On the (Rail)road to Rochester
Bad weather prompts sudden change in plans
December 2-3, 2003
by
I'll admit it. My wife, Tracey, and I were planning to drive
from Long Island to Rochester, NY yesterday to attend a
special concert. Our daughter, Emma, was to sing at
Rochester's famous Eastman Theatre as a member of the New
York All-State Women's Choir. But reports Monday of a
pending snow storm affecting Upstate New York prompted us to
travel by rail instead, going up on #63, the Toronto-bound
Maple Leaf , and returning on #284, the morning train from
Niagara Falls.
Catching #63, which departs New York Penn Station (NYP) at
7:15 a.m. required us to be up at 4:45 to catch the 5:45
from Oceanside to New York. We were dressed and on our way
to the station by 5:30 and able to park in the nearly-empty
main parking lot, something that would have been impossible
had we left 90 minutes later. I purchased our tickets from
the TVM (ticket vending machine) on the platform and went inside
to await our train's on-time arrival. The 5:45 normally is a blue
collar train that deposits construction workers in the city so
they can get to their jobs by the 7 a.m. starting time. Yesterday,
it seemed there were fewer hard hats than normal and more
office workers. The trip to New York was uneventful, and we
arrived on time just before 6:30.
Once inside the station. I proceeded to an Amtrak TVM where
I picked up the tickets for our trip that I had ordered the
day before over the Internet. Tracey was impressed that our
itinerary appeared on the screen within seconds of inserting
my credit card and that with the push of just one button our
four tickets printed out. Then we settled ourselves in the
waiting room and I went over to a deli to purchase some
coffee and bagels for breakfast.
The 7 a.m. window is one of NYP's busiest for Amtrak. Within
the space of 15 minutes, six trains depart for Washington,
Pittsburgh, Miami, Toronto and two for Boston (Acela Express
and regional). Our train was announced a few minutes after 7
a.m., and we proceeded to track five to board. When we
reached the platform, the conductor directed us to the last
coach, which was ahead of the cafe car, a club-dinette that
was providing two-one seating for Business Class patrons;
First Class seats at Business Class prices. We were able to
find seats in the middle of the car on the left hand (Hudson
River) side. By our 7:15 departure, almost all the seats
would be occupied.
Following our on-time departure, our train entered the first
of several tunnels under Manhattan thoroughfares, finally
emerging around 125th Street alongside the famous Hudson
River, which we would follow for the next 137 miles. After
passing under the George Washington Bridge, we received the
day's first surprise: a light dusting of snow had fallen in
northern Manhattan.
The trip up the river began uneventfully, and I pointed out
the scenic highlights to Tracey as we sped north. We lost a
few minutes near Poughkeepsie when we followed a Metro North
local into the station and again outside Hudson, where we
had to wait for a southbound Amtrak to complete its work at
the station. Then we encountered a snow squall - the first
of many - as we sped toward Albany, where we arrived 14
minutes late. However, we did not waste time in the station,
even with a change of engines, and by our arrival in
Schenectady we had made up four minutes.
From there, things went downhill. Another nine minutes were
lost heading toward Utica, where I enjoyed seeing the
equipment of Adirondack Scenic Railroad, done up in the
paint scheme of the 1938 edition of the Twentieth Century
Limited. Leaving Utica, I spied several out-of-service
diesels and passenger cars sitting in the Susquehanna's
Utica yard on the train's left side. We moved quickly from
there to Rome, but crawled into Syracuse on account of
following freight trains and congestion around DeWitt Yard
in East Syracuse. We reached the Syracuse depot 36 minutes
behind schedule and lost another five in the station.
Fortunately, no additional time was lost and we arrived in a
snowy Rochester 41 minutes late.
After settling into our hotel room, we walked over a mile in
the bitter cold and on icy sidewalks to get to where Emma
was staying. For dinner we went to the Dinosaur Barbeque,
one of the best rib joints anywhere, and were surprised to
find this restaurant housed in the former Lehigh Valley
depot alongside the Genesee River. After dropping Emma back
at her hotel, we headed to the Eastman, where we were
treated to a wonderful evening of music.
Our return trip today on #284 was much like the ride up. The
train arrived two minutes behind schedule and lost another
five minutes in the station on account of heavy boarding;
some of the passengers who might have taken the earlier Lake
Shore Limited were riding with us since the late-running LSL
wouldn't arrive for another 40 minutes. Shortly after our
departure, we lost another four minutes for a wheel
inspection stop caused by a faulty hot-box detector.
Again, we encountered a logjam leaving Syracuse as we had to
thread our way between two freights waiting to enter DeWitt
Yard. By the time we reached Utica, we were :22 behind. We lost
another 27 minutes between there and Amsterdam following a
slow-moving freight that we were unable to run around on
account of a convoy of five westbound freights occupying the
other track.
The final indignity was crawling into the Albany station for
reasons not readily apparent, although the cafe attendant
told me it had something to do with a dispatcher confusing
us with the Lake Shore. We left Albany 50 minutes behind and
arrived at NYP down :53. The final stretch, on the Long
Island Railroad's (LIRR's) 3:52 Long Beach local, went
smoothly and we were home before 5 pm.
Other than the lateness, which was largely beyond its
control, Amtrak performed well. The cars were clean,
although a bit dowdy (original upholstery, Phase III paint
job on our coach going home), the crews were courteous and
the cafe offered a good selection of decent food offerings.
Going up, we had coffee and a cinnamon roll as a mid-morning
snack. For lunch, Tracey had a veggie burger and I had
Buffalo wings (very spicy) and pizza. On the return, Tracey
had a breakfast sandwich (ham, egg and cheese) for breakfast
while I had a bagel and yogurt. For lunch, Tracey had a tuna
sandwich and I had a meat loaf platter, a very good value at
$5.50. There was good patronage in both directions, and with
five-car consists there was adequate room for the
passengers.
As for CSX, I'm not sure whether to give them a break on
account of the inclement weather or blast them for
incompetent dispatching. To be fair, the Chicago Line is
busy, with lots of leased and foreign power; all-CSX power
lash ups were rare. But, after four years of owning the ex-
Conrail main line you'd expect they'd know what they were
doing. After all, even in Penn Central days I never
encountered interference from freights on the Empire
Corridor.
