Your Seat in an Amtrak Viewliner Roomette

Here is your seat in your Viewliner roomette aboard Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited.

You’ve just boarded and are looking forward to a relaxing trip to the East Coast.

But right now you’re just getting settled in your room as No. 48 sits in Chicago Union Station.

As a sleeper class passenger you were able to board ahead of most passengers so it will be several minutes before the Lake Shore leaves Union Station behind.

One downside to your seat is that it doesn’t recline as much as a coach seat does. But your seat does fold down into a bed, which is a benefit those in coach doesn’t have.

So have a seat and welcome aboard. Your train travel journey is about to begin.

Amtrak No. 30 in Pittsburgh

Amtrak’s eastbound Capitol Limited was running rather late on this March 1995 day when I captured it on slide film in Pittsburgh.

I had arrived aboard the soon to be discontinued west of Pittsburgh Three Rivers and after disembarking we learned that No. 30 was way behind schedule.

My recollection is one of the P42DC locomotives malfunctioned en route and had to be set aside.

We stuck around to watch the Capitol arrive and then depart before continuing on our way.

I had to catch a Greyhound bus for Akron while my traveling companion got a ride to Cleveland.

Flying Away From Charlottesville

Amtrak’s westbound Cardinal is but a few seconds into continuing its trip to Chicago as it leaves the station in Charlottesville, Virginia.

This is one of the few places where multiple Amtrak routes cross at grade level.

The tracks in the foreground are used by Amtrak’s New York-New Orleans Crescent and a Northeast Regional train between Washington and Roanoke, Virginia.

The Crescent and the Roanoke train operate daily whereas the Cardinal only calls upon Charlottesville on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.

Amtrak 449 at Palmer

The Boston section of the Lake Shore Limited has never been scheduled to stop in Palmer, Massachusetts, but this is a good place to see it.

There is a restored New York Central depot that serves as a restaurant and railfan hangout on the former Boston & Albany line that today is owned by CSX.

No. 449 today has its usual compliment of two P42DC locomotives, a baggage car, Viewliner sleeper, two Amfleet coaches and a Horizon food service car.

It will merger at the Albany-Rensselaer, New York, station with No. 49 coming up the Hudson River from New York’s Penn Station before the combined train depart for Chicago and all intermediate stops.

The image was made in May 2010.

Train Time in Charlottesville

An Amtrak conductor works the baggage car as Amtrak Train No. 51 boards passengers in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The Cardinal, which stops in Charlottesville on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, had what was a standard consist in summer 2012 of one P42DC locomotive, a baggage car, a Viewliner sleeper, Amfleet food service car and three Amfleet coaches.

In spring and summer 2020 the Cardinal’s consist had shrunk to a sleeper, two coaches and one food service car.

The consist may be longer on some days between Chicago and Indianapolis when Nos. 50 or 51 are ferrying equipment to and from the Beech Grove shops in suburban Indy.

Looking for the Luggage Cart

An Amtrak crew member watches for the luggage cart on the platform of the Amtrak station in Cleveland.

A Cleveland Amtrak agent is bringing out checked baggage to be put aboard the eastbound Capitol Limited.

This image was made in April 1996. Nos. 29 and 30 are not carrying a baggage car during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Working the Baggage Car in Sacramento

Sacramento is a major stop on the route of Amtrak’s California Zephyr. Judging by the load of checked luggage being loaded into the baggage car of No. 6, many of those boarding there are planning to travel a long distance.

In the top photograph, one carload of bags have already been loaded with another in the process of being put aboard.

In the bottom photograph an Amtrak crew member checks to see if any late arriving bags are on their way.

Both images were made on June 1999.

Waiting in San Jose

An Amtrak Capitol Corridor train shares the train shed at the Diridon Station in San Jose, California, with a Caltrain commuter train to San Francisco.

San Jose is the western terminus for the Capitol Corridor and is also served by Altamont Commuter Express.

This photo was made on June 24, 1999. I had ridden to San Jose aboard this Amtrak train from Oakland would would board it later to return to Sacramento.

Cooling Their Heels

A gaggle of American Superliners sit in the coach yard outside Chicago Union Station awaiting service, repairs or the call to return to the road.

This image was made from aboard the outbound Illini as it was backing out of the station en route to Carbondale, Illinois, on June 2, 2012.

Scenic Passage Through the Sierra Nevada Mountains

Back in the 1970s Amtrak trains 5 and 6 were named the San Francisco Zephyr, an amalgamation of the names of two trains that were combined to create the route in 1971.

That would have been the City of San Francisco from Union Pacific and the Denver Zephyr from Burlington Northern.

Amtrak wanted to operate the California Zephyr, but by 1971 it’s Western Pacific segment had been discontinued.

That left a “California Service” remnant that used BN, the Denver & Rio Grande Western, and Southern Pacific.

Then the D&RGW declined to join Amtrak thus the amalgamation.

It is July 31, 1979, and I am riding Train No. 5 to Oakland. We’re twisting and turning our way through the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California and the crew doesn’t mind if you make photographs from open vestibule windows.