AMTRAK TRIP REPORT
My most remarkable journey
Railroader-writer rides Amtrak engines from New England to
Florida
- By Leo King E-mail: Train1812@home.com
- Trainpix, Ltd. Senior Writer
- Transportation Journalist
- 630 Oaklawn Ave.Suite 216
- Cranston RI 02920
- Fax or voice: 401 275 7448
For Friends of Amtrak July, 1999
edited by Craig
S. O'Connell
-
"I speak for no railroad, nor do they speak for me."
First North American print rights
only.
Sometimes a summer vacation turns into something really special,
and 1997 was one of those summers for me.
In May of that year I made arrangements with Amtrak's Northeast
Corridor SBU (strategic business unit) vice president Stan Bagley and
Intercity SBU veep Lee Bullock to ride the head-ends of trains 171,
the Mayflower, from Providence, R.I., my home town, to Washington,
D.C., and No. 97, the Silver Meteor, between Savannah, Ga., and
Jacksonville, Fla. Being an Amtrak employee as well, and a frequent
unpaid contributor to its employee publication, Amtrak Ink, went a
long way in opening a unique door for me. I'm the second-trick train
director at South Bay tower, Boston.
In brief, I rode an F-40 between Providence and New Haven, an
AEM-7 between New Haven and Washington, and a Genesis from Savannah
to Jacksonville. Between Washington and Savannah it was mostly night
time and impossible to take pictures, so I opted to snooze along with
the paying guests behind the engines.
The first day on what was, for me, an extraordinary journey, began
with the Mayflower on June 2. I had called engineer Jimmy Blake at
the South Station crew room and told him I had a head-end pass, but I
would like to have his permission to ride. There's nothing like a big
surprise en route when you're running a train; at least I could help
him avoid one.
Jimmy welcomed me, and we agreed I should stand near the smoke
vents on the west end of the platform in Providence station, between
tracks 1 and 2, near milepost (MP) 185.
Jimmy, F-40PH engines 414 and 286, seven Amfleet coaches and a
"bag" made up the train, with conductor John Garde in charge.
The train left Boston on time, but lost two or three minutes en
route on this rainy June 2.
Up in the cab, Jimmy explained that the 414, "is 'cab speed'
equipped," meaning that its cab signal equipment "not only displays
the current condition of the block the train is in, but also the
authorized speed for the train -- 150 mph," although track speed, for
now, is still only 110 mph. The wayside signal at the home board
would display flashing green over red. F-40s are not capable of
speeds greater than 100 mph, but the cab signal's speed indication is
to allow it to pass over one of five high-speed crossovers between
Boston and New Haven at 80 m.p.h., otherwise, either cab or wayside
signals would display "limited clear" (red over flashing green) at
best when going over a high-speed crossover and changing tracks, and
would have had to slow to 45 mph.
Engine 286, just behind us, supplied the power to move the train,
as well as the head-end power, which made it relatively quiet in the
414's cab, and conversations could be carried on without having to
shout. The 414 was all right; just being quiet. F-40s are incredibly
loud from the head-end power generators that supply the 480-volt
electrical system.
The engineer said that he would "deadhead back to Boston today,
but tomorrow and the rest of the week I'll take 163 west and go back
on No. 94."
Dispatcher trainee Harvey Tiomkin was also riding this day, taking
a road day to learn his territory between Mansfield, Mass., and
Groton, Conn., as a Main Line dispatcher. He was one of eight people
in the most recent class, which began in January.
It was quite clear that electrification was well underway.
Catenary poles were up between Davisville and Kingston, although no
messenger wire had not yet been strung anywhere. From Davisville, we
ran left-handed on No. 2 track to Groton, where we briefly crossed
back over to track 1.
One of the major projects for the track department this summer is
to replace wooden switch ties, under all hand-operated switches, with
concrete ties. As No. 171 sped past Westerly Yard, the track
department's handiwork was evident.
Heavy track laying equipment was stored in Mystic Yard, near the
movable span, until its crew could bring it out at night and do some
more heavy ballast work.
We crossed Thames River Bridge between Groton and New London,
Conn., the train's next stop, then eased over Shaw's Cove bridge, the
second of five movable bridges between Boston and New Haven, followed
by Nan, over the Niantic River in Connecticut, the smallest of the
five movable decks on the Shore Line, covering some ten miles.
No. 12, the Fast Mail, greeted us at one of the few places where
double track was still available. With so much track work going on,
much of the track is single iron between Boston and New Haven. We
passed over Conn, eight spans long with a 135-foot lifting span some
thirty feet above the Connecticut River, between Old Lyme and Old
Saybrook. It is the biggest of the five movable decks. Conn, View, a
high speed interlocking, and Old Saybrook station and interlocking
are all within two miles of each other.
The track laying machine and its crew were hard at work at MP 101.
The machine lifts and spreads the rail it's on, digs out the wooden
ties, inserts the new concrete ties, and replaces the rail. Tamping
crew follow to restore the track to running condition. New Haven was
now only 35 minutes away.
Jimmy made his station stop, then took his engines to motor
storage at New Haven and MP 72, and a few minutes later, No. 471
arrived from Springfield, Mass., and tied on to the head end of 171.
As soon as the 11 cars were tied together, 471's engineer also took
his engines to motor storage, and AEM-7 engines 950 and 923 tied on
to take the train the rest of the journey enroute to our nation's
capital.
NHV to NYP
Engineer Jim McKay, a 29-year railroad veteran, was at the helm.
He and his conductor, Hal Bellmore, would return to New Haven on No,
86. It was still raining, and it looked like my journey was going to
be a washout. It nearly was.
We left New Haven six minutes late.
Jim told me that Jimmy Blake had called him on the radio while the
engines were moving around and I was on the ground that he "would
have a rider."
"Should I throw him off, or is he okay?"
"He's okay."
Gee.
The engine controls are laid out in desktop fashion, and
everything within easy reach for the engineer.
About a half-hour later, we passed No. 172, the eastward
Mayflower, with the 922 on the point (another AEM-7) en route to
Boston, at MP 42. A little later, we passed No. 56, the Vermonter, on
Metro-North territory between New Haven and New Rochelle, where
westward Amtrak trains make a left turn to the Hell Gate line and
Penn Station. "The branch," Mets railroaders call it.
By now, the windshield wipers had become balky, and the air-driven
blades sometimes quit working until they could build up enough
pressure to get going again. The wipers on the east end engine were
all dead.
A Metropolitan Division temporary speed restriction bulletin
(TSRB) rated the track at 60 mph the entire distance from CP 216
(Shell Interlocking at New Rochelle, N.Y.), back on Amtrak iron, as
far as Harold interlocking.
We slipped past the division post at MP 18.8 (from Penn Station,
NYP) and Pelham Bay movable bridge (MP 15.5) where the operator is
instructed to hold all westward trains until radio contact is
established. Now we were in the New York Terminal District
dispatcher's territory.
Climbing the approaches to Hell Gate Bridge is a spectacular show,
even in heavy rain and fog. The ceiling was, by my guess, about 600
feet, and the bridge seemed to be almost scraping the bottoms of the
clouds. We caught a "red eye," a stop indication, at Harold tower
operated by the Long Island Rail Road, but we were underway again in
a moment.
Some of the track leading to Penn Station in New York City looked
like a single-track branch line with close clearances. I was
surprised to see track like that, but the ride was smooth, despite
its appearance. You can see things from the cab you could never see
from a coach, like diving into the tunnel from somewhere uptown after
clearing Hell Gate Bridge in the Bronx. There are long, close
quarters inside those bores, and, Jim said, "We're on the No. 2 route
tunnel."
We landed on track 12 in Penn Station, and MP 0.0.
-
- Big Apple to D.C.
-
- After the expected 25-minute dwell time, train 171 was out on
the road again, leaving the Big Apple with engineer Phil Dotterer
at the controls and Conductor Charles Ofstovsky and his crew
collecting the tickets.
-
- Phil had checked my head-end pass, and once he was satisfied
that I was legitimately in his locomotive, relaxed and went about
his business of getting the train ready to go, with an air brake
test and other necessary work. Phil hired out on the Penn Central
in 1973.
-
- We had gone perhaps one-quarter mile west inside a
single-track tunnel and were very close to the track speed of 60
mph when an incredible arcing at one of our pantographs lit up the
tunnel darkness like daylight for a split-second, displaying a
dazzling flash of brilliant lightning (13,000 volts' worth). We
were now without power, but Phil was able to call his conductor on
the radio, advising him of the situation. We continued to roll,
but gradually lost speed.
-
- Nether Phil, his conductor, nor I, for that matter, knew why
we had zapped the system, but a few minutes later, power was
restored in the catenary. A trainmaster aboard the train was now
involved (I never got his name), and he was equally concerned.
Phil had also notified the terminal operations train dispatcher.
After the power came back on, and the eight traction motors under
us were loading properly, Phil asked the dispatcher if it was okay
to continue going west. The dispatcher said it was all right, and
we started up again.
-
- A few minutes later, after we were up to perhaps 40 miles an
hour, the same thing happened again, but this time much more
intense. The flash's decaying light lasted longer, in fact, long
enough to see the catenary violently shaking back and forth, and
up and down, as far as I could see. Phil let us drift for a little
while, but soon made an air application to bring us to a stop. The
west portal was well within sight.
