Travelogue of Michael Hansen's Trip on
the Amtrak Ann Rutledge
Travelogue 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.
