The westbound Lake Shore Limited rolls into Waterloo, Indiana, at almost 9:30 a.m. on March 20. The side of the train reflects the rising sunshine. The consist was three Viewliner sleepers, five Amfleet II coaches, an Amfleet food service car, Viewliner dining car for sleeping car passengers, and a Viewliner baggage car.
Amtrak’s westbound Capitol Limited is picking up speed as it accelerates away from its station stop in Waterloo, Indiana, one hour and 15 minutes late.
It is the first image I’ve made of the Capitol in well over a year and getting this photograph took good timing and fast acting.
Before leaving home I had checked the status of Amtrak trains through Waterloo. There wasn’t enough time to get there before the Lake Shore Limited arrived and chances were good I would miss No. 29 by 15 minutes or so.
It had been reported out of Cleveland an hour and 20 minutes but Amtrak’s website projected No. 29 would make up a good chunk of that and arrive in Waterloo 59 minutes late.
If that held, I had no chance. But I also knew Amtrak can get delayed between Waterloo and Toledo.
As I neared Waterloo I checked the Amtrak website again. No. 29 was now projected to arrive in Waterloo at 7:46 a.m. I figured to miss by that about five minutes.
The exit ramp for Waterloo onto U.S. Route 6 from Interstate 69 is just beyond the bridge over the Chicago Line of Norfolk Southern.
As I passed the exit signs for Route 6 it was 7:47 a.m. on my car’s clock. I slowed for the bridge and exit ramp and looked toward the east. No headlight was in sight.
That was a good sign This just might work after all.
Nearly a month earlier as I had driven over that same bridge I had seen the headlight of a fast approaching Amtrak 49. I was going to fast to get to the side of the road in time to try to get a grab shot and a pickup truck also getting off at the exit was right on my tail.
So close and yet so far away.
This time I drove to a road that crosses the Chicago Line at grade shortly after I got onto Route 6. The gates were up. Another good sign.
I checked the Amtrak website and saw No. 29 was now projected to arrive in Waterloo at 7:53 a.m., three minutes from now. Did I have time to get to the station?
I began driving down a road that runs parallel to the tracks. Then there it was up ahead. I immediately pulled to the side of Lincoln Street, grabbed my camera and dashed into the weeds to make this image.
There was no time so think about what I wanted to do. I barely was able to get all of the train in the frame.
Photographing the Capitol Limited is a challenge because much of its journey occurs at night. On the western end of the route the train is always operating in the wrong light. Only on the eastern end can you get 29 or 30 in good light.
In Northeast Ohio, No. 30 is scheduled into Cleveland at 1:45 a.m. and No. 29 at 2:53 a.m.
Still, you can get an interesting image on the western end of the route if you work it right.
The glint off P42DC No. 190 was happenstance but I also knew that this time of year the early morning light would favor the north side of the train.
I’m hoping it won’t be another year before I can photograph the Capitol Limited again.
Amtrak’s westbound Lake Shore Limited had a lot of time to make up when it departed Waterloo, Indiana, on Oct. 8 more than five hours late.
The delay had largely occurred the night before due to a storm near Albany, New York, that left tree limbs on the rails.
The Norfolk Southern dispatcher brought No. 49 into the station on Track No. 2 of the Chicago Line, but crossed it over to Track 1 just west of the station platform.
The image was made shortly before the LSL shifted from daily to tri-weekly operation but it had already begun operating with a reduced consist.
Amtrak’s westbound Lake Shore Limited is about 20 minutes late as it arrives into the station at Waterloo, Indiana, under cloudy skies.
Somehow that seems appropriate given the future of this train. In another two months you won’t be able to board Amtrak on Sunday morning to travel to Chicago.
The westbound Lake Shore will only be arriving in Waterloo, or in Cleveland and Toledo for that matter, on Monday, Thursday and Saturday.
Today’s No. 49 has its summer pandemic consist of two P42DC locomotives, a Boston Viewliner sleeper, Amfleet food service car, four Amfleet II coaches, Viewliner dining car that serves as a sleeper class lounge, two New York VIewliner sleepers, a Viewliner baggage car and a deadheading Viewliner sleeper on the rear.
