Passenger Trains > Silver Star Trip Report

Hey guys,

We just arrived home yesterday from our trip on Amtrak's Silver Star (#92) from Fort Lauderdale to Baltimore, and I thought I'd share some photos and feedback. Thanks to AmtrakPalmetto, railrider, shoretower, Tominde, KV1guy, and bobmilligan for your advice last week - your feedback helped me follow the route and keep an eye for interesting sights. We left Fort Lauderdale on Friday, Sept 3rd - here's the consist for anyone interested:

P42 73 (replaced by AEM7 948 in DC)
P42 172 (replaced by AEM7 925 in DC)
Baggage 1752
Viewliner Sleeper 62023 "Mystic View"
Viewliner Sleeper 62013 "Harvest View"
Diner 8509
Amfleet Cafe 28000
Amfleet II Coach 25089
Amfleet II Coach 25036
Amfleet II Coach 25057
Amfleet II Coach 25006

We reserved a roomette on the Mystic View, which was well worth the cost (this was the last part of our vacation, after all). The room is pretty small, and one person has to ride backwards, but it included all meals, which weren't bad, and the portions are big. Having been on trains in Japan and Europe, I can safely say that American trackwork is pretty rough, especially in the Southeast. The bunks were roomy, but we were rocked around pretty good all night. The track smoothed out south of DC - I'm sure Virginia (VRE), Amtrak, and CSX are all combining their money for those improvements. And of course, the NE corridor is a fairly smooth ride, but still no Shinkansen...

Anyway, on to the photos, with some commentary to go with each:

Photo 1: Our trip started at the station in Fort Lauderdale. It was a little overcast, so the photos are kind of dark.
Photo 2: I caught a couple Florida Tri-Rail commuter trains while waiting for the Silver Star - always good to see something different in another part of the country.
Photo 3: The Tri-Rail F40PH-2s are looking pretty dirty and tired, but they still seem to be working hard.

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Photo 4: Amtrak #92, lead by P42 73, arrived right on time. The train was actually about 10 minutes early into each station in NC and VA, which was nice. We eventually arrived in Baltimore 30 minutes early.

Photo 5: The Mystic View, which is still wearing its original Viewliner paint with new Amtrak logo and a reflective stripe added along the sill.

Photo 6: The Harvest View - note the newer paint scheme, with the red sill stripe and no "Viewliner" lettering. It also has the car number on the side name plate, but still says "Harvest View" on the end doors.

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Photo 7: Diner 8509 arriving at Fort Lauderdale. We ate four meals on board - the staff was pretty overworked, and maybe not that efficient, but they were pleasant enough. The menu offers a pretty good selection - not exactly low calorie, but fairly tasty.

Photo 8: We saw lots and lots of orange groves the first day traveling through Florida. Some of the other scenery wasn't as nice...

Photo 9: The train backed a mile or so into Tampa after turning around on a wye. This was the first chance I really had to get off the train. Our porter was a really nice guy and had no problem letting me off to wander around on the platform at the longer stops. We stopped for 10-20 minutes at each of the major cities, and most of the activity happened around the coaches at the rear of the train, while the sleeper passengers usually just got out to stretch their legs.

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Photo 10: The only problem with railfanning from a train is the difficulty of taking any kind of decent photos through the dirty, tinted windows. I snapped this quick shot of the former ACL switcher just north of Davenport, FL. William B. on the ACL-SAL-SCL Yahoo list said this about the switcher: "It is the real ACL 648, an SW-7 built in April 1950. Became SCL 130. Was acquired by what is now the Florida Railroad Museum in Parrish, Florida when it was retired by SCL. They restored it into the ACL colors. Sold it to the Standard Sand and Silica Company at Davenport back in the mid 1990's."

Photo 11: Orlando was our last stop for the evening before sunset. The weather was great after some rain showers north of Fort Lauderdale.

Photo 12: The working (kitchen) side of diner 8509.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/05/10 19:31 by drolsen.

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I woke up at 6 AM for our stop at Hamlet. We arrived about 10 minutes early, before sunrise, so it was too dark to take photos, but the station looked good with the platform lit up. Here are some photos from my two previous railfanning trips to Hamlet:

Photo 13: The Hamlet station on August 23, 2003 still undergoing restoration after being moved across the tracks from inside the wye.

Photo 14: The restored Hamlet station on April 15, 2010. It's pretty impressive how much work went into saving this historic station.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/05/10 17:28 by drolsen.

