Steam & Excursion > AFT Confidential 90- The Trip Home, Day 2

90 The Trip Home, Day 2

The Silver Meteor delivered me in Washington DC on a crazy cold dawn. Washington Union Station, and the Mall itself were all but abandoned. I wandered around, walking to stay warm until the various museums mercifully began to open.
I passed the entire day hitting museums- first Art, then Air & Space, making sure I was back at Union Station in plenty of time for the 3:45p departure of The Broadway.
This was #441, the Washington section of the Broadway that combined with the New York section in Harrisburg. (In it's earlier years Amtrak seemed to have many more trains the split in sections than it does today) I treated myself to space in the Slumbercoach- if I recall, the upgrade was a screaming bargain at $16! I forced myself to stay awake until we rounded Horseshoe Curve around 11p or so (my room was on the fireman's side) and then slept soundly through Ohio and into Indiana...
SR Bush
Dutch Flat

Photo 1. Washington Union at dawn on January 2nd 1977. I think the bell we carried through all 48 on the AFT is permanently displayed here now.
Photo 2. At the time there was a huge pit in the center of Union Station that had some sort of looping film honoring the Bicentennial. I seem to remember it was was not a big hit and quickly disappeared without a trace (the hole was filled in).
Photo 3. Sunset under wire.

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Washington Station is a lot better looking now than it was then. The Reagan Administration turned that big empty room into a really
nice food court where I would often have lunch when we were living and working back there in the '80s...

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA