Riding Private Varnish: The Mount Vernon to MN

I'll keep adding photos as the day and week go on. Feel free to ask any questions and I'll try to answer as best I can.

One plus of being late is one gets to see sights by day that are normally passed at night, and vice-versa. Morning (6:26 AM) found us in Utica, normally an 8:44 PM stop. More issues along they way had made us REALLY late. But, on a PV, who cares?

Good morning B&O Bill

I would really like to do this sooner than later. How many people riding with you? Crew and passengers. Who do I contact? 

Clem k  

Clem K: I would suggest you start by looking at public trips on the web page of the American Association of Private Car Owners:  www.aaprco.com.  Many car owners list trips available there.

You can also do a search under individual cars...Mount Vernon information for example is at www.dominionrailvoyages.com.

I'm a member of the Washington DC chapter, NRHS, and we run trips on Dover Harbor:  www.dcnrhs.org.

I did a google search under "Private car rail trips" and came up with a wide variety of other links.

Good luck!

OH, Clem K: number of crew depends on degree of service and number of passengers. Usually two is minimum. Our trip had 6 passengers taking the entire New York-Chicago-Twin-Cities-Chicago-New York routing. 3 "day riders" rode from Chicago to St. Paul. Sometimes shorter day segments are available in cars like Mount Vernon where the lounge area holds many more than the sleeping rooms accomodate. Mount Vernon is a former 10-roomette 6 DBR Union Pacific cleeper. the roomettes have been removed for lounge, kitchen, and shower, leaving the 6 bedrooms, for a total overnight capacity of 12 including crew. Lounge seats about 24, though, making space available for day riders.

Dover Harbor is original 6 double bedroom lounge. Again, overnight accomodations for 12 including crew, daytime seats 24.

Because we had only 6 taking the whole route, we got our own bedroom. That was an unexpected treat.

Thank you Bill

Clem k

What a great trip. Have a wonderful time!

Bill, great trip reports, just like I was there.  BUT now you have me worried by your tales of the delays on the Lake Shore.  My only other experience on that train was several years ago when my wife and I took it instead of the Capitol Limited on our fall trip to York.  I thought October down the Hudson River valley might be spectacular.  

Well, a half hour out of Chicago we stopped - for an hour.  Then backed up for a while before creeping forward.  All night long we must have been going 25mph.  At dawn we had stopped a station - Dearborn!  Turns out there was a freight derailment ahead of us and Amtrak routed us around it through Dearborn then down to Toledo.  But, back on the main line we had lost our slot and fell further and further behind.  So, instead of beautiful fall colors in the afternoon and a 5pm arrival, we arrived at Penn Station at 3am.

Now, Penn station at 3am was not a pretty sight.  But Amtrak did wonders for us.  First they had staff shooing the panhandlers away from as we waited in line to make alternate connections.  Then they gave us a hotel voucher for a beautiful old hotel almost across the street as well as cash for breakfast.

They then said, which train would you like to go out on to complete your trip to BWI (where we were to get our rental car).  Not wanting to be even more late, I choose an early morning train and we went to bed for all of a couple of hours, had a nice breakfast and showed up back at Penn station.

Going to the track for our train, we discovered we had chosen an Acela!  My first - and only trip.  The ride was spectacular except for one fact.  We had so little sleep the night before, I slept almost the entire trip.

So, next year I was looking into trying again on our way to the TCA convention in New Jersey.  But, the Lake Shore?  Now I am worried.

Things went smoothly across New York State, and the daytime run gave me opportunities to see remnants of the Old new York Central usually passed at night. Things like a portion of the Rochester platform and the deserted Buffalo Central Terminal.

Of course, freight train action was heavy as well, and now and again we passed an eastbound Empire Service train.

Every now and then you still see a caboose!

At Erie, PA, there is one newly repaired platform. You can see, though, that there were once many others.

There was trackwork between Erie and Cleveland, so slow orders were in effect.

Oh wow.  I've known only one person in my whole like who had his own railcar, and that was decades ago, when I was a little kid. 

Your photos over the past days have been interesting and informative, Bill.  True, the train was late, but it was better than it would have been in the early 1970's, bouncing over the Penn Central, and probably late then, too.  You posted several photos which demonstrated the generally busy and well-maintained railroads of today.

