![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Arrived in Chicago
Aug. 29th, 2022 09:24 pmFor a blow-by-blow trip report of our trip from Reno to Chicago, have a look at my Twitter feed starting with this entry. I don't have enough time or energy to write it all here.
We were a little bit late out of Reno, but unfortunately the train kept losing time over the trip. There were lots of delays on the second day, mostly caused by freight train interference, but also due to heat-related slow orders. We fell so far behind between Grand Junction and Reno that our train crew (engineers/conductors) went "dead on the law" (ran out of operating time; they're limited to 12 hours) only one mile from Denver Union Station, at a point called Prospect, which is where Amtrak trains back in to DUS. Normally this would have been a huge problem, but because the outbound crew from DUS has to operate over that same short stretch and are thus qualified for it, rather than having to dispatch a "dogcatch" crew to get a full day's pay for ten minutes work, they could just bring the crew waiting at DUS out to Prospect to take over the train early.
We also got stuck at Denver for an additional hour when the locomotives had a problem. The conductor didn't know exactly what was wrong when I asked the next day, but said that the engineers were able to get it fixed by restarting the locomotives. By the time we left Denver, we were more than three hours late, and we continued to lose time. We passed through Omaha (normally a week-hours stop) at 9 AM, and we got to see parts of the trip normally traversed in the dark during daylight instead. Thanks to long summer evenings, we did still get to see whole lot of lovely scenery on this trip. I'll eventually get around to pointing to Flickr, but I need to get some sleep tonight.
I really enjoyed the food on board the train, but while Lisa was happy enough with the taste, it appears to have been a bit rich for her and did not agree with her digestion.
Having a bedroom was the way to go. Lisa didn't sleep well at night, but when she wanted to take a nap during the day, she could fold down the upper bunk and nap for a couple of hours. This worked out okay for me as well, because I had a little bit of Day Jobbe work to do, and I was able to get it done on the delayed train rather than having to wait until I got to the hotel.
We never really made up time, but eventually we stopped losing time, and arrived in Chicago around 6:30 pm. It's an easy taxi ride to the hotel, and we checked in to our hotel room high in the Hyatt without incident. The Hyatt also nicely provided us with a hot water kettle (not just the K-cup machine; Lisa drinks tea, not coffee). We opted out of housekeeping for our long stay here.
There's a grocery store (Bockwinkle's) located a mere fifty meters from the hotel, and a mini-fridge in the room. We bought groceries and settled in. I know there are lots of good places to eat in Chicago, but I don't expect to visit many of them. If we opt out of meals with people here, it's not because of anything other than an abundance of caution.
Now it's time to get some sleep. We're renting a car in the morning and driving out to the Illinois Railway Museum, which Google Maps predicts is a two hour drive for the 60 mile trip at the times of day we are likely to be driving.
We were a little bit late out of Reno, but unfortunately the train kept losing time over the trip. There were lots of delays on the second day, mostly caused by freight train interference, but also due to heat-related slow orders. We fell so far behind between Grand Junction and Reno that our train crew (engineers/conductors) went "dead on the law" (ran out of operating time; they're limited to 12 hours) only one mile from Denver Union Station, at a point called Prospect, which is where Amtrak trains back in to DUS. Normally this would have been a huge problem, but because the outbound crew from DUS has to operate over that same short stretch and are thus qualified for it, rather than having to dispatch a "dogcatch" crew to get a full day's pay for ten minutes work, they could just bring the crew waiting at DUS out to Prospect to take over the train early.
We also got stuck at Denver for an additional hour when the locomotives had a problem. The conductor didn't know exactly what was wrong when I asked the next day, but said that the engineers were able to get it fixed by restarting the locomotives. By the time we left Denver, we were more than three hours late, and we continued to lose time. We passed through Omaha (normally a week-hours stop) at 9 AM, and we got to see parts of the trip normally traversed in the dark during daylight instead. Thanks to long summer evenings, we did still get to see whole lot of lovely scenery on this trip. I'll eventually get around to pointing to Flickr, but I need to get some sleep tonight.
I really enjoyed the food on board the train, but while Lisa was happy enough with the taste, it appears to have been a bit rich for her and did not agree with her digestion.
Having a bedroom was the way to go. Lisa didn't sleep well at night, but when she wanted to take a nap during the day, she could fold down the upper bunk and nap for a couple of hours. This worked out okay for me as well, because I had a little bit of Day Jobbe work to do, and I was able to get it done on the delayed train rather than having to wait until I got to the hotel.
We never really made up time, but eventually we stopped losing time, and arrived in Chicago around 6:30 pm. It's an easy taxi ride to the hotel, and we checked in to our hotel room high in the Hyatt without incident. The Hyatt also nicely provided us with a hot water kettle (not just the K-cup machine; Lisa drinks tea, not coffee). We opted out of housekeeping for our long stay here.
There's a grocery store (Bockwinkle's) located a mere fifty meters from the hotel, and a mini-fridge in the room. We bought groceries and settled in. I know there are lots of good places to eat in Chicago, but I don't expect to visit many of them. If we opt out of meals with people here, it's not because of anything other than an abundance of caution.
Now it's time to get some sleep. We're renting a car in the morning and driving out to the Illinois Railway Museum, which Google Maps predicts is a two hour drive for the 60 mile trip at the times of day we are likely to be driving.
