The St. Louis Chapter’s
second To the Capitol…By Private Car trip was so popular
that we had to charter two private sleeping cars. In addition
to our favored car, the ex-Frisco 14-4 sleeper Cimarron River,
we added the former Union Pacific 10-6 sleeper Pacific Union
for the trip, allowing comfortable accommodations for our 30
passengers.
We departed St. Louis for
Chicago late on the afternoon of Wednesday, June 4, arriving
late that evening. The heavy rains that the Midwest had been
experiencing in June caused some concerns. It was not known
until the afternoon of our departure whether we would be taking
our scheduled train, the Cardinal, out of Chicago to
Washington or if we would be put on the Capitol Limited.
Both eastbound trains were running very late causing a concern
for turning the equipment and departing again for Washington.
In the end Amtrak put together a Cardinal using spare
cars and borrowing a sleeper from the Lake Shore Limited.
The journey to Washington through scenic West Virginia and
Virginia was everything we expected. We arrived Friday evening
a few hours late into Washington Union Station (also expected)
but Amtrak quickly had us parked for the weekend.
The passengers enjoyed two and a half days of exploring
Washington DC and the surrounding area. As we had experienced
in 2007 the temperatures were in the mid-to-upper 90s but
passengers shrugged it off and enjoyed the weekend.
We departed Washington behind the Capitol Limited on
Monday afternoon. We were delayed the next morning in Cleveland
due to a tornado-caused freight train derailment east of
Toledo. After sitting at Cleveland for about three hours we
departed on a detour route via the former New York Central to
Greenwich, Ohio and then on the ex-Baltimore & Ohio route
through Willard to Fostoria, where we turned north toward Toledo
on the former Chesapeake & Ohio line. Our eventual arrival in
Chicago was approximately eight hours late.
We arrived back in St.
Louis early in the afternoon of Wednesday the 11th,
concluding an excellent week-long trip.