-
- This time it took a little longer for the power to be
restored, but once it was, Phil got permission from the dispatcher
to proceed at restricted speed (15 mph inside interlocking limits,
20 mph outside) to the west portal. The trainmaster, meanwhile,
instructed Phil to bring the train to a stop once we cleared the
hole and make a visual inspection.
-
- Phil cleared the tunnel and began climbing a gently curving
hill to the left. He wanted to get the train onto straight track,
but the hill and curve seemed to keep going on and on; so, because
that the entire train was now clear of the hole, he stopped it,
and climbed down to look it over.
-
- I stayed on the engine. He didn't need another problem, should
I injure myself.
-
- He and the trainmaster did as good a visual inspected as they
could from the ground. Climbing atop a locomotive with 13,000
volts within a few feet is absolutely no place to be. Have you
ever heard the "Bzzzzzttt!" the juice makes as something comes
near it? Even when a pan is two or three feet away, the marvelous
conductor will draw an arc from the overhead wire and light up the
sky. It's an awesome sight at night.
-
- They found nothing wrong.
-
- After we were underway for the third time, and things had
settled down, and it looked like everything was okay, I asked Phil
what could have caused that.
-
- He said it could have been one of those marking tags with a
short metal wire on it that got fried; probably some debris that
blew up from under the train and landed between the pan and wire.
In any event, he said, that was not a common occurrence.
-
- As we approached infamous Portal Movable bridge at MP 6.0, we
slowed down to 45 mph, following the slow order instruction in the
Metro Division TSRB. Eastward No. 12, the Fast Mail, went on the
ground here last November.
-
- Later, when we stopped at Newark, at MP 8.8, I got out onto
the high platform with him to look at the pans, but I couldn't
tell which one had gotten fried. Phil didn't say much, either,
just had a puzzled look on his face. A few minutes later, now
close to thirty minutes off the mark, we left Newark. We had lost
a few more minutes while the red caps and conductors assisted a
handicapped person aboard.
-
- There are two track leaving Newark going west. One is the 125
mph iron, but Phil said we were "on the slower track and only
making 110."
-
- And he did.
-
- I've never been in a cab on a train moving at that speed.
-
- WOW!
-
- We passed a few "liners," like 174, the Yankee Clipper, then
SEPTA trains came into view for a while. No. 115, a westbound
Metroliner, whizzed by us on an adjacent track while we were
slowing for the station stop at Trenton, New Jersey's capital. Our
main reservoir air pressure remained steady at 140 pounds per
square inch.
-
- "Iron Hill. It's the steepest curve on the Northeast
Corridor," Phil offered.
-
- "Lots of couplers on the ground--uphill and downhill."
-
- We tripped the Perryman hotbox detector.
-
- Here we go again.
-
- "Amtrak, Perryman, milepost 59-point-five. You have a defect.
11th axle."
-
- The talking detector repeated itself.
-
- "Hello, Charles"
-
- "Yeah, I heard. Let's stop and check it out."
-
- Phil also called dispatcher Susan Sharpless, who agreed that
to stop was the proper thing to do. Later, he remarked that "She's
one of the few who knows how to operate."
-
- The 11th axle was the leading axle on the rear truck of the
first head car, the coach just behind the engines. Phil dug his
templestick material out of his grab bag, his over-the-road bag,
and clambered down the engineer's side of the engine to check that
side while Conductor Charles check the other side. The dispatcher,
meanwhile, was holding "red eyes" out in both directions on the
adjacent track to protect the crew, even though nothing was
coming.
-
- Using the templestick is really simple: If it melts, you have
an overheated bearing, and the car has to be set out at the
nearest available siding or spur.
-
- Neither melted.
-
- Back in the cab again, Phil explained that it might have been
an over-tightened, recently shopped bearing which was now okay, or
maybe the detector was a little touchy. During my journey with the
train today, that was the only time a detector had been activated
with a defect notice, just as the engines had run flawlessly until
those two incidents back in the tunnels.
-
- "You're seeing everything today," he remarked.
-
- "Boy, I'll say!"
-
- We strode over a zillion other interlocking stations, like
Dock (another movable bridge), Hunter, Midway, Ham, Grundy, Shore
and incredible Zoo Tower and interlocking, aptly named not only
because of its closeness to the Philadelphia Zoo, but also because
of the incredible train operations they move there over tracks
going in eight different compass points. It is here that westward
liners become southward trains.
-
- We made station stops at Trenton and Philadelphia's famed 30th
Street Station;
-
- We passed into Mid-Atlantic Division territory, and crossed
interlockings like Arsenal, Hook, Brandy, and Prince; we made
another station stop at Wilmington, Del., and over other
interlocking and station place names like Gunpow, Baltimore, John
Street (and the opening for B&P Tunnel as well as Pennsylvania
Ave., Winans, and Bowie as well as BWI and Carroll, at New
Carrollton.