I didn’t count the number of passengers who boarded or disembarked but it was around 10 total.
The train made two stops, one for coach passengers and another to drop off a couple of sleeper class passengers.
And then it was highball and onto the next station in Elkhart, Indiana.
It is shortly after sunrise in Waterloo, Indiana, as Amtrak’s westbound Capitol Limited makes it station stop.
I’m riding in the rear Superliner coach and behind us is a private car making the trek with us to Chicago.
A new day has broken over Northern Indiana and there is a little bit of early morning color on the clouds on the eastern horizon.
The building to the right appears to be a former New York Central freight station.
With it’s station work at Waterloo, Indiana, compete, Amtrak’s westbound Lake Shore Limited is now headed for Chicago.
But first there will be intermediate stops in Elkhart and South Bend, Indiana,to make.
Train No. 49 is running about an hour late so there is no time to waste. It is also following traffic, including the Capitol Limited so opportunities to pick up time might be limited.
As usual, a Viewliner baggage car is bringing up the markers on No. 49.
Milepost 367, measured from Buffalo, New York, is located just beyond the western edge of the Amtrak station platform.
Their train was late and it had to make two stops at the station in Waterloo, Indiana.
That’s because when Amtrak operates on Track 2 on the Chicago Line of Norfolk Southern it doesn’t halt next to the platform.
Instead, passengers board and disembark from a much smaller platform between the two tracks.
Such is life on a busy freight line and on this morning the NS was very busy with faster trains relegated to Track 2 and slower unit trains to Track 1.
So the westbound Capitol Limited made two stops in Waterloo, one for sleeping car passengers and the other for coach passengers as shown above.
I’ve photographed Amtrak in countless places over the years but never shortly after sunrise and coming out of a rising sun.
Glint photograph is a staple of railroad photographers, particularly when a train is coming out of low light at sunrise or just before sunset.
I’ve made many glint images of freight trains but never an Amtrak train.
Doing a glint with Amtrak was more challenging than I expected. I soon learned that the stainless steel sides of Amtrak cars reflect light like a mirror.
I found that getting a glint of Amtrak seemed to work best when part of the train was in a shadow such as that cast by an adjacent building.
That was particularly the case with the top image of the westbound Capitol Limited arriving in the station in Waterloo, Indiana.
No. 29 was an hour and a half late, which was why I was able to capture it in the first place.
Had it been on time it would arrived before sunrise. As it turned out, The Capitol motored into Waterloo just after 8 a.m.
About a half hour behind it was the westbound Lake Shore Limited, which was nearly an hour late.
As seen in the bottom image, there was more ambient light by then, but I learned from photographing the Capitol Limited to under expose the image to compensate for the bright reflection from the sides of the passenger cars.
That also drew out the sky and clouds a bit more.
Amtrak’s westbound Capitol Limited was about an hour and a half late when it arrived in Waterloo, Indiana, on a Friday morning.
The sun has just climbed over some low clouds in the eastern sky, creating nice warm light.
The rear of No. 29 cleared North Center Street, which afforded me an opportunity to photograph the train from both sides.
The top image was made from the south side of the tracks at the grade crossing. It had more direct sunlight on the side of the eight-car train.
The bottom image was made from the platform on the north side of the Norfolk Southern tracks and the side of the train is in shadows although quite a bit of direct light illuminated the platform.
No. 29 was on Track 2 following a double stack train. About a half hour behind the Capitol was the Lake Shore Limited on the same track.
All of the NS traffic was going west on this morning around the time that both Amtrak trains showed up with Track 1 devoted to slow unit trains hauling coal and tank cars.
The Waterloo, Indiana, Amtrak station will celebrate its first anniversary with an open house on June 25.
The station is located inside a former New York Central depot that was renovated by the city during a 10-year project.
The project, which was funded in part by a federal TIGER grant, involved moving the depot closer to the Amtrak boarding platform.
The open house will be held from 2-4 p.m. and feature refreshments, door prizes and historical information about the station.
More than 20,000 passengers board at the Waterloo every year. The station is served by Amtrak’s Capitol Limited and Lake Shore Limited.
Amtrak in the Heartland 