Amtrak 52

Metro Jacksonville

 

Once the morning repast had been dealt with I floundered around trying to decide my next move.  

This took a while.

I could have gone out into the sunshine and cold wind to spend cash at the supermarket, but just could not be bothered.  Instead I sat around cogitating slowly, reading the grubby newspapers and once again checking Twitter to see if any intelligent life had landed.  There was nothing to report.

Then 52 came through.

Amtrak 52 is an unusual train.  It runs up from Orlando, Florida, to just outside Washington DC.  This train comprises one or two engines, around 16 coaches, and these days around 25- 30 Auto Cars.  These are trucks that contain cars, or automobiles if you are a US citizen.  The people travel down from the north, especially at this time of year with snow falling, to the Florida sunshine, and Donald Trump.  To do this they let the train take the strain as a very famous deviant once took money for saying, and put their cars in the auto trucks so they can drive them around Florida chasing or being chased by the 'Sunshine Girls.'  

Being 'Thanksgiving' Weekend there has been lots of to and froing from the masses, each either seeking time with, or avoiding time with their families.  So all the trains have been busy, and Mr Amtrak must be coining it in this weekend.  

There is a well worked routine for loading and unloading the cars.  Looking via Google Maps it is possible to see the cars in 6 sidings awaiting loading, then they are joined together following the coaches and off they go, usually on time.  

The coaches appear to be off two types, some have seats, other have single or double 'rooms.'  Shower facilities are on each coach, and of course there is a dining car for Breakfast, lunch and tea.  Therefore, you can either join others stuffing your face, or sitting in the viewing car, or lay about in your small room watching the East coast of the USA drift past.  The individual room is a good idea as passenger trains are not priorities in the US, the lines are owned by the freight companies, and they come first.  Any break down and you could wait for hours before continuing on.  

In such circumstances I may not mind to tell the truth.

The rail watchers on Virtual Railways play a wee game as the 52 passes north, and indeed the 53, as the train returns south.  The trick is to guess the number of engines, coaches and auto cars.  Simple games satisfy simple lives, and wee intellectuals are a not drawn into such things, well actually...

So this morning as 52 passed in the poring rain, and it was Aberdeen rain this morning, I suggested to myself it would be 2/16/28, of course it was 2/16/25, wrong again.  A silly game but those regulars who participate find it fun.  It amazes me how as we grow out of childhood we return to finding fun in silly games, the type adolescents despise, but folks above 25 often enjoy.  We are strange creatures.  

The overnight train, taking two days and sometimes three, is the 'Southwest Chief,' or 4 as it is known, the trains carrying names and numbers, even numbers one way, odd numbers the reverse.  4 Runs from Los Angeles Station to Chicago.  Now, I do not wish to be in either Los Angeles or Chicago but I reckon travel by rail would be a good way to actually 'see' the USA.  You could travel by road, but all highways look the same, the advantage there being the ability to stop and ponder, but rail is more comfortable, food is on hand, sleep nearby, and an attendant at all times available.  I could do with one of those!

However, the thought of spending $1500 to do the trip when I reject the idea of spending £5 to travel by bus here puts me off.  One day when fit and healthy, rich and spoilt, I may do this.  Chances are I will not.

 

US Rail

These early mornings, while the sun decides whether or not to appear, I often drink my coffee to the background of US railways.  This is merely to show some sign of life in the world, while I attempt to find my head.  The coffee ought to do this, especially now I am slurping to a Sainsburys 'Winter Edition,' ground coffee. 

 

 'A medium dark roast coffee,

with hints of cinnamon, dried fruits,

and bittersweet dark chocolate.' 

Hmmm, thought I, this sounds like the scrapings of the leftovers from the other coffee's.  And lo and behold, on the back we read this coffee comes from Ethiopia, Guatemala and Indonesia!  As I thought, the leftovers mixed together to create a 'Winter Edition,' dark, strong and rough.  Still, Sainsburys only made £30 billion profit last year, I understand when they have to scrape things together.

What the coffee on Amtrak railways is like I cannot say, though it must be better than this.  As the greyness seen behind closed curtains lightens slowly I watch Amtrak, interrupted by an occasional CSX freight hauling over a hundred wagons, heading from Richmond, just a short ten minutes south of Ashland, all the way to Boston Massachusetts.  This is a long trip and I wonder why people board the train here at 6:19 in the morning.  Leaving Richmond at 5:35 am it arrives in the far north at 15:47 pm, all things going well.  Notoriously, Amtrak trains do not get priority on US lines.  These lines are owned by the bog US rail companies,  CSX, BNSF and Union Pacific amongst them.  This means they own the lines and their freight gets priority.  As a result many trains run hours late, though on this line such delays are less common than on other lines.  

So, when they board in Ashland, Virginia early on, where are they going?  Washington DC is the first major city on the run and arrival just before 9 am would suit commuters I suppose.  If you do commute this way at what time would you return?  Allowing for delays you might not get back that day, or that week if the snow falls and lies deep.  Most either remain in town for a week or have other business up that way.  

I would love to travel these long lines in the USA.  This one goes through Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, before the engine become electric and continues to Providence and Boston.  More than a thousand miles covered here, so few must do the entire trip in one go.  Surely for Americans aircraft would be better on such a distance?  

There are of course other stops along the way, and other trains cover a similar route, some beginning in Miami where Donald Trump plots to remove President Musk, and goes all the way to New York or Chicago.  Such long rail trips, and I can hardly get a train to Liverpool Street these days.  That is something I must do soon.

There is something about rail travel, apart from commuting, which is enjoyable.  If you commute daily it becomes a slog, especially if using one of London's stations, however, a reasonably long trip by rail can be enjoyable, much better than by bus, as long as the train is not crowded and the passengers, sorry we must call them customers these days, behave.  I must get among them this year to commemorate 200 years of rail travel since the opening of the Stockton to Darlington line in 1825.  200 years of innovation and indeed disaster, fun and joy, economic growth and the opening of new vistas to people of all levels.  Rail changed the way the world lives more than computers I say, I say while using a  computer...

Railway Museum