the lounge car to coach pax, and our SCA acted as our waiter. There were no menus, but the two options for dinner was a cold beef medallion meal with rice or a warm pasta dish. We opted for the warm pasta dish and ate with Bill and Mary again. We had such a nice time with them!

While in the lounge car, the conductor came by and asked if any of the sleeper pax had connections in Springfield. We mentioned that we were supposed to connect to the 479, and the conductor said that they would find us a way home. We weren't enthused by the idea of a taxi all the way back to Wallingford, so thankfully my in-laws agreed to pick us up.

We finally pulled into SPG at around 8:15 PM, about 2.5 hours late. I really enjoyed the scenery through the Berkshires from ALB - SPG. Also the train was nice and quiet and there were only a few people left on the train. It was nice and calm - how I envisioned our entire trip being!

Overall, despite the extended delay, I enjoyed the trip, although I am glad to be home. I think I might keep my long distance train travel to just one overnight trip, instead of an extended cross country trip. But in any case, we had a great adventure, and it is one that we definitely won't forget.

On the Lake Shore Limited

Tim and I both were very tired, so we put our beds down and tried to sleep. After about 10 minutes, we came to a hard stop. Tim asked me to get out the scanner to see what was going on. Anytime there is a delay, a train scanner is an amazing tool, because you can hear the communications between the conductor, engineer, and dispatcher.  I learned that we had some sort of hose on the back of the baggage car that came loose. Supposedly it was something used for back up moves, but the hose was shredded and the train staff warned the dispatcher that whoever came through this section of track next might want to move slowly. They also said they would need a few moments to get everything secured. We lost HEP (head end power) for about five minutes, but then the HEP was restored and we were on our way. That delay was about 20 minutes.

I finally fell asleep and woke up the next morning at 9:30 AM, eastern time. Wow! That is the latest I have slept on the train during this trip, but it felt great to sleep in. We got nervous that we might miss out on breakfast in the dining car, so we rushed down there to eat.

The dining car was completely full and we were asked to just wait at the end of the car. Let’s just say that the crew on the LSL was not quite as happy and chipper as the crew on either one of our Empire Builder trains. We had to wait about 20 minutes for a table to be ready for us. Our server Miles was downright surly, and he had a frown on his face the entire time I was in the car. He walked away while the other couple we were seated with was asking him a question, and when we asked for more coffee, he also just walked away. He did come back with the coffee pot, but I wasn’t sure what we were going to get. We had tipped the staff on the EB generously even though the meals are included with the ticket price, but I refused to tip Miles after he had such an attitude.

I also noticed that there was a young family sitting across from us in the dining car. I am not sure if they were Amish, Hutterite or Mennonite, but they were speaking a language that was somewhere between English and German. The adults looked to be in their early 20s and they had two young daughters (I would estimate 2 and 4 years old). I am going to have to look up more information about these groups on google, and I also noticed a large party of members of this group in one of the coaches.

By the time we finished breakfast it was 11 am, and we headed back to the sleeper to relax and nap. Ernesto, our SCA, showed up right when we returned and wanted to know about changing the linens. Well, we had left the beds down and the door open when we went to breakfast and were gone for 90 minutes, so I told him he would have to do it later. Ernesto suggested we go to lunch at 12 pm so we could be sure to get into the diner before the train separated in Albany, but frankly, I am not hungry at all. However, I want to be sure that we do get some food and don't have a day without lunch again.

I joked with Tim that we now have only about 5 hours left of our journey to Springfield, MA and that it was actually less time than the trip from Minneapolis to Chicago. He joked that it made him feel worse - not better - about the time left on the train. I don't think multi-day train travel will be in his future...

We are now approaching Rochester and then we will go onwards to Albany!

Chicago and the Lake Shore Limited

We lost a little time on the way between Minneapolis and Chicago, so I started to get nervous again about making the Lake Shore Limited. However, two customer service reps hopped on board on train from the westbound #7 when the two trains met somewhere before Milwaukee.

The customer service reps assured me that the Lake Shore Limited would be departing late that evening and that we would have no trouble making the train. They told other folks that had tickets for the previous day's train to head to the ticket counter or the lounge to swap out their tickets for today. I also noticed the customer service reps on the train handing out hotel vouchers to folks that were going to be on the next day's Capitol Limited, which had obviously already departed.

KFC for dinner

For dinner, the train staff pulled on subway sandwiches for the coach pax and KFC for the sleeper pax. They loaded everything into the train at Wisconsin Dells. Eric brought over two boxes of KFC into our bedroom. This was the best KFC I have ever eaten. We each got two huge pieces of fried chicken, a biscuit, mashed potatoes & gravy, and some coleslaw. We ravenously devoured it, since I had basically only bread with butter for lunch as I couldn't choke down any of the "chicken fricasse."

