Travelogue of Michael Hansen's Trip on the Amtrak Ann RutledgeTravelogue 8-4-2004 Its about 3:45 PM, on Wednesday, August 4, 2004, and I, along with my Dad, have just arived at the Springfield Amtrak station. We spent a very enjoyable 3 days train recording at the Springfield Amtrak station, and we even checked out the Norfolk Southern on our first day. (See the end of the travelogue for all the equipment we recorded). We left my Grandfathers house around 3:30 PM, and arived at the station at around 3:45 PM. Upon talking to the station agent, we found out our train was about 15 minutes late. We went outside to wait for the train about 3:50 PM, and went back in at 4:00 PM to check on the statis of the train. The estimate was 4:15 PM, and the train did do that. Todays Ann Rutledge is pulled by Genesis Amclick Engine number 85 and includes our car, 53004, and 2 or 3 horison coaches. We departed Springfield about 3 minutes after the train arived, and when we got to track speed we went to the other side of our car (We had Business Class Accomodations) and I got a hot chocolate. Talking to the attendant, I learned that equipment had been coming down to Saint Louis for the John Kerry Campain Train. Half of the consist was Amtrak, and the other half privet cars, with 4 Genesis Engines on the front! We headed back to our seets just before our arival at Lincoln, IL, at 4:46 PM, with departure at 4:47 PM. One thing I should note, the ride in a Horison cafe car and an Amfleet Cafe car are different in that you are closer to the locomotive, as there are only 2 doors: one between the car and the vestibule, the other between the bestibule strate into the locomotive. We arived at Bloomington at 5:17 PM, 14 minutes late, and departed about a minute later. We went to the cafe car for a hot chocolate just after bloomington, and I got a third hot chocolate for this trip after that. We arived at Pontiac at 5:56 PM, and departed at 5:58 PM. I took out my tape player before Pontiac, and continued listening to it until we got to Dwite, wher eI took out my recorder, and recorded until we got to Summit. Durring that time, we stopped at 6:30 PM to meet train 305, and to be correct "AMTK31 South." We arived at Summit at 7:44 PM, and departed at 7:45 PM. I put away my stuff at Summit, and we came to a stop at 8:05 PM just before entering the Chicago Yards, meanwhile we were passed by the AMTK83 and AMTK60 leeding train number 48. We got on the move at 8:16 PM, and arived at Chicago at around 8:20 PM. Checking Amtrak.com, it said we arived at 7:41 PM, which we sertainly did not! We headed out to the north gate, and boarded the 8:40 PM Metra train, pulled by MP36PH-3 number 420. My trip home on Amtrak was very enjoyable, and I'm looking forward to my next trip aboard Amtrak! Equipment We Saw Train number, Engine Number Train 303 (2) AMTK157 Train 22 (1) AMTK24 Train 304 (2) AMTK53, AMTK48 Train 21 (2) AMTK23 Train 300 (3) AMTK61 Train 22 (2) AMTK141 Train 303 (3) AMTK85 Train 304 (3) AMTK157 Train 21 (3) AMTK53 Train 305 (3) AMTK29 Train 300 (4) AMTK184 Train 303 (4) AMTK183 Train 304 (4) AMTK85 Metra Equipment METX420 Our car 7437 Notes AMTK48 had problems shortly after departing Chicago, AMTK53 was sent lite to rescue the train. AMTK29 has a replaced clean horn, totally different from a recording I made in February.
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