-
- We passed through historic Union Tunnel, built in 1821, and
has the scars to prove it. The brick lining is clearly visible
from where much of the concrete facing has either fallen off or
been knocked off by bigger and bigger freight cars. B&P tunnel
looked about the same.
Even though we stopped there, Baltimore and BWI stations were
but blinks on the horizon. The tracks lay ahead.
-
- We came to a final stop at our nation's capital on track 14,
as I recall -- a stub-end track on the upper level. The first leg
of an incredible journey had come to an end.
-
- D.C. to JAX
-
- The last time I visited Washington Union station was some four
years ago. Many shops and restaurants had opened inside the
terminal, but I wasn't ready for the sight that greeted me after I
entered the main concourse. There were restaurants and shops on
the main floor, upstairs, and in the basement, a multiplex theatre
as well as more restaurants. I had four hours to kill, so I dined
well at the Chicago Bar & Grill/Pizzeria Uno, and saw
Spielberg's The Lost World, his Jurassic Park sequel. The dinner
was terrific (I had a steak with rice), and the movie was good and
just what I was in the mood for: all action, little brainpower
needed.
-
- I also had time to visit briefly with Dave Narsavage, Amtrak's
new director of employee communications; Leslie Beers, the
railroad's new editor of Amtrak Ink, resurrected after two years
of zero production during the continuing budget crises (and
formerly named Amtrak Ties); and Katy Young, a "Jill" of all
trades.
-
- I was astonished, however, by the never-ending murmurings;
non-stop voices of humanity everywhere I went inside the public
portions of the station; and constant business (busy-ness) with
people in motion everywhere one might look. Only the homeless
stood out, because they were hardly moving at all, or very slowly,
at best. It was their very slowness that drew my eye.
-
- I parked my luggage in a "large" locker, and it cost $1.00 per
hour in addition to the basic $1.00 charge. I didn't seen any
signs saying there was an hourly charge. I'm not saying they
weren't there; I only know if they were there, I didn't see them.
I spent six dollars there, the movie was $4.50, and dinner was
about $15, including the tip.
-
- Harold Eddings!
-
- Of all people!
-
- 10:30 p.m. was approaching, and so was train time. I was going
to ride a coach, I thought, at least as far as Savannah, where I
would board an engine again and when it would be daylight, and at
an Amtrak crew change point for engineers running on CSX
iron.
-
- I strolled into the Gate K area and heard someone call my
name.
-
- "Leo."
-
- I thought I must have been hearing things, or someone was
calling another Leo.
-
- "Leo!" I heard it again, only this time a little more
strident.
-
- I looked around again, then I saw a bearded, suntanned
conductor sitting with what must have been his crewmates. I must
have had a really quizzical look on my face. He stood up and
walked over to me.
-
- "Leo King, right?" he asked.
-
- I looked at his name tag.
-
- "E-d-d-i-n-g-s," all in capital letters.
-
- Then came the dawn.
-
- "Harold! Harold Eddings!" I blurted out.
-
- "Yeah! How've you been?"
-
- Harold and I had both been block operators, interlocking
operators, in Boston's South Bay Tower, controlling trains
operating over the ten-mile Dorchester Branch from South Boston to
Hill interlocking in Readville, where the branch ends.
-
- Harold had gone into train service some four years ago, and
moved to North Carolina where he was able to hold a regular job,
rather than being at the mercy of the extra list elsewhere. Before
he became an operator, he had been a "track rat" on the "North
side" of Boston's Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority for
several years. We chatted for a while, and he introduced me to his
crewmates.
-
- No. 97 arrived from New York about ten minutes late, on Track
26. Two AEM-7 motors were taken off, and Genesis engines Nos. 56
and 49, took their place.
-
- Harold would be working the "bags" this night on the head of
the train. We left our nation's capital at 11:03 p.m. 33 minutes
late.
-
- Harold was kind enough to set me up in the crew dorm car, No.
2933, with the on-board services chief's permission, just behind
the baggage car. Alas, I was such a fuzzbrain by that time I never
got the OBS chief's name. Viewliner cars Wayside View and Forest
View were immediately behind, then the diner, cafe/lounge car, and
the rest of the 11-car train.
-
- Have you ever dreamt that you were riding right behind the
engine on a night train, and every time you approached a grade
crossing, you could hear the engine's whistle or horn almost as
though it was nearly in your room, next to your bed?
-
- I had a night like that. It was bizarre and not a dream. But
being in a dream state, hearing the frequently blowing whistle,
and responding to the rocking motion of the train is a grand
experience. But probably a nightmare to people who aren't rail
oriented. Come to think of it, it's probably a nightmare to people
who view their work just as a job, and no more than that.
-
- I slept-in on the morning of the 3rd.
-
- I was up around 8 o'clock, had breakfast in the diner (good
crew, good chef, and, yes, I paid full price for my meals aboard
all the trains I rode).
-
- We made a regular but brief stop at Yemassee, S.C.,
(pronounced YAM-uh-see) at 9:05 a.m., now only four minutes late.
Savannah was still about an hour away.
-
- CSX's mile zero is in Richmond, Va. We had traveled briefly
over Conrail iron into Virginia, then took the former Richmond,
Fredericksburg & Potomac rails to Richmond. During the night,
we had stopped at Richmond, and Petersburg, Va., Rocky Mount and
Fayetteville, N.C., then on to Florence, Kingstree, Charleston and
Yemassee.
-
- Savannah is MP A491. We had stopped just about on time for a
scheduled five-minute stop, and the engineer had climbed down from
Genesis 49 and was walking toward the fuel truck. Its operator had
set up the refueling hose and had begun pumping. I asked the
now-off duty engineer if his relief was on the engine yet, and he
replied no. But curiosity got the better of him, and he asked me
why I wanted to know. I told him I had a head-end pass and was
taking pictures. I climbed up onto the engine on the fireman's
side, which was also the platform side. This was the first time I
had ever been in one of these new GE 4,250 HP
- critters. It was spacious, compared to an F-40, and even with
an AEM-7. It is also about as quiet as an electric engine.
Apparently during the night, the lead engine had been set
out.
-
- My day was really beginning to brighten. The sun was beginning
to peek out, try to burn off the thin clouds that remained.
-
- A few minutes later, Jerome Bailey tossed his over-the-road
kit up through the open door. A minute after that, he climbed up
with his travel bag, which, I guessed, contained a change of
clothes and other necessities like maybe his lunch.
-
- He was surprised to find someone in his engine, but I
explained why I was there, and showed him my head-end pass.
-
- He quickly went about his business of setting up the engine,
and, with conductor C. C. Fowler at the rear, performed the
trainline brake test.
-
- Shortly after we got started, I noticed that the cab signal
system was turned off.
-
- "We don't have cab signals on CSX," he explained, "so our
maximum safe speed and authorized speed in the timetable is 79
miles an hour." For a good part of our 149-mile, two-and-a-half
hour journey to Jacksonville, that was where he had the
speedometer pinned.
-
- We passed through Alabama Interlocking, marked with a diamond
and the Georgia Central. with a medium clear signal, and began
slowing down to 30.
-
- "P.O. Ninety-seven. Zero--two. Seventy-nine. Out."
-
- Jerome explained that CSX "rules require us to call out every
signal indication to the conductor. What I just said was P.O.
(that's Passenger Operation) 97, track two, and our speed." The
conductor is also required to respond.
-
- Detectors also get an acknowledgment with the engine number,
no defects (or whatever the electronic detector has stated, and
"out," as in, "This is the end of my transmission."
-
- "They're spaced about 20 miles apart," Jerome said, an Amtrak
engineer for 11 years.
-
- When we passed freight trains, whether we were in the hole or
they were, both engineers made a point of calling out whether the
train they were passing appeared to be all right or not. On the
day I rode, there were no exceptions with us nor the freights we
passed.
-
- There are at least two ways to get to different places. He
explained that we were "taking the 'A' line today," but off to the
left, near St. Mary's River bridge, "the 'B' line takes off and
also goes to Jacksonville." It's kind of a double-track but
greatly separated route. The route we were on is usually southward
trains, and the "B" line usually handles the northward trains,
whether CSX's or Amtrak's.
-
- I asked Jerome if the P-42s were reliable. He thought about
the question for a moment, then said, that for the most part, they
were. But he also told the story of a few weeks earlier when he
was bringing the same train southward and the engine died.
-
- "We tried to restart it, but nothing worked." He said that
they "called the engine service technicians on the phone, but they
couldn't restart it either. Finally after three hours, they called
CSX for help with a rescue engine. A little later, the train was
on the move again, with a CSX engine on the point, the failed P-42
and the train, but it was now three hours late.
-
- We had a speed restriction of 25 mph between MPs A602.0 to
A609.0 on No. 1 track, and between A615.5 and 615.6. The "Super
gang" was out replacing ties and doing other heavy track work. The
track undercutters, ballast regulators and other equipment was
spread out all along track 2.
-
- "Our instruction is to ring the bell, blow the horn
frequently, and get permission from the track gang foreman to pass
the restricted area," Jerome explained.
