THE ADVENTURE BEGINS

Well, My big Amtrak adventure has begun. I was up early this morning and met My buddy Robert at my former and he transported me to the Amtrak Platform in Roanoke. 

The train backed in about 20 minutes before my scheduled departure of 6:19 a.m.

My business Class car is the very last car on the train and the conductor told us to take any available seat.

We pulled out right on schedule at 6:19 a.m. and make our way through east Roanoke. Our next stop in about an hour or so will be Lynchburg.

At 7:00 a.m. as we make our way through Bedford, the sky in the east is beginning to turn a bright orange. By the time we get to Lynchburg the sun will be shedding light on another day. At 7:30 we stop just out side of the Lynchburg Station to allow the Northbound Crescent to pass and stop at the station first. The Crescent is running about an hour an a half late.

After a short stop we pull into Lynchburg's Kemper Street Station.  About 20 more people get on and about half of them are in the Business Class car. Still business class is only about a quarter full as we make our way toward our next station stop in Charlottesville. 

At 8:20 we are stopped just north of Amherst to allow some freight traffic to pass. Since Amtrak doesn't own the rails they use they are often at the mercy of freight traffic that usually get the priority.

We arr still stopped about 35 miles south of Charlottesville.The Freight Train has passed and now this appears that this may be a rather lengthy delay as track maintenance on a single track ahead has to repair a broken rail.

After a 40-Minute delay we are back moving. The southbound freight that passed while we're were stopped had the Lackawanna Heritage unit leading. We arrived in Charlottesville at 9:55 a.m. which is about 50 minutes late. There is a James River Bus waiting here to ferry passengers to Richmond waiting here. The business class car has just about filled up but I still have a vacant seat next to me, but i wonder how much longer that is going to last. My next station stop will be Culpeper.

We made up a little time with our 10:45 arrival into Culpeper. Departing Charlottesville our estimated arrival into Washington was 12:13. Now we are projected to arrive ar 12:03, and our conductor indicated that we hope to make up even more time on the next leg out trip. Next Station Stop is Manassas.

Crossing the Potomac River

Our arrival into Manassas was delay just a couple of minutes as we caight the Crescent who had not finish up with her station Stop. I think my train, Northeast Regional #176 goes all the way to Boston and a number of new passengers bound for New York and Boston got on in Manassas. There are only a couple of empty seats left in my Business Class car.

This train has about a 40 minute stop at Washington's Union Station to refreah the Cafe Car and to change locomotives. At Washington the diesel locomotives are replaced with electric for the rest of the trip. At 12:05 p.m. we arrive at my last station stop before crossing the Potomac and entering the District of Columbia. Off on my left (I'm sitting on on the wrong side of the train for a picture) is the George Washington Masonic Memorial.

We arrived at Washington' Union Station at 12:30 p.m. which was about 45 minutes late. 

Immmediately after detraining I made my way into the Station and found the Metropolitan Lounge, whiich is called the Acela Lounge Here. It is a little smaller than I pictured but it offers comfortable Chairs and free beverages and snacks. Having About 2 and a half hours until my next train Departs I decided to store my bags in the lounge storage area and go explore a little.