We've returned from our vacation a few days ago, still adjusting to being back. Aside from a few glitches with Amtrak, the trip was great. we took the train to Denver, then rented a car, completing a 2000 mile loop through Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and back to Denver for two weeks. When we weren't driving we were hiking at a few National Parks; Bandelier, Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion and Arches. All of which are amazing worlds unto themselves. We could have spent a week in each...we hiked several miles a day, several times ascending the equivelent of a 50 story building, except in 90 degree plus heat with 3 liters of water on our backs.
So the train trip. While I'm a big fan of train travel, Amtrak just doesn't have it togther and I understand it's not thier fault. They've been underfunded since inception in 1971...anyhow, 2 hours into our trip, in the Sunnyside Yards in Queens, just three minutes from Penn Station, the pantograph blew off the roof of the AEM-7 locomotive pulling us. The amazing part was that we got to see it as the twisted wreckage slammed into the side of our car right where we were sitting completely in flames. It poked a hole in the roof, resulting in a leak a few rows ahead of us, it was raining. The short versions is ,it took over 4 hours to untangle us from the over head wires, the repair crew only armed with a hacksaw. The irony was we were stopped right in the heart of Sunnyside Yards, next to the mechanical shops and this was the best they could do. Additionally there were dozens of idle locomotives a few tracks over. why not just cut the locomotive loose and get another one? I asked the same question..."only ten more minutes." 4 1/2 hours actually...so we missed our connecting train to Chicago, they put us up for the night in a hotel across from Penn Station, the Hotel Pennsylvannia. I wouldn't take a mutant goat with the bubonic plague to this hotel...I've slept under dumpsters behind Taco Bell on the Jersey Turnpike that were more comfortable and cleaner....alright, exagerating there but you get the idea....we got through it, caught our train the next day to Chicago, and then Denver.
Coming back, waiting at Denver's Union Station our train was delayed 4 hours, needless to say we missed our connection in Chicago this time...there was no way we were going to stay in another Amtrak issued hotel. Fortunately there was another train that would get us a s far as Penn, where a family member was kind enough to pick us up and drive us to Connecticut, saving us an entire day.
But I must add that once on the train, it's a great ride. I brought several books to read but didn't touch one, I just stared out the window, nearly the entire time...so much to see. I took some pics, though not too many are clear, as the windows aren't clean enough. And while on the trip found lots of structures that might end up as kits in the near future.
The amount of train action is astounding, every other mile it seemed a freight was going by. Mostly BNSF, Union Pacific...some old BN units and lots of old Santa Fe paint schemes flying by. The coal trains were endless. Now all I want to do is rip down my layout and model the BNSF...
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