-
- It was refreshing to see new flora. I don't see palm trees
every day where I live (in still cool Rhode Island), but they grew
wild, perhaps sometimes even treated as weeds. We arrived at JAX
Station just a few minutes off the mark. This was the end-of the
line for Jerome as well as me. He would be heading off to an
apartment he keeps in town.
-
- Surprise! I thought it might be a good idea to look around a
little before I left the station, and it was worth the extra few
minutes. I found open-doored Amtrak Express boxcar 70000 behind
the station in the mail handling facility. It was easily
accessible, so I clicked off a few frames on my 25-year-old Mamiya
C-330 camera. A building was in the way, so I couldn't back up far
enough to get a complete broadside view, so I had to settle for a
wedge shot and two sidepanel views. I primarily use Kodak
Ektachrome film rated at 200 speed, and use a 45-year-old Weston
Master II light meter. My backup camera and film are a 27-year-old
Minolta Autocord and Kodak Ektachrome 120.
-
- I headed into the station, picked up my suitcase that I had
sent ahead, and took a ($20 fare) to the Budget Auto rental agency
on U.S. Route 1, then headed north 20 miles to the Holiday Inn
motel to prepare for my two-day adventure with the Florida East
Coast Railway. My experiences with that railway will appear in a
forthcoming issue of RailNews.
-
- On to South Florida
-
- Four years ago, Cliff Smith was an Amtrak interlocking
operator in Boston's South Bay tower, near Southampton Street
Yard, but then he and his wife, Victoria and their two children
moved from Rhode Island to Boca Raton, and a location where it's
nearly always warm.
-
- My trip on No. 91, the Silver Star, was uneventful on this
June 6. My head-end letters had only permitted me to ride between
Savannah and Jacksonville, so I didn't even try to get a cab ride
this time; and to be honest, I wanted just to relax and enjoy the
company of my fellow travelers on the 350-mile, seven-hour
journey. I dozed some, but I watched the stations as we passed.
Palatka and DeLand (Daytona Beach bus connection) were small,
wooden ex-Seaboard stations.
-
- We passed the large AutoTrain facility and terminal at
Sanford, then Winter Park, Kissimmee and Orlando, where Mickey
Mouse hangs out.
-
- A $3 million renovation of Tampa Union Station will restore
and renew the 80-year-old station. Amtrak will contribute nearly a
third of the cost of the project and will again provide service
directly from Tampa Union Station on Nebraska Avenue when the
first phase of the project is complete in 1998. The trains have
been stopping at a "temporary" building on the property since
1982.
-
- Ahead lay Winter Haven, Sebring, Okeechobee, and, at last,
West Palm Beach.
-
- When Cliff moved to Florida, he also got onto a new roster,
got a new roster date, took a title of "clerk," and now is now one
of three red cap/baggagemen at West Palm Beach. Tony Camarata is
his first-trick counterpart. I learned that railroading runs in
the Camarata family. His mom, Diane is the first-trick ticket
agent at West Palm Beach, his wife, Maureen, is a ticket agent in
Miami and his dad, Leonard, is a Florida Tri-Rail conductor.
-
- Things were quiet between trains. There were only two more for
Cliff this day, Nos. 97 and 90, so we were able to chat about old
times... like Hill tower in Readville, Mass., the first place I
ever qualified as an operator. Cliff was one of the people who
helped to train me. Later, we both worked for a while at High
Street tower in Westerly, R.I.
-
- Dixie Ray, the second-trick ticket agent, was busy serving up
the tickets while Cliff took care of the baggage and mail for the
intercity trains. Tri-Rail does neither baggage nor mail, but
Tri-Rail's agent, Joe Nolan, was going out of his way to help
travelers.
-
- After Cliff knocked off for the night, around 9:30 and his
chores were completed, we went to beans, and eventually I went off
to a motel and he went home.
-
- The next day, June 7, back at the station, Trains 98 and 89
came and went, Cliff performed his duties, and when it was time
for No. 92 the Silver star, at 12:50 p.m., I was on my way home on
my birthday.
-
- Riding 92 was a treat. There are some really bright stars out
there on the railroad, and Nick Allyene, the on-board services
chief, is one of them.
-
- You know how some guys can sit down with a crowd and
immediately make you feel welcome, as though you're a guest at his
place? That's Nick. He sometimes sat down with the passengers to
kibbutz. For example, the lady who, when he was passing by in the
coach making the announcement that he was taking reservations for
the first dining room sitting at 5 p.m., and others, wanted to
know how she could turn up the sound on the TV. The cars are
equipped with multiple monitors and they show on-board movies. One
of the movies they were showing this day was one of the Star Trek
episodes where Capt. James T. Kirk is reincarnated and meets Capt.
Jean-Luc Picard.
-
- "What did you do to it?" Nick asked in mock horror.
-
- "Nothing," she giggled in response.