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Photo 15: The preserved (though slightly modified by CSX) SDP35 and caboose at Hamlet on August 22, 2003.

Photo 16: The SDP35 after full "mounting" with fence and flowerbeds. It looks nice, but it's harder to photograph now.

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Photo 17: The station in Cary, NC - modern and tidy, but not as interesting as the many historic stations along the route.

Photo 18: We stopped in Raleigh for about 25 minutes. I was able to walk to the front of the train and walk across a grade crossing to the opposite side of teh tracks for this photo.

Photo 19: Another look at the Mystic View during our stop in Raleigh.

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Photo 20: The restored station at Rocky Mount, NC. We continued to arrive early at each station from Hamlet on, so I had a good 15 minutes or so to relax on the platform at several of them.

Photo 21: The not-so-historic station in Richmond. This is the traditional Amtrak architecture that I'm more used to.

Photo 22: The Silver Star at Union Station in DC. Lots of interesting freight action between Raleigh and DC, but I wasn't able to get any decent photos. It looks like Fredericksburg might be a good place to revisit. Having lived in Baltimore and DC most of my life, it was great to have a chance to get out on the platform and take some photos - Union Station is usually pretty restrictive when it comes to platform access, in my experience.

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Photo 23: Union Station's trackwork is fasinatingly complex - I would love to photograph it all from the air someday (not likely). I was able to get this shot of the tower from the head end of the train. The crew was nice about letting us walk around, as long as we stayed out of the way.

Photo 24: Our electric power for the DC to New York leg of the trip was staged a couple tracks over from our platform and moved into position quickly as the crew cut our P42s loose.

Photo 25: Our P42s cut off and pulled away from our platform as the AEM7s headed over.

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Photo 26: Our AEM7s hook up to the Silver Star. I was impressed how responsive they appear to be. They coupled to the train and then quickly jerked back and forth a couple times to test the connection. I was able to watch the whole process, which took about 10 minutes.

Photo 27: After a quick non-stop run over smooth Northeast Corridor trackage to Baltimore's Penn Station, our trip was complete. I never pass up a chance to photograph MARC trains staged at Penn.

Photo 28: The Silver Star departs Baltimore to continue its trip North. It was a fun experience - we're hoping to try a Superliner our west next time.

Hope you all enjoyed the photos.

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Excellent photos! Thanks so much for sharing your trip with us.

B&OB

drolsen Wrote:
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> I would love to photograph
> it all from the air someday (not likely).

Google Earth will get you your photograph from the air.

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Go up in the parking garage next door to WUT and you can look down on the tracks.
I have a ladyfriend that works on the sleepers.Her name is Kathy.Did you see her on your trip?
I also have a friend that is a ticket agent in Raleigh,a conductor friend that works that train as well as the engineer.

Uncle Joe-Florida

Uncle Joe is right, go up to the top level of the parking deck and you can get some nice shoots of the north end of the station trackage. Very nice trip report with good commentary to go along with your pictures. My picture was taken 5/30/10 from the top level.

Sharon Evans
Glen Allen, VA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/10 16:41 by RNinRVR.

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What is the interior confifugration of the Viewliners? They have a set of upper windows on one end. What's the deal with that?

TIA,

Fritz in Huntsville, AL

Go onto Amtrak's web site, click "Plan" "Onboard" and take the virtual tour of all of Amtrak's equipment. The upper window is for the upper bunk.

navy5717th Wrote:
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> What is the interior confifugration of the
> Viewliners? They have a set of upper windows on
> one end. What's the deal with that?

Fritz - Just to add to what Arkeytek said, the reason that the two sides of the car are different is that the vestibule end has three larger rooms, while there are six pairs (12 total) of smaller roomettes at the other end. The hallway / aisle runs down the middle of the roomettes, but then shifts to one side to bypass the three larger bedrooms. The section on one side of the car that doesn't have upper windows is where the hallway is located against the side of the car. Here are two comparison photos of the Mystic View (from opposite sides / ends of the car) for reference. Hope that helps,

Dave

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Thanks for the info about WUT, everybody. I'll check out the parking garage. Bing.com provides some amazing aerial views too (see below from their site), but I'd still like to be able to take this kind of shot myself.

Thanks for all the comments - I'm glad you all enjoyed the photos.

Dave

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Excellent trip report...one of the best I've seen!

Don Delitz

That station in Hamlet is very impressive. Is it used as the Amtrak station?

What else is in there?