Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: Amtrak

The conclusing of my story is at least somewhat amusing. Air Canada made me three days late, but Amtrak was 9 minutes early into Utica, at least according to the conductor. One way or another, it took about 7 hours as opposed to two days.

Buffalo Depew has one of the worst reputations of any Amtrak station, being an "Amshack" wedged under a group of highway bridges. However, on this trip it appeared to be in reasonably good shape.

Rome station is minor enough so that even though Amtrak don't run many proper expresses outside of the Northeast Corridor anymore, many trains skip it. The Maple Leaf, however, does not. That clock you can just barely see on the left is new, but the station is from the 1910's, if I'm not mistaken. I don't have my books with me, and as usual the internet isn't much use for finding the date.

Back in the 1990's, this integrated transport station opened near Carousel Mall in Syracuse, incorporating Amtrak, long-distance buses, and for a time OnTrack rail transit services. Now OnTrack is gone, but Amtrak and the buses remain. It's one of the newest large stations in New York.

The current Rochester station is another Amshack, although in good shape. Given Amtrak's funding difficulties, the good condition of most of the trains and facilities that I saw on this trip seemed better than I remember.

Here's a sticker advertising the Wi-Fi. This marked the first ever time that I had used Wi-Fi on the train, although in reality Wi-Fi service has been used on trains almost from its beginnings, as it's far cheaper and less technically challenging than many other communications technologies like railphones, for example. The railyard in the background is the international railyard on the U.S. side in Niagara Falls, and we weren't far from the immigration center. The locomotives switching the yard were old EMD Geeps that had been upgraded to run driverless.

The ceiling and luggage racks were in good condition, and mostly original. Digital destination boards had been added, though.

Introduced in 1976, most Amfleet coaches and cafes still in service are from the first series, the Amfleet I series, which had vestibules at both ends. However, most of these have been rebuilt and repainted several times, and have been used in far more roles than they were originally intended. Today, they're used throughout Amtrak's routes in the Northeast and Midwest U.S., and Eastern Canada. They were even the standard on Amtrak's Metroliner services from the early 1980's until the introduction of Acela Express services. When I boarded this one, I noticed that the upholstery had been redone, that the electrical outlets were still there, and that Wi-Fi had been added. These new seats appear to be fatter than the originals, without the uncomfortable center armrest that plagued the original Amfleet I coaches.

I took a photo of this arch just because I liked it.

The modern-day entrance to the tracks is underground, accessed via the portal between the two ticket kiosks. The kiosk on the right, in the foreground, was the one operating on this day. I arrived very early, around 0630, before they opened, so I had to wait.

Here's another shot of Toronto Union Station, showing the flag display. From the look of it, all of them are Canada-related, rather than international. The words above them are cities througout Canada.

My solution to the air travel fiasco was to take the "Maple Leaf" from Toronto to Utica. The Maple Leaf is an international train operated jointly by VIA Rail Canada, Canada's national passenger train operator, and Amtrak, VIA's American equivalent. The schedule is 7 hours, 9 minutes long, which is mostly due to a great deal of padding for the Niagara Falls stop, where the border control is. This rather elaborate station is Toronto Union Station, the busiest train station in Canada, hosting 200,000 passengers a day. Although it was opened in 1927, it's full of World War I memorials and references.

Here's a second shot of ADIX #800.

I used to work on the ADIX, or ADCX (or even earlier, ADCR) as it was designated at the time, or the Adirondack Scenic Railroad to the average person. These cars, coach #5320 the "Old Forge" on the right, and #800, a cafe lounge, on the left, are used on services between Utica and Thendara. This was taken as Amtrak train #284 made its station stop in Utica.

Amtrak saved the day for me when I had to get my flight to Greece. The whole of the Northeastern U.S., with the exception of New York City and the Tri-State area, was inundated by blizzards, and the blizzards continued for days, so it was clear that my flight to Newark was going to be cancelled before I even got there. Amtrak, while late as usual, was also running as usual...in the blizzard, making the choice clear. Here Amtrak #707 works train #284, the "Mohawk," to NY Penn at Syracuse.

Here's the station building in Harrisburg. I don't know the date of construction, but it's obviously from the 1920s or 1930s, and built by the Pennsylvania Railroad. It now hosts primarily Amtrak passenger services.

Here's a shot of Amtrak #166 (on the left), which is a G.E. Genesis P42 diesel, and an unidentified AEM7 (on the right), coupled to some Amfleet cars at Harrisburg. The sign in the foreground is, of course, the station sign, sporting the post-1999 Amtrak logo.

I didn't do too much train watching on my most recent trip to the U.S., but I did manage to snap some pictures in Harrisburg on my way through. These material handling cars are used by Amtrak for mail and parcels, and are coupled to Amtrak's regular trains. Basically converted boxcars his makes them the fastest boxcars, and the fastest non-passenger cars, in the U.S., as some operate (in mail service) as fast as 110 m.p.h.