-
- "But you must have done something. I hear nothing."
-
- We were all chuckling by this time, those of us who were
within earshot.
-
- In a moment, he explained that earphones could be purchased
and merely plugged in.
-
- I dined well, not only on this train, but during my entire
vacation. The chefs/cooks aboard the long-distance trains, well,
at least these Florida trains, are excellent.
-
- My journey home was uneventful. I bailed out in Washington to
make my connection with No. 176, the Merchants Limited, but while
I was waiting, I called over to K Tower to see if I could visit
there for a few minutes. It was a typical big-city tower. The
ten-year-old model board was in constant use, there was always
something moving or something going on, and Train Director Greg
Towney was constantly on the radio. A track occupancy light had
lit up a track circuit (a "ghost" train) and his leverman, Randy
Hatman, was at the controls.
-
- They were so busy it was hard to ask questions. They control
mainline traffic arriving from Philadelphia and from Virginia, and
traffic to and from Ivy City Yard. A nearby turntable rested
quietly.
-
- "We haven't used that in years," one of them said.
-
- Back at the model boards, red lights were creeping across from
right to left.
-
- "The upper board shows the layout and where the trains are,"
Greg explained, "and the lower one shows the same things, but it
has the controls. It's less confusing this way."
-
- He also said that they usually had three people on the job on
Sunday mornings, but the third man had called in sick, so, they
were making do.
-
- "This is a quiet day," Greg said, "No MARCs or VREs." He was
referring to Maryland DOT trains and Virginia Railway Express
trains.
-
- I watched a switcher push an MHC car while pulling a coach up
onto a track. No. 89, the Silver Palm, arrived from New York, and
No. 176 shoved over from the yard. They put it up on track 14. I
stayed about 20 minutes, then got out of their hair.
-
- On the way home, I napped a good deal of the time. This time,
going over Hell Gate Bridge, it was crystal clear. Oh, well maybe
next year.
-
- My thanks to Amtrak VPs Lee Bullock and Stan Bagley; Barry
Osborne, and Tom Gormley
-
-
-
- -0-
-
-
-
- Sidebar -- with Florida trip
-
-
-
- Hell Gate Bridge
-
-
-
- Leo King
-
- After I returned home and I was writing this article, I got
really curious about Hell Gate Bridge. Lou Cheifetz, of the
railroad's Philadelphia engineering office, was kind enough to
respond to my query.
-
- Lou wrote that, "The Hell Gate Arch Bridge is located at
Milepost 7.29 on the Hell Gate Line in New York City. The bridge
was constructed in 1917 by the New York Connecting Railroad."
-
- It is a "1,000-foot-long, two-hinged, steel arch structure
carrying four tracks [two are usable today] over the East
River between the Borough of Queens and Ward's Island. The bridge
carries Amtrak passenger trains and Conrail freight trains."
-
- He also stated that, "The bridge deck is approximately 150
feet above the East River, and the steel arch rises 150 feet above
the bridge deck. The arch bridge is part of the Hell Gate Viaduct,
and is flanked on the east end by 1.71 miles of viaduct structure
and on the west end by 1.15 miles of viaduct structure.
-
- "Minor steel repairs were performed on the bridge deck in
1993, and the bridge was painted in 1994-95 The masonry supporting
towers were cleaned for the first time in 1996."
-
- Thanks to Maureen Garrity for her assistance in getting these
details.
-
-
-
- -0-
-
-
-
- With Florida trip -- Cutlines
-
-
-
- Organization: Group A: New Haven (NHV) to New York Penn
Station (NYP)
-
-
-
- Group B: NYP to Washington Union Station (WAS)
-
-
-
- Group C: Savannah (SAV) to Jacksonville (JAX)
-
-
-
- Group D: K tower (from inside)
-
-
-
- Group A
-
-
-
- 1-3 Jimmy Blake is pulling the 414 and 286 away from No. 171
at New Haven. The Springfield section will tie
- on with three cars, then follow Jimmy to Motor Storage on this
rainy June 2.
-
-
-
- 4 A carman awaits the AEM-7 motor at New Haven for No.
171.
-
-
-
- 5, 6 AEM-7s 950 and 923 ease over to No. 171. Engineer McKay
is in the 923 for this short eastward move.
-
-
-
- 7 The eastward Mayflower, No. 172, with the 922 on the point,
approaches its westward counterpart at a
- closure speed of about 140 miles an hour.
-
-
-
- 8, 9 Jim McKay.
-
-
-
- 10 No. 56, the Vermonter, on its way to New Haven,
Springfield, Mass., and St. Albans, Vt., rushes along
- with AEM-7 No. 938 leading the way. The rain is still
falling.
-
-
-
- 11 Jim McKay
-
-
-
- 12 Power consumption
-
-
-
- 13 A Metro-North Railroad commuter train hurtles toward New
Haven.
-
-
-
- 14-16 No. 171 waits at New Rochelle, N.Y. to make the left
turn down "the branch" and back onto Amtrak
- rails. (In frame 16), we pass over the interlocking. The
switches even have movable frogs. The rain
- continues to fall.
-
-
-
- 17-19 On the approach to one-thousand foot long Hell Gate
Bridge. The rails are 150 feet above the East
- River.
-
-
-
- 20-22 On Hell Gate Bridge, seemingly scraping the cloud
bottoms.
-
-
-
- 23, 24; 25 Over the crest at Hell Gate Bridge and approaching
Manhattan; An "approach" signal coming to
- Harold Interlocking, about a mile away.
-
-
-
- 26 Stop signal at Harold
-
-
-
- 27 Single-iron "A" route dives into the Manhattan tunnel. NYP,
Amtrak's symbol for Penn Station, New York,
- is less than one mile away.
-
-
-
- -0-
-
-
-
- With Florida trip -- Cutlines
-
-
-
- Group B
-
-
-
- 1 "Clear board" at Penn Station for 171, the Mayflower to
continue its westward journey. Engineer Phil
- Dotterer is now in charge of the motors.
-
-
-
- 2 The view from the 950's cab at the maze on the west end of
NYP.
-
-
-
- 3 We get an "approach medium" signal approaching Dock, a
massive movable bridge at MP 8.5.
-
-
-
- 4 5 Engineer Phil Dotterer.
-
-
-
- 6 Passing a liner.
-
-
-
- 7, 8 Zoo Tower, just outside Philadelphia's 30th Street
Station; Exiting Union Tunnel.
-
-
-
- 9 The approach to Washington Union Station in the late
afternoon of Monday, June 2. An "approach medium" is
- displayed on the signal bridge for us. It's still raining. A
switcher is at work on the left, a northbound
- "highstepper" behind the windshield wiper is slipping out of
town, and departing MARC commuter train on
- the far right.
-
-
-
- 10-12 Passing engines and trains on the way into WAS,
Washington Union Station.
-
-
-
- 13, 14 Passing K Tower.
-
-
-
- 15 MARC (Maryland Commuter) trains at Washington.
-
-
-
- With Florida trip -- Cutlines
-
-
-
- Group C
-
-
-
- 1-3 Train No. 97's engineer, Jerome Bailey, at Genesis engine
49's throttle between Savannah (SAV) and
- Jacksonville (JAX). Jerome and the engine are hauling the
Silver Meteor. Jerome will get off at
- Jacksonville, the end of his work day. Best of all, the sun is
beginning to peek out.
-
-
-
- 4, 5 A CSX freight is in the hole and its crew is working hard
at a local spur as we pass southward on the
- A-line main.
-
-
-
- 6 The view from the cab in South Georgia, and a "medium clear"
signal for us. We're taking a siding up
- ahead. CSX's signals are similar to indications on Amtrak's
New England division signals. The route to the
- left is the end of the "B" line from JAX.
-
-
-
- 7 A CSX freight in the hole has a red eye ahead of him while
we hold the main and catch a high green on our
- way to Jacksonville.
-
-
-
- 8-10 Approaching St. Mary's bridge. Florida is on the other
side.
-
-
-
- 11-13 No. 97 passes the CSX "Super gang" in Florida. Heavy
track work will continue most of the season.
-
-
-
- Added group:
-
-
-
- With Florida trip -- Train 91 at Jacksonville
-
-
-
- Amtrak train No. 91 and its Genesis engine No. 49 takes a
breather along with its crew at Jacksonville,
- Fla. The blue flag protection is up with people working on,
in, or under the train... like the blue-shirted
- fuel oil deliver man who is quenching the beast's thirst.
-
-
-
- (In the middle frame, the relief engineer climbs board to take
the train on the eight-hour journey to
- Miami.
-
-
-
- -0-
-
-
-
- With Florida trip -- Cutlines
-
-
-
- Group D
-
-
-
- 1, 3 Operator-leverman Randy Hatman checks his routes for
inbound No. 89 and a switcher at K tower in
- Washington, D.C. It is Sunday afternoon, June 8.
-
-
-
- 2 Train Director Greg Towney ponders the next move at K tower,
a Northeast Corridor hotspot.
-
-
-
- 4 No. 89, the Silver Palm, arrives in Washington from New York
en route to Miami. The view is through the
- sunscreen from Tower K's second floor.
-
-
-
- 5 EMD SW-1000 switcher 598 has just shoved No. 176 over from
Ivy City Yard. Diesel power will be added
- later.
-
-
-
- -0-
-
-
-
-
-
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