We pulled into Chicago Union Station at 9:15ish. We hustled over to the Metropolitan Lounge to check in. The Metropolitan Lounge is the lounge for sleeper passengers or those with Select+ Status on amtrak. It is much bigger than the Club Acela in NYP, BOS, PHL or WAS, but not as nice. The soda machine had signs on it saying it wasn't working and there were no free snacks like in the Club Acela.  In any case, we breathed a huge sigh of relief that we were going to make our train.

We were called down for the "kindergarten walk" around 10:15ish. This is when they have all the sleeping car passengers line up at the back of the lounge, and then a staff person escorts you out to the platform. I am not sure why they can't just tell you the track and have you go, but this has apparently always been the rule in Chicago.

The Lake Shore Limited train has two parts. After Albany, the first part of the train goes to Boston, and the second part of the train goes to New York City. Since we were in the Boston sleeper, we had a very long walk with our stuff down the platform. I believe the consist of this train is engine - engine - boston sleeper - coach - coach - coach - lounge car - coach - coach - coach - dining car - NY sleeper - NY sleeper - dorm. So we have to walk through a lot of cars to find the dining car!

After boarding the train, we were invited to the dining car for a wine and cheese party. This is standard on this train since it leaves after dinner. We were actually hungry since we picked at our lunch and had KFC over five hours ago, and I was really pleased with the giant plate of grapes, cheese and crackers that we got. Everyone got their own plate, and I had two glasses of chardonnay. We enjoyed sitting in the dining car with another couple (Bill & Mary) that had been in our sleeper on the #8 Empire Builder out of Chicago. They were also traveling to Springfield, MA and we became friends en route. Hopefully Bill is going to email me a video of our travels on the train!

One other interesting thing I noticed about this train is that I think they added an extra coach to accommodate some of the displaced pax from the western delays. I noted that one of the coaches is the Amfleet II style that is used on the Northeast Regional trains. This is different from the Amfleet I coaches that are standard for long distance train travel. The long distance coaches generally have a foot rest and a calf/leg rest that are sort of like a little lazy boy recliner. There is also greater pitch between the seats to allow for a deeper recline and more leg room.

In any case, after the wine and cheese party we went out to the platform to walk the length of the train back to the sleeper. Walking through the coaches proved impossible because they were being loaded and people with their stuff were trying to get settled. We ran back to our sleeper, popped a bottle of hard cider that we picked up in Sequim, had a drink, and then put our beds down and went to sleep.

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:

Freight Derailment & Glasgow

On the way into Havre, I had the train scanner on and noticed that the engineer said to the conductor that some "cars were on fire" just east of Glasgow, MT. We continued our way to Glasgow, MT, where we stopped at about 5 PM on Tuesday. The conductor let us know that we were going to be here for quite some time, and estimated that the delay would be 12 hours at a minimum.

The bustling downtown of Glasgow, MT

Apparently 16-17 freight cars derailed, and there were some hazardous materials on board that caused a fire go large that even the road was shut down. So we went and had our previously scheduled dinner in the diner, polished off a bottle of wine that we won at the wine and cheese tasting earlier that afternoon, and headed back to our room to sleep the night away. Folks, I can't tell you how nice it was to be able to just go back to our compartment and lie down.

Bottle of Wine from Wine Tasting

I woke up at 6 am to find us still stopped in Glasgow. Fun times! I took a shower, got dressed, and headed down to the dining car. Luckily they were serving away, so I got the last order of the railroad french toast and some regular sausage. Two cups of coffee, too!

After Tim showered, we headed off to walk around the bustling metropolis of Glasgow. Let's just say that I am pretty sure we can all be very thankful that we don't live in a town this small. Tim missed breakfast because he was sleeping, so we stopped at McDonalds for an iced coffee. It took 30 minutes to get his iced coffee and sausage mcmuffin because they were totally overwhelmed. We also saw a Mennonite family there.

Now we are back on the train, and have been stopped in Glasgow for approximately 18 hours. They have buses coming to take us around the derailment and to the train that was headed to Seattle that is on the other side of the derailment. We will then switch trains - the one on the East side will take us back to Chicago, and our train will turn around and take the folks from the other side of the derailment back to Seattle.

So we definitely will not be having dinner this evening at the Girl and the Goat in Chicago, and I am now keeping my fingers crossed that we will be no more than 27ish hours delayed so that we can catch our train on Thursday evening back to the East Coast. Stay tuned for an update on the bus bridge!