My travel in a little more detail.
Friday October 5: the Lake Shore Limited.
Left home at 7 AM, headed for the Portland Transportation Center, where we picked up the 8:30 Concord Trailways bus to South Station. I chose the bus, in this case, because it took me direct to South Station and I didn't want to lug baggage all over Boston. We arrived around 10:30, and moved from the bus terminal to South Station proper. Because we were in a sleeper, we could access the Club Acela.
Club Acela is nice enough: plush chairs, some computers for internet surfing, probably has wifi, complementary drinks and snacks. It looks out over the Amtrak ticket area, with a view into the main hall of South Station. You can't really see the trains from there, however. The attendant kept us up-to-date on the train's status as it was readied for the trip. Finally she told us we could board. We started to board, but there was a large tour group and it got a little chaotic. Some of them were in the sleeper, the rest in coach.
For those that don't know, the Lake Shore Limited has two sections, one from Boston and the other from New York City. They meet in Albany. The Boston section has 2 engines, a baggage car, a Viewliner sleeper, 2 coaches, and a cafe car (in that order). My wife and I had a large Viewliner bedroom. Lots of room for storage, has its own bathroom and shower (which is quite narrow). The advertised departure time was 11:45, I think we left a minute or two late. Our room was the second on the train, after the handicapped Viewliner room.
The attendant took our lunch order for 12:30, and said she'd be back for us. 12:30 came and went, and no attendant, so eventually we went back to the cafe car, which was ready for us. We stopped at Worcester toward the end of lunch, at which a large group got on, so we waited a bit after departing for the coach riders to find seats and get settled before we headed back to our room.
I got off in Springfield (5 minute stop) to take pictures of the engines, and made the conductor nervous.
We made very good time, arriving in Albany well before the scheduled arrival of 5:30. The trip from Boston is over MBTA/CSX track, on the former Boston & Albany line. The track was in fairly good condition (welded rail, etc), until we left the mainline (where it splits off to head to Selkirk yard). The track from the switch to Albany was jointed rail that was extremely rough, causing everything to bounce around. We were in the cafe for a snack when we hit it, we decided to wait because walking was near impossible on that rough track. I think the engineer was in a hurry.
The train sat for about 45 minutes in the station. While it did so, I briefly explored Albany station, opened in 2003. It's a very nice structure and interior. I think there were a few stores in it. Then the train pulled away to the yard to wait for the New York section, which arrived pretty much on time. Once that engine moved away, we backed onto our train. The New York section had the diner, and we were told that we could eat at 7:00. I got my wife, and once the coupling was complete we made our way back to the diner.
Somebody messed up there, because while most of the Boston sleeper was trying to get back to the diner, everybody else was trying to board the train. Much confusion ensued, and I'm sure there were some upset people. The New York section had 4 coaches - so we had to go back through seven cars of boarding passengers.
Departure from Albany was not until at least 7:30 (I don't recall the exact time), about a half hour late. We were actually eating before the train left. Once we left things proceeded fairly well. Upon finishing our meal we walked the long walk back to our sleeper.
At bedtime the attendant made up the room. The lower bed leaves only a few inches of space between the mattress and the vanity. There's an open area where a fold-up chair sits which gives you some room to change, but not much. I got the upper bunk, which left much to be desired - the reading light was incredibly dim, so I could not read for long. Whether it was the track, the fact that I was on the front of the train, or something else, but the ride seemed pretty rough. I could hear the horn all night long. Eventually I slept, but it was not a long sleep.
Some photos from Day 1: The first is Club Acela at South Station. The second is some foliage (out in Mass just as much as in Maine), and the last is Albany skyline at dusk.
