[PRCo] Amtrak

[Mark McGuire]

  My train from Jacksonville, FL was supposed to arrive at 30th St. Station in Philly at 10:00AM(Left Jax at 5:33PM).  I do not know what the holdup was, but I know we were moving very slowly for a long stretch. Arrived in Philly at 11:15AM. I called Bob about 9:30 AM when I realized that not only were we not making up the hour that we were behind, but we were actually losing more time. The ride from 30th St. to Greensburg was right on time and a much nicer ride. 
  Needless to say, I will probably not be riding Amtrak on any long distance runs in the future unless I have a sleeper car. Just couldn't sleep for more than half an hour at a time in those coach chairs.  It was an experience that I had the time to take and that I had been wanting to take. Now I know.
  I coaxed my oldest brother, the Westinghouse engineer, into the trip to PTM. I knew it was opening day of the Santa Trolley, but I really had no clue as what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of visitors on such a lousy day weather-wise. Singing Christmas carols and seeing Santa are not my cup of tea, nor my brother's. I wish, however, that I had taken a photo of the little boy in front of us as his smile after Santa talked to him and gave him a candy cane was priceless. I must applaud the volunteers that make this happen and if anything, I was able to finally see a special event in person. 
  Ed and Fred-

   It was good to see the both of you, although a very brief visit. I wish I would have had more time to chat with you, Fred. I left it up to my brother whether or not he wished to see the Troley Display Building, and he declined. The weather wasn't the greatest and once again my zipper failed me on my good leather jacket. It seems that every time I come up there, a zipper fails in one of my jackets. 
  I don't have a link, but if anyone saw the article in Saturday's Tribune Review about the Toledo, it was pretty good. I remember seeing Scott Becker in the building before we entered. I was in the back marveling the work on 4398 and wondered why people were allowed on the Toledo when work was being done on it. The article will explain why in fact they shouldn't have been. I respected the workers and did not venture a peek inside. I wished I had, but there were people all over the place and just took a photo of the outside of the car. 
  At any rate, I hope to get back up there when I have more time to myself. Although this is our hobby and it both fills us with joy and intrigue to talk about it, alas, there are people out there that just don't have the same interest, my brother being one of them. I did get a kick out of his eyes lighting up when he saw 1711, however. This is the type of car he remembered , having lived in Castle Shannon for a good portion of his youth.
  So to quote a famous actor who now governs the state of California, "I'll be back" PTM.


---------- Original Message ----------
From: Schneider Fred <fwschneider at comcast.net>
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Another Transit Guest
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:23:45 -0500

And I remember leaving Atlanta one night an hour late on the Crescent  
when it was still run by the Southern.

When we got to Lynchburg I woke up ... looked out ... looked at my  
watch.   My God, we were killing time waiting on the clock.    From  
then on we were on time ... to the minute in Charlottesville,  
Alexandria, Washington, Baltimore, Wilmington, 30th St. Philadelphia.


On Nov 24, 2009, at 3:53 PM, Jerry "Matt" Matsick wrote:

>
> Mark M's first train trip has been very slow from Jacksonville to  
> Pittsburgh and has been one he will never forget, he missed his  
> hoped for connection with BoB D in Philly, myself having the thrill  
> of riding on Europe's High Speed Rail lines, and also riding the  
> slow slow Amtrack, I sensed he was not happy with the Amtrack ride  
> so far.  I just spoke to him as the train was pulling out of  
> Harrisburg heading west to Pittsburgh, needless to say Mark will be  
> flying back to Jacksonville this coming weekend. I have not had the  
> opportunity to ride on the Accela from Boston to Wash DC, I trust  
> it is a much better ride than the slow slow North South ride.??
>
>
>
> Jerry Matsick
>
> Jacksonville
> .
>
>
>
>

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