Amtrak Passenger Car 25116 (update to Amtrakking to Chicago)

“I can’t believe we’re stuck here in Albalee!”

That was Saturday night at about 8:00 p.m., about an hour past the scheduled departure time for Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited to get me to Chicago for an important meeting with the Premier Basketball League, whose offices are based in Chicago.

Since my meeting was scheduled for Monday morning at 8am, there were no early morning flights from Albany that could have gotten me there in time. But I could instead go back to my family’s railroading roots – my grandfather worked on the New York Central and PennCentral railroads in the 1950s and 1960s – and take a leisurely (and less expensive) ride to Chicago, sleep on the train, and wake up Sunday morning in the Windy City. An afternoon of tourism and photography, and all would be fine.

Assuming, of course, that my train left Albany on time. See, the Lake Shore Limited consists of two departure points – Boston to Albany, and New York City to Albany. Once there, the two trains merge into one train, with a destination of Chicago.

But because the New York City train ran into some delays, the people on the Boston leg of the journey were forced to wait a few hours at the Albany depot. Which brought out the comment from one person, who while on her cell phone, made the comment about being stuck in Albalee.

Okay, listen up all you tourists to the Capital District. It’s pronounced All-buh-nee. Not Aahl-bunny, not All-baynee, and for Lord’s sakes, not Albalee!!

Eventually we got on the train, and once a train gets overly delayed at one point, the train can run into more delays along the route. Amtral shares its rail lines with freight companies like Burlington Northern, so freight trains receive rail priority. Plus, a nasty tornado caused flash flooding in Ohio, necessitating more delays.

Still, I did have the opportunity to ride the rails in relative comfort – sort of. Finding a seat on the crowded train wasn’t easy, but I did see a teenager sprawled over two seats, sleeping away. A gentle nudge, and she moved her luggage over so I could at least sit in the coach seat. Since there was no room to put her bag in the upper berths, I told her she could leave her suitcase on the floor and as long as I could get my legs in and could sit down, then everything would be fine.

Maybe I should have thought differently after nine hours of the trip, when my knees started throbbing from being jammed in an uncomfortable position.
I also had to deal with prople on their cell phones, having conversations about all kinds of minutiae – especially at 2am…

An example of one of the conversations:

“Oh baby, I’m wearing your favorite colors. Guess what color scarf I’m wearing … That’s right, baby … Guess what type of perfume I’m wearing … That’s right, baby … And can you guess what color my toes are, baby?”

It was all I could do to keep from heckling out, “Hairy with streaks of mildew and toejam?”

That was the trip to Chicago. I’m on my way home to Albany, and it’s a very quiet and peaceful train ride home. The sun has just peaked over the horizon, and if it weren’t for the dirt-streaked windows in the coach car, I’d try to take some pictures.

As it is, I’m actually writing this blog post through my web browser on my cell phone. And if there are any formatting issues in producing a blog post this way, I’ll fix them when I get to a wifi spot – which will probably be when I get home.

UPDATE:

I just got home.  And I still can’t believe I made it back without popping a vein.

The passengers got on the train at 9:30 p.m. Central time Monday night in Chicago.  I was told that the Albany-based passengers would go in the front of the train with the Boston-destined passengers.  So I made my way up to the front of the train.  Not a big deal.  I found a comfy seat and proceeded to go to sleep.

Around maybe 1am, I felt the need to use the train’s lavatory.  I walked to the end of the passenger car, went inside, closed the door and slid a small lever to lock the door.  Duty done, wash hands, unlock door, go back to chair, sleep.

Maybe around 9am or 10am, while we were still somewhere between Erie and Buffalo, I felt nature calling again.  I went back to the lavatory, looked to make sure that the light was out (indicating that no one was in the lavatory), and opened the door – only to find a woman inside, who was trying to lock the door before she needed to use the restroom!

“It’s not locking,” she said.

“You need to move this lever,” I said, pointing to the little knob on the door.

She moved the knob – and the door wouldn’t lock.

It was only then that both she and I noticed that although the locking mechanism on the door was working just fine, the latch on the door frame wasn’t there.

IT WASN’T THERE – and she could have locked that door and thought it was locked, and the “occupied” light on the door would never have gone on and no one would have thought anything of it.  Oh, unoccupied bathroom, gotta go – OH, SORRY!!

Yeah, it wasn’t as bad as that, but it could have been.

I immediately found an Amtrak employee and alerted him to the latch issue.  He looked at it, and said to me, “This is another thing.  I’ve had a mechanic go through this entire train.  The whole train’s on report.”  He pointed at the broken latch.

“Including this.”

So listen up Amtrak.  I could put up with the delays.  I could put up with the stuffy air conditioning that maybe didn’t work all the time.  I could put up with paying $2 for a can of soda and having no working wi-fi for the entire trip, to the point where I had to write this blog post on my cell phone.

But you lost me when you couldn’t even provide a bathroom with a working lock.  I’m not looking to cause any embarrassment, and neither are any of your passengers.  You just have to fix Amtrak Passenger Car 25116.  It was part of your 48/448 Lake Shore Limited train, and it was the first passenger car in the line, just behind the front sleeper cars.

I mean it.  That needs to be fixed right now, before somebody goes in there and discovers a railroad version of the Mile High Club in progress.