Cleveland is another large city that is usually seen only at night from the Lake Shore Limited. Our daytime running gave me a change to see the fuel pad and yards East of town.

coming into town, I was surprised by this Cleveland wildlife. Is there some team called the "Cleveland Coyotes?"

Cleveland was interesting. An airport display, Light rail, Amtrak Station, and views of lakefront industry and of course the downtown.

West of Cleveland we saw some fans out taking photos. One got this view of us. It has been posted elsewhere, but I'll put it here also for completeness.

I don't remember now if it was at Cleveland, or shortly thereafter, that we got the word on the next dilemma. We were now so late that there would not be time to turn the trainset at Chicago. The train would be annulled at Toledo, and turn there. Busses would take the passengers on board the rest of the way, and other bussess would bring passengers East from Chicago and intermediate points to the train.

But, what about us?  After lots of discussion, and calls to Amtrak, it was decided that we would be set out in Toledo, and be taken West in the morning, on a (hopefully) on time Capitol Limited.  However, Toledo did not have ground power. No matter, we'd just run the generator.

The Lake Shore cut us off on another track, turned, and we went to sleep. I never saw it leave. I was awake though when the (YES!) Capitol Limited pulled in on time.

If we could make Chicago by 11 AM, we had a chance of making the connection to #7, The Empire Builder.

Photos: Passing freights across Ohio, the Maumee River and Toledo, and in the Toledo Central Union Terminal.

I was up early to see the Capitol Limited back into us and lead us out on a near on-time departure. Early morning is one of my favorite times riding the rails, especially on the back platform of a Westbound train. The morning sun and mists can just be spectacular.

Elkhart is always a treat. Nice curves into the Station, the NYC Museum, historic station, and often unusual freight in the large yards.

Coming into Chicago is neat as well. Remote control locomotives work the steel mills. There is a wide variety of freight and numerous bridges. We were in before 11, so a switcher tied on to us and moved us promptly into the yard to connect to the Empire Builder.

From the windows and rear door, I was able to get shots that the average rail enthusiast never sees! Including the Sears Tower (OK, I know it is something else....) with Amtrak's fleet.

Now, a technical question: Is this thread getting too long? Should I start a new one or just continue on here?

"Now, a technical question: Is this thread getting too long? Should I start a new one or just continue on here?"

Not possible to be too long, Bill. Besides, you have not even reached the halfway point of "Bill's and Mike's Heinous Hiatus." Please continue the thread.

Ok, Jon. I just wasn't sure if it was easier to read one long thread or several shorter ones.

We only had a few hours in Chicago, and of course could not walk around the yard. So, I got a few more photos from the window. We also all worked together to straighten up the car since we knew there were day riders boarding in Chicago to go to St. Paul. By the time we pulled into the dark of Union Station, it was spic and span.

I very much enjoyed this series.  Is there a final set of pictures from the run to St. Paul?

--Reed

Layout of The Mount Vernon.

Thanks, Jon, for finding and posting that diagram. Yes, Reed, here's the final post Chicago to St. Paul.  I have the return trip as well, via The Cardinal from Chicago to Washington, DC, and will work on that as a separate post this week.

We we not on the rear on #7, with a Milwaukee road Super dome and Open Observation car Lamberts Point behind us. They were a charter group.

Not much that I saw scenic from Chicago to Milwaukee. Here's a few views:

Delay struck again just shy of the Milwaukee Station. Signal issues. We would sit for hours. Eastbound trains were not affected, and I did see  Hiawatha Service trains and then the Eastbound Empire Builder.

Finally, we were cleared into the depot. Passengers were given a "fresh air" break (read: smoking stop) and a couple of our day riders looked over the super dome behind us.

After Milwaukee, it was time for dinner and darkness set in. After some social time, I retired to my room to read and sleep. I did awaken about 3:30, when we were being switched at Midway Station, St. Paul. Amtrak still uses that facility for some service and PV parking.  I got up early to get a morning shot, and then saw the whole neighborhood. In addition to Lamberts Point and the Super Dome, Sleeper "Berlin" was in the string. the cars had been arranged in the order they would leave, with us being first out on Thursday. Minnesota commercial had also apparently turned us on the wye during the night, so we would have the vestibule to the rear on the return trip.

This completes the westbound part of the adventure. The next two days in the Twin Cities can be seen by doing a search for "Twin Cities Rail Adventures."  There are several different posts.  Now I'll get to work on the return trip, to post this week.