Eastern Rare-Mileage Trip
"The Pacific Express"

Rainy Trip Across New York
Aug. 3rd

Photos by Dave Ingles

To reach this trip, local friend and mileage-collector Otto Dobnick and I rode the High Iron Travel cars right out of Chicago, on the back of Amtrak #48, the Lake Shore Limited, on Tues., Aug. 2nd. First we took Amtrak Hiawatha #338 from Milwaukee at 3 p.m., with the only non-station stop at Mayfair crossing of UP's Northwest Metra Line for 3 minutes, with a 4:40 arrival in Union Station. A call to Nona Hill, Clark Johnson's wife, aboard the Caritas determined that their 3 cars were accessible in the yard, and soon Steve DeGroot, who with wife Donna form the Caritas's almost-full-time crew (everything from mechanical issues to grocery shopping and dining-car-crew supervision and helping out) drove the rental car (Clark and Nona live in Madison, Wis., and drove to Chicago in it) to Union Station to take Otto and me right to the private cars (PV's) in the yard. We had a relaxing early evening in the yard, eventually joined by 3 other passengers. This leased GP38, serving as an Amtrak yard engine in Chicago, was parked right next to the PV's when we arrived.

Amtrak's new "mini train" for branch-line service. Note that it's electric!

This engine put us on the back of the Lake Shore Limited's consist; our three PV's would bring up the rear of a 16-car train.

Nona Hill shows Otto Dobnick the wonders of digital photography.

I'll apologize now for trouble with my little Canon Power Shoot on focusing properly on telephoto shots; I think the zoom lens has loosened from lots of use :-). At dusk, we are ready for spotting in Union Station for the normal early passenger boarding. We pushed back at 833 and were spotted at 845, but we would not leave until 1130, 2 hours late, having to wait for the arriving Empire Builder (1015) and California Zephyr (1055) from the West, for connecting passengers.

Thunderstorms and resulting signal problems, and a lake boat passing thru a moveable bridge near the Chicago city limits (Indiana state line) put us 4 hours 45 minutes late at Bryan, Ohio, one of the few times I awakened in my roomette in Cimarron River, at 622 am. I finally got out of bed in Cleveland at 930, where we left 3:43 late, and found the day dark and raining off and on, so there are few pictures. This is somewhere near Girard, OH, from the back of the Caritas. We now are on CSX's portion of the old Water Level Route, having crossed over from the south track to the north track.

The man on the platform at left at Erie, Pa., is passenger Steve Morse, whom we were picking up. At every station stop, our 3 PV's were off the platform, so even if it wasn't raining, there was no chance to get off and take a walk. We left Erie at 1138 am, 4:16 late.

This was the most successful "grab shot" as we passed GE's Erie Works at high speed, so you won't see the others :-)

Today was Clark Johnson's 81st birthday, so we all signed a paper tablecloth with greetings. There are 7 crew and 6 passengers on board. Car Swift Stream served as our diner.

Clark contemplates the greeting-card tablecloth.

Buffalo Central Terminal is a sorry hulk, but not quite as bad as Michigan Central Terminal in Detroit. Time: 1 p.m.

Our position at the Buffalo (Depew) station was typically off the west end of the platform. Times here were 104-120 pm, departing 4:12 late.

Leaving Depew, we met a westbound CSX freight as an eastbound loaded ethanol train waited to cross over and follow us. CSX was its usual busy self, but owing to focus problems and the rain, I shot little of the action and just enjoyed it, pretending all trains were led by solid black or gray lightning-stripe FA's or F7's, as God intended! I am in the Cimarron River's vestibule, up against the rear baggage car on the Lake Shore's normal cars.

The Genesee River at Rochester, looking south toward downtown and (not clearly visible) the double-deck bridge that has an unused subway lower level.

Looking north over the "canyon" and (unseen below) the Lower Falls at Rochester; Kodak's HQ tower is at left.

It was really raining during our Rochester station stop, 2:30-2:59 pm. Being on the north track, we had to triple-spot, and it may have been a smoke-break stop to boot, not sure. This looks toward the front of our train; for the record, our engines were 12 and 53. The depot is on the site of the old NYC station, and the umbrella shed and station signs on it are original.

Like semaphores and searchlight signals elsewhere on other roads, the classic New York Central signals and bridges across New York are living on borrowed time as CSX gradually installs new tri-light signals. This is CP 308 between Center Port and Memphis, NY, around 4 pm.

Another of numerous westbound CSX intermodal trains flashes by the Caritas in the rain west of Syracuse about 4:50 pm. Our Lake Shore Limited #48 was running about 5 1/2 hours late at this point.

Nearing the Syracuse station, we overtook this eastbound ethanol train just starting out of a third-track siding.

Rolling into Syracuse, Nona and Clark toast his 81st birthday.

We are pulling out of Syracuse, still in the rain, at 517 pm, 5 hours 39 minutes late. The headlight in the distance is Amtrak #64 from Toronto and Niagara Falls, for which the passengers on the platform are waiting. He'd trail us all the way into Albany, then leave ahead of us.

Still raining, still lousy camera focus as we overtake an intermodal around Canasota at 550 pm.

Our Utica stop was 616-620 pm, departing 5:38 late. The 0-6-0 on display is new since my last visit. If my memory is correct, it was stored in Hagerstown, MD, for a long time, and may  have come from a southern Illinois utility or mine, as I seem to recall an industrial firm in that section of the state had such an 0-6-0, one of the few NYC steam locomotives to survive.

Adirondack Scenic Railway cars are at right in what is again a true Union Station in Utica. It's beautifully restored inside. I rode the Adriondack Railway all the way up to Lake Placid in 1981, after the Olympics of 1980 and shortly before it shut down, connecting here off a Turbo from Syracuse, having visited with the late Dick Horstmann there before and after the Lake Placid ride. Rick Moser accompanied me, and we ran into mileage collectors Ken Maylath and Pete Bretz on the Adirondack, which had an Alco RS3 towing ex-PRR P70 coaches and a heavyweight C&O diner, a trip that is one of my fondest "rare mileage" memories. Utica was my last photo locale of the day. We arrived at Albany at 8 pm and spent 30 minutes changing out power next to the diesel shop west of the depot (dual-mode engine 700 was our new power), which meant passengers destined for Albany sat for a half hour within sight of the depot. We then spent another half hour in the depot, separating the Boston section cars, finally departing at 9:01 p.m, 5:11 late. All Albany station personnel should be fired and Amtrak should start from scratch there -- the whole operation, ever since PC days, has been a joke. I was asleep before Harmon, NY, and was told we arrived in Penn Station right about 1130 pm, meaning a 24-hour ride, and within 20 minutes went on over to Sunnyside Yard.

This page was designed and is maintained by Mike Condren. If you have materials
that you would like to contribute, contact me at mcondren@cbu.edu